Chương 7: I Have an Idea

Hu Yufen, who had walked out from the kitchen house, quickly saluted. Then she looked at Jiang Huanyu reproachfully.

"There wasn't really anything wrong, yet you insisted on troubling Uncle Sun to make a trip." Jiang Huanyu chuckled.

"It's better to confirm it."

"Uncle Sun, please sit." After inviting Sun Fuchun to sit down, he helped his wife sit opposite him. After simply taking her pulse, a trace of a smile appeared on Sun Fuchun's face. Stroking his beard, he said, "It is indeed a pregnancy pulse. There is nothing else serious." After receiving confirmation, Jiang Huanyu instantly felt much more at ease. Then he quickly asked, "Uncle Sun, when Yufen gave birth to Anu before, it happened to be during the floods, and her vitality was damaged.

Do you think you should prescribe some medicine to regulate her body?" In this era, giving birth was undoubtedly like taking a trip through the gates of hell for women. If there was even the slightest accident, it would be one corpse and two lives lost. Over these years, quite a few women in the village had already died because of this. He did not want anything bad to happen to his own wife. Sun Fuchun nodded.

"She indeed needs to be properly regulated. This old man has some prescriptions here, only…"

"Yufen, you and Stone eat first. I'll chat with Uncle Sun outside." Interrupting Sun Fuchun's words, Jiang Huanyu spoke. Hu Yufen nodded slightly and watched the two leave the small courtyard. Outside the courtyard, Jiang Huanyu quickly explained, "Uncle Sun, please forgive me. Yufen is frugal." Sun Fuchun smiled and nodded.

"This old man understands. This regulating prescription is indeed not cheap."

"For a woman giving birth, the greatest danger is nothing more than insufficient qi and blood, with a large amount of vital energy lost after childbirth, leading to bleeding and death."

"Strengthening the foundation, nourishing the origin, and replenishing qi and blood is the most critical." Hearing these words, Jiang Huanyu was slightly stunned and said, "This boy remembers Uncle Sun once said that practicing martial arts also requires strengthening the foundation, nourishing the origin, and keeping qi and blood abundant. Could it be…" Sun Fuchun smiled and nodded.

"That is correct. The medicinal meals of the martial arts school in town are actually a decent regulating prescription."

"Only, those medicinal meals contain some herbs that pregnant women are forbidden from using, so they cannot be directly used."

"The prescription this old man gives is much gentler." Jiang Huanyu did not hesitate at all and directly said, "Then I must trouble Uncle Sun." Sun Fuchun waved his hand.

"This old man will go back and prepare the medicine. When you have time, just come get it."

"This medicine has ten portions in total, one portion each month. The price of each portion is two taels of silver."

"This is a high-quality regulating medicinal meal. If you think it is expensive…"

"Not expensive, not expensive." Jiang Huanyu cupped his hands and said, "I'll trouble Uncle Sun. This boy will go pick it up tonight." This was life-preserving medicine. Forget twenty taels of silver—even if it were two hundred taels, he would still have to think of a way.

"Then that's settled. This old man will go back first," Sun Fuchun said.

"I'll see you off." A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"No need. Go back and eat." … When Jiang Huanyu returned to the courtyard, Hu Yufen immediately came up and said, "There's nothing wrong with my body. You mustn't spend money recklessly!" Jiang Huanyu gently took her hand and said seriously, "It's only some ordinary body-regulating medicine. It isn't worth much."

"Don't worry. Everything has me." Hu Yufen's face reddened, and she did not speak. She knew Jiang Huanyu cherished her, but every expense in the family was a burden, and these burdens would ultimately press down on her man.

"Eat." Jiang Huanyu sat before the table and saw Jiang Wenfeng at the side shoveling white rice into his mouth in large mouthfuls. A trace of a smile appeared on his face. After eating, he took Jiang Wenfeng with him, drove the ox cart, and went to town to sell grain. As Xi Fu had expected, the Jiang family's grain had full kernels and belonged to the superior grade. Its price was thirty percent higher than ordinary grain.

The father and son each pulled a full cart of grain and sold it for thirty taels of silver in total.

"Father, I want to eat roasted chicken!" After coming out of the grain shop, Jiang Wenfeng spoke with a face full of expectation. This was the real purpose behind why he wanted to come to town. Jiang Huanyu weighed the heavy silver in his hand and laughed while scolding, "Only your mouth is greedy!"

