Chapter 28: Busy with Farming

With August behind them, September ushered in crisp autumn days. The rice in the fields was already flowering, and its growth looked promising. Aside from one heavy downpour during the summer, the weather had been quite favorable, filling the team with hope for a bountiful harvest.

One day, Shen Zhuo reminded Ye Xin that the busy farming season would begin later in the month, a workload that would last over a month. “We need to gather medicinal herbs while we still have time; soon we won’t have a moment to spare,” he advised.

Upon hearing this, Ye Xin promptly decided to venture deeper into the mountains for herbs. Together, they set to work, gathering a variety of medicinal plants, and by mid-September, they planned to head back to town once again.

Ye Xin’s earlier idea of visiting town twice a month hadn’t come to fruition. Between managing the space and the busy harvest season ahead, she had no idea how hectic things would become. This time, she intended to buy more meat to stock up for the busy days ahead. Of course, she wouldn’t forget to bring along some vegetables to sell as well.

Just like their last trip, they arrived early in town and quickly found a good spot. Ye Xin set up her stall while Shen Zhuo took charge of selling the herbs. She even handed him a couple of fresh vegetables and a pumpkin, asking him to deliver them to Dr. Xu.

Shen Zhuo hesitated. “Why do we need to deliver them? Dr. Xu can afford to buy his own vegetables.”

Ye Xin replied earnestly, “It’s to build good relations, of course!”

His brows furrowed at this suggestion. He had always been reluctant to socialize, and the idea of intentionally ingratiating himself with someone seemed unnecessary. He didn’t see the point in trying to curry favor with Dr. Xu. After all, the doctor was running a business; would a few vegetables really result in him receiving a couple more dimes for the herbs in the future?

Even if that was the case, he didn’t want to rely on such tactics. He believed his skills in foraging and selling herbs should be enough to earn him a fair price. What if Dr. Xu turned down the vegetables? That would be awkward.

Ye Xin noticed his discomfort and sensed he was being a bit too principled. She couldn’t help but wonder how this young man from a poor mountain village developed such ideals. With his handsome features and reserved demeanor, he didn’t fit the typical image of a country bumpkin; he seemed more like a scholar from a well-off family in the city, making him quite unique.

Time was short for an extended discussion. “I’m not asking you to flatter him on purpose. Just say we grew these vegetables ourselves and can’t eat them all, so we’re giving some to him. That should be enough; Dr. Xu won’t refuse. Now go on,” she urged, giving his arm a gentle push.

With a resigned frown, Shen Zhuo took the vegetables and medicinal herbs and set off.

Ye Xin sighed in relief as she squatted down to set up her vegetable stall.

As soon as she displayed the fresh array of vegetables, customers began to approach. “Miss, it’s so good to see you again! I bought some of your vegetables last time, and my family said they were delicious. Why haven’t you been around since?” one woman asked.

Ye Xin was pleasantly surprised to hear that she had returning customers after just one sale. She smiled and explained, “I don’t usually sell vegetables; I just had too many from our garden and thought I’d sell some while in town. I’ve been busy, and my home is quite far, so it’s not easy to come back and forth. What would you like to buy today?”

“The tomatoes still look wonderful! I’ll take two pounds, please.” As she selected her vegetables, the woman understood Ye Xin’s situation. Many villagers had to walk two to three hours just to get to the market, making it difficult. She thought it a shame not to take advantage of such good produce, so she decided to stock up. “I’ll also take two pounds of eggplants. And those chives look good—please weigh me a bunch.”

“Sure!” Ye Xin quickly measured the vegetables, calculated the total, and bundled them with straw for her customer. “Thank you for your business! Take care.”

Fresh, vibrant vegetables were the best advertisement, and with one customer gone, the next arrived quickly—most were local women responsible for feeding their families.

Perhaps due to the cooler weather, there were fewer vegetables for sale that day, and Ye Xin’s produce sold even faster than before, earning envious glances from nearby stalls.

Meanwhile, Shen Zhuo hesitated as he reached the Xu family’s traditional Chinese medicine shop. It was still early, and there were no other customers around.

