Hearing the sound, Jiang Ling went outside, and Xiao Yu and Shan Dian appeared in front of her, carrying two baskets of mint on their backs.
Jiang Ling quickly took the basket, poured the mint into a shady spot, took out four copper coins from her pocket, and handed the basket and coins to Xiaoyu and Shandian, saying, "Thank you for your hard work. Keep these four copper coins safe and don't lose them."
Xiaoyu and Shandian looked at the copper coins in their hands and almost smiled so hard their eyes narrowed into slits.
The two carefully put away the two copper coins, picked up their baskets, and ran towards their own fields.
"Mother... do you think this is okay?" Jiang Wenxi moved closer to Jiang Ling, tugged at Jiang Ling's sleeve, and pointed to the millstone she had placed on the ground.
Jiang Ling pulled Jiang Wenxi to the kitchen and was surprised to see that Jiang Wenxi had mashed all the mint leaves in just a few minutes.
"Wenxi, are you tired?" Jiang Ling asked, stroking Wenxi's head with a look of heartache.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Wenxi quickly shook her head, puffed out her chest, and said with a smug expression, "Not tired at all, not tired at all, this little bit of work is not tiring at all."
Jiang Ling frowned. She had never taken care of a child before, but she still knew some basic common sense. Was it normal for a four-year-old child to be so strong?
Countless questions arose in Jiang Ling's mind, but she was too busy making mint water to think about them much.
She planted a kiss on Jiang Wenxi's rosy cheek and said softly, "Wenxi, Mommy will make you something delicious tonight! You should rest for now!"
Upon hearing the words "delicious," Jiang Wenxi swallowed hard, her eyes crinkling into crescent moons as she left the kitchen.
Jiang Ling looked up at the window, Jiang Suihe frowned as she looked at the book in her hand, while Jiang Wenxi and Nianci played together nearby.
Only when no one was paying attention to her did Jiang Ling dare to open the online store and buy two bags of white sugar.
Following the method in the book, Jiang Ling made peppermint syrup again. Soon, the first batch of peppermint water was made. After placing the peppermint water in a shady place, Jiang Ling began to repeat the previous series of procedures.
After finishing everything, Jiang Ling was drenched in sweat, her clothes almost completely soaked.
That damp, clinging feeling against the skin is not comfortable at all.
"Hmm... Now that I've sold the mint water, I need to buy some fabric to make some clothes. These clothes are just too tattered!" Jiang Ling sighed helplessly as she looked at the clothes covered in patches.
Jiang Ling sat on the kitchen floor to rest for a while, looking up at the sky. The sun was setting, and the azure sky was once again dyed blood red.
Before making dinner, Jiang Ling bought a piece of lean meat at the mall, and after hesitating for a moment, she also bought four eggs. For dinner, Jiang Ling planned to make stir-fried meat with wild mushrooms and scrambled eggs.
When the two dishes were served, all three children swallowed hard.
"Mom! Where did you buy these eggs?" Although Jiang Suihe was also trying hard to suppress her drool, she still retained a sliver of rationality and looked up at Jiang Ling to ask.
“This…” Jiang Ling thought the children wouldn’t suspect anything since Jiang Yaojie wasn’t home, but Jiang Suihe’s mind seemed to be working very fast too.
"Oh! This? Mother found it in the back mountain today. It's probably an egg laid by a pheasant." Jiang Ling thought for a moment and came up with an extremely lame excuse.
"Ah! Mother! There are pheasants in the back mountain...?" Jiang Wenxi asked Jiang Ling with wide eyes.
"Um...maybe! Suihe, Wenxi, Nianci, let's eat!" Jiang Ling was afraid that if she continued, she would give herself away, so she quickly put an egg in each child's bowl.
Being children, the fragrant eggs immediately whetted their appetites, and all three children began their meal with slurping sounds.
"Mother... are there really pheasants in the back mountain?" After dinner, Jiang Suihe cautiously asked Jiang Ling.
"This...there should be...there should be!"
Jiang Ling was secretly surprised again; how could this child still remember the egg incident?
"Come on, Mom! Let's go up the mountain!" This was the first time Jiang Suihe had taken Jiang Ling's hand and led her outside.
"Go? What are you going to the back mountain for?" Jiang Ling was a little surprised. Sui He was usually the most obedient girl, so why did she suddenly want to go to the back mountain?
"Mom, didn't you say you picked these eggs up from the back hill? There must be chickens there. Let's go find them quickly. If there are, we'll catch them so that my older brother, younger brother, and younger sister will all have eggs to eat in the future!" Jiang Suihe said anxiously, her face turning slightly red.
Looking into Jiang Suihe's determined eyes, Jiang Ling frantically racked her brains for a solution.
“I’ve got it…” Jiang Ling’s lips curled up slightly as she said to Jiang Suihe, “Suihe, wait a moment, Mother will go get the basket!”
As the last rays of the setting sun gradually faded, a faint gray veil settled over the sky. Jiang Ling, holding a torch, led Jiang Suihe towards the mountains.
"Suihe, shall we split up? You go over there, and I'll go over here!" Jiang Ling pointed to the side and said.
Jiang Suihe nodded, her eyes filled with excitement as she walked towards another place.
Seeing Jiang Suihe disappear, Jiang Ling hid to the side. After a few minutes, Jiang Ling opened the system shop, spent ten copper coins to buy a hen weighing about three or four pounds, and grabbed the hen by the claws, shouting to the side, "Suihe! Quick! Come help your mother! I found her!"
No sooner had she spoken than the grass in front of Jiang Ling rustled, and then Jiang Suihe appeared in front of her. She was very excited when she saw the hen, and with one hand holding the hen's wing and the other holding its two claws, she smiled and said to Jiang Ling, "Mom, this is great! We'll have eggs to eat from now on."
"Well... never mind, the child won't understand. We'll just buy a rooster next time!" Jiang Ling opened her mouth, but in the end, she could only smile slightly and pat Jiang Suihe's head, saying, "Okay, let's hurry down the mountain. The village chief said there might be wolves on this mountain!"
Upon hearing the word "wolf," Jiang Suihe shuddered and quickened her pace, leading Jiang Ling, as she hurried out of the mountain.
"Wow! There really is a chicken!" The other two children exclaimed after Jiang Suihe brought the chicken back.
Especially Jiang Wenxi, who had a sweet tooth, gently touched the chicken's head and said, "Mom! Does this mean we'll have eggs to eat every day from now on?"
"Uh...yes...yes." Jiang Ling quickly wiped the barely noticeable sweat from her forehead, her face full of black lines.
At 9 PM, Jiang Ling lay in bed listening to her two daughters' even breathing, and couldn't help but start to worry about Jiang Yaojie.
"I wonder if Yaojie is safe there. This kid always keeps everything to himself. If he gets hurt, he probably won't say anything..." Thinking of this, Jiang Ling smiled awkwardly. She didn't even know when she had started to treat these four children as her own.
Now Jiang Ling truly understands the meaning of the poem "Song of the Wanderer" that she learned in school.
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