When Doctor Yang left, Tian Jing finally understood her mother-in-law's intention. "Mother-in-law, my body is very good. Medicine has three parts poison, I won't drink it."
"Should I just pour it away?" Mother Li lowered her voice, "But it's two yuan a dose..."
"I also drank the herbal tea. Let Li Min drink it herself."
Li Min... Could she say that whoever came up with the idea should drink it? But looking at her sister-in-law's smiling face, she dared not.
Li Zhengguo carried back seven packets of herbs. "From now on, just decoct it without drinking. Add water and decoct it again the next day. One packet lasts for three days."
"But this is all money!" Mother Li felt heartbroken. If she really had to, she would drink it herself.
"Doctor Yang didn't charge this time. These are all inexpensive wild herbs. To make the taste stronger, he even added Coptis chinensis."
Coptis chinensis? Mother Li dared not drink it anymore. "Alright, alright, I will decoct the medicine on time."
Li Zhengguo continued to make furniture with Chen Suozhu.
Tian Jing taught Li Min to knit a sweater, scolding her as she taught. "You're so stupid, you pick from bottom to top, not from top to bottom."
Chen Suozhu looked at Li Zhengguo. Seeing Li Zhengguo's lack of reaction, he dared not speak more. "Brother Li, my grandfather has agreed."
"Let's talk about it in a while. It's not appropriate now."
Li Zhengguo didn't say that his sister didn't seem keen on getting married. The stir from his sister's broken engagement hadn't died down yet. Let's talk about it next year.
Chen Suozhu lowered his head and continued to work. He would not give up.
Sister-in-law Niu arrived with a basket. After greeting Li Zhengguo and Chen Suozhu, she stood outside the courtyard and called out, "Tian Jing, Tian Jing."
"Eh, coming."
Tian Jing opened the courtyard gate and saw Sister-in-law Niu carrying a bamboo basket covered with a piece of coarse cloth. She quickly invited Sister-in-law Niu into the courtyard. "Come in quickly, did you exchange it for eggs for me?"
"Yes, I got them two days ago. You came back a bit late, and your family was building the side room yesterday, so I delayed it until today."
Sister-in-law Niu said as she entered the main room with Tian Jing. She could see Li Min on the kang with a glance. "Oh my, Li Min, are you knitting a sweater?"
"Yes." Li Min raised her chin proudly. "My sister-in-law bought the yarn. I was so bored lying on the kang."
"Let me see."
Sister-in-law Niu put the basket on the table in the main room and went directly into the east room. Seeing Mother Li sitting by the kang twisting hemp yarn, she was even more surprised. "Aunt Li, you look much better."
"Not much better? I'm completely recovered. Didn't you see I'm twisting hemp yarn to make shoes? By the way, since you're here, could you lend me some of the cloth boards your family has made? I'm in a hurry to make shoes for Tian Jing."
Sister-in-law Niu looked at Tian Jing behind her, still in the same clothes and shoes. "Okay, I'll bring them this afternoon. When do you plan to make the cloth boards? Do you want me to help?"
"This afternoon. Help me decoct the paste. Your paste is the best, and lend me the scissors for a few days too."
"Okay." Sister-in-law Niu agreed with Mother Li, then looked at Li Min knitting her sweater. "It doesn't look very difficult. Let me try."
Seeing her sister-in-law nod, Li Min handed the few rounds of rib stitch she had just knitted to Sister-in-law Niu. Sister-in-law Niu, holding the triangular ball of yarn and needles, called out to Tian Jing, "Tian Jing, teach me."
Tian Jing only explained it once, and Sister-in-law Niu quickly got the hang of it. "This rib stitch is too simple. However, the cast-on you mentioned is indeed a learned skill. The height, width, and thickness are hard to determine the number of stitches."
"Yes, if it's too wide, it wastes yarn, and if it's too narrow, it can't be worn. After knitting about two inches of rib stitch, you should measure the width at the waist."
