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“Many people in the village are not worth helping, and there’s no need to keep more,” Wang Jinhe said indifferently.
Su Yu didn’t say much. Wang Jinhe could decide on this matter herself, and Su Yu had nothing to add. She didn’t have the qualification to say more.
“As long as you’re happy. What if there’s a rainy season?” Su Yu asked, looking at Wang Jinhe.
“It’s not the rainy season yet, right? We can talk about it when it arrives.” If she really encountered difficulties, she might help those people, provided they stopped being annoying.
Su Yu chuckled softly; this girl indeed had a soft heart.
“Don’t look at me like that. I know I’m soft-hearted, and I deserve it. Even when they treated me like that, I still thought about helping them. I don’t know if there’s something wrong with my head,” Wang Jinhe muttered.
Watching Wang Jinhe, Su Yu burst into laughter, “There’s nothing wrong with being soft-hearted. It means you’re kind.”
Kind?
Kind people don’t necessarily receive good returns.
“Su Yu, people shouldn’t be too kind. Being too kind makes you vulnerable to being taken advantage of, just like…” Wang Jinhe didn’t finish her sentence, but Su Yu understood what she meant.
Grandma Wang and the Gu Shi’s Family were both too gentle and kind, avoiding arguments with others. In the end, it was their family that got hurt.
“What’s wrong with that? Kind-hearted people are much better than those filled with malice. You just overthink things. Aren’t you tired of thinking so much?” Su Yu reached out and pinched Wang Jinhe’s face, saying teasingly.
Hearing this, Wang Jinhe chuckled softly, “You’re right. Don’t they often say good deeds bring good returns? I just don’t want to help those malicious people.”
In fact, she had given those people many chances already, but they just didn’t know how to appreciate them. What else could she do?
“Su Yu, I’ve really given them enough chances. If they still act this way, it’s not my fault.”
“Of course, let’s go.”
After the drum was made, Wang Dagui and his son knew how to make the other things. They didn’t let Wang Jinhe hire anyone to do it, thinking it would be a waste of money. They had spent over three thousand taels just yesterday, and they needed to be more frugal with their spending.
Wang Jinhe felt somewhat helpless about the father and son’s approach. What were Grandpa and Dad thinking? Was this really okay?
After the father and son finished making everything, they went to the blacksmith to bring the items back. With the threshing machine ready, Liang, the steward, also came over and said that the rice could be harvested in the autumn.
Upon learning this news, Wang Jinhe and Su Yu, accompanied by the threshing machine, went over. Even Wang Dagui and Grandpa Wang went along to see if this so-called threshing machine really worked.
When they all arrived at the Homestead, Liang, the steward, looked a bit puzzled, “Master, what is this?”
“This is a threshing machine, used to thresh rice. Bring some people and tools; we’ll try it out,” Wang Jinhe explained.
Once everyone was in the field and the women had cut the rice, the men on the side began asking, “Master, how do we use this thing? We have no idea.” They had never seen anything like this, let alone used it.
“Watch closely.” Wang Jinhe took a bunch of rice and walked over. When she stepped on the pedal, the rice got fed into the drum. Everyone heard a clattering sound and quickly ran to the back to see.
Seeing the threshing machine instantly separating the grains, Liang and the others were delighted, “This is really great. With this thing, we can finish threshing all the rice in three days at most.”
“That’s right.”
Seeing the cleanly threshed rice, the people around were very happy. This reduced a lot of their workload.
“Don’t get too close to the drum with your hands; be careful not to injure yourselves later,” Wang Jinhe said, concerned.
“Master, don’t worry.”
The amount of rice cut at the moment was not much. Most of the men were still using sickles to cut rice. Wang Dagui and Grandpa Wang watched with joy, “Xiao He, I didn’t expect us to really make it.”
“Indeed. Before, we thought you were just fooling around. We didn’t expect this thing to be so useful after it was really made,” Wang Dagui said happily.
“Wanlin, go invite the county magistrate over.” Wang Jinhe had made it clear before that if the threshing machine could be used during the autumn harvest, she would present it to the court. Only by doing so could she help more people and make this convenient threshing machine accessible to more people.
“Yes.”
When the county magistrate arrived, he showed keen interest in the newly invented threshing machine. He walked over to watch the commoners use this contraption, and in no time, the threshing was done cleanly.
Some people cleaned up, others filled sacks, and some directly carried the rice back for drying. A portion of the rice was cleaned of leaves while drying.
“This is too fast.” The county magistrate observed for about an hour. In that time, they could thresh almost two mu of land. The speed was indeed impressive.
The county magistrate looked at Wang Jinhe and said seriously, “Are you sure you want to give this thing to me? You know, if you bring it to the higher-ups, you could get a lot of rewards. Even if you can’t, I believe Su Yu has some ways.”
“We don’t care about that. It’s more convenient to leave it to the county magistrate for operation. I’ll give you the blueprints later,” Wang Jinhe said nonchalantly.
This made the county magistrate both love and hate. Did this child know what she was giving up by handing this thing over to him?
“Don’t you worry that I might take credit for your achievements?” The county magistrate couldn’t help himself and asked Wang Jinhe again.
Wang Jinhe gave the county magistrate a puzzled look. Was this county magistrate already hard of hearing at such a young age?
“Since I’m willing to share it, I haven’t considered that problem. So, you don’t need to think about it so much,” Wang Jinhe said casually. “If my family needs money or anything else, I would certainly want to exchange it with you because I know that no matter how big the conditions I set, you would agree.”
The county magistrate remained silent. After all, this was the truth, not a joke.
“Don’t worry. Since you’re helping me with the governor, we won’t let you suffer. Rest assured, we’ll send this thing to the capital in your name. As for what kind of reward we can get afterward, it depends on the emperor’s will,” the county magistrate informed Wang Jinhe in advance to avoid high expectations.
“I don’t want anything. I just want land. Can you give me a bit more land?” In Wang Jinhe’s mind, land was a better reward than anything else. It saved her from spending money to buy it.
Once the melons were sold, she wouldn’t have any source of income.