After returning from Nanpo, Yingbao stayed at home obediently to teach her younger brother how to speak and recite, and went to the cave to sort out the crops whenever she had time.
The golden ear and snow ear that she cut last time had dried thoroughly after being dried in the sun for a period of time, and not a single one of them was moldy. She put them in a bamboo basket.
Now mushrooms are sprouting on the ten mulberry trees again, the golden fungus and the snow fungus are golden yellow and translucent white, which is particularly pleasing to the eye.
The cotton seeds that were planted have sprouted and are growing vigorously.
After the Kitchen God Festival, Jiang Sanlang took some time to go to Nanpo and asked Wang Ke and his son to go back to celebrate the New Year first and come back to do the work after the New Year.
Jiang Sanlang also measured out five dou of wheat and one dou of rice for him as an advance payment.
Wang Ke happily carried the wheat and rice and took his two sons home.
There were still three mouths to feed at home, and the little food left was probably eaten up by them. The five bushels of wheat and one bushel of rice given by Jiang Sanlang was just enough to keep him going until February or March.
As long as it was February or March and wild vegetables, ground vegetables, and young elm shoots grew in the wild, the family would just deal with them casually and would not starve to death.
By April, the mountains full of locust flowers can fill their stomachs, and the children can go to the ditch to catch some small fish, shrimps, loaches and clams, and they can get by until the summer harvest.
In this way, his family finally recovered.
For many years, poor people have been surviving like this year after year until they can no longer hold on.
In the blink of an eye, the first spring has passed and the ice and snow have melted.
Another new year begins.
During this period, the imperial court actually issued a conscription order, and many young men in Chuanhe Town were forced to go to the battlefield.
The same thing happened in Dongxi Chen Village, where more than ten men over the age of eighteen were conscripted at one time.
Even the family of Patriarch Chen was not spared, and in the end his youngest son was drafted into the army.
This conscription was very strict. In order to make up the number of soldiers, it was not allowed to privately buy substitute soldiers to go to the army. Therefore, Patriarch Chen had to send his youngest son to enlist.
But no one expected that the old man of the Jiang family was very shrewd. After paying the additional grain, he went to the head of the village and divided the households among his three sons.
In order to get his son's household registration settled as soon as possible, Old Man Jiang also gave half a pound of dried golden ear mushrooms to Sun Lizheng.
Li Zheng Sun did not accept his things in vain. The next day he sent the household registration to the county government for filing.
The advantage of dividing the households is that the county government will not issue a conscription order to the only male in the household.
If there is anything bad about it, it is that every household must provide one man as labor every year.
That is to say, from now on, the three brothers will have to do ten to thirty days of labor every year.
There is nothing we can do about it. As the saying goes, "A blessing in disguise", doing labor locally is better than going to an unknown battlefield to die.
The three brothers of the Jiang family thus escaped conscription and saved a sum of money for being a night watchman.
Just after the first month of the lunar year, Li Zheng Sun brought people to the Jiang family to recalculate the household status.
In the end, the three brothers of the Jiang family were all rated as second-class households, and from then on, during the summer and autumn harvest seasons, they had to pay taxes as second-class households.
Jiang Sanlang was not surprised at all and gladly accepted the assessment.
As soon as spring comes, I am busy like a top and can't stop at all.
If my daughter wants to transplant fruit trees on the south slope, she must first dig a hole for the tree. After digging the hole, she has to pick up the chicken manure piled outside the yard and take it to the south slope to use as fertilizer.
"Sanlang, there is a foreigner coming to our village."
Chunniang said to her husband while kneading the dough: "The outsiders want to open a girls' school here."
"What kind of school is this?" Jiang Sanlang was surprised. "No wonder there's a new building built over there."
He has been living on the south slope recently, digging holes and planting trees, and his daughter is also there to help. Unexpectedly, in just a few days, the village built a new house for an outsider next to the clan school.
"It is said to be a school for teaching girls medical skills."
Chunniang kneaded the dough, pinched off large pieces of dough from the dough, and started kneading the steamed buns.
"Learn medicine? That's good. It's a good opportunity for Baoer to learn it too." Jiang Sanlang said.
My little girl is smart and clever. She is destined not to be like ordinary village girls. If she learns some skills, she will be able to find a husband in the city in the future.
