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After the twelfth lunar month, the New Year began. From the fifteenth to the nineteenth of the first lunar month, the family began to steam cakes, preparing food for the Heavenly Barn Festival.

“Tian Cang”, also known as “Tian Cang”, means that the family’s granary is full and everyone is well-fed and clothed.

Chun Niang and her two sisters-in-law used rice, wheat, and bean flour to shape into shapes of Yuanbao, pots, bundles, sheep, cows, chickens, dogs for lanterns, and steamed them in a cage.

After that, they took it out and put a cotton thread into the steamed cakes in the shape of lanterns and poured a little castor oil into it.

At night, the Jiang family lit these flour and rice lanterns and placed them in every corner of the house, symbolizing flourishing population, abundant grains, and plenty of livestock.

Early the next day, all the men of the Jiang family went out to fetch water and soil. The water was poured into water tanks, and the soil was spread around the straw mats placed in a circle for grain storage.

They then poured all the grain from the family’s grain bags into the grain storage until it was filled up and the grain piled up to form a sharp top, symbolizing wealth and happiness.

Early in the morning, Chun Niang and her two sisters-in-law were busy making meals, boiling a pot of crucian carp soup, and preparing dumplings and potstickers. They also fried the rice and flour lanterns from last night in lard for the family to eat.

Dumplings symbolize filling the barn, potstickers symbolize covering the barn, and drinking fish soup symbolizes having surplus every year. All of these are foods for the festival.

While making dumplings, Chun Niang also shaped several small hedgehogs and mice with the dough and placed them in corners of the yard.

Starting from the twentieth day of the first lunar month, known as “Small Tian Cang”, the family’s rice vat could not be left empty, the water tank could not be without water, and there had to be food in the pot at all times, even if it was just a few steamed buns.

On the twenty-fifth day of the first lunar month, known as “Big Tian Cang”, Madam Jiang Liu used a sieve to fill the ashes pit with plant ashes.

She carried the sieve in one hand and a small wooden stick in the other while walking and tapping. The green ashes that fell created a pattern of grain storage and grain heaps in the yard. Then, she sprinkled a variety of grains like rice and wheat within these three-ring and five-ring heaps drawn with green ashes, placed a few stones on the edges, and let her own chickens in to eat.

This symbolized a full granary and an abundance of grains.

At noon, the Jiang family brought out the altar table, hung out the painted image of the Warehouse Officer, and started to light lanterns, burn incense, and bow in worship to pay homage to the Warehouse Officer.

After the Big Tian Cang, the entire Spring Festival in the first lunar month was considered completely over.

Soon, it was the early days of March. The weather gradually warmed up, making it the perfect time for transplantation of saplings.

Yingbao took dozens of grapevine saplings and a pile of peppercorn shoots out of the cave house and secretly put them in the bamboo shed in her own yard.

This bamboo shed had been assigned to Yingbao. Her father and the others had built a row of new bamboo sheds for mushroom cultivation in the vegetable garden outside the yard.

“Dad, I’ve cultivated a lot of saplings again. Where do you think we should plant them?”

Yingbao led her father into the bamboo shed and pointed to a pile of saplings on the ground, “This is the grapevine from the Western Region, and these are peppercorn shoots.”

Jiang Sanlang squatted down and picked up a peppercorn shoot to inspect. “Is this really a peppercorn?”

Peppercorn is a valuable item. Although many noble and powerful families are growing it now, the price remains incredibly high, and the supply still cannot meet the demand.

But a small mountain village like Chuanhe Town does not have any.

Yingbao nodded: “It is peppercorn. I bought the peppercorn seeds from the Jiukang Pharmacy in the county town. There is no mistake.”

Jiang Sanlang did not doubt his own daughter. He just felt it was unbelievable.

Is his own daughter a human or a fairy?

No matter what she brings out, there is nothing ordinary including the Magic Gourd that supposedly yields an endless supply of water that everyone in the family talks about.

Jiang Sanlang felt that it should all have something to do with his own daughter. Jiang Quan, his second nephew, was just taking the blame for Yingbao.

