The timeline system has gone awry; they insist that steamed buns are a magic pill.

Having drunk a little wine, Li Qingqiu was a bit tipsy. He staggered home, but his mind was filled with images of piglets running wild. His feet seemed to be obeying him, and he headed towards the brigade's pig farm. At that time, the fattened pigs had already been sold, and only a few sows remained.

There were only a few piglets. Li Qingqiu glanced at the pigpen and almost threw up; it was rather filthy. Perhaps because it was the dead of winter, the pig manure and urine hadn't been cleaned up. As a city kid, Li Qingqiu found it somewhat unsettling.

"How did I end up here?"

He shook his head, having drunk a bit too much. The jujube wine tasted quite good, sweet, but it had a strong aftereffect. Li Qingqiu was only half as good, and he was already feeling dizzy, his mind wandering like a piglet in a pigpen.

"I was planning to sign in at the brigade headquarters, but I went off-topic."

[Sign-in successful. Sign-in location: Pig Spirit Beast Taming Hall. Obtained Pig Spirit Beast Taming Hall Formation Diagram. Points +2]

"A formation layout diagram, isn't this something similar to the layout diagram of my own cave dwelling?"

Li Qingqiu muttered to himself that since he wasn't building a pigsty, it was basically useless unless he raised pigs himself.

【lottery】

[Received a warning spell from the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion, activated—the Pig Demon Qi will soon attack, threatening the Pig Spirit Beasts.]

Li Qingqiu sobered up a bit and felt extremely regretful. He shouldn't have held the lottery in front of the pigsty, and most importantly, he shouldn't have invited Li Xianbao. Drinking really does lead to trouble. He'll definitely drink less next time. "Forget it, forget it, I'll go home and get some sleep."

"What does the Pig Spirit Beast crisis have to do with me?" Li Qingqiu muttered to himself as he turned and headed home. He swayed back to his cave, took off his shoes, pulled up the covers, and fell asleep immediately. "Drinking leads to trouble. I'll definitely drink less jujube wine next time. It's delicious."

After sleeping soundly for three or four hours, Li Qingqiu opened his eyes to find it already dark. He casually turned on the radio, but after fiddling with it for a while, it didn't announce the time. "I need to get a watch. I have enough industrial coupons right now, but I'm short on cash."

"Let's go check on the educated youth settlement first. How are things going with my little sister and the others?"

After putting on my cotton shoes, I washed my face with some cold water, tidied myself up, and left the cave. Stepping on the crunching snow, I arrived at the educated youth settlement. As soon as I entered the courtyard, I smelled the aroma of meat.

"What did you cook tonight? It smells so good!"

"Third Uncle, you've arrived."

Li Xianjing was closest to the door, so she quickly got up to open it and offer her a seat.

"Come and see, how's your mushroom cultivation going?"

Li Qing took the stool Yin Yi handed him and glanced at the meat in the casserole. "Mongol meat?"

"You put in quite a lot of chili peppers."

"It's spicy and warming."

Yin Yi handed the prepared bowl and chopsticks to Li Qingqiu, looking at him expectantly. "Try it. You said last time that it would taste better if it was stewed until it was very soft, so this time I stewed it for a little longer and added some seasonings."

"I'll try it."

Li Qingqiu picked up a piece of muntjac meat. It was spicy, the meat was very tender, and most importantly, the gamey smell was completely undetectable. "You added the seasoning well this time. There's no gamey smell at all, and the meat is tender enough."

"It's just a little spicy."

Here, a steamed bun.

"I knew it! It's missing something, just add some steamed buns and it'll be perfect."

Li Qingqiu smiled and took the steamed bun, taking a bite. It was very fluffy. This guy was eating deer meat with a white steamed bun; he was living a very comfortable life. "Don't just look at it, eat it quickly while it's hot."

"Yin Yi, your cooking skills are truly amazing. I can't live without you from now on."

"Then I'll make it for you every day." Yin Yi was quite happy.

"Then I have to pay you a salary." Li Qingqiu took a big bite of the steamed bun.

"I don't want a salary."

Yin Yi pouted and said that the salary was too formal. Li Qingmei, Li Xianjing, and Guo Zhaonan exchanged glances. Xian'an and Xianle, on the other hand, were eating happily and didn't care at all what Li Qingqiu and Yin Yi were saying.

