The little one's purse connects the two worlds, turning a desolate village into a paradise.

(There was a small bug earlier; Fang Tiesheng and Ya Ya returned at night, not during the day. This has been corrected and will not affect the subsequent reading.)

I need to take the cat to the vet for a check-up this afternoon. I'll update the rest of the chapters when I get back tonight.

Everyone worked together to sort the hay by the light of the solar-powered clip-on lamps, and then yawned as they went back to their respective houses.

Nowadays, every household in Lotus Village lives very close together. As night falls and covers the mountains and fields, dim lights gradually illuminate the courtyards of each household. The scattered lights intertwine, like a piece of warm jade hidden in the folds of the deep mountains.

Zhao Hu followed Uncle Sun and the others to their backyard. The thin chimneys above the cave dwellings emitted wisps of gray smoke, which mingled with the smell of cooking firewood and grass in the night breeze.

He squinted; the kiln temperature was still a bit too low, and the stone hadn't been fully fired.

They dragged a few more thick pieces of firewood into the kiln, and once the smoke turned white, the temperature stabilized.

As night deepened, the mountain village fell into complete tranquility.

The next day, as dawn broke, the morning mist, carrying the chill of the mountains, spread out, and the dew dampened the grass and trees on the field ridges. The air was crisp and cool.

The village chief and Granny Li, each carrying a small basket, walked one after the other towards the vegetable plots in the village where radishes and bok choy were grown.

This patch of spring radishes, planted thirteen days ago, has now been growing for thirteen years.

Lotus Village is located in the mountains, where spring is often cold and damp, and the soil is fertile, so the radish seedlings grow slowly.

It's only just the time to thin out the seedlings.

The two bent down to take a closer look. The entire plot was full of sprouting seedlings, densely packed together. If they were not tidied up, they would compete for soil and sunlight, and sooner or later they would wither and fail to grow properly.

"The germination rate of the seeds that Nannan brought is too high. I didn't expect them to grow so densely."

Li Guixiang rolled up her sleeves. "After you've finished picking them, the little green vegetables next to them also need to be sorted out."

"Um."

The two of them specifically chose the weak seedlings with thin roots and those that were too close together and clustered together. They would gently pull the seedlings by pinching the roots with their fingertips, and the seedlings would fall into their palms and be tossed into their small baskets.

Keep the strong seedlings that grow straight and have thick stems and leaves, and spread them out about two fingers apart, so that the remaining radish seedlings can spread out and grow.

Once the radish roots start to swell, a second thinning process will be needed.

The two of them, one in front and one behind, carefully combed along the furrows, their movements gentle yet swift. After working for most of the hour, the radish seedlings were finally neatly arranged. The tender seedlings they had picked filled a small half-basket, all with delicate white roots, fresh and juicy.

I'll take it back and have Chun Tao wash it and make a simple cold dish; it'll be another refreshing side dish.

Li Guixiang stood up, rubbed her sore back, and looked down at the vegetable patch next to her.

There's also a patch of small green vegetables waiting to be tended.

"Village, Village Chief, Li..." A soft voice came from behind. Gou Ya stood awkwardly by the vegetable patch, carrying a small bucket. She got up early and usually went to the yard to weave hats. Right now, the hay was still being processed, and she was too embarrassed to go over there, so she thought she would wander around the village to see which vegetable patch was dry and needed watering.

"It's Gou Ya, don't be shy, just call me Granny Li." Li Guixiang smiled gently. "Where are you going?"

Gou Ya gripped the handle and whispered, "Let me see where the soil is dry and water it. Grandma Li, I... I know how to do this, thinning the seedlings, I can help."

As she spoke, her gaze fell on the two vegetable plots, one sparse and one dense.

The village chief was taken aback, then his eyes lit up. "Perfect timing! Come on over and lend a hand. Your Granny Li and I are getting old, and we're really worried about this!"

"Yes, child, come here. Put the bucket aside for now." Grandma Li beckoned to Gou Ya.

"In our mountains, spring is cold and the sunlight is weak, so crops grow slowly and need careful tending. This batch of rapeseed was brought back by my daughter. The seeds are particularly small, and we didn't sow them properly, so we scattered them too densely."

Look, these seedlings are all huddled together. It looks lush and vibrant, but because they're so close together, they'll only grow tall and thin, not thick. Without ventilation and sunlight, they'll easily rot in the heart.

Gou Ya listened attentively. She knew the answers, but didn't understand the principles; no one had ever explained them to her.

In the past, she could only pick up the scattered vegetable seeds that others didn't want, a little here and a little there, carefully carrying them back to plant in her little plot of land.

At first, I didn't know I needed to thin the seedlings. I just scattered the seeds and let them grow wildly. A lot of them rotted, but even the rotten ones were edible.

Later, she saw other villagers pull up the overly dense seedlings, and after watching them a few times, she tried to do it herself. Only then did she vaguely realize that being too dense was not good, and that the seedlings needed to be thinned out to grow well.

Today, after hearing Granny Li explain the reasons in detail, I finally understood completely.

The three of them moved together to the bok choy patch, which was even more crowded than the freshly tended radish seedlings.

The same low temperatures and lack of fertilizer, the same cold mountains and thin soil, each bok choy has a thin, weak stem and tender leaves huddled together in layers.

While demonstrating, Li Guixiang continued to instruct: "Radishes should be grown with the tuberous roots at the bottom. Weak seedlings must be pulled up completely, without leaving any residual roots, so as not to rot in the soil and steal nutrients and attract moisture."

"This bok choy is different. We only eat the leaves, we don't need to nourish the roots. If it's too dense and looks weak and small, we'll still pull it out by the roots."

If it's just a little crowded, you don't need to pull them all out. Just pinch off the weak leaves close to the ground, leaving the roots to breathe and recover.

The village chief was also there, helping Gouya distinguish between strong and weak seedlings: "Remember, keep the ones with dark green leaves, sturdy stems, and upright growth. Thin them out if they are yellow, thin, crooked, or crowded in the middle and can't compete for nutrients."

Gou Ya nodded obediently.

It turns out there are so many truths hidden in this seedling.

She followed the example of the village chief and Granny Li, squatting down and moving slowly and carefully to thin out the seedlings of the bok choy.

Gou Ya picked the fruit quickly and efficiently, gradually getting used to the rhythm, and her expression relaxed.

The village chief nodded secretly.

This girl is really great.

The villagers gradually got up, and scattered sounds could be heard from afar. Before they knew it, a patch of bok choy had been properly tended.

Another half basket of the pinched seedlings.

"These young shoots are different from the mature vegetable stalks; they're fresh and tender. I'll take them to the yard later and make two dishes with them, along with the tender radish shoots. One is a refreshing cold radish shoot salad, and the other is finely chopped green vegetable shoots sprinkled into the porridge—it'll taste incredibly sweet and soft."

"You should drink more; you're not fully recovered yet. This is good for your stomach."