The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 779 - 768

Chapter 779: 768

The three of them widened their eyes, looking utterly dumbfounded, clearly not expecting such a tactic.

Mr. Zhuang continued imparting his wisdom, saying, "If the chicken is well-fed, it can gain an extra four or five taels in weight. During the first month when meat is pricey, it could fetch an additional five or six coins."

Bai Shan swallowed hard, "Were the chickens my family bought before also fattened this way?"

Manbao seriously reflected on the chickens she had bought previously, realizing she mostly went shopping for them during her noon breaks as she wandered around the village and breathed a sigh of relief, "I don’t think I’ve been cheated."

Bai Erlang let out a hearty laugh, boasting, "My family never buys chickens from outside. Our own manor produces them continuously."

Bai Shan and Manbao ignored him.

The manor worker felt slightly awkward and said, "Young Master, Miss Man, many households do this, it’s not just our family..."

He also whispered, "Manor Head Bai had us catch some chickens to sell these past few days, and we did the same thing..."

Bai Shan and the others: "...So it turns out we’ve also been duping people."

The workers: ...

But none of the three voiced any objections, and Manbao said, "This particularly handsome rooster doesn’t need extra feeding on the Lantern Festival; it’s not for someone to eat."

Sratching his head, the manor worker asked, "If the chicken isn’t for eating, what else can it be used for?"

Manbao chuckled, "There’s plenty of uses for it."

For instance, it could be used for fighting.

Having acquired a bunch of attractive feathers, the three of them found a large rock to sit on and started to prepare them, planning to make shuttlecocks.

As Bai Shan sharpened the base of the feathers with a knife, he asked, "Can our chicken really be used for cockfighting?"

"Let’s try it. If it doesn’t work, we can take it to my sister-in-law’s shop, kill it, and stew it to eat." After thinking a moment, Manbao added, "I think frying it might taste even better."

Bai Shan agreed, "I think so too."

In their little manor, they raised quite a few chickens and ducks and had plenty of chicken and duck eggs, so they were never short on meat and eggs.

And now, life in Qili Village was much better than before, with most households raising chickens and usually saving them to eat over the New Year.

Not to mention the Zhou Family.

Behind their house at the foot of the mountain, they built a large chicken coop, housing nearly a hundred chickens, and they even kept two big geese to watch over the flock. With those geese around, not just humans, but even weasels didn’t dare to come close.

Therefore, after the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, the village would always be suffused with the aroma of cooking meat.

The Zhou family was large, so killing one chicken every evening was enough to leave not a morsel behind, and occasionally they would splurge on some pork or mutton from the big market to accompany it.

If Old Zhou and Ms. Qian felt reluctant to kill a chicken, Manbao would bring one over from her own little manor, already slaughtered.

Thus, Old Master Bai finally got to enjoy something from his son’s filial piety, and delighted, he kept stuffing pocket money into his hands.

Bai Erlang had grown much shrewder since his younger days. Realizing the trick, he regularly brought back a bag of eggs, a chicken, or a duck from the manor. Some days he presented them to his grandmother, claiming it was to show his filial respect, and on others, he brought them to his father....

As a result, he reaped a fair amount of pocket money and the contented smiles of his grandparents and parents.

Of course, his little ledger recorded the highest counts, making him the person who took the most meat and eggs from the little manor that year.

Manbao and Bai Shan were left wide-eyed and dumbstruck.

Thinking seriously, Manbao concluded that carrying meat and eggs back in hopes of getting pocket money from her father was impossible, so she dismissed the idea and looked towards Bai Shan.

Bai Shan also had a gloomy face, "Now when I bring things home, Grandmother doesn’t praise me anymore."

Bai Erlang then laughed smugly.

Bai Shan and Manbao decided to ignore him for the time being and huddled together to chat, "It’s New Year’s Eve tonight, are you coming out to play?"

"We can play around the banyan tree, but I have to go back for the night vigil, and it’s so cold outside, my mom won’t let me catch the wind."

