Before dawn, the village roosters began crowing intermittently.
Xu Qinghe pulled the quilt over her head and struggled to fall back asleep. After tossing and turning for a while, she finally gave up.
Taking out her phone, she checked the time.
It was only a little after five in the morning.
So annoyed that she punched the folding bed beneath her.
The night before, she had planted seeds in all the newly expanded farmland inside her space and reorganized the older plots as well.
The test vegetables she had planted first had already matured.
Based on her calculations, crops inside the space grew roughly one-third faster than outside.
With that growth rate and modern improved seeds, she no longer had to worry about running out of food because of limited farmland.
The roosters continued crowing outside, making the wind seem quieter by comparison.
Xu Qinghe took out a thermometer and placed it on the table, then drifted into a half-asleep doze.
Only when the sun had fully risen and light began shining through the gaps in the door did she finally open her eyes with satisfaction.
A second round of sleep really was the best.
Especially when wrapped in such warm, soft blankets.
She glanced at the thermometer.
It showed around 0°C (32°F).
That was five or six degrees warmer than a few days ago.
The weather was finally beginning to warm up.
Before long, the village would probably start getting busy again.
This time she didn’t stay in bed.
She got up, put away the items from her space, used the toilet, washed up, cleaned the house, checked for lice, and then used the tiny amount of millet left in the right room to cook a pot of millet porridge.
What Aunt Liu had said yesterday had reminded her of something important.
A stove that was always cold and spotless would immediately reveal that nobody was cooking.
Once or twice wouldn’t attract attention.
Repeatedly doing so would.
She needed to pay closer attention to details like that.
When the porridge was finished, the stove had warmed the main room, and even the kang in the left room felt warm.
Xu Qinghe transferred the porridge into clay bowls and then placed them inside the iron pot, covering it with the lid.
Every household in the village did something similar.
To save fuel, families usually cooked an entire day’s worth of food in the morning.
Any leftovers from breakfast stayed inside the pot, and at night only a small amount of firewood was needed to reheat them.
Xu Qinghe had no intention of eating the porridge herself.
It wasn’t particularly nutritious and wasn’t as easy to digest as the prepared food she had stored in her space.
Instead, she took out:
After eating, she drank a cup of honey water to help digestion.
Around nine o’clock, the temperature finally climbed above freezing.
She packed away the items from her space, dumped wood ash into the outhouse pit, grabbed a hoe, and started turning over the vegetable patch.
By digging up the deeper soil layers, she could expose insect eggs to the cold and kill them.
She also broke apart the hardened clumps of earth.
Only then would the soil be suitable for growing vegetables.
She swung the hoe again and again.
Before long, sweat began forming on her back.
Farming was exhausting work.
But there was something deeply satisfying about watching the land improve beneath your hands.
After more than an hour of labor, the garden soil had become noticeably softer and more orderly.
Xu Qinghe put down the hoe and stretched her aching shoulders.
Farming really wasn’t easy.
“Little sister! What’re you doing?”
Turning around, she saw Liu Dazhuang approaching with two buckets of water.
She immediately opened the gate and went to greet him.
“Brother Dazhuang, I’m working on the garden. Thanks for bringing the water.”
He shook his head.
“It’s nothing. No need to be so polite with your big brother.”
Liu Dazhuang set the buckets down by the entrance.
Instead of coming inside, he stayed by the door chatting with her.
Xu Qinghe carried the water into the house and poured it into the water jar before returning.
“Brother Dazhuang, are Auntie and Uncle home right now?”
“They’re both there. Why?”
“I want to talk to them about something. I’ll come back with you.”
“Sure.”
After locking her door and closing the gate, she paused briefly.
The more she looked at her house, the more she felt her current security measures were inadequate.
As they walked, they chatted casually.
Partway there, they saw members of the Wang family carrying a rolled-up straw mat toward the mountains.
An elderly pair of feet protruded from one end.
Xu Qinghe knew immediately.
It was Uncle Wang, who had died yesterday.
The sounds of grieving relatives still lingered.
Yet the old man was already on his way to burial.
For poor people, there was no time and no money to properly mourn.
The heavens had not granted them the luxury of processing their loss.
