Li Qinghe didn't intend to hide it. After all, if this method of growing sweet potatoes spread, many people wouldn’t have to go hungry, which was a good thing. Just as she was about to say it, she was interrupted.
The woman seemed to be displeased with her.
In the past, the villagers had said that the Zhou family was poor, but no one could say that now. The Zhou family's eldest child went out early and returned late every day to sell tofu, so it was certain he made money. The second child of the Zhou family had gone to Li's house and had a child, and he lived a good life. Not to mention the third child of the Zhou family, who was married to a town girl. At the full moon ceremony, they received chickens, pigs, and ducks. The fourth child of the Zhou family was even better. Now, he had large land and a bright blue brick house. There were so many chickens, and there was a pond in front of their house, so no need to buy fish or eggs.
Though Mrs. Zhou lived by herself with her daughter, the several sons were filial to her from time to time, so her life could not be said to be sad.
Seeing the Zhou family's better days, many people spoke sour words in the end, but no one said it this straightforwardly.
Li Qinghe didn't bother to look at her, just smiled at Mrs. Li. "You don't need many seeds. And you only need to buy this seed once, and then you can keep the seeds for yourself every year after that."
"Really?" Mrs. Li was very surprised. "Then next year, I will come to help you plant them, and you can teach me how to do it."
Li Qinghe nodded with a smile, and pointed at the tender tips of the sweet potatoes. "They’re still edible, you can fry them and use them as a dish. They can also be used as pig feed and chicken feed after being kept for a long time."
After hearing that, Mrs. Li stopped being polite and stretched out her hand to take them. The woman over there also stretched out her hand. "I'll go back and try."
Li Qinghe smiled. "I plan to sell them for copper coins. I'm sure there will be buyers."
Mrs. Li's eyes turned to the person next to her. How could she not understand the meaning behind Li Qinghe's words? She smiled and said, "Let's not think about the town. Even in the village, there must be people who want to buy them. Yes, I'll bring you copper coins in a while. If Qingmiao likes them, I’ll come back to buy them later."
Hearing that she wanted to charge copper coins, the woman, who had already taken a few sweet potatoes into her hands, hurriedly stuffed them into Mrs. Li's hands. "You can feed the pigs more. I don't like to eat these."
After stuffing them, the woman quickly got up and left.
Watching her walk away, Li Qinghe asked in a low voice, "Who is she?"
Mrs. Li sneered, "The one who just moved into the village from Liujia Village, who bought the Yang family's home. Just now I came down from the mountain just in time to run into her when I came over to see your pond. Don't pay attention to her. There are so many people in the village, how can you know everyone?"
She then got up after taking a handful of sweet potatoes and smiled, "I didn't expect you to be so clever. Don't let such people take advantage of you. She wanted to eat your vegetables right after saying bad things about you. She's really too much."
Li Qinghe shook her head and said with a smile, "If my aunt likes it after eating, you can come back to take them again. There is so much harvest that we cannot eat much, and I can only feed the pigs."
Following that day, many people in the village knew that their family had grown sweet potatoes, and some close family members, such as Li Fu and Yu Yan, would come to pick them up and eat them.
When Li Fu came over, he sometimes worked for a long time before returning. And in fact, Yu Yan came out to relax and rest her eyes. "I met that Qian Laixing. This period whenever I go out, I always meet him."
Li Qinghe was a little surprised. "You mean he's stalking you?"
"I can't tell." Yu Yan frowned. “In fact, I don't think anyone is watching our house, but basically every time I go to town, either in town or on the way back, I run into him. So I haven’t been going out recently."
Li Qinghe frowned. "Be careful where you go. You can ask Third Aunt to accompany you."
She also laughed derisively. "That person is a prospective scholar, you aren’t moved?"
Yu Yan shook her head. "He's not good-looking, and after the few chance encounters that seemed too deliberate, I find him annoying. I just cannot marry because of fame, since I still prefer to look at a handsome face. He should have a kind temperament and a scholar isn’t necessarily good."
Speaking of scholars, the county exam results had been declared. Hu Yanxi still hadn’t won any title and now the two of them had already packed their things and returned, as they couldn't afford to live in the county.
Not only could they not afford to live in the county, but after the two returned, they moved directly to the Li's house. According to Hu Yanxi's words, he had been too impatient, and the articles he wrote did not suit the examiner's tastes. He wanted to return to the simple life, back to the quiet environment, eat simple meals and drink tea, watch the clouds appear and disappear, listen to the chickens and dogs, return to the pure and simple life, let his heart calm down.
According to Li Qinghe, these two just returned to save money for food and drink. After all, when living in the town, whether it was rice, meat dishes, or salt, they had to buy it themselves, but when they were at the Li's house, Li Fu would never ask his daughter and son-in-law for money, right?
Li Qinghe had wanted to take care of it, but Li Fu himself was willing, and after Zhao Wanwan came back, he could still have a mouthful of hot food, so she didn't bother to talk about it.
