The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 452 - 441: Family Heirloom

Chapter 452: Chapter 441: Family Heirloom

Junior Ms. Qian approached them and, welcoming her parents inside, said with a smile, "They’re planning to take these to the county town to sell tomorrow."

Eldest Uncle Qian hesitated and asked doubtfully, "These things can be sold? Aren’t they found everywhere outside?"

"It’s Erlang who’s taking care of it. He says it can be sold, and Manbao also says it’s possible, so it must be doable," Junior Ms. Qian replied with a smile, "When it comes to business matters at home, they’re more familiar with it."

"Erlang is indeed sharper," said Eldest Uncle Qian, glancing at the mugwort stacked in the courtyard. He didn’t take it too seriously and asked his daughter with a smile, "Where’s your father-in-law?"

"He went to check on the wheat. Mother is at the back in the chicken coop, I’ll go call her over."

Sanlang immediately volunteered eagerly, "Mother, I’ll go, I’ll go."

"Alright, you go then."

Third Uncle Qian was wandering around looking for Zhou Erlang and discovered another pile of mugwort in the small courtyard. Zhou Erlang was there, busy organizing it with Zhou San and a few others, so he approached with a chuckle.

When the brothers saw Third Uncle, they immediately scooted over to make room for him, "Third Uncle, how come you’re here so early? Five, Sixth, hurry over to greet your uncles."

As soon as Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang heard this, they dropped the mugwort and ran off—they didn’t like doing this work anyway.

Third Uncle Qian then asked Zhou Erlang, "How do you sell this stuff? Can it really be sold?"

Zhou Erlang replied with a smile, "I’ve never sold it before, but I reckon it’s possible. There isn’t much mugwort in the city, and not everyone there is willing to go out of the city to cut it."

Zhou Erlang had a plan, "I’ll divide the mugwort into small bundles, two coins per bundle. If someone wants it, they can pay and pick one. If not, I don’t lose anything—just some effort."

Zhou San nodded in agreement. His mindset had changed from the past, as the family had begun to dabble in all sorts of businesses in recent years, "It’s not the busy farming season now, and since we’re idle anyway, might as well give it a try."

Convinced by their logic, Third Uncle Qian rolled up his sleeves and helped them tie up mugwort bundles.

Zhou Si went to the woodshed and pulled out two bundles of last year’s leftover straw. They used two straws to tie up each mugwort bundle, placed them to one side, and planned to move them later into the shade, so they could be easily loaded onto the cart tomorrow. This kind of business was easy and not too taxing, how nice.

Indeed, Old Zhou had agreed that they would take the ox cart out tomorrow, mainly because there were many people going, a whole crowd of wives and children.

Of course, another main reason was that Old Zhou was really looking forward to the feeling of driving an ox cart to the market.

The sun had just climbed halfway up the sky when Old Zhou returned from the field with a hoe over his shoulder, wearing a straw hat.

Eldest Uncle Qian asked him, "Did you go to check on the wheat?"

"Mhm, two plots of land have wheat that are earing a bit late. I went to have a look," said Old Zhou. "I was just thinking, if my sisters-in-law come today, I need to get Eldest Sister-in-law to pass on a message. Does your family have enough grain?"

Eldest Uncle Qian cleared his throat and replied, "We’re a bit short. Last year, we only planted a little over five mu. Just after the wheat harvest, our family ran out of food, so we hurried to sun-dry the wheat and grind it into flour. Now, what’s left at home is the grain that was hulled later, about three bags or so."

Old Zhou commented, "That should be enough to last you, with the summer harvest not far away."

Eldest Uncle Qian showed a helpless expression and said, "Technically it would be enough, but only yesterday I remembered my cousin had already spoken to me earlier this year about borrowing two bags from us. He only planted two mu of winter wheat last year and has been borrowing grain since February. Once he harvests his wheat, he’ll have to repay, and then there won’t be enough left for his family."

Old Zhou couldn’t help muttering, "They don’t have few mouths to feed either. How could they only plant two mu?"

What could Eldest Uncle Qian do?