Bai Shan said, "My grandmother also doesn’t allow me to be out in the cold wind, so do you want to come to my place and stay up with us for the night vigil?"

"No, I want to keep vigil with my parents," Manbao rejected directly, "And I have a present to give them tonight."

"Didn’t you already give your gifts?"

Manbao vaguely said, "I’ve also bought some other gifts for my mom, they are special gifts, ones that none of you have seen before."

In fact, these were the jewelry she had bought from the shopping center. The next day after she returned, she got busy playing, and then the following day she went to see off Mr. Zhuang, so she hadn’t had the chance to give them.

Meanwhile, the items she brought back from Yizhou City had long been hauled back to the Zhou Family by Zhou Silang, who distributed them among everybody.

Everyone knew those items were gifts from Manbao, so when she returned from playing outside, she got a series of thanks, and that was the end of it.

Manbao felt that it wasn’t the right time to give gifts, so she never gave them.

Bai Shan, surprised that she had special gifts, went silent for a moment before asking, "Then, should I also prepare a special gift for Grandmother and Mother?"

Manbao nodded, "Receiving gifts always brings more happiness."

Bai Shan stared at Manbao for a while.

Bai Erlang had run down to the riverbank to join in the fun at some point and turned to look for them. Seeing them still standing by the roadside chatting, he waved his hand and shouted, "They’re catching loaches, do you want to come?"

Bai Shan and Manbao only watched from the shore for a while before shaking their heads, "No, it’s too cold, and if we get sick, it wouldn’t be good."

Bai Erlang was unconvinced, "We never heard you complain about the cold when we went into the river as kids."

Manbao then said, "That’s because now I’m sensible. I am a doctor after all, don’t tempt me to make a mistake."

Bai Shan laughed loudly upon hearing this, and Bai Erlang’s eyes also crinkled with laughter, both of them thinking about how Manbao had gone to the village chief’s house to treat his grandson the day before.

The boy had runny nose from playing with cold water. Manbao prescribed him medicine and told him to keep warm. The boy retorted impudently, "Yesterday, I saw the young madam fishing in the manor’s ditch. I got sick following you guys fishing, and you’re all fine while I’m the only one sick, so it definitely wasn’t because of the cold water."

The conclusion he drew was that he could handle cold water too.

So, Manbao decided she absolutely would not go fishing in the water today, let alone catch loaches.

In the end, Bai Shan and Manbao stood on the shore watching others catch loaches, occasionally passing them bamboo baskets and such. Doing this, they still got mud on themselves and ended up going home filthy.

Ms.Qian was used to it. Seeing her come back with mud up to her waist, she reached out to touch Manbao’s hand. Finding it warm, she didn’t nag her and waved her off, "Go find your sister-in-law, hurry and take a bath and change your clothes. Your Sixth Brother just got back home. He brought back a lot of food from Yizhou City."

"Sixth Brother is back?" Manbao ran to find her Sixth Brother.

Zhou Liulang, as he worked at a restaurant, couldn’t come back with them and was expected not to return for this year’s New Year. However, their restaurant closed for the holiday on the twenty-ninth, so he found a caravan to come back with yesterday and spent the night outdoors before making it back home.

Zhou Liulang said, "Originally, our boss wanted to serve the New Year’s Eve dinner, but the Prince of Yizhou suddenly ordered our boss at Zhiwei Restaurant to prepare a banquet at his manor. Our boss is the best cook, and without the head chef, we couldn’t host the New Year’s Eve dinner. So, the boss simply let us go home for the New Year. I even got quite a bit of good stuff. See this beef? I bought it for one hundred and twenty wen, which is much cheaper than elsewhere, and most importantly, it’s available."

Manbao licked her lips and asked, "Sixth Brother, how should we cook this beef?"

"I don’t know, we have to ask sister-in-law. This precious ingredient, I’ve only seen the boss cook it, I’ve never actually done it myself."

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