CHAPTER 53: 53 WORK

People, you see, once they get used to working, they find it uncomfortable to suddenly be idle. So I still use a big pickaxe to clear the land bit by bit, and the stones, I’ll collect them to pave a path, so even if it rains, it will still be safe.

Since there’s no rush, I didn’t feel particularly tired by nighttime.

In a couple more days, I’ll definitely have it cleared. This afternoon, while working, I was thinking if I could plant soybeans, as their growing cycle isn’t long, and I could add some nutrition for the animals.

With that idea, I worked quite quickly the next day.

"Yuanyuan, what are you doing?"

"Xiao Li, have you finished your family’s work?"

"Yeah, otherwise, how would I have time to come out? What are you up to?"

"I want to clear this piece of land too. I’m thinking of planting soybeans."

"Isn’t it early to plant soybeans? My family usually plants them at the end of May."

"I think it should be fine. We won’t know till we try, right?" This is what Su Yuanyuan says most often now.

"Do you have soybean seeds?"

"No, I plan to go to the county seed station the day after tomorrow to buy them."

"Yuanyuan, I really envy you. You can go wherever you want."

Su Yuanyuan looked at the silly girl who spoke without thinking, surprised. Someone actually envies me? What innocent words.

"How about you go with me?"

"My dad definitely won’t let me go. Forget it, you go. Besides, going to the county is such a long road, the thought of it terrifies me. I’d rather stay at home.

Yuanyuan, when you go to the county, is there anything good there?"

Su Yuanyuan thought for a moment. "There are lots of things for sale, and I had particularly delicious fried dough sticks there."

Su Yuanyuan said it on purpose, smiling at the little girl who swallowed her saliva. This really was a mischievous delight.

"Yuanyuan, I’ll talk to my dad. If he agrees, I’ll go with you."

Su Yuanyuan nodded, "I’ll leave early the day after tomorrow."

Watching Zhao Yanli run off, Su Yuanyuan thought she might have company the day after tomorrow.

But this time she guessed wrong. Zhao Tian did not agree.

So she went to the county by herself. At the seed station, she bought soybean seeds, and also leek seeds, scallion seeds, green beans, eggplant, and potato seedlings.

Without stopping, she went straight home, making the vegetable garden richer.

She sneaked in some carrot seeds from her space to plant a bed.

Looking at her labor achievements, Su Yuanyuan felt particularly happy. This kind of contentment was hard to describe.

It was market day again, so she pushed a small cart in the morning to the market. After all, she needed to buy fish traps, wanted to buy several more, just in case she couldn’t carry them back.

This time she had a purpose, so she headed directly to the livestock market, where one fish trap cost three yuan, but she got four for ten yuan. These fish traps were several sections long. Four filled up the car. They even taught her how to set the fish traps.

In a hurry, she headed back, didn’t even go home, went directly to the reservoir side.

But then she thought if she set them too shallow, naughty kids might take the fish and shrimp away.

So she found some water shoes from her space, but it was still too shallow. This was troublesome. There was a raincoat in the space, but it would still let water in.

In the end, she pushed the cart home, afraid the traps might be taken by children.

After she got home, she entered the space, found some glue, and glued rain pants to the water shoes, so she could go into the water.

Su Yuanyuan looked at her achievement, smiled, and thought that nothing could stump her.

It was already noon, so she decided to eat and then go to the reservoir side.

Using the midday time, she went to the reservoir to set the traps without being seen.

The rain pants turned out to be quite useful; getting into the water wasn’t a problem. After setting the four traps, she headed home.

She planned to come over early the next morning to check, avoiding people as much as possible to save words and prevent others from coveting her things.

In the afternoon, she continued to clear the land, feeling that more vegetable growing was better.

The closer to the foot of the mountain, the more stones there were. Clearing the land also got slower. But it could be done slowly.

She got up at four the next morning, going directly to the river bank. Putting on the rain pants, it still felt quite cold entering the water.

The first trap already had about five or six pounds of small fish and shrimp tipped out. She hadn’t expected so many and didn’t bring a container.

So she took out a plastic bucket from her space, and the fish and shrimp from the four traps weighed a full twenty pounds.

Su Yuanyuan set the traps again, feeling very pleased, thinking how great it would be if there were always this many. It would be easy to fatten three pigs this way.

Earlier, she saw lots of big-clawed prawns, planning to fry them for herself later, as they are really good for calcium.

She returned home excitedly. From her space, she found a plastic sheet, spread it in the yard, dumped out the fish and shrimp, and picked out the prawns. There were quite a few; the rest were put away. She didn’t plan to dry fish, just boiled them for the pigs to eat.

After finishing, she put the prawns into space, cleaned herself up, had breakfast, and took a hoe to the field for an inspection.

Standing at the edge of the field, Su Yuanyuan found it quite clean, so she returned home happily.

First, she planted soybeans, then continued to clear the land. Now she wasn’t in a hurry and could take it slow. Anyway, planting cabbages would have to wait until summer.

Believing that letting this empty land go to waste was a shame, she decided to plant two more beds of leeks. By winter, they should sell well in the city.

She also planted more green beans and eggplants. They should grow well here, and after harvesting them, cabbages could be planted again.

Every time she collected the fish traps, there were more than twenty pounds and lots of prawns, to keep and perhaps sell if she couldn’t eat them all.

In her past life, she couldn’t even buy such wild prawns in the market.

She cleaned the prawns, added some salt, then coated them with flour. She fried them with plant oil from her space, making a full big bowl; they tasted really delicious.

Unintentionally, she ate too much and put the leftovers into her space.

A few days later, the soybeans had sprouted. Since they had been soaked in Spiritual Spring Water, they looked lush green.

Su Yuanyuan decided to start making bricks from today, planning to enclose the yard over the next two years, which would require quite a lot of bricks.

There was plenty of soil from digging the pigsty, so she would take her time.

The chores at Hu Chunhua’s place were almost done. Since today they weren’t farming, she came to visit Su Yuanyuan.

Seeing this large piece of land cleared by the girl, and already planted, the seedlings looked more robust than those on her family’s reclaimed land.

"Yuanyuan, Yuanyuan!"

"Aunt, I’m in the yard." She was currently covered in mud.

Upon entering, Hu Chunhua saw the girl working on making bricks.

She felt a pang of heartache. Her own children were older than this girl, but they still didn’t enjoy working. You had to assign tasks to them, and they never sought work on their own. Moreover, their work was always sloppy, unlike this capable girl.