The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 320 - 309: Secret

Chapter 320: Chapter 309: Secret

Farming is very much attuned to the agricultural calendar. To compete for a few days’ advantage during the summer harvest, many farmers would work day and night, some even taking up residence in the fields.

In the past two years, when Qili Village had a bountiful harvest, Zhou Dalang, Zhou Erlang, and Zhou Sanlang lived in the fields to seize the farming opportunity, working under the moonlight and firelight even when they were so exhausted they could hardly straighten their backs.

Otherwise, a single rain could wash away a whole year’s worth of effort.

Usually, after the rain, the summer harvest would come to an end. Then, it was time to harvest hemp. The hemp was pulled out, soaked, beaten, combed out, then woven into fabric, and finally taken to the river for cleaning and additional beating...

The process was both cumbersome and labor-intensive. Children of the Zhou Family disliked harvesting hemp the most, and the adults felt the same.

Because most of the hemp fabric produced had to be handed over to the County Governmental Office as a form of tax, along with three extra pounds of hemp fiber per person.

For this reason, Old Zhou planted rows of hemp along the ridges of his family’s fields and around the foothills of his and Zhou Dalang and Zhou Sanlang’s mountains.

Despite the drought-resistant nature of the plant and the arduous crafting process, their family could still save some hemp fabric each year to make clothes. However, families with fewer members might not have any excess hemp for clothing.

Moreover, the hemp fabric made by the Zhou Family was not considered top quality. Manbao particularly disliked it, recalling that she only had one new hemp garment, which started to chafe her skin raw not long after she put it on.

Later, her mother took it back from her and remade it into clothes for herself.

After wearing it for half a year, her mother took the old hemp clothes and remade them into garments for Manbao.

Nowadays, most of Manbao’s summer attire was made from old clothes that her mother and sisters-in-law had outgrown, repurposed into hemp fabric garments. Only in winter would she wear cotton clothes bought from the town.

Accordingly, Manbao was not fond of hemp either. She blew on the hands of her little nephews and placed a piece of candy in the palm of each of their hands.

The children were immediately comforted, their spirits lifted. They peeled their candies and happily followed Manbao back home.

Manbao took out a pen and wrote down the items and quantities she needed, handing the list to Datou, "My friend also wants to buy these things. Take Second Son with you and help me find them. Remember, the caterpillars must be alive. Just in case, bring back some extra and also pick a few extra large leaves for me to use as wrapping."

Datou knew all the characters on the paper and understood what was required, but he was puzzled by who would buy caterpillars by the piece.

Aren’t such things sold by weight?

Or even by the measure, which could work too.

But perhaps his young aunt’s peculiar customers were a good thing, right?

With just one glance at the paper, Datou slapped his chest, assuring Manbao that it wouldn’t be a problem, and then he grinned and asked, "Young aunt, since the beans have been harvested at home, could you talk to Fourth Uncle and ask him to take us to town in a few days to have fun?"

Manbao smiled, "I know what you are thinking. You want to sell the candy in your hands, don’t you?"

Looking at Manbao, a group of children giggled and grinned.

Manbao said, "Second Brother definitely won’t take you there, but Fourth Uncle should have no issue."

Erya’s eyes sparkled as she asked, "Is Fourth Uncle also going to town?"

"Of course, once Old Master Bai’s crops are harvested, I’ll go up the mountain with Fourth Uncle to look for China root. At that time, I’ll ask Fourth Uncle to help Second Brother with his affairs."

If they could find China root again, Manbao planned to secretly retain a small piece and then slice it into several sections to sell.

The encyclopedia had rewarded her with two hundred thousand points; she would sell it for one hundred fifty thousand points. Selling just two portions would be nearly enough.

This was the conclusion Manbao had drawn the previous evening when she reviewed all her lists.

She had found that in the encyclopedia, items with higher points also had higher relative value in her world.

For instance, the China root and the tree sparrow, both high in points, with the China root being the most expensive thing her family currently sold.

Zhou Erlang had asked Manager Zheng, who stated that all China root was wild and could not be cultivated, thus it was very precious.

Its rarity coupled with its diverse medicinal effects made it highly valuable.

However, they were selling raw China root. Zhou Erlang had discreetly found out that processed China root of good quality could fetch more than double the price.

No wonder the medicine shops charged so much.

But Manbao felt nothing could be as expensive as it would be in the future.

She was aware that points were more expensive than copper coins, with a small piece of China root worth two hundred thousand points.

Manbao smiled like a little mouse, drawing repeated stares from Bai Shanbao.

At last, unable to help himself, Bai Shanbao tapped her on the head and asked, "What’s gotten into you?"

Manbao looked around, and then fixed her gaze on Daji, who was sitting in a corner.

Daji: ...

Bai Shanbao also glared at Daji.

Silently, Daji got up, opened the door, and stepped out of the study.

In the yard, he looked around before settling down by a tree, from which he could see the two children through the study window, but not hear their conversation.

Seeing Daji gone, Manbao immediately leaned close to Bai Shanbao and whispered, "If I had a lot of something that others find scarce, would it be better to trade them all for money, or to barter?"

"How valuable are those scarce things to you?"

Manbao thought about it and replied, "Some are valuable, some are not; some are rare, and some can be found everywhere."

"What do you want to exchange them for?"

After thinking, Manbao responded, "Wheat seeds? Or perhaps other interesting seeds."

Today, Datou and the others had suggested going to town, clearly wanting to trade their candy for money. But Manbao knew that the candy business might not be so lucrative in town at the moment.

And there are currencies harder than candy in this world. A small amount of points can create significant value, such as ginger chunks.

The five pounds of ginger seeds she had initially purchased seemed much more expensive than candy. But in just the past year alone, it had earned the Zhou Family a considerable amount of money.

The value had long surpassed the seed money she paid.

Moreover, this year’s wheat from the Zhou Family looked much better than that of other families.

When she had left for the Bai Family earlier, many of the village elders had visited Zhou’s home, discussing with Old Zhou the matter of wheat seeds.

Although this year’s wheat had not been entirely threshed yet, everyone had witnessed the harvest, and now the whole village knew that the Zhou Family’s wheat was the best, even slightly better than Old Master Bai’s.

Some of the wheat spikes were long and full, which led the village elders to seek to exchange seeds with the Zhou Family.

Good spikes are good seeds, and good seeds are expected to produce better spikes. This basic knowledge about seed retention is something any lifelong farmer understands.

Others might not know why the Zhou Family’s wheat fared better than most during the floods, but Manbao did.

It was because she secretly switched some of the wheat seeds in the spring.

Manbao was contemplating whether to purchase another batch of wheat seeds to exchange for more wheat.