After transmigrating, he supported his family by working at a garbage dump.

Zhang He stared at the two burlap sacks, each half her height, that her daughter had dragged back, and her mouth remained agape for a long time.

"Is this...some kind of unique sweet potato?"

Xu Zhuzhu shook her head, looked at the surprised Zhang He, and said with a grin, "It's a potato, a delicious potato, but we can't eat it now."

"If it's inedible, why bring it here?" Zhang He asked, puzzled.

Xu Zhuzhu explained, "The book the old man with the white beard gave me said that people in the fairyland grow this. When the weather gets warmer, it will grow a lot of these, and they taste even better than sweet potatoes!"

Last night, when Xu Wenjie was chatting, he asked Xu Zhuzhu what the garbage dump in the modern world was. Xu Zhuzhu couldn't say for sure if it was the future, since the place she was born into wasn't a real dynasty in history, but probably just some parallel universe. So she had to make up a plausible excuse, saying that it was the "fairyland" where the white-bearded old man lived.

After hearing this, Zhang He asked in confusion, "Are there people in the fairyland? When I was a child, your great-grandmother told me that the people in the fairyland are all immortals who have ascended to heaven and are all-powerful. The woman I saw yesterday didn't seem to have any magical powers."

Xu Zhuzhu was having trouble making up a story. She stammered for a long time but couldn't come up with a coherent explanation. However, her father had already come up with a reason that could convince everyone.

"There are different classes everywhere. Perhaps they don't have the magical power to fly or escape into the earth, but they just live longer than ordinary people, who knows?"

Xu Zhuzhu nodded frantically. Her father was so clever; he just said he was sleepy and wanted to go to bed, quickly brushing off the topic.

“Mom, let’s plant them and see. Grandpa is definitely right!” Xu An agreed. He didn’t know if they would taste good either, but based on his understanding of his sister, she was never wrong when it came to delicious food.

Hearing the two children say this, Zhang He stopped asking questions and refuting them. She helped the two children put the two bags of potatoes in the corner, but she still couldn't help but wonder: could these black and sprouting things really taste good?

While the mother and her two children were discussing potatoes, Xu Wenjie had already used the collected wood to repair the leaky walls. He even used the pile of express delivery bags that Xu Zhuzhu and her brother had brought back yesterday to completely block up the drafty areas.

The problem of drafty walls has finally been solved.

After tidying up, Xu Wenjie checked the house again to make sure nothing was missed before returning to his room.

As soon as he stepped into the house, he saw Zhang He and her two children standing in the corner, discussing something around two bags. He went over to them.

"He Niang, what are you looking at?"

Seeing her husband busy patching and mending the drafty house all afternoon, and noticing that the house was noticeably warmer, Zhang He smiled gently and said, "My dear husband, you've worked so hard! An'an and Zhuzhu brought back two bags of things. They look like sweet potatoes, but Zhuzhu says they're called potatoes. They're delicious, but they've already sprouted. We'll have to wait until next spring to plant them to know if they're real or not!"

When Xu Wenjie heard that it was his youngest daughter's idea, he didn't ask any further questions and readily agreed: "Perfect! We've bought all the land in front of and behind the house. Once spring comes, we can clear the land and plant some crops."

Seeing her father's unconditional support, Xu Zhuzhu's smile stretched almost to her ears: "Daddy is the best!"

In fact, Xu Wenjie's trust in Xu Zhuzhu had been planted in his heart a few years ago.

When his daughter was born, Xu Wenjie gave her a very elegant name, Xu Yun. However, his daughter didn't seem to like it. Every time she heard the name, she would cry loudly. At first, Xu Wenjie didn't believe that a newborn baby could understand him, but he still tentatively asked his daughter, who was less than half a month old.

"Yunyun?"

Xu Zhuzhu burst into tears.

"Don't you like this name?"

"Mmm...ya ya..." Xu Zhuzhu stopped crying and waved her two chubby paws everywhere.

"Then what do you want to be called?"

"Beep...beep..." Xu Zhuzhu pouted and blew bubbles.

“Dudu? Xu Dudu?...Dudu?…” Xu Zhuzhu drooled and laughed when Xu Wenjie read the name Zhuzhu.

At this point, Xu Wenjie began to believe that his daughter was a genius, so he doted on Xu Zhuzhu. Before the Xu family fled, she could have whatever she wanted at home, but this was only within the limits of their family's means.

Xu Zhuzhu was also very sensible and never made any excessive demands.

However, as Xu Zhuzhu grew up, her genius-like abilities in Xu Wenjie's eyes did not emerge, especially in her studies. She seemed to be much slower than other children, and even her scholar father, Xu Wenjie, could not bring out her cultural talents.

Xu Wenjie began to doubt his initial judgment, until recently when his daughter suddenly seemed to have been blessed, able to take them to another unfamiliar world and come and go freely, and could read many words that he could not read. Xu Wenjie was once again convinced that his daughter was different from others.

Therefore, as long as Xu Zhuzhu's requests are not too excessive, he will still support them as before.

Xu Zhuzhu had no idea that her father had such high expectations for her. Her poor academic performance was entirely due to the difficulty of recognizing traditional Chinese characters. She was young and also rather lazy, so naturally she couldn't remember them. But that's a story for another time...

In winter, it gets dark quickly. Seeing that it was getting dark soon, Zhang He was worried that the others might be hungry, so she quickly started cooking.

In the afternoon, she went to the village head's house to return the needle and thread. She didn't go to the garbage dump. The two children didn't pick up many cabbage leaves, but fortunately, they could still make a pot of cabbage porridge.

The half-bag of rice that she had salvaged had to be used sparingly. Zhang He didn't dare to cook the porridge too thick. People who drank the thin porridge had frequent bowel movements, but it seemed that neither of the two children had diarrhea. Zhang He was puzzled, not knowing that this was thanks to the vegetable leaves she put in the porridge.

Washing rice, picking out rice weevils, setting up the pot and adding water—Zhang He was skilled and efficient, her movements fluid and decisive. Xu Wenjie, standing to the side, suddenly began to scrutinize his wife.

In fact, his wife is much younger than him. If his father-in-law hadn't insisted on marrying his wife to him, he might have been a poor, lonely scholar all his life. How could he have a virtuous wife and two lovely children now?

It's infuriating that he made a promise to his wife when they married, promising her that he would pass the imperial examination with flying colors and make her a noblewoman. But what has happened now?

Looking at Zhang He's once delicate hands, now rough and calloused from the hardships of their escape, with red, swollen chilblains covering her already slender fingers, Xu Wenjie felt both heartache and guilt...

"He Niang, sit down and rest for a while. I'll watch the fire." Xu Wenjie stepped forward and took the spatula from Zhang He, who was stirring the pot of porridge in the pot.

Zhang He had no idea what her husband was thinking, but considering that he had been busy repairing the house all afternoon, how could she possibly ask him to cook?

She quickly snatched the spatula away and said with a smile, "You don't need to do anything. Just watch the fire. I'm not tired. It's not a big deal. Husband, go teach the two children to read. I think the two siblings have encountered some difficulties."

As she spoke, Zhang He gestured for Xu Wenjie to look at the bed and pushed him toward the two children. Xu Wenjie looked over helplessly and, sure enough, saw Xu Zhuzhu and Xu An huddled in the blankets, frowning as they read some books.

Xu Wenjie had no choice but to give up and go over to see what the two children were doing.

"An'an, Zhuzhu, what are you looking at?"