After following Lin Minghao through seven twists and eight turns for the length of two fifteen-minute periods, they arrived at a cliff on the back mountain. They passed through a narrow crack in the rocks and unexpectedly found themselves in a valley.
The valley was not large, but it had running water, quite a few wild vegetables, and even a small natural cave.
“At first, the path was extremely narrow, only wide enough for one person. After walking dozens of steps, it suddenly opened up… This is the Peach Blossom Spring, isn’t it?” Lin Changsong could not help reciting “The Peach Blossom Spring.”
Lin Xiaowei had come out today to cut pigweed, and she had brought a sickle in her carrying basket. She casually cut some vines as well. As a master of handicrafts, making a vine basket was as easy for her as reaching out and grabbing something.
Wang Ya exclaimed, “This place is pretty good. If I were any fatter, I wouldn’t have been able to get through.”
“The original Goudan came up the mountain to gather firewood,” Lin Minghao explained. “When he saw a rabbit, he chased after it and ended up here.”
Wang Ya looked at her son, who appeared to be only four years old, and lifted him into her arms. “He must have been starving. Poor thing!”
Lin Minghao, whose mental age was sixteen: Put me down, quick!
While everyone was talking, Lin Xiaowei had already swiftly woven a basket. She put the uneaten Chinese yam inside and set it at the entrance of the cave.
“Today, we’ll clean up this little cave. I see there’s quite a lot of pigweed here, so we can cut it here. Dad, tell us which plants are wild vegetables. We won’t touch those for now—we’ll leave them here and pull them up when we need to eat them later. And which ones are medicinal herbs? We’ll dig those up and dry them.”
“All right,” said Lin Changsong. “I’ll find a way to get a pot too. Before the family separates, we’ll cook our own meals here.”
Lin Xiaowei pointed to the mud beside the stream. “Dad, there’s no rush. That mud looks pretty good to me. Later, I’ll make a few earthenware jars.”
They had no idea which part of their former country, Huaguo, Shanyang County was located in. In any case, the winters here were not as cold as those in the north. It might be somewhere in the central or slightly southern region. It was just the beginning of spring, and it was not yet time to sow seeds. The snakes had not emerged either, but to be safe, Lin Changsong still took a stick and beat the surrounding area thoroughly.
Wang Ya had brought a chopping knife out today. Lin Changsong helped drag the dead trees in the valley over and chop them up, keeping them for firewood later.
Remembering how difficult it had been to start a fire before, Lin Minghao asked, “Sis, can you make the ancient version of a lighter—a fire striker?”
“I can!”
Lin Minghao had just been about to say, “Then you can make a few fire strikers,” when Lin Xiaowei shook her head.
“Saltpeter, reed tassels, and charcoal are easy enough to find, but this dynasty doesn’t have sweet potatoes yet. Making a fire striker requires sweet-potato vines, as well as cotton and sulfur…”
“Oh…”
Seeing his little head droop, Lin Xiaowei comforted him. “Don’t worry. Even without a fire striker, I can improve the tools for making fire by drilling wood. They’ll save us quite a bit of effort.”
Lin Minghao’s smile returned. “My sister really is amazing!”
“Tsk. Aren’t you going to say that I’m always tinkering with things?”
Lin Minghao chuckled sheepishly, not daring to admit it.
Lin Xiaowei had never expected that the skills she had cultivated over so many years as a content creator would come in handy after transmigrating. This could also count as her cheat ability, right?
Lin Changsong also discovered some medicinal herbs in the valley. After pointing them out and teaching the others to recognize them, he went back down the mountain and returned to the fields to slack off.
Other people busily worked for a few pieces of silver. They busily worked just to meet their most basic needs for survival. When you put it that way, their situation was truly miserable!
That day, the three of them dried some medicinal herbs, stored Chinese yams and firewood in the cave, made a bow-drill fire-starting tool, and wove quite a few vine baskets to keep there.
Before going down the mountain, they roasted some more Chinese yams. After the mother and her two children had eaten, they took two roasted yams back for Lin Changsong.
After leaving the valley, Wang Ya moved several larger stones over and blocked the entrance. She did not seal it completely—the opening had not been very large to begin with, and with the stones blocking it, even children would be unable to pass through.
Carrying a basket of pigweed, a small handful of wild vegetables, and a bundle of thin branches suitable for firewood, the mother and her two children returned home.
Old Madam Liu had thought that the Second Branch’s family had finally become obedient. But when she saw that they had brought back less than half the amount of pigweed, wild vegetables, and firewood they usually did, anger surged in her heart. She picked up a stick and moved to beat them.
