Not far from the small house stood a well, its stone rim carved with intricate patterns. Clear well water occasionally bubbled up through the stone crevices, flowing along small ditches to nourish the four plots of land surrounding the house, silently sustaining the crops.
These four plots, each about one mu in size, had been cultivated by Tang Tian herself. The two plots in front of the house grew various vegetables along with some flowers and fruits, while the two behind the house were planted with high-yield potatoes and sticky corn.
These crops had been sown by Tang Tian just before she transmigrated. Calculating the time, it had been about a month now. With the spring water irrigation accelerating growth threefold, they had reached harvest time.
Back in the post-apocalyptic era, Tang Tian only needed to feed herself, and the nation was gradually recovering with everything thriving. She hadn’t paid much attention to her Space then.
But fate had brought her to this timeline where she now had dearly cherished relatives. This compelled her to carefully plan how to utilize the Space’s resources to help her loved ones achieve a carefree life with ample food and clothing!
That night, a small figure bustled energetically throughout every corner of the Space with unprecedented enthusiasm.
All stored items in the warehouse were cataloged and recorded for easy access whenever needed.
The vegetables and other crops in the fields were harvested and stored fresh, with new seeds promptly sown. Fortunately, after harvesting, the leftover plant residues automatically decomposed and quickly integrated into the black soil—otherwise, Tang Tian might have exhausted herself.
Even so, she worked well past midnight.
The next morning, when Li Qiushuang finished preparing breakfast but didn’t see her daughter emerge, she worriedly pushed open the door. There she found her dear “warm little jacket” sprawled across the kang, sleeping soundly with limbs outstretched and emitting soft, contented snores.
Reassured, she gently closed the door…
Tang Tian slept deeply and only woke upon hearing noisy chatter in the yard. She hastily slipped on her shoes and rushed outside.
Second Grandpa Li had been drinking, his face flushed red, but he radiated rare excitement as he sat under the eaves sharing good news with Li Qiushuang.
“Chuan Ge’er’s mother, we won’t have to worry about beans anymore! The Wei Suo troops really enjoy our bean sprouts. After I cooked the batch I brought, everyone fought with their chopsticks to get some. Haha, you should’ve seen it—they nearly came to blows!
“Old Zhang from the Logistics Camp said they want three hundred jin of bean sprouts daily in exchange for one hundred jin of beans! And this is just temporary—they’ll likely double the order soon!”
Li Qiushuang was overjoyed, repeatedly expressing her gratitude.
Tang Tian scampered to pour the old man a bowl of water, secretly adding some spring water.
Second Grandpa Li smacked his lips after drinking and laughed, “Ah, with happy events at home, even plain water tastes sweet!”
Just then, Li Jin and Li Tie returned from town pulling a cart.
Li Tie shouted as soon as he entered the yard, “Sister-in-law Qiushuang, we delivered all the bean sprouts. Shopkeeper Tian’s restaurant was so packed you could barely push the door open—business is booming!”
Meanwhile, Li Jin unloaded a large bag of mung beans from the cart and said earnestly, “We used all the bean sprout earnings to exchange for mung beans at Shopkeeper Liao’s place. He promised to help source more for us.”
This small but successful start amplified the celebratory atmosphere in the courtyard.
When Li Qiushuang insisted they stay for a meal, Second Grandpa Li and his two sons declined. Instead, she quickly fetched thirty copper coins and pressed them into Li Tie’s hand.
Li Tie wanted to suggest settling accounts later, but thinking of his elderly mother and wife at home, he swallowed his words with embarrassment…
Although the business had started, they hadn’t seen any earnings yet and had instead spent thirty copper coins. But at least they no longer had to worry about the source of soybeans.
Moreover, one jin of soybeans could produce eight jin of bean sprouts. After deducting costs, they could still retain half the profit no matter what.
One could say that full granaries, stocked meat supplies, and treasuries overflowing with gold and silver were truly within reach!
