Traveling Through Those Years Of Farming (Quick Transmigration) - Chapter 7

After washing the clothes, the scholar’s wife placed the wrung-out clothes in the wooden basin, called for her son, and prepared to head home. Tang Dingyuan moved somewhat slowly. He hadn’t yet seen the prettier child that the aunts had talked about, and even if he dawdled, it wouldn’t delay things by much.

It seemed he would have to find another opportunity later. Tang Dingyuan felt a bit disappointed.

“Mother, the clothes are heavy. Let me help you.”

Seeing his thin mother carrying the heavy wooden basin, Tang Dingyuan offered to help.

“Okay.”

The scholar’s wife looked at her son with a smile and only asked him to help carry one side of the basin, while the weight still rested mainly on her side.

“Little scholar is truly filial, helping his mother with the work.”

“What a considerate child; the scholar’s wife is really lucky.”

Seeing this scene, the women by the riverbank praised him again.

Tang Dingyuan’s ears turned red with embarrassment, though he maintained a calm expression.

As they walked some distance away, Tang Dingyuan heard greetings from afar.

“Did the Lu family’s little girls finish cutting the pig grass? The baskets are quite full; those two girls are really capable.”

“The older sister is doing well, bringing her younger cousins out like this.”

Hearing keywords like “Lu family” and “girls,” Tang Dingyuan quickly turned around.

He saw a delicate little girl at the end of the line. She carefully took out a piece of white food from her arms, placed it in her mouth, took a small bite, and then closed her eyes, her face lighting up with joy.

She looked as sweet as the yellow peach syrup sold at the Tang family’s stall, which was Tang Dingyuan’s favorite. Unfortunately, most of the family’s money went towards his father’s medical expenses, so he could only have a bowl of it on his birthday each year.

She was so pretty!

Tang Dingyuan found himself agreeing with the aunts’ and older women’s comments.

Lu Baobao was very perceptive, and she quickly noticed Tang Dingyuan’s scrutiny.

The boy’s expression was quite strange—disbelief, shock, shyness, and finally a moment of realization. Lu Baobao had never seen anyone maintain such a calm demeanor while expressing emotions solely through their eyes.

In modern times, he would have been a true method actor!

But why was he looking at her like that? It was inexplicable.

Could he be coveting the reed root in her hand? Lu Baobao was startled and quickly hid her precious find, then sped up to catch up with her cousins.

When Lu Baobao had walked away, Tang Dingyuan finally withdrew his gaze.

“Yuan Ge’er, what’s wrong?” The scholar’s wife asked curiously. Her son had suddenly stopped and looked toward the riverbank, but aside from a few passing girls, she hadn’t seen anything unusual.

“It’s nothing. I just had an epiphany.”

Tang Dingyuan appeared enlightened. He had thought he could win admiration through his appearance and talents, but after seeing the Lu family’s little girl, he suddenly realized that he couldn’t rely on his looks. He would have to rely solely on his inner qualities to gain praise, a path that seemed quite solitary.

The scholar’s wife could not have imagined her son’s thought process could be so strange. She assumed he had a moment of insight from his studies.

Pleased with her son’s diligence and intelligence, she decided to take on more embroidery work when they returned home, save some money, and buy him his favorite peach honey syrup.

******

Like when they left, Lu Baobao’s bamboo basket was mostly carried by her cousin, Lu Xiuyu. Only when they passed through crowded areas did Lu Xiuyu allow Lu Baobao to carry the heavy basket herself.

Along the way, they encountered several groups of villagers. Lu Xiuyu greeted the village elders warmly, and during this stretch of the road, many people already knew that the Lu family’s two young granddaughters were also able to help with household chores.

Although the two little girls were young, they were very diligent and particularly considerate of their eldest cousin. Because their eldest cousin had just recovered from a serious illness and was still worried, they had intentionally taken on part of the work of cutting pig feed to help her.

Such publicity had little impact on Lu Xiuxin, but it was clearly beneficial for Lu Baobao.

The villagers knew the reputation of the Lu family and Xu Jiaoniang, and when it came to marrying off daughters, they certainly wouldn’t favor girls from such a family, fearing that the child might be as lazy and greedy as her parents, and worried about bringing home two burdens along with a daughter-in-law.

Now, with Lu Xiuyu’s efforts, at least outsiders knew that the second branch’s young girl was different from her parents; she was hardworking.

Lu Baobao, after a moment of thought, realized her eldest cousin’s intention. Although she still didn’t understand why her eldest cousin had suddenly changed her attitude, it didn’t stop her from being grateful. She was now fairly certain that her eldest cousin had great goodwill towards her.

“Back already? Oh, you’ve cut quite a lot of pig feed. That should save some corn.”

When they returned home, the old lady took the baskets from the three cousins, weighed them, and her usually stern face relaxed a bit.

The Lu family raised six pigs, and the daily feed was a considerable amount. They had several acres of land dedicated to growing corn, part of which was for the family’s consumption, and the rest was ground into corn husks and cobs mixed with pig feed to fatten the pigs.

Today’s pig feed was quite plentiful, which meant they could save on some corn.

“Hahaha, we’re having good luck today. The Tang family, in celebration of their newborn granddaughter’s full-month banquet, bought up all the fresh meat from our stall for the day. They even pre-ordered a hundred pounds of pork and twenty pounds of lamb for the banquet.”

The old lady directed the women in the house to chop the pig feed and prepare pig food, and a burly man carrying two bone-cutting knives came in from outside.

“The Tang family was so generous; they even sent us a jar of peach honey water, worth at least twenty wen. Originally, I wanted to give them some pig offal as a token of appreciation, but they didn’t want it.”

Old butcher Lu had a big build and a loud voice, his laughter booming like thunder.

