After being jilted, the entire neighboring village was filled with deep regret.

Chapter 65 The Ke Family's First Pot of Gold
Su Tai secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and the smile on her lips gradually widened. "Then cousin, please rest well at my house for a couple of days. After I get married, I'll have my father take you to the county town to find your uncle. He'll definitely be able to find a skilled doctor to cure your cough."

"Mmm." Ke Yunyun's eyes shone with anticipation.

After settling Ke Yunyun in, Su Tai moved the stroller into the yard.

At this time, another group of villagers came to buy sheep. Most of them wanted to buy rams, and several families would pool their money to slaughter them and eat mutton during the New Year.

There are still several months until the Chinese New Year, so they don't need to buy fat and strong rams. They only need to buy smaller rams, which will save them some money.

Just as everyone was picking and choosing and making a fuss, Su Changxi and his brother arrived.

It's likely that the Huang and Tao families informed the two of the situation beforehand.

As soon as they entered, they each asked for a pair of sheep, one male and one female. Seeing that the village chief and the township head had both bought them, the villagers who had been watching stopped hesitating and went back to get their money.

As darkness fell, only eight of the thirty-six sheep that the Ke family had brought were left: three ewes and five rams.

The Han family directly bought three ewes and three rams. They kept one pair for themselves, gave one pair to the Han family, and asked Su Tai to take the remaining pair to the Shen family.

As a result, the Ke family only had two sheep left that they couldn't sell.

This result greatly surprised Ke Dasong, and he couldn't stop smiling all day. His two sons were grinning like idiots.

Su Nizi kept thanking Su Chunlin's family.

While Han was busy in the kitchen, she followed behind, carefully helping out.

Han advised, "Elder sister, you must be exhausted after traveling for so many days. Leave this to me and Xiaoyu."

Su Nizi glanced at Ruan Xiaoyu, a hint of inquiry in her eyes, "Is this your little daughter?"

She remembered that Su Chunlin had mentioned his eldest daughter, but hadn't mentioned that he also had a younger daughter.

Madam Han shook her head and explained frankly, "This is A-Zhan's young wife. We'll get them married in two years."

Then, Madam Han briefly explained Ruan Xiaoyu's background, which made Su Nizi extremely envious. She couldn't help but say, "Why didn't our family have such good fortune?"

Han paused in her work, turned around and asked, "Eldest sister, are you talking about the marriage of your two nephews?"

Su Nizi nodded, her brows furrowed with worry. "The icy plains are bitterly cold and not suitable for girls. No one is willing to marry into our area. We don't dare to think about girls from wealthy families. We're just wondering if we can find someone from a poor family who is willing to marry into our area. After all, we're marrying a wife, so she has to be willing to endure hardship. Otherwise, we won't be able to keep her even if we marry her."

"What do you mean?" Han's Earrings and Ruan Xiaoyu both looked at Su Nizi.

Su Nizi's expression darkened, and she sighed softly, "I won't hide it from you, many of the girls who marry into the Ice Plains can't stand it and run away. Even if they have children, they don't care about them at all. What can we do in this situation?"

"She can even abandon her own child? Is there such a heartless mother in the world?" Han Shi couldn't believe her ears. Ruan Xiaoyu quickly comforted her, "Aunt, you've sold the sheep and made money this time. You can also move out of the ice field. The people who fled to Dongmen Village with me have all settled down here. I think their lives have improved."

She helped the Ke family sell sheep today and witnessed the whole process. She could roughly guess how much money the Ke family made this time. This money was more than enough to buy land, build a yard, and marry two daughters-in-law.

Su Nizi shook her head with a wry smile, "No, the ice plains are sparsely populated. The governor will not allow us to leave. Only girls are freer and can escape their suffering through marriage. Men are born on the ice plains and must die on the ice plains."

On the ice plains, cattle and sheep are worthless. Every year, we have livestock quotas assigned by the government, such as how many sheep to raise this year and how many to hand over before winter. These are all fixed numbers. Often, after handing over the quota, we don't end up with many sheep. We can't sell them for a good price, and we can't bear to eat them. Life is neither good nor bad.

"If my younger brother hadn't brought us that grain, my husband wouldn't have dared to risk driving the sheep out."

Grain is a scarce and precious commodity on the ice field, even more valuable than cattle and sheep. This family traded grain with other herders for sheep to complete their task, which was how they were able to get the sheep out of the ice field.

Ruan Xiaoyu asked curiously, "Didn't Uncle ever think of taking the sheep out of the ice field to sell them?"

Su Nizi sighed, "We did try, but we didn't sell many. We traveled thousands of miles to get them, so we were naturally reluctant to sell them cheaply. But ordinary families couldn't afford them. Often, we would only sell two or three after traveling for half a month. We also had to take risks on the road, and we needed money for food and lodging. There were many other problems, so it wasn't feasible."

This time, my younger brother assured us that he would definitely be able to sell it. My wife saw that he had given us so much grain, and she thought that he had become successful and could cover our losses, so she dared to take the risk.

Unexpectedly, not only my younger brother prospered, but the entire village did.

This surprised Su Nizi the most. In her memory, Dongmen Village was dilapidated and backward, with villagers looking dusty and numb.

Dongmen Village is now much more populated, and the houses are much better than I remember. There are also villagers who spend money on sheep without batting an eye, laughing, joking, and speaking with great enthusiasm. Everything is different now.

Ruan Xiaoyu suddenly realized.

Han understood the reason and wanted to lend a hand, so she immediately looked at Ruan Xiaoyu and asked, "I remember there was a family with five siblings who fled here with you, two older sisters and three younger brothers, right?"

Ruan Xiaoyu nodded, "Auntie is talking about Sister Chunhua and Xiahua, right?"

"That's right, that's them! I remember they're not young anymore, and they're still not engaged, are they?"

Ruan Xiaoyu nodded again and pondered, "Sister Chunhua is eighteen this year, Sister Xiahua is seventeen, their eldest brother is sixteen, and the other two are fourteen and twelve years old respectively."

Han murmured, "The men are all of marriageable age."

Ruan Xiaoyu pursed her lips helplessly, "That's right, so the siblings have been living in the fields almost all year round, just so they can get some grain in the autumn harvest to pay off some money."

This time, they earned over eighty taels from selling grain. Sister Chunhua bought three mu of wasteland from the village chief and asked someone to help build a courtyard for each of her three younger brothers. She also bought nine mu of good land and twelve mu of bad land to distribute to her three younger brothers. The remaining silver was divided among the three younger brothers, and each of them only received three or four taels. That was enough to buy some furniture, pots and pans, bedding and cotton-padded clothes.

Chunhua and Xiahua are now so preoccupied with finding wives for their three younger brothers that they're neglecting their own marriages.

Upon hearing this, Su Nizi felt as if she were seeing her past self. However, these two sisters were luckier than her, as they had caught a good time. Back then, everyone was struggling, and no one could help her. She could only marry herself off to the Ice Plains.