Although their Changfeng Village is located in a remote area, it is large. The nearest villages, Wanjia Village, Taohua Village, and Chengjiazhuang, are all eighteen miles away.

However, the other villages didn't have a good impression of Changfeng Village. First, because it was located deep in the mountains and far away, and second, because Changfeng Village was poor, extremely poor... Besides black coal, the village didn't even have enough extra food.

When Magistrate Liu saw how poor Changfeng Village was, he even reduced the annual tax revenue by ten percent.

Women from other villages rarely marry into Changfeng Village. If it weren't for matchmakers running around trying to persuade them, there would probably be even more bachelors in the village.

Zhao Tingzhang desperately wanted someone to buy the wasteland in the village, but now every household has a small population, so even if they had the money to buy the land, there wouldn't be enough people to cultivate it all.

"Maruko's mother, how much land do you want to buy? I'll have Dahai and Xiaohe measure out the best piece for you," Zhao Tingzhang said with a smile.

He Tiantian didn't really have a concept of how many acres there were, so she asked, "How much does land cost per acre in the village now?"

Zhao Tingzhang thought for a moment, "The county's price is one hundred copper coins per mu, but these days we've been troubling Wanzi's mother with many things in the village. So I'll give you fifty copper coins per mu, is that alright?"

"Alright, then measure out ten mu of land for me first." One mu is fifty wen, so ten mu is five hundred wen, which is less than one tael of silver.

Land prices were incredibly cheap back then!

If He Tiantian weren't the only adult able-bodied person in her family, she would have loved to take this opportunity to buy more land.

However, she couldn't manage even with just ten acres of land, so she planned to hire people to help with the planting in the spring.

When they got home, Zhao Tingzhang even had his youngest son, Zhao Xiaohe, help He Tiantian carry all the things she had bought into the house. This left He Tiantian no time to even open the online store to buy rice or noodles.

Forget it, I'll just wait until one day when they're not looking and buy it secretly myself.

It was already evening, and Sister Yulan had already started cooking rice in the pot. She didn't plan to cook any dishes that night, so she chopped up a plate of the pickled radish greens she had prepared earlier.

"Sister-in-law, I also bought some meat buns. I'll heat them up in the pot so we can eat when the kids come back." He Tiantian handed over the groceries one by one.

When Sister-in-law Yulan saw that there were still ten catties of pork and two pig trotters, her eyes widened in amazement.

"Oh my, Maruko's mother, it must have cost a lot of money to buy all this meat."

"The children are growing, so they need to eat more meat, otherwise they won't grow tall. Here are two bolts of cloth; I'll trouble you to make each of them a spring outfit." He Tiantian tidied up the items and handed them over.

Sister-in-law Yulan opened her mouth in surprise, "My...my two kids have them too?"

"Of course! I'll take their measurements tonight. Make the clothes a bit bigger, kids grow fast!" He Tiantian sealed the meat she bought in jars, then filled the jars with snow, creating a natural giant refrigerator.

Sister-in-law Yulan touched the two bolts of fabric with excitement, "Wanzi's mother, I... I don't know how to thank you enough."

Her two children have only had two sets of clothes each over the years, all of which were made from adult clothes. After so many years, the clothes are so patched up that you can't even tell what they were originally made of.

He Tiantian looked at Sister Yulan, whose eyes were red. Ever since this family moved in, Sister Yulan had thanked her countless times every day.

She simply couldn't bear such a tragic scene.

"Don't mention thanks. Besides, you made these clothes; I only provided the fabric. Moreover, we'll definitely need Brother Liu's help when we build the house next year."

“That’s only right, that’s only right…” Sister Yulan quickly agreed.

Good heavens, she must have done something really good in her past life to be able to meet such a kind person as Maruko's mother.

Inside the house, Coconut and Black Gold were crawling on the floor, wriggling their chubby bodies and whimpering. Judging they were hungry, He Tiantian took out a meat bun she had bought.

Then I tore it into small pieces and put them in a bowl, and poured in the milk that I had secretly bought from the mall.

Sister-in-law Yulan went out to find the children to come back for dinner, just in time to avoid being discovered.

He Tiantian usually feeds them secretly, giving them extra treats. So the two little guys like to circle around He Tiantian's trouser legs.

A big bowl of steamed buns soaked in milk was devoured by the two little ones in just a few bites.

Their snow-white bellies were bulging, and the two little ones started to feel sleepy after eating their fill. He Tiantian put them in their nest, and the two little ones snuggled together and quickly fell asleep.

Just then, Sister Yulan returned with the children.

From a great distance, He Tiantian could hear Yulan's angry voice.

"You brat, your temper has grown so much! Who told you to get into a fight? Look at your face, all scratched up!" Sister-in-law Yulan looked at Liu Yulan and Liu Shuixian with a mixture of anger and heartache.

Both little ones had bruises on their faces, and of course, Zhao Denglong and Zhao Wanzi weren't much better off.

Hearing the noise, He Tiantian quickly came out to see what was going on. "What happened? Did you get into a fight?" He Tiantian saw that Zhao Denglong and Zhao Wanzi had several scratches on their faces, slightly bleeding, but not serious.

The four children's hair was all messed up and pulled, making them look rather disheveled.

Zhao Denglong and Zhao Wanzi were sulking. They glanced at their mother but didn't dare to say anything.

Once inside the house, Sister-in-law Yulan boiled warm water, washed all four children clean, and then combed their hair again.

"Look at you all day long, who have you been fighting with, and what happened?"

He Tiantian secretly bought some iodine solution from the mall and lied to them, saying it was juice squeezed from herbs. She applied some to the wounds of all four children, causing them to scream and cry in pain again.

Liu Yulan looked at her mother with tears in her eyes and said aggrievedly, "Mother, it was Zhao Erhua from the end of the village. She said bad things about lanterns and meatballs and told us not to play with them. I couldn't stand it... so I fought with Erhua."

Zhao Erhua was quite plump, and when she was on top of her, Zhao Erhua didn't even have a chance to resist. Luckily, Shuixian bit Zhao Erhua's arm, which allowed her to throw Zhao Erhua off her.

However, Zhao Xiaocao later came to help Zhao Erhua beat her up. Lantern and Wanzi saw this and came to help.

So the six children wrestled together in the snow, each of them covered in snow and soaking wet.

After listening, Sister-in-law Yulan seemed unable to find fault with her own child.

“Erhua is a very domineering child. You should stay away from her in the future. Also, Yulan, Shuixian, Denglong, and Wanzi are your true friends. People like Zhao Erhua who like to sow discord do not deserve to be friends.”

[Author's Note]: My darlings, please vote for this chapter! Love you all!