The Jiang Family's Little Girl Has Magic Powers

Chapter 29

At the end of June, the school was built. On the day of completion, Old Lady Hu, who was usually stingy, exceptionally had someone buy a pig and treat the whole village to pig-killing rice.

Jiang Yuqing was also taken there by the old lady Hu.

Whether the big pot of rice tasted good or not was debatable, but it was really lively.

At the dinner table, Old Lady Hu drank too much. She sang dragon boat tunes in a broken voice, and as she sang she cried.

She cried and drank at the same time. She cried about the hard days of the past and the grievances the Jiang Family members had suffered...

The nearly sixty-year-old lady cried with tears streaming down her face, like a child.

Not to mention those who had experienced hardships with her, even she, an outsider, was quite moved.

This old lady had been thinking about the Jiang Family all her life, without any selfishness. Apart from her ability, just based on this point alone, she deserved the Jiang Family's respect and lived up to their ancestors.

Jiang Wenyuan entrusted former mountain chiefs and classmates, and offered very good conditions to find a gentleman of good character and integrity as a teacher for the Jiang Family's school.

The mountain chiefs promised that if they found a suitable candidate, they would definitely recommend him to Jiang Wenyuan.

In late early July, the road from Xijin ferry to the county road was fully paved and could accommodate two carriages side by side, nearly six miles long, all rammed with clay, wide, flat and solid.

Not only was it better than the county road, it was even better than the threshing grounds in many villages.

Xijin ferry became famous again. Girls from villages miles around were proud to marry Xijin ferry boys, and Xijin ferry boys were proud to marry Xijin ferry girls. Xijin ferry was in the spotlight again.

No matter how lively it was outside, it had nothing to do with little Jiang Yuqing. In the eyes of Lichun and Guyu, their young lady was really too lonely and pitiful.

At this age, she should be curious and playful.

But their young lady was either reading in the study or gardening in the backyard, or was carried by someone to inspect the fields.

Apart from a few brothers, she didn't even have a playmate, which made people feel sorry for her sensible personality.

Regarding the issue of playmates, Jiang Yuqing was also helpless.

Among the clansmen of the same surname, there were no other girls except her. There were a few from other families in the village.

But those older than her were hindered by her status and didn't really dare to play with her. Those around her age were really too young, they couldn't even speak clearly, how could they play together?

After all, not everyone was as gifted as her. If they accidentally made her cry, she would probably have to coax them instead, so it was better not to bother.

Ever since she was taught how to read and write in the study that day, Jiang Yuqing formally began learning.

When Dad was not around, she would learn with her brothers. With her previous life's foundation, she could grasp the general idea of a book by guessing even though she was just starting to recognize words.

When she encountered unfamiliar characters, as long as someone gave her a little guidance, she could remember them eight or nine times out of ten.

Her hands were small and couldn't hold a writing brush yet.

So Second Uncle made a small sandbox for her to practice writing characters every day with little sticks to reinforce her memory.

Later she simply took out pencil and paper from her spiritual space to write.

The elders in the family marveled more than once that if she had been born a boy, the family might have produced another top scholar.

When Jiang Yuchuan heard this, he secretly swore that since his sister could not be the top scholar, he would make her the sister of the top scholar, the most glorious sister of a top scholar.

From then on, Jiang Yuchuan studied even harder.

In July, the watermelons in Jiang Yuqing's spiritual space ripened. The harvested watermelons were piled up like a mountain in her spiritual space.

Since they could preserve freshness in her spiritual space, they wouldn't spoil no matter how long they were kept if not finished eating.

She just had to plant them outside next year, and then she could enjoy them openly and unrestrainedly, give them away or sell them.

Not like now, she still had to hide even in her own home, which really took away the fun.

The cry of cicadas urged the passing of time.

The hot July finally passed, and the autumn tiger was still ferocious after Beginning of Autumn. Amidst the heat waves, the people of Xijin ferry welcomed the autumn harvest.

The Jiang family had a total of 51 mu of good fields, and after harvesting and drying to remove chaff, they got a total of 16,371 catties of grain, averaging about 321 catties per mu.

The elders were elated, saying that the yield was very good. But in Jiang Yuqing's opinion, the output was frighteningly low.

Her family didn't need to pay grain tax, and the grain was enough to eat. Most commoner families still had to pay tax.

Take Third Grandpa's family for example. His family had thirteen mu of fields, of which eight mu were good fields and five mu were inferior fields. Based on an average yield of 300 catties per mu, they would harvest about 3,900 catties.