Li Min... Why wasn't her sister-in-law yelling anymore?
After knitting for a while, Sister-in-law Niu returned the needles and yarn to Li Min and went to count the eggs with Tian Jing.
"Tian Jing, they all want rice. Even if it's just a little, I can make some rice porridge for the kids when I take it back."
"Broken rice is okay? There's quite a bit of sand, and I don't have time to pick it out right now."
"It's fine, as long as it's rice."
There were sixty eggs in the basket.
Eggs were six fen each. The grain station's rice price was thirteen fen four a jin, and exchanging for grain tickets also cost more than ten fen a jin of tickets. But she bought it on the black market for fifty fen a jin.
"Sister-in-law Niu, to be honest, I bought it on the black market for fifty fen a jin. If it weren't for the long journey and wanting to help people in the village, I wouldn't be exchanging grain for eggs in the village."
"How about this, six eggs for a jin. The rice has sand, so I'll even give you a discount. If we exchange again later, it won't be this price."
"Of course, of course. You shouldn't be losing money. This price for the rice with sand is already a good deal for them."
She gave all the more than ten jin of broken rice to Sister-in-law Niu, asking her to weigh it. The rest would be brought back in the afternoon, along with some vegetable seeds.
Li Zhengguo finished making the four-layer wooden shelf box.
Tian Jing and Li Zhengguo sifted the soil together, then placed the wooden shelf box and the soil in the sun to dry.
When Sister-in-law Niu came back in the afternoon with the remaining broken rice, she was amazed by the wooden shelf box. "This will save a lot of space. It won't be in the way even if placed in a corner of the kitchen."
"That's exactly what I thought."
"Tian Jing, your mind, it always comes up with such novel ideas." Sister-in-law Niu looked at Tian Jing with admiration. "Tomorrow, I'll have my husband ask Brother Zhengguo how he made it."
"Okay." Tian Jing agreed on behalf of Li Zhengguo. "I'll teach you everything I know."
That afternoon, Sister-in-law Niu and Mother Li were making cloth boards.
Tian Jing was planting her vegetables in the wooden shelf box.
Unfortunately, with Li Zhengguo, who understood such things, it was not convenient to use her special abilities. However, she secretly saved two seeds of each type, planning to cultivate them on the mountain tomorrow and plant them in the shed of her private plot.
In the evening, Mother Li asked Li Zhengguo to light more lamps for her. She wanted to quickly finish the shoes for Tian Jing and then make clothes. Tian Jing had no clothes to change into, and her old clothes were torn up to make cloth boards.
Early the next morning, Tian Jing received the shoes from Mother Li. "Thank you, Mother-in-law. In the future, don't strain your eyes. Do it during the day."
"Okay."
After breakfast, Tian Jing looked at her new shoes and decided to wear them after she returned from the mountain.
With her new bamboo back basket on her back, she greeted Mother Li and Li Zhengguo and left the courtyard. She noticed that two more families, the fourth and fifth, had appeared on the west side. These two families were the two sons of Accountant Li.
Tian Jing frowned, ignored them, and left by the side of the west room. In the countryside, each family was separated by one or two meters. If it weren't for the private plots being in front of each house, the distance between neighbors should be the size of the private plots.
Only after Tian Jing's figure disappeared did Li Aiguo lower his head and continue to build the foundation.
On this trip to the mountain, Tian Jing specifically targeted wild rabbits, as she had promised to make lining for her mother-in-law's cotton clothes.
It was already early winter, and it would be completely cold soon. Her mother-in-law's cotton clothes and pants should be prepared. Li Min's cotton clothes should be enough for this year, right? Was there not enough cotton?
She skinned two wild rabbits with a machete, rolled the rabbit meat and skins separately with vines, and placed them at the bottom of the back basket.
On top were the ground cherry fruits. Above the ground cherry fruits were dandelion and bitter dandelion. She put on the lid and Tian Jing quickly descended the mountain. She needed to go back to wash her feet and change her shoes.