Farm Girl Turns Everything Around: Sly Husband, Let’s Farm

Chapter 442: Chapter 442: Planting Sweet Potatoes in the Field

With the County Chief there, the land purchase went smoothly.

Previously, all of the Tong Family’s land was planted with crops. Tong Tiehu didn’t want those plots. Instead, he deliberately chose deserted land that hadn’t been cultivated. These two acres of land were far from Anping Village, 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 Village.

Upon reaching the village entrance, Qiao Xiaomai got off the carriage and went home, while Tong Sanlang 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 the land deeds and announced the next day’s work: planting sweet potatoes.

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

It was already summer, and other families had planted 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 unacceptable to go back to their maternal family’s house.

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 Dalang nor Tong Erlang 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 more complaints 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-in-law 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 of land.

The land 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 Dalang family, was mobilized for the task.

Removing weeds from fallow land 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 they last 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 porcelain 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, a large ceramic pot full of it each time, which would be finished on the same day by their family.

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

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

Tong Sanlang 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 them combined.

She walked over to Tong Sanlang and said, “Sanlang, 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?”