But no matter what, as long as only he knew about his daughter’s magical skills and no matter what others said or suspected, he always refute them.

“What should we pay attention to when growing peppercorn?” Jiang Sanlang asked.

Since his daughter had cultivated these vine seedlings, she must also know some planting methods.

Yingbao: “Peppercorn is drought-resistant, so it’s not suitable to be planted in damp places. It’s best to plant it in sandy soil fields with good drainage. The same goes for grapevines.”

This was what a shop assistant in the large pharmacy told her, who heard it from a pepper farmer.

As for grapevines, she had grown them once, so she had some experience.

Jiang Sanlang thought about it and said, “Why don’t we set up a vineyard and a peppercorn garden in our family?”

Yingbao indeed had this idea, otherwise she would have just planted them herself.

However, planting saplings requires a lot of land, so she had to get her father’s approval first.

After the father and daughter discussed, Jiang Sanlang immediately went out to inspect the land.

Finally, they decided to plant peppercorn and grapevines in an inferior field outside the village.

But this place was remote, and the saplings were at risk of being damaged by wild creatures.

So Jiang Sanlang asked some villagers for help and cut down some bamboo to make a bamboo fence around the two fields.

Setting up a bamboo fence around two inferior fields was a bit extravagant and drew the villagers to come and watch.

“Brother San, what are you doing?” Chen Yin asked while leaning on the bamboo fence.

Jiang Sanlang was planting seedlings with Chun Niang with his head down, and said without looking up, “Planting some grapes.”

“Grapes?” Chen Yin knew about this. He had even secretly eaten grapes from Brother San’s orchard.

“Are you planting grapes in this entire field? Isn’t that too much?”

Fruit trees, after all, cannot be eaten as meals. It’s okay to plant one or two at home, but if too many are planted, it not only takes up the land, but may also increase taxes.

Jiang Sanlang finished planting a seedling, “It’s not too much. If we can’t finish eating, we can make wine.”

If worse comes to worst, we can directly sell it to the winery in the county. His little daughter said so.

Chen Yin scratched his head and pointed to the bamboo fence next door, “Are you planting grapes there too?”

“We’re planting peppercorn there.” Jiang Sanlang used his hand to scoop up the soil, and put the grapevine seedling in it, and then filled it with soil to firm it.

“What? Peppercorn!” Chen Yin jumped up, his eyes glowing with excitement, “Brother San, can you grow peppercorn too?”

Peppercorn is a good thing. It’s valuable and is sold without any issue, as all the pharmacies in the county are scrambling to buy it.

Jiang Sanlang glanced at him, but didn’t say a word.

Chen Yin ran into the bamboo fence gate and asked blinking, “Brother San, do you have peppercorn seedlings at home?”

“Yeah.” Jiang Sanlang didn’t stop his hands, just continued to plant another grapevine.

Chen Yin chuckled, “Can you spare some for your brother?”

“Let’s talk about it when the peppercorn shoots grow a bit bigger.”

His little daughter said that peppercorn vines can be cut and transplanted, so they wouldn’t need peppercorn seeds to cultivate seedlings anymore.

“Then I, your brother, will make a reservation first.” Chen Yin squatted down to help Jiang Sanlang plant seedlings.

Some villagers who were watching outside saw this, and after looking at each other, they also rushed in to help plant seedlings.

With people helping, the grapevines in a piece of land were quickly planted, and then it was time to plant the peppercorn seedlings.

Peppercorn is a climbing plant. Jiang Sanlang first planted a circle around the bamboo fence, so they wouldn’t need to set up climbing frames for them in the future.

Afterward, they estimated the distance and continued planting until the entire peppercorn garden was full of seedlings.

When these seedlings grow a bit bigger, they would then set up climbing frames for them.

While Jiang Sanlang and his wife and a few villagers were planting seedlings, Yingbao was watering them from behind with a small bucket.

She used water from the cave house, mixed with a little pond water, and thoroughly watered each seedling.

Soon, both gardens were full of young seedlings. The fresh green color and orderly arrangement were very pleasing to the eye.