She Only Cares About Cultivation

When An Yi returned home, it was already dark. She managed to hitch a ride on the production team’s ox cart halfway, and she didn’t ride for free, paying a fare of five hundred yuan.

Among the old coins, the low-denomination ones like one yuan, five yuan, ten yuan, twenty yuan, fifty yuan were rarely seen, because hyperinflation made them worthless. No matter how large the denomination was, what use was it if you couldn’t buy anything?

One hundred, two hundred, five hundred, one thousand, five thousand, ten thousand were the commonly used currencies, and buying something required money that had to be carried by carts and bags, which was not surprising at all. After all, ten thousand yuan was just one yuan of the Republic’s currency, and the five hundred yuan fare was actually only worth five cents.

Moreover, these paper money bills aren’t all produced in one place, so their quality varied. The main reason she went through so much trouble to acquire this money was to collect a complete set from the same manufacturer for the sake of collection, as this was a memory of the era, wasn’t it?

Luckily, she had space, otherwise, how much money would she have had to carry back?

Counting the day she set off, the day she sold eggs, and the day of the exam, she busied herself for almost three days in total.

During those three days, her family dog, Nut, wasn’t entrusted to anyone else for care. Mainly because what food would be suitable for it? What if it refused to eat others’ meals?

Rumors might even spread that her dog ate better than people, so after much consideration, she let Nut fend for itself at home.

She left a few pounds of bran skins and a big basin of water for it. If it got hungry, it could gnaw on the bran skins, and if it got thirsty, it could drink the water.

So when she approached her house, Nut seemed to hear her, squeezing out from the dog hole and sprinting toward her, its tail wagging so much that she thought it might just take flight.

"Stay there, don’t jump all over me, look at how dirty you are, I’ll take you to the river to wash later."

Seeing the dirt on its body, she got a bit worried about her vegetable garden. She hurriedly opened the door and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Did you sneak out to play? What a brave dog you are. Aren’t you afraid someone might catch you and butcher you?"

In these times when people couldn’t even eat enough, Nut was truly lucky to be alive. She often worried it might get slaughtered by someone.

The six hens in the chicken coop clucked, and upon entering, wow, so many eggs!

Like the dog, before leaving, she mixed plenty of feed and water for the chickens. The chicken coop was enclosed with iron wire and bamboo, so dogs couldn’t get in, and neither could other small animals, making it very safe. The internal space was large enough for activity. Not only were the chickens preserved, but the eggs were also intact.

The family’s big rooster had long been slaughtered, so these chickens were not affected and wouldn’t hatch eggs.

She placed An’an in a sitting basket in the cool shade of the courtyard to avoid tanning her skin.

Nut circled around her as she carried a basket to collect eggs in the chicken coop.

How big was the family chicken coop?

She could go in crouching and stand upright, with enough room to run two laps inside. It was constructed to a height of two meters and a length of four meters, just to avoid hassle when collecting eggs.

Six hens for three days, well, four days, as she hadn’t collected the day before either, and she ended up with twenty eggs, pretty impressive!

One of her long-standing wishes was to one day pick eggs in a field or a grove like this until her hands got tired.

Not only did she achieve this goal inside the space, but she also realized it outside the space, feeling so satisfied and healed.

"An’an, look quickly, Mom collected so many eggs, and with the chives sprouting again, how about we have dumplings stuffed with chives and eggs?"

An’an stood and sat alternately in the sitting basket, shouting ’ah ah’ at her in an extremely excited expression, drooling out of excitement. Oh dear, she quickly found a handkerchief to wipe her.

"Alright, you sit still, I know what your wish is! Mom will make it for you right now, stay put, I’ll knead the dough first, then come take you for some milk later!"

The newly sprouted chives were a tender green, having grown wildly after the recent rain, lush and vibrant, showing that they were well-nourished.

If the soil quality and fertilizer of the chives were insufficient, they’d grow as thin as hair, which would be unattractive and tasteless.

Modern chives were all grown with chemicals. Without pesticides, diseases, and insects would eat the chives away, making them impossible to grow big.

Pesticide residues were particularly high in green beans, tomatoes, bean sprouts, and various leafy greens. Spinach and lettuce required fewer chemicals, sometimes even none.