The sweet potatoes in the field were growing bigger and bigger. Li Qinghe and Zhou Chengkang had already started digging them out. They dried sweet potato seedlings in the sun rather than throwing them away. They were both very busy, and Mrs. Zhou joined them to help. A day later, Li Fu also came to help.
With two more people the work was also divided and the four of them worked for seven or eight days before they finally dug them all back and put them in the cellar. It was autumn now, and the autumn harvest was about to start. Fortunately, the sweet potatoes ripped earlier, or else they would have been very busy.
Now many people in the village were preparing for the autumn harvest, sharpening knives, leveling the land, and doing other tasks. After Li Fu's work there, he hurried back to his field.
For this year's autumn harvest, Li Qinghe and Zhou Chengkang were also very busy, with more than eight acres of land. Although the whole field was planted barely like other people's, in fact, compared to last year, this year's wheat plants were larger, which was even more than last year's harvest. It was better in the eyes of others, such as Li Fu. He said that the weather was good this year, and he did not think it was the credit of narrow-wide planting patterns in the field. It was worth mentioning that the three acres of land that Li Qinghe dug up and covered with mulch earlier did not yield much less than the fertile land of Li Fu and the others.
Because many people want to buy wasteland in the village recently, many people had been secretly paying attention to Li Qinghe's wasteland. Seeing the wheat plants, many people went to visit the village chief. The autumn harvest was not over yet when the wasteland around the village had been surveyed, and even the distant mountains land had also been bought by people.
It was only after Li Qinghe dried the wheat that she found out about it. She didn't think about buying more land. If she just planted them herself, the ten acres of land would be enough for the two of them. They didn't have much free time at the end of the year and they still had to go to the mountains to cut wood, hunt, and also sell the fish in the pond.
Speaking of fish, the fish in the pond had to be sold again. The two of them caught the fish and went back to the county town. It took five days going back and forth.
Since digging sweet potatoes, the two hadn’t rested. After they returned from the county, they slept for two solid days before they recovered.
After she came over, she returned to the Li family with the fabric she had prepared for Li Fu in the county. It had been a long time since she returned, and the courtyard had changed a lot. The courtyard that had been cleaned before now had several potted plants, and the stone table under the big tree where they used to eat before now had a tea set on it, which looked quite elegant.
And in front of the stone table was sitting a man more elegant than the tea set, Hu Yanxi.
The ability to be so leisurely when the villagers were busy with the autumn harvest was a skill for him. Li Fu was the only one working this year, and Zhou Chengkang had already gone to help with a sickle today.
Hu Yanxi held a book in his hand, and raised his head when he heard the movements. "Sister is back."
Li Qinghe nodded, and Zhao Wanwan heard the voice and came out of the house. "Sister, I heard that you went to the county town again, is it fun?"
"We didn’t go there to play." Li Qinghe handed her the fabric in her hand. "I don't have time, you can make clothes for father."
Zhao Wanwan took it, opened it, looked at it, and smiled. "I bought one almost exactly like this one for dad for the New Year."
Li Qinghe just bought it for him, and she didn’t care when he would wear it, so she nodded casually, and asked, "Where's Aunt Qian?"
Zhao Wanwan was still folding fabrics, and said casually, "She went to my uncle's house."
Somehow, Li Qinghe suddenly remembered what Yu Yan said. Every time Qian Laixing could meet her by chance, could it be that Mrs. Qian had tipped him off?
The more she thought about it, the more she thought it was possible. She still had to tell Li Fu about this. "Do you have tea at home? I'm going to the fields and I’ll bring it along on the way." And talk about this matter, too.
Zhao Wanwan folded the fabric, nodded, and said, "Yes, I was about to go. You can take it to him."
Li Qinghe went out with the tea kettle and saw a young girl coming this way, who kept observing the courtyard along the way. The girl looked very familiar, even though she had never seen her in the town or the village in her life. But there were a lot of people in the village, so maybe it was a relative. She just glanced at her, didn't think much about it, and turned around to leave, when she heard her calling, "Little Sister-In-Law."
This name was very special. Li Qinghe was stunned for a while before she realized that the girl was calling her. She stopped, turned around, and pointed her finger at her nose. "You called me?"
The girl nodded and quickened her pace. The tip of her nose was covered with beads of sweat, which made her fair skin almost transparent, and the small blood vessels under the skin were faintly visible. The girl had a good complexion and good looks.
The girl was quite generous, and she was out of breath when she approached. "Little Sister-In-Law, I want to ask, do you know where Zhao Wanwan's family lives? I asked around and they said she lives near here…"
Looking for Wanwan?
Li Qinghe turned around and looked at the yard. The girl followed her line of sight into it, and then tears fell. She was surprised and happy. "Yanxi, I have searched for you so hard."
Li Qinghe: "..." Isn't she looking for Wanwan?
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