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

Seeing the Liu brothers offer their eggs, Deng Xiaomao also raised her little hand and said in a clear voice, "I'll get my egg later, so the little brothers and sisters can get theirs first!"

Tang Susu was initially worried that the children would fight over the eggs, but seeing how sensible they were, she felt very gratified.

She smiled and promised them, "You're all good kids. I'll ask you to help me harvest the lantern fruit next time."

Tang Susu secretly calculated: exchanging one pound of lantern fruit for one egg was already a good deal for her. Once the jelly business became profitable, she would increase the exchange rate to two eggs for one pound, so that the children could also earn more.

As night deepened, some of the younger children, already drowsy, were led home to sleep by their siblings, yawning.

The women who remained held their torches high, gritting their teeth and persevering to provide light for the men digging the canal.

Tang Susu did not leave, but stayed by Tang Lifu and Tang Liqiang's side, occasionally handing them a sip of water.

Although these two younger brothers were not her biological brothers, she couldn't help but feel sorry for them when she saw them suffering and working hard alongside the adults at such a young age.

The village head also did not go home, his eyes were bloodshot from staying up all night.

But he remained firmly standing on the nearby earthen slope, encouraging everyone with his booming voice: "Come on, everyone! Keep digging another three or four zhang, and we'll call it a night!"

The canal digging project was progressing smoothly and everything was going well, which was gratifying. Everyone was looking forward to completing the canal as soon as possible.

But just then, an accident suddenly occurred.

Liu Yingcai swung his hoe down, and with a "clang," it struck something hard.

He initially thought it was just an ordinary rock and tried to move it aside to continue digging.

After digging for a long time and expanding the excavation area, it was still rock hard underneath.

His heart skipped a beat, and he shouted, "Something's wrong! There might be a huge rock underneath!"

The crowd quickly gathered around, and someone brought a shovel to try digging down.

Only then did they discover that the boulder stretched for five or six zhang (approximately 10-15 meters) and was about twenty meters long.

Such a large rock could not be moved by manpower alone, and the project, which was progressing smoothly, came to an instant halt.

Tang Susu's face immediately turned grim, and she thought to herself: In modern times, there are specialized stone-breaking machines that can quickly handle this situation.

But this was a feudal society, and such advanced equipment simply didn't exist.

Moreover, one side of the boulder is a steep cliff, and the other side is a dense ancient forest, full of trees that would take three or four people to encircle, making it impossible to dig a detour.

[At this point, I hope readers will remember our domain name: ①⓪①ⓚⓚⓢ.ⓒⓞⓜ]

The villagers, who were already exhausted, had finally seen hope for water supply, but suddenly encountered such a problem. Their resentment and dissatisfaction quietly spread and soon erupted into a wave of condemnation.

"It's all Tang Susu's fault for being so short-sighted! If we hadn't believed her, we wouldn't have wasted so much time!"

"Exactly! How could we believe the words of Yang Gousheng, a mere brat? He's made the whole village suffer!"

Some even rushed up to the village head and demanded, "Village head, what are we going to do now? The ditch can't be dug, the water can't be brought in, we're just waiting to die!"

Some even fell into utter despair, collapsing to the ground and crying out, "Since we're all going to die anyway, let's all die together!"

The villagers were exhausted and furious, utterly devastated—they had toiled through most of the night, sweating profusely, hoping to get water to the fields as soon as possible, but their hopes were dashed in an instant, leaving everyone at a loss.

The village head's face was so gloomy it could drip water. He suddenly raised his voice and shouted sternly, "Shut up, all of you! You are all the pillars of your families, the hope of your families! If you are defeated by this little difficulty, what will happen to the elderly and children in your families? Who will Yangqu Village rely on for development in the future?"

"When we encounter difficulties, we shouldn't cry and blame each other, but rather find ways to overcome them! If a boulder is hard to deal with, surely we can handle the trees beside it? Cheer up, everyone! Tomorrow we'll cut down trees and clear a path together; this water must be brought to the fields!"

The village head's roar made everyone's eardrums vibrate, and the originally noisy scene instantly fell silent.

Everyone's gaze invariably turned to the tranquil ancient forest beside them.

As the night wind blew, the torchlight cast dappled shadows on the tree trunks.

The already tall trees now appear even more majestic and imposing, their branches and canopies stretching wildly towards the dark sky, creating a powerful visual impact.

The silence was not out of utter despair, but rather because everyone knew how difficult it would be to cut down trees and clear a road.

Although the trees can be cut down, it will take at least ten days to clear all of these large, thick trees.

By the time the road is completed, the rice in the fields will have already withered and died, and digging ditches to bring in water will be pointless.

