The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 369 - 358: Dispute

Chapter 369: Chapter 358: Dispute

Ms. Liu watched for a few days and couldn’t help but say to Nanny Liu, "He’s just too honest, unchanged after all these years."

Nanny Liu laughed, "Shall I go and give him a hint, to teach the young masters more?"

"Forget it, I chose him in the first place because he is honest and obedient. If you give him a hint, he’ll start overthinking things, and later when the three children give him orders, he’ll come asking me, which would just be annoying for me." Ms. Liu sighed with a mixture of frustration and amusement, "Let it be, fortunately Manbao has the entire Zhou Family behind her, so there’s no need to worry about them making any big mistakes."

Indeed, the entire wisdom of the Zhou Family stood behind Manbao.

When it came to farming, they dare not claim to be number one in Qili Village, but they could at least rank in the top three.

Even though they said they were letting Manbao play with those twenty acres of land, Old Zhou was not likely to ignore it.

Seeing that the New Year’s festival was around the corner, and spring would follow, Old Zhou asked Manbao, "Have you planned how many acres you will plant with beans, wheat, and rice? Are the seeds all prepared?"

Manbao was taken aback and asked, "Doesn’t the family usually start preparations after the New Year?"

"Indeed, but aren’t you going to school?" Old Zhou glanced at her, "Surely you won’t leave something as important as seeds to the servants?"

He said, "This is a big deal. Whether the harvest will be good relies half on the weather and half on the seeds. You can’t be careless with this. You’re young and there aren’t many of you, so you should prepare earlier."

Manbao then went to discuss the matter of the seeds with Bai Shanbao.

It was only then that Bai Shanbao remembered the seeds still needed to be prepared by them.

So the two of them went to see Ms. Liu.

Ms. Liu smiled and said, "You’ll need to buy your seeds from the county town. Do you prefer to go yourselves, or shall Manor Head Bai arrange it?"

Bai Shanbao looked at Manbao.

Manbao’s mind stirred, should their seeds be the genuine original, or should they be mixed with something from the future?

After some discussion, Bai Shanbao and Manbao decided they needed to figure out how much of each type of seed they actually needed as they hadn’t done the calculations yet.

Actually, this wasn’t difficult, especially with Manor Head Bai around.

Bai Shanbao took out the data he had previously collected, and had Manor Head Bai contact the former long-term workers to understand the situation better.

The crops in Qili Village were limited, consisting of rice, wheat, and beans—mostly various kinds of beans with soybeans being the main one.

The two children made a simple and straightforward decision: lands that grew beans last year would switch to wheat this year, and those that grew wheat would switch to beans, while rice would be the only crop for paddy fields.

With Manor Head Bai there, they quickly calculated how many acres each crop could cover and how much seed was needed for an acre; the numbers were all similar, and Manbao quickly figured them out on paper.

There wasn’t much problem with the quantity of wheat and rice, but when it came to beans, Manbao thought growing only beans would be boring, so she said, "We can also plant black beans, red beans, mung beans, and cowpeas..."

Bai Shanbao nodded in agreement, "Didn’t your plans say we should raise chickens at the foot of the mountain? Shouldn’t we set aside some land for vegetables? Do chickens eat vegetables?"

Bai Shanbao had almost forgotten that point until Manbao brought it up, reviving her spirits, "There are also fruit trees to plant on the mountain."

Bai Erlang, struggling with his homework nearby, could no longer focus and approached to ask, "What kind of fruit trees are we going to plant?"

Manbao said, "I like pears."

That was the only fruit she had tasted, wild pears from the mountain—somewhat sour, but Manbao enjoyed them.

Every year, the Zhou brothers would bring her some from the mountain free of charge.

Bai Shanbao and Bai Erlang had a wider range of preferences, so they began counting on their fingers, "I like apples, peaches, and oranges..."

"I also like peaches and oranges, as well as cherries," added one.

Manbao watched them in bewilderment for a while before saying, "I’ve only eaten apples and peaches..."

Those were offered to her by Ms. Zheng during a visit to the Bai Family, but being a guest, she naturally couldn’t eat as much as she wanted.

The thought of her own estate soon growing fruit trees, allowing her to eat as much as desired, left Manbao unable to hide her excitement, "Can you find saplings for these fruit trees?"

Bai Shanbao said, "We’ll have to ask Grandmother."

Bai Erlang chimed in, "We can also ask my dad, he’s very capable."

So they went to ask the adults.

Old Master Bai had concerns upon learning about their grand plans to plant fruit trees on all forty acres of the mountain, "Do you know how much labor and resources it takes to clear a mountain? You’d first have to cut down trees and weeds, then remove rocks, before you could dig holes and plant the trees. You might even have to wait three or four years for fruit. With all that effort, I could buy enough fruit to last you ten years."

It was enough trouble to take care of the one hundred and twenty acres of land without also trying to manage the mountain. Were they trying to create more problems for themselves?

Yet the three children keen on discussing fruit trees were clearly unwilling to compromise, "We want to plant fruit trees."

Manbao was more tentative, knowing the value of money, "We can start by planting some around the foot of the mountain, um, just plant twenty trees!"

Bai Shanbao was dissatisfied, "That’s too few."

Bai Erlang worried, "What if they don’t survive?"

"Then we plant more," said Bai Shanbao, "Let’s plant forty trees, ten each of peach, apple, and orange trees."

Those were his favorites.

Bai Erlang wasn’t happy, "We should also plant cherries, ten trees of those too."

Manbao scratched her head, "Should we plant pear trees, too?"

It seemed like those could simply be picked from the mountain.

Keke piped up, "Host, wild and cultivated fruit trees are not the same. Most wild fruits can’t match the taste of cultivated ones. The pear tree branches you’ve collected before have already been cultivated for two generations. If you’re interested, you can buy them back in the encyclopedia. As a contributor, you get discounts for purchasing products within five generations."

Manbao’s eyes shimmered, and she asked inwardly, "So, if I collect apple and peach trees and then buy back their newly cultivated varieties, do I also get a discount?"

"These two types of fruit will be quite common in the future. If you make a purchase and a research institute takes over the breeding, it’s possible."

There was always the fear that no research would be done, and the specimens would be thrown into the encyclopedia to be planted somewhere by the logistics team, then they would give Manbao some points to encourage her—a situation similar to some other future crops she had collected that weren’t rare.

Upon hearing this, Manbao understood. Although slightly disappointed, she quickly got into an argument with her two companions, "We should also plant some pear trees."

With forty trees, there weren’t enough to go around, and Bai Shanbao, ready to grow the numbers, was preempted by Old Master Bai before he could speak, "Just plant forty trees, no more. Decide amongst yourselves what to plant."

So the three children’s gazes collided and Manbao declared, "I will only plant pear trees!"

With that, Bai Shanbao turned to stare at Bai Erlang.

Bai Erlang wasn’t intimidated and stared back, "I must plant cherries!"

"Hmph, then let’s divide them equally, forty trees for the three of us, thirteen each, whatever we like."

Manbao felt this was fair and readily agreed.

Bai Erlang thought it over and had no objections, only asking, "And what about the last tree?"

Without hesitation, Bai Shanbao pointed at Manbao, "Manbao is the youngest and she’s a girl. Let her choose!"