Chapter 624: Imperial Examination Family-Raising System (33)

The mother sheep, having drunk a drop of max-level Spirit Spring Water, saw Xie Yang arrive and bleated "baa-baa" as it nudged against her, even chasing its three lambs over for her to see.

The big black horse, which had eaten Spirit Spring Black Bean many times, was not to be outdone; it lowered its head to lick her face.

Xie Yang couldn't dodge in time and was licked once, laughing heartily from the ticklish sensation.

Song Jinzhi found it extremely curious: "Sister-in-law, why are they acting just like children vying for favor?"

Then, she was snorted at by the big black horse.

Vying for favor, indeed!

It was the true favorite!

That little mother sheep was short and stubby; how could it compare to its own handsome and sturdy self?

The mother sheep bared its neat, buck-toothed teeth: Heh! Do you have babies?

The Master likes its three little babies the most!

Xie Yang did indeed like the three lambs very much; they were too cute and adorable!

Every time she came to the farm, she would come over to play with them for a while.

Unfortunately, the weather was getting colder and colder. Even though the alfalfa on the sunny southern slope had covered the entire hillside and was logically the forage the flock liked best, she didn't dare chase them up the mountain, preferring to let the hired hands cut some and bring it back to feed them.

Better to wait until after spring begins! Then she could let them go up the mountain to frolic.

However, three lambs were still too few. She would go buy a few more when spring began; at the very least, she had to fill the empty sheep pens so there would be a steady supply of mutton to eat in the future!

Also, she needed to scout for two cows, as they would be needed for plowing the fields in the spring.

But as for the plowing cows, even if she couldn't buy any, she could ask the village head's family to borrow some. She really wanted to get a dairy cow, though. Compared to sheep's milk, cow's milk suited her palate better.

After inspecting the chicken and duck coops and the horse and sheep sheds, she went to take a look at the lake pond.

She told the farm manager to scoop up some more crabs and shrimp to take home later to make drunken shrimp and drunken crab.

She would scoop up fish in two days; there was still a piece of pork belly at home that hadn't been stewed yet, so she would finish the meat before scooping up fish for soup.

As for the New Year fish, they definitely had to be kept for the few days before the New Year to be caught. Families who raised pigs would slaughter a New Year pig; since her family didn't raise pigs this year, she would use catching New Year fish as a substitute.

Subsequently, Xie Yang also took her sister-in-law up the mountain.

The alfalfa on the southern slope had turned yellow and withered following several days of continuous temperature drops, but the roots beneath the ground had grown very well and would be able to recover as soon as spring began.

The tea saplings on the eastern and western slopes had all taken root and looked quite spirited in the cold wind.

The northern slope had also been cleared by the helping villagers, just waiting for spring to transplant pine and cedar trees and sow medicinal herb seeds.

Everything was proceeding in an orderly fashion according to her plan...

"The heavy snow falls as the twelfth lunar month arrives, a year of frugality leads to this day; save up grain to boil a pot of porridge, warm and cozy to pass the cold night..."

As the village children sang the Laba ballad, the days seemed to pass even faster.

After eating Laba porridge, the first snow covered both inside and outside the village.

The people who had been busy in the fields for a year could finally rest, but as the end of the year approached, the women of each household became even busier—here leading the children to dust, sweep, cut window flowers, and paste spring couplets, there directing the men of the house to grind tofu and make rice cakes, while also remembering to get up early on the big market days to buy New Year goods.

Lin Shi led her daughter to clean the house until it was spotless, then pasted window flowers on the windows of every room.

Since the beginning of summer this year, it had been the luckiest six months for her family!

Her husband's back, which had been injured for two years, was completely cured!

Even though her son had broken his leg, he recovered quickly! And he had taken the Imperial Examination on schedule and passed as a scholar!

Of course, the prerequisite for all this was—her son had married a good daughter-in-law!

This daughter-in-law was not only good to her son and good to her family, but she was also a blessed person!

Ever since the daughter-in-law entered the house, their family seemed to have turned their luck around!

