“I’ll go talk to Old Hunter Head tomorrow. We have to drive those snakes out of our territory.”
The appearance of large yellow snakes around the village was hardly good news.
But fortunately, there was a solution.
Old Hunter Head knew how to make a snake-repelling powder. As long as it was scattered around the village perimeter, the big yellow snakes wouldn’t come near.
They’d have Old Hunter Head make extra—the back mountain area would need a generous amount too.
The villagers relied on that mountain for firewood, mushrooms, and wild vegetables.
If venomous snakes showed up on the mountain, how would everyone gather firewood?
The Daduizhang had thought it through clearly, and this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened, so he wasn’t panicked.
After the meal, the family split up to rest.
Lin Guozhi quietly slipped into his parents’ room and told them about the silver dollars.
“Since your sister found those silver dollars herself, let her keep them to play with.”
“Your mother and I have saved some too—those will be left to you siblings in time.”
“Your sister has suffered too much out there. Having something good in her hands will give her confidence to face life.”
The Daduizhang spoke at length with Lin Guozhi, the gist being that Lin Jiaojiao had it hard, and they shouldn’t covet her things.
“Father, we understand everything you’re saying.”
“Don’t worry, we won’t have any ill intentions.”
“Father, since you know how, could you clean those silver dollars tomorrow before giving them to sister?”
After all, they’d been buried underground in an iron box for a long time—who knew if there was anything dirty on them.
Better to have his parents help clean them up.
After finishing about the silver dollars, Lin Guozhi went back to his room to sleep.
The Daduizhang and Zhang Aihua, however, couldn’t sleep at all.
So they got up and cleaned the silver dollars their second son had brought in.
There was a proper technique to cleaning silver dollars—you couldn’t scrub them with anything hard.
After all, every scratch reduced the silver dollar’s value.
Nor could you wash off the patina, as that would also diminish its worth.
But the couple knew how to handle them, simply wiping off the dirt and grime from the silver dollars.
After some additional treatment, they placed the silver dollars back into the now-cleaned iron box.
They planned to give it to their daughter the next morning.
However, that morning, the Daduizhang left the house too early and missed running into Lin Jiaojiao.
He had to go ask about the ginseng.
That matter needed to be settled early—whether to sell it, keep it, or use it to exchange for a job.
All of it required early planning.
With the Daduizhang away from home, Zhang Aihua took Lin Jiaojiao to work.
She couldn’t skip work forever, but she could choose what to do.
You could do a poor job, but you couldn’t keep slacking off.
The job Zhang Aihua picked for her daughter was following the village girls to cut pigweed.
Of course, on the first day she wasn’t at ease, planning to go along with her daughter personally.
Once her daughter was familiar with the route and had built good relations with the village children, she wouldn’t need to accompany her anymore.
“Daughter, let me tell you—there are tons of wild vegetables around here.”
“When you come to cut pigweed, you can also dig up a couple of wild greens to take home for a cold dish.”
“That’s what I used to do.”
Lin Jiaojiao followed Zhang Aihua, learning how to identify wild vegetables.
And which plants were pigweed, and which were just weeds?
Without systematic study, if she accidentally picked a poisonous plant and the pigs came to harm, the fault would be grave indeed.
Mother and daughter—one taught with care, the other learned with attention.
Lin Jiaojiao also got to know several girls from the village.
Although she didn’t particularly want to keep partnering with others—it made it inconvenient for her to collect seeds—she still had to greet them and exchange pleasantries.
“Mother, what’s this?”
“I saw some kids picking these leaves to eat.”
Lin Jiaojiao plucked a leaf and went to ask Zhang Aihua.
“This is called sour grass.”
“The taste is very tart.”
“You can pick some to eat too, or bring some back to use as a cold dish.”
As Zhang Aihua spoke, she picked a leaf herself and popped it into her mouth.
The leaf was sour, but also very tender.
However, because it was too tart, almost no one liked to eat it except for children.
“It turns out there’s a plant like this in the world—this sour leaf is actually quite tasty.”
Lin Jiaojiao didn’t care for sour fruits, but she loved these sour leaves.
She ate several in a row, finding it both fun and delicious.
Zhang Aihua didn’t bother to stop her—as long as she didn’t mistakenly eat a poisonous plant, she could eat sour grass leaves freely.
Because there were people around, Lin Jiaojiao’s plan to collect some of these sour grass plants into her Space had to be shelved for now.
She planned to come back alone another time and gather some of these sour-leaf plants into the Space.
After that, Lin Jiaojiao encountered quite a few other plants that could be eaten raw.
She carefully recorded each one, intending to collect more of them into her Space for planting later.
This grass-cutting job would definitely take a while.
If she had to go out looking every day, there wouldn’t be that much pig feed for them to cut.
If she could plant a little in her Space, she could just pull two baskets full every day and complete her Gongfen quota.
After all, it wouldn’t take up too much space.
As for the rest of the space, she still planned to plant grain.
That way, whether she ate it herself or traded it out for money and ration tickets, it would be a good choice.
After cutting the pig grass, they brought it to the place where Gongfen was recorded.
Then it was deposited into the communal pigpen.
That completed the morning’s task.
The task of cutting pig grass happened twice a day.
Which meant each person had to cut two full baskets a day!
Zhang Aihua worried that her daughter wasn’t used to the work and kept comforting her.
“Don’t you worry, girl. If you don’t want to cut pig grass, when your father and brothers get off work, we’ll help you gather a basketful.”
It’s such a small amount of work—we can do it for you easily on the side.
Hearing Zhang Aihua’s words, she was truly touched, but also had some thoughts of her own.
The original owner of this body wasn’t lazy, and she herself wasn’t some ignorant good-for-nothing.
Now that she had met such good people, she couldn’t just keep draining their kindness.
People had to give and take.
If one side kept taking advantage without ever giving anything back,
and wasn’t even willing to contribute the slightest bit—
people like that wouldn’t get far anywhere.
In the short term, family might tolerate it out of guilt.
But over time, even the best relationship couldn’t withstand that kind of wear and tear.
So, until the writing path took off, she still had to show up for work dutifully.
Even if she earned very little, she couldn’t become a useless freeloader.
For two straight days, Lin Jiaojiao followed Zhang Aihua to learn how to identify pig grass and wild vegetables.
On the third day, Zhang Aihua returned to her own post.
By then, Lin Jiaojiao could already pick pig grass with proficiency.
As for the matter with the Daduizhang, there was also some progress.
Word was that a leader from the county urgently needed ginseng to save a family member’s life.
Whoever could provide a high-quality wild mountain ginseng—that leader had made serious promises in return.
Daduizhang hadn’t expected such perfect timing—the family had been hoping for a change of work, and here the job opportunity came knocking at their door.
At this moment, Daduizhang was still unaware that the person he intended to offer the job to had never even thought about going to work.