He Tiantian had almost finished her work at the government office, and the plague in the city had been effectively controlled.

The city has now returned to normal.

In addition, with sufficient water resources available, people no longer have to struggle to find drinking water as before. At the very least, they have enough for their daily drinking needs.

However, the drought that has lasted for months has caused losses not only to the crops in the fields, but also to the vegetables planted there.

These days, if you find a single green vegetable on someone's dinner table, you'd consider it a treasure.

Of course, this absolutely does not include the wealthy merchants and big families in the city.

No matter how expensive the vegetables are, it's not a problem for them.

He Tiantian, accompanied by Zhao Xiaohe, formally bid farewell at the government office.

Magistrate Liu personally escorted the man to the main gate of the government office and then ordered Zhang, the clerk, to present the one hundred taels of silver.

They even sent a yamen runner to drive the carriage and ordered that He Tiantian and Zhao Xiaohe be properly escorted back to Changfeng Village.

He Tiantian thanked Zhao Xiaohe profusely, Zhao Xiaohe kowtowed so hard his head was almost bleeding, and He Tiantian was so moved she almost knelt down.

As the carriage traveled down the street, He Tiantian lifted the curtain. She saw that most of the shops along the street were already open for business.

She thought for a moment and said to the young yamen runner driving the carriage, "Sir, could you please go to the market?"

The young constable readily agreed, "Okay, auntie, it's on my way anyway."

The carriage soon arrived at the market, and He Tiantian got off to take a look. Most of the stalls sold beef, mutton, and pork, but there were very few stalls selling vegetables.

However, she naturally knew the reason, but it just so happened that the price of meat had dropped a bit compared to before.

Actually, she had been thinking about buying a refrigerator all summer, but the more she hesitated, the more reluctant she became to spend the money.

Because a refrigerator in the mall costs thirty taels of silver, which is more than two months' worth of cooking for Zhao Denglong to earn back.

But today is different; this time she plans to buy more meat to take home.

Because the meat here is much cheaper than in the mall, and it's also natural, pollution-free, organic meat.

If you buy too much meat, you'll naturally be forced to buy a refrigerator too.

A solar-powered refrigerator that doesn't need to be plugged in. Of course, there's no electricity to plug it in anyway.

With a wave of her hand, He Tiantian bought half a pig. She even splurged on 100 jin of beef, which she usually couldn't afford.

In addition, they bought 100 jin (50 kg) of mutton.

Zhao Xiaohe looked at the mountain of meat piled up in front of him and smacked his lips...

He's been eating meat buns every day these days, but why does he still crave meat so much?

Oh, it's probably because his body is extremely lacking in meat.

There's so much meat, it's almost overflowing a carriage.

He Tiantian was afraid of getting the magistrate's carriage dirty, so she specially asked the merchant to put a straw mat underneath it.

She and Zhao Xiaohe were squeezed to the door of the carriage.

He sat down next to the young yamen runner who was driving the carriage.

"Sorry, I bought a bit too much." He Tiantian smiled apologetically at the young yamen runner.

"N-nothing...it's alright, Auntie." The young constable swallowed hard. Goodness, this isn't just "a little bit," it's an enormous amount!

Even wealthy families in the city only make purchases like this during the Lunar New Year, right?

But Aunt He is just an ordinary village woman, where did she get such a big sum of money?

This shows that Aunt He was no ordinary village woman.

Traveling home by horse-drawn carriage was very quick; in just over fifteen minutes, the speeding carriage arrived at the entrance of Changfeng Village.

He Tiantian hasn't been back for a long time, and everything here feels so familiar and comforting.

Zhao Xiaohe had already scrambled off the carriage and was kissing the old locust tree at the village entrance.

It was the hottest part of the afternoon, and there were hardly any people to be seen in the village.

He Tiantian walked to her front door and knocked.

Zhao Denglong and his family were having dinner around the table in the main room when they suddenly heard someone knocking on the door.

Zhao Wanzi was puzzled as to why people had come to her house for three consecutive days.

They had become desensitized to the knocking and were no longer as quick to respond as before.

Seeing that no one answered the door, He Tiantian couldn't help but knock twice more.

"I'll go open it..." Zhao Denglong pushed the stool aside and was about to get up.

“My dear niece, you sit down, I’ll go open it!” He Shitou put down the bowl in his hand and got up from the threshold.

Everyone continued eating with their heads down.

Just as He Tiantian was about to knock on the door again, the sound of a lock being opened finally came from inside.

"What's wrong, lantern? Why is the door opening so slowly...?" Before He Tiantian could even ask what she wanted to say, she saw the face of an unfamiliar boy.

She took a few steps back and looked at the house to make sure it was her home.

"Sister...?" He Shitou asked uncertainly.

He Tiantian immediately realized, "A stone?"

He Shitou was overjoyed to see that his older sister could still recognize him.

He stepped forward and hugged He Tiantian tightly, even lifting her off the ground.

"That's wonderful, that's wonderful! Sister, you still remember me. Waaah... I'm so touched."

He Shitou was very strong, and He Tiantian was being strangled to death.

"Ah... How could I not remember you, sister?" In fact, she didn't remember at all.

He Shitou put He Tiantian down and quickly went back into the house to call for help.

In an instant, everyone in the room came out.

This crowd... one, two, three, four... there were so many people she couldn't even count them all.

"Mother, you're finally back!" Zhao Wanzi rushed over and buried her head in He Tiantian's arms, unable to hold back a couple of tears.

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