Chapter 679: Five-Zero Motherhood System (36)

As she carried the basket home, her steps felt somewhat buoyant.

Taking advantage of the fact that no one was around, she lifted the burlap cloth covering the basket and saw the large, clean, green-skinned duck eggs lying inside; she still found it hard to believe.

Could an immortal actually return a gift?

Upon arriving home, she called the old man into the inner room, showed him the duck eggs, and recounted the "immortal's return gift" she had witnessed with her own eyes.

"Old man, this is absolutely true! I saw it with my own eyes! And when I brought these duck eggs home, they didn't disappear! This proves it really is a return gift from an immortal!"

At this point, Zhishu Xifu slapped her thigh hard:

"Oh my goodness! To have received a return gift from an immortal in my lifetime! This life of mine has been worth it!"

Zhishu: "..."

Over there, Xie Yang was also observing the reactions of the children.

Ever since the breeding farm was unlocked, chicken and duck eggs had become almost overwhelmingly abundant.

She couldn't just watch the farm Warehouse stock hit 999 while living a miserable life in reality, unable to even bear eating a single chicken or duck egg, could she?

But she was also worried that if she took out too much, the children would develop habits of laziness and ease.

However, after observing for a few days, she realized her worries were unnecessary—children who had lived through hard times, even knowing that "Nuan Shu Zhi Jia" was not short on grain or vegetables, remained very frugal and had a strong sense of hoarding food.

They always picked the vegetables that didn't store well to eat first, saving the ones that did. They didn't just pick what they liked to eat first.

On this point, even Xie Yang had to admit she couldn't compare to them.

"Today we have tofu and duck eggs, plus the spring bamboo shoots and wild vegetables that Xingguo and Xiaojun dug up. It just so happens to be the hundredth day since you all arrived at 'Nuan Shu Zhi Jia', so let's make a good meal!"

Xie Yang announced with a smile, then told the children to go play in the yard while she did the cooking today.

During the spring plowing, the two boys got up early every day to make breakfast, and they scrambled to cook lunch and dinner as well, even bringing her water in between; the twin sisters took care of the two little ones the whole time, feeding them, coaxing them to sleep, washing their faces, bathing them, and washing their clothes, allowing her to work in the fields without distraction.

It could be said that although she appeared to be raising six children, she didn't actually feel that tired. It was just that the food wasn't as good as when she was eating alone.

Of course, if she were truly craving something, she had plenty of opportunities to cook a private meal for herself, but she felt for the six children.

So today, she intended to give the children a good nutritional boost.

She scooped out the miscellaneous fish and small shrimp kept in the ceramic vat; she had caught them on the way back from the fields, and since she couldn't eat them all in one meal, she kept some in the vat.

Later, she would dig a small pond behind the house similar to the one at home; before she could move the Smart Fish Pond over, raising some small fish and shrimp trapped from the river would be nice.

She split the tofu in two, using half to stew a tofu pot with the fish and shrimp, and frying the other half to stir-fry with the bean sprouts she had sprouted herself; it was fragrant even without extra oil. She would take the children to the market in a day or two, and if she saw pork for sale, she would buy a strip of pork belly to stew with the fried tofu.

For the spring bamboo shoots the two children dug up, she would make oil-braised bamboo shoots with the tender ones, and stew the relatively older ones with the salted meat sent by Cao Zhuren to make a pot of "Yan Du Xian."

There were also plenty of wild vegetables; she would save the Shepherd's Purse for tomorrow, and if she managed to buy meat, she would make dumplings. She first prepared the Indian aster, blanched it, and made a cold-dressed Indian aster dish.

She saved half of the duck eggs to pickle, and used two fresh ones to stir-fry with chives.

The chives were at their most tender right now, and as Xie Yang chopped them, she suddenly wanted to eat chive pockets.

She simply scooped out a few bowls of flour and decided not to stir-fry vegetables anymore! She would just make chive pockets as the main course!

This batch of chives was grown by the children.

After they moved into "Nuan Shu Zhi Jia," Zhishu Xifu had sent over many vegetable seeds and even helped open up a vegetable patch, letting the children plant a few ridges of the vegetables they liked.

Xie Yang glanced at her farm Warehouse again; the stock of chives harvested from the Smart Vegetable Garden had, unsurprisingly, also reached 999.

She simply had the Main System send a wave of spring benefits to orphans of martyrs across the country: ten jin of flour, two jin of chives, ten duck eggs, and ten chicken eggs per person.

Main System: 【...】

Was its Host really using it as a courier now?

"I'll pay you points."

【Alright, Host! Task guaranteed to be completed!】

Qiu Caohua hadn't been able to take advantage of Xie Yang and was furious when she returned.

But the house still had to be built; otherwise, she felt disgusted every time she thought about the rat infestation under her house.

Being disgusted was one thing, but the key was that these god-forsaken rats would, every now and then, chew her well-hidden money into shreds, or steal every single grain of her fine flour. If this kept happening, how could she live?

In the end, relying on the favor of having looked after the neighbor's children when Xie Yang was still at the Zhuang family, she shamelessly borrowed a room from the neighbor.

The Old Zhuang Family began a grand renovation to rebuild their house.

But the strange thing was, after tearing down the old house, they dug three feet deep and still couldn't find a rat nest.

Qiu Caohua refused to believe it and insisted that the villagers helping her keep digging until they found the rat nest.

Villagers: "..."

No, why are you so certain there's a rat nest under your house? What if there isn't? Is their labor not labor?

Honestly, if it weren't for the good wine and food promised by Zhuang Laotou, would they be willing to take this job? They had almost dug a pond while digging the foundation; rats wouldn't build a nest that deep.

"I say, Auntie Lao Zhuang, if there were rats in the house, we would have dug up the nest by this depth. Isn't it a good thing we didn't find one?"

"Exactly. If we keep digging, we'll just have to fill it back in later, and the foundation will be unstable. Are you sure you want to keep digging, Auntie? It doesn't matter to us; we get to eat more of your meals the longer we work."

Qiu Caohua: "..."

How could there be no rats?

If there were no rats, how did the money and grain in her house end up like that? Not to mention the grain, the money had been chewed to pieces—if it wasn't the rats, who else could it be?

When Xie Yang heard about it, she smiled without a word.

She hoped Zhuang Laotai would learn a lesson from now on and stop coming to cause her trouble.

Otherwise, even after moving into the new house, the incidents of her "money being chewed to shreds by rats" and "fine grain being stolen by rats until not a single grain remained" would still happen.

In fact, Qiu Caohua just wouldn't learn.

Even after moving into the new house later, she always looked at Xie Yang with displeasure, feeling that it wasn't enough for Xie Yang to live in a house her son paid to build, but that she also used her son's money to raise six outsiders. Consequently, the money she hid would still be chewed to shreds by "rats," and her fine grain for the two seasons of the year would always mysteriously disappear.

This became a chronic worry for Qiu Caohua.

A woman who had some friendship with her kindly reminded her not to always make things difficult for Xie Yang and the orphans of "Nuan Shu Zhi Jia."

"The immortal manifesting is true! Many people saw it with their own eyes. Perhaps the rat trouble in your house is also the will of the immortal himself. Otherwise, why would there always be rats running into your house to chew things and steal grain when you clearly don't have any? Maybe those rats are following the immortal's instructions."