Zi Qing thought for a moment and asked: "How did you know what my aunt said to my brother?"

  "Your elder brother specially told me that, on the day I told him that my mother-in-law wanted to find a job for Ping's husband, I didn't agree. In just a few days, your second elder brother told me that my mother-in-law had said many bad things about me."

  "Look, my second brother still trusts you relatively more, otherwise he wouldn't have told you these things. Unfortunately, if only you had explained clearly to him at that time. Trust between husband and wife is very important when interacting with each other. You and my second brother had little contact before getting married, and after getting married, my second brother was mostly in the state school, so the time you spent together in a month wasn't long either. But since my second brother was willing to entrust the family property to you, it means he still trusts you very much and wants to live with you properly. So what about you? The large expenses at home, as well as the income from the restaurant, although my second brother doesn't have a great interest in these things, but for the things that should be clearly explained to him, you should say it clearly, don't let these small things slowly erode the fragile trust between you two. Do you think what I said is right or not?"

  "I never thought of these things, I only knew that your second brother is a good person. Since the first time he came to my house, I told him that I wanted to send my younger brother to school, and he didn't object, so I knew he was a good person. Later, after we got married, he gave me all his family's property, and I was very moved. He had talked to me about your affairs before, and I thought I could help out at home and also try my own abilities, so I laid everything out and told him, and he agreed. After that, since I saw that he didn't ask about the restaurant business, I assumed he wasn't interested in these things, plus I had a clear conscience myself, and everything was done according to our agreement between us. My mother's family has been doing well over the past few years, and that's just the normal dividend from the restaurant, not me taking my own family's money and moving it over there."

  "But you didn't tell him, how would my second brother know about these things? He saw that you gave your younger brother a silver note worth several hundred taels, but you didn't say a word to him. Who wouldn't have some suspicions in their heart? If it were the other way around, if my second brother borrowed money from an outsider without telling you, wouldn't you have doubts? Wouldn't you feel disrespected by him? After all, this is your family of two. So, when you go back, have a good talk with my second brother and clear things up. You've always been open with your words in the past, hasn't my second brother supported you? Go back and talk it out, the longer you drag it out, the harder it will be to resolve the misunderstandings between each other."

  Ziying finished speaking. Chen patted her body and stood up, saying: "Sister is right, I'll go back first."

  "Besides, second sister-in-law, no matter what, my second brother is a man and doesn't want his wife to be too strong-willed. You say that the money was earned by you. Isn't that saying he's useless? Tell me, which man can tolerate this?" Zi Qing thought for a moment before reminding her.

  "Oh dear. I didn't mean it that way, isn't your second brother still in school? Besides, aren't these golden things all your second brother's? I didn't put in much effort, to be honest, the restaurant was basically run by my younger brother, and I found out he has some business sense, but just no capital. Isn't this a perfect match? Your second brother is a scholar, who would expect him to do these things? No way, I'll hurry back and have a good talk with your second brother." Chen said as she quickly rushed out.

  Chen just left, and Lin Kangping came in. He asked: "What's wrong with your second aunt? Why is she so anxious?"

  Tzu-ching thought for a moment, then told him what had happened and asked: "If you were me, how would you think?"

  "I'll definitely give you a big hug and a few kisses, and say 'My Qing'er is really capable'!" Lin Kangping said with a smile, embracing Zi Qing'er and giving her a kiss.

  "Seriously, I'm telling the truth."

  "I'm telling the truth. My family's Qing'er was originally more capable than others. Come on, I'll take you to see that piece of wasteland at our place, bean sprouts have already grown there." Lin Kangping put his arm around Zi Qing and started walking outside.

  "That won't do either, wait for me to change into another outfit." Zi Qing said, looking at the skirt she was wearing.

  Qing changed into a peasant outfit and came out, Qing was only three months pregnant, it's almost impossible to tell. Zi Xi happened to come in and said: "Wow, where did the village girl come from? What are you going to do? I'll go too."

  Lin Kangping looked at his son Xi and said, "You're really a little pest. I'm going to take your sister out for some fresh air, can't you just stay home and review your lessons properly?"

  Ziying pulled Lin Kangping's sleeve and said, "Let Xiao Si go. He can't just become a bookworm, he should know about farming too. Among my siblings, only he and Ziyu haven't been down to the fields before, but now Ziyu is also feeding chickens and collecting chicken manure in the back mountain every day."

  Because the sun was still quite big, Lin Kangping found a straw hat for Zi Qing. As soon as Xiao Qing and Xiao Lan saw it, they were stunned. Zi Xi clapped her hands and laughed: "This is even more rustic than a village girl! The only thing is that your face is too pale, why don't you, sister, smear some dirt on it so others won't recognize you." Lin Kangping responded with a kick.

