Reborn with a Space: Building a Fortune Amidst Famine

Chapter 154: 164 Prayers

He also knew that Su Yuanyuan was right. Although he didn’t care about these external possessions, he was slowly adjusting his mindset.

He had told himself more than once that this era was not like before.

”Okay, be careful.”

”Don’t worry, I’ll leave tomorrow morning. It’s perfect to reach the water at midnight. Actually, I don’t want to take the donkey cart there, it’s too conspicuous.”

”Are you going on foot? That’s too tiring.”

”It’s nothing, it’s just a few dozen miles, I really don’t mind.”

Neither of them had lunch, so the dinner was quite sumptuous. After eating, Su Yuanyuan didn’t cultivate at all but lay down to sleep. Although she wasn’t tired anymore, she just felt mentally exhausted.

Tan Shaoting watched the young girl fall asleep, and also went back to his room to sleep. Not cultivating then.

Meanwhile, the Zhao siblings. Zhao Qingjie brought the lard into the house and hung it up. Then he carried water to the fields.

”Second brother, why are you so slow?”

”Yuanyuan just came by, she brought a lot of lard, I hung it in the house.”

”Lard?” Zhao Yanli swallowed and exclaimed with delight.

”Yes, there’s rendered and solid lard. Yuanyuan said they went to the city the day before yesterday, and brought it back for us, saying it’s not good if we never eat meat.”

”That’s great, Yuanyuan is so considerate.”

”Let’s hurry and get it done, tonight we’ll render the lard,” Zhao Yanping said with a smile. They almost forgot the taste of cracklings.

The five siblings were even more motivated now.

They had lunch in the fields, wild vegetables chopped and mixed with cornmeal, seasoned with salt, saving on dishes this way.

After returning home at night, the five siblings used half a basin of water to wash up. Zhao Qingxiang even went to water the winter melon seedlings.

The two boys sat in the courtyard picking chives, which Su Yuanyuan had brought to them.

The three sisters were in the kitchen rendering the lard, yielding over seven pounds from ten pounds of lard. They kept a bowl of cracklings for the five siblings to indulge in today, and the rest would be chopped up for pancakes tomorrow, which would surely be very fragrant.

Next day, Su Yuanyuan watered the vegetables in the courtyard.

”The yield from our well is also decreasing. We need to find Group Leader Ma to secure our well, let’s not forget about it.”

”I’ll go over at noon today, don’t worry. I already informed Group Leader Ma earlier, it should be in line.”

”Since it’s told, let’s just wait.”

The weather was getting quite hot; Su Yuanyuan set off wearing a straw hat.

As she walked, she thought how nice it would be to have a bicycle, but what she had in her space was a mountain bike, and taking it out would surely cause trouble if seen by others.

Whenever she got tired, she would find a place to sit and rest for a while. Eventually, by 8 p.m., she reached the riverbank.

Upon arrival, she was dumbfounded. The water level had dropped by at least three meters, and from the shore, it seemed like there was just a bit of water in the riverbed.

The exposed riverbed had dried and cracked.

Su Yuanyuan sighed as she stood at the shore. Holding a flashlight, she looked around and found no traces of anyone fetching water. Since that was the case, she decided to collect it herself, or it would all evaporate anyway.

Cautiously, she went down, took out three storage bottles, and within a quarter of an hour, filled them all.

She discovered there were a lot of fish, so she reached her hand into the water and collected many fish, regardless of size.

With this weather, they could be dried into fish jerky. Feeling heavy-hearted, she left.

That night, she retrieved the bicycle, which was much faster than walking.

She arrived home by around 3 a.m. Tan Shaoting was quite distressed seeing the disheveled Su Yuanyuan. He quickly heated water for her to bathe.

”Tan Shaoting, I brought back quite a lot of fish. Let’s release them later, we’ll pick some, and just say the two of us went to the riverbank to get them, and give some to the Zhao siblings, Group Leader Ma, and Director Feng.”

”Wouldn’t that be hard to explain? The fish are too fresh.”

Su Yuanyuan paused for a moment and sighed, ”Yes, they are too fresh.

Then let’s dry them into fish jerky, and give them some in the winter.”

”Dry them directly?”

”No, you need to boil them in saltwater first.”

The two of them worked all morning, and there were many fish drying on the straw mat in the courtyard.

They didn’t dry the big fish, just the small ones.

While they worked, Su Yuanyuan talked about the situation at the riverbank.

”It’s really worrying, what will we do then? I estimate the disaster will be even more severe this year.”

”Well, it’s already like this. You can’t control anything, it’s best to let it be.”

Su Yuanyuan sighed, having no other options either.

”After you left yesterday, the sheep at home gave birth to two lambs, both female.”

That was considered a piece of good news. Su Yuanyuan even went over to take a look and gave them a reward.

The two of them went to plant winter melons every day, to be honest. They didn’t even know if they would grow, but not planting them wasn’t an option either; without hope, how can you harvest?

Ten acres were planted with winter melons there. It seemed like a lot, but they were actually quite far apart.

The sweet potatoes were growing well. The potatoes had sprouted, and the corn seedlings looked vigorous.

There wasn’t much weeding work this year. Every day, the two would water the winter melons. After all, they were the few, as for the others, they didn’t even have the means to irrigate them.

By the end of July, Tan Shaoting went to the riverbank, and upon returning, he described it as the water having reduced even more.

Su Yuanyuan had already inspected the surrounding fields and visited the fields of the Zhao siblings. Seeing the sparse and withered sweet potato vines, she was truly worried that even the sweet potatoes wouldn’t grow.

Their own sweet potato vines seemed okay. According to Tan Shaoting, their field was probably the only one on the farm where sweet potatoes might grow.

It was too hot, so the two started to peel off the mulch from the fields.

Now, they didn’t dare to water anymore either. Su Yuanyuan sincerely prayed for rain, or else it would be too difficult.

Maybe her prayers were effective because it really rained that night. Although not a heavy rain, it greatly alleviated the drought situation.

Tan Shaoting’s gaze towards Su Yuanyuan was different now. Coming from a world of superpowers, he had a particularly clear understanding of the Heavenly Dao.

His mind was in turmoil, thinking that if Su Yuanyuan were in his world, she would certainly be a child of destiny.

Braving the rain, the two watered the fields with the water from the storage bottles.

Su Yuanyuan saw that the land couldn’t hold any water; it just seeped directly into the ground. How severe was the drought?

The next day, upon waking up, they saw the crops in the field standing proudly, looking quite spirited.

It was worth it, because even if it remained dry, at least they wouldn’t end up with no harvest at all.

”Yuanyuan, I’ll make a trip to the riverbank, we need to conserve the water.”

”Are you taking the cart? Can you still bring back some fish?”

”Sure. But I estimate they wouldn’t be fresh by the time I get home.”

”It’s okay. Having them at all is good enough. Share them with others. Even if it’s just giving one family a day or a bowl of small mixed fish.”