This night, Qin Junyao, for the first time ever, did not enter her spatial realm. Exhausted, she slept soundly until almost dawn.
Estimating the time, Qin Junyao got up, brushed her teeth, and went to the mountain top to meet with Jianzi.
Jianzi had been brought up by Granny Ma, who also brought Qin Junyao a bag of steamed buns.
After finishing her horse stance, Qin Junyao took the buns home to eat breakfast, then went to plant wheat. The timing was perfect, with no spare time at all.
Yesterday afternoon, it was thanks to the help of the Hou family that the Qin family was able to finish planting five mu of wheat in a single day. Therefore, today the Qin family was going to help the Hou family plant wheat.
The Hou family had cleared more wasteland than the Qin family. Although three of the Hou family men were away at the salt lake, the women at home were also very capable. They hadn't fallen behind on any of the farm or household chores.
Qin Junyao found an opportunity to exchange grain seeds with the Hou family, but she didn't exchange all of their seeds. This was because the Hou family's aunts and uncles wouldn't let her work, constantly watching her.
Later, they wanted to take Xiao Bao with them to avoid her working, but it was only after Grandma Qin spoke that it was arranged for Qin Xiaoyu and Shantao to look after their nephew, Xiao Bao.
On the last day of wheat planting for the Hou family, the land was already a bit dry. However, the Hou family still thought that they would help the Qin family with any future work.
"Junyao? Junyao?" Qin Mother called out to her eldest daughter, who had suddenly spaced out midway through her meal.
"Huh? What is it, Mother?"
"What's wrong with you? You stopped eating halfway through the meal," Qin Mother put a piece of tofu on Qin Junyao's plate.
Qin Junyao sighed, said it was nothing, and continued to eat.
Having planted wheat for three and a half days had made Qin Junyao feel dazed from exhaustion. When she did farm work in her spatial realm, she could work at her own pace, faster or slower as she pleased.
These past few days, in order to plant the wheat before the surface soil dried out, everyone had been working with all their might. Qin Junyao had no time to rest.
Qin Second Aunt observed Qin Junyao and estimated she was probably tired. Sanniu's state was similar to his sister's today. "Yaoyao, you should rest well at home this afternoon. You must be exhausted these past few days. Spring plowing is like this; for so much land, it takes five or six days to finish planting."
"It's fine, Second Aunt. I'm just not used to it. What will we do this afternoon?"
"This afternoon, your mother and I will go dig up some wild vegetables. Big Brother will still be tilling the land, right?"
Qin Father nodded. "The land in the courtyard needs to be tilled. Half will be planted with corn, and the rest will be planted with some miscellaneous grains."
"Father, aren't we planting vegetables?" Qin Junyao would go crazy eating only potatoes every day if she couldn't eat some vegetables from her spatial realm at night.
"We'll plant some scallions and peppers by the edge of the field. With the drought and little rain, other things won't grow well."
Qin Father was telling the truth. The Northwest region has little rainfall and poor soil water retention. They could barely finish the work for the grain fields, and not many families carried water to plant vegetables.
In late summer, planting some radishes and cabbages would be considered greens. At other times, they ate wild vegetables.
Qin Junyao could not accept this reality.
She had a large quantity of vegetable seeds in her spatial realm and could plant whatever she wanted to eat. Yet, Qin Junyao was a terrible cook. She had been thinking of starting a vegetable garden at home in early spring to achieve vegetable freedom, but now they were going to plant miscellaneous grains?
"Father, can you give me a piece of land in the courtyard? I'll plant vegetables, water them myself, and take care of them. Don't you want to eat tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, and watermelons?"
As Qin Junyao spoke, Qin Erniu's mouth watered. He remembered the tomatoes Qin Junyao gave them in the woods when they were fleeing. "Uncle, I'll help Big Sister water the plants."
"Father, I'll help my sister with the work too," Qin Xiaoyu also raised her chopsticks and declared, wanting to eat watermelon.
Grandma Qin put down her rice bowl and chopsticks on the table. "Set aside more space for her. The surplus can even be sold in the county. This year, every family will surely plant more grain and less vegetables."
