The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 118 - 107: Planting Ginger

Chapter 118: Chapter 107: Planting Ginger

Manbao patted her small pocket and heaved a sigh of sorrow, "All my money is gone now," she announced solemnly to her family, upon returning home and giving the fabrics and cotton to her mother, "from now on, you’ll have to pay for the meat!"

Old Zhou glanced at the fabrics and cotton in his wife’s hands, and as he fondled his smoking pipe, he thought, at least all the money had been spent.

He nodded his agreement, but then turned to his sons and said, "From now on, when you go out to sell soup, save a jar for your sister to eat when you warm it up at night."

Everyone agreed it was no problem, and Zhou Erlang even offered, "We can also bring back bones with some meat on them for Manbao to gnaw on."

With that, the issue of meat was settled.

In this era, information spread slowly. Apart from Laoding and his family, who returned home every ten days and knew about the Zhou family’s business, it was rare for anyone else to find out.

Since the news did not travel far, there were no competitors for the first forty days and their income stabilized.

When Laoding returned home for the first time to get more provisions, most of them didn’t bring their own provisions anymore but came bearing rice or wheat, directly exchanging it for hot, fresh provisions from the Zhou brothers, along with a bowl of meat soup – even without vegetables, this was enough to fill their stomachs.

It wasn’t that no one thought about entering the business too, particularly some Laoding with many brothers at home, but wanting to do it and being able to do it were two different things.

Many approached the meat stand, but upon hearing the prices, they shrank back.

Eventually, as word of mouth spread from one village to another, bold and shrewd people learned that following the Laoding and cooking could actually be profitable.

Soon, people started appearing behind various Laoding groups with hand-pushed carts, naturally including the two sections the Zhou brothers frequently worked with.

These newcomers didn’t make as much of a stir as the Zhou brothers; they mostly kept cooked steamed buns warm in baskets and hurriedly brought them over, knowing their opportunity to sell was brief. They even intentionally lowered their prices a bit, or made their buns slightly bigger than the Zhou’s.

As a result, the Zhou family’s business dwindled.

Zhou Erlang, although regretful, said, "We’ve been lucky to earn as much as we have for so many days."

Zhou Wulang, with ambitions grown larger, asked, "Are we still going? A day’s earnings have fallen to merely two hundred wen, and it’s impossible to sell vegetables now. Even the demand for steamed buns and pancakes has declined, although we can still sell soup continuously."

"Go? Of course we go. Even if we can only sell soup, we can make over a hundred wen a day," Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang, far from turning up their noses like their younger brothers, even reminded them, "In the dead of winter, it’s either curl up at home or go out to make some money. Four, you still owe a debt to the family. Five and Sixth, haven’t you both been nagging about wanting new clothes? Go out for just one day and each of you can easily pocket thirty wen. Save for a few days, and you’ll have enough to afford a new set of clothes."

Zhou Wulang looked down at his toes, dejected and unwilling.

Old Zhou grew angry at this, thumping the stool and commanded, "Such laziness! If you don’t want to go, then come home and till the land!"

In the middle of winter, who would till the soil?

Manbao, who was gnawing on a bone as usual with her nieces and nephews, overheard the conversation, clapped her hands eagerly, and said, "Great, come back and help me reclaim land, brothers. I don’t think Four’s wasteland is big enough for what I plan to plant. We should extend it a bit further from that parcel."

She continued, "Fifth Brother must think there are too many people going now and not enough money being made, so you should take turns. Today, Third Sister-in-law and Four will go, with Five and Sixth staying home to help me reclaim land. Tomorrow, Five and Sixth can go, and Four stays home to work. Isn’t that better?"

The brothers saw their father consider the proposal and nod in agreement, "Manbao’s right. It’s a waste for so many of you to go just to sell soup. Just two should go, while the others stay home to work.

He looked to Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang and continued, "You two take turns as well. There’s no need for four of you to go at once; there’s plenty of work at home to be done. We need a shelf in the kitchen and the chicken coop needs repairing..."

Though Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang were adults, they too weren’t keen on staying home to work. They dropped their shoulders in disappointment but didn’t dare to voice it, fearing their children would follow their example.

Old Zhou became more convinced of this rotational method. The income of the day, minus the contribution to the family pot, would be divided between just two people.

The communal pot didn’t decrease, and on top of that, four extra hands were available daily for household tasks – no problems there.

Zhou Wulang couldn’t help complaining to Manbao, "What exactly do you want to plant? Four’s plot isn’t small, you don’t need such a big area just for yams, do you?"

"There’s also ginger."

Zhou Wulang said, "It’s so expensive, it’s not even certain it will grow successfully. You really set your sights too high."

Manbao snorted confidently, "I can definitely make it work."

To this end, Manbao took some ginger pieces to consult Bai Shanbao. They flipped through many books but found no planting instructions for ginger in the limited agricultural texts available. After reading so many books until her eyes were nearly crossing, Manbao exclaimed in frustration, "It’s outrageous that such an important plant as ginger isn’t explained. Hmph, if they won’t write it, then I will."

Saying so, she pulled out a pile of white paper from the system, folded and cut them before handing them over to her elder sister-in-law to sew together. Then she took up a brush and awkwardly scrawled "Ginger" on the front page.

She was determined to do the writing herself. Keke had said as long as one observes carefully and keeps a detailed planting diary, it’s possible to document the method of ginger cultivation – and after all, there were basic methods listed in Keke’s entries.

The customer service in the shopping system would also respond to her cultivation questions, but she didn’t understand the terms like ’nutrient solutions’ or ’fertilizers.’ Keke had also mentioned that those were not available here, so they would have to figure out the cultivation techniques on their own.

Manbao and Bai Shanbao were both poor kids with a zeal for earning money. Hence, Bai Shanbao willingly cleared out his entire garden to bury small pieces of ginger.

Ms. Zheng, who occasionally visited to see her son, was somewhat conflicted when she saw the kids earnestly tugging at their behinds in the garden. The flowers weren’t particularly rare, but it wasn’t easy to plant them, so why dig them up?

The two children were covered in mud after their labor, and Manbao, after removing the plants, carefully knocked off the soil from their roots and placed them lightly on the ground, seriously telling Bai Shanbao, "It’s too cold; we need to insulate them. Rice and wheat straw would be best. I’ll bring you some tomorrow."

Bai Shanbao nodded earnestly and dutifully watered the plants. At night, before bed, he thought about the ginger in the yard and got up to water them once more.

With the approach of the Spring Festival, the weather began to warm up slightly. The ginger pieces planted by Manbao in the vegetable garden unexpectedly sprouted, filling her with delight. That very day she ran to the Bai family to ask Bai Shanbao if his ginger had sprouted yet.

The two kids squatted in the garden for half a day without seeing any sprouts. Eventually, they couldn’t hold back and dug up the soil, only to find the once-plump ginger pieces had turned dark and mushy. Upon poking them, they collapsed, clearly rotted away.

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