CTF 0048

It wasn’t until Father Xu led everyone back from their field that Mother Xu came back to her senses.

“Oh my, I need to go hide it,” Mother Xu said, hunching over to pick up her towel and heading back to the house to stash the money.

Xu Yin couldn’t help but laugh. She turned to greet everyone. “Dad, Uncle, Aunt, Uncle Song, Uncle Wen, don’t just stand there. Wash your hands and sit down to eat. I’ve also opened a bottle of wine; we can have a drink in the evening.”

Father Xu, watching his daughter open a bottle of fine wine that had come all the way from Tongcheng: 

“…”

He felt a bit of a heartache over the wine.

Xu Yin whispered to her father, “Dad, I collected the final payment for our watermelons today. It’s 500 yuan.”

“How much… how much?” Father Xu’s hand trembled and nearly dropped the teapot he was holding.

“500 yuan. Since we’d also received a deposit of 500 yuan back then, we’d earned 1,000 yuan in total from the two mus of watermelons. They also want the late-maturing melons from the other mu, which will bring in another 500 yuan.”

“Wow…”

He was overjoyed, and suddenly, he didn’t mind opening a bottle of wine that much anymore. He invited everyone to sit down and eat.

“Try my daughter’s cooking.”

“It looks great; Yinyin is really skilled.”

Aunt Geng was particularly supportive of Xu Yin. She truly felt her husband’s niece was a capable person.

Not only was she good at studying, but she also had a gift in business.

Uncle Geng smiled cheerfully and said, “Yinyin has become a great chef and can make so many delicious dishes.”

“Uncle, you haven’t tasted it yet, why do you think what I cook must be delicious?”

Uncle Geng thought to himself, ‘How could these dishes possibly be not delicious when you’ve put so much meat into them?’

Uncle Song and Uncle Wen were renowned in the village for being skilled at rice planting. Their families had a lot of members and they could finish planting over ten mu of rice fields in less than a day. Afterwards, the other families in the village, who didn’t have as many members, could employ them and allow them to get some hard-earned money.

After helping with the work, they often had dinner at the employer’s house. However, they had never had such a sumptuous meal as at the Xu family’s.

After returning home that day, they told their respective wives:

“Guoshun’s family is really different. We planted rice for them and they invited us to have a meal. They gave us better food than most people would during banquets. Guess what we ate today? Mutton! We usually don’t eat that even during the New Year, but Yinyin actually bought some. She brought out a pot and there was actually more meat in it than potatoes.”

How could their wives not be envious after hearing this?

They couldn’t help encouraging their husband by saying, “Maybe our family should also leave a few mus of land to grow watermelons next year.”

They had already started raising rice paddy fish, but based on their observations, the Xu family’s most profitable venture was their watermelons. 

They never got a big truck to deliver their goods, yet they had received a 500-yuan down payment for the two mus of watermelons, with the possibility of more income later. This venture was definitely more profitable than fish farming.

Both families quietly decided to follow Father Xu’s footsteps and plant watermelons the next year. 

However, they also knew that although every family in their village could grow watermelons, Father Xu was the best at it. 

After tasting his watermelons, nobody would even want to eat their own.

But in this day and age, anyone with a bit of skill kept it to themselves. Who would be so foolish as to teach someone else for nothing? The competition could even make them suffer!

So, both families came up with an idea. They selected an auspicious day, prepared a generous gift, and brought their young sons to formally request apprenticeship at the Xu family.

If they were accepted as apprentices, Father Xu would definitely teach them things.

The two families arrived at Xu Yin’s house almost simultaneously, and they exchanged glances at the courtyard gate before sharing a smile.

They surely were kindred spirits! Kindred spirits!

They just didn’t know if Father Xu would agree to take their children as apprentices.

At that moment, Father Xu was inside counting money with his wife. They’d only harvested once this year, but their current income had already exceeded that of the entire last year.

