The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 284 - 273: Dispute

Chapter 284: Chapter 273: Dispute

Zhou SiLang couldn’t help but glare at him, "You still have the nerve to talk? You ran ahead empty-handed, leaving me all alone to lag behind."

"Who says I was empty-handed? I clearly had a hoe on my shoulder," Zhou Wulang said. "I told you to run first, who asked you to turn back and argue with those people? Didn’t you see they were in greater numbers?"

Manbao sat to one side, turning her head first to look at one and then the other, finding the scene intriguing.

But Old Zhou didn’t find it amusing at all. He slapped his thigh to quiet his sons before asking, "Why were they chasing after you? Did they know you went into the mountains to dig for China root?"

"No, they didn’t," Zhou SiLang confirmed. "I asked them, and they were just jealous that we were foraging for wild mushrooms in the mountains."

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been stupid enough to turn back and argue with them.

He cast a contemptuous glance at Five, feeling that he was the kind to be beaten and still not understand why he had been hit.

"Second Brother was selling vegetables in town, and someone from Dali Village must have seen him. He sold the wild mushrooms for twenty wen a jin, more expensive than meat. Once word spread, heaven knows who told those two families to chase us off their mountain for foraging for mushrooms there."

In fact, they hadn’t been able to find mushrooms every day these past few days because they grew fast but also wilted quickly.

After yesterday’s rain, they had basically sprouted today, but if not found within a couple of days, they would drop their caps on their own.

Even if they were found, they would be too old and not tasty anymore.

Zhou Erlang charged high prices but also demanded high quality; he wouldn’t bring subpar mushrooms to sell in the town.

The wealthy families were very particular.

They didn’t mind mushrooms being more expensive than meat, but they definitely cared about the taste.

But the Zhou family was numerous, and especially experienced in this area, particularly Zhou SiLang. Among the Zhou brothers, no one could match him when it came to finding things in the mountains.

Manbao, with her serendipitous discoveries, might be the only one with a chance to catch up to him.

But it was a different matter altogether because Manbao hunted for things they didn’t recognize, relying on her extensive knowledge.

Very few people from Qili Village went to town. Although they knew the Zhous grew and sold vegetables, they didn’t know how much money they could make from it.

Let alone other business matters.

So there wasn’t any question of jealousy and even if there was, they couldn’t have done such a thing.

But it was different with Dali Village. Just one village over and after having fought with them before, who would care about giving face?

So, they drove them out without hesitation.

Old Zhou was so angry that he knocked his smoking pipe several times, but after brooding for a long while, he still grimly said, "Don’t go to the mountains anymore, haven’t you failed to find any China root?"

"We didn’t find China root, but we did find mushrooms," Zhou SiLang said anxiously. "Dad, I dare not say we can find eight or ten jin every day, but if we go deep enough, getting four or five jin isn’t a problem. And five jin of mushrooms—that’s a hundred wen."

Zhou SiLang’s arithmetic was superb; he rattled off the calculations, "That’s at least a hundred wen a day, which adds up to three strings of cash a month. How much farmland would you need to equal that?"

Old Zhou gave him a sidelong glance, "Cut it out, are you mocking your dad for not being literate? In this weather, can you expect the Lord of Heaven to rain mushrooms for you every day?"

Zhou SiLang lowered his head.

Although Old Zhou too grieved the loss, he retained his reason and huffed, "Harvesting time is upon us, even if there are mushrooms in the mountains, we can’t look for them anymore. Picking a fight at this time, do you think we don’t have enough troubles at home?"

Zhou SiLang was defiant, "So we’re just going to let this matter rest?"

Old Zhou lowered his head without speaking, but his stance was clear.

Zhou SiLang was seething, and so was Zhou Wulang. Both of them had been leaders among their peers in the village and were in their hot-blooded youth; naturally, they couldn’t swallow this affront.

But they feared their father, and although the indignation was hard to stomach, they dared not voice it, much less secretly seek out the Dali villagers for a fight.

Because starting a fight would definitely involve calling their brothers, but as soon as they involved their Third Brother or anyone older, hiding it from their father became virtually impossible.

The two sighed audibly as they headed to the next courtyard.

Old Zhou then said to Ms. Fang, "Go to your mother and get some medicinal liquor, rub some on Silang; there’s no rain today, so there won’t be any mushrooms tomorrow. Let him go to the mountain with his elder brothers to collect some good mountain mud."

Manbao had already slipped into the house after Zhou SiLang, curious, she asked, "Silang, did you really not find any China root?"

"No," Zhou SiLang replied gloomily. "We turned over every pine stump on Zhongshan Mountain, but didn’t find a single piece of China root."

Manbao pondered, "Could it be that pine stumps aren’t the right growing conditions for it?"

Zhou SiLang looked at her askance, "Wasn’t it you who said it’s the spirit or essence or something of the pine tree?"

"Yes," Manbao blinked and said, "but it doesn’t grow from pine stumps."

Zhou SiLang: "..."

The siblings looked at each other for a good while before Zhou SiLang felt the urge to pinch her, only for Manbao to dash to the doorway and evade him.

Zhou SiLang was in agony, lamenting, "Do you know how much money we’ve lost these past few days? The other day, Second Brother took the rest of the China root to Manager Zheng, a total of eleven jin and seven liang, and got back nine hundred and twenty wen. If we could have found China root in these last few days..."

Zhou SiLang’s mouth practically watered.

Manbao, clinging to the door, said, "That’s impossible; herbs aren’t cabbages. We’re still looking for ligustrum seeds, aren’t we? It’s been two years, and even Big Brother and the rest have only found five, right?"

Manbao said, "It’s not like we’re growing it ourselves; we can’t use as much as we want whenever we want."

Zhou SiLang had been full of regret, but hearing this, he tilted his head and said, "Right, why can’t we grow it ourselves, just like we do with ginger?"

Manbao asked, "Do you have land?"

Zhou SiLang immediately fell silent.

The imperial allocations of Yongye Fields came with strict regulations on what crops could be planted: planting rice or wheat was preferred, and land unsuitable for these could be used for beans, sesame, or similar consumables. If someone set aside land for cucumbers and vegetables, it was somewhat tolerated without strict scrutiny, but planting any miscellaneous crops and encroaching on fertile farmland was a serious offense.

Ginger and such, which were also edible, were permissible, and so was Chinese yam. They could be begrudgingly approved.

But China root was clearly not something that could simply be tossed into a pot and stewed like Chinese yam.

The siblings both lapsed into thought. Keke, seeing this, really wanted to tell the pair that cultivating China root wasn’t something you could just decide to do on a whim; did they even possess the necessary agricultural skills?

Even the contemporary researchers at the encyclopedia library had not yet succeeded in cultivating China root, so where did these siblings get the confidence that they could? Did they even know how to grow it?

Well, Keke certainly didn’t.