Make a Fortune and Become Well-off [90] - Chapter 203

Mother Jiang, who grew up in the mountains, was always scared of crossing the bamboo bridge at the ferry, needing Father Jiang to hold her hand to carefully cross.

Grandpa Jiang, however, was used to walking across such simple bamboo bridges. He leisurely crossed it with his hands behind his back, even though the bridge was covered in snow. Watching him made Jiang Ning nervous, afraid he might slip and fall into the river.

Although the river wasn’t deep this season, falling into it could still leave one freezing.

Jiang Ning wanted to help Grandpa Jiang, but he found her a nuisance. The bamboo bridge only allowed people to pass one at a time, so they couldn’t walk side by side. Jiang Ning stretched out her hand behind him, keeping it out until Grandpa Jiang safely crossed the bridge, finally relaxing once he was across.

Grandpa Jiang remarked, “You’re such a worrywart. I don’t know who you take after.”

Grandpa Jiang was quite carefree, as were Father Jiang and Jiang Song. Only Jiang Bai and Jiang Ning seemed to take after their mother.

In reality, Jiang Ning was also once carefree, but her job later in life forced her to be meticulous and responsible. Years of this “occupational disease” had made such habits ingrained.

If she wasn’t so broad-minded and instead prone to overthinking like Jiang Bai, she might not have made it this far. She could have jumped off a building to end it all.

But she had always loved life, loved the world, and loved all the beauty of this world.

In response to Grandpa Jiang’s comment, she simply smiled and waited for the people on the other side of the river to cross.

Jiang Bai couldn’t take the cart across the bridge, so he asked the man collecting fees at the ferry if he could borrow his boat.

The boat was docked not far from the bamboo bridge, and the ferryman sat at the ferry, collecting money one by one. During the New Year, even the ferry fare had gone up by a dime.

The ferryman waved, saying, “Go ahead and use it, just row it back when you’re done.” Then he asked Jiang Bai, “Can you row?”

People from this area could mostly row, except for three— Jiang Ning, Jiang Qin (who played the piano), and Jiang Hehua — who never had the chance to learn since they were always studying and had their older brother around.

When Jiang Ning was little, tasks like rowing boats were never assigned to her.

Jiang Song, full of energy, would take Jiang Bai, Jiang Ning, and his gang of friends to the riverbank in the summer to pick lotus seeds, water caltrops, and gorgon nuts. Whether it was a basket of water caltrops or a small boat, he’d carry it on his head and run faster than a rabbit, leaving Jiang Bai and Jiang Ning trailing behind. When they finally reached the river, Jiang Song would dive into the water, setting nets to catch fish and swimming back and forth.

If their eldest brother wasn’t on the boat, the second brother would take over rowing and picking lotus seeds.

Jiang Ning and Jiang Bai were always quiet, watching Jiang Song splash around, left and right, as he claimed, “I can swim two laps of this river without even getting tired!”

Later, when he went to Hangzhou to visit friends, he’d jump into the Qiantang River with them and swim back and forth for fun.

Sometimes Jiang Ning thought that if Jiang Song had become an athlete, it might have been more useful than his ventures into business.

Jiang Bai loaded the cart and bags of grain onto the small boat, rowed to the other side of the river, unloaded everything, tied it back onto the cart, then rowed back to the ferry dock, tied the boat properly, and crossed the bamboo bridge on foot.

Once on the other side, climbing the river embankment was another hassle.

To prevent floods, the embankment was built very high. On sunny days it was fine, but with the current snow, the path up the embankment was extremely slippery.

Jiang Ning and Jiang Bai each held one of Grandpa Jiang’s arms, one pulling from the front and the other supporting from behind. They even had to free a hand to grab onto the wild mugwort growing on the embankment, using its leverage to finally help Grandpa Jiang up to the top.

Grandpa Jiang actually felt he didn’t need his grandchildren’s help. He could have just pulled himself up using the mugwort. He felt both sweet and troubled by their overprotective concern.

Sighing, he had only just left the village and was already missing his old buddies.

Without chatting with the old folks in the village, he had a sense of loneliness akin to snow falling.

He raised his head and gazed across the river toward Jiangjia Village, now far in the distance.

Jiang Ning and Jiang Bai went back down, one pulling the cart and the other pushing it, struggling to push the cart and grain bags up the embankment. By the time they got everything up, they were both exhausted and sweating.

Jiang Ning couldn’t help but glance back at the road home.

In fact, the agricultural resources in her hometown were incredibly rich. Behind the village lay an unbroken chain of mountains, and the highest peak was densely planted with tea. Wild persimmons, chestnuts, mulberries, goji berries, and kudzu roots were so abundant that persimmons hanging on the trees in front of every house rotted without anyone bothering to pick them.

Grandpa Jiang even fed persimmons and watermelons to the pigs.

During the years when Jiang Bai was learning a trade and Jiang Ning was studying at university, the Jiang family’s life had improved considerably. Father Jiang and Mother Jiang worked hard outside to build their house, leaving Grandpa Jiang as the only one at home.

Worried about Grandpa Jiang, Jiang Ning got him a local dog to keep him company while patrolling the mountains. Grandpa Jiang usually didn’t care much about cooking, often just making do with a quick meal. But after getting the dog, he had to cook for it, which meant he also ate better himself. Every time they talked on the phone, he would grumble to Jiang Ning about having to cook for the dog, but it always seemed to make his own life a bit more lively as well.

Jiang Ning didn’t like going back to her hometown, so Grandpa Jiang planted many watermelons, hoping his grandchildren could enjoy them.

With nobody left in the village, the watermelons couldn’t be sold. They were all transported by boat to Jiang Ning’s aunt’s place, where she would try to sell them. Anyone in the village who was hungry or thirsty could freely pick watermelons from the foot of the mountain.

However, other villagers didn’t care much for Grandpa Jiang’s watermelons, because they were facing the same issue—there was just too much produce. What they couldn’t sell or eat, they would feed to the pigs.

Tomatoes that couldn’t be eaten? Fed to pigs.

Watermelons? Fed to pigs.

Persimmons? Fed to pigs.

Cabbage? Fed to pigs.