"Wealthy families might not be able to buy them even if they wanted to. If that doesn't work, they can be dried. This way, after the cabbages and radishes are gone, you won't have to eat potatoes every day," Grandma Qin said and then left the table.
Since Grandma Qin and Qin Junyao returned from the Northwest City, neighbors often visited their home.
Some came to see Qin Father, some came to see Qin Mother and Qin Second Aunt, and later, some came to see Qin Daniu and Qin Erniu.
This made it difficult for the Qin family to have things that shouldn't be seen, especially the food on the dining table.
Qin Father understood Grandma Qin's words. With a wave of his hand, he declared that all the land in the courtyard that was to be planted with miscellaneous grains would now be planted with vegetables.
He would then use the thick branches cut from the large trees he brought back to reinforce the fence.
In a good mood, Qin Junyao still followed Qin Mother and the others to pick wild vegetables in the afternoon.
Led by someone from the village, they picked some shepherd's purse and toon sprouts.
The temperature was still a bit low. The villagers said that in a few more days, they would be able to pick a large amount of toon sprouts, which could be preserved with salt and eaten for a long time.
In the evening, Qin Mother made shepherd's purse dumplings and fried toon pancakes, which Qin Junyao thoroughly enjoyed.
At night, Qin Junyao used a toon branch she had broken off that afternoon to propagate ten toon seedlings in her spatial realm.
She sat on a high stool, and whenever the toon saplings sprouted, she would pluck the new shoots. Whenever they sprouted, she would pluck them.
In half the night, Qin Junyao harvested two large baskets of toon sprouts and ten bare toon saplings that had been dug up.
The next day, Qin Junyao went into the mountains for a while and brought back two baskets of toon sprouts for Qin Mother. She also gave the ten toon trees to Qin Daniu to plant in the courtyard.
With a vegetable garden to tend to, Qin Junyao did not forget her main tasks: planting Saxaul trees and Cistanche.
Cistanche, being a parasitic plant, could not grow independently in the spatial realm. Qin Junyao still planted the Saxaul trees in a corner of her spatial realm and planted Cistanche seeds nearby.
She even dug up trees that were two people's embraces in circumference. Qin Junyao was not afraid of planting Saxaul trees.
As February approached, preparations for planting vegetables and Saxaul trees in the vegetable garden were to begin.
One day, after practicing her dagger routine with Dengzitui on the mountain top, Qin Junyao went directly to Yan County without eating breakfast.
Upon arriving at Yan County, her first stop was naturally the Qu Bing Tang (Medical Hall).
"Song Lan, why is the shop closed?" Qin Junyao asked, carrying her basket to the entrance of Qu Bing Tang, only to find the door tightly shut. Only the young apprentice, Song Lan, was sitting on the steps.
"Aunt Qin? This morning, my Grandmaster's wife gave birth to a little martial uncle. Our Ancestor was so happy that he gave us half a day off, so the shop is closed."
Qin Junyao had not seen Song Lan for nearly two months and noticed that the child had grown significantly taller.
She patted Song Lan's head. "Are mother and child safe?"
"They are safe. Aunt Qin, I'll take you inside."
Song Lan was a child picked up by Qin Huaijin. Qin Huaijin, not yet having completed his apprenticeship, could not officially take disciples. However, Song Lan considered himself Qin Huaijin's disciple, making him the youngest in terms of seniority at Qu Bing Tang.
The little fellow, who had just turned eight after the New Year, already conducted himself with maturity.
"Old Ancestor, Aunt Qin is here," Song Lan opened a side door and first informed Physician Sheng before leading Qin Junyao into the shop.
"Junyao, you've come at a good time. Come quickly and eat two red eggs." Physician Sheng and Qin Huaijin were in the shop dyeing eggs red. The dyed red eggs would then have a small black dot placed on them.
"I did come at a good time. Congratulations, Physician Sheng, on your new grandson," Qin Junyao said, taking out half a bag of millet and wrapped ginseng flowers from her basket.
"Likewise, likewise. You're the first to come and offer congratulations. I haven't even had a chance to announce the happy news, and you're already here. Have lunch with us."
"No, thank you. I came out to buy seeds. I'll head back after seeing you."
Physician Sheng nodded. "Spring is a busy time for you all. Then I won't keep you. You must come for the feast when the baby turns one month old."