Chapter 4: The Tao Family Background in Donghua Town

Tao Zui, the eldest brother of Xiao Jiu, would lead the sheep to graze in the grass near the town every day after school so that his sweet and tender little sister could drink the freshest goat milk. Although the grass was just sprouting at this time, he would also try to scrape the leftover hay from previous years under the sheep's mouth and take some home with him.

During the day, he had to go to school. The second brother, Tao Ran, and the third brother, Tao Qing, also had to go to school. Even the youngest brother, Tao An, was sent to a nursery. His grandmother was busy taking care of her younger sister, so he had to help prepare more food. Otherwise, he would have to feed her, which would be such a waste!

Although his family was in the brewing business and had plenty of grain, Tao Zui knew from a young age that it wasn't easy for adults to earn money. They worked from dawn till dusk and suffered from aches and pains all over their bodies. His grandfather had chronic back pain. If it weren't for the need to protect their century-old brand, they wouldn't have worked so hard.

It could be said that the four boys in their family grew up in a wine cellar.

Throughout her postpartum period, Xiaojiu fell asleep while smelling the aroma of alcohol.

Although the Tao family's shop has been open for over a hundred years, it has never expanded and has always remained the same small tavern.

For this reason, our ancestors saved up 500 mu of land specifically for growing grain and brewing wine. However, in an era when the yield per mu was extremely low, the yield of these 500 mu would be insufficient for brewing wine if there were natural disasters or reduced production. After all, with so much land, you would have to hire farmers to grow it, right?

The elders of the Tao family were kind and honest, taking only 30% of the profits. As for the taxes on the land, they paid those themselves, which was less than the amount of grain they later handed over to the imperial court!

They harvest two crops a year here. Wheat is planted from October to June of the following year, and corn is planted from June to October. They only collect rent for the wheat crop, which averages one shi per mu, or half of the yield per mu. The farmers keep all the corn from the other crop, which is about 30% of the total yield. They are definitely honest people.

Five hundred acres of land would have been enough to make someone a small landlord before the founding of the People's Republic of China, but when Tao Tao heard this information during their conversation, she felt a headache coming on.

Even though the Tao family had already handed over their land before the founding of the People's Republic of China, their status was still different from that of poor peasants!

Now, the Tao family only has ten acres of land left to cultivate for the whole family, which is their means of survival in the future.

Fortunately, the Tao family hadn't done anything immoral before. After all, their main business was brewing wine, while farming was a sideline. So, they managed their people very loosely. Basically, it was a matter of you do the work, and I'll provide the grain. They only took 30% of the profits and collected the taxes, while the remaining 70% was distributed to the farmers. So, after handing over the land, they didn't suffer any real persecution or grievances.

The Tao family used to have stewards and servants, but they were all dismissed later. Compared to brewing wine, farming is much more difficult, especially for the Tao family members who had never experienced such hardship!

During the busy farming season, they close their shop and go to the fields to work.

The ten acres of land that were left were all around the town. The government was quite generous, allocating them with good and easy-to-cultivate land.

Therefore, the Tao family now owns not only a shop but also land, and the courtyard house left by their ancestors has destined Tao Tao to be extraordinary from the moment she moved into this home.

Grandpa Tao had three sons and two daughters. His daughters married far away, and both of them were soldiers.

Both of his sons died on the battlefield, leaving no descendants. Now, the one who stays by the old man's side, doing his best to run a business and farm, is his youngest son.

It was precisely because the Tao family had produced two martyrs that the government gave them preferential treatment in the land classification issue, exempting them from some of the labels imposed on them.

Of course, this was also thanks to the help of my two sons-in-law; otherwise, I'm afraid I would have suffered a great loss in the future.

This is where Tao Tao breathed a sigh of relief at the end.

Even though they lost their land, they weren't labeled as criminals. After the public-private partnership was established, their lives wouldn't be too difficult. After all, they still had ten mu of land. Even if a production team was formed in a few years, as long as they obediently followed the instructions, the whole family would be together, which was better than anything else.

Of course, there was only one reason why Tao Tao was so confident: she herself did not expect that with this time travel, she would even bring her family's business with her.

Although she can see her family's property, because she is an infant, she doesn't know how to go inside or whether her access will be restricted. She can only wait until she is a little older to observe the warehouse that appears in her consciousness.

Ning Meng's family has a warehouse of about 2,000 square meters, with a small cold storage inside. This is their main logistics center, where they receive goods such as boxes and containers and then distribute them to the various shops below.

A basketball court is about 420 square meters, 2,000 square meters is equivalent to a 500-square-meter ice storage, and 1,500 square meters is equivalent to three and a half basketball courts, which shows how big it is.

Her family mainly wholesales fresh produce. The cold storage is full of seafood and meat. The outer warehouse is not a cold storage, but it is still very cold, like the freshness compartment of a refrigerator. Fruits, vegetables, grains and some dried goods are piled up there.

Although it's not as convenient as a supermarket with all kinds of daily necessities, having such a cheat code in this day and age would be incredibly lucky!

It's a pity that she's just a baby now and doesn't need anything, and the Tao family is well-off, so she won't go hungry.

The years of severe famine have passed, and now the weather is favorable, the country is prosperous and the people are at peace, so we can live in peace for a few more years.

Baby bottles existed in those days. They were pigeon-shaped glass bottles with rubber nipples at both ends, chubby in the middle and narrow at both ends.

Grandma poured the warm goat milk into her mouth and then held her to feed her. She didn't like goat milk because it had a strong, fishy smell, but she had no other choice.

One dose lasts for about three to four hours.

The old lady was very clean. Whenever she wet her diaper, she would change it. She didn't like to drag the diaper around, so she would take a basin and wash it right away.

If it's a rag, after rubbing off the dirt, you also need to vigorously rub, wash, and soak it with soap pods. The soaking water is wood ash water, which is equivalent to using multiple methods at once, making it very difficult to not get it clean.

The old lady was very thoughtful. Of course, mainly because she was also well-behaved and had the awareness of an adult. If she was hungry or needed to poop, she would cry a couple of times to give a signal, and people would know.

The rest of the time she would just zone out or go to sleep.

Newborn babies in their postpartum period have very little energy and sleep for at least 20 hours a day, which is a good time for them to conserve their energy.

Xiao Jiu is very popular. Whether it's her grandparents, parents, or brothers, they all speak softly to her. Perhaps it's because she's soft and cute?

Unbeknownst to her, at this time she not only had thinning hair, looked like a withered string bean, and was as thin as a skeleton, but her skin was also dark. In an era with little nutrition, it was no wonder she was not good-looking. Unfortunately, her family's kindness gave her the illusion that she was being treated well because she was incredibly cute, when in fact it was because she had met a truly kind family.