Seizing the opportunity while the shop was still empty, Shen Zhuo stepped inside. Dr. Xu had just gotten out of bed and opened the door, his eyes still slightly bleary. Upon seeing Shen Zhuo, he smiled and said, “Ah, Xiao Shen, you’re the first customer today! What brings you here so early?”

Shen Zhuo approached the counter, set down his basket, and, as the vegetables were on top, quickly pulled them out. With a deep breath, he recited the line Ye Xin had taught him: “Dr. Xu, these are vegetables we grew ourselves. We can’t eat them all, so I thought I’d bring some for you.”

Dr. Xu’s eyebrows raised in surprise as he examined the two bundles of fresh greens and a plump, golden pumpkin. “You grew these? They look fantastic—better than what’s sold in the market!” he remarked.

Shen Zhuo replied candidly, “Ye Xin did the planting.”

Dr. Xu chuckled, “Ah, your little fiancée? She must be quite skilled! But why didn’t she come with you today? Didn’t she say we’d see her more often? It’s been a while since she last visited.”

Shen Zhuo’s cheeks flushed slightly. “She’s here, selling vegetables in the market.”

Dr. Xu frowned slightly. “Then why not sell these instead? You don’t have to give them to me. I can pay for them. I know life isn’t easy for you.”

Realizing he had mistakenly revealed that Ye Xin was selling vegetables, Shen Zhuo felt a twinge of embarrassment. “She insisted I bring them to you. We really can’t finish them ourselves, so we thought we’d sell them while we were here. It’s not worth much; please don’t refuse!”

Dr. Xu smiled and waved his hand. “Alright, I’ll accept them, then.”

With a sigh of relief, Shen Zhuo pulled out the herbs for weighing. Dr. Xu carefully assessed them, and this time, there was slightly more—over ten yuan. Dr. Xu considered rounding it up to eleven yuan, as a gesture to cover the vegetable costs.

Shen Zhuo quickly shook his head. “No, no, that’s too much! Please, just the herbs.”

Then, recalling what Ye Xin had mentioned about wanting to try growing medicinal herbs, he took a chance and asked Dr. Xu about them.

“Are you looking to grow them yourself? Some might not thrive in this climate,” Dr. Xu warned.

“Ye Xin wants to give it a try,” Shen Zhuo explained.

Dr. Xu nodded, retrieving a small basket from the corner filled with leftover herbs, mixed with bits of leaves and soil. “You can take these; they’re not for sale. They were just leftovers. There are forsythia, codonopsis, and several others. If you can grow them, that would be quite something!”

Shen Zhuo gratefully accepted the basket, feeling relieved. “She just wants to experiment. No need to buy anything special; these will be perfect. Thank you, Dr. Xu!”

Dr. Xu, noticing the camaraderie between the young couple, waved him off with a chuckle. “What’s with all the thanks? I should be thanking you for bringing me vegetables!”

With everything gathered, Shen Zhuo took his leave. On the way back to the market area, he looked around for any vendors selling eggs, but unfortunately, there were none. When he returned to Ye Xin, he was surprised to see that she had already sold half of their vegetables. “You sold them this fast?” he asked, astonished.

“Of course! Our vegetables are better than anyone else’s. They’re quite popular,” she said, beaming with pride. She then lowered her voice and asked, “How much did you sell for?”

Shen Zhuo honestly reported the sales and mentioned his success in delivering the vegetables and obtaining herb seeds.

Ye Xin’s eyes sparkled with delight. “See? It’s that simple! Building good relationships makes everything easier in the long run.”

Shen Zhuo agreed, appreciating her point. She always got along with the village women, but he felt a little uncomfortable with the idea of networking. “You couldn’t have guessed Dr. Xu would give us seeds, could you?”

Ye Xin laughed, “How could I? I didn’t even know you were going to ask today!”

Shen Zhuo wanted to probe further into her intentions with Dr. Xu but was interrupted when another customer approached to buy vegetables. He decided to set aside his curiosity for now.

The two of them worked seamlessly together: one weighing and packaging the vegetables, the other handling payments. Shen Zhuo marveled at the ease of their teamwork. Even though it was his first time selling vegetables with her, it felt as if they had been doing it together for ages.

He cherished this feeling; no matter what they did, it was better when they did it side by side. Before long, they had sold out all their vegetables.

