Chapter 69 - Expansion of Resources (1/2)

Little Divine Stone hadn’t planned on paying attention to her, but when it felt her faint feelings of sadness, it proudly opened its mouth, [You actually don’t trust me, this divine stone! Let me tell you, my powers have improved a lot recently. I can already turn into a physical form. As long as I, this celestial stone, help him clear his meridians [1] and circulate his vital energy every day, he will definitely be able to walk within half a month. But, he did suffer a serious injury after all, so he might walk with a limp.]

Yu Xiaocao was completely relieved now. She excitedly hugged the little golden kitten and kissed it a few times, and then said, [You can turn into a physical form? Doesn’t that mean that your powers have improved quite a lot? That’s great, Little Glutinous Dumpling. You’re seriously my lucky star! Thank you so much!]

The little divine stone felt slightly shy and awkwardly exclaimed, [Go away, go away! I want to transform into a girl in the future. You lesbian…]

“Ha-ha…” Seeing the little kitten being shy, Yu Xiaocao couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

“Youngest Sister, what’s wrong?” Xiaolian, who was beside her, was startled awake. She rubbed her eyes and asked with sleepy eyes.

“No… Nothing!” Xiaocao quickly put away the multicolored stone and stuffed the little golden kitten into her blanket. She pretended as if she had just woken up and said, “I had a dream and woke up laughing…”

“What kind of good dream did you have to be so happy?” Xiaolian flipped over and lay on the bed facing her.

Yu Xiaocao hastily closed her eyes as if she was very sleepy and replied, “I don’t remember…”

She was afraid that Xiaolian would continue asking, so she deliberately slowed down her breathing and pretended to sleep. She didn’t know when, but she really ended up falling asleep as she pretended…

After they sent the five taels over, they didn’t have much money left at home. They couldn’t plant the three acres of sweet potatoes until May and it would take over half a year until they could harvest them. How was their family going to survive during the half a year?

Xiaocao carefully calculated their family’s resources. In the kitchen, besides the two wild hares that were left over from the banquet, there were still five cabbages and a few radishes. They had about two catties of wheat flour and four or five catties of millet flour. Sweet potato flour was the thing that they had the most of, but there were only less than ten catties left. In the backyard cellar, they had a little over a hundred catties of sweet potatoes that her maternal grandmother gave them. If they lived frugally, they could last for a little over a month.

They only had forty-something copper coins left at home. They were reluctant to eat the two hares, so they took them to the town market and sold them for more than two hundred copper coins.

The winter blizzard had become a disaster. Even though the government had stabilized prices, the common folks still lived a tight and frugal life.

Yu Xiaocao had learned that the prices in early spring were much higher than when she first transmigrated here. The prices in the grain shop was a good example. Coarse grains, such as millet flour and sweet potato flour, used to be two copper coins a catty, but it cost three or four copper coins now. Refined flour, which cost five copper coins per catty last year, cost at least eight copper coins now. Of course, the price for white rice was even higher. It had risen to fifteen copper coins per catty at its peak. It cost thirty copper coins a catty for pork right now, while the price for eggs had also risen quite a lot.

They only had two hundred sixty copper coins left. Their family would probably consume at least one hundred catties of grain per month, so after making a rough calculation, they didn’t even have enough money to buy coarse grain. Ay… No wonder most of the villagers couldn’t eat wheat flour throughout the year!

In her opinion, being frugal wasn’t enough. They needed to expand their sources of income!

Madam Liu also understood the fact that they couldn’t just sit idly while eating away all their resources, so she found a job in town to help people wash their clothes. She had to go once every three days. She went out early in the morning and returned at around three to five in the afternoon. She earned fifteen copper coins each time she worked. In the early spring, the weather was still relatively cold in the northern regions. Madam Liu’s hands were red and swollen due to prolonged exposure to the cold water. Yu Xiaocao’s heart ached when she saw the bloody cuts on her mother’s fingers.

Every day when Madam Liu came back, Yu Xiaocao would help her mother warm her hands and feet with boiled water that the divine stone had soaked in. With the mystic-stone water’s nourishment, the frostbitten areas on Madam Liu’s hands were healed in a few days. The calluses on her hands had also disappeared. Her hands had become so fair and delicate that she didn’t need to worry about accidentally scraping the threads when she did embroidery anymore.

When their mother went to work, Yu Xiaolian took on all housework at home. As if she was a little housekeeper, she gathered firewood, cooked, washed clothes, and also cleaned the yard. When she was free, she would sit under the warm sun and embroider purses and handkerchiefs to help support the family.

Yu Xiaolian’s embroidery skills were nearly on par with Madam Liu’s. However, before they had split from the Yu Family, she was too busy and didn’t have any time to sew.

Yu Xiaocao seriously admired this young eight year old girl. In her previous life, Xiaolian would have just been a second grader in elementary school. However, she had shouldered most of her family’s burdens on her weak shoulders.

In fact, Xiaocao should call her ‘older sister’. But even when the original host was still alive, she had never called her in that way. The reason was that, when Madam Liu gave birth, they hadn’t expected that she would give birth to twins. During the confusion, the midwife had mixed them up and didn’t know who the older and younger sister was.

Later, due to Xiaocao’s weak constitution, Xiaolian, who was more sensible, always took care of her and protected her. Thus, the family began calling Xiaolian ‘the eldest daughter’ and Xiaocao naturally became the younger one.

However, Xiaocao had always felt that she was the older one and was unwilling to call Xiaolian ‘older sister. Their family decided to just let her be and didn’t correct her…