Witty Wife, Better Life-Chapter 92 - 88 Abundant Harvest of Grain

By the time late September and early October arrived, the village of Gaijiatun once again faced a peak period of frantic harvesting.

The millet was ripe, and if not harvested in time, the grains inside would fall to the ground, beyond retrieval, and the flocks of sparrows eagerly waiting nearby meant no one wanted their year’s hard work to be taken advantage of by those creatures.

So, the whole village rolled up their sleeves and got to work with heightened effort, gathering not only the millet but also soybeans, broomcorn millet, and other assorted grain, followed by rice and sweet potatoes.

By the time all these crops had been gathered into the granary, it was already mid-October.

Although Shen Yunfang only joined the main force on the day of grain distribution, she usually toiled on her own small plot of land. Over these two months or so, she had been feasting on meat and fish daily, with the "Space" yielding an "Essence of Life" almost every week. After consuming them continuously for two months, she felt no different except for realizing that her strength had increased, and she had more energy for farming.

Thus, she spent mornings and evenings gathering soybeans and sweet potatoes from her private plots and backyard. When at work, she took the opportunity to visit her secret base to collect sweet potatoes (at this busy farming time, nobody in the village went to the mountains anymore; they were all home gathering crops), and she even harvested those she planted in straw husks.

It’s no wonder sweet potatoes are considered a promising crop. Despite the harsh conditions, when Shen Yunfang dug up the sweet potatoes, she was surprised to find a bunch of small ones beneath each plant, although each was only as thick as a thumb, the quantity was quite substantial.

Originally having no high hopes for those sweet potatoes, ending up with two baskets full of thumb-sized ones was a pleasant surprise.

After everything was collected, Shen Yunfang was exhausted beyond words, which speaks volumes about the weariness of the farmers who always stood at the frontline of labor.

However, it was a cause for celebration as this year was a year of abundant harvest. Like the previous year, Shen Yunfang received one hundred and twenty jin of paddy rice, thirty jin of wheat, two hundred jin of corn, thirty jin of soybeans, thirty jin of millet, fifty jin of broomcorn, ten jin of kidney beans, and ten jin of mung beans, totaling four hundred and eighty jin.

All households also had a bountiful harvest on their private land. Shen Yunfang’s private plot and backyard combined accounted for nearly an acre and a half, from which she harvested eight hundred jin of corn. Adding the hundred jin of corn Shen Yeqing helped her retrieve from Qian Xinxue and the share from the production team, she had a total of one thousand one hundred jin of corn.

The production team also planted some sweet potatoes, but they weren’t for distribution; they were used as fodder for the team’s livestock. Each household grew their own sweet potatoes. Shen Yunfang weighed all of her sweet potatoes, totaling more than two thousand three hundred jin. Just the ones from the back mountains accounted for over one thousand seven hundred jin, and even those planted in the straw shells amounted to more than a hundred jin. The private plot and backyard yielded just over four hundred jin because more corn was planted there.

However, most of these sweet potatoes couldn’t be overtly acknowledged, as she had no way to account for their origin, so Shen Yunfang stored those from the back mountains in her "Space". The ones openly recognized amounted to just over six hundred jin, both big and small.

Yet, even this made Brother Dashuan’s wife quite envious.

"Yunfang, isn’t it strange? Your blindly planted ones actually yielded more than my carefully tended crops. Where’s the justice in that?" Brother Dashuan’s wife grumbled, waving the little whip in her hand to urge the old ox to move faster, while chatting with Shen Yunfang.

The two women were busy milling rice at the village production team’s stone mill, which required manual operation. They had to evenly pour the paddy rice into the milling trough, letting the old ox pull the millstone around and around to mill the rice.

Typically, one trough could mill one hundred and fifty jin of paddy rice, and to mill a trough of rice thoroughly took about two to three hours.

Since the day paddy rice was distributed by the production team, the stone mill hadn’t stopped for a moment, with villagers taking turns every three hours. The team’s four old oxen also worked in shifts, milling around the clock, twenty-four hours non-stop.

