When they arrived at the west end of the village, they saw the Village Head and his three sons from afar, busy carrying lumber back and forth.
Father Xu quickly jumped down from the ox cart. He then helped Mother Xu sit down in an empty spot nearby.
He said somewhat awkwardly, "Uncle Lizheng and the brothers have worked hard. We arrived late. Jingde, just put the things inside the courtyard."
The Village Head, hearing the commotion, stopped his work and said cheerfully, "Not late, not late, we just started construction. We plan to have the children reinforce the roof, spread some straw, and tidy up the two rooms next door. It won't take long before people can move in."
After settling the items, Father Xu rolled up his sleeves and prepared to help with the work.
Xu Jianing was not idle either. She carefully observed the surrounding environment. She noticed this place was not far from the back mountain, and there were only one or two other households nearby, which would save a lot of trouble.
Remembering the pig offal she bought in town, she found a clean wooden basin to hold it, took some flour, and prepared to go out to find a place to wash it.
Eldest Sister Xu Jiayin followed behind her, took the basin from her hands, and whispered to her, "Follow me."
Xu Jianing followed behind her, and the two quickly arrived at a small river.
Upon seeing the contents of the basin, Xu Jiayin was a bit confused. "Ning'er, how do we process this pig offal? You tell me the steps, and I'll help."
Xu Jianing nervously picked at her nose bridge. In truth, she was also a bit unsure. She had only vaguely looked at the specific steps in the database, but this was her first time trying to do it herself.
Thinking this, she spoke somewhat vaguely, "Let's first see what's inside, and then we can decide how to proceed."
The two sisters poured the contents to the side. Xu Jianing examined them; luckily, it was just some pig liver, pig heart, pig stomach, and similar items.
Uncle Wang hadn't given them the most difficult part to process, the pig intestines, which was a pity. But it was also good; it saved a lot of flour, and washing them by the river would be much more convenient.
Just as they were almost done washing, Xu Jianing noticed quite a few fish and small shrimp swimming over in the river.
She immediately became interested. "Sister, take this back to the kitchen first. I want to catch some fish to eat."
Xu Jiayin sighed helplessly. "These things aren't tasty; they're too fishy and full of bones. Everyone in the village has probably already caught them all. Let's go back early; Father probably wants us to prepare a meal for the Village Head's family."
Hearing her say that, Xu Jianing's eyes lit up.
No one wants them, no one is catching them—isn't that even better? This is all money!
Spicy dried small fish, shrimp paste, crucian carp and tofu soup, pickled vegetable fish stew...
As long as they could eat spicy food, there were many dishes related to fish and shrimp, and she had ways to make money.
If all else failed, they could keep them for the winter themselves.
It was only two months until the Lunar New Year. Their family hadn't started stocking up on food yet, which made Xu Jianing a little anxious; no grain meant no sense of security.
However, the most urgent thing right now was to quickly have a home that truly belonged to them.
Seeing that she insisted on catching fish, Xu Jiayin gave a few worried reminders before quickly leaving.
Xu Jianing, waiting by the river for her Eldest Sister to go back and get things, was not idle.
She closed her eyes and entered her space to search. She found there were quite a few ways to catch fish, but many of the necessary materials didn't exist in this era.
After some thought, she decided to go into the water to catch fish by hand.
She acted immediately. She sat down to the side, took off her shoes and socks, rolled up her sleeves and pant legs, did some warm-up exercises on the bank, and then entered the water.
It was noon, so the water temperature wasn't cold. Many small fish swam past her, but she didn't pay attention. She focused her attention on a large fish not far away.
Sensing the moment was right, she quickly thrust her hand into the water. A miracle happened; she actually caught a large crucian carp with her bare hands.
When Xu Jiayin rushed back, she saw their younger sister standing in the water, smiling foolishly.
This scared her terribly.
She shouted anxiously, "Ning'er, what are you doing? Come up quickly! Why did you run into the river? It's so dangerous. Hurry back."
Xu Jianing walked toward the bank while saying, "Sister, look! I caught a fish, haha..."
"Stop messing around, come up quickly." Xu Jiayin still called out worriedly, "You're not well; don't stay in the water too long. Look, I brought you something good."
Xu Jiayin took a net-like object out of the wooden bucket and handed it to her. "Look, I found quite a few hemp ropes at the Village Head's house, so I quickly wove a net. I don't know if it's useful, but come up first."
Xu Jiayin rushed over quickly and threw the fish in her hand into the water bucket.
She picked up one end of the fishing net and said to her Eldest Sister, "Sister, let's each pull one end and try. I estimate it will work fine for big fish."
Xu Jianing stood quietly in the water. Soon, quite a few more fish swam over. Working together, the two sisters actually caught quite a lot of fish.
Xu Jianing was beaming with joy. She started showering her with compliments, "Sister, you are amazing. If your weaving of this fishing net hadn't been so good, we might not have caught this much."
She looked into the river again and saw quite a few river clams. She scooped up many of those too.
These river clams are good stuff. Whether stir-fried or made into soup, they taste quite good; she was already starting to crave them.
Xu Jiayin saw her younger sister putting everything into the basin and wanted to stop her but felt too awkward to speak up.
She held back and stayed silent, assuming her younger sister was just indulging a childish whim, feeling curious and wanting to take them back to play with, so she didn't take it too seriously.
Xu Jianing was busy scooping up river shrimp and washing river clams; the more she caught, the more engrossed she became. In her eyes, all these things were delicacies.
Only when the basin and the bucket were completely full did she reluctantly follow her Eldest Sister to leave.
Fortunately, everyone inside the house was busy, and no one noticed them.
The two sisters quickly slipped into the kitchen.
Xu Jiayin asked in a low voice, "Ning'er, what should we do with all this stuff?"
"You wait. I'll make something delicious for you all to taste later, but not right now. I'm afraid of too many people talking if we do it openly, so we should be cautious. I estimate Father will ask the Village Head and the others to eat at home, so let's get ready!"
As expected, not long after, Father Xu shouted from outside, telling them to start preparing the meal.
But upon hearing they were to stay for dinner, the Village Head absolutely refused and quickly left with his sons.
Father Xu sighed helplessly. He understood the Village Head's meaning—he was worried that since their family had little grain, this whole group, especially strong young men, would come and eat them out of house and home in one go.
Despite his helplessness, Father Xu felt a pang of sadness. Why couldn't his so-called relatives understand the logic that outsiders understood?
But it didn't matter. Soon, they would have a real home that belonged only to them.