Travel to the mountains and make a fortune in silence

Wang Dazhuang's family in the village had a mule cart, which they used to take people to town. Because it was too far, it cost five coins per person.

But he doesn't go every day. He only goes when he has ten people, and he can earn fifty coins.

If you charter a car, the base price is fifty coins, and the additional cost depends on what you're carrying; if it's too heavy, you'll have to pay extra.

The Mu family wasn't reluctant to spend the fifty coins for the carriage, but after preparing some dowry for their daughter and buying some toiletries for Wang Qing'er, they only had thirty coins left, which wasn't enough to hire a carriage.

In addition, Mu Nan's third uncle's family has a horse-drawn carriage. The Mu family did not hold a banquet for their daughter's wedding or their daughter-in-law's wedding, and the villagers did not know about it. Mu's father did not want to trouble his third uncle.

Sure enough, before dawn, Old Man Mu took his second son and carried vegetables, eggs, and the pheasant they had caught the day before to town to sell.

She ran back to the yard and saw her mother-in-law, Wang Cuiying, busy in the kitchen. She went in and called out, "Mother."

"Qing'er, why don't you sleep a little longer?" Wang Cuiying said as she started the fire.

"Mother, let me make you breakfast." Wang Qing'er walked over and sat down next to her.

Seeing the fire was lit, Wang Cuiying got up. "Then you can help with the fire, and I'll make you some dumpling soup for breakfast."

Wang Cuiying took out a small piece of fatty meat, cut a few slices and threw them into the pot to render some oil, then added a few bowls of water to the pot.

We ran out of lard a few days ago, but luckily we had a small piece of fatty meat. Every time we cut a few slices and render the fat, we can cook a meal.

At the current temperature, meat won't spoil even if you leave it in a well for several days.

Wang Cuiying took out a duck egg, cracked it into buckwheat flour, stirred it, added salt and water, and stirred it into a paste.

The family's eggs were sold for one coin each, and duck eggs for three coins for five, but they were not easy to sell. So Wang Cuiying kept the duck eggs at home to eat, and only took some out to sell when she had too many.

With elderly people and children at home, and not much oil in the diet, I can only often cook duck eggs for everyone to eat to supplement their nutrition.

The staple foods here are mainly rice, buckwheat, corn, sweet potatoes, and of course wheat. However, the wheat is grown to be sold, and only buckwheat, brown rice, and sweet potatoes are kept at home for consumption.

After the water boiled, use a strainer to evenly pour the batter into the pot. Then, take a handful of the less attractive greens that Old Man Mu had picked out that morning and throw them in. "Qing'er, go to the vegetable garden in the back so they can come back for breakfast."

“Okay, Mother.” Wang Qing’er ran to the field behind the house and saw Mu Nan. Suddenly, she didn’t know how to address him.

Mu Nan, seeing her standing there dumbfounded, asked, "Is something wrong?"

"Oh... well, Mom's calling for breakfast." She said, then ran back to the kitchen.

Wang Cuiying had already started serving the dumpling soup into seven large bowls. Seeing that Wang Qing'er had returned so quickly, she asked suspiciously, "Did you call them?"

“Mother, I called!” Wang Qing’er replied hurriedly.

She wanted to take the bowl of dumpling soup to the table outside for the meal, but Mu Nan came in and stopped her, saying, "It's too hot. Let me do it. You take the pickled vegetables and chopsticks outside."

A short while later, Zhou Shi also came out from the back with several children.

After everyone sat down, they began to eat with relish. Wang Qing'er looked at the large bowl of dumpling soup in front of her and was a little worried. "So much, how can we finish it?"

She reached out and gently touched Mu Nan, whispering, "I can't finish all of this."

Mu Nan said without hesitation, "You eat first, and give it to me if you can't finish."

Wang Cuiying glanced at Wang Qing'er and said, "You're too thin, you need to eat more."

Isn't she too thin? Other people are thin because they don't have enough to eat, but the original owner of Wang Qing'er was thin because she deliberately dieted.

Although her grandmother and father didn't like her, they hadn't skimped on her food during this time, let alone when she was at her maternal grandmother's house, where they were afraid she wouldn't eat enough.

Zhou echoed, "Although our family is poor, we can still eat our fill. We make sure to eat our fill at every meal."

Although the Mu family didn't have any nutritious food, they had brown rice porridge at every meal. No matter how thin or thick it was, they could eat their fill with sweet potatoes.

They plant sweet potatoes wherever there's a gap, even on the uncultivated hillside outside their backyard wall. The sweet potato seedlings just keep growing back after being cut.

Sweet potatoes don't need much fertilizer; as long as they survive, they will grow, it's just a matter of size.

Wang Qing'er obediently agreed and lowered her head to eat. She had eaten buckwheat in her previous life, although it was slightly bitter, but she could accept it.

She found the pickled vegetables tastier than the brown rice porridge. She ate for a while, but seeing that there was still half left in the bowl, she couldn't eat anymore and looked at the bowl with some difficulty.

Seeing her troubled expression, Mu Nan said, "Give it to me."

"Oh... okay," Wang Qing'er said with a sigh of relief, pushing the bowl in front of him. Mu Nan picked up the bowl and started eating.

Wang Qing'er thought to herself, "How come he doesn't mind me at all?"

After finishing the dumpling soup in his bowl, Mu Lin put the bowl on the kitchen stove. "Grandma, Mother, Eldest Brother and Sister-in-law, I'm full. I'm going to the private school now." With that, he dashed out of the kitchen.

"Hey, there's still some in the pot, have some more..." Wang Cuiying called out, watching her youngest son's retreating figure.

"Mom, I'm full." The child ran fast and disappeared in a flash.

After everyone finished eating, they sat at the table and assigned tasks for the day, while Zhou Shi and Mu Yao stayed home to tidy up.

Wang Cuiying and Mu Qin went to the wheat field to pull weeds and also picked some wild vegetables.

After finishing the last mouthful of dumpling soup in her bowl, Mu Nan said, "There's not much work to do in the fields. I'll go to the mountains today and see if I can hunt some wild game."

Mu Nan mainly wanted to hunt some wild game to sell for money. If she could hunt more, she could also improve her family's meals.

He discovered that his young wife didn't seem to like the food at home. Thinking about it, it made sense; she was the daughter of a well-off family in town, so she probably wasn't used to drinking coarse rice porridge. It was really unfair to her.

Wang Cuiying thought for a moment and said, "Okay, you can wait for your dad and second son to come back and do the work in the fields. I'll go pack you some steamed buns and pickled vegetables for lunch."

Seeing that she hadn't been assigned any work, Wang Qing'er looked at Mu Nan and asked, "Can I go with you?"

Worried that she wouldn't be able to climb, Zhou hurriedly stopped her, saying, "Qing'er, you can't climb. You stay home with Grandma and tend the vegetable garden."

Wang Qing'er gently tugged at Mu Nan's sleeve.

She wanted to go up the mountain to see what it was like. Didn't all the female protagonists in novels who traveled through time earn their first pot of gold in the mountains?

Maybe she can too. She grew up in the countryside and knows the things in the mountains.

Mu Nan understood, "Then you can come with me. Anyway, we won't go deep into the mountains, and we'll be back before dark."

"Since Mu Nan asked you to go, then go. If you can't climb, come back early." Zhou Shi didn't see Wang Qing'er's little actions and assumed that her grandson had agreed, so she didn't stop her.

Wang Qing'er hurriedly and happily replied, "I understand, Grandma."