"Hehe, by the way, little sister, how did things go this afternoon?"

Li Qingqiu put down his chopsticks and turned to ask Li Qingmei.

"It's alright."

"We got eighty or ninety branches."

"How many?"

Li Qingqiu's hand trembled. Eighty or ninety branches? Wasn't that a bit too fast?

"We used a tree branch with holes pre-drilled in it."

"Great, you guys are doing just as well as I am now," Li Qingqiu remarked, noting that his younger sisters were becoming increasingly skilled at breaking down mycelia, transplanting, and re-inserting them. "But there's no need to rush; getting too tired isn't good either."

"It's alright, not too tiring."

Several people worked from 12:30 to around 6:00 without stopping, for more than five hours straight, and no one complained of being tired.

"Of course I'm tired. Take it slow and make sure to balance work and rest."

Li Qingqiu said with a smile, "Don't dry it all at once, I don't have any extra mycelium left."

"I see."

"Then let's slow down a bit."

"Third Uncle, how much should we keep for ourselves this time?" Guo Zhaonan had tasted the sweetness of selling snow mushrooms; last time, he had earned more than ten yuan from the snow mushrooms.

"Let's keep another forty or fifty branches."

Li Qingqiu thought for a moment. "We can probably start picking two or three days before the Lunar New Year. I'll tell Mom then, little sister, Xianjing, Xianan, and Xianle, that we won't hand over the money for this last batch of snow mushrooms before the New Year. We'll divide it among you and you can buy new clothes."

"Thank you, Uncle San."

Li Xianle, Li Xianan, and the others were overjoyed. Even Li Qingmei, if she hadn't felt that she was an elder and shouldn't show too much excitement, would probably have laughed out loud.

"No need to thank me, it's yours."

Li Qingqiu then took out some grain coupons and handed them to Yin Yi, without giving her any money, since he had already given her more than ten yuan that morning for the snow mushrooms. "I eat here every day, so take these grain coupons. When you have time, go to the commune and buy more wheat flour. It's almost New Year, you'll be making dumplings there, right?"

"I don't want your food coupons."

Yin Yi was not happy, feeling that Li Qingqiu and she were being too clearly separated.

"Take this quickly. I'll be coming to steal your dumplings later. If you don't make enough, you'll go hungry." Li Qingqiu shoved the food coupons into Yin Yi's hand, jokingly.

"I'm not afraid of you taking it. If you come every day, I'll make dumplings for you every day."

"That's unnecessary. Even the best food shouldn't be eaten every day."

Li Qingqiu waved his hand, saying that eating occasionally was fine. "I've been too busy talking. Let's eat, eat. After we finish eating, let's tidy up and hurry home. The weather is really cold."

"That's hard to say."

As Li Qingqiu spoke, he remembered that he had gone to the team's pig farm at noon to participate in a lottery and won something like "pig demon energy." "By the way, where's Xiaobai?"

"Lock him up."

"Little White always likes to run outside."

"Let's build a pigsty when we have time, otherwise Little White will have nowhere to live when he grows up."

Li Qingqiu remembered the pigpen design drawing for the sign-in event and decided to put it into practice later.

"A pigsty."

The girls didn't quite know how to cook, so Li Qingqiu smiled and said, "I'll do it later. Let's eat quickly."

After dinner, Qingmei, Xianjing, and Zhaonan helped clean up the dishes, and in no time they were spotless. "Alright, take the mushroom branches inside. Everything's tidied up, let's go home."

"Understood, Third Brother."

"Oh, right, Third Brother, there's something else. Several companies came over today asking about mushroom branches, but they weren't on the orders," Li Qingmei said softly. "I told you, I can't make that decision without you here."

Which companies?

Li Qingqiu was somewhat surprised, but upon reflection, it made sense. Who knew when the commune would offer free mushroom spawn again? Having witnessed the grand occasion of selling snow mushrooms today, those who hadn't bought any spawn were probably regretting it.

"Widow Jiang behind the house."

"And the landlord uncle."

"Who? Uncle Landlord's house? Aunt Six's house?"

Li Qingqiu was somewhat surprised that Aunt Liu would actually lower her head to ask him to buy mushroom spawn. Wasn't she afraid of being laughed at by the team members?

"I was quite surprised too."