Shen Yunfang and Brother Dashuan’s families were relatively lucky, they got scheduled for the third day during the daylight, and right next to each other, no less. So the two of them came together to mill rice and were able to chat and kill time so as not to be too bored.

"How is there no justice in this world? I’m not farming blindly—it’s based on science," Shen Yunfang insisted, refusing to let her talents be squandered. Intercropping had scientific backing.

"What scientific backing? How much schooling have you had to be talking about science?" Brother Dashuan’s wife was skeptical. Gaijiatun didn’t have a school. When the children in the village reached school age, they would go to the neighboring village to attend elementary school, walking over an hour each morning and evening to and from school. Many people considered it impressive to finish elementary school and recognize a few big characters. As she knew it, Yunfang, in order to avoid labor, had continuously gone to school while her mother was alive, but after her mother’s death, she hadn’t gone to school again. If you counted, she would be in her first year of high school by now.

In the past few years, with the various movements, schools really didn’t teach much. As long as you persisted and were able to go to school, you could keep studying. At that time, elementary schooling lasted five years and high school was divided into two years each for junior and senior levels. Therefore, Shen Yunfang, at such a young age, was already a high school student. This summer, she asked her uncle to pull some strings, and managed to get her high school diploma back. Now, at the very least, she was a high school graduate.

"Hehe, sister-in-law, you really should believe me. Though I didn’t learn much in school, I can read. Don’t tell anyone else this, but last time, didn’t I go to help my cousin Yunfeng with her work? I found several books there, and one of them was about farming methods. I learned from that book," Shen Yunfang had thought it through and decided to reveal some of her capabilities at the right time. Otherwise, her success in raising chickens and pigs was superior to other villagers. Someone certainly knew about it—Madam Wang’s household must have been aware. She had to have some reason for her success.

These books existed, but how much you could learn from them depended on your abilities. So, Shen Yunfang thought this was the best excuse.

"Really?" Brother Dashuan’s wife hadn’t expected Yunfang really knew what she was doing, and it came from books.

"Absolutely. I’ve still got the book at home. If you have time, take a look. It says something about soybean roots having something—I can’t quite express it. What I understand from it is that intercropping soybeans in a cornfield can fertilize the soil and also increase yield. Just look at the output of our private plot this year. What the book says is right." Explaining too much, Brother Dashuan’s wife wouldn’t understand anyway, so there was no need to clarify.

To tell the truth, Shen Yunfang herself didn’t know how to explain it. Heh.

"Well, alright then. Next time you have a chance, show the book to Brother Dashuan so he can learn from it too, and I’ll try the same thing next year," Brother Dashuan’s wife said, trusting that Dashuan, who was considered educated, was undoubtedly the man for reading.

"Alright," Shen Yunfang immediately agreed, "Sister-in-law, it’s almost done, isn’t it?" She gestured towards the millstone.

Brother Dashuan’s wife peered in and said, "Almost, just a couple more rounds and we’re finished."

Both families had milled a trough of rice each and were almost done.

"Hey, what do you think—will they come over from Taoshu Village again this year asking for grain?" Brother Dashuan’s wife asked, gossipingly.

Ever since the villagers found out that Old Shen’s family had managed to reclaim the grain borrowed last year from Pear Blossom Village and even turned away Qian Xinxue, some speculated whether someone from Taoshu Village would come again this year. Brother Dashuan’s wife was quite credulous and began discussing the matter with the involved party.

"I have no idea," Shen Yunfang really couldn’t guess. Common sense said that if they managed to easily get a hundred pounds of grain last year, they would be fools not to come again. However, Li Hongjun had returned this January, and likely had discussed the matter with his family. Whether they would come again, she really couldn’t say.

"Eh? Yunfang, look at that guy who just passed by—doesn’t he look like your future uncle?" Brother Dashuan’s wife saw a man walking past the production team from outside. He seemed to be Yunfang’s future uncle. She had only seen him once and wasn’t certain.