In her previous life, Tang Tang had lived in the countryside before, so adapting to rural life again was quite easy for her.
Even though she already had everything she could possibly need, living a proper life wasn’t just about supplies.
It was about warmth.
About having hope in daily life.
Looking at the smiling faces of the villagers, filled with enthusiasm despite their difficult lives, Tang Tang found herself loving this atmosphere.
Tang Tang’s nearest neighbors lived about five minutes away.
It was a family of three: an elderly couple in their sixties raising their six-year-old grandson together.
Their son and daughter-in-law had both died during the final year of the Anti-Japanese War on the Northeastern battlefield.
The couple had rushed overnight to bring back their still-nursing grandson.
The old couple had strong pride and refused to accept free help from the villagers.
They stubbornly raised the child using rice soup and rice paste.
Normally, they worked alongside the other villagers in the fields.
The village assigned them lighter tasks or work that allowed them to watch the child at the same time.
Together, the elderly couple earned seven or eight work points each day, barely enough for the three of them to fill their stomachs.
This time, after receiving both meat and money from the wild boar distribution, the couple still couldn’t bear to eat it immediately.
Instead, they turned all the meat into salted preserved pork to save for their grandson.
They hadn’t eaten meat in many years.
Who knew when they’d get another chance?
All of this information came from Lin Guanghui.
Since Tang Tang planned to continue living in the village, she naturally needed to interact with the villagers.
If nothing else, neighbors were unavoidable.
Tang Tang wanted to exchange for some cabbage from the villagers, dry some vegetables, and pickle sauerkraut.
After all, during Northeastern winters, sauerkraut was practically the main dish.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
This was absolutely necessary.
The moment she mentioned it to Lin Guanghui, he immediately recommended this family.
He knew the old couple well.
During breaks from fieldwork, they planted many vegetables in their garden and even raised a few chickens.
The elderly couple worked diligently and took excellent care of everything.
According to his father, during the years when food supplies were cut off, the old couple still refused to accept free help from villagers and insisted on exchanging vegetables instead.
When Tang Tang knocked on their door, Old Master Li and his wife were cleaning up their garden.
Frost season was approaching, so the cabbages and radishes needed to be harvested soon.
As they were discussing this, the sound of knocking reached them.
Their little grandson immediately ran over to open the gate.
Looking up, he saw an unfamiliar older sister.
“Who are you?”
Tang Tang had always liked well-behaved children.
She bent down slightly.
“I’m the older sister living over there. We’re neighbors.”
She pointed toward her own house.
“Big sister wants to see your grandma. Is that okay?”
“Okay, come in!”
Tang Tang rubbed his short little hair and handed him a milk candy.
“Such a good boy. Big sister is treating you to candy.”
The child was very polite.
Even though he obviously wanted it badly, he didn’t reach out.
Tang Tang directly stuffed it into his hand.
“Tiedan, who came?”
The elderly couple slowly made their way out from the back garden.
Little Tiedan immediately ran toward his grandparents.
The old lady moved quickly and energetically, arriving in only a few steps.
“Oh my, it’s Educated Youth Tang! Why did you come?”
Elderly people naturally loved obedient and polite youngsters like her.
“Auntie, did your family plant a lot of cabbage? I’d like to exchange for some. I want to pickle sauerkraut.”
Tang Tang preferred speaking directly.
“Yes, yes, yes! How much do you want? Come take a look.”
The old lady immediately pulled the little girl toward the back garden.
The garden wasn’t small.
Half was planted with cabbages, the other half with radishes.
Everything was growing extremely well.
“Auntie, how much sauerkraut do people usually pickle?”
“See that jar?”
She pointed toward a huge clay jar nearly 1.2 meters tall beside the mud wall.
“We pickle one full jar every winter. There aren’t many vegetables during winter, so we stew sauerkraut and even use it for dumplings during the New Year.”
The little girl’s eyes rolled thoughtfully.
