The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 370 - 359: Where Is Your Mother?

Chapter 370: Chapter 359: Where Is Your Mother?

As soon as Bai Erlang left, Bai Shanbao turned to Manbao and said, "A single pear tree can produce so many fruits, you can just plant three, and let me plant other fruit trees with the remaining eleven."

Manbao, who was asking Keke what kind of fruit trees they could grow, shook her head upon hearing this, "No, it seems we can also grow dates here, I want to plant date trees."

Mainly because red dates have many uses, they have appeared more than once in medical texts, and she felt they were much better than pears and apples.

Bai Shanbao didn’t expect Manbao to refuse and puffed up her cheeks for a moment.

Old Master Bai, who managed to find the fruit saplings, seeing the three children chattering about wanting to plant this and that, couldn’t help saying, "Alright, alright, you also have to think about what can and cannot be grown here, don’t just think about planting everything."

Bai Shanbao asked, "Then what can we plant here, Uncle?"

Old Master Bai counted on his fingers, "Apples, peaches, oranges, and cherries that you mentioned are no problem, and we also have pear and date, plus loquat and plum; choose for yourselves."

The three children exchanged looks, and Manbao said, "A tree that can bear lots of fruits, we could plant one of each variety."

After counting the types, Bai Shanbao said, "Eight kinds, so five of each should be enough for us to eat."

Old Master Bai: ... So are you planting fruit trees not to make money, but to satisfy your own gluttony?

After some hesitation, Bai Erlang agreed to the distribution plan, muttering, "You should have said earlier, then there would have been no need to argue yesterday."

Key point is, they didn’t know yesterday that Old Master Bai could get so many different types of fruit trees.

The three children looked at Old Master Bai with shining eyes, "These fruit trees can definitely be bought, right?"

Old Master Bai faced their doubt expressionless, "I’ll do my best."

Of course, it wasn’t very difficult for him. The quantity wasn’t large, only five trees of each fruit type.

So with a command from Bai Shanbao, Manor Head Bai began looking for suitable places to plant the fruit trees on the mountain.

He didn’t know how to plant those trees, but with his decades of farming experience, choosing a relatively flat, fertile soil, and convenient for irrigation place would do.

So he toured around the mountain, and chose a vast area on the northeast side, spanning from the mountain foot to the mid-slope.

That’s where the soil was more fertile.

And so, the trees there were very dense.

Taking advantage of the winter, Manor Head Bai, along with the long-term farm laborers, cut down all the trees in the chosen area, and after they dried up, they could also be used to build a chicken shed at the base of the mountain.

That’s right, after a fierce debate between Bai Shanbao and Manbao, the two still reached a consensus and decided to follow the plan to raise chickens on the wasteland at the mountain foot.

Of course, to prevent the chickens from turning wild, they would need to fence off an area with a hedge, and then build a chicken shed.

Beyond that, they also needed to build some thatched cottages for the long-term laborers to live in, so the need for trees was indeed not small.

Now, in Little Manor, there were only three long-term laborers, who had been handed over by Ms. Liu from Old Master Bai’s hands, but such abundant work obviously could not be accomplished by only these three laborers.

Therefore, Ms. Liu generously took out some money to hire short-term laborers.

Manbao, being close to the water, was the first to take advantage of it and signed up her several brothers.

Zhou SiLang and others, who had just sold all their ginger and were recently resting at home, rolled up their sleeves and went to work.

When Old Zhou saw this, he let Junior Ms. Qian and Ms. Feng also go, saying, "No need for wages, just consider it helping your youngest sister."

Junior Ms. Qian naturally had no objections.

The three children said they wanted to raise chickens, but they themselves didn’t know exactly how to do it. Obviously, the three long-term laborers didn’t know much either, as the hedge they tied up was loose, and it could only stop the larger adult chickens; the smaller ones wouldn’t even need to squeeze through, and could walk in and out as if strolling down the street.

Junior Ms. Qian, along with Ms. Feng, retied the hedge and walked around the cleared area at the foot of the mountain, pushed over the already built chicken shed and chose a new spot for it...

Manor Head Bai watched, his face slightly reddened.

The Bai Family hired many laborers this time because Manbao and the others decided to clear the entire wasteland at the foot of the mountain.

They didn’t have to deal with the stones, but they had to cut down all the miscellaneous trees and weeds.

Then they also had to dig up the stumps in the northeast part of the mid-slope, and get rid of that grass as well, hoe it all away. It wasn’t a small project.

This year, there was no corvée, and everyone was early in their winter idleness, oh, no, I mean winter rest, so all the able-bodied villagers had nothing to do.

The Bai Family had just put the word out they wanted to hire short-term laborers, and the villagers immediately swarmed over.

Manor Head Bai picked twelve strong men, and with the help of Junior Ms. Qian and Ms. Feng, the construction of Little Manor was visibly speeding up.

Even the originally planned crude thatched huts were changed to adobe houses after Bai Shanbao and the others had seen them once, making them much more spacious and brighter than the planned mud-grass houses.

Manbao looked curiously at the three long-term laborers who were squatting on the rocks, their hair messy, and just grabbing a steamed bun to gnaw on, and she couldn’t help but squat down opposite them with her own steamed bun.

The three laborers exchanged a glance with Manbao and then silently turned around to face her with their backs.

Manbao then got up and squatted in front of them again, continuing to face them and gnaw on the steamed bun.

The three laborers: ...

One of the grubby laborers, his face unclear, finished the last bit of the steamed bun in his hand and asked, "Miss Man, do you have any orders for us?"

Manbao shook her head, then paused, and nodded again.

She looked curiously at the three long-term laborers.

They wore the standard blue cloths of the Bai Family’s lower staff, but theirs were dirtier and had several holes without even patches on them.

Their hair was a mess, and their hands and faces were also filthy.

Manbao had seen these three before, but she hadn’t paid much attention to them, as she spent little time and mostly spoke with Manor Head Bai.

But today, being their day off, she had been here since morning, wandering east and west, and with so many people around today, the trio stood out.

Manbao felt they were too sloppy.

Even her laziest brother, Silang, was never this dirty even at his worst.

So, after some hesitation, she still couldn’t help but ask, "Don’t your mothers beat you?"

If her brothers ever dared to come home this dirty, her mother would definitely ask her father to beat them.

The three laborers felt a bit uncomfortable and said, "Why would our mothers beat us?"

Manbao hesitated before replying, "Because you don’t wash your hair?"

The three laborers grabbed another steamed bun, continued to eat and said indifferently, "Our mothers are far away from us, not here, they can’t beat us."

"What about your wives? You look older than my fourth brother."

The laborers felt even more downhearted, "Miss Man, if we could get married, would we still need to be long-term laborers?"

Manbao was stunned and asked, "Aren’t you long-term laborers? Being laborers should earn you a lot of money, and you have work every day."

Looking at her brothers, every time they finished the work at home, they would start watching for work at Landlord Bai’s place. As soon now as Landlord Bai called for laborers, they would run over there, earning at least fifteen coins a day—with ten days, that adds up to one hundred and fifty