He sighed and explained, "Last year, his family had terrible luck. The river flooded and collapsed the bank, submerging all their wheat and rice fields. They couldn’t salvage a single grain of wheat, not to mention the immature rice. After borrowing grain, they didn’t last long because the children, not understanding the situation, ate some of the wheat seeds..."

In their area, to maintain soil fertility and because they had ample land, they seldom grew winter wheat. His family was also unsure about the yield of winter wheat, so after saving enough seeds for spring wheat, there was only enough leftover to plant two mu.

The ordinary wheat seeds weren’t like their new variety; a mu only yielded two bags of wheat, and that too, the smaller-sized bags they usually used in their farming households.

Eldest Uncle Qian said, "His two little grandsons are only three or four years old; we can’t just watch the children starve to death."

Old Zhou then asked, "What about Second Brother and Sanlang?"

"They’re better off; they have enough to feed themselves."

Because of the limited manpower, they wished they could bring in more wheat, but hadn’t they failed to do so?

So, what was left was barely enough to eat, but it was impossible to lend any to Eldest Uncle Qian for his in-laws.

Moreover, Eldest Uncle Qian had other ideas; he wanted to keep the wheat they had and later lend it as seed to his relatives, letting them try growing the new variety.

Perhaps, the harvest next year would be better, wouldn’t it?

Old Zhou didn’t object, saying, "Old Master Bai’s family previously traded wheat for seeds with our villagers. We have nine bags left at home, and I plan to buy three, which will be enough to last us until the summer harvest. If you want some too, I’ll buy a bit extra."

"How much per dou?"

"Thirty wen."

Eldest Uncle Qian nodded, "That’s quite a bit cheaper than in the county town. My cousin said, wheat is going for forty wen per dou in the county town’s grain shops, yet grain merchants only want to pay twenty-eight wen per dou when they come down to the village to buy?"

"What?" Old Zhou couldn’t help raising his voice.

Eldest Uncle Qian laughed and said, "Well, it’s not like we can buy it; those grain merchants who came to our village didn’t manage to purchase a single catty. Nowadays, every household is struggling; outside the house, there are relatives. If there’s extra grain, people first lend it to relatives who need it to survive. How many are willing to sell their grain?"

Occasionally, some other villages had a few households willing to sell, but they were also not very daring to do so, fearing that disputes might arise later on.

Old Zhou touched his smoking pipe, not daring to smoke in front of his elder uncle, "Are you borrowing money or grain? If it’s grain, your family doesn’t lack food right now; that would be a loss."

"Let it be a loss, taking some loss is a blessing," said Eldest Uncle Qian, his thoughts strangely in sync with Ms. Qian’s. He smiled, "We are relatives; would two families really start a feud over a bit of grain?"

Uncles are dear, and the children are grown up too. Moreover, the in-laws had helped him quite a lot in early years. And he had already promised to lend grain; how could he switch to lending money midway?

Eldest Uncle Qian said, "You help me buy three bags as well. Tomorrow, I’ll have Dalang come over and carry them back."

"No need," Old Zhou said, "Let’s do it the day after; Dalang can directly haul it to you with a cart."

Old Zhou hadn’t expected his elder uncle to buy as many as three bags, given that his family still had wheat at home. Was he planning to lend two bags to his in-laws and also swap one bag for seed to distribute to relatives?

Old Zhou was astounded, thinking to himself: Fortunately, his wife listened to her, otherwise, if his family spent like his elder uncle, they would definitely be out of money.

But then, Eldest Uncle Qian suddenly asked about the ox. "I heard your family got the ox on credit?"

"Yes, we put three taels of silver on credit."

"Three taels to buy an ox is not bad, especially on credit. Shame, when the Land Officer came to our village, he said our families didn’t have much money or grain saved up. If I had known winter wheat could be sold as seed, I would’ve also credited an ox. I wonder if the County Governmental Office still has oxen for crediting."

Old Zhou: ...

Eldest Uncle Qian just felt a pang of regret; he needed to see how much buying three bags of wheat would cost. Actually, he too wanted to buy an ox; it would make work much faster.