This time, their family harvested around 150 jin per mu of grain. Zhou Anran already calculated the total harvest, weighing around 2250 jins from fifteen mu of land.

It was a decent harvest considering that the neighbouring fields had relatively poor harvest. They only received less than 100 jin per mu of land.

There were even some fields that completely failed or yielded less than 50 jin per mu, a total harvest failure.

In comparison to such results from other people, their family was already thankful for their current harvest.

"Elder Sister, what did you use? Your fields actually yield such a high harvest." Zhou Shuran was slightly envious, but she had no malicious intention.

On the contrary, she was going to hide the result from her mother. She knew that the reason Chen Huayun had allowed her to go to her elder sister’s fields was mainly to spy on her.

Zhou Anran just smiled, and pretended to be confused too. After all, their little secret was related to Xiao Qingya, and they couldn’t reveal it to anyone.

She planned to sell half the grain to the travelling merchants, paying taxes, and other necessities like payment for borrowing a wooden wheelbarrow and weighing scale from neighbours.

Of course, she also wouldn’t forget to spare some seed to grow new seedlings. As soon as they were done harvesting the first batch on the first day, she already picked some high-quality grains.

She also already started putting them into a nursery tray made of wood. They would be ready to be transplanted in a month after they were done preparing the field after harvest.

As for the matter of taxes... because of the recent famine and drought which ravaged several provinces, the Emperor had issued a decree, lowering the tax until it became 3% of the total harvest.

For people who had extremely poor harvest, they didn’t even need to pay for any tax.

The current Emperor was much kinder than the previous dynasty’s emperor, who was a tyrant and too ruthless to common people, treating them like dirt.

After subtracting the tax and other payment, the Xiao family had around 1000 jin of grain ready for selling.

Currently, merchants preferred grain with their husk intact, considering such grain could be stored for much longer. As such, the grain still weighed quite a lot.

Today, Zhou Anran went to the village market with Xiao Yuyan. They were planning to offer their grain to the travelling merchants who were looking to buy them.

"Mother, isn’t that Aunt Liu...?" Xiao Yuyan asked in an unsure tone. Then, she squinted her eyes, witnessing another familiar figure emerging beside the woman similar to Aunt Liu, Zhou Shiming’s wife.

"That’s your aunt and grandmother," Zhou Anran agreed.

The pair of mother and daughter walked closer, wanting to approach the people shouting for grain. They were some merchant’s workers who were assigned to buy grain from farmers.

Coincidentally, they heard some conversations. The topic startled them.

"Is this the new soy milk seller? The previous one was the twins with their mother." The male voice paused. "Let’s try how it tastes."

"It seems to be the case. They just started selling their soy milk today at a different location compared to the twins’ stall."

"The previous seller has Zhou as her surname. The current sellers have different surnames. Are they related at all? They actually promoted their soy milk claiming they are related."

"Isn’t the previous seller called Mrs. Xiao?"

"Hush, you all gossip too much."

Even so, the gossip still continued.

"The old woman’s son is also named Zhou. He helped them transport the soy milk today... Hey, Old Zhang, how does the soy milk taste?"

The first male voice answered. "Too sweet, but it’s still decent."

Zhou Anran and Xiao Yuyan glanced at each other, seeing the surprise in each other’s eyes. Xiao Yuyan bit her lip worriedly. "Mother..."

Her mother shook her head and grabbed Xiao Yuyan away from the crowd. Lest someone recognize them and things would start becoming troublesome.

It wasn’t the proper place to talk about such things.

There was a reason that Liu Hua dared to show herself again at the village market despite her ruckus a few weeks ago.

Most people would have forgotten her face. After all, they met a lot of faces every day, with merchants and their servants coming and going. Moreover, the area where they chose to set up their stall was also far from that incident.

The pair of mother and daughter approached the workers and merchants’ servants shouting to buy their goods.

"Buying freshly harvested paddy rice. No need for dehulling. We offer fair prices! Come to us!"

Some farmers, still smeared with dirt, went to negotiate with some of these people. If both parties didn’t reach any agreement, the farmer would walk away.

Meanwhile, if both parties are satisfied with the initial price, the person would follow the farmer to check the goods. Once the merchant’s workers determined the quality of the goods, they would reach an agreement.

"Mrs. Xiao, is that you?" A voice filled with surprise rang over. The person approached Zhou Anran and Xiao Yuyan.

They turned around, finding one of the Merchant Yang’s servants waving at them.

"Mrs. Xiao, are you going to sell something?" The servant, Shun Zi, asked enthusiastically.

Zhou Anran nodded. "We are selling our paddy rice, Old Shun."

"Paddy rice?" Shun Zi stroked his chin. "Do you bring any sample? Can we see the paddy rice first?"

She nodded, unwrapping the small pouch she hung around her waist. "You can check the quality. Let’s see how much you can offer for it."

"Merchant Yang hasn’t left yet?" She asked in puzzlement.

Shun Zi inspected the paddy rice, which was plump and golden. He replied, "Master left the market a few weeks ago, but he stationed us here to find decent goods."

Zhou Anran nodded in understanding. She was just making small talk as they waited for Shun Zi’s judgement.

She and her kids had spent quite some time at the village market as the soy milk seller. Hence, some people still recognized her and even more, her daughters’ identical faces.

They suddenly heard a voice from someone who recognized them.

"Xiao girl! Oh... your mother is also here. Hello, Sister Zhou. I haven’t seen any of you for a while. Why haven’t you two selling soy milk or scented sachets recently?"