Chapter 152: Buying Land ( 4 )

Chapter 152: Buying Land ( 4 ) While the initial investment was high, after the land turned into fertile land, Yao Zhi could earn more in the future. Her goal was never sweet potatoes but planting high-yield rice.

After she made up her mind, she reached into her sleeves and said, "Village Chief, I want to buy all the land."

She placed a pouch on the table and continued, "Here are 205 taels of silver. 200 taels for buying the land and 5 taels of silver for buying some tea for the official."

The Yang family was surprised to see how casual she was. The Village Chief opened the pouch and saw the glistening silver. He quickly closed it and said, "Yao Girl, you don’t need to give so much to the official. Just one tael of silver is enough."

"Village Chief, the rest is for your fee. The town is far, and you will waste a day helping me buy the land. It’s only right for me to pay you," Yao Zhi said.

After interacting with her, the Village Chief knew that she was stubborn. So he didn’t refuse and said, "Then I won’t be polite with you. Tomorrow morning, I will go to the town and help you buy the land."

Yao Zhi nodded, stood up, and said, "Village Chief, it’s not early anymore. I have to go back now."

"Sister Yao, I will send you back," Yang Sanlang also stood up.

"Thank you, but there’s no need. I can go back by myself. Brother Sanlang, please stay," Yao Zhi replied with a smile.

Yang Sanlang hesitated for a moment before he said, "Then be careful on your way back."

Yao Zhi nodded and left the Village Chief’s house. She wasn’t blind and knew that Yang Sanlang might have feelings for her. But since he hadn’t voiced them, she couldn’t reject him. So she could only treat him like other villagers.

She wouldn’t treat him coldly, but she also wouldn’t allow him to get close to her. By keeping him at this polite distance, she hoped that he would let go and move on. But it would be best if she were wrong and he only treated her as a sister.

After a tiring day, she took a bath and had her dinner when she returned home. At 7 o’clock in the evening, she locked the doors and went to sleep.

Early the next morning, Yao Zhi woke up before dawn. Since she planned to visit the border market tomorrow, she had to make enough food for her husband and the General for 2 days.

Thinking about her husband’s patrolling duty, she thought for a while and opened her system’s shop. She browsed the snack section and checked the fruit chips.

After a while, she chose jackfruit, banana, apricot, peach, mango, kiwi, and sweet potatoes. Each box cost her 5 points and contained 25 bags of chips, weighing 500 grams per bag.

She only needed to spend 35 points and bought a lot of snacks, which lifted her mood. She took out the chips and opened the boxes. Thinking about the fruits available in this era, she took out 2 bags of apricot fruit chips and 2 bags of peach fruit chips.

To make it easier for her husband to carry the fruit chips during his patrolling duty, Yao Zhi opened the system shop and checked the accessories section. She browsed for a while and found a shop selling leather bags in bulk.

She checked the dimensions of the bags and chose one that could hold around 3 liters of food. The bag was made with 2 leather loops attached at the back, allowing it to be tied to a waist belt.

The bag’s shape looked similar to a pouch and was decorated with a simple drawing pattern on the leather.

Yao Zhi read the information and decided to buy the leather bags. Each bag cost her 3 points, and the minimum purchase was 50 bags. She took out 4 waist bags and opened the fruit chips.

She thought the inside of the bag was leather, but unexpectedly, it was layered with an unknown material. When she poured the chips inside the waist bag, the inner layer prevented the oil and caramels from staining the leather and leaving marks.

One bag of chips only filled 70% of the waist bag. Since one bag could hold 1.5 bags of chips, she took out one more bag each of apricot and peach chips. When she was done, she tied the inner layer and closed the waist bag.

Opening the window, Yao Zhi saw the sky slowly brightening. She quickly tidied up her clothes and hair and went to the kitchen. As usual, she boiled water to wash up and went to water the vegetable garden first before cooking breakfast.

To avoid the food spoiling in hot weather, she made marrow cakes, also known as Sui Bing, which were popular during the Han dynasty.

The ingredients for marrow cakes were wheat flour, sometimes mixed with barley. She chose the mixed flour to increase the nutritional value.

Then, she bought a jar of sheep’s marrow fat from the system’s shop for 10 points. One jar contained 2 liters of fat.

After she prepared all the ingredients, she mixed some honey and marrow fat into the flour and added salt and spices. To ensure the products had a longer shelf life, she added a drop of spiritual spring water to the mixture before shaping it into thin patties.

Since she didn’t have a closed kiln, Yao Zhi replaced it with a heavy-bottomed wok. She placed the patties in the wok and covered it with a lid over low heat to simulate a clay oven for baking. One batch could bake 12 patties.

Marrow cakes made using this method were also known as stove cakes.

To shorten the time, Yao Zhi used 2 stoves and finished in 2 hours. She counted the marrow cakes as she placed them into the bamboo basket. A total of 205 marrow cakes.