Reborn with a Space: Building a Fortune Amidst Famine

Chapter 148: 148 send back

Everything here is tidied up and loaded onto the car. The remaining food is also taken along.

Tan Shaoting didn’t mind. It was meant for them anyway. It’s better they take it.

This way, there’s no debt of gratitude left. Debts of gratitude are the hardest to repay.

They didn’t officially depart until three o’clock. Su Yuanyuan didn’t rush to catch the car; when Bai Lisheng came, she just sat in the back.

This made it convenient to get off; if it got cold, she could get off and walk.

At eight in the morning, they stopped. They made a fire. Both people and animals needed to drink water.

Tan Shaoting handed Su Yuanyuan a bowl of hot water. ”You drink first.”

Su Yuanyuan held the bowl but wasn’t in a hurry to drink.

Her senses were sharp, and she felt three malicious intents.

She smiled inwardly, realizing she was taking the blame. Still, she accepted it since they were her companions.

Tan Shaoting took a piece of peach cookie from his bag and brought it directly to Su Yuanyuan’s mouth. ”Eat some, even if it doesn’t taste good, you have to eat it.”

Su Yuanyuan rolled her eyes at Tan Shaoting but didn’t hesitate, taking a bite. Then she sipped some hot water.

Tan Shaoting kept smiling. He fed Su Yuanyuan until she finished the peach cookie, then took the bowl from her and drank some water himself.

Su Yuanyuan was thinking about scenes where the female rivals would come over to hassle the male lead, but none of that happened. She felt a bit disappointed.

After resting for about an hour, they set off again.

They didn’t arrive at the Bai Family until two in the afternoon.

”Uncle Bai, we’re going to buy some coal, then we’ll head back.”

”No, you should stay for the night.”

Thinking about sleeping on the same heated brick bed with the whole family, Tan Shaoting immediately shook his head.

”Uncle Bai, no need, we still have sheep at home, and besides, we can take our time going back.”

He laughed to himself, really not wanting another night sharing the heated brick bed with so many people.

After some back and forth, they finally left.

At the coal yard, buying coal now required tickets. It wasn’t like it used to be.

They had some coal tickets, but not many, which wasn’t going to work.

Tan Shaoting went off for a while and came back having filled a cart with honeycomb briquettes and coal chunks.

By the time they set off again, it was already past seven.

”Should we find a place to rest? The little donkey must be tired?”

Tan Shaoting had no choice, having turned down Bai Lisheng’s offer, staying in the city wouldn’t seem right either.

”Let’s keep going, give the donkey some Spiritual Spring Water,” he suggested. There was no other way.

So, they didn’t arrive home until the sky brightened the next day.

On the way, they both drank the Spiritual Spring Water and didn’t feel unbearably tired.

Once the coal was put away, they took the donkey back to the house where Tan Shaoting used to live.

Su Yuanyuan wasn’t stingy and cooked them some cornmeal. It was at least a bit of an improvement for them.

Just as they got home, Ma Changshun came over.

”I heard you two came back and didn’t believe it.”

”Group Leader Ma, we got back the day before yesterday.”

Tan Shaoting invited Ma Changshun into the house. ”Group Leader Ma, take a look at this approval note for fertilizer the leadership gave us.”

The two had discussed it and decided they should mention the donation to avoid trouble.

In these times, if you had a lot of money, it would tempt others.

So, letting others know they didn’t have money would make things easier. They didn’t have anything to make others covet.

Ma Changshun took it and looked it over. ”With this approval note, why didn’t you get the fertilizer?”

At this point, Su Yuanyuan brought in a bowl of brown sugar water for Ma Changshun, which was the highest level of hospitality now. She handed Tan Shaoting just a bowl of hot water.

Tan Shaoting accepted the hot water, holding it in his hands. ”Group Leader Ma, we happened to run into the leadership collecting supplies for the border. So we donated our money, and we even went abroad to help gather grain.”

Ma Changshun looked at Tan Shaoting, ”You donated it all?”

”Yes, we even added last year’s money. We donated six thousand yuan’s worth of grain.”

Ma Changshun smacked his lips, ”Six thousand yuan’s worth of grain?”

”Yes, the purchase price over there is even lower than ours here.”

”I was wondering why you got the approval note. So you couldn’t afford the fertilizer?” Ma Changshun had his own motives, thinking since they had money, if they got fertilizer, he could borrow some first. But now there was nothing.

Tan Shaoting nodded, ”Yes, we can’t afford it. Even if we could buy it, we may not dare to use it next year. I read in the newspaper that if we use the fertilizer, we must have sufficient moisture.

Group Leader Ma, with your experience, do you think we can plant the fields this year?”

Ma Changshun sighed, ”Now, on our Second Farm, five or six households already don’t have any water. I expect the well-digging team will definitely come by spring; everything else aside, making sure people have water to drink is essential.

Forget it, if there’s no fertilizer this year, so be it. Even if there was, we might not be able to use it.”

”Group Leader Ma, have some water.”

At this point, even offering meat wouldn’t seem appealing to Ma Changshun. So he shook his head, ”I’ll head back. You two stay well. Being away for so long, you haven’t even celebrated the New Year at home.”

The two escorted Ma Changshun out, then went outside to gather firewood with a rake. They did this to show others, even if no one might see.

Now they felt settled. The two of them spent their days reading, cultivating, and Su Yuanyuan made clothes and shoes.

After the first month, on February 2nd, Dragon Heads-raising Day, they ate sticky bean buns. They made them themselves with sticky sorghum flour given by Hu Chunhua in the past, and beans they cooked themselves.

Each had a bowl of cabbage and egg soup, making this lunch quite sumptuous.

Whatever there was to eat, they ate and drank. It was what it was.

”Today, let’s grind some cornmeal. The livestock has nothing to eat.”

”I can do it myself; you can continue making shoes.”

”Two people are faster, let’s do it together. It’ll be done sooner that way.”

A few days later, while reading inside, they heard some commotion outside.

Subconsciously, Su Yuanyuan used her Divine Sense to take a look, frowning slightly.

”What’s wrong?”

”Some siblings from my hometown are approaching. How come they’re here? And it’s all five siblings? Could it be that Zhao Tian’s whole family has come over?”

”Not on good terms?”

Su Yuanyuan shook her head, ”It’s okay, their family is reasonable.”

As she spoke, she was already on her feet, with Tan Shaoting following suit.

Zhao Yanli and the others, following behind Ma Changshun, were already terrified at what they saw.

They had only ever seen the village and the surrounding ten miles of land, but this was incomparable. Looking out, there was no end in sight.

As they walked, Ma Changshun introduced them along the way.

Honestly, in the past, he would drive the donkey cart. But nowadays, there wasn’t even grain to feed the donkey. It was better not to tire out the donkey, and besides, there were even five of them, so it was best to walk over.