Zi Qing scattered some quicklime in each chicken coop, covered with straw. It's unknown where Shen Shi got three small dogs from and put them in the new courtyard. A small door was opened on the north side of the old courtyard, which can be directly accessed. The gate is open during the day and closed at night.

  Ziying was busy on the barren mountain, while Shen Shi wasn't idle either. She had tasted the sweetness of raising many chickens before, and with such a large place and courtyard walls, how many chickens could she raise? The problem was that there were no chicks to be found, so Shen Shi went to every market she came across, buying as many as she could find, even going on several trips to Anzhou Prefecture. Because Ziying knew that this place didn't have modern incubation technology for young chickens, everything relied on the mother hens brooding eggs.

  During this period, Shen bought more than 200 chicks and 20 geese. She said that there is a lot of wild grass on the mountain, so it's easy to raise geese, and they are very fierce, not only will they honk when they see strangers, but they will also peck at people, so they can serve as watchdogs.

  Ziying decided to raise the chickens completely free-range. At first, they had to train the chicks to go into their coop every day in the morning and catch them at night. After three or four days of adaptation, they would go in by themselves. Unfortunately, they haven't bought sheep yet.

  Zi Qing told Shen Shi to start by opening up the ten mu of barren land on the east side, planting some soybeans, not expecting to harvest anything, mainly just to nurture the land. Next year they could plant watermelon there. Anyway, for now Zi Qing didn't have that many tree saplings, so on a rainy day she would scatter some small white vegetable seeds on the mountain slope, mainly to grow leaves to feed the chickens and geese.

  Zi Qing and Shen Shi finished their work, only to find out that due to the drought in April, most of the seedlings in the fields did not grow well. Some families had to replant later, while others were waiting to harvest some crops now. Those who couldn't even do that had to plow the land and plant late rice instead. Zi Qing's family was one of them, with no harvest at all, and they didn't even have enough labor to carry water. Zeng Ruiyu's own field wasn't salvageable either.

  As a result, the summer harvest was not able to collect much grain, and many families' livelihoods became even more difficult. Zi Qing's family was fortunate to have some income from selling watermelons, and fortunately, Shen Shi had listened to He Shi's words and bought a lot of grain for storage at that time.

  What about the two uncles' and aunts' families? The uncle's family might be slightly better off. Zi Qing told her mother all these things, and suddenly thought of the watermelon in her uncle's house, "Mother, I wonder how the watermelon at Uncle's house is doing? Why don't you go take a look?"

  Shen said with a clap of his hands, "Indeed, I was so busy that I forgot."

  After discussing with Mr. He, the next day early in the morning, Mr. He took his two grandsons to Baitang Village, while Shen brought Zi Qing along. Only then did they realize that due to someone stealing melons, Shen Jian Shan, Shen Jian Shui and Shen Wan Fu had been taking turns guarding the field day and night. The early rice crop would definitely be reduced in yield. Zi Qing saw that the melon patch was well taken care of and also found a sandy area, which was full of watermelons. Although not many, the two families together had more than one mu of land, so picking over 2,000 catties wouldn't be a problem. Their own seedlings would still need twenty more days or so to grow, and were only about the size of a fist at that time.

  Ziying wandered around Baitang Village and saw many tangerine trees. Shen Jianshui's family also had one, but he said that the tangerines from his family's tree were too watery and unfortunately too sour. Ziying inquired about the situation with the orange trees, but didn't know anything, only saying to ask others.

  Back home, Shen said to He that even if the early rice didn't yield a harvest, this year's watermelon would be enough for the two families to divide 50 taels of silver each, which was more than enough for them to live comfortably. He only then said: "Now I can finally relax, before I always worried about you, now that you're doing well and still worrying about them, a mother's heart is never at ease. Now they're relying on your success, making a fuss over those watermelons, it's good that they can save some silver to marry off their sons, your second uncle has three big sons, the oldest should be getting married soon."

  When Ziying heard her grandmother say this, she didn't know if their marriage struggle was successful or not. Unfortunately, she couldn't ask about these things, and if Shen knew, she would definitely scold her. Shen had always taught Ziying that girls shouldn't ask about this or that, so she didn't know how Zhangfu was doing now, only knowing he was an apprentice outside, and later brought out Xinfu as well. Ziying still admired their courage, but unfortunately couldn't help in any way.

  Before long, it was June 5th, and Zeng Ruixiang and Zeng Zifou were on vacation back home. This time they had more than a month off, so the family could get together properly. Ziqing really missed them, especially Zifou.

  Zi Qing took her father and older brother to visit the new courtyard, and reported on the expenses for the wall. Zeng Rui Xiang didn't mind these things, only asking: "Why are all these pits idle? I see you've raised a lot of seedlings, haven't you?"

  "Father, can we transplant in this hot weather? We'll have to water every day, it's so tiring. Why not wait until winter or spring when there's more rain and transplant then, wouldn't that be better?"

  Seeing rows of chicken coops, Zeng Ruixiang asked how he came up with this idea for the chicken coop. Zi Qing said: "Dad, it's tiring to drive the chickens into their nests. This way, they'll know where to find the nearest nest on their own. I can collect eggs row by row, and when cleaning up after the chickens, I can just throw everything into the nearest tree pit. It saves so much trouble! I thought about it for a long time before coming up with this idea. Now Mom and I can take a walk whenever we want, bring an iron shovel, and get things done."

  Zeng Ruixiang nodded continuously after listening, "It's hard for you to have such clever thoughts at such a young age." Unfortunately, it's not a boy, Zeng Ruixiang sighed in his heart.

  "Dad, my sister has been lazy since she was a kid. She always tries to be clever and find ways to avoid work, but somehow it always works out for her." Zifeng said with a wink at Ziqing, who chased him all over the mountain to beat him up.

  The weather is getting hotter and hotter, and the paddy fields at home don't need to be harvested. The whole family hides in the study room, sitting on the wooden floor, eating a piece of cool watermelon from time to time. He said that this life is almost like that of an immortal. Zi Qing made two sets of short-sleeved shorts for her two younger brothers, which were very cool and comfortable. They wore them at home every day without going out. Zi Fu and Zi Lu also wanted two sets. Zi Qing made a set for herself, but only secretly wore it when she slept at night. He didn't say anything about it.

  In the evening, when it's cool, there are croaks of frogs everywhere. Zi Qing is a little hungry and hasn't eaten frog before. In the spring, they only catch small frogs which can only be fed to chickens. So she coaxes her two brothers, holding onto one hand of each, "Brothers, let's go catch some field frogs to eat. I really want to try it." (The ones in the rice fields are called field frogs.)

  Zeng Ruixiang's interest was piqued, and he said: "When I was young, your grandfather also took me and your uncle to catch frogs. Because it was dark at night, we brought torches. The old folks said that when the torches shone on them, the frogs wouldn't move, so all you had to do was use a net to scoop them up."

  Then, Zifeng found two remaining cypress branches from last time, lit two torches, and Ziqing wanted to follow, but Shen Shi refused, saying that there were the most snakes and insects in summer. Ziqing had no choice but to give up. She was very afraid of these things, and she sprinkled a circle of camphor wood chips on both the outer wall and inner courtyard of her own home, not knowing if it would work or not. Anyway, Xu Shifu's cypress shavings and wood chips were not wasted by Ziqing at all, but were collected and wrapped in old gauze taken down by Shen Shi, to be used in the future.