Holding wakes, hosting banquets, and conducting elaborate funerals—
those were privileges reserved for the wealthy.
The poor could only grieve while worrying about survival.
Neither Xu Qinghe nor Liu Dazhuang said anything.
Some things needed no words.
Soon they arrived at the Liu household.
Aunt Liu and Sister-in-law Liu were weaving cloth.
Uncle Liu was repairing farming tools.
Even Little Brother Liu wasn’t idle.
He was weaving baskets.
“Father! Mother! Xiaohe’s here!”
The moment Liu Dazhuang entered, he shouted the announcement.
Aunt Liu immediately lifted the curtain and pulled Xu Qinghe into the warmer west room.
After greeting everyone and chatting for a while, Xu Qinghe finally got to the point.
“Uncle, Auntie, I’ve been thinking these past few days.”
“I’m planning to sell part of my land.”
“What?!”
Everyone jumped to their feet.
“What are you thinking, child? How can you sell land? What will you eat afterward?”
“Exactly! Xiaohe, selling land isn’t an option. Are you having some kind of trouble?”
Even Sister-in-law Liu came over and grabbed her arm.
Looking at the concern on their faces only strengthened Xu Qinghe’s resolve.
“I’m fine, Sister-in-law. This isn’t a rash decision. I’ve thought about it carefully.”
Seeing Aunt Liu about to object again, she quickly continued.
“Auntie, hear me out. Land is valuable, but the ten mu my parents left behind are simply too much for me.”
“First, I can’t cultivate all of it myself.”
“Second, I’m a woman living alone. If I keep that much land, sooner or later someone will set their sights on it.”
“Third, even if I leave fields uncultivated, I’ll still have to pay taxes on them.”
“In the end, the land becomes a burden rather than an asset.”
Aunt Liu was about to say that her family would gladly help.
But Xu Qinghe continued before she could.
“I know you’re close to me. If I asked, you’d help no matter how inconvenient it was.”
“But I can’t think that way.”
“My parents loved your family.”
“I feel the same way.”
“Because of that, I don’t want these matters to damage our relationship.”
The room fell silent.
Aunt Liu’s eyes filled with tears as she hugged her.
“You child… how am I supposed to stop caring about you?”
Xu Qinghe smiled awkwardly.
“Even though I don’t want to trouble you too much, my position in the village isn’t strong enough.”
“When I sell the land, people may try to take advantage of me.”
“So I’d like Uncle’s help finding trustworthy buyers.”
Aunt Liu exchanged a glance with her husband.
Truthfully, after hearing Xu Qinghe’s reasoning, she had already thought of something.
What if the Liu family bought the land?
That way Xiaohe wouldn’t be cheated.
And their own family would gain additional farmland.
Their eldest son was married.
Grandchildren would come soon.
The younger son would eventually need his own household.
Every future expense required grain.
If they could acquire more land while they were still healthy enough to work, it would strengthen the family’s future.
The only problem was whether buying it would look like they were taking advantage of her.
Would it create resentment?
Uncle Liu smoked quietly for a while before finally speaking.
“Xiaohe.”
“What do you think about selling the land to us?”
“Father!”
Liu Dazhuang immediately protested.
Clearly, he also felt the idea sounded somewhat improper.
Uncle Liu waved him silent and kept his eyes on Xu Qinghe.
Inside, Xu Qinghe’s heart relaxed.
This had been exactly what she wanted.
Her expression brightened with surprise.
“If Uncle is willing to buy it, that would be wonderful.”
“Only…”
Uncle Liu tapped the ash from his pipe.
“Don’t worry. I’m not buying it because I’m trying to take advantage of you.”
“My family genuinely needs more land.”
“Then that’s good.”
“But no matter how you look at it, my family benefits from this arrangement.”
Xu Qinghe smiled.
She didn’t pretend otherwise.
That would have sounded fake.
Instead she simply said,
“There’s no need for us to keep score with each other.”
For a moment, everyone froze.
Then smiles spread across their faces.
Once the matter of the land had been settled, they spent some more time chatting.
During the conversation, Xu Qinghe learned that in the next couple of days the villagers would be making a group trip to the county town to buy and sell goods.
Her eyes immediately lit up.
Finally—
she would get to visit the county town.