Seeing that the children were feeling a bit better, Ye Wenxue rested for a while before continuing to clear the ground, while Dazhuang stubbornly persisted in working.

Shuangshuang, Sanyuan, and Siwang lay side by side on the withered grass, basking in the sun.

There was a small round basket next to it.

After cleaning the ground for a while, Ye Wenxue looked up at her children and felt that much of her fatigue had disappeared.

Besides the open space for building the wooden house, a sizable vegetable garden also needs to be cultivated.

We'll use wood-based abilities to germinate the seeds, then plant them...

In just a few months, they will be able to live a life that is barely self-sufficient.

With this thought in mind, Ye Wenxue became even more motivated.

The goose followed behind her, occasionally honking to remind Ye Wenxue that there was another goose behind her.

Don't step on it.

Ye Wenxue thought it was blocking the way, so she asked Siwang to take the goose for a walk and let it work up a sweat.

Siwang immediately agreed and pulled the weak and powerless Sanyuan away.

At night, the five little ones drank another bowl of bitter medicine and went to sleep.

Ye Wenxue stayed by their side, tucking each child in a thin blanket to help them sweat, and checking their body temperature every now and then.

She finally fell into a deep sleep after the fever of her cubs subsided in the middle of the night.

The next day, Dazhuang and Siwang, who were in better physical condition, were the first to resume normal activities.

Shuangshuang and Sanyuan are physically weaker, but they can still work even if they have to force themselves, although they need to take medicine for an extra day.

The family spent another day clearing weeds, and finally managed to clear two plots of land that were neither too big nor too small.

One of the plots of land had a bayberry tree that looked still alive, which would be used to provide shade once the house was built.

Ye Wenxue doesn't have high requirements for her living environment at the moment; she just wants to move out of the cave as soon as possible to avoid being disturbed by wind, rain, and dampness.

In addition, she had built houses by hand when she was on a mission before, so she was quite adept at the job.

Before Cheng Xiucai passed the imperial examination, he had worked as a farmer and a carpenter to make a living, and he still kept all his tools.

Dazhuang had even learned carpentry from Cheng Xiucai. Although his skills were so-so, he could still be of some help.

While Dazhuang was cutting down trees and gathering firewood with the younger children, Ye Wenxue took out the paper and pen she had brought from home and designed a simple house frame.

Considering that autumn is approaching and the temperature will drop in a few months, she decided to build a mud-brick house similar to the Cheng family's courtyard in Shanqing Village.

First, build the house frame. If there's enough time, then build a courtyard wall to protect it from the wind.

If all else fails, just build a fence around the house.

But the most pressing issue is clearly not housing.

Instead, it's grains and vegetables.

The remaining dry food at home is eaten sparingly, just enough to last the whole family for two or three months.

Not to mention that building a house is hard work, and the main workers will definitely need to be well-fed.

That little bit of stored grain might not even be enough to last through the autumn.

In addition, heavy snow in winter closes off the mountains, making it impossible to find a way down to find food...

Ye Wenxue gazed at the group of delighted children for a long while, then decisively put down her paper and pen and walked over to Dazhuang and the others:

"I need to go out into the valley to find seeds and mortar for building a house..."

She tried to explain the necessity of leaving the valley so that they wouldn't mistakenly think she didn't want to take the children with her and had abandoned them.

Dazhuang, dragging a thick tree branch in his hand, listened attentively to Ye Wenxue's words, and nodded after a moment:

"Mom, go in peace. I will take good care of my younger siblings! It's not very safe in the mountains, so please be careful."

Ye Wenxue patted his head, glanced at the child whose eyes were filled with trepidation but whose face was trying hard not to show any abnormality, and thought for a moment before saying, "My strength is limited by myself. Does anyone want to come with me?"

The four children's eyes lit up at the same time.

Soon, Dazhuang shook his head calmly: "I won't go. I'll stay and take care of Yuanyuan and the goose, and also keep an eye on our belongings."

Even though our belongings are old and worn, we can't live without them.

Seeing that her older brother wasn't going, Shuangshuang immediately jumped to Ye Wenxue's side: "Mom, I'll go! I'll go with you!"

Siwang hugged Ye Wenxue's leg, glanced at Dazhuang, then at Sanyuan, and hesitated to speak.

It was obvious that Siwang also wanted to leave the valley with his mother, but he felt that he was a burden and was afraid that Sanyuan would want to go with his mother, so he sensibly kept quiet.

Siwang kept his head down, thinking to himself that if his third brother wanted to go, then he... then he would stay and feed the geese.

Seeing Siwang's aggrieved expression, Sanyuan understood his thoughts: "Mother, take Siwang with you. I am weak and I am afraid I can't go very far. If Siwang goes, he can help you carry more things."

Ye Wenxue nodded, then patted Dazhuang and Sanyuan's heads one by one:

"I'm sorry you had to go through this ordeal. Next time we go out of the valley, I'll take you with me, okay?"

Da Zhuang pursed his lips and shook his head: "I'm not wronged."

Without his mother, he doesn't know what he would have faced raising his younger siblings alone in such a chaotic world.

In Dazhuang's opinion, the life they are living now is already excellent.

Besides, since Mother didn't abandon them when they were sick, she's even less likely to leave now.

This time, Dazhuang no longer felt uneasy or fearful about being abandoned, and calmly agreed to stay and take care of his younger brother and sister.

He buried his head in the hoe, which was almost as high as his nose, and continued to turn over the soil as Ye Wenxue instructed.

Ye Wenxue smiled, slung her cloth bag and basket over her shoulder, and took a few wild vegetable buns.

She put the wood-chopping knife into her basket, told Dazhuang and Sanyuan not to leave the valley, and then made some simple arrangements with Shuangshuang and Siwang on the only way into the valley.

As long as Dazhuang and Sanyuan don't come out, anyone trying to force their way in will likely be knocked off the cliff by the traps.

After confirming that the small mechanism was working properly, Ye Wenxue looked at the sky and decided to take Shuangshuang and Siwang to the old forest where they had found mushrooms and wood ear fungus.

Since there are wood ear mushrooms and mushrooms in the old forest, then... it's quite normal for her to dig up some sweet potatoes and corn there, right?

It wasn't that Ye Wenxue didn't want to be honest with the children about the space.

However, they haven't settled down yet, and saying it now would only make the children more frightened.

—My mother has magical powers, what if she suddenly disappears?

At this rate, he'll probably be constantly on edge, having to get up in the middle of the night to check if she's still there.

Therefore, she could only try to rationalize the origins of the sweet potatoes and corn.

Ye Wenxue's space contains a wide variety of seeds, with sweet potatoes and corn being just two of them.

She was thinking that once the house was built and she had some free time, she would cultivate two more plots of land to grow some other crops to give the children a change of pace.

Since I have a wood-type ability, I don't need to worry about the seeds not sprouting.

The more she thought about it, the brighter her future seemed!