The Farm Girl’s Charismatic Fortune
Chapter 140 - 137: Can You Afford the Compensation?

Chapter 140: Chapter 137: Can You Afford the Compensation?

No one understood these rice seedlings better than Xuanbao, she even taught everyone how to recognize which rice seedlings would be high-yielders and which ones were particularly unproductive.

If there were too many unproductive rice seedlings, planting them would directly affect the entire acre’s harvest.

The Ruo Family also hired quite a few village women and elders to help with pulling up the seedlings, and they were stunned by Ruo Xuan’s articulate explanations!

One by one, as they listened, they stopped pulling the seedlings and came over to listen.

"Xuanbao, are you serious, that seedlings like this won’t be high-yielding?"

"Xuanbao, does this kind of seedling have a high chance of being productive?"

"Xuanbao, teach me how to differentiate, how come I look at these seedlings and see no difference other than their size, thickness, and height?"

"That’s right! How to differentiate? I can’t understand, Xuanbao, please explain again."

...

There was no way around it, who wouldn’t want only high-yielding seedlings planted in their fields?

After all, the number of acres is limited, fixed, and cannot be changed, so people could only try their best to figure out how to increase the yield of their crops.

However, everyone was just a commoner when it came to sight, after listening for a long time they still didn’t understand, or they only half-understood – in any case, they were all in a state of muddled ignorance.

Ruo Xuan just taught them how to recognize the particularly low-yielding seedlings, and everyone wished they could embed the image of those seedlings into their minds.

Some people, even fearing they couldn’t remember, took them home to look at them several more times and study them.

Seeing this, others also asked Ruo Xuan to give them any low-yielding seedlings she pulled up so they could take them home to research as well.

After all, as long as the ones being planted weren’t low-yielding, then the rest must be high-yielding.

That’s what everyone thought.

After Ruo Xuan finished teaching everyone, Master Han praised her, "Indeed, every profession has its profound knowledge. Xuanbao knows so much, I truly feel inferior."

Master Han even considered following the Empress Dowager’s example and finding a manor to farm, to increase his agricultural experience and avoid having his writings scorned by those well-versed in farming when they spread.

The Xuanyuan old lady laughed, "Xuanbao is the smartest little girl I have ever seen. Her knowledge of farming, many old farmers can’t match it. She even knows how to graft directly onto fruit trees and has successfully cultivated fruit seedlings. Those seedlings I heard the farm manager say have really taken root. Everyone who saw them was thrilled."

Master Han listened and was very astonished, "Is that possible?"

He had thought that fruit trees were all grown from seeds until they were large, with the exception of grapes and other vines that climb walls.

"The farm manager was skeptical at first too; I also found it doubtful. Unexpectedly, it was successful. And what’s more impressive, the farm manager said the fruit trees she picked for cultivating the seedlings were all high-yielding, and the fruits they bore were both sweet and large. The farm manager hadn’t even had the chance to tell her which trees were good, yet she had already picked out all the best seedlings herself!"

Everyone was even more amazed now.

The villagers kept asking what was the deal with cultivating those fruit tree seedlings, how to tell if a fruit tree’s fruit was good or not, big or not, sweet or not.

Farmers loved to talk about these things the most.

Princess Kangyi stood at a not too close, not too far distance, watching Ruo Xuan, who was the center of attention, and couldn’t help but mutter softly, "What’s so great about her, she’s just a farmer."

Her nanny stood by her side, also showing disdain, and said softly, "The Commandery Princess is right. What’s so great about farming? If she’s so capable, let her cultivate a Commandery Princess or a high-ranking noble! If it weren’t for catching the Ninth Prince’s eye, how could she have had the chance to sit equally with the Commandery Princess and learn from Master Han? It’s truly beneath the Commandery Princess to be studying with such low-status commoners."

Princess Kangyi agreed wholeheartedly, she too felt it was an extreme indignity.

Princess Kangyi looked down at her embroidered shoes covered in mud and felt uncomfortable all over!

It was filthy. She was a Commandery Princess, how could she engage in such menial labor?

She initially didn’t want to come, if it weren’t for her great-aunt glaring at her and scolding her, she wouldn’t have come!