Li Qingmei was also startled in the afternoon. "But Aunt Liu probably doesn't know, Uncle Landlord came alone as if he was afraid of being seen."

"Oh, I see. We'll talk about it later. There aren't many mushroom branches left right now. After deducting the orders, there's not much left. We need to keep some." Li Qingqiu didn't really want to pay attention to these people.

"Then I'll tell them that later."

"Alright."

When Li Qingqiu got home, he planned to wash his feet, read a book, listen to the radio, and then go to sleep.

"Is the third child asleep?"

"Second brother, you're not asleep yet."

He ushered Li Qinghua in and sat him down. "Second Brother, what's the matter?"

"It's nothing."

"Do you have any more mushroom branches? Your sister-in-law's family wants to buy a few more."

"Buy a few more, okay? But there's not much mycelium left. How about this, ten more branches?"

Li Qingqiu considered it. "How about this?"

"Alright, ten branches are enough."

Li Qinghua breathed a sigh of relief. "Then I'll go back first, you go to sleep."

"Second brother, you're henpecked too."

Li Qinghua returned to the house, and his second sister-in-law, Lin Xiu, approached him. "How did it go? Did you tell the third brother?"

"I said so."

"Add ten more branches."

"Ten branches, that's a bit too few."

"That's quite a lot. If it were more, Mom would probably find out. Ten branches can probably grow over forty catties of snow mushrooms, which is worth more than twenty yuan. We'll secretly pick them and sell them in the county or at the free market. We can use the money to buy you and the kids some food and drinks for the New Year." Li Qinghua sighed. "Mom is good in every way, except she's very stingy with money. Luckily, the third son is capable, so he'll be able to get some money this time, which will make things a little easier for us."

"I just heard Xianle say that the third brother said the money from the last batch of snow mushrooms before the New Year would be distributed to Xianle and the others."

"That's just the third son's temper. Mom probably won't be able to say anything this time," Li Qinghua said with a smile. "Otherwise, if the third son makes a scene, it might not just be about these snow mushrooms."

"That means Xianle might be able to buy a new outfit this year."

Lin Xiu was happy; who wouldn't be happy wearing a white dress? "It's just that our eldest son, Xianjing, and Xian'an, their two children, have suffered a bit from us."

"Don't talk about this, sister-in-law. If eldest brother doesn't like it, third brother might not be happy either."

"I'm not stupid. I'm only saying this in front of you. I haven't even said it to the children," Lin Xiu whispered. "You'd better hide these ten mushroom branches well."

Don't worry.

The eldest brother and sister-in-law's family was relatively quiet, and the couple were talking about the last batch of snow mushrooms before the New Year.

"Since the third brother takes such good care of our family, I'll see if I can get some more peanuts when I go back to my parents' house and give them to him."

"The third brother doesn't care about this."

Li Qingchun is an honest man. He felt that there was no need for such formalities between brothers, as it would make them seem distant.

"Don't worry about this."

Wang Yun nudged Li Qingchun as she spoke. "A few days ago, when I went back to my parents' home, my mother asked about Xianjing's important matter. What are your thoughts on that?"

"Xianjing, my younger sister isn't engaged yet, and let's talk about the third son this year."

Li Qingchun said in a low voice, "Mom also told me today that I should go and talk to Matchmaker Wang when I have time, so that she can help Third Brother find a match. We can talk about Xianjing's matter after Third Brother and Little Sister are settled."

"You, Xianjing, will be eighteen after the New Year. You're a young lady now, and we can't afford to delay your life."

"I understand, I'll ask Mom later."

Li Qingchun was thinking about his third son, Li Qingqiu. What should he do? His mother told him to talk to his third son and persuade him not to get involved with city girls.

"Sigh, this is difficult. With the third brother's temper, I'm afraid no one's words will work."

Li Qingchun was quite troubled; city girls said they were so easy to marry.

-

In Chikou County, Han Caiju is writing a letter to Li Qingqiu. Yesterday after get off work, Han Caiju met with Wu Xiaoyue, and the two talked about Li Qingqiu. Han Caiju was quite surprised that Li Qingqiu had gone to the agricultural technology station to receive an award.

What did this person do? He received a contribution award. The head of the agricultural technology station warmly received him. Han Caiju became even more curious. What had this old classmate who had been kind to her gone through in the past few years? He seemed to have become a completely different person.