As Tang Susu stood on that boulder, the story of Yu the Great controlling the floods suddenly flashed through her mind.

Although the story was about flood control and had no direct relation to the current drought, it still gave her some inspiration.

She paced back and forth on the boulder, her brow furrowed, her gaze inadvertently falling on the torch in her hand.

At that moment, a woman accidentally dropped her torch onto the boulder, and the torch caught fire on the stones next to the boulder.

Before long, the stones were heated until they turned red-hot.

Seeing this, Tang Susu's eyes suddenly lit up. She abruptly raised her head and shouted, "Uncle Village Head, I have a solution! I know how to deal with this boulder!"

In an instant, all eyes were on her, some with suspicion, some with sarcasm, and some with anticipation.

But everyone was exhausted, and no one dared to criticize her anymore; they simply watched her quietly.

The village head, like a drowning man grasping at his last piece of driftwood, urged anxiously, "Dog's mother, tell me quickly! What's the solution?"

Tang Susu took a deep breath and began to deploy her plan clearly: "Little Fish's Dad, Zhimao's Dad, you two first collect all the torches on this spot and throw them all onto this boulder until it's red-hot! Then send a few more people to fetch some water from the mountain spring!"

The men were so exhausted they could barely move, so the village women stepped forward and took on the task of carrying water.

Six or seven women walked together and soon carried several buckets of cool spring water from the mountain spring.

By this time, the boulder had been heated red-hot by the torches, and from a distance, it looked like a red-hot iron. If you threw a piece of meat on it, it would probably be cooked very quickly.

Tang Susu stepped forward, tested the temperature of the spring water with her hand, and, confirming that the water was cool enough, shouted loudly, "Everyone, listen to my command! On the count of one, two, three, we'll all simultaneously splash the water onto the boulder! After splashing, everyone quickly retreat, the farther the better!"

Everyone immediately got ready, gripping the buckets tightly.

"One—two—three! Splash!"

As Tang Susu gave the order, several buckets of water were simultaneously poured onto the red-hot boulder.

With a series of loud cracking sounds and puffs of white smoke, the once indestructible boulder, which even gods could not shake, began to show fine cracks.

Everyone was stunned, their faces filled with disbelief.

The burly men, who had been exhausted and collapsed on the ground, suddenly seemed to be injected with new energy. They got up and started gathering firewood to continue piling it onto the boulder.

The group repeatedly performed the "burning stone - sprinkling water" operation, repeating it four or five times.

The huge rock, under the repeated stimulation of hot and cold, finally succumbed to its weight and cracked into many smaller pieces, thus successfully opening up the previously stagnant ditch.

By this time, it was almost dawn, the hour of Yin (3-5 AM), and the faint sound of a rooster about to crow could be heard in the distance.

The village head took a deep breath and announced in a voice as stirring as a war drum: "Alright! Everyone go home and get a good night's sleep! Recharge yourselves! We'll all gather here again after lunch tomorrow and continue digging the rest of the canal!"

Exhausted, the strong men could no longer hold on and staggered home, dragging their weary bodies.

When they got home, they didn't even have time to take off their clothes before collapsing onto the bed and falling into a deep sleep, only waking up when the sun was high in the sky.

Meanwhile, as soon as Tang Susu returned home, she and Miao Yulan began processing the false sorrel grass they had collected the day before in the yard.

They first removed the lantern-like outer layer of the false sorrel, then put only the seeds inside into a bamboo basket.

While busy working, Miao Yulan asked with a lot of doubt, "Big sister, can these tiny seeds really be used to make something edible?"

Tang Susu glanced at the seeds in the bamboo basket, estimated that it would take about four pounds of lantern fruit to produce one pound of seeds. The thirty-odd pounds of lantern fruit collected yesterday, after processing, would probably yield only six or seven pounds of seeds.

She instructed Miao Yulan, "Go boil some water, and pour it into a basin to cool."

Then, she turned around and went back into the house, where she secretly bought a large white gauze from the system's trading platform.

After Miao Yulan cooled the boiled water, Tang Susu began to plan the steps for making the jelly in detail, explaining and demonstrating as she went: "After the water boils and cools, we put the seeds of these lantern fruits into a gauze filter bag."

"Then soak the gauze bag in cooled boiled water and gently rub it with your hands for five to ten minutes, until a viscous liquid appears in the water. This will allow the pectin in the seeds to be fully released."

"Afterwards, take out the gauze bag and filter the remaining water through a fine mesh to remove impurities. Let the filtered water stand for one or two hours, and the pectin inside will naturally coagulate into jelly."

"Finally, we'll make some brown sugar syrup. When we eat it, we'll pour the brown sugar syrup over the jelly. It's smooth, refreshing, and delicious."