Free Web NovelChapter 435: Chapter 229: Meizi, the Household Manager
After the meal, Zheng Changhe and Yang Family went to the fields as usual. Juhua washed the dishes first, then ladled the dishwater into the pig feed bucket. She also chopped up some Shanyu vines, mixed them with acorns, and prepared the slop to feed the pigs.
There were six pigs in the sty—three large and three small. She had to make three trips back and forth to get them all fed.
The big pigs ate with gusto, their large ears flapping and their little tails wagging. Every now and then, one would scratch its rump against the wall. These pigs were fairly well-behaved. They didn’t fight at feeding time, only occasionally nudging each other with their snouts.
Juhua thought, ’I probably feed them so often that they’re rarely hungry. Of course they wouldn’t exert themselves fighting over a mouthful of food. They’re living up to their lazy nature.’
They just ate and slept, then slept and ate. Their sty was washed out daily. In the winter, it was lined with warm straw, and in the summer, mugwort was burned to smoke out mosquitoes. The pigs had it so good that the fat just packed on.
Gazing at the plump, sturdy black pigs, Juhua felt a surge of pleasure. She watched them for a good while before turning to draw water from the well to wash up. Hauling several buckets of pig feed to the backyard was tiring work, and a thin sheen of sweat had formed on her brow.
After finishing her chores, she brought in the sun-dried clothes and folded them. Then, she thought about going to ask Meizi if she wanted some water bamboo shoot greens. The water bamboo shoots in her family’s fishpond were growing too dense. She had to clear some out, or the fish wouldn’t have any room to breathe.
She locked the main gate, left the courtyard gate ajar, and headed over to Meizi’s house.
"Meizi!" Juhua called out as she reached the entrance to Meizi’s courtyard.
The small courtyard, with its three-room tiled house, was neat and clean. The yard itself had been packed down until it was perfectly flat. Peach and plum trees were planted in the corners of the walls. Outside the courtyard gate, Zhuzi had been planted on both sides, and unknown fruit trees grew along the side of the house. A pebble path, just like the one at Juhua’s home, led straight to the banks of the Little Qing River. The willow cuttings planted along the path had taken root and were sprouting new, tender branches.
Juhua inwardly praised Li Changming. He was a meticulous man. In just a few short months, he and Meizi had made their little home look quite respectable.
Hearing Juhua’s voice from inside, Meizi hurried out and asked happily, "Juhua, what brings you here?"
Seeing her come out, Juhua entered the courtyard and said with a smile, "The water bamboo shoot greens in my family’s fishpond have grown too thick. I need to clear some out. Do you want to take some home to cook?"
Meizi nodded eagerly. "Yes, definitely! Stir-fried water bamboo shoot greens are delicious. Wait a moment, I’ll get a basket."
Juhua quickly said, "No rush. I also came to check on the wood ear mushrooms."
Juhua found Meizi quite amusing. Now that she was focused on improving their little life, there wasn’t a single thing that didn’t interest her. Anything edible or useful you asked her about, her answer was always that she wanted to plant it, raise it, forage it, or pick it. She never said no.
Hearing this, Meizi stopped and said to her happily, "The wood ear mushrooms on the locust tree have started to grow, too. But Juhua, my Changming said this is probably as good as it’ll get for now. He doesn’t think we can grow a lot just yet. We still haven’t figured it all out." With that, she led Juhua to the backyard to see the mushrooms.
Juhua followed her to the backyard and said with a smile, "Just getting the wood ear mushrooms to grow is already a great start. Isn’t this our first year trying to figure it out? In the past, we could only gather them from the mountains. We’d have some if we were lucky enough to find them, and none if we weren’t. Now that we know how to cultivate them, even if the harvest is small, at least it’s something we can count on, right?"
Meizi said cheerfully, "Isn’t that the truth? Changming said he’s going to keep working on it. The idea of drying the mushrooms, crushing them, and using them as spores came from your brother. We couldn’t come up with any new ideas ourselves. Ah well! We’ll get there, step by step."
Juhua nodded. In a corner of the backyard lay a few dead logs. Besides the oak log they had been given last time, there was a locust log as thick as an arm. Its surface was damp and decaying, with small clusters of wood ear mushrooms growing on it. The other logs were poplar, which also had some mushrooms, but not many.
Juhua leaned in for a closer look, then straightened up and said to Meizi, "Do you feel like these mushrooms aren’t as thick as the last batch?"
Meizi nodded repeatedly. "Of course I’ve noticed! We saw it a while ago. Changming said he’s afraid summer isn’t a good season for growing them. Spring seems to be better, but we don’t know about autumn yet. Anyway, from now on, we’ll plant more in the spring and see how summer goes. If they don’t taste good, we’ll just stop and only grow one crop a year."
Juhua nodded. ’Getting rich through hard work isn’t so easy,’ she thought. ’Spending years figuring it out is a small price to pay, as long as you eventually succeed. That’s the greatest victory. But spending all those years and still coming up with nothing... that would be truly heartbreaking.’