“Auntie, can you teach me how to pickle sauerkraut? I want to pickle one full jar too. And I also want to make pickled vegetables, but I don’t know how.”
As she spoke, the little girl even looked slightly embarrassed.
“It’s alright, it’s alright. If you trust Auntie, I’ll teach you. My pickled vegetables and sauerkraut are among the best in the village. But can you even finish eating that much by yourself?”
“It’s okay, Auntie. I also want to mail some home for my family to try.”
The innocent family back home continued silently taking the blame…
“Alright, alright. Whenever you’re ready to pickle, I’ll bring the vegetables over for you.”
After asking about the size of jars she needed, Tang Tang decided to go to town tomorrow and buy them.
She definitely didn’t have anything like that stored in her space.
Back then, she never would have imagined needing such huge jars.
After saying goodbye to the elderly couple, she met Lin Guanghui outside.
When she mentioned going to town tomorrow to buy jars, he answered immediately without hesitation:
“I’ll go with you.”
The little girl gave him a strange look.
After thinking it over, she realized it was probably better for these things to openly pass through public view, so she agreed.
The next day, the two of them went to the town supply cooperative and…
Bought out all the jars.
Lin Guanghui had definitely not expected that.
Why did this little girl stockpile absolutely everything?
You live alone.
What are you going to do with so many jars?
Two large jars, four medium jars, eight small jars.
Over a dozen jars of all sizes completely filled the ox cart.
They had to tie everything down with ropes to avoid accidents.
Fortunately, Tang Tang lived near the village entrance.
Otherwise, the villagers definitely would have been shocked once again.
The hardworking Lin Guanghui moved all the jars into the unused west room.
As he imagined an entire row of pickle jars lined against the walls, he quickly shook his head.
Since everything was already prepared, they might as well move the vegetables back too.
With such strong labor available, there was no point wasting him.
After arranging things with the old lady for the next day, the two of them directly emptied half her garden.
Lin Guanghui sighed.
“You brought back this much. Are you planning to eat for several years?”
The little girl secretly laughed without answering.
Pure natural, pollution-free vegetables became rarer and rarer in later years.
Besides, she genuinely loved eating them.
Stockpiling more was definitely correct.
Early the next morning, the old lady arrived with little Tiedan.
One person sincerely taught.
One person humbly learned.
And one tiny child constantly ate snacks while making silly comments nearby.
With the little girl speaking sweetly the entire time, the elderly woman and young girl achieved incredible results after three busy days.
One huge jar of sauerkraut.
One huge jar of crispy sour cucumbers.
One medium jar of crunchy radishes.
One small jar of mustard greens.
One small jar of pickled mustard root.
One small jar of preserved snow greens.
Vegetables hung everywhere drying from ropes.
The racks in the courtyard were covered with dried radishes, dried potatoes, and dried eggplants.
These were all foods the little girl loved eating.
Naturally, she needed to stockpile plenty.
Of course, the tiny cucumbers had been secretly produced by Tang Tang herself.
The old lady didn’t ask questions.
Even more amazingly, the old lady decided to teach Tang Tang how to make soybean paste.
The two of them boiled soybeans and shaped soybean paste bricks together.
Now they only needed to wait several months for the bricks to ferment before placing them into jars to make soybean paste.
After finishing all the pickling work, Tang Tang quietly delivered fifty jin of white flour, twenty jin of dried noodles, two bags of milk powder, and six apples to the old lady after dark.
The elderly couple absolutely refused to accept them at first.
These were all fine grains and incredibly precious.
Tang Tang insisted they were payment for the vegetables.
Only then was she finally allowed to leave.
After returning home, she pickled another medium jar of salted duck eggs and a small jar of spicy kimchi before finally stopping.
Looking at the row of more than ten fully packed pickle jars and the fermenting soybean paste bricks on the windowsill, the little girl laughed at herself.
This truly was living a proper life.
She had only been here for a few days, yet everything was already so complete.
Oh right.
Next time she went to town, she still needed to buy a dedicated soybean paste jar.
Mm.
She had to remember that.