He suppressed his tears and smiled at the old woman, "Second Aunt, since you mention it, I actually do need your help. Tomorrow I'll take the prey to exchange for money; I plan to make a few sets of clothes for the children..."
Before he could finish speaking, Granny Xu quickly interjected, "No problem at all. Wait right there, I'll go back now to get the measuring tape to measure the girls' sizes."
After the person left, Xu Jianing walked forward, hugged her Father, and whispered comfortingly, "Father, it's okay, you still have us."
Mother Xu couldn't help but burst into tears beside them. She felt terrible, always thinking that if it weren't for her, Father Xu wouldn't have ended up in such a conflict with the First Branch.
The father and daughters quickly comforted her as well.
Suddenly, Father Xu remembered—the things, the things in the Kitchen, how could they have vanished into thin air?
He rushed into the Kitchen and searched carefully, only to find that everything was gone.
He walked out looking dejected and shook his head at them, "The things are indeed gone!"
Xu Jiayin immediately rushed to the small woodshed nearby. After fiddling around inside for a while, she emerged triumphantly holding the items.
Xu Jianing was amused; weren't those exactly the things they were looking for?
She suddenly recalled a detail: upon hearing that her Grandmother had arrived, her Eldest Sister quickly dropped a chicken leg into her bowl and then rushed out again for quite some time.
It turned out that her Eldest Sister had made the move during that time. It seemed that this kind of thing wasn't the first time her Grandmother had done it.
She walked forward and gave her Eldest Sister a thumbs-up, "Eldest Sister, you are amazing! Our family will get better and better from now on. I hope you can resolve your inner conflict and chat with me more; I like listening to your voice."
Xu Jiayin blushed. Although she didn't speak, she lovingly patted Xu Jianing's head. She smiled, a smile that came from genuine happiness.
Xu Jianing was quite pleased with the outcome.
She quickly helped carry things into the Kitchen.
Father Xu, standing to the side, smiled with a touch of sadness, "The children have all grown up; they are all good children."
Remembering the items brought back from the Mountains still needed processing, Father Xu sent Mother Xu back to her room and then hurried off to work.
Unexpectedly, the two sisters of the Xu Family picked up their Back Baskets from the Kitchen, intending to go back right away to retrieve the Chestnuts they had knocked down earlier but hadn't managed to bring back.
Seeing this, Father Xu dropped what he was doing and prepared to follow them.
Just then, Granny Xu, who had gone back for the measuring tape, returned with a young Woman. "Ah, when one gets old, one becomes useless. Fearing I might forget the measurements, I brought my daughter-in-law along."
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, they quickly finished taking all the measurements.
Thinking about the coming winter, at Xu Jianing's strong insistence, they also took down the measurements for Father Xu and Mother Xu; they too needed a few sets of warmer clothes.
After seeing Granny Xu and the others off, the father and daughters hurried back to the Mountains to retrieve all the remaining Chestnuts.
Looking at the pile of Chestnuts stacked like a small mountain, Xu Jianing secretly rejoiced; this was all money!
It was impossible to process all of them perfectly.
Under Xu Jianing's direction, Father Xu and the Eldest Sister took a portion to start crushing with their feet, while the rest that couldn't be processed immediately was laid out in the sun to dry.
Working together through division of labor, the group finally managed to produce two large basins of fresh Chestnuts before sunset.
Xu Jianing took a small portion from the batch, washed them clean with Clean Water, boiled them in a pot, and then carefully used scissors to cut open every single Chestnut.
She then took a bowl from the Kitchen, poured in a small amount of honey, diluted it with water, added the boiled Chestnuts to the pot with the honey water, and stir-fried them until every Chestnut was coated, only removing them from the heat once the syrup had dried.
There was no choice; their family's conditions were limited—they had neither oil nor sugar—so they could only use the simplest method to achieve the desired effect.
After they were taken out of the pot, she let them cool slightly, and Xu Jianing impatiently reached out, picked up one, and began peeling it.
She stuffed it into her Eldest Sister Xu Jiayin's mouth as if presenting a treasure.
"Sister, is it delicious? Is it sweet?"
Xu Jiayin chewed quickly a few times and nodded vigorously. Mimicking Xu Jianing's earlier action, she gave her a thumbs-up.
Xu Jianing was amused by her reaction and couldn't help but praise her, "Sister, you are so cute; I like you more and more. Before we leave tomorrow morning, let's make a bit more to take to the Town to sell."
"Oh, Father, is the Town far from here? I hope it won't get cold by the time we get there; that might affect the taste."
Seeing the two sisters getting along so harmoniously, Father Xu's mood greatly improved.
He said cheerfully, "It's not far at all. Normally, it only takes me half an hour to walk there. I'll talk to Uncle Jingde later and ask to borrow his cart to go to the Town tomorrow. It should only take about fifteen minutes."
Hearing this, Xu Jianing finally felt relieved.
She urged them to eat some as snacks first, then discussed with her Father about using the remaining corn flour to pan-fry some flatbreads.
In the end, the whole family ate the flatbreads while drinking Chicken Soup, and everyone wore a long-lost smile on their faces.
Xu Jianing grumbled inwardly, it really was just like the lyrics she heard in her Previous life sang: happiness can be very simple.
In this era, there were no cell phones to scroll through, nor were there many entertainment options, so to save lamp oil, everyone went to bed very early.
However, Xu Jianing couldn't fall asleep at all.
She needed to earn money; there were far too many things she wanted to buy. The very first thing was replacing this so-called bed.
What was called a bed was actually just two wooden planks joined together, with some straw laid on top. The mattress padding had become rock-hard from long use; not only was it not warm, but it was also uncomfortable.
Lost in thought, she eventually drifted off to sleep.
It wasn't until Father knocked lightly on the door from outside and whispered, "Ning'er, hurry up and get up; we need to leave early."
Xu Jianing woke up instantly. She frantically pulled on her clothes, saying as she dressed, "Father, I'll be right out. Oh no, the Chestnuts, the Chestnuts aren't ready yet."
She sped up and rushed out of the room straight toward the Kitchen.
She found her Eldest Sister diligently scoring the still-steaming Chestnuts with a knife.
Hearing the movement, her Eldest Sister looked up, and upon seeing her, she smiled at her.
She pointed at the contents of the pot, then returned to the task at hand.
Xu Jianing lifted the lid and took a look; inside was a warm bowl of corn Batter and a boiled egg beside it.
She looked at her Eldest Sister with complicated feelings and asked, "Sister, have you eaten? Where did the egg come from?"
She knew their family's situation. Forget an egg, they barely had a few chicken feathers. So, where did this sudden extra egg come from?