Transmigrated into the role of the matriarch, I ensured my family had enough to eat and wear during

Tang Susu buried herself in books on agricultural disasters, turning to nearly four hundred pages before finally finding content related to locust control.

The book focuses on preventative measures, such as building water conservancy projects, adjusting planting structures, planting more soybeans that locusts dislike, and raising chickens and ducks on a large scale in advance to control the locust population.

She thought to herself that although these preventative measures were good, they were often too late to be effective once the locust plague broke out.

It wasn't until the very end of the book that the use of pesticides to control locusts was mentioned.

This method is highly effective in quickly killing locusts, but its drawbacks are equally obvious—pesticide residues can affect the taste of the grains and are also harmful to the human body. It has long been abandoned in modern times.

Given the scarcity of resources in ancient times, and the fact that people only sought to fill their stomachs and survive, pesticides could have been considered as an emergency measure.

But then she was troubled again. She couldn't explain where she bought the pesticides. She couldn't always pin the blame on Yang Fujun. If it happened too often, it would inevitably arouse suspicion.

Just then, the sound of reading outside stopped.

Tang Susu quickly closed the book, carefully hid it under the bed, got up and left the room to take over Tang Chengyu's math lesson for the boys.

She looked at Tang Liqiang and asked, "Liqiang, what's the result of eighteen plus five?"

Tang Liqiang tensed up instantly, and his forehead quickly became covered in sweat.

He first stretched out his own fingers and slowly counted, but when he didn't have enough fingers, he hurriedly pulled Yang Xiaobao's fingers over to continue counting.

But halfway through the count, he suddenly forgot his progress and had to start over with a frown.

Finally, having exhausted all other options, he even used his toes, before his eyes lit up and he loudly answered, "Twenty-three!"

Seeing this, Tang Susu was overjoyed, feeling that her teaching over the past few days had finally paid off.

Tang Chengyu found it strange that Tang Liqiang was counting on his fingers.

After Tang Liqiang calculated the answer, he quietly returned to the storeroom, retrieved an abacus, and walked to the table, suggesting, "From now on, we'll use the abacus to count, so we won't have to count on our fingers anymore."

Yang Gousheng's eyes lit up the moment he saw the abacus—he had seen the restaurant manager use the abacus to calculate accounts quickly and accurately when he was delivering goods before, and he had long admired him.

Seeing this, Tang Susu quickly stood up and gave up her seat.

She had long wanted to teach the children abacus, but the original owner of this body was illiterate, and if she rashly started teaching abacus, she would easily be exposed.

Moreover, she wasn't particularly skilled in abacus calculation, and she was afraid of teaching the child incorrectly and hindering his development.

Tang Chengyu's appearance was a lifesaver for her.

Tang Chengyu placed the abacus on the dining table and began to teach everyone in detail about the structure of the abacus and the meaning of the beads.

The four little ones listened intently, like parched seedlings receiving rain after a long drought, eagerly absorbing new knowledge.

Yang Gousheng couldn't help but reach out and fiddle with the abacus beads. The crisp sound of the beads colliding and the wonderful tactile sensation came from his fingertips. The resistance he had shown to Tang Chengyu was gone.

Tang Susu tiptoed to the kitchen to boil water, planning to let the children wash up and go to bed after they finished studying.

But as soon as she stepped into the courtyard, she caught a glimpse of a figure crouching against the wall, which startled her.

The figure looked up at the sound and it was Yang Zhimao.

Yang Zhimao stood up awkwardly, scratched his head, and explained, "I...I just wanted to listen to Uncle Yu's lecture. I'll leave right away."

Tang Susu smiled gently and invited him inside to sit and listen.

Yang Zhimao's eyes flickered, and he hesitated before saying, "But Sister, you're not willing to give me an egg as payment every day..."

Previously, when he came to teach, Tang Susu paid him with an egg.

Tang Susu smiled and waved her hand: "Go ask Cheng Yu if he's willing to teach you. If he agrees, you don't need to pay him with eggs."

Upon hearing this, Yang Zhimao immediately rushed into the inner room excitedly, eagerly requesting to listen in on the conversation with Tang Chengyu. He even patted his chest and said, "Uncle Yu, I'll have Grandma pay your tuition! If there are no eggs, I'll bring firewood in exchange!"

Tang Chengyu quickly waved his hand and said gently, "No need to pay, you can just listen from the side."

In his view, since his elder sister had already paid him a monthly salary, it wouldn't hurt to teach one more person, as the saying goes, "It's the same whether you're herding one sheep or two sheep."

The abacus class completely piqued the five children's interest.

The lesson, originally planned to last half an hour, was extended to twice that time due to the children's repeated requests for "Uncle Yu to talk a little longer," before ending only after Tang Susu reminded him to stop.

As night deepened, all was quiet.

Tang Susu quietly woke up from her bed, tiptoed out of the house, and came to the big banyan tree.