The sun had yet to fully rise over the small town when Shen Zhuo and Ye Xin set out to shop. After a quick search yielded no eggs, they headed directly to the Chen family courtyard, where they bought meat, eggs, rice, and oil. Shen Zhuo paid for everything, quickly spending the over ten yuan he had just earned.

He didn’t mind; after all, he felt it was worth it to trade a month’s worth of medicinal herbs for these nourishing supplies. Ye Xin had brought along two pounds of dried chili peppers to test the waters; the local price was only fifty cents per pound, which she thought was too low, but she managed to sell them for a yuan.

With the remaining twenty yuan she had plus the two yuan from selling vegetables and the one yuan from the chili peppers, they now had a total of about twenty-four yuan—essentially all their savings since Shen Zhuo had barely any money on him.

Ye Xin felt they were in decent shape for now. There were no other pressing expenses, and as long as they could keep replenishing their food supply, they would be fine. After finishing their shopping, they inquired if Brother Chen had any herb seeds, but after receiving a negative response, they left.

They wandered the streets for a bit but didn’t spot any seedlings, so they made their way home. It was still early, not even ten o’clock yet. Once they put away their purchases, they decided to take advantage of the morning to tidy up the vegetable garden.

As autumn deepened, some of the vegetables were past their prime and wilted, needing to be cleared out. Earlier that morning, they had harvested the best vegetables for sale; Shen Zhuo’s plan had been to sell the good ones for cash, eat the not-so-good ones, and the leftovers were still sufficient, especially with many vegetables already pickled and dried. Ye Xin had no objections; as long as they had enough to eat, that was all that mattered.

Once they finished clearing the garden, they turned the soil again to plant seasonal crops like winter cabbage, various leafy greens, white radishes, long green beans, and oilseed rape. As for the herb seeds, Ye Xin sprinkled half of them along the edges of the vegetable garden, and the other half in the planned medicinal herb field, watering them with spring water, hoping they would sprout.

September had seen no rain, with bright blue skies and the sun blazing down every day. The rice paddies entered a crucial filling stage, and the rice heads gradually grew heavy, bowing low under their weight.

Before the paddies outside matured, Ye Xin’s second batch of rice in her space was already ready for harvest. Over the course of two nights, she cut the rice, only to realize afterward that she had forgotten how to thresh it. Luckily, her space was equipped with tools for growing magical rice and fruits. After a frantic search in the wooden storage shed, she not only found the threshing tool but also the tools for hulling rice and weighing it.

After two more nights of hard work, she finally finished threshing the rice, exhausted but satisfied. The effort proved worthwhile; after drying, she weighed the harvest and discovered that from three-quarters of an acre, she had collected about fifteen hundred pounds of rice, which meant an impressive yield of two thousand pounds per acre.

Ye Xin had some knowledge of rice yields from her time; in her era, the yield was around one thousand pounds per acre—less in the north and slightly more in the south, rarely exceeding two thousand pounds, and that was with hybrid seeds. Currently, hybrid rice had not been developed yet, and she guessed the yield might only be around five hundred pounds.

The comparison was stark. The growth speed and yield of crops in her space were three to four times that of the outside, proving her magical abilities truly lived up to their reputation.

Curious, she milled the rice and found that the output was around eighty percent. This meant that from the fifteen hundred pounds of rice she had harvested, she could produce about twelve hundred pounds of white rice—enough for her and Shen Zhuo to eat for two years without needing to buy any more!

In high spirits, Ye Xin set aside a little more rice to keep as seeds, storing the rest in the warehouse. Then… of course, it was time to continue planting! The price of rice was decent compared to vegetables, so they could sell some once they had enough to eat.

Ye Xin busily worked with a mix of pain and joy. Shen Zhuo noticed she looked tired and worriedly asked, “What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”

Ye Xin stifled a yawn and put her hands down. “I’m fine; I just didn’t sleep well,” she admitted, her excitement had kept her up late.

Shen Zhuo pushed a bowl of egg soup towards her. “You need to take care of yourself. We’ll be harvesting the rice soon.”

Ye Xin nodded, her face scrunching in acknowledgment. “I know.”