Witty Wife, Better Life

Chapter 97: Chapter 93: A Year’s Harvest

As they passed by the brigade again on their way back, Shen Yunfang asked Uncle Yougen to wait, and she and Jianjun’s wife got off the horse-drawn carriage and went to the oil mill. One person carried a bucket of soy oil, and the other one shouldered a sack of soy cake as they made their return.

"Goodness, you’ve pressed so much oil, it should be enough for a year," someone said enviously.

In the city, a worker only received two liang of soy oil per month, so Shen Yunfang’s nearly forty jin of soy oil naturally aroused envy.

Shen Yunfang didn’t think the oil would be enough for a year, but she couldn’t say that out loud. "Auntie, doesn’t your family also have a lot of soybeans? You could press some, too."

Each person received thirty jin of soybeans. If a family had four adults, they would have around a hundred and twenty jin of soybeans per year, which should be more than enough for pressing oil.

The auntie pursed her lips, seemingly thinking that Shen Yunfang didn’t know how to live frugally, "Our home has no soybeans to press. The small amount we got needs to be saved to exchange for tofu. If there’s any left over, we may grow some bean sprouts in the winter. We can’t afford to waste them."

At that time, being able to eat a piece of tofu was considered good fortune. Hence, families would improve their diet by exchanging goods for tofu during market days. In the winter, aside from potatoes, cabbages, and radishes, those who knew how to manage a household would reserve some yellow or green beans to grow bean sprouts and enhance their food during the cold months.

Shen Yunfang smiled to herself. Each person had their way of living, and it depended on how one chose to live their life.

"Yunfang, did you go for a bath?" Shen Huiping caught up with Shen Yunfang when she returned, and upon noticing the cloth wrapped around her head, she knew she had gone for a bath.

"Hmm, I took the opportunity to wash up since I was in the county. These days of harvesting grain have made me itchy all over." Especially her hair, littered with bits of rice husk; washing at home just wasn’t as thorough as the vigorous rinsing in the public bathhouse.

"I, I want to go, too, but I’m a bit scared. Would it be okay if I joined you next time?" Shen Huiping asked timidly.

Shen Yunfang raised her eyebrows, puzzled. Were they that close for her to invite Yunfang to bathe together? What was she plotting? And had she never taken a bath before that she was too scared?

"Sure, we can go together when the opportunity arises." When that opportunity would come was another matter. Right now, Shen Yunfang had no interest in acquiring any ’best friends.’ Her sole focus was on living a good life. What use was a best friend to her?

Afterward, Shen Yunfang exchanged a few more words with Shen Huiping, who realized that Yunfang wasn’t too keen on the conversation and fell silent.

Shen Yunfang breathed a sigh of relief, leaned back against the sack, and closed her eyes as the horse-drawn carriage rocked gently back and forth.

She wasn’t sleeping; she was simply contemplating her private thoughts.

She’d been here exactly one year now, and her adaptation was fairly good, all things considered. She lived like a true farmwife, working the fields and chopping wood in the mountains. Though tiring, the rewards had been substantial.

With that in mind, Shen Yunfang’s consciousness probed into the ’space.’

She had organized the space neatly: an area of about two hundred square meters was partitioned into over fifty differently sized compartments (the space itself was over two hundred square meters, and by rough estimate, around ten meters tall).

After a year of hard work, most of the compartments were now filled.

First were the various cuts of wild boar that had been processed: pork, trotters, heads, ribs, large bones, and the remaining beef, all neatly arranged in one compartment. Beside that was another large compartment filled with wild vegetables, standing two meters high in a ten-square-meter space, leftovers from what Shen Yunfang had foraged for the chickens, ducks, geese, and pigs over the summer. Next to that, there were baskets neatly packed with shepherd’s purse, bracken, thistle buds, and tender sweet potato vines. These were what she kept for herself to eat, her favorite among all the wild vegetables she’d tried.

What followed were mountains of various fresh vegetables, baskets upon baskets of fresh mushrooms (during the busy farming season, when Yunfang saw villagers weaving wicker baskets, she sneakily learned the craft. Although her skills were rough, through persistent effort and practice, she eventually managed to clumsily weave wicker baskets), sacks of dried hazel mushrooms and Yuan mushrooms, a basket of tender corn cobs, several hundred jin of sweet potatoes, more than twenty big watermelons and cantaloupes, a bag of sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds, a large jar of sheep milk, and one compartment filled with a mishmash of items, such as the books Shen Yunfang had scavenged from the purchasing station, as well as plates, bowls, vases, and the like.

Another compartment was stocked with food that had been cooked and could be eaten directly. Here, the wooden racks that Li Hongjun had made fit perfectly, topped with a winnowing basket of cornmeal pancakes, which had a bit of wheat flour and sugar mixed in and were baked after fermenting.

Since the household did not have much wheat flour, receiving only a few dozen jin each year, this was the way they made them, but they were still delicious.

There was also a basin of rice, a basin of braised meat, a basin of cornmeal mush, a basin of large bone soup, and underneath was a layer with a marinated pig’s head and a large piece of pork.

In the space closest to the edge, there were several compartments carrying firewood, black soil, cow dung, and dried earthworms. To avoid affecting other items, Shen Yunfang put them all neurotically in the place furthest away from the food.

Shen Yunfang withdrew her consciousness from the space, very pleased with the contents within, and she was confident that in the coming days, she would work tirelessly to fill the entire space.

What she now had to consider was what to do after the autumn harvest?

What did she do last year?

Right, chopping wood. Although she had agreed with Li Hongjun that she would visit him around the New Year, the entire winter was long, and she needed to prepare more firewood. She also had to continue growing vegetables and mushrooms in the western room.

The backyard’s cabbages and radishes were almost ready to be harvested. After harvesting, she had to pickle the cabbages and take out a few radishes to salt.

And additionally, as the weather was getting cold, she needed to find time to set up the plastic shed in the backyard, letting those wild-habituated hens settle down and get used to the new environment.

The young roosters were nearly fully grown; after slaughtering pigs, it would be their turn.

After it snowed, she planned to go up the back mountain to trap sparrows. This time she had to think of a method to find a suitable weapon and then venture a bit deeper into the forest. With her current strength, it would be difficult to handle big game like wild boars, but she should be capable of managing hares or pheasants.

With the mountains at her disposal, she took so little from them; she felt discontent in her heart.

Having thought it through on her way, she made a simple plan for the upcoming period.

Jianjun’s wife noticed that Shen Yunfang had her eyes closed the whole time, thinking she was tired, so she didn’t chat with her during the journey, but instead made small talk with others.

It wasn’t until the horse carriage was about to enter the village that she saw Shen Yunfang open her eyes.

"Yunfang, you’re awake. I was just about to call you. Get up, we’re almost home."

Shen Yunfang didn’t explain and merely smiled and sat up straight.

"Oh, Yunfang, I’ve been waiting for you."