CHAPTER 113: CHAPTER 113: A DAY OF DAILY LIFE

When Xiaomi woke up, her father and elder brother were already gone. She got dressed and went to wake up Tiedan next door.

After scooping water to wash her face, she saw her second sister coming over from the chicken pen, holding a few eggs in her hand.

Back when the hen was hatching eggs, she had swapped the large, fertilized eggs from the space. Ten eggs eventually hatched into seven chicks.

It must be said, those seven chicks really were bigger than ordinary ones, grew larger, and laid bigger eggs. Now, half of the chickens at home were that kind.

Xiaomi had eaten both the eggs and chicken meat. Because they were fed with Spiritual Spring water, the taste wasn’t much different from native chickens. Even better, since the eggs were larger and the chickens grew bigger, many people in the village came to exchange eggs, hoping to hatch larger chickens themselves.

"Second sister, where’s mom? Why isn’t she at home?" Since Xiaomi and Tiedan were younger, they woke up late every day and nobody would wake them up, as their help wasn’t much needed anyway.

"Mom went to the fields. She went early to work while it was cool, since the weeds have started to grow back recently."

Jiang Xiaoxue sighed like a little adult. Never mind the good harvest, dealing with the weeds was a massive task, needing to be cleared almost every month, yet there were still plenty left.

Xiaomi rubbed her nose. It was just one of those things, with gains come sacrifices. Weeds are naturally more resilient than crops, especially with the blessing of Spiritual Spring water.

However, even so, nobody was willing to give up such good fertilizer. Compared to a bountiful harvest, the weeds didn’t matter at all.

But Jiang Xiaoxue was just speaking casually. After putting away the eggs and washing her hands, she served the meal: "Mom and I have already eaten. This is for you two. Eat first, and then we’ll go help mom in the fields."

A small bowl of porridge, a fist-sized bun, one boiled egg, and some finely chopped pickles.

The table was too high, and without an adult’s protection, Jiang Xiaoxue didn’t dare let them eat there. Instead, she brought over the small bed where Xiaomi and Tiedan slept before.

The bed’s frame was removed, just right for them to use as a small table for eating.

"Thank you, second sister." Xiaomi took a big gulp of porridge, finding that indeed, the items from the space were different.

Tiedan was a bit more refined than Xiaomi. He thanked her first, then started eating in small bites.

"Eat slowly. I’m going to feed the pigs now."

The second mother left early in the morning. Feeding the chickens and pigs was almost entirely left to Jiang Xiaoxue. After all, it was getting hotter, so they wanted to get more work done while it was still cool in the morning.

After eating and feeding the pigs, Jiang Xiaoxue took the younger siblings to the fields. Their second mother had told her where to go when she left earlier.

They had just harvested the wheat and rapeseed. Next, they’d plant sweet potato vines. In two months, it would be time to harvest corn and peanuts, and then the rice would need to be harvested too.

Throughout the year, it seemed like only the winter months offered a bit of respite.

On the way, they met others who cheerfully greeted the siblings. The crop yields had been very good in recent years, thanks to Little Lucky Star, and everyone treated Xiaomi very kindly.

Xiaomi didn’t mind the attention. She smiled sweetly at everyone who called out to her, making her appear all the more obedient and adorable.

Both Jiang Xiaoxue and Tiedan had grown accustomed to it, without any jealousy or dissatisfaction.

By the time they arrived at the field, the second mother had been busy for a while. None of the three siblings slacked off, joining in with the weeding as soon as they got there.

Some weeds were tender and broke at the root when pulled, but others had already flowered and seeded, continuing to grow in the next cycle. It couldn’t be helped.

The crops came one after another, with rarely any downtime in the fields. It was fortunate the household had good manure, so they didn’t have to worry about frequent farming damaging the land.

When the sun started blazing, and the cornfield became steamy, the second mother quickly gathered a basket full of weeds to feed the pigs and took the children home.

Just as they reached home, they saw Liu Yang emerging from behind his house, carrying a basket.

Seeing the second mother, Liu Yang said, "Sister-in-law, you’re back. I just got back from the fields too. This pigweed is really good, but we can’t use it all, so I brought some for you."

"Thank you. By the way, how’s your second child doing?"

A few days ago, when they were harvesting wheat, Wang Xiang had brought the child along to help. Thankfully, the adults were fine, but Liu Yang’s second child got heatstroke and suffered from vomiting and diarrhea.

"Not much of a problem now. Thanks to Doctor Xie, who gave us some patches of Agastache for decoction, he’s almost recovered."

The second mother nodded. "That’s good to hear. When I saw Wang Xiang before, she was so worried she was almost crying."

Liu Yang chuckled, "Sister-in-law, I’ll be off now. There’s still work to do at home."

Then he hurried back.

Although Liu Yang loved to chit-chat and gossip, he was always mindful of manners. With Jiang Hu not at home, he knew better than to overstay his welcome.

He was like this not just with Jiang’s family, but with everyone.

After Liu Yang left, the second mother took the basket to the pigsty and put it down with a long sigh of relief.

"Mom, Aunt Wang Xiang hasn’t been here for a while. Is little brother doing alright?"

"We’ll check on them this afternoon. Didn’t your dad catch a lot of little crabs yesterday? We’ll bring some to your Aunt Wang Xiang."

These little crabs usually lived in mountain stream creeks, rarely found in rivers. Especially during summer floods when the water was high, these little crabs couldn’t stay put and would just get washed away.

But besides the children, few people would specifically catch them. Especially when everyone was busy, if it wasn’t for Jiang Hu taking the opportunity to go up the mountain yesterday, they wouldn’t have deliberately gone to catch them.

In the rush to get to the fields in the morning, the dishes hadn’t been washed. While the second mother was resting, Jiang Xiaoxue quickly went to wash the bowls. In the courtyard, when Xiaomi called out a few times, Xiao Hei and Xiao Mi came running back.

Xiao Hei wasn’t leashed. This guy was very smart, and unless Xiaomi took them with her, they generally wouldn’t stray too far from home.

’Woof woof~’ Xiao Hei circled around Xiaomi, making a sound like it was whimpering mischievously.

"Where did you two run off to? I didn’t see you all morning." Xiaomi stroked Xiao Hei’s head and then pulled two pieces of dried fish from the wall. "Here, eat up."

One for each, even though Xiao Hei was a dog, it really liked dried fish too.

After feeding Xiao Hei and Xiao Mi, Xiaomi turned to see her mother coming over with a piece of bamboo, one of those her father cut down yesterday.

"Mom, what’s dad going to do with the bamboo?"

The second mother had already taken a hatchet and started chopping the bamboo. "One of our baskets broke, and your dad is going to make a new one. Also, your second sister’s little basket is getting a bit small, so he’ll make a bigger one."

Xiaomi: "Dad is so awesome, he seems to be able to make anything."

The second mother laughed, "These are just ordinary skills. Many people in the village know how to do them."

She said that, but as a mother, she was delighted that the child admired their father so much.

Busy at work, an old lady slowly approached the Jiang household with a basket on her back, coming over to deliver pigweed for them again.