CTF 0035

After thanking the old village commune secretary, Xu Dajiao started mixing rapeseed cake crumbs into the fish food. However, she didn’t forget the emphasis that the village commune secretary had placed on rotting it. She combined it with miller’s bran and rice bran, then left it to rot for two to three days in a jar. She’d wait until it was completely rotten before feeding it to the fish.

She didn’t know if it was due to a psychological effect, or if it was really happening, but she felt that the fish, after being fed with the vegetable pancake mixture, were indeed growing much faster than before.

Because of this, Xu Dajiao’s attitude towards Mother Xu became noticeably warmer.

Mother Xu was puzzled and, upon returning home, confided in her husband. “Guobang’s wife has been acting strangely lately. She smiles every time she sees me, making me feel all jittery. Don’t tell me she’s scheming something against me?”

Father Xu was exasperated. “You complain when she’s cold to you. You also complain when she’s warm to you. What exactly do you want from her?”

“Well, what am I supposed to think of her? She’s either too cold or too warm. I have no idea if she’s up to something behind my back,” Mother Xu grumbled.

Not many days later, Mother Xu encountered Xu Dajiao again. This time, not only was she all smiles and warmth, but she also handed her a basket of eggs to bring back for Xu Yin, suggesting that they would help her improve her health.

“Thanks to your daughter, my fish are growing so well and so quickly. It just goes to show how important education truly is. Only with education can one have a promising future.”

Xu Dajiao was filled with emotion. She was on the verge of holding Mother Xu’s hand with tearful eyes.

“Jinhua, I have to admit I was wrong before. At the time, I was envious when I saw how much you cared for your daughter. I lost all my rationality and started to have some unfounded dislikes towards you. But now, when I think about it, if I had such a smart, capable, and educated daughter, I would love her even more than you…”

Mother Xu: “…”

She finally understood now! Because the fish food recipe that her daughter had given the village had allowed Xu Dajiao to taste success, she’d come to compete for her daughter!

“Take the eggs back; we have plenty of eggs at home. But if you want to pamper a daughter, encourage Guobang. Perhaps he can still catch the last train and give Jianjun a little sister. Don’t come and steal our Yinyin,” Mother Xu said before turning to leave.

Xu Dajiao: “…”

Hah! Geng Jinhua and her really weren’t compatible with each other!

What nonsense was she on about? How could she have another child at her age? She would become the entire village’s laughingstock. 

Back home, Xu Yin, who was sewing clothes, laughed so hard that her stomach hurt upon hearing her mother’s recount of the situation.

“Mom, with which ear did you hear that Aunty wanted to compete with you to get me? First, she wanted to express her gratitude, and second, she wanted to apologise for not getting along with you in the past. Where on earth are you getting these crazy ideas?” 

Her mom’s genius at twisting words was at it again.

Mother Xu suddenly realised her misunderstanding and felt embarrassed about the mix-up. However, she wasn’t willing to go and apologise.

“How about we just let her have a discount the next time she orders some clothes?” she suggested.

Surprisingly, as soon as she finished saying that, Xu Dajiao showed up at the door with a piece of fabric in her hand. 

She had actually been thinking about getting a summer outfit made by Xu Yin. Many women in the village had asked for summer outfits, short-sleeved with seven-tenths pants, all made by Xu Yin. 

They looked so cool and comfortable.

Before, she couldn’t swallow her pride, but after being scolded by Geng Jinhua, she had a change of heart. 

People said, ‘Don’t hit a smiling person.’ If she went to their house politely and jovially, Geng Jinhua wouldn’t be able to say anything to her. 

From the corner of her eye, Xu Yin could see her mother’s squinted eyes and her darkened face. She knew that her mother was grieving the discount that Xu Yin had promised. 

She tried not to show a smile and looked away as she welcomed her aunt in.

Time passed quietly as Xu Yin made clothes, raised fish, and helped her family with housework within her capability. 

The busy farming season of May passed in the blink of an eye.

