Chapter 55: Sixty-Era Farm System (21)

"Chunlan! Chunlan!"

Hearing Feng Dajie calling from the first floor, Xie Chunlan poked her head out of the window: "Feng Dajie, what do you need me for?"

"There's a letter for your family, and it looks like there's a parcel slip too."

Upon hearing there was a letter, Xie Chunlan guessed it was sent by her niece.

As for the parcel, she didn't think too much about it; she put down the work in her hands, told her mother-in-law, and hurried downstairs.

"Looking at the address, it was sent from Chuan Nan. Do you still have relatives in Chuan Nan?" Feng Dajie handed her the letter and the parcel slip, asking casually.

Xie Chunlan smiled without saying much. After thanking Feng Dajie, she saw that the day was still early and it wasn't time for the Post Office to close yet, so she simply went to the Post Office while reading the letter.

When she returned, she had a heavy parcel in her hands.

There were a few more women washing clothes in the Courtyard.

"Yo, Chunlan, which relative sent a parcel to your house? You look like you're carrying something quite heavy; do you want me to help you carry it up?" one of the women said enthusiastically.

"No need, it just looks heavy." Xie Chunlan politely declined the other's kindness, then hurried upstairs two steps at a time.

"Who do you think sent a parcel to her house?" Guo Saozi, who had spoken just now, began to speculate mysteriously with the other women. "Didn't they say her maternal relatives only have one brother left? And he lives right here in Pingcheng; why would he need to mail a parcel for such a short distance? As for her husband's side of the family, they're all poor wretches from the countryside. The last one who came only brought some peanuts; they don't look like they could afford to pay for shipping a parcel."

"Maybe what was sent was just peanuts," a woman replied with a laugh, not taking it to heart.

Guo Saozi, however, frowned, recalling the parcel held in Xie Chunlan's arms; that heavy appearance did not look like peanuts at all.

As soon as Xie Chunlan entered the door, she kicked it shut. Only then did she put down the parcel in her arms. She wiped the sweat from her face and rubbed her aching waist.

Hearing the commotion, Fei Pozi came out from the inner room. Seeing the parcel, she asked her daughter-in-law in surprise: "Someone else sent a parcel to our house? Who is it?"

"Yang Yang." Xie Chunlan had already read the letter and knew her niece had sent her many good things. While unwrapping the parcel, she said, "Mother, don't go telling people outside that Yang Yang sent things to our house."

Fei Pozi immediately replied: "I certainly won't say anything. But why did she think to send us things? She only just got settled over there, right?"

Never mind what was sent; even if it were just a few catties of dried wild vegetables, having the heart to do so was good enough.

Once the parcel was opened, the top layer was indeed filled to the brim with dried wild vegetables. Fei Pozi's eyes crinkled with a smile:

"These vegetables are dried thoroughly; they can be boiled into soup when there are no vegetables to eat in the second half of the year."

But immediately after, she saw the dried Wild Mushrooms underneath the dried wild vegetables.

Before she could even be surprised, she saw a small cloth bag tucked inside the pile of Wild Mushrooms. Inside the cloth bag were two paper packets: one was two taels of new tea with a refreshing fragrance, and the other... was actually two whole Wild Ginseng roots with their whiskers intact!

Fei Pozi: "!!!"

She hurriedly covered her mouth, which had almost let out a scream. After digesting it for a good while, she looked left and right, searching for a place in the house to hide things: "Chunlan, hurry and find a place to hide these! These good things mustn't be seen by others. Oh my, our house is too small; I can't even find a place to hide something..."

Xie Chunlan was caught between laughter and tears: "Don't hide them yet. Yang Yang said these two ginseng roots were dug up by accident while she was gathering wild vegetables. They've already been processed. She told us to soak them in medicinal wine. Doesn't Father have body aches every winter? Perhaps drinking some ginseng wine will provide relief."

"Then there's no need to soak both of them." Fei Pozi looked reluctant. "Such good ginseng, it would be a waste to soak it all in wine for the old man to drink. If you're going to soak it, one is plenty. Keep the other one hidden for emergencies later."

"That works too."