  Zi Qing didn't bring any servants, and together with Lin Kangping and Zi Xi, they went out the door, heading towards the back mountain. There was a small winding path that led to a sandy area after turning over the mountain. The land was mostly planted with peanuts, sesame seeds, green beans, and cowpeas, as well as sweet potatoes and yams. Below the sand was a small ditch, and above the ditch was the official road. On the other side of the official road, the high-lying area was also sandy, while the low-lying area was a depression with rice paddies. If you walked another hundred meters into the sandy area, you would reach the wasteland that Zi Qing had bought. The land was surrounded by small earthen slopes on three sides, and even the pine trees were very short and stumpy. Most of the vegetation consisted of grasses, shrubs, and thorny plants.

  From a distance, Zi Qing saw a row of small houses and laughed: "Speaking of this pigsty, Kang Ping, don't get angry. When I was at your grandfather's house, I felt that the house was not quite right. Now I just thought of it, originally the houses were all very low, much lower than our southern houses, almost as high as a pigsty. You say it's strange, northerners are generally taller than us southerners, how come these houses are actually much lower? Don't you feel suffocated living in them?"

  Lin Kangping gently tapped Ziying's head and said with a smile, "What nonsense are you talking about? The north is so cold, the house needs to be built higher, otherwise it would be easy for the warm air in the room to dissipate."

  "Oh, I didn't think of that." Zi Qing had always lived in the south in her past life, how could she have thought of these things? She had only seen the northern kang and big pot stew from TV, but living in the north during this cold winter was definitely not something she was used to. For an entire winter, she wouldn't see any green vegetables. In this era, there wasn't even greenhouse technology. However, she had heard that rich families had warm rooms for growing flowers or their own food, but Zi Qing hadn't experienced it before.

  As they spoke, they walked to the end of the field. Zi Qing saw that although the bean sprouts in the soil had grown out, they were clearly malnourished. It seemed that this soil was not ordinary poor soil. Walking further forward, they arrived at the pigpen in the middle. Zi Qing discovered that the bean sprouts around the pigpen grew obviously better than others. Old Zhou, who raised pigs, told Zi Qing that he had used water from the septic tank to fertilize the bean sprouts around the pigpen once.

  "Master, we are really busy, but this bean sprout is indeed due for fertilization." Old Zhou said.

  Zi Qing looked at Lin Kangping, and Lin Kangping said: "I know, I'll go find someone tomorrow."

  "Hey, sis, is all this land yours now? You really want to be a landlord, huh? I thought with your conditions, you'd move to the city sooner or later. Why are you so attached to this countryside? Don't tell me it's because you can't bear to part with mom and dad? Even if you guys moved to the city, you could still come back here to stay sometimes."

  "You know what, moving to the city is just for convenience, but our current life isn't inconvenient at all. The produce from our garden is basically enough for us to get by, and we only need to add some pork and seasonings every day, which are easily available in town. Besides, we don't plan on doing business or opening a shop, so what's wrong with the countryside? I think my home is not bad at all, I just like this carefree and easy life."

  "That's also true, your home is indeed not bad. Sister, you say that in a person's lifetime, should they strive to achieve great things or just enjoy life? You've made me a bit confused. Sometimes I think it's not bad to live like you do."

  Zi Qing grasped Zi Xi's ear and said, "Which eye of yours saw me indulging in a life of leisure? If it weren't for my struggles since childhood, you wouldn't have the good days you're having now. Besides, even though life is better now, I'm not idle either. Your brother-in-law still runs two trips outside every year, and I've been staying at home to tidy up this piece of wasteland. You're just a few years old, do you think you can just lie down and wait for food? Get your spirits up and go out to make a name for yourself! Whether you succeed or not, it's all about your attitude towards life."

  "Oh my, sister, I just said that casually, it's killing me. I was just speaking off the cuff, but I still want to go out and try my abilities, even if I get tired of it later and choose to return to the countryside and become a local landlord like you guys, that's not bad either."

  "This is about right." The three of them said as they walked back, Zi Qing walked to the edge of their sandy land that bordered someone else's and looked around at the small hills, saying: "Why don't we plant some thorny shrubs along this border with our neighbor's place as a fence? In the future, we'll need to build many more houses here, take in some homeless people to work on our estate, manage the daily farm work, like weeding and fertilizing, it's always going to require people, can't just hire someone every time we need to spread fertilizer."

  "Sister, sometimes I think you're really a person who can do great things. Unfortunately, you're a girl, otherwise, you would definitely be stronger than all of us."

  "Cut the nonsense, what's wrong with being a woman? It's great to be a woman, no pressure at all. If I want to do something, I'll do it; if not, my brother-in-law will support me anyway. The outside world is yours, but as for me, as long as I stay home and enjoy life, that's enough." Zi Qing said, narrowing her eyes to gaze up at the blue sky above.