The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 417 - 406: Discussing Business (II)

Chapter 417: Chapter 406: Discussing Business (II)

Mr. Zhuang didn’t know as much about farming as Old Master Bai did, after all, his main business was being a landlord, and just managing the accounts of the various estates would almost tell you the yield per acre of each crop.

Not to mention that the fields in the Qili Village area were personally managed by him.

So he knew too well the significance of the yield at the small farm, taking the average yield per acre of winter wheat in Qili Village for the Bai family, their current yield was 1.8 times his, having nearly doubled.

Therefore, if the wheat yield throughout the realm could reach these levels...

Old Master Bai thought to himself, "Then there would be no famine under heaven."

Of course, Old Master Bai was just indulging in the thought, as this wheat yield had only just emerged this year, who knew whether it would be suitable for other regions’ soil and water?

Hence, Old Master Bai took care not to get too excited before he asked seriously, "Manbao, has your family always kept your own wheat seeds and never bought from elsewhere?"

Manbao felt a moment of guilt, but under Keke’s guidance, she nodded and said, "Yes, if you don’t believe it, you can go ask my parents."

Asking the parents was a good move, as they surely wouldn’t slip up because they didn’t know there was a trap.

Old Master Bai nodded thoughtfully, intending to ask Old Zhou about something like farming, for how could he just ask a child like Manbao?

Thinking this, he smiled at her, used the serving chopsticks to offer her a piece of braised pork, and asked with a smile, "How much did Manor Head Bai pay your family for the wheat seeds?"

Manbao was stunned with her chopsticks in hand;

Bai Shanbao also paused while eating;

Bai Erlang was startled at first and then realized the situation, with his eyes widening dramatically.

In terms of craftiness, how could the three children compare to Old Master Bai?

In terms of thick skin, the three children were far behind, too.

With flushed faces, Manbao and Bai Shanbao said in embarrassment, "Then shall we make it cheaper?"

But Bai Erlang was unwilling. On the way back, they had all planned out in the carriage how to split the money from the sale of the wheat seeds and what to do with it afterward.

How could they give in so easily?

He racked his brains and finally came up with a ready-made excuse, "Father, the seeds in the grain stores are so expensive, and ours are even better than theirs, how can you take advantage of us?"

Old Master Bai said, "Then I won’t buy from you all. Didn’t you say the winter wheat in the village all came from Manbao’s family’s seeds? Their yield must be not low, either, so I can just buy from them."

Bai Erlang’s mouth hung open, obviously not having thought of this point.

Manbao, however, immediately responded, proudly saying, "Ours are still better than theirs, Uncle Bai, if you don’t believe it, you can go and see for yourself in the village. Not to mention others in the village, even the wheat from my family’s fields doesn’t compare to the ones from our small farm."

"Why is that?"

Because their seeds were mixed, of course.

Last spring, when Old Zhou’s family was soaking wheat seeds, she bought a bag of seeds from the city mart, secretly took away an equal amount from the bucket, and then mixed the purchased one in.

So although the situation of their spring wheat after the disaster last year was slightly better, it wasn’t by much.

Later, when the village wanted to exchange seeds with her family, she bought another batch from Doctor D and mixed them in, with over two-thirds of the seeds being from the future world. As for Old Zhou’s seeds, she exchanged even more, almost most of them, except for a few that were missed because they were being stored while collecting the original seeds.

And when Manor Head Bai came to buy wheat seeds, she was too lazy to climb back into the grain storage to switch them, and simply changed the bags after her father had filled them.

So the seeds in their farm were mostly from the future varieties, the purest of all.

Only she didn’t know why, but the growth of this batch of wheat was far from the yield Doctor D had talked about.

She had calculated at the time that, according to Doctor D, the wheat seeds he gave her would produce over ten stones per acre.

Even if the fertility here couldn’t keep up, a difference of two or three stones was acceptable, but she hadn’t expected it to be more than half less.

Manbao guessed that these seeds might indeed have issues adapting to the local soil and water.

Manbao sighed and said to Old Master Bai, "Uncle Bai, shall we give you an even better deal?"

Old Master Bai asked with a smile, "How much cheaper?"

Manbao looked at Bai Shan more distressed.

Bai Shan was also stumped. If it was cheaper than the county town’s grain shop, they wouldn’t accept it as their goods were better, weren’t they?

But if it was too expensive, and their uncle didn’t agree since they were no longer the only sellers now.

What a dilemma.

The three kids exchanged looks and nodded in agreement, and Bai Shan said, "Uncle, why don’t you go outside and play for a while? We’ll call you after we have discussed and decided."

Old Master Bai: ...Fortunately, you’re a child, and my own nephew at that, otherwise, if someone else conducted business with him this way, the deal would certainly fall through.

Old Master Bai left, leaving the study to the three of them.

As soon as Old Master Bai left, Bai Erlang immediately jumped off the stool and after checking left and right outside the door to make sure his father wasn’t hiding and eavesdropping, closed the door.

Bai Shan and Manbao also jumped down to close the windows.

Old Master Bai glanced back from afar: ...

It seems I’ll need to teach the three children the principle of keeping doors and windows shut when handling confidential matters.

The three huddled together to whisper, "What should we do?"

They looked at each other, and finally, Manbao and Bai Shan looked at Bai Erlang, feeling that it was impossible for him to play the kinship card.

The two sighed.

Bai Shan turned to Manbao and said, "You know the villagers well, how about you go back and tell them, if my uncle wants to buy the wheat seeds from them, then set the price above 150 wen, and no one should drop below it. If my uncle can’t buy it cheaper elsewhere, he will naturally have to come back to us."

But Manbao was worried and said, "My dad might listen to me, but why would the others listen to me?"

Bai Erlang replied, "Who told your family to exchange so many wheat seeds with others last year?"

"When the villagers wanted to exchange, how could we refuse?" Manbao crinkled her nose and said, "Anyway, this won’t work, shall we just lower our price."

Bai Shan asked, "Lower it by how much?"

Bai Erlang said with distress, "If we reduce the price, we won’t earn much. I was thinking about saving money to go to Yizhou for fun."

"We can’t go below 120 wen," Manbao said, "That’s the lowest price. If Uncle Bai doesn’t agree, I’ll just get my dad to go out and talk to the villagers to drive the price up."

Bai Shan asked, "How confident are you that they’ll stick to that price?"

"Not at all."

Bai Shan: ...

Manbao explained, "Didn’t you hear what the assistant at the grain shop said? Now they only pay 30 wen per dou for wheat collected from the countryside. If we ask for 120 wen, Uncle Bai, let alone 120 wen, he would have plenty of people willing to sell if he’s willing to pay 40 wen."

"But this is for wheat seeds."

"In any case, it all looks like wheat, seeds or not; aside from saving enough for their own use, who really considers other wheat as seeds?"

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