They built a new house, moved into a new residence, and started a business selling wine...

And just like that, in a mere two months, it had brought her family over ten taels of income!

Following Chen Yuanwai, several other wealthy families in town had driven their carriages to her house to buy wine, incidentally buying some side dishes to go with the wine.

The wine was brought in from the County; although it was indeed more fragrant and mellow than the wine sold at the same price in town, what kind of fine wine hadn't those wealthy masters drunk? Sending servants to drive carriages to her house to buy wine was nothing more than wanting to rub off on her family's good fortune, just like Chen Yuanwai, hoping that a scholar would appear in their own family too.

At first, she was a little worried: if these wealthy masters bought wine at her house and their descendants still didn't strive to succeed and failed to pass the child scholar or scholar exams, would they come to cause trouble for her family?

Her husband laughed at her for overthinking; the wine they sold was the same price as the low-priced wine sold in town. They hadn't opened their mouths like a lion, nor had they taken the initiative to peddle it to those wealthy masters; it was they themselves who sought them out to buy wine, and rubbing off on the good fortune was something they said themselves.

If they blamed their descendants' lack of ambition on her family, would there be any justice or law left?

Lin Shi thought that was right, so she happily greeted the servants of the wealthy families who came to buy wine, and even sold quite a few of the homemade side dishes.

At first, there were only dried bamboo shoots and peanuts, but later, under the guidance of her daughter-in-law, they figured out pepper-salt soybeans and fennel beans, which smelled fragrant and tasted even better, as well as small mixed fish fried in oil with pepper and salt.

It seemed like there wasn't much profit, but the volume was high. The wealthy men and merchants in town seemed to be competing with each other: You weigh two jin? Then I'll weigh three! You want three jin? Then I'll take five!

Not to mention where there were so many small mixed fish in the rivers inside and outside the village.

Just the fava beans and soybeans collected from her maiden family couldn't withstand such sales!

They had no choice but to purchase them from the villagers.

After finishing the collection in Qinghe Village, they went to other villages to collect.

It was a hassle, but selling more side dishes meant that the wine sold quickly too.

Seeing the copper coins and the white, fragmented Silver being recorded, Lin Shi felt that this bit of hassle was nothing! She would gladly endure even more hassle!

She handed the ten-tael sum to her daughter-in-law, saying it was to pay back a portion first. She kept the change for the New Year, which was over three taels, enough to have a good New Year!

With extra money in hand, she wanted to decorate the new home more festively; after all, it was the first New Year in the new house, and she hoped such good days would have a second year, a third year... countless years!

So, when going to the market, she bought a lot of red paper and took her daughter to cut out window flowers to paste on the windows.

Song Jinzhi loved the work of cutting and pasting window flowers.

Before the family split, when celebrating the New Year at the old Song house, such easy work that allowed one to hide indoors to keep warm never fell to her. Every time, it was snatched up by the three Song Jinzhu sisters, and what was left for her was either fetching water to scrub the pitch-black stove or cleaning the smelly chicken coop and woodshed.

Now that the family had split, she could finally do the work she liked. She cut the window flowers very beautifully, and even cut them in different patterns, pasting them squarely on the windows of each room.

She also helped cut many paper-cuttings for the windows of the farmhouse, and even pasted a pair on the chicken and duck coops and the horse and sheep sheds.

The red paper for the spring couplets had also been cut into strips and placed on the desk in the study, waiting for Song Yanqing to return and write them.

Seeing that the Little New Year was approaching, Xie Yang was not idle either; she had the farm manager lead people to catch all the big fish in the lake.

The caught fish were flopping about on the shore, and everyone scrambled to pick them up and put them into buckets.

"These fish are truly big; even putting two in a bucket feels crowded!" Lin Shi exclaimed with a click of her tongue.

Xie Yang: Of course they are big!

These were the bighead carp and black carp she had specifically lured and caught from Yingyue Lake by wasting a bit of Spirit Spring; they were all large fish species!