Chapter 655: The 1950s Motherhood System (12)

Liuqiang is the village branch secretary's sixth grandson, ten years old this year, currently attending primary school in the township.

Shili Village does not have its own primary school; to attend school, one must go to the township.

Tuition is two yuan a year, which isn't considered expensive. But attending school full-time means the family loses a laborer. Especially for a growing boy, he could share quite a lot of the chores at home.

Therefore, those who can send their children to school usually have decent family conditions; either they aren't short of strong labor, or someone in the family works in the city and eats commodity grain.

The branch secretary's family is well-off precisely because they have plenty of strong labor—seven sons! Every one of them is tall and sturdy, excellent hands at working the fields. The older grandsons have also reached the age to take wives, so the family lacks nothing, least of all labor.

Zhishu Xifu set down the roasted wheat flour she had made herself and went home to get some red paper.

Xie Yang tasted a bit of the roasted wheat flour she had brought over; it was quite fragrant.

In this day and age, no family is wealthy. Being able to roast a pot of wheat flour for the New Year, and mixing a bowl with boiling water when hungry—adding a bit of sugar if one has the means—is already a very good snack.

Xie Yang has now achieved preliminary freedom regarding wheat flour, so she followed local custom and roasted a pot herself.

When Liuqiang came to deliver the red paper, she mixed him a bowl of wheat flour paste with brown sugar and sesame; just the smell of it was very fragrant.

Liuqiang took a bite and squinted in satisfaction: "Sister Yangyang, your roasted wheat flour is truly fragrant and delicious! It's ten thousand times better than what my grandma roasts!"

Xie Yang was amused: "If it's tasty, I'll pack a bowl for you to take home and eat slowly in a while."

"That won't do! My grandma gave instructions: you live alone and it isn't easy, so I can't both eat and take; eating for free is not proper!"

Liuqiang said this with a serious air, then looked around the room. Seeing that there wasn't much firewood in her woodshed, he suggested with a hint of excitement in his tone:

"Sister Yangyang, how about I help you chop firewood? I'm on winter break and have to help my family chop wood every day anyway, so I can chop a bundle for you while I'm at it. You treat me to roasted wheat flour, and that way it won't be eating for free."

Hey! This kid even has a bit of business sense.

Xie Yang smiled and agreed: "Alright! But don't go if it snows; it's not safe. I still have a pile of thick Wood stacked in the backyard, enough to last me until the start of the new year."

Liuqiang looked at the sky, which was gray and overcast as if a heavy snow was about to fall, and took off running toward home: "Then I'll go get my wood-chopping knife and basket now, and chop some more wood before it starts snowing."

Xie Yang wanted to say she would go with him, but suddenly heard the notification sound of the Farm Game System:

【Congratulations to the Host! The Smart Vegetable Garden has reached Level 20, unlocking the module—Smart Orchard. Please choose a reasonable location and confirm the deployment of the Smart Orchard.】

The Orchard is open?

Xie Yang was delighted and used her consciousness to open the main interface of the Farm Game System.

She discovered that the Orchard icon had indeed lit up.

It was waiting for her to confirm the deployment.

Xie Yang glanced at the fruit tree saplings unlocked at Level 1 of the Orchard and found there were only three, and they were the most common ones: apple, peach, and pear.

"Ace, since there are only three saplings, can I plant them at my front door? Must the Smart Orchard be a single unit? Can I combine them freely? For example, planting the apple and peach trees in the front yard and the pear tree in the backyard?"

In her previous plane, she had planted a whole field of fruit trees on the hillside of her Farm, and she knew that apple and peach trees love the sun, while pear trees prefer the shade.

Ace: 【The Smart Orchard can automatically regulate sunlight and rain, so the Host doesn't need to worry. The Orchard is indeed a single unit, but after confirming the deployment, the Host can move the fruit trees planted in the Orchard individually or in groups.】

In other words, after she deploys the Orchard to her front yard and plants the three types of fruit saplings, she can drag the pear tree alone to the side of the stone mill in the backyard?

Can that really work?

Xie Yang tried it and found that it really could.

So, while operating it, she remarked to the Main System: "System, learn from your peers. You're both systems, but look how much more user-friendly they are!"

The Main System felt extremely wronged: 【Host, the System also has many user-friendly features. For example, the Host can borrow the storage space that comes with the System to stockpile goods...】

Xie Yang gave a half-smile: "Didn't you deduct a huge chunk of transition fees from me?"

【...】

The Main System didn't dare to make a sound.

Xie Yang knew when to stop.

After all, being able to use the space that came with the Main System to stockpile her own private goods was indeed her taking advantage.

What was a few extra points deducted? Let it deduct! At the very least, it provides her with great convenience, doesn't it?

One-click operation is just refreshing!

In a matter of seconds, the three fruit saplings were planted.

The apple sapling was planted in the southeast corner of the front yard. She planned to dig a water well in her yard to save having to go to the river to fetch water every time.

In the entire Shili Village, besides the public well under the big locust tree at the village entrance, only the village branch secretary and the village doctor had their own wells. And both of those families were at the village entrance.

Therefore, families far from the village entrance all went to the nearby river to carry water.

It wasn't that they couldn't afford the money to dig a well, but that no one in the village knew how to dig one.

Even in the whole township, you couldn't find a few master craftsmen who knew how to dig wells. The few that existed had been requisitioned by the army over the past two years to form a Well-Digging Team, following the army to dig wells for villages and towns lacking water everywhere; it was said they hadn't even returned for the New Year.

Xie Yang had asked the village branch secretary to send word to the village where the well-digging masters were, and whenever they returned, they would come to her house to help dig a well, which would be located under the apple tree.

The peach sapling was planted next to the Chicken Coop in the southwest corner of the front yard. Once spring arrives, she'll catch a few chicks to raise—perfect free-range chickens under the peach trees!

The pear sapling was dragged to the backyard, next to where the stone mill was currently placed. Grinding wheat flour under the pear blossoms in the future—how poetic and picturesque!

"But, how long is the growth cycle of the fruit trees? They won't bear fruit and ripen in 24 or 48 hours, will they?"

Just after planting the three little saplings, Xie Yang thought of this question.

Ace: 【Fruit trees aren't that fast! They need 15 days.】

Xie Yang: "..."

That's still very fast, okay.

She looked at the saplings that only reached her shoulders and thought about having apples, peaches, and pears to eat in half a month... wait—

"Can they bear fruit in half a month even in winter?"

【Host, the reason the Smart Orchard is called a Smart Orchard is because it can simulate the optimal environment for fruit tree growth. Climate, temperature, light, moisture, soil pH... there are many parameters, and they will be customized for each fruit tree. The Host doesn't need to worry!】

Xie Yang: "..."

She wasn't worried about that, but she was worried that the newly planted saplings would shoot up and bear fruit in half a month, and the villagers would see it and treat her like a monster.

【Host, no need to worry. Ace will help the Host set the Smart Orchard and the included beehives to the same Semi-concealment mode as the vegetable garden. Humans other than the Host will ignore their existence even if they see them.】

After the vegetable garden covered her backyard, it changed from its initial state of total concealment to Semi-concealment.

It wouldn't do for her backyard to always have a patch of thick fog, would it?

And Semi-concealment means people can see the vegetable garden, but they will automatically ignore its true appearance.

For example, since it is currently winter, every household's vegetable garden at most has overwintering radishes or Chinese cabbage, or at worst, mustard greens for pickling, so her vegetable garden gives people that same illusion.

Once Ace said this, Xie Yang felt relieved.