However, Mr. Zhao's family hadn't bought any oxen, and things like firewood and hay were all stored in the backyard. Consequently, the west wing alone had three rooms.
One room was used to store miscellaneous items, another housed the young grandsons, and the third was kept ready for married daughters to stay in when they returned home for a visit.
While the front courtyard had a spacious layout, the backyard seemed more compact. It contained an outhouse, a woodshed, a chicken coop and duck pen, two fruit trees, and a vegetable patch.
The cucumber, string bean, and eggplant plants had been cleared from the vegetable patch, and now seeds for cabbage, cilantro, and spinach had been sown, covered by a thick layer of straw.
Come next spring, these vegetables would shoot up like mushrooms after a rain.
These vegetables weren't for the family's own consumption but were intended to be sold to the restaurants and wealthy households in the county town.
