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“Exhausted?” Wang Jinhe looked at Su Yu. “What did you do?”
Given the energy levels of the two children, they shouldn’t be exhausted like this. The only possibility was that Su Yu had done something again.
Su Yu innocently extended his hands and embraced Wang Jinhe, saying, “Xiao He, you have to believe me. I really haven’t done anything.”
“Then tell me how the two children got so tired,” Wang Jinhe suspiciously looked at Su Yu. If this wasn’t considered a problem, then what was?
Under Wang Jinhe’s questioning, Su Yu finally revealed everything he had done to Wang Jinhe. After hearing it all, Wang Jinhe looked at Su Yu with a displeased expression. “They’re just children. Take it easy.”
“Rest assured, I know what I’m doing.” Su Yu relied on the fact that Wang Jinhe had been busy lately and didn’t have time to supervise the children’s learning, so he dared to deceive her like this.
When Wang Jinhe had some free time, the two children would probably have adapted to the current intensity, and even if Xiaohe had any objections, there wouldn’t be much she could do.
The next day, when Wang Jinhe went to the fields with Yu Qingfeng, the village chief and others had all gathered. Not only the village chief but also those who didn’t follow Wang Jinhe to plant were present.
Wang Jinhe ignored them and took the people to the fields, teaching them how to transplant seedlings and the spacing between them.
Just as she finished explaining, someone spoke up, “You’re planting with that much space in between, and you’re still talking about increasing yields. Just don’t decrease the yield in the future.”
Wang Jinhe frowned and looked at the person. “If you don’t want to listen, then leave. Don’t disturb us here.”
Xie Kang glanced at the person who spoke, “Xiao He can plant anything very well. The total area of her family’s paddy fields is nearly two hundred mu, and all of it is planted like that. Xiaohe even experimented with all of her family’s fields before coming to teach us. If Xiao He can take out so much land for experimentation, why can’t we?”
“That’s right, even if there’s a decrease in yield, so what? We’re willing.”
The people mocking Wang Jinhe felt that these people were crazy when they heard their words.
“I think you’re all crazy. How can you do such things? Is there something wrong with your brains?”
“Yes, even if others don’t lack money and can afford losses, can you afford it?” someone pretended to be kind and said.
“Don’t be fooled and help others count their money.”
Xie Kang was least patient with people like this, but when he heard them belittling Wang Jinhe, he became unhappy. “What can’t we afford to lose? Even if there’s a decrease in rice production, we still have income from watermelons. As long as we plant them, we can make money.”
“That’s right.”
The group of people on the side heard this and were suddenly dumbfounded. Right, how could they forget that everyone who came today had already planted a few acres of melons at home? They didn’t care about these things at all now.
Moreover, they had tens of taels of silver from selling vegetables last winter while working with Wang Jinhe. These vegetables could be harvested, and that was all money.
“Oh, right, we still have vegetables about to be harvested that can make money. We can afford the loss.”
Wang Jinhe listened to their arrogant words and found it somewhat amusing. They were too infuriating.
But the words were not wrong. The people who came today really didn’t care about these losses. Besides planting melons, they also planted vegetables and grains for their own consumption.
“Uncle, you don’t need to worry about this.” Wang Jinhe shook her head.
The level of distrust among these people was so high that they would face severe consequences later.
After Wang Jinhe taught them how to transplant rice seedlings, each family went home to prepare for the transplanting.
For the first three days after the seedlings were planted, the leaves of all the seedlings looked wilted, as if they could wither at any moment. The mockery and distrust from those people became more apparent.
In the following four days, they happily watched the rice seedlings gradually turn yellow.
On the tenth day, when they were ready to mock, they saw the miraculously revived seedlings.
Not only did they revive, but they also grew a new leaf.
This result made the onlookers, who were waiting to see a joke, feel unbelievable.
“How is this possible? Clearly, they were almost dead. How could they grow new leaves?” Several people standing beside Xie Kang’s paddy field couldn’t believe it.
Xie Kang glanced at them disdainfully and said, “I’ve said it before: listening to Xiao He is always right. If you don’t believe, then don’t come to question what’s going on now. Are you worthy?”
“Also, when you want to plant like Xiao He in the future, remember to slap yourselves in the face a few times, or else you really don’t have the qualifications.” Xie Kang said expressionlessly.
“What are you so proud of? It’s just the beginning. Wait until your seedlings don’t fill the field, and then you can cry.” The people nearby stubbornly refused to admit any issues on their side.
Xie Kang looked at them as if they were fools. “You won’t cry unless you see the coffin. You’ll regret it later.”
After that, Xie Kang ignored these people and happily watched his own seedlings. Seeing the seedlings getting better day by day, turning greener, he couldn’t be happier.
After the spring plowing was over, the vegetables in the village, as well as those at Wang Jinhe’s house, were ready for harvest.
After dinner, when the two of them took the children out for a stroll, Wang Jinhe couldn’t help but comment on the vegetables outside, saying, “This is money again.”
“Yes, these are all money.” These vegetables helped him earn quite a bit of money during the New Year.
“Let Yuan Bao notify people to harvest the strawberries and vegetables. Xiao He, the strawberries you picked this time, leave the remaining ones for ourself?” During the time when Wang Jinhe was busy with spring plowing, Su Yu took Yuan Bao and others to pick strawberries once. If they picked again, there wouldn’t be much left.
The children liked to eat them, so Su Yu wanted to keep some for them.
“Sure.” Wang Jinhe said indifferently.
It was just some strawberries for the children to eat. It wasn’t a big deal.
When Yuan Bao learned that they were going to pick strawberries again, he asked, “Young Master, are we going to send them to the palace again this time?”
“They will be sent for sure. Since we’re sending them, let’s include some grape wine as well.” The most profitable product on their side was actually strong liquor. As for grape wine, they didn’t have much inventory left.
“We won’t sell the grapes this year; we’ll use them all to make wine. Selling them doesn’t seem very profitable.” Su Yu thought about the grapes they sold last year and felt a pang of regret. If they hadn’t sold them and used them all to make wine, how much money would they have made?
Wang Jinhe chuckled as he looked at Su Yu. “You have quite a bit of money yourself, and you’re still concerned about this?”
“I’m not concerned, but I think it’s more profitable to use them for making wine. If you don’t believe me, ask Yuan Bao.” Su Yu had talked to Yuan Bao privately many times and felt that selling the grapes as they did last year was too much of a loss.
Yuan Bao nodded in agreement. “Young Master is right. If we turn the grapes we sold last year into wine, we could have made at least an extra hundred thousand taels of silver.”
That was all pure silver, not stones.
Wang Jinhe looked at the two of them and said with a smile, “We’ll have more grapes this year, so there won’t be any shortage. Don’t worry about it.”
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Note: “Tael” is a unit of weight historically used in East Asia, often for silver or gold. The exact weight of a tael varied between regions.