Chapter 349 - 349 The Difficult Part Is Now
In the afternoon, the couple went to Hu Ziyi and helped her plant white potato seedlings in the fields.
The next day, they took some rice and went to the manor together.
When they arrived, Gu Chengrui went straight to the courtyard to find Zhou Huaiming.
Zhou Ying found Uncle Nian and asked him to slaughter two sheep. However, she only took half of the sheep and gave the rest to nourish everyone’s meals.
When she arrived at the courtyard, she saw Zhou Huaiming and Gu Chengrui fighting with their bare hands.
It seemed that Gu Chengrui had the upper hand.
However, it was not difficult to see that Zhou Huaiming’s martial arts foundation was much more solid than Gu Chengrui’s, but Gu Chengrui was slightly better because of his special moves.
“Mistress, you’re here.” Zhu Zi walked over and greeted Zhou Ying with a smile.
Zhou Ying turned her head to look at him. When she saw the little boy, who was much taller and stronger, she smiled and said, “You’re much more energetic now. How’s your martial arts training going?”
“Master said my crouching stance is steady, and 1 can already defeat an ordinary adult now.”
“Is that so? So, you have to practice hard. I’ll be counting on you guys to protect me in the future.”
“I know, mistress.” Zhu Zi nodded repeatedly.
At this time, Gu Chengrui and Zhou Huaiming ended their battle in a draw.
“I brought half a iamb with me,” Zhou Ying said. “How do you want to eat it?”
“It’s not a good day to eat hotpot. 1 think it’s better to stew or stir-fry it. What do you think?” Zhou Huaiming asked.
“I’ll heed to that. I’ll braise some of it and stir-fry the rest with cumin.” Zhou Ying looked at Gu Chengrui after she finished speaking.
“I’m fine with anything,” Gu Chengrui said. “You can use whatever ingredients we have in the kitchen.”
“Alright, then you guys should rest for a while longer.” Zhou Ying turned around and went to the kitchen after that. Seeing that there were a lot of scallions, she added another serving of lamb with scallion-fried sauce.
She prepared enough portions for the three of them, and the extra was left for the long-term workers who lived here.
At the same time, she instructed the kitchen staff to leave the rice for Zhou Huaiming and told them not to touch it as much as possible.
“Why did you bring the rice over?” Zhou Huaiming asked as soon as the food was served. “1 saved it for you.”
“Don’t worry, we don’t lack food, but here’s different. So, you should keep it for yourself. Hurry up and let’s eat,” Gu Chengrui said. “The mutton won’t taste good when it’s cold.”
“Is it because the sweet potatoes are rotten and the manor is eating up their rations?” Zhou Huaiming asked.
“Not exactly. It’s just that this year’s sweet potato is planted one month later than last year’s.”
“There’s no way everyone had saved up more than a month’s worth of food, so food is lacking.” Zhou Ying shook her head and explained.
Zhou Huaiming nodded and asked, “By the way, the sweet potatoes planted in the south should be ready for harvest by now. I wonder if we can grow them in time here?”
“We can plant another batch in June, but I think it’s more suitable to grow it there. It’ll mature faster if it’s grown in warmer weather.
“If plantations are filled over there, it’ll be better to transport them this winter or next spring.”
“That’s right. The seeds are the most important thing right now. It’s just that the people here are probably going to suffer.”
“Actually, there aren’t many people left in Yunhe County.
“When the severe drought hit last year, a considerable part of the population had already moved south, while a portion of the remaining people had either frozen to death or starved to death during the snowstorm.”
“The number of people left is probably less than half the original number.
“As long as each family could get a piece of land planted with white sweet potatoes and transplant another batch later, they could survive next winter. The difficult part is now.
“I heard that there’s no supply of flour now.” Gu Chengrui said..