The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 331 - 320: Raising Geese

Chapter 331: Chapter 320: Raising Geese

"Exactly, exactly, we don’t have to catch them anymore," Manbao said, "All the insect eggs and grass seeds in the ground are eaten too, so next year we’ll have even fewer pests and weeds."

Manbao felt a pang of regret, "It’s a pity that chickens can’t swim, otherwise we could breed them in the fields. They love eating snails so much, and if we let a flock loose down there, we wouldn’t have to worry about snails eating the rice plants."

Zhou SiLang spoke up, "Ducks can swim, can’t they? Just don’t know if they would eat the rice plants too."

Zhou ErLang: "Where can we find small ducks to buy? Within ten miles, we could count on one hand the families that raise ducks. There are quite a few that raise geese, though. Maybe we could get a few geese to raise?"

"No way," Zhou Dalang dismissed the idea without a second thought, "Put such a big goose in the field? Will it eat snails or trample the young rice plants? It’ll just ruin the crops."

"Exactly, exactly." Everyone agreed and the matter was dropped.

Yet Manbao thought back to the roasted goose she had once eaten at Shanbao’s home, and she couldn’t help but swallow her saliva, then slyly glanced at Silang.

Meeting her gaze, Zhou SiLang blinked, failing to understand what she meant.

It didn’t matter if he didn’t get it; as soon as everyone dispersed, Manbao went to discuss raising geese with him.

Zhou SiLang said, "Older brothers didn’t agree, so who would raise them if I buy them?"

"We will," Manbao insisted, "After all, they wouldn’t really throw the geese away. Even if we don’t put them in the fields, we can keep them by the river."

"Silang, roasted goose is really delicious, really delicious," Manbao continued, "Since the chicken coop is already built behind the house, we can just build another straw shack for the geese. They’re so big, the rats can’t bite them, and the weasels can’t steal them away."

Zhou SiLang thought it made sense. He looked around at his three busy brothers and whispered, "Let me handle this with Five and the others, but we mustn’t let our older brothers find out."

"You go ahead and buy the geese first."

Zhou SiLang simply held out his hand, "No money."

Manbao looked at him with disdain, "Silang, you’re a married man. How can you not save a single penny?"

"I would love to save, but I never get the chance to go to town. All the China root and wild mushrooms we gather are taken to town by Second Brother."

Moreover, Old Zhou had made it clear that, due to the flood disaster, all the money earned in the near future had to be pooled together. Even when Second Brother went to town, the money earned didn’t reach his own pockets, unless...

Zhou SiLang fixed his eyes on Manbao and whispered, "Little sister, I want to discuss something with you."

Manbao hummed, "What is it?"

"Could you buy more candy from Mr. Zhuang to bring back? I plan to sell them in town, and then we can split the profits. How about that?"

Manbao earnestly replied, "The candies weren’t given to me by Mr. Zhuang. They were from a friend."

Zhou SiLang nodded nonchalantly, "Sure, sure, I get it. Go talk to your friend, okay? Look, my wife’s expecting, and I wanted to buy some fabric for the baby. But Dad took away the wages from Old Master Bai too, so how can I use my wife’s dowry? Wouldn’t that be embarrassing?"

Using a wife’s dowry, especially in the first year of marriage, was very embarrassing indeed.

Manbao grudgingly nodded, "Okay, but you’ll have to take Datou and the others with you."

Zhou SiLang was taken aback and asked, "Why bring them along?"

"They also have candies to sell."

"Alright, I’ll take them with me. Just wait for me to come back from town, and I’ll bring the goslings for you."

As Manbao was about to give Silang some money, she heard his plan and immediately withdrew her hand, nodding in approval, "That’s a good idea. We’ll buy the geese after selling the candies, then I won’t have to spend any money."

Zhou SiLang, still holding out his hand: ...

Manbao patted his hand and said, "Just wait for it, I’ll give you the candies tonight."

Building a chicken coop wasn’t difficult; the Zhou family, with many hands, completed the task in just over two days. Considering the flock of chickens would grow, they intentionally built a much larger coop.

Junior Ms. Qian herded all the chickens into the new coop, and even added ten more small chickens. She carefully watched over them for two days, and once they got settled in, she stopped paying much attention.

The children were tasked with herding the chickens into the fields every day to feed on insects and grass. With some vegetable leaves and rice bran provided at home, the chickens were raised to be quite plump.

In terms of breeding, it seemed as if the Zhou family had a natural knack for it; even the younger children managed their tasks competently.

Datou confidently left the chickens to his younger siblings. Rotating among them, they joined Zhou SiLang in selling candies in town.

After scouring every nearby mountain to no avail, unable to find any more China root, Zhou SiLang stopped making the trips up the mountain.

And as the autumn chill set in, the vegetable supply in town grew scarcer, making the Zhou Family’s vegetable business even more prosperous. Particularly, the tofu made by Junior Ms. Qian was in such demand that, despite bringing two slabs daily, it was still not enough to meet the sales.

Upon seeing this, Old Zhou immediately decided not to sell any soybeans this year, choosing instead to use them all for making tofu.

Like the Zhou family, there were many others who also decided to keep their soybeans, though not for making tofu, but to ensure they had something to cook into rice when the next season’s supplies ran low.

Normally, grain prices would fall after the autumn harvest, but this year was the opposite. The grain shops, unable to procure enough stock, had to import grain from other regions. As a result, the prices, once suppressed by tax exemption edicts, shot right back up.

Vegetable prices rose accordingly.

Ordinarily, the grain prices at the shops wouldn’t concern the Zhou family at all. Since they decided not to pay taxes this year, Old Zhou felt that their harvest would be sufficient until the winter wheat came in next year.

Since they didn’t need to buy grain from the shops, and he wasn’t selling any, there was no need to keep an eye on grain prices.

Yet the Zhou family was still keenly aware of the daily fluctuations in grain prices because Zhou Er would chatter about it every day when he came back home.

It couldn’t be helped, for the people who bought vegetables from him would always mention a thing or two in passing, like how grain prices had risen again today...

The increase was significant enough to tempt even Old Zhou, who usually kept a tight grip on the family’s grain supply, to consider selling some at these high prices.

However, whenever he looked up to see his children and grandchildren, divided into two groups at dinner, Old Zhou could only let out a sigh and abandon the thought.

There were too many mouths to feed in his household, and they consumed so much that if he sold the grain at a high price now, he feared he’d have to buy it back at an even higher price should they run out. That would be the real trap.

Manbao remained blissfully unaware of all this; her attention was devoted to studying and accumulating points.

Mr. Zhuang’s lessons were crucial, the classes in the study room were equally important, and earning points through forum transactions was also vital. It reached a point where she felt overwhelmed, as if there simply weren’t enough hours in the day for everything.

Then Keke recommended a book to her—How to Efficiently Plan Your Time. It was a thin book and quite cheap, costing only three points.

It was the cheapest book Manbao had ever purchased.

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