Everyone then noticed that, in addition to the two iron knives that were difficult to leave at the stall due to the risk of theft, the old man was also carrying a small clay jar, which likely contained the peach honey water.

The women and children in the house swallowed their saliva in unison. It had been quite a while since they last bought sweet syrup.

Most people’s attention was focused on that jar of syrup, but Lu Xiuyu’s gaze was fixed on the string of pig offal hanging from the old man’s arm.

“The Tang family has a new addition? What a joyous occasion.”

The Tang family’s syrup shop was well-known, and over generations, they had accumulated considerable wealth. However, they had maintained their good family traditions and had not forgotten the diligent and honest ways of their ancestors, even now that they were prosperous.

When Lu Miao was helping out at the meat stall, she had dealt with several of the Tang family’s ladies and knew that the eldest lady of the Tang family was pregnant. She had already given birth to two sons, and now having a daughter could be considered a complete set of children.

“Let me have the syrup; after we finish lunch, we’ll divide it among everyone.”

Lu Miao simply sighed about the Tang family’s affairs, then took the jar of syrup. Distributing food had always been her exclusive task.

“Why did you bring back the pig offal? This stuff is hard to handle, doesn’t yield much fat, and if cooked for too long, it becomes tough and chewy—barely flavorful, just a taste at most.” At this point, Lu Miao also noticed the pig offal on the old man and frowned tightly at the thought of having to clean it.

At the third stall, few people bought pig offal because most people lived well. When they really wanted meat, they could afford to buy a few taels of meat to satisfy their cravings. Although pig offal was cheap, it didn’t taste good.

As a result, pig offal was often given as a freebie or sold cheaply to outsiders who were craving meat but couldn’t afford it.

The Lu family, running a meat stall themselves, didn’t lack for meat. However, Lu Miao, as the head of the household, was quite frugal and didn’t want the family to eat freely. They truly didn’t need pig offal to satisfy their cravings.

Pig offal was hard to handle. A large section of intestines could be several dozen meters long. It needed to be washed at least five or six times, and even with thorough cleaning, it inevitably had a foul smell after being cooked.

“The Tang family has already taken all the meat; it’s not worth waiting around just for a piece of pig offal. Besides, the Tang family had already pre-ordered the pork for the full moon celebration. They were quite particular, specifying they didn’t want sows that had given birth or boars that had been used for breeding. I needed to visit other villages to see if anyone had pigs for sale.”

Lu Miao explained patiently. A piece of pig offal was only worth two wen, and sometimes it wouldn’t sell even after waiting a day. There was no need to waste time at the meat stall for pig offal.

Lu Miao knew that what he said made sense, but she still looked troubled when she saw the pig offal.

“How about chopping it up and feeding it to the ducks? Ducks love this stuff, and if the hens eat well, they’ll lay more eggs.”

Old butcher Lu replied casually, “Alright, do as you like. I’m leaving now. I won’t need lunch today. I have to visit a few more villages. With so many families holding banquets recently, I’ll probably need to buy more pigs. I won’t make it back before noon, so I’ll just have a bowl of noodles outside.”

With that, Old butcher Lu put the cleaver on the table and cheerfully left.

“Lu Baobao, we’ll have canned food later. Make sure to coax your grandma so she’ll quietly give you an extra piece.”

As he left, the old man saw his two granddaughters and a grandson peeking out from the main room to sneak a look at the syrup jar. He laughed heartily and picked up his favorite granddaughter from the second branch, tossing her a few times in the air before setting her back down.

The game was so thrilling that Lu Baobao clutched her delicate little heart, feeling overwhelmed. Her dear grandfather had such a loud voice that everyone in the house probably knew she often coaxed her grandma into giving her extra treats.

“You think it’s not enough to make a little extra for yourself, but now you’re corrupting our Lu Baobao too. Bah!”

Lu Miao mumbled as she watched the old man leave. He always found excuses to eat out, and since his reasons were valid, she couldn’t argue with him.

“Grandma, I want to learn how to cook. How about I handle the pig offal?”

Seeing Old butcher Lu leave, Lu Xiuyu volunteered to take on the task of processing the pig offal.

“Can you do this? This thing is too dirty.”

Originally, Lu Miao had planned to follow the old man’s suggestion and chop up the pig offal to feed the ducks. But with her granddaughter offering to take on the task, she didn’t hesitate for long and agreed.

However, when handing over the pig offal to her granddaughter, the old lady couldn’t help but ask a few questions.

“I dreamt about some things while I was unconscious from my injury, including methods for handling pig offal. I thought the dream was quite real, so I wanted to give it a try.”

Lu Xiuyu thought she needed a plausible explanation for her knowledge, especially since she had never even been to the third stall and was just a small peasant girl. So, she came up with a mystical excuse. Ancient people often attributed things to ghosts and deities, which sometimes made such explanations more convincing.

Sure enough, the old lady didn’t dwell on it further. Lu Miao also didn’t believe in the strange things Lu Xiuyu claimed to have dreamt about. It was just a piece of pig offal, after all, and even if it was ruined, it wouldn’t be a big loss.

Lu Xiuyu smiled as she took the pig offal and went to the courtyard to wash it. After cleaning both inside and out, she scooped some wood ash from the stove and sprinkled it on the turned-over pig intestines. After scrubbing again, she found that even though the pig intestines looked clean, a lot of dirt was still being removed.

Onlookers were somewhat surprised; they hadn’t seen this method before.

Unconsciousness—transformation—collecting seasonings on the mountain—pig offal…

Lu Baobao recalled the sequence of events that had happened with her eldest cousin recently. The pattern seemed oddly familiar, almost as if she had seen it in many novels before.