The Prime Minister’s Little Wife

Chapter 27: Leading the Village in Planting Sweet Potatoes

Xu Xiaowu now followed his sister closely. This time, he came in handy: “Xiaowu, go call Chunhua and Third Uncle’s Lanhua to help me peel sweet potatoes and cook.”

“Okay, sister. Should I wait for you here or go home?”

“Go home directly with the two sisters. I’ll finish arranging things here and then come back to cook,” Xu Zhizhi said, patting her brother’s head.

She thought that since everyone was doing physical labor, they couldn’t just eat porridge. The cured meat at home was running low.

She decided to check the traps on the back mountain to see if there was any game.

Xu Zhizhi walked to the previously dug traps and found two of them empty.

She adjusted them, adding some vegetables from her portable space, hoping to catch something by tomorrow. When she reached the trap where they had caught the wild boar, she found three rabbits.

That was enough. She hurried home to stew the rabbit meat!

She had been busy these past two days. Once things settled, she planned to go deeper into the mountains to see if she could encounter a tiger.

The medicinal ingredients the divine physician needed were all in her portable space, except for tiger bone.

But since the man needed to heal his leg first, there was no rush.

When Xu Zhizhi returned home, her three cousins had arrived. Naturally, Xu Honghua was missing—she would probably show up at mealtime.

She asked Xu Chunhua to bring out the sweet potatoes from the woodshed and taught them how to peel them.

Meanwhile, she skinned the rabbits. Rabbits were easy to handle—once skinned, she removed the innards, washed them, and cut them into pieces for stewing.

Xu Xiaohua tended the fire, and a large pot of sweet potato porridge began to simmer.

She stir-fried some green onions, ginger, and garlic, then added the rabbit meat, stir-frying it evenly before adding water to stew.

She stir-fried two vegetable dishes and made a cold salad with the wild vegetables she had picked on the way back.

From her portable space, she pulled out a handful of garlic shoots to stir-fry with cured meat. The rich aroma wafted across half the village.

Xu Zhizhi picked up a piece of rabbit meat and put it in her brother’s mouth. “Go call the people plowing the fields to come back for lunch.”

Xu Xiaohua watched eagerly, so Xu Zhizhi gave her a piece too. “Try it. Does it need more salt?”

“It’s delicious. No need for more salt,” the nine-year-old Xiaohua said softly.

Soon, everyone arrived. The burly men entered the house and saw a large pot of thick, golden porridge. They immediately knelt down and kowtowed, murmuring words of gratitude.

They thanked the gods for the divine food, their faces filled with reverence.

With so many people, there was no place to sit. These were farmers, after all, and they weren’t picky. Some stood, some squatted, serving themselves porridge and dishes.

They ate voraciously, as if they hadn’t eaten in days, forgetting all about reverence…

After the meal, praises flowed endlessly, and they worked even harder.

Xu Zhizhi kept a table of food in the kitchen for her younger siblings.

The next day, she prepared lunch again. With the help of her three cousins, Xu Zhizhi was happy to teach them.

The traps yielded either wild chickens or rabbits, so there was plenty of meat. Xu Chunhua and Xu Lanhua were eager to learn.

The food they made was truly delicious, and everyone ate until their faces gleamed with satisfaction, working with even more enthusiasm.

With many hands, the work went quickly. In just three days, the entire mountain was planted with sweet potatoes.

It was actually quite simple—plow the land, dig small trenches, add a bit of fertilizer, and cut the sweet potato vines into small sections with two leaves. Bury one leaf in the soil and leave the other exposed. This ensured a high survival rate.

Under Xu Zhizhi’s patient guidance, everyone learned how to plant them.

She assigned two people to be responsible for watering.

Xu Zhizhi sprinkled some spiritual spring water into the watering cans, instructing them to water each plant after planting.

Once everything was done, the barren mountain now had a touch of green, looking quite beautiful.

If the rain was good, the autumn sweet potato harvest wouldn’t be too low.

