Adorable Kids in Space: Lucky Wife is So Carefree

As soon as my second aunt arrived, she started cutting lard to render the cracklings. Caifeng quickly helped kill the fish and cut the meat, while Ruxiu cooked a full 5 jin of rice.

Ru Xiu planned to make one fish into sweet and sour fish and the other steamed, and also make braised pork. She also made five or six eggs to make steamed egg custard for the two children. Since there were so many people, she picked two large handfuls of greens. Stir-fried greens with pork cracklings is the best dish.

Seeing that he had nothing to do, the son-in-law picked up a carrying pole and fetched two buckets of water. When he came back, he swept the chicken coop.

During the meal, Caifeng and her son-in-law were a bit reserved. They ate quite a lot of rice, but didn't dare to pick up much of the food.

Seeing her son-in-law's lack of ambition, his second aunt gave him two or three pieces of braised pork and a big fish head. He silently buried himself in his food.

Cai Fengguang remembered to pick out fish bones for the children, and she didn't even have time to eat herself. Ru Xiu put two bites of each dish on her plate.

Ge'er took charge and took good care of Taozi. Everyone ate the egg custard spoonful by spoonful, and each person also ate two green vegetables. They even ate a few bites of the sweet and sour fish that their mother had picked out the bones for.

Le Ge gave Pingzi two pieces of his favorite braised pork. Pingzi smiled gratefully and didn't refuse, though he was a little shy. He ate his fill.

After finishing their meal, the children practiced writing on the sand tray as usual, reviewing their lessons first. During this time, Hirako and Momoko didn't say a word, just watched quietly, their faces filled with admiration and envy for those who could read.

"Do you want to learn your own names? I'll teach you." Xige's initiative deeply moved Pingzi, and his eyes shone with longing.

“Li Ping, your name doesn’t have many strokes, so it’s easy to write.” I taught him to write it stroke by stroke, and then I had him practice repeatedly on the sand table. Pingzi wrote it carefully, stroke by stroke, and Le Ge would occasionally correct him from the side.

The character "桃" (peach) in Li Tao's name is quite difficult to write, and even Sister Shi couldn't learn it. So, Ru Xiu took over and taught Tao Zi step by step. Tao Zi's hands were weak, and she was a little timid since it was her first time learning. Sister Shi stayed by her side and patiently taught Tao Zi.

"Uncle, could you make two sand tables for Pingzi and Taozi tomorrow? They can learn to read together with us later." Seeing Pingzi's expectant face, Uncle Li's heart almost broke.

He was blind his whole life, but he knew the importance of education. He couldn't afford to send his child to school, but now that the child had the opportunity to learn, he would try his best to fulfill it. He immediately went to the woodpile to look for wood to see if there was any suitable material.

Pingzi and Taozi wrote their names crookedly, and Caifeng and her second aunt wiped away tears one after another, just like when Ruxiu severed ties with her family, feeling that life had finally taken a turn for the better.

After dark, the children gathered in the west room to recite. Uncle Li also made two simple sand trays and used straight firewood to make very smooth sticks, one flat and one peach-shaped.

"Actually, I had something troubling me before you came, and I was wondering if you could help me."

As Xiu asked, she didn't want to put too much pressure on them. There was no need for them to be grateful for the work and meals; in fact, they were helping each other and benefiting each other.

"Today I also signed a supply contract with Baixianglou, which includes fish, shrimp and chickens. So I want to use the seven acres of mountain land behind the house for farming and raising. In addition to building chicken coops, I also want to grow some sweet potatoes, sorghum and vegetables for feeding the chickens."

"Then we need to plant some medicinal herbs and fruit trees. If we raise chickens and fish, we can't do without people. We have to protect ourselves from wild cats and weasels, and we also have to protect ourselves from people stealing them."

The chickens will inevitably be sold later, and it's okay to say so in advance even if there's no contract.

"Since I still have to keep watch at night, I'll give you one or two taels of silver a month. You can bring your own food, and I'll also give you a subsidy of three hundred coins. I'll also give you a chicken and a fish for the New Year. How does that sound?"

Li's son-in-law often goes out to find work. Short-term jobs are hard to find. Although he can earn twenty or thirty coins a day, he doesn't even have ten days of work a month. Long-term jobs only earn five or six hundred coins a month. He works himself to the bone and is often cheated out of his money.