Of those, two mu were tax-exempt, so the tax grain was about 110 catties. After paying the tax, there would be less than 3,800 catties left.

Their family had four generations and fifteen people in total. On average, each person would only have about 252 catties of grain per year.

One catty of grain was three ounces of rice and three ounces of bran. Based on this ratio, these 252 catties of rice, when hulled, would barely give 176 catties of rice at most.

Calculating it carefully, the average was less than half a catty of rice per person per day. Even if they only ate two meals a day, it was still not enough to eat.

Moreover, except for two little babies, the rest were all half-grown boys.

There was a saying, half-grown boys could eat their old men to death.

In order to fill their stomachs, the family would often keep very little rice and sell the rest to buy other coarse grains and cereals to stretch the food longer. Even so, there were still times when food was scarce.

When that happened, they would dig wild vegetables and make pancakes from rice bran, basically eating whatever they could find.

In her previous life, Jiang Yuqing was an orphan. At the orphanage, the food may have been lacking at times but she could still eat her fill.

Later when she went to school and learned history, she had a general idea that ancient grain yields were low, and even tragedies like "exchanging children to eat" occurred during times of famine.

But back then when she was reading books, she only understood the literal descriptions, nowhere near the feeling brought by personally experiencing it now.

Jiang Yuqing felt that being able to reincarnate in this life, plus that huge golden finger, was most likely because she had accumulated virtues in her previous life.

Not to boast, but the old daoist who helped her cross over back when she was still spirit A Piao said so.

Since this was the case, she should do more good deeds in this life. She didn't expect to be reborn again after death, she just hoped not to have lived this life in vain.

After the autumn harvest was the Mid-Autumn Festival.

As the highest official in Qingzhou, Jiang Wenyuan received Mid-Autumn Festival gifts piled up in a whole storeroom.

There were mooncakes, pastries, local specialties, liquor, tea, some precious medicinal materials, and so on.

Correspondingly, the return gifts from the Jiang family were also quite a lot.

It was still hot now, and things couldn't be kept.

Lady Lu spent a whole morning sorting everything out.

The precious medicinal materials were kept for future needs.

The rest were divided into two parts, keeping some of the wine, tea and other guest reception gifts. The remainder was divided into two parts.

One part was sent back to Xijin ferry for the elders and village heads of the clan to distribute. One part was taken by his wife's eldest sister-in-law to give to his parents.

The county government was off for a day on Mid-Autumn Festival.

This year's Mid-Autumn Festival was also the fiftieth birthday of the Jiang family patriarch, Old Jiang.

By custom, it should be celebrated grandly. However, the old man had instructed his children and grandchildren long ago not to celebrate his birthday, and the clan members also got the message.

The old man once heard a storyteller at a restaurant say that some senior officials used birthday celebrations to extort money, then seized property and exiled those who didn't give gifts.

This story left a deep impression on him.

His son was now the magistrate of Qingzhou. If he held a grand celebration for his father's birthday, the various prefectures would surely feel obligated to give gifts.

Wouldn't that make his family the same as the one in the story?

Therefore, the birthday must not be celebrated. It was much better for the family to eat a lively meal together, rather than make a big fuss.

The old man was stubborn. No matter how hard his sons tried to persuade him, he insisted on not celebrating.

The sons had no choice but to obey him.

Since it was Mid-Autumn Festival and Grandpa's birthday.

After dinner, the family sat together eating mooncakes and appreciating the moon. To liven up the atmosphere, Jiang Yuqing decided to entertain her elders by performing for them.

Dumpling couldn't speak clearly yet, so singing was out of the question.

But dancing was still possible.

She asked Big Brother to play a tune on the flute to accompany her dance, it didn't matter what song it was, she just wanted to have fun.

Jiang Yujiang played a light and cheerful melody.

Dumpling danced along with the tune, making an effort to move her chubby arms and short legs. It was taught by the young lady volunteers when she was still at the orphanage in her previous life, and she still remembered it now.

It was a little clumsy, but on closer look, it still had some shape and was quite amazing to the elders.

After reacting, everyone applauded loudly and cheered. Her brothers even clapped until their palms turned red.

After the dance was over, little Dumpling was kissed affectionately by the enthusiastic elders, her little face kissed red. Dumpling felt extremely happy inside, ah, this was such a sweet burden.

After the Mid-Autumn Festival, the weather cooled down day by day. Jiang Yuqing was taken by the Lu family to stay in the city for a while.

