Rebirth in the 50s: The Couple with the Hidden Space-Chapter 475 - 362: Wild Greens

The mountains are greener, the trees lusher. The morning breeze gently brushes over the wild vegetables covering the hills, the tall willows by the willow trees, the stinging nettles by the river bank, the water celery, the dandelions in the fields, and the wild onions.

The refreshing scent of wild vegetables wafts through every household in Zhang Family Village.

While the South is already hot in early summer, Zhang Family Village is still in the midst of spring blossoms, with the air filled with the joy of spring. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Zhou Jiao stands in the courtyard, closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and exhales slowly, marveling that this is the real oxygen bar.

Mother Zhang sees this and shakes her head with a chuckle—this child is being playful again.

"Mom, did you sleep well last night? Did Xi Zi and the others bother you?"

Zhou Jiao hears the movement, turns her head to see Mother Zhang, full of joy, her brilliant smile momentarily dazing Mother Zhang, who then bursts into laughter.

"Our Jiao Jiao is indeed getting more and more beautiful. We slept very soundly. Last night Xi Zi and the others only went to bed after playing until they were exhausted, and they just woke up now."

After dinner last night, Mother Zhang was still not at ease with just Jiao Jiao and her child in one courtyard, and in the end, she returned to the east room. Xi Zi and the others were even less willing to leave.

Zhou Jiao smiles broadly at Mother Zhang’s praise. Watching her mother-in-law enter the kitchen, she calls out, "Mom, I’ve prepared breakfast. Dad went out early and should almost be back for the meal. I’ll go call the kids."

"Why didn’t you sleep a bit longer?..."

Zhou Jiao hears Mother Zhang’s muttering from the kitchen and smiles softly. Without replying, she quickly calls Xi Zi and the others to get up for breakfast. She plans to go dig for wild vegetables.

After breakfast, those who needed to work went to work, and those who needed to go to school had left.

Mother Zhang watches as Zhou Jiao heads out with a bamboo basket along with the Mai Miao sisters. She reckons Zhou Jiao doesn’t recognize as many wild vegetables as the two little girls do. Thinking about this, she laughs heartily.

She looks down at the shoe soles in her hands, thinks of the family’s shoes, immediately tosses them into a basket, and claps her hands at the children playing joyfully on the kang, "Ping’an, are you coming?"

Ping’an immediately drops what he’s holding and runs over to her, shouting, "Go go... go go..."

"You little thing, why do you always like going out to play?" Mother Zhang hastily picks up the child, worried about dirtying his clothes, she quickly grabs a little jacket from the kang.

Once it’s on, she looks at the fair, tender little grandson, truly amused and exasperated. Is this the rough cloth that Jiao Jiao mentioned for the child?

No choice, once the jacket is on, Mother Zhang takes the child and quickly leaves. She knows this is probably the poorest quality fabric for the child, but with Jiao Jiao’s good sewing skills and beautiful embroidery designs, this attire simply can’t be low-key. She doesn’t mind, her daughter-in-law has too much free time and loves being crafty.

Zhou Jiao at this time has no idea of her mother-in-law’s grumbling. She follows the two little girls to their old spot, seeing the children nearby staring blankly, she can’t help but laugh merrily.

"Aunt Wu, how come you’re here?" Uncle Zhang’s granddaughter runs over to ask upon seeing her.

Zhou Jiao feels a bit embarrassed to say she’s digging for wild vegetables. This place is apparently a regular spot for the kids. She also realizes it’s probably a slope far from the Daqing Mountain specifically chosen by the village adults for the kids.

"Hehe... I’m here to see you all. You are all so well-behaved! Mai Miao, both of you follow your sisters and play together, but remember not to go far. Auntie will go check other places."

After speaking, Zhou Jiao quickly slips away. How embarrassing, she forgot all the adults are busy earning work points.

Different environments nurture different people. At this time, Zhou Jiao is at the outskirts of Daqing Mountain, also a place where village women frequently stay during the village’s autumn harvest season.

