Zhao Liangcai said the place with many mushrooms was that poplar forest.
As soon as Qin Junyao got off the flat cart, she saw many bulging mounds. She walked along the mounds and found a mushroom ring.
The mushrooms were easy to dig. The two of them followed the mushroom ring and dug a cartload in an hour.
This cart had been modified by Qin Sanniu, who had returned from the salt lake, when they were harvesting wheat.
The cart had four boards on the bottom. When these boards were propped up, they could be inserted into the sides of the cart, forming an open-topped box more than three feet high.
Qin Junyao and the others filled the cart, with the boards installed, with mushrooms.
Seeing that half of the mushroom ring was still unexcavated, Qin Junyao thought she would have to come back with the ox cart and buy two more jars to pickle the mushrooms.
Zhao Liangcai helped Qin Junyao find another half cartload of mushrooms before returning to the salt lake with Axe.
Zhao Liangcai did not let Axe stay at the Qin family's house for a few days, as he did not know if Madam Qian would act erratically and force Axe to acknowledge an uncle.
The entire Yangshu Village was busy with the autumn harvest, so busy that they didn't even celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Therefore, no one paid too much attention to the news from the Zhao family.
"I'm not leaving, and I'm not getting married," Zhao Rui said, twisting her body as she sat on the kang.
Madam Qian sat opposite Zhao Rui and said earnestly, "Rui'er, Yan Bai is already engaged. Where can mother find you another scholar?"
"Don't you dislike this place? Your uncle has become successful outside. It's better for us to follow him than Zhao Liangcai."
Madam Qian had already seen clearly that threatening Zhao Liangcai through Axe was completely unfeasible.
They came to the Northwest at the suggestion of her niece. After a year, it was completely different from what she had imagined, so it was better to leave.
"What uncle? He doesn't look like a good person to me, his eyes are shifty. Mother, you should still let Zhao Liangcai find me a good marriage."
Madam Qian looked at her children with some impatience. This was the fifth time she had persuaded Zhao Rui. Zhao Liangcai was not the Zhao Liangcai of their memories, and she could not control him.
But Zhao Rui wouldn't listen.
"If you don't leave, then go and meet the wealthy merchant your cousin mentioned. Mother doesn't want to stay here anymore. You decide for yourself," Madam Qian said, and then got up and walked out of the room.
"Mother, are you really going with that uncle? You don't want wealth and you don't want me either?"
Madam Qian turned around and looked at Zhao Rui sternly, "Rui'er, I'm not abandoning you, it's you who won't come with me. For more than ten years, I've suffered in the Zhao family for you. Now I want to live for myself."
"Mother, what do you mean by suffering for me? When my father was alive, what did you do besides cooking? In the middle of winter, you didn't even make cotton shoes for him, yet he happily bought you embroidered shoes."
"Be quiet!" Madam Qian didn't want to hear about the past, especially Qian Kuan's arrival, which made Madam Qian even more eager to forget her days of being married into the Zhao family.
"Rui'er, I'll say it one last time."
"You have two choices: either come with me, or meet the wealthy merchant your cousin mentioned. If you choose neither, then wait for your future sister-in-law, that village girl, to arrange a marriage for you."
Zhao Rui watched her mother walk out without looking back and burst into tears as she lay on the kang.
Qian Duo entered Zhao Rui's room and comforted her during the latter part of her crying. She also mentioned that although Chen Changming was a wealthy merchant, his education was not bad, and it was only a meeting, not a marriage.
Zhao Liangcai at the salt lake was aware of the messy affairs of Madam Qian and the others, and he wrote letters to Qin Junyao, telling her what he could.
Qin Junyao asked what would happen if Zhao Rui was truly his biological sister.
Madam Qian might not be sure whose child it was.
Zhao Liangcai's reply was that she would get married sooner or later. Besides, Zhao Rui didn't treat him as a brother, so why should he have an extra sister.
The September weather was cool in the mornings and evenings, and the autumn harvest in Yangshu Village was nearing its end.
The Qin family's noodle restaurant in Salt County had also opened.
Ling Manshuang sent a gilded plaque, and Doctor Sheng sent wooden couplets to hang on both sides of the door. Bai Qing hired a drum and gong troupe, and they had a lively celebration on the opening day.
Mother Qin hired Aunt Hou Si and sisters Zhang Dani to manage the shop.
The shop could accommodate ten four-person tables inside and outside. The four of them were temporarily sufficient.
Qin Junyao wanted Mother Qin to hire someone to knead dough, but Mother Qin said they would hire someone after Zhang Dani quit.
Every morning, Qin Daniu would take Mother Qin and the others to Salt County and pick them up in the evening.
Mother Qin asked the sisters Zhang Dani and Zhang Erni to work at the shop because she wanted to observe them before they got married.
The noodle restaurant in Salt County was very busy with a constant stream of customers every day, and the Qin family in Yangshu Village was also busy.
"Brother Qin, this barley has grown quite a bit. The saxaul has grown like those that have been planted for two years," Hou Gan said, cutting barley and chatting with Father Qin.
Father Qin replied with a smile, "Yes, my eldest daughter told me that planting saxaul could conserve water, and I was a bit skeptical. Looking at this, if we cultivate the land for a couple more years, we can grow soybeans."
"Hou Si, saxaul is really a good thing. More than half of this land is sand. Look, it all seems to have turned into soil now. Who would have thought we could have so much land before?"
Father Qin straightened up and pointed to the endless saxaul land, "From now on, we'll plant grain here, and we'll become landlords."
"Brother Qin, are you satisfied with this land? My father said that next spring, he'll let my brothers come back to continue reclaiming land and raise some sheep."
"The wheat sold can pay off the mortgage for the house. Next year, we'll earn more money and add a few more rooms. My second brother's son, Jiafu, and my third brother's sons, Guizi and Shanzha, should be getting married."
"Yes, they're all of age. Isn't Xing Sheng's wife about to give birth?"
"Soon..."
Qin Junyao, holding a sickle and cutting barley between the rows of saxaul, listened to Father Qin and Uncle Hou Si talking.
When she heard them say that saxaul was a good thing, Qin Junyao secretly rejoiced. When she heard Uncle Hou Si say they wanted to reclaim more land, Qin Junyao felt a little distressed.
In order for the saxaul to grow well and the barley to yield a good harvest, she had contributed sixty percent of the well water from her space to the nearly forty mu of saxaul land belonging to the Qin and Hou families.
And now they wanted to reclaim more land, which would truly exhaust her.
It seemed she needed to plant the flower seeds and seedlings she got from Ling Manshuang's maternal grandfather into her space, and let the space expand again.
God bless, this expansion must be controllable by consciousness. Suden Novel Network
She wasn't doing it for herself, she was doing it for greening the desert, a great act of kindness.
The barley was cut very quickly. Only two hundred jin of seeds were planted. The troublesome part was the saxaul, there was too much of it.
Saxaul couldn't just be cut down. The main part of saxaul was its seeds. They had to be cut before the seeds fully matured, then dried, and the seeds threshed like wheat.
What if there weren't enough hands?
Qin Junyao wanted to hire people.
Father Qin naturally objected.
"Jun Yao, whether the saxaul and saxaul seeds can be sold is still uncertain. Hiring people with money is not feasible. I'll find a few people to help, and we'll just provide them with a few meals."
Qin Junyao also objected to Father Qin, "Dad, Mother is not here. My second aunt is already tired from cooking the two meals, and you want more people eating at home?"
"If you find people to help, don't you have to feed them well? Buying meat and tofu, the grain they eat is not money? After spending money, you still owe favors. It's not worth it."