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After returning from the South Slope, Yingbao faithfully stayed home, spending time teaching her little brother to speak and memorize texts, and visiting the cave dwelling to tend their crops whenever she had a chance.

The golden and snow ear mushrooms that she had harvested and sun-dried some time ago were completely dry now and, to her delight, none of them had rotted. She packed them neatly into a bamboo basket.

New mushrooms were sprouting from the ten mulberry trees. The sight of the golden mushrooms and the translucent, white snow ear mushrooms was particularly pleasing to the eye.

The cotton seeds she had planted were already sprouting and growing vigorously.

In a blink, it was time to celebrate the kitchen god festival, when the third eldest of the Jiang Family took a break to go to the South Slope again. He instructed Wang Ke and his two sons to take a break for the New Year celebrations and to resume work afterwards.

He also gave them five pecks of wheat and one peck of rice as an advance payment for their labor.

Wang Ke cheerfully carried the wheat and rice and took his two sons back home.

They still had three mouths to feed at home, and it was likely that the little grains they had left had been eaten up. The grain provided by the youngest Jiang would be a timely supplement, enough to keep his family going until February and March.

By then, wild vegetables and ground yams would be sprouting, and elm tree shoots would be available. They could survive on these, preventing them from dying of hunger.

By April, the mountain would be covered in pagoda tree flowers, which could fill their bellies. The children would also start catching small fish, shrimp, loaches, and freshwater clams in the ditches, making do until the summer harvest.

In this way, his family was able to get by.

This was the way in which the poor had been surviving year after year, until they couldn’t hold up any longer.

In a blink of an eye, the first month of the lunar year was over, and the ice and snow had melted.

A new year had begun.

As expected, the Imperial Court issued a conscription order during this time. Many young men from Chuanhe Town were forced to go to the battlefield.

It was the same in Chen Village and Xichen Village; about ten men, ages eighteen and older, were conscripted each time.

Even the Chen Family Clan leader’s family was not spared; his youngest son was conscripted into the army.

The conscription was very severe this time. To meet the requirement for troops, private substitution was not allowed. Thus, the Clan Leader had no choice but to push his youngest son into the army.

But no one expected that the old man of the Jiang Family would be so cunning. After supplying the required grain, he had divided his sons’ households at the Lizheng’s place.

In order to get his sons’ household registrations expedited, the old man Jiang even gave half a catty of dried golden ear mushrooms to Sun Licheng.

Sun Licheng didn’t just take his gift for nothing. The next day, he submitted the household registrations to the County Government.

The advantage of dividing the households was that the County Government would not conscript the only male in a household.

The disadvantage was that each household had to provide one person for labor service every year.

This meant that the three brothers would have to do ten to thirty days of labor service every year from now on.

It was a necessary evil. Doing local labor was better than going to an unknown battlefield to die.

The Jiang brothers thus escaped conscription and saved some money that would have otherwise been spent on substitutions.

Just after the first month of the lunar year, Sun Licheng, the Lizheng, led people to the Jiang’s to reassess their household rankings.

In the end, the three Jiang brothers were all designated as second-class households, so from then on, they would have to pay taxes according to second-class households for both the summer and autumn harvests.

Jiang Sanlang, the third eldest, was not surprised and gladly accepted this ranking.

As soon as spring arrived, he was as busy as a top, hardly having the chance to stop.

His daughter was planning to transplant fruit trees on the South Slope, so he had to dig pits for the trees first, and then carry chicken manure from the yard to the South Slope for fertilizing.

“Sanlang, some outsiders have moved into our village.”

His wife, Chunniang, said while kneading dough, “They’re planning to set up a school for girls here.”

“A school for what?” He asked, surprised. “No wonder the clan school has a new building.”

He had recently stayed on the South Slope, digging pits to plant trees, and his daughter was there helping him as well. Little did he expect that in a few days, a new house would be built next to the clan school for the outsiders.

“They said it’s a school to teach girls medical skills.”

Having kneaded the dough, Chunniang started to shape the dough into small pieces and roll them into buns.

“Medical skills? That’s not bad. We can let Baobao, our daughter, learn too.” He replied.

His little girl was clever and defied the norms of a typical village girl; if she could learn some useful skills, she would be able to find a better family to marry into in the city.

Overhearing their conversation, Yingbao became curious.

There wasn’t such a thing as a girls’ school in her previous life.

