The Family Had Split, Why Should I Care if They Go Broke? - Chapter 7

After settling the chickens, there were still the two pigs to take care of.

From now on, they’d be living the good life too.

Xu Zhichun quickly boiled half a pot of water. She scooped out two big ladles of pig feed, poured the hot water over it in the pig trough bucket, and stirred. Then she sprinkled in two handfuls of fish bone powder. Carrying it to the pigsty, she poured the steaming mixture into the trough.

Two little pigs, each weighing around thirty jin1, blinked their bright black eyes at her. As soon as they caught the scent, they trotted over.

The moment they tasted it—oh, my—they squealed and jostled each other, shoving and snatching mouthfuls as if the world depended on it.

Xu Zhichun couldn’t help smiling in satisfaction.

The good days were just beginning!

From here on, she would make sure they had big meals every day—fatten the ones that needed fattening, get the hens laying eggs, and raise them all strong and plump.

Once all traces of her earlier activities were gone, Xu Zhichun heated more water, ready to start making dinner.

Not long after, Liang Mingxuan came home. Xu Zhichun hurried over to help take the basket off his back.

“This is a bit too heavy—next time, don’t gather so much.”

She didn’t say things like “don’t go again.” Life ahead was long, and they were brother and sister-in-law; as the saying goes, giving a liter of rice makes you a friend, giving a bushel of rice makes you an enemy. This boy didn’t seem like the ungrateful type, but who could say? She couldn’t spoil him to the point that he became lazy. If he were willing to help with chores he could handle, she wouldn’t refuse.

In this household, everyone needed to do their part if they wanted life to keep getting better.

Liang Mingxuan shook his head. “It’s fine, Sister-in-law. It’s not far—I was just gathering some ragweed at the entrance of the village.”

He said it as he carried the big bundle of ragweed to the pigsty. He chopped them into two big handfuls, scooped them up with the chicken feed ladle, mixed in two handfuls of rice bran, and poured them into the chicken trough.

Seeing how practiced he was, Xu Zhichun smiled, then went to the backyard to bring in an armful of firewood to start dinner.

Liang Mingxuan came inside, looking puzzled. “Sister-in-law, why aren’t our chickens eating much today?”

Xu Zhichun thought to herself, Of course they’re not eating—they’re already full.

“Maybe they found something outside and filled their bellies.”

“Mm, that makes sense.”

He nodded in understanding.

Xu Zhichun chuckled. “Don’t worry about them. You’re covered in sweat—go take a bath before you get sick. I’ll start cooking.”

The moment he heard “get sick,” Liang Mingxuan obediently went off to bathe.

Sister-in-law was still recovering from her injuries and needed good food to nourish herself. He couldn’t afford to get sick—illness meant spending money.

Once the boy was out of the way, Xu Zhichun fetched half a chicken from the warehouse. She cut two br3ast fillets into small pieces to stir-fry with shredded radish.

She’d just say the chicken was leftover from lunch—once it was cut into shreds and mixed with vegetables, he wouldn’t know how much there had been.

She also took out more than thirty eggs, storing them in the small jar in her room. There were already around twenty eggs inside, laid by their hens.

Every month, a peddler driving an ox cart came through the village to buy eggs—two copper coins for three eggs—or to trade them for needles and thread, cloth scraps, handkerchiefs, malt candy, and other small goods.

A quick glance in the rice jar showed it was half full.

So she brought out two twenty-jin sacks of ordinary rice from the warehouse and poured them in until the jar was nearly full.

There was a trash bin next to the warehouse; she tossed the packaging in. She didn’t know when or how, but it would disappear on its own.

With this much rice, the two of them could eat for nearly a month.

By then, she should have earned her first pot of gold.

Tonight’s dinner would also have stir-fried chives with egg, plus a light soup made from tender chicken and cabbage.

Two dishes and a soup—meat and vegetables, perfectly balanced.

Liang Mingxuan came back from his bath, and before the sun had set, they sat down dining together.

Before he could ask, Xu Zhichun smiled and explained, “There was a bit of chicken left, so I cut it into shreds for the stir-fry. We both need to build our strength. The chives with egg turned out well, too—come on, eat.”

Liang Mingxuan nodded. “Sister-in-law, you’ve worked hard.”

In the past, Sister-in-law had been quiet, hardly speaking to him, but he knew she cared. Now, after nearly brushing past death, maybe her outlook had changed—or maybe she was still affected by Big Brother’s death. Still, to him, she was the same Sister-in-law she had always been.

After resting for three more days, Xu Zhichun felt no lingering discomfort.

During those three days, she slaughtered another chicken and took a fish from the warehouse. She and the boy had eaten well.

She could already see his complexion improving.

That gave her great satisfaction. From now on, they’d boil four eggs every day—two each. Without good nutrition, the body wouldn’t recover.

Three days later, after breakfast, Liang Mingxuan set off for the private school in the neighboring Quanshan Village.

Liang Mingxiang, Eldest Uncle’s son, also attended school—but not in Quanshan Village. He boarded at an academy in the city, and only visited home for two days at the end of each month.

Lady Zhang never missed a chance to flaunt this to Xu Zhichun, looking down on the scholars in the neighboring village, saying no private school there could compare to the city academy. From the very start, her Mingxiang had “won,” making Liang Mingxuan look second-rate in comparison.

She even tried to stir trouble, telling Liang Mingxuan his Sister-in-law was stingy, deliberately keeping him from success, refusing to pay for his education in the city.

She egged him on to ask the chief for the money Liang Minglang had left him, promising that with cash in hand, she could have Mingxiang take him along to the city academy, which was far more prestigious than the neighboring village school.

Thankfully, Liang Mingxuan, though young, knew right from wrong. He understood perfectly well who treated him kindly and who didn’t. He never listened to Lady Zhang’s nonsense.

Otherwise, Xu Zhichun would have been heartbroken, and the household would have fallen into chaos.

After he left for school, Xu Zhichun gave the chickens and pigs an extra meal, then shouldered her basket and headed into the hills.

The rice had already been planted, but they still had more than two mu2 of dry land—only half dug, with nothing planted yet.

In past years, they’d grown soybeans, peanuts, and taro, with a few pumpkin, winter melon, and white gourd plants in the corners.

By early winter, they’d harvest some pumpkins and winter melons. Mature white gourds could be dried for their loofah-like insides, while the young ones were good stir-fried.

Taro was stored for winter meals, while soybeans and peanuts were mixed with rice as staple food.

This way, they could save much of the rice harvest for selling.

But school for Liang Mingxuan cost money—ink, brushes, paper, books, tuition, clothes, shoes. Clothes and shoes could be cheap, but everything else was pricey. Even an ordinary brush cost seventy or eighty copper coins, a ream of paper was forty coins, and a single book—like the Three Character Classic—cost five silver coins.

This year, Xu Zhichun planned to plant sweet potatoes and potatoes instead of soybeans and peanuts. Of course, those two crops were still hidden in her warehouse, yet to make their official appearance.

Potatoes were valuable from top to bottom, and sweet potatoes were not only tasty but produced vines that could be cut and regrown—perfect feed for pigs and chickens. The tender shoots could even be stir-fried as vegetables.

She just needed to find a good excuse to introduce them to the world.