After changing the diapers, the two little ones, full and satisfied, fell fast asleep.
Yu Yin was full of energy and ready to get started. If she wanted to eat steamed buns, dumplings, and hand-pulled noodles, she needed to plant the seeds first. As for what Comrade Lu Shurui had mentioned, Yu Yin had long forgotten about it. Love and romance were nothing compared to being well-fed. Food and drink always come first, then sex, right?
Once inside the space, Yu Yin found her specially made tools. A hoe blade had been broken off, leaving only the handle and the broken hoe head with the hook attached to the blade. Yu Yin had someone smash one end of the finger-thick hook to form a flat iron handle about two fingers wide, just right for digging ditches.
Yu Yin sought out the blacksmith from before to make this tool, and it cost her a pound of meat coupons.
Yu Yin tested the soil; the black earth in the space was quite loose and easy to work with. Holding the hoe handle, she bent over slightly and pulled back with both hands. Sure enough, a furrow appeared. Thanks to the powerful function of the soil in the space, the furrow didn't need to be too wide or deep; just enough to sow the seeds and cover them with soil was sufficient.
To describe the hardship of an old farmer, Yu Yin bent over, digging a ditch with great difficulty, and her back was so sore she could barely straighten up. Now I finally understand why so many people want to be factory workers. In an era without machinery, relying entirely on manual labor, farmers truly endured hardship, crawling and rolling around, their sweat pouring down like drops of water.
I picked up the small bag of wheat seeds, weighed it in my hand—it was only a little over a pound—and didn't know how many rows it would plant. I grabbed a handful of wheat and carefully scattered it into the furrows I had just prepared. The soil couldn't be too thick or too thin, or it would affect the yield.
It took a tremendous amount of effort to plant a bag of wheat. We even planted three rows by fire to see how much wheat we could harvest. We had to work with the seeds thoroughly before we could even think about eating them; we'd have to plant them several times over.
The wheat harvest is finished, but there are other grains to eat. However, Yu Yin is too weak. Her body isn't in its best condition yet, and she needs to continue to recover.
She washed her hands, drank some spiritual spring water, left the space, and went to sleep. If anyone were nearby, they would definitely wake her up; her snoring was too loud.
It took five or six days of continuous work to plant all the seeds, leaving only a small amount to scatter in a corner of the yard as a cover. Seeing the wheat that had been planted earlier already sprouting from the soil, looking green from afar, all the fatigue vanished.
Fortunately, the space doesn't require weeding, watering, or fertilizing. As for why, Yu Yin doesn't know. Anyway, the vegetables were always like that; once planted in the soil, everything was fine. Except for the trellis, they were ready to be harvested.
The crops have been planted, but there's another urgent item on the ledger that needs to be completed: the chicks. The chicken coop has been built for a while now, and it can't just sit empty.
"Honey, after you finish eating, watch the baby. I need to go to the family compound to see if they have any chicks for sale. We need to raise a few chickens."
"Honey, you go ahead. I can take good care of the child, don't worry."
The two of them were bored and were grinding their teeth.
"Ah, ah..."
"Oh, what? You're off today, not going to work. You've gotten so used to leaving, you want to go as soon as it's time. Don't you think about how much your mother has been looking forward to this day off? Where are you going? Just stay home."
Whether they understood or not, after Yu Yin finished speaking, the two kids protested with a loud howl, and then fell silent.
"Oh ho, you want to rebel? You've got some nerve, huh..."
Ignoring the staring contest between the three men, Yu Yin picked up her bamboo basket and left.
Is Aunt Wang home?
"Who are you?"
A middle-aged woman in her forties emerged from the courtyard. Her hair was tied up in a bun and covered with a black net. She had a chubby, round face, a rare sight these days.
"Aunt Wang, I'm Yu Yin, who lives over there. I heard you have chicks and I'd like to exchange some."
"Ah, you're the accountant who bought Director Zheng's house, right?"
Well, this house is really in high demand. The county's population is neither too large nor too small; probably ninety percent of the people know about it.
"Ah, yes, that's me."
"Wow, you're really lucky. So many people were eyeing that house back then, but who would have thought..."
"Aunt Wang, are there any more chicks?"
Yu Yin quickly interrupted Aunt Wang's sentimental remarks; she was only concerned about whether there were any chicks.
"I have to say, you're incredibly lucky. There are six left, four females and two males. How many do you want?"
"I want them all!"
"What? You want them all? You can't keep so many, it's against the rules."
"Aunt Wang, although there are more than six, it's still uncertain whether they can all survive. Given our climate conditions, is it even possible for them all to grow to adulthood?"
Yunnan Province has a unique geographical environment, with tropical rainforests, mountains, rivers, and miasma, making it difficult to raise poultry.
"That's true, you're right. They're hard to raise; they die as soon as you start, and I don't even know why. Sigh..."
"Aunt Wang, I see you still have a rooster at home, its comb is really red!"
"What are you saying? How can chicks hatch without a rooster?"
Yu Yin knew that an egg could only hatch into a chick if it was fertilized by a rooster, so she wanted to hatch some and keep them in her space. She made conversation to exchange for some eggs.
"Oh, I really didn't know that. Aunt Wang is amazing. Everyone said that Aunt Wang's chicks are easy to raise, and now I believe it. Aunt, do you have any extra eggs at home? I'd like to exchange some."
"You're not that old, but you're quite eloquent. Okay, you can have it. It's too hot to hatch chicks now. You've really saved up quite a few."
Finally, Yu Yin exchanged thirty eggs and six chicks, paid the money, and left Aunt Wang's house.
On the way, Yu Yin put the eggs in her spatial storage and incubated them that night. Surprisingly, she actually knew how to incubate eggs by hand. Thanks to her uncle's older brother, who was interested in hatching chicks, Yu Yin found someone to teach her, and she actually managed to hatch them.
“Little brats, look what this is. Is it one of your kind? They all belong to the bream family.”
"Ah, ah..."
"You bought them? How many?"
"I really want to see if they're the same kind. I have six of them."
In response to the questions from the three men, Yu Yin looked for things to raise the chicks. The chicken coop at home wasn't ready yet, but she wasn't in a hurry. She would raise them in a basket first, and then put them in the coop when they were a bit bigger.
"Comrade Lu, the chicken coop is now in your hands. Before the chicks can be put in the coop, you need to fix it up."
"No problem, leave it all to me."
"Wow, so confident, you've done it before?"
"Don't doubt it, I'm pretty good with my hands, just wait and see."
The chicks were put into a larger basket, some water was poured into a broken earthenware pot, and some wild vegetables mixed with cornmeal were added. Okay, eat and drink, so they can grow up quickly.
The little guy was making "ah ah" sounds and waving his hands, trying to see what was going on.
Yu Yin and Lu Shurui each held one of the baskets and squatted down beside them, letting the two of them see them.
The family of four is quite pleasing to the eye. Although they don't have exceptionally good looks, the man is gentle and refined, the woman is elegant and beautiful, and the child is lively and adorable!
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