The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 420 - 409: Idle Talk (Additional updates for 1000 monthly votes in July)

Chapter 420: Chapter 409: Idle Talk (Additional updates for 1000 monthly votes in July)

Ms. Qian was stunned, and it took her a long while to find her voice again, "You, you all are... going too far, what if Old Master Bai doesn’t buy the wheat seeds from you, or doesn’t buy that many?"

Manbao said, "Then we’ll just sell them at the market price for grains."

"Wouldn’t that be a loss?"

"We’ll lose a bit, but Shanbao and I have done the math, and we can afford it," Manbao reassured her, "Mother, don’t worry."

Ms. Qian wanted to persuade her otherwise but the words got stuck in her throat as she looked at the confident Manbao. She reached out and touched Manbao’s fair and smooth cheek, seemingly seeing once again that dark, mischievous yet filial and sensible young boy of years past. Back then, he also told her the same, saying that he would surely find enough grain to keep them alive, and even if he couldn’t find it, he could still survive alone...

Manbao felt something was off about her mother’s demeanor and couldn’t help but hug her arm and ask, "Mother, what’s wrong?"

Ms. Qian snapped back to reality and gave Manbao a slight smile, "It’s nothing. Since you all have discussed and decided, then go ahead and do it."

Manbao was overjoyed, "Mother, I knew you’d be on my side."

Ms. Qian tapped her on the forehead, "You sly one, but you have to keep this tightly under wraps. Your father mustn’t find out, and don’t let Old Master Bai get a whiff either."

"Don’t worry, Mother, we’ve thought it all through. Bai Er has even moved in with Shanbao now."

Ms. Qian smiled slightly. Old Master Bai wasn’t a fool; he must know they were preparing some scheme behind his back. Perhaps he just wanted to see what the children were up to.

But Ms. Qian felt Old Master Bai would never guess it because even after hearing it once, she still found it incredible.

The three children were not only extraordinarily daring; their ideas were grand, managing to come up with such a scheme.

Ms. Qian went back to her room full of worries. Old Zhou, with no troubles on his mind, was already fast asleep. The next day, at Manbao’s earnest instructions, he left the house to visit neighbors.

Meanwhile, Manbao carried her Small book box and took the abacus she had bought to class.

Old Zhou, holding his smoking pipe and swinging his hands, wandered along the countryside paths, first visiting the Zhou Daliang family, who had a relatively good relationship with his family.

Daliang’s father was younger than Old Zhou and used to follow him around. Over the years, their two families had mutual assistance, and their relationship grew closer.

As he reached the wall of Zhou Daliang’s courtyard and peered inside, he saw Daliang’s father scolding Zhou Daliang while the latter sat in the courtyard head down, threshing wheat.

He pushed the door open, glanced at the wheat drying in the courtyard, and asked, "Why haven’t you finished threshing the ears yet?"

Uncle Jin arrived. "Have a seat, have a seat," Daliang’s father instructed Zhou Daliang to fetch a chair and couldn’t help but complain, "These kids, they sleep until the sun is high in the sky, getting listless as soon as the sun gets hot. They keep complaining about sore hands, but when is threshing ever easy on the hands?"

Zhou Daliang brought out a chair and asked, "Uncle, is the wheat at your house all threshed?"

Old Zhou packed tobacco into his pipe and replied, "Finished long ago. In two more days, we can store it away."

The fastest in Qili Village was Manbao’s small farm: first, they hired many people; second, they didn’t have much land—just over twenty acres. In three or four days, they finished reaping and even had short-term laborers for drying and threshing.

The subsequent workers only needed to flip the grain to dry. With good sunshine recently, they quickly filled their storage.

Old Zhou’s household was a little slower but still among the fastest in the village. While others were still cutting wheat in the fields, they had already harvested all their wheat and transported it home, starting to plow and plant rice seedlings.

By the time others could finally start plowing and planting, they had already finished transplanting rice seedlings on those twenty acres and had finished threshing the wheat...

Thus, falling behind at the start meant falling further behind later on.

But Zhou Daliang and his son were firmly convinced that their family’s consistently high efficiency was due to having many family members.

Especially many children.

When the adults transported wheat from the fields, the children would dry the wheat spikes at home, stepping on them, patting them...

When the men went to plow, the women would thresh at home, speeding up the process.

Daliang’s father sighed again, looking at Zhou Daliang with frustration. They were few in number, and his son was also lazy.

He used to hang out with Zhou SiLang, both of them lazy. But now, Zhou SiLang had become a bit more diligent, and his son remained lazy.

Daliang’s father was worried. The sight of his son made him more troubled, so he shifted the direction of his stool, turning his back on his son while threshing and asking, "Uncle Jin, did you need something from me?"

Old Zhou looked at him with disdain and instructed, "You can’t sit to thresh. You need to stand, wrap a cloth around your head and face, and if your hands hurt, wrap them too. Stand and thresh vigorously; you could finish in half a morning. Sitting like this, when will you be done?"

After finishing, he said, "Nothing much, just that last year you all got your wheat seed from us, right? The Bai Family thinks our seed is good and wants to exchange their wheat for ours to use as seed. I came to ask if you’re willing."

"One kilo for one kilo?"

"Nonsense, if not kilo for kilo, would you swap one and a half kilos for their one kilo?"

"It’s not out of the question," Daliang’s father thought it over and said, "But their wheat has to be at least as good as ours. Don’t get me wrong, Uncle; your wheat seed is really good. It has long ears, and the grains are full. I estimate that this year’s wheat harvest in our family will definitely be several bags more than the year before last."

As they talked, neighbors nearby heard and peeked over. Old Zhou saw them and waved them over, "Come, come, let’s talk."

The passersby and nearby neighbors thought it over; other than threshing or drying wheat at home, there wasn’t much else going on. So they simply leave the work to their wives and children and strolled over, hands behind their backs.

By the time Daliang’s mother came out from the kitchen, the courtyard was already full of people. With no choice, she had to carry chairs for them.

Everyone sat in the courtyard. It seemed improper to talk with empty hands, so they pulled some wheat from Zhou Daliang’s pile and talked while threshing.

"Uncle Jin, how come you have time to walk around today?"

"When does he not have time? With six sons outside and Auntie Qian and a bunch of daughters-in-law inside, Uncle is now living the good life."

"Living the good life?" Old Zhou huffed, "Then find wives for my fifth and sixth sons."

"Hey, Five should be getting a wife by now, shouldn’t he?"

Old Zhou thought about it and figured the boy wasn’t in a hurry, but it was time to start looking around. So he said, "We could start talking about marriage. If any of you know of any good girls, let my wife know. We’ll let the two of them meet and see each other."

"I think Five will have great prospects in the future; he’s much better than Four. He’s quick with work and sharp too."

Old Zhou nodded in satisfaction, "Not bad, I also think Five is better than Four. So the girls you mention better not be worse than those from the Fang family."