Zhang's mother left the house, thought for a moment, and returned to the main room. She took some money and put it on her body. She looked at her clothes, straightened them, smoothed her hair, and hurriedly said goodbye to the two daughters-in-law in the kitchen before leaving.

After leaving the yard, he hurried to the Xiao family's house at the entrance of the village. When he arrived outside the Xiao family's yard, he didn't know if anyone was home since it was already working hours. He shouted outside, "Sister-in-law Xiao, are you home?"

"I'm here. Who is it? Come in." A voice came from inside, and Zhang's mother happily pushed open the gate.

The Xiao family's yard is not big, but it is very clean. Their family has only one son, Xiao Shitou, who got married and had two grandsons and one granddaughter. Old man Xiao was very happy, so he ran up the mountain to set off firecrackers in the middle of the night, scaring the villagers into thinking something had happened, and the news became known to everyone.

"Sister-in-law, you didn't go to work today? I was worried that you were not at home. How are you feeling? Are you still taking your medicine?" Mother Zhang watched her preparing lunch and coughing from time to time. It seemed that her old illness had come back because of the cold weather.

Aunt Xiao smiled and handed her a stool to sit on. "I'm fine. It's only my old man who's making a fuss. It's an old bronchitis problem. He coughs when the weather gets cold. How did you find time to come over? He's busy with the new courtyard."

"I heard yesterday that your family caught a few fish, and I wanted to see if there were any left."

Aunt Xiao pulled her to the large water tank outside the kitchen and said, "Look, there are still quite a few. Catch them all. It's cold out here, and they'll freeze if you don't eat them. They're to help your wife produce more milk, right?"

Mother Zhang looked at the fish in the tank happily. They were still fresh in this weather and still alive. "Give me three, and you can keep the rest for yourself. Sister-in-law, these fish of yours are worth a lot of money. Why don't you sell them while they're still alive?"

Aunt Xiao took out four fish skewered on rice stalks from the kitchen and handed them to Zhang's mother. "What are you selling? If you want to eat them, you can find them in the river. It's because your family is busy, otherwise you wouldn't come to my house. Are four enough? I have a small family and we can't eat more."

"Sister-in-law, you're just being polite. It's a good meal. I guess you're planning to make some cured fish. I won't be polite with you, but you have to pay me. I'm in a hurry and I'll leave first. Come to my house and chat when you have time." After saying that, Zhang's mother put a dollar on the table and hurriedly walked out with the fish.

Aunt Xiao chased her with the money, trying to stop her and force it on her, insisting she take the money or keep the fish. "My family ate a lot of your Xiaowu's meat. You're trying to settle accounts with me. Go back quickly and come back for more after you finish eating. My Dashi said he'll go fishing again in the next two days, so we don't need fish at home."

Zhang's mother had no choice but to ask her children to bring some bacon over. "Haha, okay, I'll take it. But don't stuff it in my mouth. It's hurting me."

"Haha, go home early for lunch. I won't keep you here." Aunt Xiao watched Zhang's mother leave before returning to her room. She secretly envied Zhang's mother. Her three sons were all successful and filial, her youngest son was capable, and now she had a grandson. She really didn't have to worry about anything. No wonder she was happily looking for something to nourish her youngest daughter-in-law. But his son Dashi was also filial, so she didn't envy him. She cooked extra fish for lunch when the children came back.

In the kitchen, Lin Juhua was surprised to see Zhang's mother coming in with four fish. "Mom, where did you catch these fish? You must be really good at it. You can catch four big fish if you go out."

Zhang's mother laughed heartily, "You silly daughter-in-law, your mother is capable of this? It's from Xiao Shitou's family, you don't even want money. Wait till tonight and have the children bring a piece of bacon over."

"Well, let's go after dinner. Mom, how do you cook this fish? They are all alive. Do you want to save one for Jiaojiao to increase her milk supply tomorrow?" Lin Juhua took the fish and looked at it and said.

Zhang's mother thought about it. The children hadn't eaten fish in a while. She heard Xiaowu say that children are smart if they eat more fish. "We can make a fish pot with three fish, and stew the other one with tofu for Jiaojiao. There's no need to save it. She probably can't finish such a big fish tomorrow with her cat-like stomach. Stew the whole fish. The longer it stews, the better it tastes."

Seeing Huang Cuilan coming out of the cellar, he asked, "Old man, what are you missing?"

Huang Cuilan was holding a wild boar thigh. "Mom, I see there's bone soup and some ribs at home. I'm afraid there won't be enough meat and vegetables when Uncle Zhou and the others come back at noon. What do you think we should cook with the thigh?"

"Are the bone soup and steamed buns ready? Pretty quick. Let's let those who help eat first. Your uncle Zhou and his wife probably won't be back for dinner. It's almost time, so they should be eating in the county town. When they left, they said there was no need to prepare lunch. Oh, look at my memory."

