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Chapter 328: Chapter 318: Going Back After the Autumn Harvest
Shen Yunfang thought that was the end of it, but she hadn’t expected that the very next day, rumors were spreading throughout the village that Wang Dashuan and his family had played tricks on her, calling her foolish, and had taken over her family’s private land and the courtyard.
When Dashuan’s wife came to her, huffing and puffing about this matter, Shen Yunfang didn’t even need to think, she was sure it was Er Daniang stirring things up behind the scenes again.
Even though she knew that Er Daniang was behind it, Shen Yunfang didn’t confront her because of her understanding of Er Daniang’s character. To do so would be pointless and would only make the rumors more rampant.
In the end, to solve the problem and to avoid making things difficult for Dashuan’s family—who had kindly cultivated the land for her—how could she allow them to take the blame for her? Therefore, Shen Yunfang decided to postpone her return and resolved to go back to the military unit after the crops and vegetables in the fields were harvested.
Since she would be staying at home, she would handle the collection of grain and vegetables from her private land and the courtyard by herself; this way, there would be nothing left for others to say.
Having decided not to return for the time being, she also aimed to maximize the benefits of her stay. While the crops in the field were not yet ripe, she spent her days reviving her old ways, taking Pangpang with her to roam the mountains, digging up wild vegetables, picking mushrooms, and harvesting grapes for several days. The inventory in her space, which had not decreased by much initially, grew rapidly over these days.
Shen Yunfang looked at the increasingly abundant stock in her space and couldn’t help but sigh with relief. Luckily, her space could keep things fresh, otherwise everything inside would have gone to waste.
She had originally planned to keep to herself after going with the military, hence she had made thorough preparations before leaving, storing away vegetables and meat in baskets. For their family of three, the provisions she prepared could last ten to eight years. It all seemed well-planned, but reality didn’t allow it. In the military housing area, the families lived so close to each other that even though it was an exaggeration to say that if one family farted the other could smell it, one could definitely catch the scent of meat and vegetable dishes from someone’s home throughout half of the residential area. After experiencing such an incident, Shen Yunfang dared not casually stew meat at home anymore.
She couldn’t go out, and the meat at home was all brought back by Li Hongjun through someone else’s help; there was only enough for a few meals. It was obvious to anyone with clear eyesight, and if her home was to stew and waft the aroma of meat every day, wouldn’t that just be inviting others to discover her secret? So, she had been very cautious about this for the past six months.
There were difficulties, but the wisdom of the people is limitless. To maintain a high standard of living at home, Shen Yunfang came up with some solutions.
She would cook meat dishes only on the days Li Hongjun brought meat home, and regardless of the amount of meat, she would cook it all in a large iron pot at once. This way, others could smell the aroma just that once. A pot of meat could not be finished in one meal, so she would put the leftovers in her space and then only make vegetarian dishes afterwards, taking the meat dishes out from the space as needed.
This effectively solved the problem of cooking meat dishes in the family courtyard.
However, this method had its drawbacks, namely that the variety of meat dishes on the dining table was very limited. For example, if she stewed a big pot of braised meat one week, then for the next few days, that might be the only meat dish available at home.
Also, although she could guarantee meat and vegetables for every meal, it was still not quite in line with her ideal of eating whatever she wanted whenever she wanted. Thus, the rate at which the meat and vegetables in her space were used up became a bit slow.
Looking at the increasing array of fruits and vegetables in her space, Shen Yunfang clapped her hands together, reflecting that now she had time and a space of her own. As long as she locked the door, she could fry, boil, bake, and cook whatever she pleased without anyone knowing. Why not cook up some of the meat dishes she craved in advance? This would save her the trouble of fearing unknowns and not daring to make them once she was back with the unit.
With the thought, she added a new cooking slot to her schedule.
During the day, she took her son to nature, conducting early education activities for him, and when she returned home at night, after she coaxed the child to sleep, she would dive into the kitchen work. Quick stir-fries were easy, but for the dishes that required slow cooking, she had just enough time to tidy up the backyard, sun-drying vegetables and such. 𝘯𝑜𝘷𝘱𝘶𝘣.𝘤𝘰𝑚
Madam Li came by a few more times, but Shen Yunfang kept turning her away. Having vegetables was one thing, sharing with others didn’t concern her much, but if Madam Li wanted to take those vegetables either for Shen Yunfeng to eat or to curry favor for her, Yunfang would have none of it. Naturally, taking such a stand meant enduring some verbal lashing—Yunfang had long anticipated that from Madam Li’s sharp tongue, so she remained calm and unaffected when new rumors about her began to circulate in the village.
"We won’t be living here much longer. If you don’t mind wasting your breath, go ahead and talk; it won’t cost me any flesh." It has to be said that ever since Shen Yunfang got married and had a child, her skin had indeed grown thicker.
After about two busy weeks, the time came to mid-August. The corn and soybeans in the fields ripened one after another. Shen Yunfang left her child with Madam Wang, changed her clothes, and joined in the autumn harvest.
Picking corn and digging up sweet potatoes for several days, it was only after a joint effort with Mr. and Mrs. Wang that they managed to bring all the crops back home.
Since she had taken many tender corn cobs into her space previously, they eventually harvested five hundred and twenty catties of corn. After negotiation (or rather, argument), she kept two hundred and twenty catties for herself and gave the remaining three hundred catties to Mr. and Mrs. Wang.
Yunfang couldn’t bring herself to waste the soybeans, sneaking in just one indulgent meal of boiled soybeans, so in the end, the two fields of soybeans yielded a total of one hundred catties. Taking the opportunity, Shen Yunfang and Mrs. Wang went to the brigade to press the soybeans for oil and also strolled through the market. For this distribution, Yunfang did not hesitate to take all the oil, leaving the remaining soybean cake for Mr. and Mrs. Wang.
Actually, it wasn’t because she was too stingy to share the soy oil with Mrs. Wang, it was that Mrs. Wang herself refused it, claiming she couldn’t get used to the taste of soy oil and that it wasn’t as tasty as pork.
Then there were peanuts; they only planted two rows, which yielded just over eighty catties in total, so without much discussion, they split it evenly.
The last to be harvested were the sweet potatoes; they unearthed over five hundred catties, big and small. Yunfang took two hundred catties—planning to reserve one hundred for baking and turning the other hundred into sweet potato flour.
As for the vegetables in the backyard, Mr. Wang’s household had plenty, they truly didn’t need any, so Yunfang didn’t shy away from picking all the fresh tender greens and storing them in her space, of course, everyone else thought she was just picking them to dry. The rest she turned into several jars of various pickles. And not just from her own garden, she also took out some from the Wangs’.
All in all, the harvest wasn’t as good as the previous year, but it was still satisfactory.
Having finished with the private plots and the backyard in Gaijiatun, and with the time having reached early September, Shen Yunfang felt she had spent too much time at her parents’ home. Although she hadn’t received any calls from Li Hongjun, she was becoming anxious. After tidying up around the house, she began packing her things to leave.
As for the harvested grains and such, they had to be thoroughly dried before Mr. Wang could mail them to her; she couldn’t possibly carry so much on her own.
Before leaving, she still made a point to inform Old Shen. Though she felt quite upset inside, she only received a nod from him. As for Madam Shen, she just turned her face away upon seeing Yunfang, but there was nothing to be done about it. Ever since the conflict with Shen Yunxiu, such a conclusion was inevitable.