After Xie Chunlan put everything away, she sat down and read her niece's letter carefully once more. In the letter, her niece didn't mention a single word about her biological father and stepmother, as if she had completely severed ties with that family. But as her aunt, she couldn't help but consider things for her niece.

After thinking for a moment, she took one tael out of the two taels of tea, wrapped it in a piece of old newspaper, and planned to go to the Cotton Textile Factory.

She wouldn't give anything else; taking it there would only benefit Yu Huizhu.

When she arrived at the Cotton Textile Factory, she asked the gatekeeper to call out Xie Zhaohua: "Brother, this is a little tea that Yang Yang managed to trade for. She was worried it would be ruined by people who don't know any better if she sent it home, so she sent it to me. You must drink it sparingly; it wasn't easy for her to get these."

Xie Zhaohua took the tea and could smell the unique fragrance of the Wild Tea through the paper wrapping. Peeling back a corner, he saw the flat, tender buds and realized the stir-frying technique was different from any tea he had ever drunk before. He knew this was definitely top-grade tea!

Xie Zhaohua was moved to tears: "Chunlan, do you think Yang Yang is still blaming me, her father? It's my incompetence; I didn't have the ability to keep her in the city. But I really had no choice; there are four children in the house!"

Xie Chunlan rolled her eyes, too lazy to listen to his nonsense: "Whether you really had no choice or were just too afraid to think of one because you're controlled by that sweet-faced, bitter-hearted stepmother of yours, it's useless to talk about it now. Yang Yang has already gone to the countryside. If you really care about her, remember to mail her some money and food coupons once your salary is issued. She's there all by herself, and we can't look after her. Having some money and coupons on hand is better than having nothing at all."

Xie Zhaohua was in a difficult position: "But my salary... you know how it is, your sister-in-law manages it all."

"Then you'll have to find a way yourself. Yang Yang is having such a hard time in the countryside; you're not even willing to send her some money and coupons? Isn't your stepmother always 'gentle and virtuous'? Could it be that it's all an act?"

"Chunlan, you... don't keep saying 'stepmother' this and 'stepmother' that. She is your sister-in-law after all..."

"Pah! I don't have such a sweet-faced, bitter-hearted sister-in-law! I only recognize one sister-in-law, and that is Yalan!"

"..."

"Alright, I've given you the things, I'm leaving!"

Seeing that it was getting late, Xie Chunlan hurried home to cook dinner:

"In any case, Big Brother, be a bit sharper in the future. Think more for yourself and for Yang Yang."

"..."

Xie Zhaohua looked down at the tea packet in his hand and pressed his lips together. Should he... set aside some tea for the director of the finance department, and ask him to issue that portion of the salary that just increased this month separately, instead of putting it in the same pay envelope?

Xie Yang didn't yet know that her aunt had used one tael of tea to secure 5 yuan for her. She was busy negotiating business with the Main System, finally pre-ordering the smallest adult Lulu Beast for 360,000 points.

However, before placing the official order, she had one question to clarify: "The Lulu Beast won't carry any unknown viruses or bacteria from the interstellar space, right?"

【It won't! Regardless of any viruses or bacteria, they will all be eliminated by the High-Energy Quantum Chamber during long-distance transition.】

That's good!

Xie Yang felt relieved.

"Besides one adult Lulu Beast, help me order a litter of Lulu Beast cubs as well."

The incident of encountering a large "wild boar" can happen once, but not twice. Otherwise, the Brigade Leader and the others would start to suspect if something had gone wrong in the deep mountains, wondering how so many "wild boars" of such massive size had appeared.

The best way is to bring back a litter of "wild boar cubs" to raise; by the time the New Year comes, they can even be butchered for meat.

She is now a person who earns full work points; she will be able to get quite a bit of meat for the New Year.

"Not too many, a litter of four or five is enough."

Any more and she would worry that the brigade couldn't afford to raise them, and she would also worry about owing too many points that she couldn't pay back.

Main System: 【...】

Host, have you forgotten that your points account is already in debt?

Should it not have opened this loophole for the Host—allowing her to use the currency of this plane to top up and pay off the points owed to the "Limited Time Purchase Column"?