During the half-year Xu Huaiqian studied at the academy, the Chen family was not idle either.
First, Chen Xiaomei's chicks hatched year-round. After over a year, it had now gained quite a reputation. Many people from outside the county knew there was a workshop in Xinghua Village that hatched chicks using a heated kang bed.
The workshop owner was a ten-year-old girl.
Extremely capable, she hatched several thousand chicks every month, unable to meet demand.
People from their village bought chicks from her, raised them until they laid eggs, then sold the eggs back to her for hatching. Many had become well-off.
Now, during the autumn harvest, every household's kitchen was filled with the aroma of chicken—enough to make drool with envy.
Many regretted not being born in Xinghua Village; otherwise, they too could kill a chicken to eat during the harvest season.
Unfortunately, not only were they from other villages, they couldn't even compete with Xinghua villagers in snatching up chicks. They didn't understand why the locals were so stingy—every family already raised over a dozen chickens, yet they still fought for the chicks!
Because raising chickens was good; raising chickens could make my!
Not to mention they had the advantage of proximity, selling eggs to Chen Xiaomei every month to hatch for profit. Even the eggs they didn't sell could be eaten to nourish themselves.
Three or five eggs scrambled made a meat dish—wasn't that better than spending over ten coins on a pound of pork in town?
Now, every in Xinghua Village had over ten chickens each. Without grain to feed them, they had their children catch insects in the fields—grasshoppers, locusts, leafworms—chickens weren't picky; they ate anything and grew well on it.
Children were happy to catch insects knowing they'd get eggs to eat. With fewer pests in the fields, this year's crops grew well. The chickens ate well, laid more eggs, and family life kept improving. In the past year, fewer households in the village beat their children. Why wouldn't every want to raise more chickens?
If not for the fact that too many chickens required a lot of grain and could easily cause epidemics, some greedy people would have raised hundreds at once—then they could kill a chicken whenever they wanted meat and not even need to buy any. How great would that be?
Xinghua Village's life of daily eggs and monthly chicken made outsiders envious. They also wanted to raise chickens like them.
Raising chickens wasn't technical—just scatter some rice, catch some bugs, and they'd grow on their own.
But they couldn't get the chicks.
Every month, as soon as the new chicks hatched, the villagers would scramble to buy them for this relative or that relative. Those from far away without any connections in Xinghua could only watch longingly.
Jealousy drove them mad. Those who truly couldn't get chicks were furious. They directly went to Chen Xiaomei's workshop and blocked her: "We want to buy chicks too!"
"Why only sell to villagers?!"
"We can afford chicks too!"
A chick cost three to four coins, five at most. Well-raised, a chicken could sell for a hundred coins, not counting the my from eggs laid in between.
Hstly, Chen Xiaomei was scared by their aggressive manner, but hearing they all came to buy chicks also made her worried.
This wasn't the first group to come for chicks; several others had come before.
She was only nine and had only two hands. Hatching over three thousand chicks a month was already her limit. Any more would work her to death.
Moreover, the heated room Xu Huaiqian built for her could only hatch four to five thousand eggs at most. It couldn't hold more.
How could she promise them casually?
While Chen Xiaomei was worried, Wang Wanwan was also worried. The knotting techniques Xu Huaiqian taught her—she now knew quite a few patterns. Knitting a couple in her spare time daily, she hd her skills and went to ask silk shops if they would buy them.
At first, the shops offered her three to five coins each. Over half a year, as her skills improved, the price had now risen to fifty coins per piece.
She no longer made small pendant knots but large s like those Xu Huaiqian hung on doors and windows.
In her spare time each month, she could make five or six, earning two to three hundred coins. Though not as much as what the others earned, it was no small amount in the village.
Wang Wanwan was already quite content.
But with contentment came trouble.
Many village women and girls she was friendly with brought eggs and pastries to her door: "Wanwan, could you teach us how to make these knots too?"
They had swallowed their pride and asked at the silk shops—the shops would buy knots from any, as long as the craftsmanship was good.
But they didn't know how to make them at all—how would they know if their skills were good?!
Before, no in the village knew about this; they weren't aware of this way to earn my. Now they knew, and seeing Wang Wanwan manage both housework and earning my, they were so envious they couldn't sleep at night.