In September, autumn fruits began to go on the market in large quantities.

This year, the weather was favorable for crops, and the fruits yielded a bumper harvest.

Among them, the largest yields were tangerines, oranges, pomelos, pears, chestnuts and persimmons.

Everywhere on both sides of the streets were people selling fruits, and there were also some out-of-town merchants who came to buy fruits, but the number taken away was very limited.

Because these were common fruits in the south, all states and prefectures had them, and they were not rare.

Under the circumstance of oversupply, the price of fruits would inevitably fall to the point where fruit farmers would cry without being able to sell them.

Take persimmons for example, large persimmons weighing three or four taels, no one wanted even seven for a penny.

A fruit farmer runs a stand for a day, and the income is still not enough to buy two buns for himself.

How can this work?

If the fruits could not be sold, they would rot in the fields. Without economic income, families would fall into difficulties.

When the common people's livelihood was difficult, how could Jiang Wenyuan, as the prefect of a county, sleep soundly?

During this period of time, in order to sell more fruits for the elders, Jiang Wenyuan even lowered his status and personally pulled merchants, just asking them to buy more.

But compared to the huge remaining base, it was still very limited. He worried so much that his hair fell out in clumps.

Jiang Yuqing was carried by her father, walking on the main street, looking at the fresh fruits on the whole street that could not be sold. She thought it would be better if some of them could be sold later, for example, coming on the market again in winter.

Thinking of this, she suddenly had an inspiration. That's right, we can make them into canned fruits!

With this thought, she immediately pulled her father's clothes and whispered in his ear, "Dad, go home. Fruits have solutions."

As soon as Jiang Wenyuan heard this, his eyes lit up instantly. He anxiously asked his daughter, "Good baby, do you really have a way?" Jiang Yuqing nodded heavily.

So Jiang Wenyuan didn't wander anymore either. He carried his daughter and walked back with big strides. A Ping could hardly keep up with his pace.

Back at home, he dismissed his subordinates. Jiang Wenyuan asked his daughter, "Good baby, how to do it, tell Dad quickly."

So Jiang Yuqing took out a bunch of things from her spiritual space supermarket, including a box of persimmon cakes and two cans of canned fruit.

"Dad, make cans."

As soon as Jiang Wenyuan saw the persimmon cakes and the two cans, his eyes shone like they were inlaid with titanium alloy.

He could barely make out the various ingredient ratios clearly marked on the can labels.

After reading for a long time, he asked, "Dear, can we make them?" Jiang Yuqing nodded, "Yes, let's try!" In her previous life, in order to earn tuition fees, she didn't know how many jobs she had done, sometimes working several jobs at the same time.

Among them, she had worked in a specialty food factory, and was very familiar with the process of making cans and persimmon cakes.

Since it was difficult for Jiang Yuqing to speak, she simply took paper and pen and wrote down what she knew one by one, and attached specific production methods.

After writing, she also explained them one by one, drawing comparisons and making sketches. Jiang Wenyuan finally understood completely.

First, fruits such as tangerines, peaches, oranges, pears and so on can be made into canned fruit, with the production method of canned fruit attached.

Second, the long-term storage method of chestnuts.

Third, the production method of persimmon cakes.

He asked his daughter if the cans could be opened to taste the flavor. Jiang Yuqing nodded and said of course. He then decisively took them to the kitchen...

The dinner that night was food that was bought back from outside.

As for the kitchen at home, it had been temporarily requisitioned by his parents to experiment with canning. Jiang Yuqing was the technical instructor.

Canned food was not difficult to make.

The ceramic jars were washed clean, and steamed with cork stoppers to sterilize them.

Tangerines were peeled, with the pith removed, washed clean and drained.

The pot was washed clean, an appropriate amount of water was added (enough to submerge the tangerine flesh), an appropriate amount of sugar was added and dissolved over low heat, then the tangerine flesh was added and cooked briefly. While still hot, it was put into the jar, stoppered with the cork, then sealed around with melted beeswax. The canned food was done.

Such canned food could be stored for three months.

The production time of persimmon cakes was much longer. They needed to be dried and kneaded first, dried and kneaded alternately, and finally frosted.

Jiang Wenyuan hugged his daughter and kissed her hard twice.

Then, holding the few cans he had made himself and the box of persimmon cakes his daughter had given him, he convened subordinates and several famous big businessmen in Qingzhou for an overnight meeting.