"Father…"

"Buy, buy, buy! But we have to buy some fruit for your mother first." Hu Yufen had just become pregnant. She had morning sickness and vomiting, and with the weather being hot, she had to eat some light fruit to supplement her nutrition. The father and son drove the ox cart to a fruit shop in town and casually picked some fruit. In the end, when it was time to pay, he discovered that it actually cost nearly one tael of silver! In these years, just being able to eat one's fill was already good.

Fruit naturally counted as a luxury. He had guessed that it would be a little expensive, but he had not expected it to be this expensive! If one tael of silver were used to buy grain, it could buy nearly two dan. This small amount of fruit was actually worth as much as more than a hundred kilograms of grain!? Although Jiang Huanyu's heart ached, he still gritted his teeth and paid the money.

Near the end of the evening hour, Hu Yufen took Stone to Teacher Lu's house to pick up Anu, while Jiang Huanyu quietly brought money to Sun Fuchun's house and took the medicine back. At night, after the family of four finished dinner, they coaxed the two brothers to sleep.

"How much did today's grain sell for?" Hu Yufen asked casually while arranging the bedding. Jiang Huanyu scratched his head and stammered without speaking. Hu Yufen knew the family's money very clearly. There was no way to hide the matter of spending money on medicinal meals from her. Seeing that he did not answer, Hu Yufen immediately pulled a small wooden box out from under the bed. After counting it, she discovered that there were only one hundred and sixty-eight taels of silver.

"This year's grain only sold for eight taels of silver!?" She was not an ordinary woman who understood nothing. She still knew roughly how much the family's grain could sell for.

"Husband, how much silver did those medicines cost in total?" Looking at her man's poor ability to lie, Hu Yufen felt somewhat complicated.

"T-twenty taels."

"Ten portions in total. Each portion only counts as two taels of silver!" Jiang Huanyu hurriedly explained, wanting to weaken the idea that these twenty taels of silver were a "huge sum." Hu Yufen pursed her lips, sighed slightly, quietly covered the wooden box, pushed it back under the bed, and then sat beside Jiang Huanyu. Jiang Huanyu slowly reached out and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, comforting her.

"Money is a bastard. If it's gone, we'll earn it again."

"You and the children are the most important. The days ahead are still long. Everything will get better." Hearing these words, Hu Yufen's nose turned sour, and she tilted her head to lean against his shoulder.

"I just don't want you to be so tired." The husband and wife leaned against each other.

"Yufen, I have an idea." After a long while, Jiang Huanyu suddenly said, "Today, when I bought fruit in town, those fruits cost one tael of silver."

"I want to wait until spring next year, clear out about half a hectare of our family's mountain forest, sell the timber, and plant fruit trees."

"This way, we should be able to increase quite a bit of income every year." Mountain forest land was not suitable for growing crops. Their family's roughly one hectare of mountain forest was all planted with trees. Each year, part of the firewood produced was kept for their own use, and the extra was sold. The income obtained did not count as much. If the trees were cut down and fruit trees were planted instead, the income should increase greatly.

"This…" After hearing this, Hu Yufen was somewhat hesitant.

"I heard that planting fruit trees is very troublesome. Husband has no experience. Wouldn't this move be too risky?" Jiang Huanyu nodded, then smiled.

"If it were before, perhaps it really would be troublesome. Now…" He gently stroked Hu Yufen's black hair and said, "Did you notice the two peach trees at Teacher Lu's entrance?" Hu Yufen was slightly stunned. She recalled that when she picked up and dropped off Anu, at the entrance of Lu Zhiyuan's small courtyard there were two peach trees laden with fruit. The peaches on them were large and red, even better than those sold in the town market.

"Husband couldn't be planning to set his sights on Teacher's two peach trees, right?" Jiang Huanyu shook his head slightly.

"Naturally not. But those peach trees were planted by Teacher Lu and Uncle Ya. The two of them must be skilled in this field. Tomorrow, I'll go ask the two of them for guidance."

"If they are willing to help, later I'll find people to sell part of the timber on the mountain." After hearing this, Hu Yufen felt slightly more at ease. Then she looked at her man reproachfully.

"Husband really doesn't let any opportunity pass." Jiang Huanyu sighed slightly in his heart. Wasn't this all forced by life? Ding! [System Notification: Divination has refreshed!] [Today's Divination · Ordinary]: Rain at around 1 a. m. The rain will stop around 5 a. m. Rainfall obtained: about 30 centimeters.