The busyness of spring plowing leaves the villagers no time to tend to this natural bounty. Clusters of wild garlic and patches of wild vegetables are all vital sources of sustenance and delicious delicacies.

Zhou Jiao ties her pant legs, squats on the ground digging for wild vegetables and herbs, occasionally looking up to check her surroundings. If one pays attention, they’ll notice the realgar bag she keeps around her and the wooden stick she holds. Fortunately, no one is around, or her behavior would certainly become a laughing stock.

The sudden fast passage of a wild rabbit in front scares Zhou Jiao into immediately taking out the sedative. If Zhang Guoqing were here, he’d definitely stop her, lest she knock herself out before the wild animals.

Moments later, seeing the wild rabbit in the distance, Zhou Jiao rolls her eyes knowingly and puts the medicine pack away. Once again, she looks regretfully at the deep mountains in the distance, imagining a scene where she dramatically takes down a bunch of wild animals, wondering when that might happen?

Thinking this, Zhou Jiao stands up, stretches a bit, enthusiastically practices a set of punches, then glances at the distant mountains again before squatting down to gather wild vegetables. She begins to focus, pondering over the dishes she can prepare.

After about an hour, Zhou Jiao leaves the grove, satisfied, carrying the bamboo basket, planning to head to the river to dig for water celery to make celery pork dumplings for dinner.

The shortcut requires crossing a field, where she spots Mr. Zhang and Uncle Zhang working with a few others from afar, watching her poor father-in-law bent over digging.

Zhou Jiao quickly turns around and takes Mai Miao and her sister back home.

"Remem ’ber what Auntie taught you?" In the kitchen, Zhou Jiao looks at Mai Miao with concern.

Mai Miao rolls her eyes playfully and recites with a giggle, "We both need to be quiet, no shouting. Grandpa can work only after he finishes his pancakes and drinks his water."

"You’re so clever. Now be careful when you walk."

Standing at the crossroads, watching the two sisters waddle away, Zhou Jiao mutters to herself, "What a pity." Then she giggles, swiftly heading toward the river.

Beneath the willow trees on the village stone steps, there’s tall grass, stinging nettles at the riverbank, and water celery—all freshly sprouted and already picked clean.

Zhou Jiao can only go further away to search. After much effort, she finally finds a patch of water celery and stands at the bank, glancing at her shoes, realizing she’s underprepared. Sternly, she removes her shoes.

Her bare feet on the ground transmit a cool sensation straight to her head, and Zhou Jiao can’t help but smile with delight.

After harvesting a bit of water celery, she feels it’s too much of a waste to just go home, so she looks around and finds that aside from two or three types of wild vegetables, the rest aren’t even ones Zhang Guoqing taught her.

Staring at the river, Zhou Jiao starts to wonder if using the sedative could affect river fish?

She secretly glances around, empties the water celery from the bamboo basket, takes out a pack of sedative, and scatters a large handful of white rice into the basket, tying it up before lowering it into the water.

As time passes, fish of all sizes, turning white float up to the surface, startling Zhou Jiao into quickly pulling up the basket with the rope.

Feeling an imminent disaster, Zhou Jiao thinks she used too much sedative—it wouldn’t do if a whole school of fish downstream perished. At this moment, she can’t bother with the white fish on the water, hurriedly picking out small fish from the basket and filling it with water celery for the big ones.

Afterwards, seeing the fish on the water, she hesitates, then descends barefoot to use a bamboo basket net to painstakingly collect them into her space. Exhausted, she realizes there are still more fish besides those in front of her.

Quickly putting on her shoes, Zhou Jiao immediately collects the fish in the basket into her space. She’s really worried this will cause a fuss and Mother Zhang might wonder where the fish came from.

Along the way, Zhou Jiao checks the river, noticing the place where the sedative was dropped had the most effect, while other areas were fine. Not even reaching the village stone steps, she already sees a few older ladies and children who aren’t working, fishing there.

Back home, Zhou Jiao holds a hand to her pounding heart and exhales a long breath—what a scare! She secretly feels fortunate she didn’t use two packs of sedative, otherwise, the whole village would have been in an uproar.