The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 142 - 131: Suffering from Inequity

Chapter 142: Chapter 131: Suffering from Inequity

Manbao didn’t understand these matters and was quite envious that Silang could live outside, so at this moment, she squatted in front of Zhou Silang’s straw shed, not too keen to go home.

Zhou Xi and Four with the three younger brothers had cleaned up the straw, turned around to take Manbao home, but she ran into the shed, squatted on the ground, and looked up saying, "Big sister, can I stay here with Silang for the night?"

Zhou Xi: ...

Zhou Silang immediately said, "Sure, you can sleep next to me, and you’ll help me deal with some of the mosquitoes."

Zhou Xi stepped forward, pulling her to go home, "Don’t even talk about staying overnight here, as soon as it gets dark, you’ll start crying. There are so many mosquitoes outside."

They had already had their dinner, having come to weed while it was cool at sunset, so Zhou Silang didn’t need to go home—he just stood by the shed and waved to Manbao, "Younger sister, don’t go back, stay and feed the mosquitoes with Silang."

Manbao also reached out her hand to Zhou Silang, trying hard to break free from Zhou Xi’s grip, "Big sister, big sister, let me go. I want to stay here with Silang..."

Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang, finding it hilarious, each grabbed one of her arms and carried her towards the house, saying as they lifted her, "Are you crazy? Don’t sleep when it gets dark. Just squat in the courtyard of the house, and if you can handle the mosquitoes, then you can come and stay with Silang."

"Your flesh is tender; the mosquitoes like you the best. If you stay, Silang will be laughing himself awake at night."

Manbao finally stopped struggling and asked, "If there are so many mosquitoes, why does Silang live out here?"

"We need to watch the ginger. Nobody steals the yams, but our ginger has been dug up several times. Each piece is at least two or three taels. These people have such dark hearts."

It was the first time Manbao had heard that people would steal ginger, which seemed foolish to her, "If they want ginger, they could just buy it from our family. Why would they steal it?"

Zhou Wulang teased her, "Why spend money if you can steal it?"

Manbao’s eyes widened, "Isn’t buying things the way it should be? I’ve never heard that stealing is the way it should be."

Zhou Wulang was at a loss for words, but these things were hard to explain, so he decided to drop the subject.

Manbao, clearly interested in the topic, went to ask Mr. Zhuang for his opinion.

As it happened, Bai Shanbao was also there, so Mr. Zhuang asked him, "Why do you think the villagers would steal ginger?"

"Because they also want to plant ginger," said Bai Shanbao. "I had never planted ginger before and didn’t realize how easy it was to grow. In my garden, Grandmother said she would buy all the ginger without selling it to anyone else, forty wen per catty."

Mr. Zhuang stroked his beard and smiled, "Not bad. Before, nobody in the village grew ginger, and everyone was the same, having to buy it from the grocer during festivals, so nothing felt out of place. But now, someone is growing it, and a lot of it. It’s not scarcity that’s the problem, but inequality. Think about it, if you were the parent official and your subjects were like this, what would you do?"

Bai Shanbao and Manbao exchanged looks and said, "Stealing is a crime, isn’t it? They should be punished."

Mr. Zhuang nodded with a smile, encouraging them to continue.

The two children let loose and began chattering non-stop. Naturally, they spoke about the current situation, where everyone knew each other in the village. Suddenly taking people in wouldn’t be good, so ideally, they would do some public education beforehand, letting everyone know that stealing is wrong—it’s not just against morals but also against the law.

Finally, Manbao said, "Since they also want to plant ginger, we could just give them a piece to plant, right? I can even teach them how to do it. If they do like Shanbao and overwater it, they’ll end up killing it."

Bai Shanbao turned his head and glared at her, "My ginger is growing even better than yours now."

Manbao replied, "Because I helped you."

Mr. Zhuang coughed lightly to draw the children’s attention and then asked Manbao, "Does that mean you’ll give things away to others whenever there’s inequality?"

"Of course not," Manbao said. "I’ll share if I want to, and if I don’t, I won’t."

Mr. Zhuang: ...Although it was a childish answer, he understood. Mr. Zhuang breathed a sigh of relief; he knew his disciple wasn’t that naive.

Mr. Zhuang then waved his hand, "Then go ahead and try it. Give some ginger away for planting and see."

He was curious to see how his two disciples would handle it.

Manbao and Bai Shanbao glanced at each other and walked out of their teacher’s yard together, one of them saying, "The ginger isn’t even mature yet."

"It’s time to harvest the beans now; nobody has the time. We’ll talk about it after harvesting is done." Manbao was still reluctant to just give away their ginger; she had spoken too hastily in front of the teacher, but to go back on her word now wouldn’t be the behavior of a good child. She wondered if the teacher might forget in time.

Bai Shanbao also found Manbao’s hasty speech distasteful and was the first to declare, "All my ginger is already promised to my grandmother; there’s none left to give away."

Manbao retorted, "How stingy."

Thinking it over, Bai Shanbao felt it wasn’t right and then said, "Have you already sold all your ginger? If not, I can ask Grandmother to buy some from you."

Manbao asked, "Can your family even consume that much?"

Bai Shanbao replied, "They probably can. Anyway, my grandmother and the others use ginger for tea every day. If we can’t eat it all, we can give it away."

After some thought, Manbao said, "If your family needs it, I’ll sell it; if not, there’s no need to buy it especially. I’ve already made an arrangement with Manager Zheng from Jishi Hall. When winter comes and the ginger matures, I can also sell it to him, to the grocery store, and even retail it in the county. Ginger keeps well; we can sell it gradually."

Though the ginger might look plentiful, it really wasn’t that much, especially since it could be stored. At worst, they could hold onto it until the festive seasons when a lot of people would be buying.

Manbao wasn’t in any hurry to sell. As Keke had said, it was a seller’s market. When more people started growing ginger in the future, that’s when she might need to think about selling.

With this in mind, it appeared that giving away ginger to the villagers might do more harm than good, but Manbao felt it wasn’t so.

If there were good seeds in the village, everyone would recommend them to each other, and they would exchange less expensive seeds. As for the valuable ones, as long as one had extra, they could be bartered. Manbao thought their family shouldn’t disrupt this balance.

As for why, with her small brain, she couldn’t quite figure it out yet. It was just a simple feeling that they shouldn’t.

Luckily, it was a busy time in agriculture, and it was obvious that everyone was too preoccupied to focus on the Zhou family’s ginger.

No matter how expensive the ginger may seem, it was still seen as just a spice, nice to have but not essential. However, the crops in the field were a different matter.

They were the villagers’ livelihood for the year.

The sun had been particularly good these past few days, so much so that the already yellowing beans matured quickly. People checked the calendar, and some began to harvest beans.

Old Zhou estimated that it would be sunny for the next few days, so he took his family young and old to the fields to hurry and harvest the beans.