Niu Da thought there was some truth to it, so he said:

“Sang Yu, there’s been a murder at the store recently, so it’s probably closed down. I’m planning to swap locations with another grain store and renovate it. You won’t be working there for the next three months!”

Upon hearing this, Sang Yu felt a little flustered and said, "Uncle, I can continue to help you work in the fields! As long as you can give me a bite to eat!"

Niu Dadao: "Working in the fields only earns ten coins a day. It's hard work, and you don't earn much. You've been with me for the past six months and have earned some money, so you should have some savings."

Working in the shop, you earn a total of 600 coins a month, 500 of which is the base salary, and the other 100 is a bonus from Niu Da.

Sang Yu immediately became anxious and said, "Uncle, it's okay. I can't be without work. If I'm without work for a month, my younger brother and sister will starve to death!" "To be honest, Uncle, my family has no savings. My two siblings and I were originally homeless. We used all our savings to buy timber and build a new house on an abandoned wasteland. The house is still under construction, and our savings are not enough!"

Niu Cuihua asked, "You didn't have anywhere to live before, so where did you live?"

“Miss, when we were little, our uncle and aunt kicked us out. At first, we lived in our own pigsty, but later we couldn’t even live in the pigsty anymore. There was an abandoned earth god temple in our area, and the three of us siblings lived there for a year and a half,” Sangyu said.

“I’m still too young. Going elsewhere will definitely not be as good as working here with Uncle.” Sang Yu is four years older than Niu Cuihua, but at this age, no matter which family she works for, her income will be lower than that at Niu’s family.

Listening to him, Niu Da couldn't bear to make him rest for these three months. "Then you can come and farm with us! It just so happens that we're planning to use the money we have to buy another piece of land!"

Sang Yu immediately knelt down and kowtowed.

Chen Yu and Niu Da quickly helped Sang Yu up, saying, "What are you doing? Get up! A man's knees are worth gold; he only kneels to heaven, earth, and his parents. How can you kneel before us?"

They helped Sang Yu up.

"Brother, sister-in-law, there's something I forgot to tell you!" Niu Yong said.

"What's the matter?" Chen Yu asked.

Niu Yong's face lit up slightly with joy as he said, "This time, Xiao Heng and I went to Jiangzhou Prefecture for the exam. Coincidentally, on the day we arrived, we encountered two child traffickers abducting boys."

"We rescued the boy from human traffickers! We didn't know until we rescued him that he was the only son of the Jiangzhou Prefectural Magistrate," "So, when the Prefect found out, he invited Xiao Heng, you, and me to his residence for a chat."

"Jiangzhou Tongpan?" Shen Yu was somewhat surprised. They had been doing business for so long and had met some people like village chiefs, county magistrates, and county assistants, but she had never met a person like Tongpan.

"What kind of official is a Tongpan?" Chen Yu asked.

Niu Yongdao said, "Sister-in-law, the Tongpan is the Jiangzhou Inspector, a sixth-rank official! He is the highest-ranking official in Jiangzhou!"

"That bandit must have a death wish to kidnap his young master," Chen Yu said, taking a bite of bitter melon herself.

"You two saved someone, so he should only reward you two. Why did he need to call us along?"

"Speaking of which, it was after we went to the prefectural capital for the exam that the magistrate happened to run into us and learned that Xiao Heng and I had passed with flying colors! He said that Xiao Heng resembled an old friend of his."

"He asked us some questions and learned that we had no parents; I only had an elder brother and sister-in-law, and he only had adoptive parents. He said that since my brother and sister-in-law could raise two scholars, they must be someone important, so we had to meet them in three days!" "I thought to myself, our family is small, and our business is booming, so we are bound to attract jealousy. If we could get in touch with someone like the prefect, I think some petty people wouldn't dare to covet us."

Niu Da and Shen Yu listened silently.

To be honest, apart from delivering vegetables to some wealthy families, they had never actually met any officials or dignitaries.

“Alright then!” Chen Yu said.

After Shen Yu finished eating the bitter melon, Niu Da quickly took a handkerchief and wiped Shen Yu's mouth. She and Niu Da got up together, and Shen Shi turned around to make pickles.

Xiao Fubao also had a mouthful of melon juice, and Xiao Heng carefully wiped it off with a handkerchief, his eyes filled with affection.

Niu Da carried the water buckets and was about to go to the fields when Xiao Heng stood up and said, "Godfather, I'll go with you!"

Niu Yongdao said, "I'm going too!"

Sang Yu and Niu Cuihua said, "Then we'll take care of these vegetable gardens in the backyard!" They spoke with surprising tacit understanding, as they were thinking the same thing. Niu Cuihua was slightly surprised.

Niu Da looked at the children with some satisfaction. Although they were now considered to have achieved some official rank, they didn't complain at all about the dirty and tiring work. They hadn't forgotten their roots, so he smiled and said:

"good!"

Niu Meihua and Niu Baozhu were busy picking the ripe fruit in their backyard. Chen Yu reminded them, "Meihua, be careful not to fall!" "Also, don't pick too many. One bamboo basket is enough to sell!"

The yard has a dozen or so citrus trees, five pomelo trees, a dozen or so star fruit trees, a dozen or so peach trees, a dozen or so kiwi trees, five loquat trees, twenty banana trees, ten pear trees, ten jujube trees, and two lychee trees.

Every year, we need to remove pests, cut weeds, and apply manure.

Little Fu Bao and Niu Bao Lan, two little rascals, followed Niu Bao Zhu to pick up oranges on the ground. Soon, they had picked two baskets of oranges, peaches, loquats, and lychees.

Niu Meihua jumped down from the tree and said, "The pears and dates aren't ripe yet. Let's water these we've picked, and when Dad and the others come back from the fields, we'll take them out to sell!"

As she spoke, she took a few lychees, peaches, and pears, placed them in the ice chest, and said, "These are for Father and Mother to eat later!"

The four sisters would put some of the perishable fruits in an ice chest to keep them fresh, and then take them to the night market to sell in the evening.

"Sister Plum Blossom, after we finish this, let's go to the new field to watch Daddy and the others weed!" The four little ones were still a bit too young. Apart from eight-year-old Niu Meihua, who could climb trees and pick fruit, they couldn't do anything else.

“I’ll make pickles with Mom, you three go ahead!” Niu Meihua said.

Little Fu Bao, holding Niu Bao Lan and Niu Bao Zhu's hands, the three little radish heads skipped and hopped to the field.

In addition to 100 mu of fertile land, the Niu family currently owns four plots of land for farming: the two plots on the back mountain, and the land and fields they bought from the Tan family, which they had purchased from Niu Fu and Niu Laosan.

The Da Tan family home is now uninhabited.

Niu Da plans to convert her old house into a guardhouse, and use the remaining space for farming.

The entire Tan family is lazy.

The land was perfectly fine, but weeds taller than a person had grown there. Sang Yu and Niu Cuihua had been clearing them for half a day and still hadn't finished.