Chapter 16: Preparing for the New Era

Ye Beixiu smelled the fragrance from the backyard. After settling the hens, he followed the fragrance without Zhang Juexia calling him.

"My lady, what delicious food did you make? It smells so good."

"Hurry up and wash your hands and eat."

Ye Beixiu looked at the hand-rolled noodles in front of him, and without saying a word, he just started eating.

Zhang Juexia did the same. After she finished a bowl of noodles, she smacked her lips in satisfaction.

"Although there's no meat on these bones, the soup tastes good."

"We used to eat meat at home, but this is the first time I've tasted bone soup so good."

"If it tastes good, drink more. Your legs are also suitable for bone broth."

Ye Beixiu looked at Zhang Juexia with eyes full of gratitude, "Thank you, my lady."

Ever since Zhang Juexia took Ye Beixiu to see the doctor, she felt like he had changed his heart, and he would say corny words from time to time.

It is really inconsistent with his big and strong image.

"Hurry up and eat. There's still a lot of work to do."

"My dear, I've settled the hens. After dinner, I'll go cut some grass. Also, I want to go to the village head's house and ask him about the land reclamation."

Zhang Juexia was surprised by Ye Beixiu's initiative.

"Don't be so anxious!"

"Clearing land takes a long time, so the sooner we can do it, the better. We can also enclose a vegetable patch in the yard and grow some vegetables so we can eat them ourselves."

"I have to buy some vegetable seeds next time I go to town."

"No need, grandma always saves some vegetable seeds every year, just ask her for some when the time comes."

After Ye Beixiu cleaned up the kitchen, he prepared to go out to the headman's house.

"Are you going just like that?"

Zhang Juexia's question stunned Ye Beixiu, "Grandpa Lizheng is from our family, and he is our grandfather's cousin. What's the big deal?"

"Then you can't go to your elders' house empty-handed!"

Zhang Juexia helped him pack ten eggs. "Here, take them. We'll separate and live our own lives after we get married. You're here to negotiate on behalf of our family."

Ye Beixiu nodded repeatedly, "My wife is right, I didn't think it through."

After Ye Beixiu left, Zhang Juexia began to pack up the pile of goods.

She felt a little worried when looking at these things, but when she thought about how delicious they would be after being cooked, she still started to cook them.

Thanks to the promotion of Tik Tok, she was able to travel here and make a living.

She first washed it with wood ash, then rubbed it with cornmeal, and finally added salt to the water and prepared to soak it.

When she was washing the pig intestines, she almost vomited, but she gritted her teeth and held it back, cleaning it until she was satisfied.

She put the cleaned vegetables into a big pot, found the spices she bought at noon, put them into the pot, and prepared to stew them.

After lighting the fire and adding the right amount of firewood, she went to the backyard.

Ye Beixiu had already settled the old hens in the backyard. She looked around the place and felt that it was a bit of a waste to only raise two hens.

I plan to buy some chicks to raise someday.

She picked up a handful of grass and threw it to the hen, then went to the front yard and turned over the dried peppercorns and mugwort.

As it was getting dark, Zhang Juexia sat in the yard, enjoying the cool breeze, waiting for Ye Beixiu to come back.

Ye Beixiu pushed open the gate and saw Zhang Juexia sitting in the yard, and his heart felt warm.

Zhang Juexia saw Ye Beixiu coming in and hurriedly greeted him with a smile, "You're back."

Ye Beixiu held her in his arms and led her into the yard. "What did you do? The yard smells so good!"

Zhang Juexia deliberately kept the question a secret, "You'll know in a moment. What did the village head say?"

Ye Beixiu repeated to Zhang Juexia what he had heard from the village head Ye Jidong.

Zhang Juexia sighed inwardly, no wonder the people in Yejia Village would rather rely on hunting for a living than reclaim wasteland and farm.

She finally found the reason.

If you want to buy land but can't afford it, you have to pay most of the taxes if you reclaim wasteland and plant crops.

Seeing that Zhang Juexia remained silent, Ye Beixiu guessed she was frightened, so he told her his plan. "I think what the village head said is right. Let's try to reclaim some wasteland first. After cultivating the land, we can plant some wheat. It won't be too late to decide next year based on the harvest."

Zhang Juexia also thought this was a good idea. After all, the imperial court would not collect taxes in the first year of land reclamation.

If the harvest does not meet expectations, just don't plant it, and you won't have to pay taxes the next year.

She nodded and said, "That's a good idea. Let's get started tomorrow and try to open up more wasteland. That way we can grow more wheat and save ourselves from buying white flour, which is too expensive after all."

The price of this flour is unacceptable to Zhang Juexia.

Ye Beixiu agreed with Zhang Juexia and decided to grow more wheat.

"Can you make clothes?"

Zhang Juexia shook his head.

"Then let's go to the old house tomorrow and have my mother make you a new set of clothes. By the way, let's tell Grandpa and the others about our plan to open up the wasteland."

Zhang Juexia's heart skipped a beat. "Will they object?"

“That shouldn’t be the case!”

Seeing Ye Beixiu's confident look, Zhang Juexia didn't mention the matter anymore.

But she was unsure in her heart. After all, the Ye family had lived here for generations. If they wanted to open up wasteland and farm, they would have done it long ago.

We have to wait for Ye Beixiu to do this.

Ye Beixiu no longer had the heart to discuss anything else with Zhang Juexia. He had been tempted by the aroma wafting from the yard from time to time. He walked into the kitchen, lifted the lid of the pot, saw a pot of meat, and looked at Zhang Juexia in surprise.

Zhang Juexia gestured to him, "Take out a piece first and taste it to see if it's cooked."

Ye Beixiu took out a piece of pork liver from the pot and started eating it with relish.

"It's delicious, my lady. We threw all these things away. I didn't expect you to make them so delicious."

Zhang Juexia was attracted by the way he ate, so he walked up to him, broke off a small piece, put it in his mouth, and slowly tasted it.

The saltiness is moderate, the taste is delicious, and it is delicious.

She fished out another section of large intestine from the pot, pinched off a piece and handed it to Ye Beixiu, "Try this one, it tastes even better."

Ye Beixiu took it with half belief and half doubt. Seeing that Zhang Juexia was eating with relish, he hardened his heart and put it in his mouth.

Zhang Juexia smiled at his expression and deliberately asked, "How is it?"

Ye Beixiu didn't even bother to say anything. He nodded hurriedly, took out another piece of large intestine from the pot and started eating.

This feeling of eating meat is really refreshing.

After the two of them had eaten their fill of meat, Zhang Juexia fished out the rest and put it in well water to prevent it from spoiling.

Zhang Juexia then remembered that the lard he bought today was still lying around. Since he had nothing to do in the evening, he might as well boil the lard.

She cleaned the big pot, washed the lard, added cold water into it, and prepared to boil the lard.

Ye Beixiu squatted in front of the big pot and lit the fire for Zhang Juexia.

This was the scene Pang Xiujuan saw when she pushed the door open.