Chapter 6: You are not allowed to oink like a pig

Chapter 6: No Pig Noises Allowed

Song Tan was truly shocked.

"Are we really that rich?"

With all these mountains and fields.

"What money?" Wu Lan didn't even look up. "It was all passed down from your grandfather. It’s just barren mountains and wilderness; it can't be sold, and no one wants to lease it. It’s just sitting there, wasted!"

Song Tan fell silent.

The entire village now had fewer than thirty households, with an average age of forty or fifty. Grain wasn't worth much these days, so people were basically just scraping by to feed themselves. It wasn't just their family; everyone else had large tracts of land lying fallow as well.

There was no other reason for it—there simply wasn't enough labor.

The terrain here was mountainous, making large-scale agricultural machinery useless. Small machines had to be bought out-of-pocket, which was expensive, and you couldn't even earn back the cost in a year from a single acre of land. On top of that, the roads were winding, and there was nothing worth selling to the outside world.

Growing rice and wheat was just for personal consumption. Working hard for a year—irrigating, fertilizing, killing pests, and weeding—was also a huge expense.

And the harvest?

With a lack of labor, you only ended up with enough to feed your own family.

Looking back, rice at the town supermarket was only two yuan a catty. Even if the taste wasn't great, you didn't have to break your back for it, and it actually cost less!

It was better to just leave the land fallow.

If you really wanted to make money, you had to go out and work after the busy season in the first half of the year!

Take Wu Lan, for example. Last year, she went to a shoe factory to lace shoes, earning six thousand a month, and didn't dare come home until the New Year.

The year before that, it was Song Sancheng. He went to a construction site in the capital, earning four hundred a day. He worked for three months, made over thirty thousand, lost ten pounds, and had to spend half a month recovering when he got back.

After all, they were getting old!

A sense of sorrow welled up in Song Tan’s heart. She promised, "Mom, don't worry. I will definitely make sure you live a good life!"

Wu Lan didn't discourage her, but instead asked, "If you can handle it, you can take over all the fields and mountains at home. Just leave a vegetable patch and don't ruin it."

"I'll let you see what 'hardship' really means."

"But since you want to take on the mountains and fields, it’s already the end of February. What do you plan to plant for the spring?"

Song Tan:...

This, she really hadn't thought about yet!

Counting it up, she had only been transmigrated back for half a day. She hadn't even achieved any results in her cultivation yet; wouldn't planting anything be a waste?

But under Wu Lan’s intimidating gaze, Song Tan decisively changed her tune

"Mom, don't worry. Have I ever done anything I wasn't sure about since I was a kid?"

That was true; her daughter had always been obedient and sensible—except for this one time.

Wu Lan gave an "hmm" and waited for the rest.

Song Tan said, "In that case, let Dad rent some machines tomorrow and plow all the fallow fields."

"I won't touch the parts of the land where we’re already growing things."

"I have plans for the mountains, too, but we’ll need people to dig them since machines can't get up there—Mom, you just worry about hiring people, I’ll pay for it."

"You’re paying for it?" Wu Lan looked at her meaningfully.

"Daughter, it costs two hundred yuan a day per person to dig the mountains. You only have that sixty thousand; be careful with it, or we don't have enough savings to cover your spending."

Song Tan’s expression cracked—why was she so obedient in the past! Reporting every cent of her savings, what a mama's girl!

Song Qiao, who had finished cleaning the kitchen, ran in. His hands were bright red, which made Wu Lan angry again: "I’ve told you so many times, use hot water in the winter! Why don't you listen?"

They were intentionally trying to train Song Qiao, teaching him chores bit by bit, just in case one day... but Song Qiao didn't know how to take care of himself, and the process was full of frustration.

For instance, right now, Song Qiao ignored her and just leaned against Song Tan

"Sister, I want to watch Peppa Pig! Mom won't let me!"

Oh my!

Who could refuse such a precious treasure!

Song Tan immediately took out her phone: "Come on, let’s—"

She froze.

The phone she pulled out was covered in cracks, dancing on the edge of total collapse—

Wu Lan glanced at her own thousand-yuan phone and suddenly felt a wave of heartache.

"Mom knows it’s hard for you out there, but we aren't lacking anything at home. Don't be so frugal."

Her voice softened. "If you want to farm, then farm properly. We don't have much else, but we have plenty of land. Do whatever you want with it, I’ll listen to you."

She turned around and transferred two thousand yuan to her phone. "Go to town tomorrow and buy a new one."

Song Tan blinked in confusion, then looked at her phone—an unexpected windfall, hahaha!

However, the next moment, she heard Song Qiao making "oink oink" sounds, looking at the two of them as he did so.

At this, Wu Lan’s softened heart couldn't take it anymore, and she roared

"Song Qiaoqiao! I told you if you make that pig noise again, you aren't allowed to watch TV!"

...

In the quiet of the night, Song Tan finally had the chance to try and draw in spiritual energy.

The spiritual energy was like tiny specks of starlight, slowly surging with the wind in the quiet winter village.

As she ran her cultivation technique, the spiritual energy—like fireflies, invisible to ordinary people—slowly gathered in thin, wispy threads.

It was like sweet dew nourishing her battered, death-defying, and weak body, tempering her shell...

Finally, when the horizon turned a pale white, the spiritual energy, which had grown denser during the process, was drawn into Song Tan’s dantian.

By now, her body was covered in sticky, black impurities, and the smell in the room was becoming increasingly pungent.

Song Tan had to sneak to the bathroom like a thief—thank goodness for the new countryside; even though she wasn't as afraid of the cold now, she still had to say: water heaters are amazing!

But the bad news was that the grime on her body was so hard to scrub off that by the time she finished, not only was the hot water gone, but Wu Lan had woken up.

Taking a shower on a winter morning, and using cold water because the water heater ran out?!

She must have lost her mind!

In an instant, the whole family was up—Qiaoqiao boiled ginger soup, Song Sancheng stoked the stove, and Wu Lan rushed to heat more water on the stove, determined not to let her catch a cold!

Finally, before heading to town, the "fairy" Song Tan was bundled up in an old military overcoat and a grandmother-style knit hat before she was allowed to sit on the back of the motorcycle.

The motorcycle was hard to start in the winter. Song Sancheng was kicking the starter pedal in the front with a loud roar, while she sat in the back, calculating what to do today—

First, go to the town police station to get her ID card.

Thank goodness, because of mobile payments, she hadn't carried her cards with her when she had the accident, which saved a lot of trouble.

Then, buy a new phone.

Once those two most important things were done, the next step was to buy some farm tools, fertilizer, and most importantly—seeds.

As for what seeds to buy, Song Tan already had an idea.

Sitting on the motorcycle, looking at the rolling mountains that had just been plowed and the rising red sun on the horizon, she felt a surge of ambition

"Dad! It won't be long before I make our village even more beautiful! Our lives will get better!"

Song Sancheng, riding the bike in front, also shouted loudly: "Tantan, you’d better be careful with that sixty thousand!"

The electric water heater in her old rental apartment didn't have much capacity, so showering and washing hair in the winter was always a struggle... Can you guess what Tantan is going to plant first?