Chapter 442: nting Sweet Potatoes in the Field


    With the County Chief there, thend purchase went smoothly.


    Previously, all of the Tong Family’snd was nted with crops. Tong Tiehu didn’t want those plots. Instead, he deliberately chose desertednd that hadn’t been cultivated. These two acres ofnd were far from Anping Vige, but fairly close to the three hills of Qiao Xiaomai’s.


    After obtaining the ownership certificate and purchasing a cartload of sweet potato sprouts, the three of them returned to Anping Vige.


    Upon reaching the vige entrance, Qiao Xiaomai got off the carriage and went home, while Tong Sang and Tong Tiehu went back to the Tong Family residence.


    By now, it was already dusk, and smoke had risen from the stoves in many households. Dinner was also ready at the Tong Family’s house when the grandfather and grandson returned home.


    At the dinner table, Tong Tiehu took out thend deeds and announced the next day’s work: nting sweet potatoes.


    They would nt both acres in one day, with the entire family participating.


    It was already summer, and other families had nted their sweet potatoes a month earlier. Therefore, they had to hurry with this task, or the sweet potatoes they harvested in the fall would be sub-par.


    The Tong Family members listened silently, and no one uttered a word.


    It was considered uneptable to go back to their maternal family’s house.<div>


    Life at their maternal family’s house was even harder than at the Tong Family’s. If they feel that life at the Tong Family’s is already tough, it will only get tougher when they return to their maternal family.


    Break away from the family.


    Neither Tong Dng nor Tong Eng had the courage to do this. They were both still young and didn’t have the courage to shoulder the burden of feeding and clothing a family on their own.


    Bear with it!


    With this thought in mind, no moreints were raised, and the family silently ate dinner and retreated to their rooms to rest.


    The next morning, before dawn, Tong Xingda woke Zhang Shi to prepare breakfast. Zhang Shi got her two daughters-inw up, and by the time the entire family had eaten, dawn was just breaking.


    The Tong Family had two ox carts. One was used for domestic purposes and the other was used at the vinegar shop. Now that the vinegar shop was gone, both ox carts were kept at home.


    They drove the oxcart and walked for about fifteen minutes until the family reached the two-acre plot ofnd.


    Thend was overgrown with weeds, which needed to be removed first.


    With tools like small shovels and hoes, everyone, except the two small children from the Tong Dng family, was mobilized for the task.


    Removing weeds from fallownd is not heavy work for rural families.


    Typically, children do this sort of task. When Qiao Xiaomai’s family first got the donkey cart, Qiao Xiaomai and Qiao Dami were the ones dealing with the weeds.


    But the Tong Family members are not typical rural folks. They are privileged rural folks.


    In the past, they had many fields, all of which were worked by hired hands; they only had to supervise.


    It had been many years since theyst did hands-on work.


    Therefore, it didn’t take long before all the women were panting, with sore backs and aching legs. The sun overhead was scorchingly hot, and they were sweating and thirsty.


    Zhu Hongyun stood up and ran to the ox cart. She picked up a porcin bowl and filled it with water from a ceramic pot, gulping it down.


    Even after a bowl of water, her dryness did not diminish. Wiping the sweat from her forehead, she couldn’t help but think of the sour plum soup that Qiao Xiaomai had brought over previously.


    Qiao Xiaomai had given them sour plum soup more than once, arge ceramic pot full of it each time, which would be finished on the same day by their family.<div>


    Sour and sweet, it surely would be perfect to drink at this moment.


    With this thought, she couldn’t help but look at Tong Sang.


    Tong Sang was holding a hoe, removing the weeds from the ground at a rapid pace. While others had only cleared a small area, he had almost reached the other end of the field. In a short while, he had cleared as much area as the rest of thembined.


    She walked over to Tong Sang and said, “Sang, I don’t think there’s enough water in the pot for us to drink all morning. How about you take the oxcart back for a trip?”@@novelbin@@<div>