Xu Zhizhi thought about planting fruit trees in the spring, but for winter, they could grow radishes and cabbage.

She distributed the sweet potato vines to each household, letting them cut and plant them themselves since the villagers had already learned how.

The workers had all tasted the sweet potatoes, and they were truly delicious.

Each person was also paid sixty coins. Everyone left happily.

“Uncles, after you finish planting your own sweet potatoes, if you have time before the autumn harvest, you can come help us lay the foundation for our house. The pay is still twenty coins a day,” Xu Zhizhi said as she saw them off.

“Sure, I have time.”

“Me too.”

“Zhizhi, are you building a house?” one uncle asked.

“Yes, I’ve already marked out the foundation. We’ll start construction after the autumn harvest,” Xu Zhizhi replied.

Everyone was even happier. After the autumn harvest, they wouldn’t need to look for work elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Drunken Fragrance Pavilion sent word for Xu Zhizhi to come by.

Coincidentally, the bean sprouts from Second Uncle and Third Uncle’s families were ready to sell.

Xu Zhizhi was planning to go to town to see if Drunken Fragrance Pavilion wanted to increase their bean sprout order.

Early the next morning, before dawn, Xu Dahu and Third Uncle loaded their bean sprouts onto the cart.

They came to Xu Zhizhi’s house to load more bean sprouts. The cart was full, leaving no room to sit.

Xu Zhizhi thought about taking Old Li’s ox cart at the village entrance.

Xu Dahu said, “Sister Zhizhi, you and Third Uncle sit in front. I’ll run behind.”

Xu Zhizhi thought running would be too tiring. Maybe she should just take the ox cart.

But Third Uncle and Xu Dahu both disagreed, so she had no choice but to let him run.

Drunken Fragrance Pavilion had sent word for her to come. Could it be that business was good and they wanted to increase the order?

“Third Uncle, after delivering the bean sprouts today, help me pick out an ox or a donkey and get another cart,” Xu Zhizhi said, seeing how tired Xu Dahu was from running.

“Where will you get the silver?” Third Uncle asked. He knew that the money from selling the ginseng had all been spent on the mountain.

The money from selling bean sprouts these past few days should have gone to paying the workers.

Xu Zhizhi didn’t dare say she still had several hundred taels.

“I have it. Drunken Fragrance Pavilion bought my recipe for boiled fish.”

“What? Recipes can be sold for silver? Aren’t they just buying our bean sprouts?” Third Uncle was stunned.

“Of course, they paid for it.”

“How much did you sell it for?”

Xu Zhizhi wondered if she should tell her uncle it was a hundred taels.

This was a solid amount, so it should be safe to mention.

This way, she wouldn’t have to pretend to dig up ginseng again when building the house.

She happily decided to make the hundred taels public, making it easier to use.

“A hundred taels.”

“What?” Xu Dahu slipped, nearly falling.

Third Uncle was equally shocked.

Seeing their reactions, Xu Zhizhi decided to spin a tale:

“Didn’t I tell you before? You didn’t say anything, so I thought I might have asked for too little.”

“When I heard that bean sprouts were two coins per pound and they wanted as much as we could supply, I was too excited and didn’t hear the rest,” Xu Dahu said honestly.

“No wonder you said you wanted to build a big house,” Third Uncle said, finally recovering.

“Yes, I want to build a blue-brick tiled house. One with four courtyards.

It’s called a quadrangle. One courtyard for my parents, one for Daniu when he gets married, one for Xiaowu, and one for myself.”

Xu Zhizhi wasn’t sure if quadrangle houses existed in the Great Sheng Dynasty.

She just wanted to live comfortably, designing it according to modern quadrangle standards.

Here, she would be a happy landlady, a low-key village tyrant.

With so much land, she could build whatever she wanted.

In the center of the quadrangle, she would have a garden with a pond for lotus flowers.

No need for the fake mountains, flowing water, or pavilions like in the dramas…

(End of Chapter)