The Whole Village Thrives After Adopting a Lucky Girl

Once they had the bamboo poles, picking soapbean became much easier,

Now, Yingbao often saw a group of shabbily dressed adults and children, holding bamboo poles to pick soapbean.

By November, the snow finally fell.

Zhou Wuchang took advantage of the snow not yet blocking the roads, took his senior apprentice and hurried to the county seat, while the second apprentice, Zhang Min, and Yingbao were left behind as usual.

This time Zhang Min didn’t feel upset, instead he was very happy, spending each day with Wei Zhan, Huzi, Jiang Wu, and Xiaoyao, having fun hunting wild pheasants and hares in the fields whenever they had free time.

As for the wild chickens and hares on the South Slope, they had been almost hunted to extinction.

Li Xu finally returned at the end of the month. He didn’t pass the exam, but he did not feel discouraged. Instead, he returned to Dongchen Village joyfully and continued to teach the children.

His mother was not disappointed either. As long as she could live a peaceful life with her son, she was content. However, as her son was getting older year by year, it would be inappropriate if he did not marry soon.

But in this small mountain village, there were few girls worthy of her son. While the An Family was anxious, they looked at the Jiang Family.

The Jiang Family had good discipline, and all the children were outstanding. Unfortunately, the Jiang Family did not have any unmarried girls of her son’s age.

After Li Xu’s return, Mr. Wu often visited the school, occasionally giving a few lectures to Li Xu. However, most of the time, he sat with the elderly in the village under the wall, chatting while basking in the sun.

At the end of each month when Jiang Jie came back from school, Mr. Wu asked him about his studies, corrected his assignments, and explained to him the classics he didn’t understand.

Days went by like this, and soon it was December.

Yingbao had been quite relaxed recently, besides occasionally reading medical scripts, she was wandering around with Dahuang.

The marketplace was a place she often visited; even on snowy days, she would go for a round.

Chen Zhao’s sugar cake business was doing well. Even on non-market days, she could make one to two hundred coins a day.

Yingbao often saw Chen Wan helping her sister.

Now Feng Family’s matriarch rarely scolds her granddaughter, but sometimes asks Chen Zhao to use her money to buy salt and sesame oil.

Chen Zhao naturally didn’t want to spend her money, but she couldn’t resist Mrs. Feng, because she and her siblings had to eat as well.

“Yingbao, come and taste the sugar cake,” Chen Zhao waved to Yingbao. “This one is filled with bean paste.”

Yingbao didn’t stand on ceremony, and began to eat the sugar cake she handed over.

Eating sweets in such icy and snowy weather felt very comforting.

Chen Zhao’s stall was a small straw shed, with a circle of straw curtains around three sides, providing a little shelter from the cold wind.

While eating the sugar cake, Yingbao was observing the stalls outside.

The marketplace, planned by her father, was designed very well. There were rows of straw sheds on both sides of the road, providing shelter from the rain and snow for the stalls. Not far away, there were several thatched huts, one was an oil mill run by her elder cousin and his wife, another was a tailor shop run by Mrs. Leng, her sister’s mother, and also a bamboo-ware shop and a shop selling water jars and pottery.

Two of the thatched huts belonged to Mrs. Leng, which her daughter had paid to build. Even though her brother-in-law did not stop her, he never looked in that direction and did not allow his son Huzi to have any contact with her.

“Yingbao, do you want some tea?” Chen Wan suddenly asked.

Yingbao looked at her and nodded.

Chen Wan, now thirteen years old and turning fourteen after the New Year, was becoming quite beautiful.

But whenever she came to help at the market, she would wrap her face with a cloth, revealing only her eyes.

Chen Wan brewed a pot of bamboo leaf tea, in which she also added red dates. Each bowl of tea was served with two soft-boiled red dates.

Yingbao finished the tea in one gulp, left ten copper coins on the small table, and returned to the village with Dahuang.

In this life, it seemed that many things and people have changed.

