6. Do not imitate the pig's call_1

Song Tan was genuinely shocked.

"Our family is that rich?"

Mountains and lands everywhere.

"What money?" Wu Lan didn't even lift her head, "All were passed down from your grandfather. Just barren hills and fields, unsellable and unleased. They're just lying fallow!"

Song Tan fell silent.

Now, the entire village had less than thirty households, with an average age of forty to fifty. Nowadays, grains weren't worth much; it was just about scraping by with enough to eat. So, not just their family, but others had large swathes of land lying fallow too.

There wasn't any other reason; it was just a lack of labor.

Their area had a lot of mountainous terrain, making large agricultural machinery unusable. Small machinery was expensive as it was self-funded, and you couldn't even save up the cost with a year's earnings from an acre of land. Plus, with the twisty roads, there wasn't much to sell outside.

Growing rice and wheat was just for their own consumption. Toiling all year with irrigation, fertilizing, pest control, and weeding cost quite a bit of money.

And the harvest?

In the face of labor shortages, they could only harvest enough for their own consumption.

Looking back, in the town's supermarket, it was just over two yuan per pound. Though the taste wasn't great, it saved the trouble, and the cost was even less!

Better to let the land lie fallow.

To really make money, they had to go out and find work after the busy first half of the year!

Like Wu Lan, who last year went to a shoe factory to thread shoelaces, earning six thousand a month, and only reluctantly returned home for the New Year.

The year before that was Song Sancheng, who went to Imperial City to work on a construction site, earning four hundred a day for three months, making over thirty thousand, losing over ten pounds, and resting for more than half a month upon returning.

After all, they were getting on in years!

Song Tan felt a surge of sorrow in her heart and promised, "Mom, rest assured, I'll definitely make sure we live a good life!"

Wu Lan didn't discourage her but retorted, "If you can handle it, I'll let you take care of the family's fields and mountains. Just don't waste the vegetable plot."

"She'll let you see what real hardship is."

"But you're talking about taking on both mountains and fields, and it's nearly the end of February. What are you planning to plant come spring?"

Song Tan: ...

She really hadn't thought this through!

She had only traveled back to this time for half a day and hadn't cultivated any "Spiritual Energy" to speak of. What was the point of planting anything at all?

But under Wu Lan's intimidating gaze, Song Tan decisively changed her answer,

"Mom, don't worry. When have I ever undertaken anything without assurance, from childhood till now?"

That was true, the daughter was always both obedient and sensible—except for this time.

Wu Lan "hmmed" and waited for what would come next.

Song Tan then said, "Since that's the case, let Dad rent a few machines tomorrow to till the fallow lands."

"The plots where we have crops I won't touch."

"I have plans for a few hilltops as well, but we'll need people to dig into them, the machines can't get up there—just hire the people, Mom, I'll pay."

"You'll pay?" Wu Lan looked at her meaningfully,

"Girl, digging into a hill costs two hundred yuan per person per day, you only have those sixty thousand yuan, so use it sparingly, otherwise our family doesn't have that much capital for you to squander."

Song Tan's expression cracked—why was she so obedient before! Reporting her savings like a mama's girl!

After tidying up the kitchen, Song Qiao ran in, her hands bright red, which again upset Wu Lan, "How many times have I told you, use warm water in the winter! Why don't you listen?"

The two were trying to train Song Qiao, teaching him household tasks bit by bit, fearful of what might come someday... but Song Qiao didn't know how to take care of himself, and this practical process was filled with frustration.

For example, right now, Song Qiao didn't care about her, hugging close to Song Tan:

"Big sis, I want to watch Peppa! Mom won't let me watch!"

Ay yo wei!

Who could reject such a precious child!

So Song Tan immediately pulled out her phone, "Here we—"

She stumbled.

The phone she pulled out was criss-crossed with cracks, clearly dancing on the edge of being scrapped—

Wu Lan glanced at her own thousand yuan phone, suddenly feeling a pang of sourness.

"I know it's tough for you out there, but we don't need your money at home, don't be too thrifty."

Then, softening her voice, "If you want to farm, just farm well. The family has nothing else but plenty of land; you can do whatever you want with it."

Turning around, she even took out her phone and transferred two thousand yuan to her, "Go to town tomorrow, buy a new one."

Song Tan blinked in bewilderment, then looked at her phone again—the unexpected joy haha!

However, the next moment, she heard Song Qiao next to her making "hmm hmm hmm" sounds, humming while watching the two of them.

At this point, Wu Lan couldn't keep up her soft heartedness, and roared:

"Song Qiaoqiao! I told you if you mimic that pig noise again, no more TV!"

...

In the quiet of the night, Song Tan finally had the chance to try to attract Spiritual Energy.

The Spiritual Energy twinkled like stars, slowly surging with the wind in the quiet winter night village.

As she practiced her heart method, the Spiritual Energy, invisible to the common eye like fireflies, slowly converged bit by bit.

Like rain nourishing her battered body that had escaped death, refining her vessel...

At last, as the dawn began to break, the Spiritual Energy, which had become richer during the process, was finally absorbed into her Dantian by Song Tan.

At this moment, her body was full of sticky black impurities, and the room's scent became increasingly intoxicating.

Song Tan had to stealthily head to the shower room like a thief—thankful for the new rural development; even though she wasn't as afraid of the cold now, she still had to say: water heaters are amazing!

But the trouble was, the filth on her body was so difficult to scrub off that after bathing, not only was the hot water gone, but Wu Lan had also woken up.

Bathing on a cold winter's morning, and using up all the water heater's hot water for cold water?!

She must be out of her mind!

Therefore, in an instant, the whole family got up—Qiaoqiao brewed ginger soup, Song Sancheng fired up the stove, and Wu Lan hurried to stew water on the stove again; she must not catch a cold!

Finally, when it was time to head to the street, Fairy Song Tan, wrapped in an old military coat, and wearing a grandmother-level wool hat, was allowed to sit on the back of the motorcycle.

Motorcycles are hard to start in winter; Song Sancheng in front kept pumping the kickstarter, booming as she calculated what she would do today—

First of all, go to the town's police station to get an ID card.

Thank heavens, because nowadays everyone uses mobile payment, she didn't have any cards on her when she had the accident, which spared her a lot of trouble.

Then buy a new phone.

Once these two important tasks were done, next was to buy some farming tools, fertilizer, and most importantly—seeds.

As for what seeds to buy, Song Tan already had ideas in her mind.

At this moment, sitting on the motorcycle, looking at the rolling mountains they had just passed, then looking at the just-risen red sun in the sky, she felt a surge of pride:

"Dad! It won't take long, and I will make our village more beautiful! Our days will be better!"

Song Sancheng, riding ahead, also shouted, "Tantan, about that sixty thousand yuan, spend it carefully!"