As soon as Yu Ri got up, the Zhou family went to the fields to dig sweet potatoes. The wasteland was all terraced fields. The group of people carried hoes and baskets, and hurried up the mountain.

Xingxing wanted to go too; she wanted to dig up another giant sweet potato. Last night, Zhao Guihua sewed her a small cloth bag, and now Yuanyuan was inside it. Xingxing, with the bag slung across her shoulder, happily followed behind the others.

The group from Xianwu Island watched as their junior brother quickly caught up with Xingxing and left, taking her hand. Everyone went to work, and they couldn't just stay idle at home, could they?

Originally, Zhu Qiuyu had heard that there was a market day in town today, and she had planned to go with her junior brothers and sisters to the market, but now none of them wanted to go.

"I ate steamed sweet potatoes yesterday. They were so sweet, soft, and delicious. I'd like to help dig some too," Zhu Qingruo was the first to express her opinion.

“Raw sweet potatoes are delicious, crisp and refreshing, and dried sweet potatoes are delicious too. Let’s all go and help out; we can’t just eat and do nothing,” Zhu Changge said, smacking her lips.

So the senior brothers and sisters followed behind the Zhou family, slowly strolling to the terraced fields. In the past, each household in the village had a limited number of hoes, and with so many people, there weren't enough hoes to go around.

However, later the government organized the villagers to dig for medicinal herbs in the mountains, and then asked the villagers to reclaim wasteland to plant sweet potatoes for disaster relief. As a result, everyone had a few more hoes to use, especially medicinal hoes, which they had made from the blacksmith in town.

Several senior students, each holding a medicinal hoe, dug a deep pit with a light swing, seemingly using too much force.

“Masters, this won’t do. Using your internal force to shake things up will only make the pit too deep and ruin the sweet potato.” Zhou Erfu couldn’t stand it anymore. He was a straightforward person and didn’t care whether it would embarrass his masters or not. He immediately started to teach them.

“Watch this, you have to control the force when you dig like this. Master, don’t just thrash around aimlessly. Come dig over here, it’s easier to dig where the vines have been cut. It’s such a waste to hoe the sweet potato vines into pieces like this.” Zhou Erfu kept talking nonstop.

Hehe, usually several masters teach the five brothers martial arts and reading, but when it comes to farming, the masters are obviously not good at it, so he has to teach them. He feels a strange sense of accomplishment.

In fact, Fairy Mist Island also has land and fresh water to supply the land for farming. Otherwise, if the island had not been in contact with the outside world for a long time (although it was only on the surface), where would the food for the five or six hundred people on the island have come from?

Of course, people are planting crops. Those elderly people love farming. They cleared land near Danshui and planted many fruit trees on the mountain, although many of these fruit trees were originally there.

Young people like Zhu Qiuyu had never farmed before. Although the old folks always said that when they passed away, the land on the island would be passed on to the younger generation, Zhu Qiuyu and the others thought that it wasn't like there wasn't any silver on the island. The silver mined from the silver mines was just sitting there getting moldy.

When the old people on the island pass away, they won't be farming anymore. They'll just buy food from outside and have more contact with people from outside.

"I used to look down on farmers, thinking that anyone with brute strength could farm, it just depended on whether you wanted to or not. But today, after actually doing it, I realize that farming isn't that simple. It requires experience and patience," Zhu Qiuyu murmured.

His fellow students nearby heard this and nodded in agreement.

"So it's right that we choose not to farm anymore. People like us who have no talent for farming would starve to death if we tried." Zhu Qingruo wholeheartedly agreed. Farming was too damn tiring, even more exhausting than practicing martial arts.

Facing the loess soil with their backs to the sky, under the scorching sun, they were already drenched in sweat in just a short while. Don't be fooled by how effortlessly they seemed to dig the soil with their internal energy; it was actually quite uncomfortable. This feeling was so intense and unpleasant.

In the first half of the year, Xingxing was still digging sweet potatoes with Ruru using sharpened wooden sticks. Now, she was wielding a small hoe with remarkable skill.

"Last time I dug up a sweet potato this big, as big as our pumpkin. I couldn't lift it by myself, so Ruru and I lifted it together. Later, the county magistrate took it away, and I never got a chance to taste the sweet potato." Xingxing told Zhu Lin about the past while working.

The boy casually swung the hoe twice, then stopped to listen to the little girl talk. He would occasionally wipe her sweat with a handkerchief, and when he saw her smack her lips, he would immediately go and get a bamboo tube to feed her water.

"Thank you, Brother Phosphorus. I'll cook you a big sweet potato when I dig it up. This time, let's hide it and not tell anyone, so it won't be taken away again," Xingxing said earnestly.

"Okay, whatever you say." A smile appeared in the boy's eyes as he listened quietly to the little girl's chatter.

Zhou Laoda and Zhao Guihua led their five sons to work hard and quickly. The three female guards were also capable, and soon they had cut all the vine seedlings and bundled them up.

Eighty percent of the sweet potato seedlings planted during land reclamation will be handed over to the government. These seedlings will be used for seedling cultivation. Although it is winter now, the temperature in the south is relatively warm, and some places do not snow. Even if it snows, it is very light, so there is no need to worry about the seedlings freezing to death.

Even if they freeze to death, the roots buried in the soil will come back to life next spring, truly a case of "spring breeze brings life again".

"Boss, with so many people working in your family, I think we can finish digging all the sweet potatoes today." Other villagers were also digging sweet potatoes. Zhao Xiu's field was nearby, and she would occasionally raise her voice to chat with them.

Zhao Guihua straightened up, smiled, wiped her sweat with the handkerchief draped over her shoulder, and replied, "I should be able to finish digging today. I'll come over tomorrow and help you dig for half a day."

"Oh, no need. We can finish it in one day tomorrow. There's no need for you to come all the way here. Once the sweet potatoes are dug, there's not much farm work to do. We can manage on our own. You don't need to worry about my family."

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