When she entered the village, she saw her father leading a group of people lifting stones and constructing a watchtower.

The watchtower was built quite high, more than two Zhangs tall, just above the height of the soapbean trees.

The interior of the Stone Tower was spacious as well. From the spiral staircase, one could reach the top, which could accommodate several people to fight at once.

If they stored a sufficient number of bows, arrows, and stones at the top, plus some food and water, a few people could defend this place.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

Two villagers hit a gong and arrived at the Dongchen Village on the South Slope, shouting loudly, “Order from the Imperial Court! Each household should pay an extra 10% grain tax per acre! Those who don’t have farmland will pay an extra 20% head tax and must pay within three days! Violators will be punished according to the law!”

Jiang Sanlang and the others stopped what they were doing, looking at each other with worry.

“Why does the Imperial Court want to collect grain again?”

“Didn’t we just pay the grain tax the other time?”

“Do they want us to survive or not?”

Jiang Sanlang also had a serious expression on his face.

The taxes this year are heavier than in previous years. He even specifically made a trip to the neighboring village to ask if it was the same there, and the result was yes, the villagers there were complaining just as bitterly.

These times are extremely unfriendly to those who farm. The layers upon layers of taxes could strip peasants down to the bone.

It was fortunate that their village was relatively well-off, otherwise, many villagers would have had to abandon their homes due to famine.

Despite the complaints, the grain that should be paid still had to be paid.

The villagers of Dongchen were fortunate to have a habit of storing grain, otherwise, they really wouldn’t have been able to afford to pay the tax.

Because the whole Qinchuan County was severely lacking in grain. Even Jiang Quan came back and said that grain prices have risen in the grain shop, and the County Government allowed the opening of charity stores one time, setting up a cauldron at the vegetable market to make porridge and distribute it to the refugees inside the county.

Yingbao felt that the County Magistrate must have something wrong with his mind.

For such a long period of time, he still hadn’t settled the flood refugees and let them wander around the county.

Or did he mean to sell the grain in the charity warehouse quietly in the name of relief?

But all of this was none of her business, and she had no power to interfere with the County Magistrate’s decision.

Now, they could only take it one step at a time. If the refugees were to riot again, it would be fine as long as Dongchen Village could withstand it.

Soon, it was January.

The Jiang Family was bustling with activity.

Not only did Wei Zhan not go home for the New Year, but the elderly Mr. Wu also didn’t leave. Zhou Wuchang even brought his eldest apprentice to the Jiang Family and also brought a large box of books as a gift for Jiang Jie.

It was fortunate that Jiang Sanlang’s house was big enough, otherwise it really wouldn’t accommodate everyone.

After the New Year, Zhou Wuchang took his eldest apprentice and left again.

Yingbao and Zhang Min were well used to this by now and almost forgot the fact that they were his apprentices.

In the early spring season, the ice and snow had not completely melted, but the refugees living on the South Slope were already looking for wild vegetables to eat all around.

There were a lot of wild vegetables outside Dongchen Village. Those shepherd’s purses were growing in large patches, not only were they big but they were also tender. It was impossible to dig them all up.

They dug up the shepherd’s purse, washed it, chopped it, and cooked it with rice. This could fill up the whole family’s stomachs.

The refugees’ rice was exchanged from the soap-nut tree rice with Jiang family and the villagers. They were saving them up, it would be no problem to eat until the summer harvest.

During this period, they just had to find some work in Dongchen Village, there was no worry that they wouldn’t be able to get by.

Though life was hard, it was a hundred times better than what they had previously endured.

Their days back home were truly desperate.

The collected grains were successively taken away by the County Government. To survive, they could only sell their fields and hit the road with the grains they bought from selling their fields.

In the end, they discovered this village which was affluent enough to make people jealous.

So their leader, Lin Wulang, decided to stay and didn’t move anymore.

The reality proved that Lin Wulang was right, they could finally settle down here.