She led Youyou out, proficiently put a saddle on its back, put on the reins, climbed onto the bench, and then climbed onto the deer’s back. She was going to see what the outsiders were like.

She noticed that some new houses had been built next to the Chen Family Clan School at some point, and a big yard was also being constructed.

The yard was not fully constructed yet, and several villagers were helping to pile up soil to build the wall.

But it seemed that someone had already moved into the house, and there were two finely dressed children standing at the door who clearly weren’t villagers.

From this distance, Yingbao couldn’t see their faces well, but vaguely sensed that there was a boy and a girl.

The girl was slightly older than Erni, and the boy was about the same size as

Yuanbao.

Yingbao urged Youyou to get closer, and noticed that the two children had also seen her and were looking in their direction.

A woman in a camel-colored dress walked out of the house. She looked to be in her thirties and was elegant and calm.

She also noticed Yingbao and waved at her.

Yingbao magically hurried the deer towards her. The woman smiled and asked, “Whose child are you?” “I’m from the Jiang Sanlang family.” Yingbao suppressed her excitement, her eyes constantly glancing at the girl on the side.

This girl looks like Sister Wen, their eyes and brows were almost identical. But how could Sister Wen end up in this obscure little mountain village?

“So, you are from the Jiang Sanlang family.” The woman smiled even more gently. She asked softly, “What’s your name?”

“Yingbao, my name is Yingbao.” Yingbao replied loudly.

The boy standing on the side stiffened, his face looked a little unpleasant.

The woman and the girl both laughed.

“So your name is Yingbao, that’s a good name.”

The woman spoke gently, “Would you like to come down and play for a while?” Yingbao nodded eagerly.

The woman stepped forward, lifted her off the deer, and touched her sheep horn braid with a smile, saying, “Meet my daughter, her name is Wen Shu. And my son, his name is Wen Hengyin.”

Wen Shu?

Yingbao almost screamed, the young lady’s real name was indeed Wen Shu!

Yingbao’s eyes glittered, she stared at Wen Shu without blinking, constantly reminding herself, don’t get too excited, don’t expose yourself. There are many people with the same name and surname in this world, she must not misidentify, she must ask slowly and then confirm.

Wen Shu also smiled at her and went forward to hold Yingbao’s hand,

“Yingbao, how old are you?”

Yingbao raised three fingers, “Three years old.” It would be exactly three years old in two more month.

“I just turned nine, I’m a rabbit. You’re a monkey, right?”

“Yes.” Yingbao nodded hard: “Sister Wen, you guessed right.”

The boy on the side let out a grunt and mumbled a word, “Is this something to guess? Stupid.”

Yingbao turned to look at him, he seemed to be around six or seven, with a small chubby face, pale and tender. If they gave him two pigtails, he would definitely look like a girl.

“My little brother is six years old, he’s a snake.”

Wen Shu led her to the side and took a piece of light green cake from the box on the table and handed it to Yingbao, “Try the green bean cake my mother made.”

“Thank you, Sister Wen.”

Yingbao took the cake, ate it in small bites while squinting her eyes, she couldn’t help but examine the young girl in front of her.

Her eyebrows were like willow leaves, her phoenix eyes and straight nose, and jade lips, her skin was soft and white, the more Yingbao looked at her, the more she seemed like Sister Wen.

“Sister Wen, where is your hometown? Why did you come here?” Yingbao asked boldly using her young age as an excuse.

Wen Shu smiled: “My hometown is far away. My father is weak, and he wanted to find a place with beautiful mountains and rivers to recuperate, so we came here.”

Yingbao turned her eyes and asked again, “The Grandpa Wen who came here last time is your relative, right?”

Wen Shu nodded: “That’s my grandfather. He told my father that this place is a good place, suitable for recuperation.”

“Oh.” Yingbao realized, “Then, does your family run a pharmacy?”

Wen Shu lowered her eyes and thought for a moment before answering, “My family doesn’t run a pharmacy, but my father used to work as a doctor.”

Wen Hengyin suddenly snorted from behind, dissatisfied, “Are you from the

Patrol Post? Asking so many questions.”

Yingbao ignored the little boy’s cold words, she hugged Wen Shu with a mischievous smile.

“Sister Wen, can I be your friend?”

“Yes.” Wen Shu stroked the little one’s head, feeling a trace of warmth in her heart, she spoke softly, “From now on, you can come to me to play anytime you want.”

What a cute little girl, she gives a warm feeling, not at all like her cousins..