The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 497 - 486: Informed

Chapter 497: Chapter 486: Informed

Actually, it wasn’t just a few households, but over a dozen.

This year’s summer and autumn harvests were good and, with the winter wheat laid in the spring as a foundation, Bai Shanbao even exchanged one and a half catties for a batch of wheat, so the majority of the villagers in Qili Village had plenty to eat.

So there were not many families who decided to plant winter wheat.

After all, isn’t it tiring?

For most people, the only time they get a bit of a break is after the autumn harvest. To plant winter wheat means to be busy throughout the whole year.

That certainly isn’t a good sign.

However, Zhou Family decided to plant winter wheat. Once their decision was known among other villagers, a few households agreed to join them, and after some hesitation, over ten more households followed suit.

Farming is just like that.

The reason Zhou Family decided to plant winter wheat was firstly, Manbao’s little farm was planting it; secondly, Old Zhou was still thinking about the profits from the new wheat variety; and thirdly, they now had an ox at home, and it would feel wasteful not to plant.

But they didn’t intend to plant much, only twenty mu as they did last year.

Other families didn’t have the means to plant on such a scale as Zhou’s.

Planting two or three mu was about right for most, primarily because they weren’t particularly reliant on winter wheat for food.

Right, everyone is that easily contented.

When Manbao and the others finished school, Mr. Zhuang was invited over as well.

Old Master Bai was very happy to see the children associating with the County Magistrate Yang, hence Bai Shanbao and Manbao were both kept for the evening meal with the County Magistrate Yang.

Yang Heshu also liked talking with the three children.

Talking with them was neither the hassle of coddling children, nor the effort of dealing with sly adults, and there was no worry that they wouldn’t understand him, which could be frustrating.

So, the four of them quickly formed their own group, chatting and admiring the flowers as they walked through the garden, leaving Old Master Bai and Mr. Zhuang behind in the pavilion playing chess.

Manbao was drawn to a chrysanthemum and ran over to admire it.

Bai Erlang waved his hand generously, "It’s yours."

No sooner had he spoken than Bai Shanbao plucked the flower and put it on Manbao’s head, then couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

Yang Heshu, seeing the chrysanthemum almost as big as Manbao’s face, also burst into laughter.

Manbao, however, felt very pretty and wanted to run over to the lotus pond at Bai Erlang’s house to take a look, but Bai Shanbao grabbed her tightly and said, "It looks very nice, very nice, we just walked by there so let’s not go back."

Yang Heshu’s laughter brought tears to his eyes, and after wiping the corner of his eyes, he nodded, "Right, it looks very nice."

Manbao then took off the flower and said, "If it’s this nice, it should be for Lord Yang, since you are our parent official."

Bai Shanbao and Bai Erlang both found the idea reasonable and seized hold of Yang Heshu as the three children together placed the flower on his head.

Then it was Manbao’s turn to join Bai Shanbao and Bai Erlang in roaring with laughter.

Yang Heshu let them laugh their fill before removing the flower from his head, then smilingly asked, "Didn’t you agree to visit my home in the city when you have time? Why haven’t you come?"

Manbao replied, "I only went to the county city once before the Mid-Autumn Festival, but I was with my family and there were so many of us, it didn’t seem right to disturb an adult like you."

Bai Shanbao also said, "We went to Yizhou for the Mid-Autumn Festival."

"Oh?" Yang Heshu saw them acting like little adults and his tone became more like that of a peer, "Is Yizhou fun?"

Bai Shanbao and Bai Erlang nodded vigorously, "Their streets are so, so wide and there are so many of them, we walked around for two days and still didn’t see everything."

Manbao exclaimed in awe, "That big?"

They both nodded.

Manbao said, "Then there must be a lot of good food there."

"Of course," Bai Shanbao added, "I told you to come but you didn’t."

Yang Heshu then laughed and asked, "Is Yizhou bustling?"

Bai Shanbao thought for a moment and said, "It is bustling, but the people are kind of strange."

"Oh, what’s so strange about them?"

Bai Shanbao continued, "There are quite a few beggars in Yizhou, not just in the city but also along the official roads and outside the city gates. We hadn’t even entered the city yet when they came up to us with bowls to beg. It was quite pitiful."

Bai Erlang nodded repeatedly, "Our Luojiang County doesn’t have that many beggars. They are seldom seen in the city and there are only one or two between the towns, occasionally passing by to get a bowl of porridge."

The reason why Bai Erlang said this was because their home in Qili Village was the most impressive, and passing beggars would always loiter around their door first. Each time, his grandmother would instruct someone to give the beggar a bowl of rice and two bowls of spare rice to send them on their way.

Bai Erlang had seen this several times since he was a child.

But only a few times at that.

Therefore, he and Bai Shanbao were equally astonished by the ubiquitous presence of beggars in Yizhou.

Yang Heshu, with hands clasped behind his back, sighed deeply, "Are they begging because of last year’s natural disaster?"

"I asked, and most of them are, and some came from other places to Yizhou," Bai Shanbao sighed, "The prices in Yizhou are too high. There’s a wonton shop that’s said to be especially delicious, charging as much as twenty wen for a bowl. In Luojiang County, it’s only seven wen."

Manbao immediately added, "It used to be only five wen."

Yang Heshu contemplated, "Then the price of grain there must be very high as well?"

Bai Shanbao and Bai Erlang nodded together.

Yang Heshu looked amused, "Did you specifically go to inquire about the price of grain?"

"Of course," Bai Shanbao said matter-of-factly, "There was a grain shop not far from where we stayed, so we went in to take a look."

Bai Shanbao told Manbao, "Great-uncle made a lot of money from us, you won’t believe the price our new wheat fetched in Yizhou."

"How much?"

Bai Shanbao said, "An exorbitant price! The grain shop didn’t have any for sale, but the shop assistant mentioned that if we wanted to buy that new wheat variety, we would need to shell out at least three hundred wen."

Manbao was stunned, "Per dou?"

Bai Shanbao nodded affirmatively, "Per dou."

These matters were something the three little friends hadn’t had the chance to discuss at leisure yet because Bai Shanbao and Bai Erlang had played so crazily during their trip that they did not complete their homework. Once school resumed, their teacher assigned them three times the usual amount.

Every day, Bai Shanbao and Bai Erlang had no choice but to stay indoors and work on their assignments, whereas Manbao could go home to play with her nephews and nieces after finishing hers, completely ignoring them.

Yang Heshu’s eyes widened as he asked, "What kind of wheat sells for three hundred wen a dou?"

His first thought was that someone was maliciously hiking up the price of the wheat seed, a particularly heinous act during this critical period of post-disaster reconstruction.

Yet the three children were proud, "It’s our wheat."

Yang Heshu’s eyes narrowed, "What’s so special about your wheat?"

"Of course there is," back when they had to promote their wheat to Old Master Bai, the three, including Bai Erlang, had listed all the advantages of their new wheat variety, and could recite them by heart.

Although a considerable time had passed since now, Bai Erlang still remembered, and together with the other two, they chimed in one after the other...

"Our wheat has long spikes!"

"Our wheat varieties are tall and robust."

"Drought-resistant and flood-tolerant."

"Mainly, they yield high."

Yang Heshu smiled warmly, "So, how much did you sell it for?"

"One hundred and fifty wen per dou for family, and one hundred and eighty wen for outsiders. But now that grain prices have dropped, the price of seed has dropped as well."