The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 421 - 410: Thoughts

Chapter 421: Chapter 410: Thoughts

A group of elderly men discussed the children’s marital matters, and it wasn’t until Old Zhou had finished a bag of cigarettes that he finally remembered the important business at hand.

He tapped his pipe, emptying the ash and residue, then tucked it behind him at his waist and grabbed a handful of wheat to help rub.

He scoffed inwardly, thinking that if this was how they rubbed wheat at his home, the big stick would have come down on them by now, as he had never seen anyone rub wheat while sitting.

However, since this was someone else’s home, of course, it felt more comfortable to sit while rubbing the wheat.

When Old Zhou remembered the urgent business, he asked those present, "Have all of your families’ wheat sun-dried yet?"

"Not yet, mine just finished being rubbed, and it still needs to dry for two or three more days. But it looks like it’s going to rain again; you see those dark clouds on the horizon, looming as if they might come our way. If it rains, we’ll have to dry it for an extra day."

"Then you all better be careful not to let it get rained on; I was just about to mention that the Bai Family wants to exchange wheat with us, for seed, so you must dry it well."

"How much do they want?"

"All of it!"

"What?" The villagers were startled and asked in unison, "Why do they want so much? Can their family even plant it all?"

"They’re big landlords, and it’s not just one Bai Family - there’s Old Master Bai and Young Master Bai, right?" Old Zhou had naturally assumed that both sections of the Bai Family wanted to exchange for seed wheat, so he said matter-of-factly, "With so much land they have, I reckon this bit won’t even be enough for them."

"One to one exchange?"

Hearing the reluctance in his voice, Old Zhou rolled his eyes and said, "Wasn’t it a one-to-one exchange when your family swapped with mine last year?"

"Uncle Jin, aren’t we in this together?" he said, "You can’t side with them just because Manbao is friendly with Young Master Bai."

"Nonsense," Old Zhou cursed, then thought it over and realized, indeed, although he had good relations with the Bai Family, his relationship with the villagers was stronger. Pondering, he said, "True, these are seeds, aren’t they? A one-to-one exchange seems a bit unfair; maybe we should ask for more?"

"Ask for more, ask for more," the crowd got agitated, with someone saying, "Even if it’s just an extra ounce or two, with a hundred pounds, that’s an extra ten pounds, enough to make several meals of large white steamed buns for a family."

Old Zhou’s eyes lit up as he slapped his thigh and said, "Exactly, we should start the bidding high, just..."

After some thought, Old Zhou said, "We’ll exchange one pound for one pound, three ounces. If they bargain, we’ll go down to the lowest at one pound for one ounce, and then I’ll exchange all our wheat too."

"Uncle Jin, how much wheat did your family harvest this year?"

"Haven’t weighed it, but this year, with twenty mu planted, we bagged sixty-nine bags. I remember two years ago, I planted thirty-five mu and only harvested sixty-seven bags," he recalled.

Everyone was astounded, "That much?"

Daliang’s father slapped his thigh and exclaimed, "I knew it! The two mu of land in Little Bay at my home, this year we bundled ten sheaves. I remember we only bundled seven sheaves the year before last."

Daliang’s mother couldn’t help saying, "You bundling that wheat, one sheaf bigger or smaller, can that be accurate?"

"How can it not be accurate, we’re only talking about a handful of wheat sheaves’ difference, how much can it be off? I’ve been telling you to separate those sheaves, one plot from another plot, whether there’s more or less, we should have a count. You insisted on piling them together."

"I did want to separate them, but does your yard have that much space?" Daliang’s mother couldn’t help arguing with him, "The wheat sheaves you bring back need to be sun-dried, right? You want me to plant rice seedlings, spread fertilizer, all you have to do is thresh those wheat sheaves to clear up space for me."

"Alright, alright," Old Zhou hurriedly played peacemaker, "Over such a small matter, now the seedlings are all planted, there’s nothing else to do, just rub it slowly."

"Uncle Jin, this seed of yours is truly incredible, where did you buy it from?"

Old Zhou himself found it unbelievable and after some thought, he said, "Didn’t buy it, always been keeping seed from our own harvest. The year before it was fine - even though some of our wheat produced better than yours, that’s because we farmed more carefully, but last year disaster struck and our yields dropped a bit..."

With that said, everyone remembered the events.

The fields in the village were nearly all together, so everyone had a clear view of each other’s crops.

The real change began last year when everyone’s fields suffered disaster, and the yields weren’t good, but Old Zhou’s wheat fields still did not too badly.

Zhou Daliang, who had been quiet as a chicken beside them, suddenly slapped his thigh, "I know why! It must be because last year Heaven Master thought of Manbao; this is Heaven Master’s reward to Uncle Zhou’s family, and a blessing for our village."

Old Zhou and the others looked at Zhou Daliang in silence.

Zhou Daliang said anxiously, "Father, Uncle Zhou, Uncles, I’m telling the truth. Four said that Manbao really is a fairy reborn. When his wife was in labor, the screaming was just terrible, but right after they prayed to the deities with Manbao, she gave birth immediately, and there was not a single issue, both mother and child were very safe."

Everyone turned their gaze to Old Zhou.

Old Zhou fell silent for a moment and finally said, "That night, Four did drag Manbao to pray to the deities, but aren’t we right now talking about exchanging wheat?"

The villagers immediately burst into laughter, nodding and saying, "It’s all related, it’s all related. Jin, when you go back, make sure to tell Manbao to bless our dealings, to exchange for more wheat."

Old Zhou thought for a bit, then nodded and said, "Alright, later I’ll have Manbao pray to Heaven Master. But whether Heaven Master agrees to bless our Manbao, there are no guarantees."

"We know, we know, one mustn’t force these things."

"So we’ve agreed, when you go back, you better dry your wheat properly, regardless of whether we can exchange more or not, we must dry our wheat well; this is for seed after all, we can’t deceive people."

Everyone concurred, and the conversation continued, "It’s a pity that my family used our own saved seeds for this year’s spring wheat, the yield definitely won’t match this batch of winter wheat."

"Then we need to save more seeds for ourselves, next year we’ll also plant Uncle Jin’s seeds for our spring wheat."

Old Zhou, hands behind his back, advised, "Then save some more. After the autumn harvest and planting winter wheat, don’t you need to save extra seeds?"

"Ah? Planting winter wheat after the autumn harvest? Can the soil endure that?"

Seeing the question came from a young man, Old Zhou tapped him with his pipe and said, "You’re really not too sharp, are you? Can’t you just switch to another plot of land to plant the winter wheat? Let the land you planted last year rest."

The young man couldn’t help but grumble, "If the autumn harvest goes well, why bother planting winter wheat?"

Old Zhou heard him but did not reply; he had merely made a suggestion, whether to plant or not was up to each person. As for himself, he intended to plant.

With so many children in his family, even with good weather, they could only just eat enough.

But after having enough to eat, of course, he thought it would be better for the children to eat white rice and white steamed buns every day. Anyway, he didn’t like to eat anything mixed with husk or bran.