They had earned 1,000 yuan from the two mus of watermelons, which was now their biggest source of income. 

The rice from one mu of the paddy fields, which had rice paddy fish in them, yielded well, too. These rice had larger, plumper grains, and better taste as well.

Instead of selling these rice, they planned to send 200 catties to their son in Tongcheng, and keep the rest for themselves. 

The remainder of the output from the other three mu of field was sold to the grain station, bringing in 210 yuan.

Lastly, they had more than 200 fish from the ricefish field, which they sold for 157 yuan, bringing their total income to 1,367 yuan.

Mother Xu had never counted a four-digit annual income before. She had never even thought that it’d be possible before. 

Moreover, this was only the first harvest of the year. More was still to come!

Mother Xu had a wide grin on her face. “See, Old Man? I told you we should listen to our daughter. I was right! If we didn’t, we would’ve had to do much more work and wouldn’t have been able to make so much money.”

“Yes, yes, I will listen to our daughter from now on.” Father Xu also grinned.

Suddenly, Xu Song and Xu Yaowen knocked on their door.

Mother Xu quickly put the money into a locked wooden box that her daughter had specially ordered made for her. She hid it in a hole in her wall, then followed Father Xu out.

“What? You want me to teach your kids how to grow watermelons?” Father Xu was a little confused after hearing the two families’ intentions. “What’s so good about growing watermelons?”

Xu Yin could guess it. They probably saw how profitable growing the watermelons was and wanted in. However, since they were too embarrassed to come and ask for the seeds, they sent their sons to become her father’s disciples so they’d have an excuse to do so.

“Brother Guoshun, this boy isn’t good for any other work, but he’s good at farm work. You can have him do any heavy chores for you. You don’t need to teach him anything, really. We just hope that you’ll let him be around and watch you work. Just have him do whatever you want. How much he’d be able to learn would depend on himself.”

“Yes, the same goes for our Tiejun! We initially wanted him to go to university with Jianjun, but this child isn’t good at studying and also doesn’t want to learn a craft outside of our village. He just stays at home and farms! I realised that lands are different from each other and the quality of plants that they could grow varies; they need to be studied. I hope that you’ll let him start studying with you and learn as much as he can. We don’t expect him to be rich. We just want him to make a living, so that he’ll be able to easily find a partner in the future…”

Father Xu shook his head. “I have nothing that I can teach them. Both of your families have grown watermelons in the past, so you don’t need to ask anyone to teach you how to work in watermelon fields.”

“Of course we do!” Xu Song and Xu Yaowen rushed to say. “Brother Guoshun, please accept these two boys. Your son has been in the army for many years and rarely ever comes back, and Yinyin is also going to leave soon. Since she’ll be in college, you and your wife will be the only ones in your house. You’ll be exhausted doing a lot of work around your house. Just let them follow you and do things for you.”

“That’s right! You can have them do whatever work you want them to. It wouldn’t hurt to have a couple of boys to do errands for you, right?”

When Xu Yin heard this, her heart moved.

She’d start attending university in September. When that time arrived, both of the children of this family would be away from home. 

Four mu of paddy field and three mu of dry land might not sound like much. There were households with more than ten and twenty mu. However, the seven mu of land would be worked on by only two people. During the farming busy season, they might be able to hire people or ask their relatives for help. However, this was only temporary. They had no one to help them outside of that time. Maybe having her father take two apprentices wouldn’t be a really bad idea. 

After thinking about it for a while, she told him, “Dad, is there any dry land in our village that no one is planting on? If so, I’d like to rent them all. Let’s plant a few mus of watermelons and hire Brother Mancang and Brother Tiejun to help there. When the watermelons have been sold, I’ll settle the commissions with them. What do you think?”

Father Xu was stunned for a moment. He felt that his daughter must be a little out of it. After selling three mu-worth of watermelons, she wanted to rent all the unused dry fields in the village.