“One tael of silver plus three hundred coins is too much. One tael of silver is enough. There’s no need to give so much. What’s the difference between going to the back mountain and staying at home? It’s only a few steps away. He’s already getting a place to stay, which is already a bargain for him.” The second uncle thought it was too high and was afraid that Ru Xiu would be taken advantage of. They were not helping their own.

However, both Caifeng and her husband, Mr. Li, nodded in agreement with their second aunt's statement.

"Second Aunt, you don't need to say anything more. It's settled then. Caifeng and the children will eat here on weekdays. The children can learn from each other when they're together, and it'll be more lively. After the New Year, Xige and Lege will be going to school, so our Ge'er will have some company."

"How can we bear to feed so many people? We'll have to pay the grain ourselves."

"Alright, Second Aunt, you should take those few dozen catties of grain to your son-in-law and let him take them up the mountain. He can take care of them for me, and then we can sell the fish, shrimp, and chickens for money."

"If you keep calculating like that, I'll have to pay you more money. Don't I have to pay you for the needlework and the songs you bring me? At twenty coins a day, you can calculate how much silver I'll get."

Even if Xiujue had no choice but to talk back to her second aunt, she stopped saying anything and just thought that she could get some subsidies from her own farming and animal husbandry.

"Then... can we go up the mountain tomorrow?" Young Master Li was so excited that he wanted to go up the mountain right away. Who wouldn't want to do something so good? If word got out to the village, I don't know how many people would fight tooth and nail to go.

"Okay, we'll go up and take a look tomorrow before deciding how to set up the shed."

The family, who used to look sad, are now all smiles. They are extremely grateful to Ruxiu, who is finally free from leaving their hometown. They never expected to have such a good job. The happiest thing is that the family can be together again, and they don't have to pay tuition anymore. The children can even recognize a few words.

The next day, only Ruxiu and Caifeng went up the mountain. Pingzi originally wanted to go with them, but in the end, he couldn't resist the temptation of learning to read and stayed home. Anyway, it wasn't far away and there would be plenty of opportunities in the future.

While the couple surveyed the terrain, Ruxiu released the small fish and shrimp from her spatial dimension and retrieved the fish and shrimp that had grown to half a foot long from the small pond. However, she left a few large ones outside and a few pounds of shrimp behind, otherwise, she wouldn't have anywhere to get fish and shrimp if she wanted to eat them.

"Ruxiu, I'd like to discuss something with you. Besides building a chicken coop, could we use these stones to build a stone house?"

Originally, Ruxiu only planned to build a larger chicken coop and a small wooden house for people to live in.

Caifeng was a little embarrassed: "Actually, it was my husband's idea. I always feel ashamed for my son-in-law to live at my parents' house. People call me a live-in son-in-law. And it's not just for a year or two. So I wanted to build a house so that our family can come and stay for a few days from time to time."

Any man with a bit of backbone would have such thoughts.

"What's the problem? I'd love for you to stay here every day, that way I'd feel at ease. Anyway, you can't move the house, and the stones are just sitting here, you can use them however you like." Ru Xiu was worried they wouldn't stay.

The size, location, and construction method of the chicken coop have been determined. The coop is planned to be three stories high and will take up a considerable amount of space as it houses many chickens.

The main material is still wood, which also involves carpentry issues.

"Should we hire a carpenter to build a scaffold?"

"No need for that. I do some simple woodworking occasionally, and the chicken coop doesn't need to be too fancy. I can do all of that."

"Just buy the wood and planks, and find me two more people. I can build the stone house myself later."

"Build part of the chicken coop first. Anyway, the chicks don't take up much space. You can buy the chicks in the next episode." But you might need to prepare some rice bran. The chicks can't just eat vegetables.

"Alright then, there's a forest in the village. We'll pay some money and have them cut down the timber tomorrow. I'll also ask the village chief to find a couple of helpers later." Buying timber requires going through the village chief, so I'll just ask him to find some helpers while I'm at it.

Once the plan was finalized, both sides were overjoyed.

In the afternoon, everyone went out and dug up Auntie's potatoes.

"Once we finish digging, we can plant vegetables immediately and sell several more crops."

"There's no need to plant Chinese cabbage and radishes. Restaurants prefer leafy greens. I think we should plant some mustard greens, spinach, or bean sprouts instead."

"Also, Auntie Er needs to water the vegetables she grows more often, morning and evening, and try to pick as many as possible to sell at the market in three days."

Cai Feng remembered everything Ru Xiu said, thinking that if she followed her advice, she might actually be able to make some money.