At the beginning of the new year, Gu Zhao was seventeen years old. His birthday was in the first month of the lunar calendar.

　　This winter, the Li family had bone soup every day. Gu Zhao was no longer like his former self who did not work. After a winter, he usually wore a padded jacket which did not show his presence, but now he changed into a single piece of clothing, and his body suddenly became taller and broader.

　　”I’ve really grown taller.” Gu Zhao happily stood close to his wife. The effect was relatively small and could not be seen with the naked eye. Maybe two centimeters?

　　That’s about 1.76 or 1.77 meters tall.

　　According to modern statistics, he was 1.87 meters tall when he was a junior in college, so he could still make a breakthrough!

　　Li Zhouzhou was also happy. His husband had grown taller, stronger, more handsome, and more lively. Unlike before, when the villagers said his husband was weak and looked like a sickly person.

　　My husband is not like that!

　　The wheat in the field looks different every day, and farmers have to check on the fields every day to feel at ease. By mid-to-late May, the wheat fields are lush green, the wheat stalks are as tall as calves, and the ears grow fast.

　　Li Da applied fertilizer to the fields, but he didn’t have much hope at the time. After all, if farmers don’t work on the fields, who should do? It won’t do any harm, so what’s the point of wasting effort? But as he went to the fields day by day, especially when the wheat ears were ripe, he felt them and knew something was different.

　　Unlike the wheat ears in previous years, this year they are tight and dense.

　　Li Da didn’t dare show up and suppressed his speculation in his heart, but as the days passed, the crops in the fields were growing clearly and could not be concealed. The crops were good, and the wheat ears were growing firm, full and heavy, which was pleasing to the old farmer. He could tell it at a glance.

　　”Li Da, your land is green and lush, and the ears of corn are heavy, so it’s growing well.”

　　“It’s different from other places at first glance.”

　　The villagers noticed it, and Li Da tried to keep a low profile but failed. He could only wave his hands and say, “I forgot to put fertilizer in my house. I haven’t planted any grain yet, so I don’t know what will happen.”

　　That’s true. It might look good, but there are some empty husks in the wheat ears.

　　Although they thought so, some people still murmured: Could it be that Xishui^[1]absorbent, like soil absorbent for fertility is really useful?

　　We will know whether it is useful or not after we harvest.

　　Every household in the village has to pay taxes. After the harvest, the grain is shelled, bagged and weighed. No one dares to lie. The village chief keeps a record of it and checks it one by one when the tax officer comes to collect the grain.

　　He knew which family’s crops were doing well or poorly.

　　Last winter there was enough snow, and in the spring there were a few rains, so the crops in every household grew well. Although the Li family’s fields were indeed better, many people felt that even if the crops grew well, the Xishui water could not provide much fertilizer. Could it be that their harvest was ten buckets less than theirs?

　　I guess it’s just one or two more buckets.

　　One dou weighs twenty jin, and ten dou weighs two hundred jin.

　　Before the harvest, no one believed that the yield of Li’s fields could double per acre, not even Li himself.