Joyful Motherhood in a Rural Family

Chapter 240: 238: Guihua talks lightly about buying land, the old house is in a fuss about dividing the family

Liu Sisi remained silent for a while. Seeing her mood still wasn’t good, Guihua tried hard to reason with her but felt helpless. In her heart, she couldn’t help cursing those people for keeping Sisi in the dark. No wonder she was angry!

In the evening, Di Yelei didn’t come back.

Liu Sisi got up in the middle of the night to check on the two children to prevent them from kicking off their quilts.

As if in a daze, she seemed to hear faint moans of pain, but after searching all around, she could not find the source of the sound.

The cold wind outside cut like an icy knife, making her face and limbs ache.

Liu Sisi shivered and hurriedly covered the room door, crawling back into bed, shivering. It was so cold!

Knowing that Liu Sisi was home alone, Guihua came over early the next day before dawn. When she arrived, Liu Sisi was taking care of the Chinese chives!

There weren’t many vegetable varieties in winter, but Liu Sisi insisted on rotating daily between growing some mung bean sprouts and yellow bean sprouts, plus these few clumps of Chinese chives.

In the winter, the kitchen was always filled with cooking smoke, and every household was putting firewood in the stove.

Since they lived by the mountain, there wasn’t much to be found nearby, except for trees.

Di Yelei had already had the foresight to prepare a room full of firewood. In the evening, they would fill up the stove with firewood, close the stove door, and by the next morning, the fire would still be burning, warming the whole room.

Similarly, such an environment was perfect for bean sprouts and Chinese chives to grow. Small pots were neatly arranged on the edge of the stove, not taking up space and looking lovely.

“Hey! I say Sisi, I admire your brain for coming up with all kinds of strange ideas! Like these vegetables you’re growing now, how did you think of it? And the small bok choy outside the stable, how I envy it …”

Guihua was talking about the small bok choy Liu Sisi had planted using irrigation principles.

First, she cut moso bamboo to a length longer than the stable, dug out a groove in the center, connected the edges in a stepped arrangement, sprinkled small bok choy seeds inside, and then put soil inside, filling the hollowed-out bamboo. Then, all that was needed was to water it once a day. The excess water would flow from the top groove to the next level, and finally be drained into a gutter under the eaves.

It had been raining a few days ago, and Liu Sisi hadn’t bothered with it.

Unexpectedly, after a few days, the small bok choy had all grown! They were lush and green and very pleasing to the eye.

“Sister Guihua, why bring this up? What’s the difference between us? Later, you can take some of the larger ones home to eat. When the larger ones are plucked, the smaller ones will continue to grow. It’s simple.”

Liu Sisi said generously, grabbing the ready-to-eat bean sprouts.

“That’s great! With your method, we won’t be worried about not having vegetables to eat even if we don’t have land to plant them.”

Guihua was happy, but then sighed again: “Land taxes are so high nowadays. Your house’s decision not to buy land is right. If things continue like this, my family said they might sell off those acres.”

“Your family only has one child, Zhang Yun, and a few acres of land. Even if you don’t plant crops on it, it wouldn’t be necessary to sell the land, right?”

Liu Sisi said casually as she quickly washed the vegetables and put them in the pot.

Suddenly, she remembered that she didn’t know how to farm, so she had been subconsciously avoiding buying land. In fact, she should buy some land anyway.

“Ah! That’s what you don’t understand. Land is valuable, but it depends on where it is. The land near the foot of the mountain here is infertile and has low yields, so who would want it? If you want to buy land in the future, you should buy it in the plains near the county where your mother’s family is. The land there is fertile and easy to manage. If you buy it and rent it out, you can make a decent amount of silver each year.”

Guihua casually said, and helped to add some firewood to the stove.

“Your suggestion is great!”

As Liu Sisi quickly finished cooking the vegetables, she exclaimed, “We’ve spent a lot recently on Yelei’s injury and were nearly broke. Now we have some small amounts of silver, but considering YingEr’s matter… so I plan to save more money.”

“How much money do you think an engagement will cost? They will bring the food from the mountain themselves.”

Guihua also helped to set the table, “If you buy land now, by the time the paperwork is processed, it’ll be just in time for planting rice next year. You won’t miss a season of crops. Isn’t it a great idea?”

Liu Sisi had to admit she was tempted!

“Sister Guihua, I didn’t know you were so knowledgeable.”

“Of course, my family had dozens of acres of land before I got married. Unfortunately, I am a daughter, and at that time, when I fell in love with your big brother Zhang, I went against my parents’ wishes, so I didn’t get any dowry land during my marriage.”

Guihua seemed to feel a little emotional.

“Sister Guihua, I didn’t know you also had such a memorable past!”

“Ah! I don’t know anything about bones or hearts, but my parents wanted me to marry my cousin who studied saints’ books, but I fell in love with Zhang Peng and angered my parents and relatives. So… here we are now. I’m going to wake YingEr up.” Guihua spread her hands and left the kitchen after speaking.

Liu Sisi felt a sense of vitality in her heart. Business had been good lately, and she had around 100 taels of silver. Even if it were high-quality farmland, it would be enough to buy around twenty acres. Renting it out without having to manage it herself would indeed bring in a good income.

With her mind made up, she focused on saving the required amount. Buying land needed to be done under the condition of having surplus funds. She must at least reserve some silver for emergencies.

Soon, Guihua came out with YingEr, who was still squinting, and Di Xuan followed enthusiastically.

She helped YingEr put on her shoes while saying, “By the way, there was another fight at your old house yesterday, do you know that?”

“What was it about this time?”

Liu Sisi scooped out two spoonfuls of soybean paste and placed them on the table. This was for personal seasoning; those who liked it saltier and spicier could add it to their meal.

“What else could it be about? They said your second sister-in-law secretly cooked an egg for Brother Bao, and Di Ah-Bao caught her red-handed. Well, Ms. Xin is pregnant now and hasn’t even eaten any, so why should Brother Bao, who is already thirteen or fourteen years old, get so many nourishing supplements? The argument got worse and worse, and it even brought up the topic of splitting the family.”