Xu Yin’s family wasn’t planting wheat this year. They planned to plant two crops of rice in the high-quality grain fields and raise rice fish in them.

They also grew watermelons in all dry land except the rice fields.

Xu Yin had purchased the watermelon seeds from the system marketplace. 

She used up all the energy points that she’d worked so hard to accumulate on the fish food formula and the watermelon seeds. 

However, she didn’t regret it. Whether their family could escape poverty and become prosperous depended on those things.

The main reason why she’d shared her fish food formula was to avoid drawing negative attention to their family.

As for the watermelons, her father was already quite skilled in cultivating them. 

The watermelon seeds obtained from the system were practically indistinguishable from those that her father used to plant in the past. 

When the watermelons had a bountiful harvest, others would at most assume that her father had invested more effort into cultivating them. He religiously took care of his watermelon plants, so no one would suspect a thing about the watermelon seeds.

When spring ploughing came around, her father planted the first batch of watermelons. They would mature around late June or early July, coinciding with the busy time of harvesting early rice. The sweet and juicy watermelons would provide a refreshing break from the hustle and bustle.

So, during the May farming rush, while other families were busy harvesting wheat and rapeseed and then planting maize seedlings, Xu Yin’s family only needed to harvest one mu of rapeseed. After that, they planted the second batch of watermelons, to ensure that they wouldn’t be so exhausted that they’d lose all strength.

The later batch of watermelons would mature around the end of August, just as the late rice seedlings were transplanted, and a new batch of rice fish was raised. It meant they could take a break and enjoy a watermelon, which was undoubtedly a form of pleasure.

With four mu of water fields, three mu of watermelons, and 268 rice fish, the Xu family was much busier this year than in the previous years. However, their work felt much easier this year.

Even though they had to work in the fields daily, the routine maintenance was undoubtedly less demanding than the continuous cycle of harvesting, ploughing, and sowing. And, despite seemingly doing less work, the actual yield might not necessarily be less in quantity.

Xu Yin had carefully calculated that, with these four mu of water fields, planting two seasons a year, assuming no natural disasters or water-related problems, their conservative estimate for the annual yield would be around 2,600 kilograms.

This was the current yield per mu, and it could be even higher in the future with the widespread adoption of hybrid rice. 

But even with the current yield, after deducting the grain they had to turn in to the state, the family not only had enough to eat but also could sell some to the grain-selling station in exchange for white flour, cornmeal, and other delicacies.

This was why Xu Yin had advised her father not to plant wheat and corn this year. They only needed a small plot of corn for their personal consumption. It was better for them to just use the paddy fields for rice and the dry land for watermelons.

It was convenient to plough with a tractor, smoothly turning the land in just a few passes, deep and quick. 

In the future, when they had a farming machine, it would save even more on the labour required for planting.

If they planted everything, the fields would be divided into small plots, making it inconvenient to plough. How could they maintain high efficiency in such a scenario?

Moreover, with these two crops, what couldn’t they obtain if they wanted to eat something different? 

There was no need to personally cultivate everything they wanted to eat.

For the three-acre watermelon patch, Xu Yin conservatively estimated they could make around 500 yuan. 

The fish they raised this season was more for personal consumption, but they should also be able to earn several tens of yuan from it. 

Her parents would probably be pleasantly surprised, right?

Earning around 600 yuan a year wasn’t bad compared to working in a factory. After all, their rice was self-sufficient and cost-free. 

However, there was still a considerable gap in achieving a comfortable life. 

They would take it slow; one couldn’t become plump in one gulp. Life would slowly get better.

Meanwhile, Xu Zhinian finally settled his wife and children in their new home. He sent a letter and some money home, explained their family’s recent situation, and invited his younger sister to stay at the family housing complex for a while. His wife and child missed her. 

Their mother, seeing her daughter busier at home than when she was going to school, readily agreed and told her to go and stay with her brother for a few days, saying, “Go ahead, stay with your brother for a while. Eat a few extra meat dishes there!”

“…”