When she opened her eyes, it was already bright outside. After packing up, Li Yan went down the mountain as instructed.

The Cao clan leader had been waiting for a long time at the foot of the mountain. Seeing Li Yan coming, Cao Jiang immediately came forward and said, "Miss, what do you think we should do?"

Li Yan looked at the twenty-three people, among whom there were five children who were only as old as Maomao. Li Yan kicked them out and selected the twelve older children from among them, asking them to work in groups of two to help harvest the isatis indigotica leaves in the field.

Li Yan squatted down, grabbed the indigo leaf, and cut one as a demonstration: "Don't cut it too close to the ground, leave some stems and leaves, like this!"

These half-grown children were all used to doing farm work, so Li Yan only needed to demonstrate and they all nodded, indicating that they had learned it.

Seeing that they understood, Li Yan continued to instruct, "After cutting the green leaves, leave them where they are. Don't move them. Let them dry in the sun until evening before bringing them home!"

After Li Yan explained the precautions, she distributed the pickaxes that had been customized yesterday. Li Yan asked them to work in groups of two, and after mowing a piece of land, they would take turns to rest for a while.

Cao Jiang saw the girl's good intentions. Although she asked the children of the clan to work, she did not actually force them to work. He was very grateful in his heart.

Li Yan stopped for a moment and watched the children cutting herbs according to her description. She found nothing wrong with it, so she felt relieved and took the remaining few people to the honeysuckle field.

After two days of growth, the honeysuckle in the field has grown a lot bigger than what Li Yan saw that day. It really changes every day.

Li Yan pointed at the flowers and said to the others, "This honeysuckle is best when the flowers are at their largest size, bluish-white, and not yet fully opened. Honeysuckle picked at this time will have the best medicinal properties after being dried!"

As Li Yan spoke, she picked a flower that had not yet opened from the branch and showed it to everyone.

As he was speaking, Old Man Li arrived with the women from the village, holding a bamboo basket!

Before Li Yan left, she asked Mr. Li to help invite these people.

Honeysuckle is different from indigo plant. It has a short flowering period and grows very fast. It is usually picked while it blooms.

People need to be fully equipped, otherwise if these herbs are not picked today, their quality will not be the best when they are in full bloom!

After everyone knew what kind of honeysuckle they wanted to pick, they each found a honeysuckle tree and picked it themselves!

Li Yan was not idle either. She was busy for a while. After seeing that everyone had picked the fruits without any problems, she went home.

She first went to the kitchen and saw that the mint water that her aunt had helped to cook was already cooked. There was no ice at home, so Li Yan poured the mint water into a bucket, hung it in the well and let it sit for a while, preparing to send it to the fields for everyone to cool down.

When the sun was high in the sky and the temperature rose, Li Yan and her aunt brought a bucket of mint water and asked the people working in the fields to drink some water to drive away the summer heat.

The timing of delivering water was perfect. Everyone was thirsty at the moment, and after drinking a bowl of refreshing mint water, their originally hot and uncomfortable bodies seemed to feel better!

"The weather is hot, everyone should take a break at noon and come back to work when the sun is not so hot!" Li Yan instructed everyone.

"Will this delay the young lady's work?" Cao Jiang asked rather embarrassedly. They had only been working for two hours, and the young lady was already letting them rest. This was not the way to do their job!

Li Yan comforted him, "Don't worry, it won't delay anything!"

The sun is so strong at noon now. If you are not careful and overheat, you will be in trouble. What's more, these people have been in poor health for a long time. Li Yan naturally cannot torture them too much.

Seeing Cao Jiang seemed a little hesitant, Li Yan explained with a smile: "Don't be fooled by the fact that there are ten acres of isatis root. In fact, it is quick to cut. Two people can cut one acre of land and finish it before tomorrow. As for the three acres of honeysuckle trees, they only have many flowers in the third year. They can be picked by this evening. Those that haven't grown up yet will have to wait until tomorrow. There is no need to be so anxious!"

After hearing this, Cao Jiang felt a little relieved.

In the past, he only knew how to tend to the crops. When it came to the harvest season, he would wish he could stay in the fields for twelve hours a day. How could he dare to be so lazy? If someone was so idle, he would be gossiped about by other people in the village.

Mr. Li understood Cao Jiang's concerns and patted him on the shoulder: "Rest assured and have a good rest. I see the weather is very sunny these days. It should be sunny all the time. There will be no delay!"

Cao Jiang looked up at the cloudless sky, nodded in agreement, and murmured, "No rain, good! No rain, good!"

At Li Yan's instruction, everyone went back to rest.

On the way back, Li Yan called out to Zhao Da in front of her.

Zhao Xiao ran up to Li Yan and asked, "What do you want, young lady?"

"Is your front yard still empty?"

Zhao Da nodded and waited for Li Yan's next instructions.

When the house was first built, a large piece of open space was left in front of and behind the house. Because there were cars passing by frequently in front of the house, several families tacitly left the space vacant. Li Yan asked this because she wanted to make use of this open space.

"I'm really busy at home right now, so I'll put these herbs in your yard to dry!"

If these fresh herbs could be stored properly, Li Yan would not have wanted to go through so much trouble and would have just picked and sold them to save time and effort.

"Don't worry, young lady. When I get back, I'll tell the boys at home to take good care of these herbs and make sure they aren't eaten by birds!"

The two of them walked forward, talking and laughing, and then separated at a fork in the road, each going home.

When they got home, Lin was mixing cold noodles. Seeing them coming back, she quickened her pace and said, "Go wash your hands! We'll be eating soon!"

The noodles that were pressed yesterday were ready, so Lin didn't need to spend time kneading and rolling the noodles. She just had to boil the noodles, let them cool, and mix them with seasonings according to her daughter's previous method!

After washing her hands, Li Yan walked into the main room and saw two chubby white children. They were only wearing a bellyband embroidered with a little tiger. They were lying on a small wooden bed, babbling and waving their little hands.

Seeing familiar faces teasing them, they laughed so hard that their saliva was dripping.

Li Xiaomei changed her clothes and came out of the room. She also walked to the side of the crib and looked at the little kid who was laughing so hard. She couldn't help but touch his little hands and his little face.

"Let them lie down and eat first!" Lin placed lunch on the eight-immortal table in the main hall!

The room was stuffy and the children were uncomfortable so they started to whimper and make a fuss. Lin simply moved the crib out and placed it in the main room. When the front and back doors were opened, a breeze blew through from time to time. The two children felt comfortable and finally slept obediently on the wooden bed without crying or making a fuss.