They wondered if they too could earn eighty to a hundred coins to make family life easier if they learned.
Envy motivated them; ultimately, ambition overcame embarrassment, forcing them to shamelessly come and ask.
"It's not that I won't teach you," Wang Wanwan was very troubled. "As you all know, this was taught to me by my Second Brother. Without his permission, if I teach you privately, I won't be able to explain it to him."
Wang Wanwan could distinguish between family and outsiders. Xu Huaiqian taught her because she was part of the Chen family. These others...
Wang Wanwan glanced at the women who came—many had secretly said Xu Huaiqian wouldn't live long. She didn't know if Second Brother could forgive these people and didn't dare promise casually.
"Then could you plead with your Second Brother for us?" they persisted, unwilling to return empty-handed after coming this far. "We don't expect to learn any unique knots—just the common s the silk shops usually buy."
As Wang Wanwan earned my from knotting, they had learned much. Ordinary knots sold for two to three coins each, but unique craftsmanship could fetch several hundred coins, even or two taels.
They didn't aspire to those high prices—they didn't have so much silk thread to experiment with. Learning the commonly accepted knots would satisfy them.
"Alright, I'll ask my Second Brother when he returns." Their determination was firm; Wang Wanwan couldn't refuse outright. Besides, aside from a few unpleasant s, several were good friends of hers—she couldn't deny them face too much.
"Ah, good! Then we'll go, Wanwan. Keep these things for your Second Brother to nourish himself when he returns." Seeing she hadn't agreed but had at least softened, the women didn't take back what they brought. They called out for Wang Wanwan to remember to give them to Xu Huaiqian and left full of expectation.
For Xu Huaiqian's ginger and peppercorns, Chen Liejiu had not had an easy time over the past six months—he almost moved his bedding to live in the fields.
It was torturous.
Just some ginger and peppercorns, yet they were harder to grow than crops. Watering, fertilizing, and pest control were all normal farming tasks, but he learned for the first time that these two crops could also get sick!!!
To treat this or that disease on the ginger and peppercorn trees, he ran to medical clinics until he was frantic. Now, whenever he saw ginger leaves turning yellow or issues with the grafted peppercorn branches in the field, his throat tightened and spine chilled.
Fortunately, all this suffering was over. In the golden autumn of August, it was time for his little husband to come home on break.
After carefully checking that not a single ginger plant had yellow leaves, Chen Liejiu straightened his clothes and prepared to go pick up his little husband.
But—
"A-Jiu! A-Jiu! A-Jiu!"
Before he could make a move, he heard his little husband's voice calling from afar. Turning around, he saw his husband arriving in Duan Youyan's carriage.
Chen Liejiu ran out of the field to meet Xu Huaiqian, his t a bit complaining: "Why did you come back before I could pick you up?"
"I missed you." Xu Huaiqian didn't care about Duan Youyan or the others; he hooked his arm around Chen Liejiu's waist and pulled him into a hug.
He was a head taller than Chen Liejiu, making their embrace especially intimate.
Chen Liejiu glanced at Sheng Yunjin sitting in the carriage staring open-mouthed at them, ignored his gaze, stroked his husband's back, and intimately responded: "I missed you too."
Without Xu Huaiqian by his side in the summer, Chen Liejiu often woke up from the heat, and once awake, he started missing him—the more he missed him, the harder it was to sleep.
He wondered if Xu Huaiqian was hungry, cold, sick, or tired at the academy.
Several times he had g to the academy in the middle of the night, wanting to climb the wall to find him.
But afraid of breaking academy rules and getting Xu Huaiqian in trouble, he had to return disappointed.
Now, seeing his long-missed little husband, who cared about other people's looks?
Xu Huaiqian felt the same. In the first few months at the academy, he studied so hard he didn't even dare take breaks. Later, studying became easier, but every else was pushing hard, so he couldn't fall behind either.
In over half a year, he only took two breaks, both times just holding his A-Jiu and sharing their feelings—nothing intimate.
He was afraid his health couldn't handle it and would affect his studies.
This break would be longer, and his health had improved a lot during the two months of relaxed studying. Finally, he could be intimate with his husband.