NOVPUB
Chapter 303: Chapter 305: Delighting in Others’ Misfortunes_1
Wang Dashi made a visit, and the effect was quite obvious. The Wang Clan no longer dared to sit back and wait for death to come, and Tan Zhengyong also became slightly more diligent, even starting to take the initiative in his work.
Qiao Duo’er and Tan Zhenghong took advantage of the clear weather to scrape some black soil from underneath the big trees on the mountain and brought it to their own fields.
This black soil, formed from the decay of leaves, was as good as the typical farmyard manure.
Most importantly, it didn’t smell bad; Qiao Duo’er absolutely refused to accept farmyard manure.
She felt uncomfortable all over just seeing others handle it, let alone if Tan Zhenghong or she had to... she probably would go insane.
However, Qiao Duo’er still had to complain about the Wang Clan. No wonder she had to repay them even for half a bundle of firewood, yet they didn’t say a word about using her family’s toilet for free.
In this world, there really are people who only know how to take advantage of others.
Once they had enough fertilizer, it was time to plow the land and sow seeds. When the work with wheat was finished, it was also time to harvest the soybeans.
The process for harvesting soybeans was similar to that for wheat.
However, soybeans were pulled out roots and all, so the process was much faster than reaping wheat.
After pulling them up, they were taken back home to dry. Then, a tool called a ’gao’ was used to beat the soybeans out of the pods.
Beating the soybeans had to be done on a sunny day, which is why the Tan Family chose the same day to work together.
Little Wang Clan loved to compete; naturally, she had to check out whose harvest was better.
Sure enough, her family’s harvest was the best. When she arrived at Fourth Boss’s doorstep, she couldn’t help but laugh.
"Fourth Boss, is this all you harvested from your two acres?" Little Wang Clan was very shocked; her own one acre had yielded about as many beans as what he had.
Such a pitiful yield, wasn’t it?
Qiao Duo’er grinned, showing her teeth: "Don’t you know what happened?"
At that time, Tan Zhenghong was lying sick in bed, and she had just married into the family, unaware of the situation in the fields.
In any case, since Tan Yuancheng had handed over the land deed, she didn’t worry too much about it, always assuming that the land within one family wouldn’t differ much.
It wasn’t until she saw the condition of the soybean plants that she realized she had been tricked.
How had she been tricked?
It was that everyone else knew the quality of crops in their fields; the good ones had already been picked out, leaving the lesser quality for her.
Moreover, that land was particularly poor; otherwise, Little Wang Clan wouldn’t have been so gleeful in her misfortune.
"Besides, I heard that it was your man who farmed those two acres. If the harvest is poor, you should ask him about it. Sigh, even a three-year-old child would probably laugh at his skills," Qiao Duo’er added.
After all, anyone who knew what was going on would surely curse Tan Zhengyong as the ruination of the family.
"You’re making a killing now, so you’re not concerned about this little bit," said Little Wang Clan sheepishly.
Her man being so useless, she felt ashamed.
After sending Little Wang Clan on her way, Qiao Duo’er continued her work.
She checked for any soybeans missed inside the pods; if there were none, she would bundle the stems, and if there were, she’d remove the soybeans before bundling.
Once the stems were sorted, Tan Zhenghong swept up the soybeans from the ground, moved them to a draught, and after winnowing the chaff, the task was accomplished.
Soybeans had many uses; they could be sold, eaten at home, used to make oil, or you could take a bowl of soybeans to the Tofu Zhang Family to exchange for tofu or tofu skins.
This year’s harvest wasn’t bad; Duo’er’s House already had a thousand pounds of paddy and three hundred pounds of soybeans in their granary.
It seemed like a lot, but a pound of paddy only yielded seven taels of rice, and a pound of soybeans yielded just two taels of oil; after the calculations, it wasn’t much.
And with the need to hire people to build a house, it wouldn’t last until this time next year.
So, Tan Zhenghong went to buy another thousand pounds of paddy and two hundred pounds of soybeans from other families. They definitely wouldn’t be able to eat all that, but it was better to be safe than sorry, because no one knew what next year’s harvest would be like.
