Inner Thoughts Exposed: Reborn General's Farming Daughter Has a System
Chapter 139: Dividing the Rice Seeds
Merchant Yang’s eyes fell on Han Tingxun not far from them, who was busily talking to a guard.
He seemed to be making an order, giving a few stalks of paddy rice to the guard, gesturing something.
"Your Excellency Magistrate Xu," Merchant Yang began. "You have misunderstood my intention."
"Although I am a merchant, I am not someone who only cares about profit. Since Master Zhou and Mrs. Zhou are willing to sell the paddy rice to us, how about the four of us discussing the allocation further?" Merchant Yang smiled calmly.
Not far from them, Shun Zi heaved a sigh of relief. His heart nearly jumped out of his chest when he heard his Master asking such a question to Magistrate Xu.
They all agreed and went to a rice field hut to discuss the allocation of the paddy rice.
Xiao Yuxi caught the sight of the four, and her eyes widened. She rubbed her chin in a thoughtful manner.
Isn’t their mother different from other women?
These men also included her in the discussion and didn’t dare to slight her! An indescribable pride appeared in her heart when she saw Zhou Anran talking and the other men listening.
"Eldest Sister, what are you looking at?" Xiao Yuyan waved her hand in front of Xiao Yuxi.
Xiao Yuxi put her hands on her hips and said enthusiastically. "I want to be as strong as Mother someday..."
Then, she added, "Also strong physically."
"Physically?" Xiao Yuyan inquired, curiosity swirling in her eyes.
"Yes, Yan’er. I am going to learn martial arts!" Xiao Yuxi grabbed her younger sister’s hands excitedly.
In another place, Xiao Qingya had found a place under the shade of a tree. There was also Xiao Jingran sitting beside her, feeding her some walnuts.
[Host, you are abusing me!] The System hollered in complaint inside her mind.
The white cat was nestled in her arms. It suddenly turned around and gave her a pitiful look. Xiao Qingya raised her eyebrows, and then heartlessly shoved the walnut to its mouth again, her meaning clear.
Sighing deeply, the System let out a meow before it cracked the hard shell of the walnut using its teeth.
[This is not in the job description! I definitely need overtime pay!] It protested again.
[Quiet.] Xiao Qingya responded calmly. [System, let’s talk about life.]
[Huh?] The System was a little puzzled.
[The plot where I get drowned in the river... it will happen again, right?] As soon as Xiao Qingya said this, she heard a rustling sound in her mind.
Not long after, the System returned. Its voice was softer than before. [Host, you are right... Let’s anticipate this. On top of that, you might have another mission soon.]
Xiao Jingran quietly listened from the side.
He had already made some guess about the location of this said mission.
Hejia Village.
After this harvest, they were going to take care of the harvest in their field at Hejia Village, which meant that they should return home.
Unfortunately, it was getting harder to guess what the mission was since the plot was already all messed up. Certain things that were supposed to happen might not happen.
It was already afternoon when they returned home. Everyone was already tired, so they went to bed early, especially the Xiao family who would return to Hejia Village tomorrow.
The sky was still dark when Zhou Anran and her children boarded the ox cart home.
Xiao Qingya was still sleepy, and she continued to sleep in Xiao Jingran’s arms on the way home. Xiao Fenghao was assigned the job to be the coachman driving the ox cart.
Upon arriving home, they quickly had breakfast and headed to the field.
The Sun family’s children didn’t come back with them. They would return with Shun Zi’s group.
Fortunately, Merchant Yang and his caravan would stay for a while in the county, allowing the Sun family’s children to return to Hejia Village. They would stay at the Xiao family’s house temporarily.
With so many people harvesting fifteen mu of land, they quickly finished it in two days.
"When will the Magistrate’s men come and pick up the rice seeds?" Xiao Yuxi asked.
Ever since they knew the paddy rice could work as high-quality rice and improve the harvest yield, the family rarely ate such fine grain. They only ate lower-quality grain or occasionally mixed both.
"In a few days," Xiao Yuyan answered, glancing at her mother who nodded in affirmation.
From Zhou Wenzhi, they were already aware that the whole county was in uproar over the high-quality rice seeds the Magistrate would give them.
Magistrate Xu was planning to entrust each farmer with a few jin of paddy rice seeds. In order to motivate them, he would also give reward to anyone who could produce the highest harvest yield from the same amount of paddy rice.
As such, selling the paddy rice to other farmers was absolutely forbidden, and they also would record the families who wanted to join the competition.
Besides experimenting, he also wanted to pick a few diligent farmers. He would allocate them the best fields and provide the rice seeds.
After all, they couldn’t rely on the Xiao family alone.
The Xiao family’s rice seeds were the highest, but it couldn’t support the whole county’s demand for seeds.
Magistrate Xu also knew that with Han Tingxun around, the people in the palace also would soon find out about the high-quality rice seeds.
It can be said that Merchant Yang received a bigger portion of the paddy rice partly because of Han Tingxun. The latter wanted to use his merchant caravan to spread the rice seeds in the north.
For the next few days, the Xiao family members were rather idle. They took some temporary rest before planting the next batch of rice, which meant that they also needed to go back to the county.
"Mother, I and Second Brother will go to the back mountain. Eldest Brother will join us later." Xiao Yuxi suddenly found Zhou Anran.
"Alright, be careful." Zhou Anran nodded.
Her children often went to the back mountain. As long as they didn’t go deeper, it was rather safe.
"Yes!" Xiao Yuxi nodded excitedly and went with Xiao Fenghao.
However, until afternoon came, the pair of siblings still hadn’t returned.