Huang Cuilan took the pork thigh back to the cellar, came out and said to Zhang's mother, "Mom, we won't prepare any special food for lunch. Let's cook less fish and cook it in the evening. We'll have enough food at home for lunch."

"It's okay. Cook a fish pot for the children, stew a fish for Jiaojiao, and save two for cooking in the evening. Juhua, you can watch over the cooking. You don't have to send the food. Your sister-in-law and I will deliver it."

"Yes, I heard it. Don't worry, mother, I will clean it up. Sister-in-law, the last pot of steamed buns is not ready yet, we have to wait a while. I asked Xizi, Shitou and others to go over and call dad, and I guess he will come over to pick it up soon. Let's serve the vegetables and soup first." Lin Juhua saw her sister-in-law putting away the steamed buns first and hurriedly stopped her.

Mother Zhang watched her two daughters-in-law helping pour soup and serve dishes, and sighed, "We're exhausted from all these steamed buns and dishes. They say building a house is exhausting, and it's really tiring. Luckily it's not summer; it would be so hot here, otherwise we'd have heatstroke. Fortunately, we're only busy for the next few days, so I can finally breathe a sigh of relief."

Huang Cuilan and Lin Juhua also breathed a sigh of relief. With so many meals a day, the three of them alone were busy. After serving the dishes, Huang Cuilan watched Lin Juhua skillfully prepare to stew the fish again. She took the time to ask, "Juhua, have you found someone to do the carpentry work? The second child would be too busy to do it all by himself."

Lin Juhua was too busy to look up. "I don't know. I don't care about these things. I listen to the child's father. They should be doing carpentry work with Xiaowu's family. I haven't even seen any wood, so I don't know what they are using."

"Haha, you don't have to worry. Move the things in your house to the new yard and use them first, and then add them later if you need anything. Now you have to clean up the yard before the ground freezes, and wait for the spring to plant a crop of corn and sweet potatoes. The backyard is so big, you and the second child should work hard to plow the soil, you will be on your own next year." After Zhang's mother finished speaking, she looked at Lin Juhua's worried face and laughed to herself.

Lin Juhua looked at her sadly, "Mom, how am I supposed to manage such a big yard? I'm not afraid of tilling the soil, but you have to help me figure out which areas are suitable for growing vegetables and which areas for sweet potatoes and corn. I see it's all broken stones, and I'm not sure if any crops can survive. My dad said that after tilling the soil, we need to fertilize it."

"Well, it's already barren land, so you can cultivate it slowly. There's no need to rush it. The backyard is the same as here, so there's no need to make any special arrangements. If you don't raise pigs, plant less sweet potatoes and more corn."

Huang Cuilan looked at them worriedly, "Mom, second sister-in-law, what do you think we should do with Xiaowu's yard? I'm worried about Jiaojiao. I think she'll cry if she sees this."

Zhang's mother and Lin Juhua burst into laughter when they heard this.

Lin Juhua put the tofu into the pot and said with a smile, "I wouldn't have thought of this if my sister-in-law hadn't told me. It would be a shame not to plant something in such a big yard. Even if they both go to work in the county town, they can't bear to leave the yard empty. I'll ask her later and see if she can come up with a good idea."

Mother Zhang said with a smile, "Jiaojiao doesn't know Xiaowu has already made plans. Let me tell you, Xiaowu said to plant more grape vines in the front yard to save labor. He also planned to clear out three plots of land in the backyard: a vegetable garden, a sweet potato field, and a corn field. He'll plant most of the remaining land with fruit trees. He'll plant nothing else in the vegetable garden, just watermelons, melons, tomatoes, and cucumbers. In the corners, he'll plant loofahs, winter melons, and pumpkins. He'll rotate the crops with the seasons, and in autumn, he'll plant everything with cabbage and radishes—whichever requires the least labor."

Huang Cuilan nodded, "It's good, it saves effort. Otherwise, Xiaowu alone can't do it, because he can't handle it if he's too strong."

Lin Juhua's eyes widened, and she said in disbelief, "So we don't need to raise chickens and ducks anymore?"

Huang Cuilan nodded at her and said, "The chickens and ducks need to be fed, and they don't want to burden their parents with taking care of them. Besides, if we go to the county town, we can raise them ourselves in the yard."

Zhang's mother didn't say anything. She knew they wouldn't raise chickens in the yard when they moved to the county town. The yards in the city weren't as big as in the village, and Jiaojiao was a bit of a jerk, she hated getting dirty. She had it all planned out: when they got to the city, she'd catch some chickens and raise them in the backyard. She could visit and feed them whenever she had time. It wouldn't take much effort. Besides, with the house empty, they'd come back every now and then to check on them and the yard.