He Tiantian thought for a moment, "It is quite urgent. I need to finalize the land purchase before I can start cultivating and planting!"
"Alright, alright! Maruko's mother, last year the dry land was priced at fifty coins per mu, let's stick to that price today." Anyway, there's plenty of dry land in the village, more than enough to cultivate.
"However, these paddy fields are more expensive. The minimum is one hundred coins per mu..."
He Tiantian was prepared when she came. "Okay, the dry land is five hundred coins and the paddy field is also five hundred coins, which is one tael of silver in total. I brought them all today."
He Tiantian took out a tael of silver from her money bag. "This is a whole coin I specially exchanged when I came back. Please keep it safe, Pavilion Chief."
"Alright, I'll go call Dahai back, and we'll go measure the land." Zhao Tingzhang quickened his pace and went out.
In the courtyard, only Liu Shi and Cheng Ying remained.
Mrs. Liu sighed, "Oh dear, Maruko's mother, you're running a shop and farming at the same time, how can you manage all that!"
It's true that He Tiantian's family alone can't handle all the work.
But she had already decided; she would hire people to do the work! Hire laborers!
“Sister-in-law, I’m planning to hire another person to work at the shop! And I’ll definitely hire people to work on these fields in the future, otherwise even if our whole family pitches in, we won’t be able to finish,” He Tiantian said.
When Liu heard that someone was to be invited, her eyes lit up immediately.
She asked somewhat nervously, "Oh, is Maruko's shop in town planning to hire people? What exactly is it for? What do you think of my daughter-in-law, Cheng Ying? She's very quick and efficient..."
Cheng Ying also looked at He Tiantian with some nervousness.
He Tiantian was quite surprised, so she asked, "How's your cooking? Would you be interested in being a kitchen helper for Lantern?"
"She's a great cook, a really great cook. My Cheng Ying is especially good at making noodles, and of course, she's good at everything else too."
"Auntie, I love cooking. Being a kitchen helper is no problem," Cheng Ying quickly offered.
She was feeling very anxious. Dahai had already found such a good job. If only she could find one too, she could earn more money while she was still young.
Their future will definitely be better.
He Tiantian thought about it and realized that Cheng Ying was indeed a good person, and the Zhao family was all very nice.
Moreover, if Cheng Ying went to the shop, it would be very convenient for Da Hai to travel back and forth together.
So he nodded in agreement, "No problem, but the pay for a kitchen helper will be lower, two hundred coins a month."
Cheng Ying nodded quickly, "Auntie, no problem. I'm willing to accept even the lowest possible pay."
And so the matter was settled. He Tiantian was now in a hurry to get home. Before leaving, she told Cheng Ying to pack her things first, so that she could go with Dahai to the city to deliver firewood the next day.
Liu saw He Tiantian to the front gate, saying, "Wanzi's mother, take your time. When the old man comes back, I'll urge him to call you to measure the land."
"Okay, sister-in-law, you can go back now."
After leaving Zhao Tingzhang's house, He Tiantian quickened her pace and walked back.
I didn't leave until the afternoon, and I don't know how things are at home.
When she arrived at the village entrance, He Tiantian saw her father shoveling horse manure under the old locust tree.
There were indeed quite a lot of horse manure piles, so it's no wonder that young master Cheng Fang was blind enough to step on one.
He Tiantian stepped forward and asked, "Father, where are you going to take this horse manure?"
He Chun spat a mouthful of smear on his hands and gripped the shovel tightly with both hands.
"This isn't just to fertilize the crops in the fields; horse manure is a valuable resource that shouldn't be wasted." He Chun had long had his eye on this precious farmyard manure.
Over the past few months, he has accumulated a lot of manure. Since the wheat was planted, he has been hauling horse manure to the fields as fertilizer.
This amount of fertilizer is far from enough for ten acres of land.
"Okay, Dad, remember to come over for dinner later," He Tiantian reminded him.
In those days, there were no chemical fertilizers, and farmers in the village used to haul farmyard manure from their dry toilets to grow crops.
Besides the manure accumulated by humans, their household also has chicken droppings from raising rabbits and chicks, and now they've added horse manure... so they have a complete range of products.
Zhao Xiaolü and Zhao Wanzi, the two girls, kept the house spotless.
Of course, some of the dirty and tiring work naturally fell to He Shitou.
The chicks in the backyard kept chirping, and every now and then the rooster would crow.
He Shitou gets a headache whenever he hears a rooster crow, probably because he was chased and pecked by a rooster when he was a child.
He Shitou was chopping firewood in the yard with an axe in his hand when a loud rooster crowed suddenly from the backyard, making He Shitou scratch his head impatiently.
"Sister...there are too many chickens, they're making a lot of noise. How about we kill one and eat it tonight?"
Zhao Wanzi overheard this and said irritably, "Uncle, I think you just want to eat meat."
"Hey, that's not true at all. I can't stand the crowing of roosters, it's so annoying!"
"Then why don't you tie the chicken's neck with a rope?" Zhao Wanzi joked.
He Shitou didn't react, "If you tie a chicken around your neck, you'll still die, and even if you die, you'll still have to eat it."
He Tiantian didn't care about one or two chickens. She waved her hand and ordered, "Shitou, go kill the chickens. Catch the two biggest ones and kill them. We'll have chicken for dinner tonight."
"Alright!" He Shitou picked up the axe and went to the backyard.
Zhao Wanzi was holding Zhao Mingzhu in the yard, playing with the little rabbits. The little rabbits had given birth to many more baby rabbits.
Once autumn and winter arrive, it becomes very difficult to find food to feed so many rabbits.
Little Mingzhu clutched the rabbit, whimpering softly. Zhao Wanzi looked at her mother and suggested, "Mother, let's take the rabbit with us when we go to the city this time. The cage at home is almost full."
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