Another four or five days passed in a flash. Tang Chuan finished this round of medicinal decoction and genuinely felt much better. Aside from coughing a few times at night, he hardly coughed during the day at all.
Despite his mother’s objections, he went in and out of the side room daily to help water the bean sprouts. Each time he saw the plump, white bean sprouts growing vigorously, his eyes would brighten with a smile, sweeping away his previous gloom.
As for Tang Hai, the steamed buns and pancakes gradually added to the dining table, along with shredded pork stir-fried with bean sprouts, and even the vegetarian buns with bean sprouts, wood ear mushrooms, and chives he secretly ate by oil lamp light at night, kept him grinning all day. He was full of energy when fetching well water too.
Li Qiushuang was even more bustling about, treating the bean sprout baskets as preciously as her own eyeballs.
As for Tang Tian, aside from preparing the growth water for the bean sprouts daily, she secretly smuggled inconspicuous food from her Space into the family’s three meals, striving to fatten up four people sooner to withstand the increasingly cold weather.
That morning, when the whole family prepared to go to town, they discovered a moderate snowfall overnight.
The accumulated snow on the road already reached above their calves, but the fresh snow was light and fluffy, so the cart wheels didn’t have much difficulty passing over it.
The taverns and food shops in the county town, having witnessed Meiwei Ju’s explosive popularity, now recognized the benefits of bean sprouts.
Especially the one that had casually discarded them before—they truly regretted it immensely.
They had let a wealth-building opportunity slip right through their fingers!
Fortunately, this mistake wasn’t irreparable.
The Li brothers had been intercepted at the city gate several times already, with customers increasing their daily delivery quantities.
From the initial hundred jin for Meiwei Ju to the three hundred jin on the cart today—it was truly delightful progress!
Coupled with the procurement from the Wei Suo, the Tang Family was now shipping over seven hundred jin per day.
Therefore, Li Qiushuang’s main task was to continue purchasing tools.
Tang Tian contemplated trying other substitutes: if sieves were insufficient, they could use finely-woven straw mats; light-blocking pottery basins could be replaced with wooden boxes. And these items, it was said, could be made by Uncle Li Yin, the second son of Second Grandpa Li’s family.
In short, everything was guided by the principles of convenience, practicality, and producing more bean sprouts.
Li Erye had nothing to do today and was curious to see how popular the bean sprouts were in town. So he put on a half-new sheepskin coat and joined the group escorting the cart into the city, helping push whenever they encountered snow pits.
Li Jin and Li Tie now had to make two trips to the county town daily, transporting the bean sprouts separately to lighten the cart’s load. Even so, they still ended up drenched in sweat each time.
When the cold wind blew, steam rose from the brothers’ heads, like freshly steamed buns…
Tang Tian suddenly wondered if the Wei Suo had any old horses they were phasing out. Once they had saved up more silver, they could buy two—it would make deliveries or family trips to town much more convenient.
Amid these random thoughts along the way, they soon entered the city.
Deliveries were naturally handled by Li Jin and Li Tie. Li Qiushuang took the children straight to the medical clinic.
Tang Chuan no longer gasped for breath while walking and rarely coughed at night, looking almost no different from an ordinary boy. Therefore, Mr. Cui stopped attending to him after prescribing medicine, leaving only Cui Hai to continue the hedgehog acupuncture.
Li Qiushuang needed to go to the grocery store for supplies and, due to the rumors from last time, asked Second Grandpa Li to accompany her for support.
Second Grandpa Li naturally did not refuse, so he was pulled into the grocery store by Tang Tian and Tang Chuan, each holding one of his hands.
Shopkeeper Liao had obtained a few more pounds of bean sprouts, which delighted him so much that he was practically beaming. He offered Li Qiushuang the lowest prices on everything she bought.
Of course, Li Qiushuang also cleared out all the soybeans and mung beans he had collected.
Perhaps Second Grandpa Li had caught a chill on the way, as his stomach felt a bit uncomfortable. After sitting idly for a while, he borrowed the outhouse in Shopkeeper Liao’s backyard to use.