Under the dim moonlight, she carefully dug out the buried electrical wires, then filled the pit back in and tamped it down.

He then took the power board from the nearby haystack and brought all of these things back to the yard.

She hid the electrical wires in the gaps in the courtyard wall and carefully covered them with piles of straw, while she hid the power board on the thatched roof.

Just as I finished settling everything in, Tang Chengyu's voice suddenly came from behind me: "Big Sister?"

Tang Susu froze in fright and turned to look, only to see Tang Chengyu standing at the gate of the courtyard.

Seeing that Tang Susu's forehead was covered with fine beads of sweat and she looked exhausted, he assumed that she was still busy with housework late at night. A deep sense of guilt welled up in his heart—he remembered how he had taken his older sister's money to study without a second thought, never knowing that his older sister was working so hard.

Tang Chengyu quickly stepped forward and offered to help: "Big sister, let me help you."

He bent down and picked up a circuit board, asking in confusion, "What's this?"

The texture of his fingertips was peculiar; it had neither the grain of wood nor the cold hardness of iron. Under the hazy moonlight, it was really difficult to tell what the material was.

Tang Susu coughed hastily to cover her panic and made up a lie: "These are roof tiles, specially made."

She added, "Lifu, Liqiang, and Gousheng were all too tired, and I couldn't bear to wake them, so I cleaned up by myself."

As she spoke, she asked Tang Chengyu to help move the power panels to the roof, saying, "If you help me put these on the roof, it will prevent the rain from leaking."

Without much thought, Tang Chengyu took the power switch as instructed and used the ladder to arrange the items.

Seeing this, Tang Susu calmly turned around and went back to her room to sleep.

Tang Chengyu, unable to bear Tang Liqiang's deafening snoring in the storeroom any longer, moved his bedding to a corner of the dining room.

That night, his thoughts were still in turmoil. He was grateful for Tang Susu's kindness and regretted his past ignorance. He tossed and turned for a long time before finally falling into a deep sleep from exhaustion.

The next morning, the crowing of a rooster broke the tranquility of the village.

Tang Susu woke up on time, and Tang Chengyu got up as well.

He quickly put his bedding back in the storage room, then picked up his clothes, which were covered in mud from yesterday, and went to the water tank to wash them—Yang Xiaobao had told him yesterday that in this family, everyone had to take responsibility for their own things, and no one would help them.

From childhood to adulthood, Tang Chengyu had employees help with laundry at school and family members to take care of her at home, and she never washed her own clothes.

He put the clothes into a wooden basin, rubbed them a couple of times, wrung them out, and hung them out to dry.

Miao Yulan happened to see this scene when she got up to get some fresh air. She quietly walked to the clothesline, took down Tang Chengyu's outer robe, went back to the kitchen, took out some wood ash, and put it into a wooden basin to carefully wash it.

Only after the mud stains on the clothes were washed away and they became clean and white again were they put back to dry.

After breakfast, before the sun had fully risen, the whole family got busy with their own tasks.

Yang Gousheng and Tang Liqiang drove the oxcart to deliver cold noodles. Recently, the merchants have been taking more and more orders and delivering to more and more places. Tang Susu has increased the wages for driving the cart, Yang Defu, to twenty copper coins.

Tang Lifu carried his farm tools to the fields. At this time, the rice was in the critical growth stage of grain filling, and it did not need much water; just keeping the soil moist was enough.

Most importantly, pay attention to the plant growth, apply fertilizer to areas where growth is poor, and manually weed and remove pests—the grain-filling period is when pests are rampant.

Yang Xiaobao leads his flock of ducks, herding them to forage along the edge of the field. He also picks some tender wild vegetables to take home and feed the chickens. If he sees grasshoppers or locusts, he will bend down and catch them to save for the chickens' extra meal.

Tang Susu was also busy. She first watered the vegetables planted in front of and behind the yard, then cleaned up the chicken and duck droppings, sprinkled wood ash for disinfection, and finally carried food to feed the two puppies, Yang Dahuang and Yang Dabai.

Seeing this, Tang Chengyu wanted to go and help, but Tang Susu stopped him: "You don't need to bother with these things, just go inside to prepare your lessons and read."

Tang Chengyu did not go back to the house, but sat at the dining table, focusing on making a sand table with sand.

He felt that it was not enough for children to just recognize words with their eyes; they also needed to learn to write them.

But paper and pens are too expensive and not cost-effective in the long run. A sand table is the most affordable tool for practicing calligraphy, and he plans to make one for each of his four sons.

After finishing the sand table, he thought about making a small abacus for each child so they could practice.

Tang Susu was busy in the yard. When no one was paying attention, she quietly took out milk and hot dogs from the room and fed them to the two puppies.

Yang Dabai drank milk, while Yang Dahuang munched on a hot dog, slurping loudly and wagging its little tail happily, looking very content.