Reborn as a Landlord-Chapter 43 - 26 Superior Person_2

Chapter 43: Chapter 26 Superior Person_2
Lady He was now agitated and slapped Lian Yaya’s head, twisting it to the side.
Lian Yaya was stunned and temporarily stopped crying.
Lady He grasped Lian Yaya’s shoulders.
"Yaya, look at your Sister Huahua. She is about to marry into the Sun Family and live in the county town. She will enjoy luxuries for the rest of her life and have a bunch of maids and servants at her beck and call. Your Aunt and your Sister Duoduo will also lead a life fit for immortals. Now look at your Sister Zhizhi and Sister Manman, both with unbound feet, they can only crouch by the stove to cook and work the fields at home. After they marry, they’ll just toil like oxen and horses for others..." Lady He coaxed Lian Yaya.
Lian Manman was tickled into laughter by anger.
"Auntie, my sister and I help you with your work because we are family. You don’t thank us, and instead, you say things to hurt us. You’re supposed to be an elder!"
"This has nothing to do with you two, go back," Lady Zhou said to Lian Manman. Lady He wasn’t easy to get along with, and Lian Manman was no longer as compliant as before. If the two of them started quibbling, it would be the Lian Family’s face that would be lost in front of Grandma Li Si.
"Alright, then my sister and I will go back first. Call us if you have any work, Grandma," Lian Manman said, her eyes flickering as she immediately understood Lady Zhou’s intent, and reluctantly smiled. Not for any other reason, but to leave a good impression in front of others, a basic piece of common sense she was aware of.
Lian Manman and Lian Zhizhi left the Upper Room.
Inside the Upper Room, Lian Yaya was in tears, "I, I want to live a life like Sister Huahua’s."
When Lian Manman and Lian Zhizhi returned to the West Wing Room and had just sat down on the kang, they heard the pitiful screams of Lian Yaya from the Upper Room, sounding like a pig being slaughtered.
"That’s right, just like that, walk slowly," the encouraging voices of Grandma Li Si, Lady He, and Lady Zhou.
Lian Manman and Lian Zhizhi looked at each other.
"Sister, we must fight for ourselves," Lian Manman said. "Even with unbound feet, we must live a better life than them."
"Manman, I’ll follow your lead," Lian Zhizhi replied.
"And us too," Wu Lang and Xiao Qi ran in from outside and said.
The children laughed together, forming a joyful group.
...
From that day on, during the daytime, Lian Manman had to watch Lian Yaya cry while she stumbled along the wall, step by step. At night, she was occasionally woken up by Lian Yaya’s crying. Lian Manman regretted being too curious that day, which had left psychological scars, and she had nightmares for two days straight because of Lian Yaya’s crying. It wasn’t until Lady Zhang repeatedly assured her that she would never bind her feet that Lian Manman felt somewhat relieved.
However, to avoid seeing Lian Yaya’s "torturous walk," Lian Manman started leaving the house early every day. Under the pretense of foraging for wild vegetables, she would go to the fields with Wu Lang and Xiao Qi.
Because a heavy rain had fallen two days ago, a small river behind Nanshan swelled, and many children from the village ran over to catch fish and shrimp in the water. Wu Lang and Xiao Qi had also woven several fish traps out of wormwood and entered the water to catch fish, with Lian Manman following them, but Wu Lang didn’t let her get into the water.
"The water is cold, and Mother said, you’re not allowed to get in the water," Wu Lang said.
"Then I’ll go check out the sour jujube tree we saw last time on the back hill. The jujubes should all be red by now. You guys stay here, and I’ll go pick some jujubes," Lian Manman told Wu Lang and Xiao Qi.
"Sister, I’ll go with you," Xiao Qi immediately said.
"No need, it’s not far from here," Lian Manman pinched Xiao Qi’s face, "You and Brother don’t go anywhere else. I’ll come back after I pick the jujubes, and we’ll go home together."
Lian Manman’s injury had healed a lot, and these days working with them in the fields, there wasn’t much to worry about anymore.
"Alright, just don’t go too far, Manman. Come back after you pick the jujubes," Wu Lang said.
"Mhm," Lian Manman nodded, picked up a basket, and headed into the mountainside.
Because it had rained, many mushrooms had sprung up from the ground. However, perhaps due to the soil, mushrooms weren’t abundant on the mountains surrounding Thirty Mile Camp, and those that were, like the dog’s vomit fungus, were inedible, as well as some straw mushrooms that also weren’t tasty. Lian Manman’s eyes scanned the ground, searching for a particular type of mushroom.
Puffballs, commonly known as horse hoof sacs, usually grew in moist sandy soil, ball-shaped, belonged to the fungi family. In a previous life, her grandma had taken her to pick horse hoof sacs. They are white when immature, turn yellow and shrivel when mature, containing sponge-like tissues and fine powder inside. This thing has great medicinal value, especially as an excellent hemostatic.
Lian Manman walked slowly, occasionally crouching down to carefully pick the puffballs one by one, wiping off the sandy grains and debris. Those that were already mature and shriveled, she placed inside a porcelain bottle she carried; the fresh ones were placed in the basket to be dried later once she returned home.
In rural households, it’s inevitable to cut hands or feet doing rough work, so this thing should always be on hand.
Lian Manman didn’t head towards the place she mentioned with the sour jujube trees but turned left instead, picking puffballs while making her way to the mountain bay. First, she wanted to check on the wild grapes.
Last time she was picking balsam flowers, she had noticed that many gullies in the back hills were filled with thick bushes, which were actually wild grapes. They would probably need a few more days to ripen, but Lian Manman wanted to take a look.
Even if they ripened, the wild grapes were tart and couldn’t be eaten raw, so the local people regarded them as a useless shrub and didn’t bother with them. However, Lian Manman had an idea: wild grapes could be fermented into wine. The last time she visited the town, she saw several liquor shops selling mostly distilled spirits, fermented liquor, and Shaoxing Yellow Wine. Only one store had grape wine, which the shopkeeper called "Amber Wine," priced higher than the other liquors. According to the shopkeeper, Amber Wine was transported from the Western Region, very rare, and highly favored by nobles and officials.
If she could ferment all these wild grapes into wine, the profits would be much more than a few pieces of silver. As Lian Manman contemplated this, she suddenly tripped and lost her balance. She quickly lowered her center of gravity and managed to stabilize herself by grabbing a branch with her swinging hand.
"Oh..." the branch groaned softly.
******
Foot-binding is now seen as cruel and ugly, but at the time, it was considered a "beautiful torture." Fat paper Ruoyan said: Perhaps the myriad methods of dieting today will be viewed in the same manner by the people of the future.
So, Ruoyan plans to continue being plump, because health is the best. Y(^_^)Y Let’s all do it together.