“I’ll teach you to be lazy and slack off!”
The three of them dropped what they were carrying and ran out of the courtyard. Wang Ya’s voice was loud enough for half the village to hear.
“Mother, who are you cursing? Eldest Sister-in-law? I can understand you cursing her. She doesn’t cook at home and doesn’t work outside either. I know you’re angry that Minghai ended up with a mother like her…”
Xiao Liushi, who had been standing nearby and was just about to add fuel to the fire, fell silent…
Old Madam Liu was dumbfounded as well. She had never been this speechless in the past two days.
In the end, she did not chase them any farther. Several villagers who loved watching a spectacle were already running over.
Old Madam Liu could not swallow her anger, so when she distributed dinner, she wore a dark expression and gave the Second Branch nothing but some dishwater.
Once they returned to their room and closed the door, Wang Ya took out the roasted Chinese yams wrapped in leaves and handed them to Lin Changsong, telling him to eat quickly.
People here ate two meals a day: one in the morning during the Hour of the Dragon, and one in the afternoon during the Hour of the Rooster. They finished whatever needed to be done before nightfall, then went to sleep after dark.
Once they began cooking for themselves, they would certainly return to eating three meals a day. They would also need to eat some fine grains to nourish their bodies.
Lin Changsong ate the slightly cooled Chinese yam while watching his daughter weave a dragonfly out of reed leaves.
After she finished one, she handed it to Lin Minghao. How could a child from the city ever have played with something like this? He held it in his hand and shook it up and down. It really did look like a dragonfly about to take flight.
Lin Changsong swallowed a mouthful of Chinese yam. “Daughter, there’s a market every fifth day here. Why don’t you weave these and sell them at the market?”
Lin Minghao nodded. Children would definitely like them.
Lin Xiaowei’s hands moved swiftly. “Dragonflies are too simple. They’re easy for people to copy, so they won’t sell for long. But I don’t have any tools or materials right now. I can only start out with flowers and plants.”
Soon, she had also woven a nine-tailed fox and a little pig out of foxtail grass, and even made a Monkey King.
Lin Minghao’s eyes could barely keep up. He held the figures in his hands, full of regret. “It’s just that the children here don’t know who the Monkey King is. Otherwise, they’d be fighting over it.”
Wang Ya laughed. “Weiwei has already thought of a way to make money. All I can think about is pastries, but since coming here, I haven’t even seen any white flour.”
Lin Changsong stroked her rough, cracked hands. “There’s no rush. If you start making pastries to sell now, the First Branch would eat you alive. We’ll wait until after the family separates. For now, we’ll dig up some medicinal herbs to sell and save up a few copper coins.”
Wang Ya nodded. “How are things in the fields?”
Lin Changsong shook his head. “The soil is compacted and lacking in fertility, and they only plant one crop of rice each year. Actually, given the climate here, they could grow two crops of rice.”
The four of them sat together and planned for the future.
After the family separated, Lin Changsong would farm. Based on the conditions available to him, he would improve the seeds and agricultural tools, increase the yields, graft fruit trees, and so on.
Wang Ya would make pastries to sell. She was skilled at all kinds of Chinese and Western pastries. She would first try selling them and see what flavors the people here preferred. Later, she would consider opening a shop.
There were even more things Lin Xiaowei could do.
When she had been a content creator, she had studied professional carpentry. She had also made traditional candles, soap, and velvet flowers; found materials to dye cloth; raised silkworms; fired porcelain and charcoal; and learned straw weaving, vine weaving, rope weaving, and embroidery. She had also made tofu, produced wine yeast, brewed liquor, made soy sauce, manufactured paper, and produced brushes and ink, among other things.
The intangible cultural heritage field was highly competitive. At first, she had simply learned whatever other people filmed. Later, she gradually developed her own style, until others began imitating her.
As for things like soap, which could bring enormous profits, she did not dare reveal them yet. She needed to be more cautious.
As for little Lin Minghao, he had been a top student since childhood. He possessed a photographic memory and excelled in both the liberal arts and sciences. Although he had been only sixteen before transmigrating, he had already finished the college entrance examination and received his admission letter from Huada University.
This had happened when he was on summer vacation. The family had been traveling abroad when their plane crashed, wiping them all out.
Therefore, his goal was to study and take the imperial examinations. At the very least, he would obtain the xiucai rank, which would exempt him from corvée labor. If he could pass the imperial examination for the jinshi rank and become an official, Lin Xiaowei would be able to bring out even more of the things she knew how to make.