Her Cultivation Diary
Chapter 416 - Chapter 416 416. Thief_1

Chapter 416: 416. Thief_1 Chapter 416: 416. Thief_1 Plans for next year can wait, but this year, at this very moment, Old Li stood lost amid the vast rice fields, with a similarly vacant gaze in his eyes.

“What… what has happened? Is the way they harvest rice now so clean?”

Throughout the entire rice field, he hadn’t found a single intact rice ear!

It’s not that he found nothing, there was an ear of rice hidden under the straw, and on top of it were three grains of rice–an embarrassingly scanty harvest!

In all his years of farming, he had never heard of a rice field being this clean!

Old Li wasn’t willing to give up and simply called over his old ox, flipping through the rice field while laboriously collecting the scattered grains to take another look… Finally, he simply let the old ox lead the way, slowly heading toward Song Tan’s house.

Song Tan was just getting ready to store the rice in the warehouse when she saw Old Li coming over with the big ox. She couldn’t help but be a little surprised:

“Grandpa Li, what brings you over here?”

“And this straw, making our Dahuang work so hard? Why don’t you come back with the tricycle to haul it?”

“What’s so hard about it,” said Old Li, nonchalantly: He had piled the straw to one side at the time of threshing, which wasn’t too difficult; it was just that the heat inevitably caused him to sweat profusely.

Besides, he didn’t just come over to deliver straw:

“Tantan, give me a couple bundles of this straw. I’ll soak them in brine later to feed this old fellow.”

“Sure!” Straws were nothing, Song Tan was extra generous: “Take as much as you’d like.”

Old Li started to laugh: “Well, I can’t do that. It’s not very nutritious, but he seems to really like it, so it’ll just be a little snack to whet his appetite.”

Then he got to the main point:

“Tantan, aren’t you planning to plant another crop of rice? Have you started breeding the seedlings?”

“I’m on it!”

Their area would have snow in winter, so there was a bit of a rush to plant two crops of rice; they needed to time it just right.

After a pause, Old Li suggested, “How about I burn the rice stubble in the fields when I’ve got some free time?”

During the harvest, part of the rice was left with its roots in the ground, which locals called rice stubble.

It might not look like much, but the old farmers with years of experience knew that if you just brushed aside the base of the straw, it would be teeming with eggs from pests.

Song Tan hadn’t seen it for herself, but she guessed the situation was roughly the same.

Song Tan was taken aback: “Are you in such a rush? You’re going to leave the rice ears in the field?”

She remembered how eagerly Grandpa Li had been looking forward to the harvest!

“What rice ears!”

Old Li was fuming: “After all that turning over, I only found three grains. When has our village’s rice harvest ever been this clean!”

Song Tan: …

Then, when she looked up, she saw that in Song Tan’s yard where the rice was drying, a strangely-shaped, large fishing net was erected, enclosing the rice from all sides–

“This…” He was a bit surprised too: “You’ve even fortified your own yard so securely, afraid of thieves?”

He joked.

No sooner had his words fallen than the flock of birds surrounding them started to frantically hop and chirp again…

Clever guy!

Old Li then realized: “That’s why the field looked so clean; it must have been the birds who got a taste last night! If I had known, I would have picked up some grains myself yesterday.”

Song Tan also felt helpless– who could have expected that?

It was just a few stray rice ears; if they couldn’t find them, they couldn’t find them, and besides, her family had promised that Grandpa Li wouldn’t miss out on his share.

The matter of burning the stubble in the fields, though…

“Don’t rush to burn it, Grandpa Li. The village is now against air pollution–they say there’s satellite monitoring. I’ll have to ask for details later.”

“What air pollution?”

Old Li was dismissive: “Nonsense! Without burning the straw, how many eggs will be hiding in it? If they hatch later in the year, what rice can we grow then? Next year, you’ll have to battle with pesticides in these fields!”

Old Li was direct with his words, but there really wasn’t a problem with what he said.

The base of the straw does accumulate many insect eggs, and if not burned, the quantity of pests for the following season or the next batch of plants will likely surge after plowing and digging.

Furthermore, some regions implement policies to chop up straw and return it to the field to enrich the soil, but firstly, chopping also requires costs. Secondly, incomplete chopping can adversely affect the soil quality, further increasing costs.

Nowadays, how much can you earn from planting an acre of grain? A few hundred yuan?

Because of this, who knows how much income will be lost? This is also part of the reason why more and more people are abandoning their farmland…

In any case, these were all things Secretary Xiaozu had rambled on about.

Old Li was indeed describing the current situation, but Secretary Xiaozu was an exceptionally qualified village official, and had advised early on:

“We need to file a report. There’s a new policy stating that after reporting, we can burn the straw in the fields.”

“That’s more like it!”

Old Li, who had just been mumbling and grumbling, swiftly changed his tune: “I knew the government couldn’t screw us over–I’m not burning all the straw, just the short stubble in the fields. What major air pollution, no major air pollution.”

“The weather will be good these next few days. If you trust me, I’ll take the chance and burn it.”

What was there to trust or not trust?

Song Tan couldn’t help but smile wryly:

“Alright, I’ll mention it to Secretary Xiaozu. We can arrange it ourselves here.”

After burning the straw, they would have to wait a few days, then plow, fine till… irrigate…

Once everything was processed, her new seedlings should also be almost ready; by then, it would be time for the second batch of rice.

However, Old Li had aged after all, and his old ox wasn’t young either. The group decided to simply follow along and collect all the straw themselves, piling them into stacks, and then went to lend a hand in the rice fields as well.

As for the rice grains, it was now evening, and they had dried out quite well. They could husk them tomorrow.

…

However, the next day, when Wu Lan opened the warehouse door, she was shocked to find that a hole had been torn in the sack!

Rice grains were scattered everywhere.

Although it seemed that not much rice was missing overall, the act itself was infuriating!

Upon closer inspection, a hole had somehow been made in the gauze window–

“Do we have rats?!”

She cried out angrily.

“Impossible.”

Song Tan would not accept it.

She had checked for rats the first day she moved in–the house had just been built, and the rats hadn’t had the chance to come over yet. How could they have appeared so quickly?

The thief wasn’t careful, and even if she didn’t employ any methods, following the trail of Spiritual Energy would lead straight to the back mountain.

Such a small hole in the gauze could definitely not have been made by the chickens they raised, nor by birds… Birds wouldn’t leave so many traces along the ground the entire way.

There was only one possibility…

Song Tan looked up, eyeing those little creatures poking their heads out from the trees in the back mountain.

“Well done!”

Song Sancheng, who came along, was also outraged: “What kind of thing is acting like a thief? Turns out, it’s these squirrels!”

“I’ve always thought they were useless. Not nice to look at and not good to eat. And now, they’re even ruining our grain!”

“Your mother and I just took it to hull the rice, and we’re missing a whole pound and two ounces!”

Good lord!

Song Tan also looked up at the treetops: These creatures sure had big appetites!

If they didn’t teach them a lesson now and they became habitual offenders, who knows what trouble they’d cause in the future!