When Yingbao heard this, she immediately became curious.
There wasn’t any girls’ school here in my previous life.
She led Yoyo out, skillfully put the saddle and reins on it, stepped on a bench and rode on the deer's back. She wanted to see what outsiders looked like.
At some point, several houses were built next to the Chen Clan School, and a large courtyard was also built.
The yard was not yet completed, and several villagers were helping to carry soil and build the wall.
But the house seemed to be occupied by someone, and there were two well-dressed children standing at the door, obviously not from the village.
Because they were far away, Yingbao couldn't see their faces clearly, she just vaguely thought they were a boy and a girl.
The girl is slightly older than Erni, while the boy is about the same size as Yuanbao.
Yingbao urged Youyou to come closer, and saw that the two children had also noticed her and were looking over here.
At this time, a woman in a camel-colored dress came out of the house. She was about thirty years old, dignified and quiet.
She also saw Yingbao and waved at her.
The Sakura God sent ghosts to urge the deer over.
The woman smiled and asked, "Whose child are you?"
"Jiang Sanlang's." Yingbao suppressed her excitement and kept glancing at the girl next to her.
This girl looks like Sister Wen, their features are exactly the same, but why would Sister Wen come to such an unknown little mountain village
"I'm from Jiang Sanlang's family." The woman smiled more gently and asked softly, "What's your name?"
"Yingbao, my name is Yingbao." Yingbao answered loudly.
The boy next to him froze, looking a little unhappy.
The woman and the girl both laughed.
"So her name is Yingbao, what a nice name."
The woman spoke softly, "Do you want to come down and play for a while?"
Yingbao nodded quickly.
The woman came forward and took her off the deer, touched the pigtails on her head, and said with a smile: "Come and introduce yourself. This is my daughter, Wen Shu. That is my son, Wen Hengyin."
Warm and comfortable
Yingbao almost screamed, the young lady's name was actually Wen Shu!
Yingbao's eyes were sparkling as she stared at Wen Shu without blinking, and she kept saying in her heart, don't give yourself away and don't get excited. There are many people with the same name in this world, and she must not make a mistake in recognizing someone. She must slowly ask and confirm.
Wen Shu also smiled at her, walked forward and held Yingbao, "Yingbao, how old are you?"
Yingbao held up three fingers and said, "Three years old." In two months she will be three years old.
"I just turned nine, and I'm a rabbit. You're a monkey, right?"
"Yeah." Yingbao nodded vigorously: "Sister Wen guessed right."
The boy next to him snorted and muttered, "Do you still need to guess? Idiot."
Yingbao turned her head to look at him. He looked about six or seven years old, with a chubby, pink and tender face. If he were to have two pigtails, he would definitely look like a little girl.
"My brother is born in the Year of the Snake. He is six years old."
Wen Shu took her aside, took out a piece of light green flower cake from the food box on the table and handed it to Ying Bao, "Try the mung bean cake made by my mother."
"Thank you, Sister Wen."
Yingbao took the cake and started eating it in small bites, squinting her eyes and looking at the little girl in front of her.
She has willow-shaped eyebrows, phoenix eyes, a straight nose, a fair mouth, and soft and fair skin. The more you look at her, the more she looks like Sister Wen.
"Sister Wen, where is your hometown? Why did you come here?" Yingbao asked boldly, relying on her small size.
Wen Shu smiled: "My hometown is far away, and my father is weak. I want to find a place with beautiful mountains and rivers to recuperate, so I came here."
Yingbao rolled her eyes and asked again, "The Grandpa Wen who came here last time is your relative, right?"
Wen Shu nodded: "That's my grandfather. He was the one who told my father that this is a good place for health."
"Oh." Yingbao understood. "Does your family run a pharmacy?"
Wen Shu lowered his eyes and thought for a moment, then said, "My family doesn't run a pharmacy, but my father used to be a doctor in a pharmacy."
Wen Hengyin suddenly snorted from behind, dissatisfied: "Are you from the patrol station? Asking this and that."
Yingbao ignored the little brat's cold words and hugged Wen Shu with a sly smile.
"Sister Wen, can I be your friend?"
"Okay." Wen Shu touched the little head, feeling a little warm in his heart, and said softly: "You can come and play with me anytime in the future."
This little doll is so cute and gives people a warm feeling. She is not like her cousins at all.