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He Tiantian closed her eyes, but her mind was still racing; she hadn't fallen asleep.

I'm so busy during the day that I don't have time to deal with my own things, so I can only use the evenings.

"Gurgle gurgle meow..." He Tiantian murmured to herself, missing the Snake King.

The Snake King groggily awoke from his cultivation, sensing the familiar presence of Qi Family Village, and said, "We're back, aren't we?"

“Yes, I’m back now,” He Tiantian said. “Grandma and Grandma Lan are sleeping next to me now, so I can’t take you to the back mountain.”

After scanning the situation outside, the Snake King thought for a moment, then nodded and said, "It's alright, I can go by myself."

"Oh right." He Tiantian then remembered that the Snake King had leveled up and was no longer the little silver snake that could only circle around her ankle. "The Snake King is amazing. It's all my fault for being so busy and forgetting."

"You have a lot on your plate," the Snake King said with a hint of resentment.

"I'm sorry, Snake King," He Tiantian said apologetically. "I'll stay with you once everything calms down."

"Okay, then you go to sleep. I'm going to the back mountain," said the Snake King. "If you need anything, you can summon me."

"Understood, Snake King." He Tiantian replied quickly, and then a faint golden light left through the window.

Upon arriving at the cave on the back mountain, the Snake King spoke with He Tiantian for a moment before beginning his cultivation.

With her worries gone, He Tiantian slowly drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, He Tiantian got up early.

The early bird catches the worm, and He Tiantian took a carrying pole and buckets to fetch water.

Qi Zhengmin followed behind He Tiantian like a little tail and asked, "Sister Tiantian, are we going to fetch water?"

"Yes, we don't have running water here, only spring water," He Tiantian said with a smile. "But you'll love the sweet spring water here!"

Many people were fetching water by the pool.

He Tiantian kept greeting everyone.

Qi Zhengmin was also very well-behaved. She addressed He Tiantian by the same names as He Tiantian, which earned her everyone's praise.

On the way back, Qi Zhengmin asked, "Sister Tiantian, isn't that pond dirty, left out in the open like that?"

"Look at the clear water in this bucket, do you think it's dirty?" He Tiantian asked. This pool is the treasure of Qijia Village. It is surrounded by a wooden fence that is half a person high. Children and small animals are not allowed to get close to it.

"It's not dirty," Qi Zhengmin replied truthfully, glancing at the clear spring water in the bucket.

“This is a gift from nature, of course it’s not dirty,” He Tiantian said. “Even if it is dirty, it’s because we humans made it dirty, not nature.”

Qi Zhengmin seemed to be deep in thought.

After going back and forth seven or eight times, the large water tank at home was finally filled.

Breakfast was prepared by Wang Shuping, with Liang Hongyu helping out. She cooked rice porridge and prepared side dishes. Wang Shuping also boiled an egg for everyone. That was breakfast.

After breakfast, Qi Zhengmin scratched his head and said to everyone, "I've found that even such a simple breakfast tastes good here. You know, in America, I would absolutely not be happy to eat this for breakfast."

"Silly girl, that's because you have plenty of food in America. Here, food is scarce, and if you don't eat, you'll go hungry. When you're hungry, everything tastes delicious." Grandma Qi laughed heartily. "You must cherish food when you go back!"

Anna smiled and said, "Mom, I think it's delicious too. I've noticed that the water and rice here are different from those in America."

“Of course they’re different,” Qi Shuliang said. “The water that Tiantian fetched this morning is spring water from our village that has been passed down for hundreds of years. It’s cool and sweet. The rice we use to make porridge is grown locally with organic fertilizer. The yield is very low, but the taste is much better than the rice grown in America with lots of chemical fertilizers.”

"Is there really such a saying?" Anna blinked her green eyes, very curious.

"Brother, you're an agricultural researcher, don't you think?" Qi Shuliang asked, as two experts nearby immediately followed up.

He Jingyu smiled and said, "The effect of chemical fertilizers is obvious to all. They can greatly increase yields and do affect the taste, but it's not very noticeable. Don't worry about it too much. The most important thing is that the water here is good."

After all, China has not yet reached the point of relying entirely on chemical fertilizers, and its understanding of this aspect is not profound.

However, those in the agricultural research circle know that chemical fertilizers are good things, and they also understand that proper use of chemical fertilizers is good for trees, but excessive use is not beneficial.

However, there isn't enough chemical fertilizer in China right now, so increasing income is impossible.

Qi Zhengmin, thinking of the peach orchard on the mountain, put on a pair of He Tiantian's old cloth shoes, which were a little uncomfortable. He wore two pairs of socks and they were fine. He then went up the mountain.

So He Tiantian took Qi Zhengmin and Qi Zhenghan on a half-day trip to the peach orchard in the back mountain.

When they arrived at the peach orchard, most of the peaches on the trees had already been picked and put into baskets.

The basket was lined with a layer of soft grass, and each peach was spaced apart to prevent them from bumping and getting damaged.

Qi Zhengmin wanted to eat, and He Jingyu gave them a wink. He had secretly stored three large baskets of peaches in the cellar.

The whole harvested fruit weighed over 3,000 jin (approximately 1,500 kg).

It took four oxcarts to load all the peaches.

Secretary Qi led Qi Shuli, Qi Shuming, Qi Shugen, and He Jingyu to the county town to hand over the task.

When Secretary Qi returned home that evening, he was overjoyed. The peaches had been rated as top-grade, costing six cents a pound. Keep in mind that pork was only seven cents a pound at the time. Not only was the price high, but one pound of peaches could be exchanged for one pound of grain coupons. This meant that the more than three thousand pounds of peaches in Qijia Village could be exchanged for more than three thousand pounds of grain coupons. Every household would receive both money and grain coupons.

The awards for He Jingyu and Wang Shuping will be jointly awarded by the provincial and municipal governments once the report is submitted to the provincial level.

"Brother He, these are just over a hundred trees, and they've already sold for so much money. If it were a thousand, ten thousand, or a hundred thousand trees, how much money would they be?" Qi Dazhu laughed. These are the village's gold nuggets!

"Hehe, I hope peaches will stay this expensive in the future," He Jingyu said. "Now that it's the off-season for farming, before we go to dig up the river, let's clear out a couple of low hills. There are lots of materials on there that can be used as manure. Next spring, when the fertilizer is sufficient, we can transplant peach saplings directly."

Qi Dazhu nodded and asked, "Brother He, how many seedlings are there in the peach orchard?"

"Last year, due to limited energy, Shuping and I planted about 1,300 trees, enough for 40 mu and 3 plots, enough for one hilltop," He Jingyu said. After all, there were no results last year, and he couldn't ask Secretary Qi to send someone to help, so the number of peach seedlings produced was not large.

It wasn't that the couple didn't want to do more; they simply lacked the energy. (To be continued.)