The men went to work in the private plots.
Su Xiaotian had been reading books all day and felt it wasn't good to stay indoors. She volunteered to go with her grandfather to help in the private plots.
Although she said she was helping, everyone in the family knew she was just bored at home and wanted to go play.
"Old man, you must keep an eye on Sweetie!" Grandma Su reminded him.
Grandpa Su nodded aloofly and said impatiently, "I'm a grown man, don't I know this?"
Seeing the interaction between her parents-in-law, the three daughters-in-law couldn't help but cover their mouths and smile.
According to village regulations, each person was allocated two fen of land for private plots. The Su family had many members, eighteen in total, so they had over three mu of private land.
The Su family's private plots were not far from their courtyard, only a three to five-minute walk away.
A large area of land was connected, and besides vegetables, they also planted some potatoes and corn.
These private plots were too important for the family. If it weren't for the produce from the private plots supplementing the family's needs, the entire family would have starved to death!
Grandpa Su, along with his three sons, was working diligently in the private plots, tending to the crops with great care.
But Su Xiaotian observed that the seedlings in the field were not growing well; they looked yellow and unhealthy.
Su Xiaotian guessed that the crops were lacking nutrients.
However, she didn't know what specific nutrients were missing and couldn't help.
Neither in her past life nor in this one had she been good at growing crops.
At this moment, Su Xiaotian felt that she should study hard. She didn't know when she would no longer have to read storybooks. She was a child, but her mind wasn't that of a child!
It wasn't until dusk that Grandpa Su called his sons out of the fields, preparing to pack up and go home.
Seeing his little granddaughter sitting obediently at the edge of the field, blinking her big eyes with a well-behaved and cute appearance, the old man vigorously brushed the dirt off his hands and clothes before intending to pick up his little granddaughter.
Su Xiaotian's face turned red with embarrassment. She was already so old, yet she was still being held. How could she be so shamelessly carried?
She refused to let Grandpa Su carry her, instead holding Grandpa's rough, large hand with her soft, small hand and walking home together.
Su Mantian watched his daughter obediently follow his father, and a hint of jealousy arose in his heart. She was clearly his daughter!
"Sweetie, how about Daddy carries you?"
"Daddy, I've grown up, I can walk by myself!" Su Xiaotian said softly and sweetly, her face full of smiles. "Besides, I want to help Grandpa walk!"
The three brothers heard this and couldn't help but burst into laughter. This little girl, it turned out, wasn't being led by her grandfather, but rather she was helping her grandfather walk!
Upon returning home and washing up, Su Xiaotian was eager to get back to her room to see what she would draw from the daily sign-in, and thus appeared somewhat listless.
Seeing her daughter looking listless, Liang Xiu attributed it to her recent illness and fatigue, and urged Su Xiaotian to go to sleep.
Grandma Su wanted to sleep with her granddaughter, but Su Xiaotian refused.
The Su family's housing was cramped. The elders lived in the main hall, and Su Xiaotian occupied a small room partitioned off from it.
Su Xiaotian had her own room. Although it was small, it was much better than the collective dormitory where her brothers slept.
After all, her nine brothers still slept on one large kang.
Su Xiaotian lay on the kang. After Grandma Su left, she brought up the system panel, preparing to sign in.
She had read for over ten hours today, and according to the system's rules, she could draw the highest-level sign-in reward.
She just didn't know what the highest reward would be.
Su Xiaotian was filled with anticipation, her little fingers trembling slightly with excitement.
Despite her nervousness, Su Xiaotian still tapped the lottery symbol with her fair, tender finger.
As the cursor continuously jumped across the nine grids, Su Xiaotian's heart rate quickened.
Whether her future would be filled with meat or wild vegetables depended on this sign-in system today.
She desperately hoped that the system would provide her with good things and not something that looked good but was useless.
At the same time, she grumbled, why couldn't the daily rewards be fixed? Why did there have to be a lottery?
Finally, as the cursor slowed down more and more, it stopped on one of the grids, and then that grid opened.
Su Xiaotian stared intently with her big, blinking eyes.
Ten jin of meat coupons?
Meat coupons?
And ten jin?
Heavens, was this real?
Last year, their family of eighteen only received a little over twenty jin of meat during the New Year, but she had received so many meat coupons from just one sign-in today.
Although they were just meat coupons, in this era of planned economy, coupons were more important than money. Without coupons, even with money, one couldn't buy things.
She had earned one yuan and sixty cents from reading books all day today and was already worried that with money but no coupons, these earnings would be difficult to spend.
Unexpectedly, the system had even solved the problem of coupons.
Su Xiaotian's face lit up with a brilliant smile. If she hadn't been afraid of disturbing her grandfather and grandmother next door, she probably would have laughed three times to celebrate.
In the end, Su Xiaotian covered her mouth with her fair, tender hand and giggled.
She looked like a little mouse, incredibly cute.
After five consecutive days, Su Xiaotian's health had almost fully recovered.
Since Su Xiaotian had been seriously ill, Grandpa Su had requested a week of sick leave for her, so she didn't have to go to school for the time being. She spent her days diligently reading in her room.
Her diligent reading was not without reward.
In six days, Su Xiaotian had earned a total of eight yuan and fifty cents. Apart from the initial fifty cents, which she had already given to Grandma Su, Su Xiaotian still had eight yuan.
She carefully counted out five yuan with her tender, white hand and then took out the two jin of sugar coupons, ten jin of meat coupons, ten chi of cloth coupons, thirty jin of grain coupons, and two jin of oil coupons she had obtained from the lottery over the past few days.
Grandma Su saw her granddaughter beckoning her mysteriously and hurried in to take a look, only to find her granddaughter holding a stack of coupons and a stack of money.
Grandma Su looked at the pile of money and coupons, so excited she almost shouted, but fortunately, she suppressed her inner excitement at the last moment.
"My good child, where did you get this?"
Suppressing her excitement, Grandma Su asked with a slightly trembling voice.
Don't say the Dragon King gave it to her. The Dragon King's temple had been at the head of the village for several hundred years, and no one had ever heard of it sending anything to anyone.
But when Su Xiaotian spoke, she said, "It was given by Grandpa Dragon King. He said our family needed these."
Su Xiaotian had a bewildered expression, not feeling that there was anything wrong with what she had said.
Grandma Su didn't know that Su Xiaotian was struggling internally at this moment.
She had a lot of coupons, but still not much money!
With so many coupons, these few yuan were not enough to use. She wondered if Grandma had any savings.
Perhaps these coupons would go to waste.
The system was also like this. Why didn't it directly give meat and grain? That would be much more convenient.
However, she would give the coupons to Grandma first, perhaps Grandma would have a solution!
Grandma Su looked at the coupons one by one, her eyes widening as if they were about to fall out. They were rural people, and coupons were even more scarce for them than for city dwellers.
But this child had produced so many at once, which was more than a month's supply for a city worker.
"When did he give them to you?" Grandma Su asked, puzzled.