Song Tan was truly shocked.
"Is our family really that wealthy?"
Mountains and fields abound.
"What wealth?" Wu Lan didn't even lift her head, "It's all what your grandfather passed down. Barren hills and wild ridges, they can't be sold, and no one leases them, they're just lying fallow!"
Song Tan fell silent.
The whole village now has less than thirty households, with an average age of forty or fifty. These days, grains aren't even worth much, it's just enough to get by. So not just their family, but many others in the village also have large areas left uncultivated.
The reason? There's simply not enough labor.
Here in the mountains, large agricultural machinery can't be used, and small ones are costly since they're not subsidized. You can't even save up the cost for a year's work on one acre of land. Plus, with the winding roads, there's nothing much to sell outside.
Growing rice and wheat is just enough for one's own family to eat. After a year of hard work with irrigation, fertilization, and pest and weed control, it costs quite a sum.
With insufficient labor, it's just enough to feed one's own family.
If we look at the supermarket in town, they sell it for a little over two yuan per jin. Although it doesn't taste great, it saves a lot of hard work, and it actually costs less overall!
It's better off lying fallow.
To really make money, you'd have to go out to work after the busy first half of the year!
Take Wu Lan, for example, who went to a shoe factory last year to string shoe laces. She earned six thousand a month and only reluctantly returned home for the New Year.
The year before that, it was Song Sancheng who went to work on a construction site in the Imperial City, earning four hundred a day. He worked for three months and made over thirty thousand, lost more than ten kilos, and took more than half a month to recuperate when he got back.
After all, they're getting older!
A surge of sourness welled up in Song Tan's heart. At that moment, she promised, "Mom, don't worry, I'll definitely make sure you live a good life!"
Wu Lan didn't discourage her but instead counterquestioned, "If you can handle it, I'll leave all the family's fields and mountains to you to take care of, just don't ruin the vegetable patch."
"And let you see what it means to suffer."
"But you're talking about mountains and fields, and it's already the end of February. What do you plan to plant when spring begins?"
This, she really hadn't thought through!
Barely half a day since she had traveled back in time, she had yet to cultivate any results. Whatever she planted would be pointless, wouldn't it?
But under Wu Lan's intimidating gaze, Song Tan decisively changed her tune:
"Mom, don't worry, when have I ever done anything without assurance since I was little?"
That was true, her daughter had always been obedient and sensible—except for this once.
Wu Lan grunted, awaiting more information.
Only to hear Song Tan say, "In that case, let Dad rent some machinery tomorrow to plough all the fallow land."
"I won't touch the fields that are already being cultivated."
"As for the mountains, I have plans for them, but digging into the mountains has to be done by people, right? Machines can't get up there—you just handle the hiring, Mom, I'll foot the bill."
"You'll foot the bill?" Wu Lan looked at her meaningfully:
"Daughter, excavating a mountain costs two hundred yuan a day per person, and you only have sixty thousand yuan. You'd better be careful, or our family doesn't have that much seed money for you to gamble with."
Song Tan's expression fell apart—why had she always been so compliant! Even her savings had to be reported. Such a mommy's girl!
Song Qiao, who had been cleaning the kitchen, ran in, her hands red and raw, angering Wu Lan, "How many times have I told you to use warm water in winter! Why won't you listen?"
The two deliberately trained Song Qiao, teaching her housework bit by bit, fearing the day... yet Song Qiao had no clue about self-care, and it was frustrating in practice.
For instance, at that moment, Song Qiao ignored her, only snuggling up to Song Tan:
"Sis, I want to watch Peppa! Mom won't let me watch it!"
Who could resist such a precious big baby!
So Song Tan immediately pulled out her phone, "Here, we—"
The phone she pulled out was crisscrossed with cracks, practically dancing on the edge of being scrapped—
Wu Lan glanced at her own thousand-yuan phone and suddenly felt a pang of sourness in her heart.
"It's tough for you being outside, I know, but we don't lack your contribution at home, so don't be too frugal."
Her voice softened again, "If you want to farm, then farm properly. We don't have much but we do have plenty of land, you can do whatever you want with it."
Then she turned around and transferred two thousand yuan to her, "Go to town tomorrow and buy a new one."
Song Tan blinked in bewilderment, then looked at her phone again—what a delightful surprise, haha!
However, the next moment, she heard Song Qiao next to her making a "hum hum hum" noise, looking at the two of them while doing so.
At that, Wu Lan couldn't maintain her soft heart any further, and she roared,
"Song Qiaoqiao! I said if you imitate that pig noise again, you're not allowed to watch TV!"
In the quiet of the night, Song Tan finally had the chance to try channeling Spiritual Energy.
Spiritual Energy twinkled like stars, slowly flowing with the wind in the silent winter village.
As she practiced her spiritual method, the firefly-like energy, usually invisible to ordinary people, gradually gathered thread by thread, strand by strand.
Like rain nourishing her battered and barely surviving frail body, refining her flesh...
Finally, as dawn began to show a pale light in the sky, the energy, which had grown denser during the process, was absorbed by Song Tan into her Dantian.
At this moment, her body was covered in sticky black impurities, and the smell in the room was becoming increasingly intoxicating.
Song Tan had no choice but to sneak to the bathroom like a thief—thankful for the new countryside amenities. Though she wasn't as afraid of the cold anymore, one thing needed to be said: water heaters are amazing!
But alas, because the dirt on her body was so difficult to scrub off, by the time she finished bathing, not only had she used up all the hot water, Wu Lan had also woken up.
Bathing on a cold winter morning, and even using up all the hot water from the heater to use cold water?!
She must be out of her mind!
So in an instant, everyone got up—Qiaoqiao brewed ginger tea, Song Sancheng fired up the stove, and Wu Lan quickly boiled water on the stove again, determined not to let her catch a cold!
Finally, before heading out, Fairy Song Tan was wrapped in an aged military coat and put on a grandmother's woolen hat before she was allowed to sit on the back of the motorcycle.
The motorcycle was hard to start in winter. With Song Sancheng pedaling the kick starter thunderously at the front, she calculated what she had to do today from the back—
First, go to the town's police station to apply for an ID card.
Thank heavens, because everything is paid for by mobile these days, she hadn't brought her card with her when she had the car accident, which spared her a lot of trouble.
Then, to buy a new phone.
Once these two most important tasks were done, she would then purchase some farming tools, fertilizers, and most importantly—seeds.
As for what seeds to buy, Song Tan already had an idea.
At this moment, seated on the motorcycle, overlooking the rolling mountains she had just passed, and gazing at the rising red sun on the horizon, she felt a surge of lofty aspirations:
"Dad! It won't be long before I make our village even more beautiful! Our days will get better!"
Song Sancheng, riding at the front, also called out loudly, "Tantan, be careful with spending that sixty thousand yuan!"