Ruo Xuan: "I can teach everyone the method to cultivate fruit tree seedlings, and even how to turn a low-yielding but tasty fruit tree into a high-yield one. As for how to discern whether a fruit tree’s fruit is tasty or whether it’s high-yielding, that’s quite difficult, so I won’t talk about it."

A tiny rice seedling was so hard to explain that no one could understand her after half a day of talking, it was such a waste of breath!

She gestured for everyone to hurry up and pull out the seedlings, otherwise, there wouldn’t be enough to send to the fields for the day laborers to plant.

So, everyone went back to their respective areas to pull up seedlings.

A village woman accidentally stepped on Princess Kangyi’s foot when she returned to her assigned section of the seedbed.

Princess Kangyi’s wet nurse pushed the woman away with one hand, "Are you blind? You’ve stepped on my young lady’s foot, can you afford to compensate for that?"

The woman looked down and saw that Princess Kangyi was actually wearing embroidered shoes in the field, and they were obviously expensive; she turned pale with fright and quickly said, "I’m sorry, I didn’t do it on purpose!"

Ruo Xuan was angry and pushed the wet nurse, "You’re stepping on our seedbed and harming our seedlings, can you afford that?"

Wet nurse: "...Can these seedlings be compared with my young lady’s embroidered shoes? My young lady’s embroidered shoes are worth more than your entire acre of field!"

Xuanyuan Que coldly glanced at her, "Slap your face!"

The wet nurse turned pale and immediately slapped herself hard twice; her cheeks promptly showed the imprint of two fingers, "My young master, please forgive this servant, I know I’m at fault!"

The Xuanyuan matriarch heard the commotion and turned around to look, she felt that Princess Kangyi needed a lesson, not seeing the common people in her eyes at all, how could this continue?

She scolded, "You stand there in your embroidered shoes, blocking others from working and still think you’re right? Take off your shoes this instant and get to work in the field!"

She had already taken off her shoes and socks and was wearing plain cotton clothes and pants, barefoot and pulling seedlings in the field.

The other villagers, having seen this, secretly cursed these wealthy families’ children for looking for trouble.

Fortunately, the old lady was reasonable.

Princess Kangyi didn’t dare to disobey the Empress Dowager. With her wet nurse’s assistance, she removed her shoes and socks, red-eyed, squatted down, grabbed a handful of seedlings, and with too much force accidentally snapped two or three of them.

Ruo Xuan’s tender heart ached for a moment, and she glared at Princess Kangyi, "Be careful, we barely have enough seedlings as it is."

Princess Kangyi glared back, "I’m helping you pull seedlings, you should be thanking me; no good deed goes unpunished!"

Ruo Xuan: "I don’t need your help. If you’re going to do it like that, then don’t help at all."

The Xuanyuan matriarch, seeing her wreck havoc on the seedlings, was immediately so furious she could breathe fire, "Forget it, you don’t have to pull any more! Go back! Go back to your parents, I can’t teach you!!"

The Xuanyuan matriarch decided then and there that she would send Princess Kangyi back to the capital first thing the next morning!

This was too upsetting!

The wet nurse, frightened, said in a hurry, "My Lady, the young miss knows she’s wrong, she just didn’t control her strength properly just now. She will certainly do better pulling up the seedlings next, she won’t break a single one!"

"Right, young lady?" The wet nurse nudged Princess Kangyi, signaling her to quickly admit her mistake to the Empress Dowager and promise not to offend again.

Princess Kangyi couldn’t help crying when she was scolded again by her aunt for the sake of this lowly peasant girl, but she still said, "Aunt, I’ll be careful next time, I absolutely won’t break the seedlings."

The Empress Dowager saw her tears and felt conflicted but said, "I’ll give you one more chance, if you break another seedling, you don’t have to pull anymore!"

The wet nurse signaled Princess Kangyi to quickly express her gratitude, then pulled her down to squat and taught her how to pull seedlings.

After watching the drama for a while, everyone ignored her.

No one knew how long it had been when suddenly Princess Kangyi let out a shrill scream and started crying, "Aah! Something’s biting me, wuuu... something’s biting me! Help, help!"

The wet nurse looked over and saw a black leech attached to the little princess’s foot.

She was so scared that she quickly reached out and pulled off the leech.

A hole had been sucked into the little princess’s instep and was bleeding; her eyes rolled back, and she fainted right then and there.