The Farm Girl's Charismatic Fortune-Chapter 72 - 70 How did the village chiefs grandfather
Chapter 72: Chapter 70 How did the village chief’s grandfather know I had another dream?
Chapter 72 -70 How did the village chief’s grandfather know I had another dream?
The village elder heard that the Ruo Family wanted to buy his plot and an additional two acres of wasteland to expand their housing and happily went with them to measure the land.
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Ruo Xuan looked at a small pond on the wasteland: it wasn’t very big, but it could be dug out a bit more. Once the house was built, they could raise lotus root and fish in the pond.
Then they would have lotus root and fish to eat!
The braised fish they ate yesterday at Tianxiang Tower was delicious, although her favorite foods were still rabbit and mutton.
“Granny, let’s buy a bigger piece, including that pond,” Ruo Xuan expressed her thoughts.
Granny Lei thought that an acre of wasteland wasn’t very expensive. Since they were adding on to the house, it was naturally done according to her granddaughter’s liking: “Alright, village elder, please also include that pond in the measurements, buy a bigger piece.”
The village elder simply measured all the wasteland near the Ruo Family’s home, a little over six acres.
The village elder said, “Buying wasteland is cost-effective. When the previous County Magistrate was in office, there was a decree offering half an acre for free with every acre purchased, but no one wanted to buy it, you know. Taxes were too heavy back then, and wasteland needed several years before yielding a harvest, which wasn’t exactly profitable. Now, I don’t know if the offer still stands, but if it does, for this little over six acres, you’d only need to pay for four acres of silver. It’s just that converting wasteland into residential land requires paying some land tax.”
Granny Lei was aware, “The silver that needs to be paid must be paid. If the new County Magistrate hasn’t issued new documents, then it should be fine. I’m also planning to buy some more wasteland and barren hills. Village elder, measure your plot again, and then we’ll go look at the barren hills.”
The village elder waved his hands, saying, “My piece of land isn’t big, there’s no need to measure it. You all take it for building the house, no need to give silver.”
Granny Lei: “That won’t do, that plot is almost an acre. We can’t not pay silver for it. If the village elder does this, I’ll be uneasy using that land.”
The village elder said irritably, “Why be so formal with me? Xuanbao helped us sell Zizania and earn silver, and my family made a good profit from it, avoiding a year without harvest. I’ve yet to thank Xuanbao. Sister-in-law, don’t be so formal with me. That land’s no use to my family anyway; it’s too small. I have a bigger residential plot elsewhere. Just consider that piece my gift to Xuanbao for her to play and grow vegetables on. Xuanbao, if you ever dream again, just remind the old man of the village, will you?”
“How did you know I had another dream, village elder?”
At Xuanbao’s words, the village elder stumbled, almost falling over!
No, he was just saying it as a matter of speech; how could she have dreamed again?
The village elder wished he could smack his own mouth. Those kinds of dreams shouldn’t have a next time!
Granny Lei’s heartbeat started racing again—pausing briefly before speeding up.
The village elder cautiously asked, “What dream?”
His voice was soft, as if speaking louder might be overheard by the heavens and provoke some natural disaster.
Ruo Xuan shared good news with the village elder this time: “Village elder, I dreamt that a deity told me we can grow rice for three seasons here, and even plant another crop after the autumn harvest.”
Ruo Xuan looked at the vacant fields. The climate in Shaxi County was warm, and it wouldn’t be very cold even in winter; it never snowed during the coldest times, and the cold spell didn’t last long, just a few days during the cold wave. It was entirely possible to plant an additional season of rice.
The village elder’s eyes widened: “What? Xuanbao, what did you say? Really?”
Ruo Xuan knew he had heard her clearly but just couldn’t believe it, so she nodded her small head: “Really, the deity said so.”
After Ruo Xuan finished, she looked towards Granny Lei: “Granny, shall we plant an extra crop of rice this year?”
The household had many mouths, and she noticed her brothers and father still didn’t dare to eat their fill; they would only risk eating about half full.
It was because they didn’t have enough grain and were reluctant to consume more.
Of course, Granny Lei believed her own granddaughter!
She nodded her head without hesitation, “Plant! Of course, plant.”
Being able to plant an extra season of rice meant harvesting an extra season of grain, so why fear going without food?
Granny Lei and the old Ruo patriarch were originally from the north, where winters were cold, and the snow fell particularly thick. They truly felt that the winters in Shaxi County were warm. After moving here, she had not seen snow again, and on the coldest days, she would only see a thin layer of frost on the morning vegetable leaves and in the fields, not much, and it would dissipate soon after the sun came out.
Moreover, there weren’t many frosty days in the entire winter.
The village chief was also excited, but he was also a bit worried; the land needed rest and recovery. Overuse would deplete its fertility.
That’s why, after the autumn harvest, everyone would scatter green manure on the field to nourish the soil, and in the next spring, they would plow the land. The decaying Chinese milk vetch would enrich the soil, saving a lot on fertilizer.
Besides, planting another season of rice would require more fertilizer, right?
And with the lack of rain in autumn and winter, was it really suitable to plant another crop of rice?
The village chief expressed his concerns aloud.
Ruo Xuan: “If there’s not enough fertilizer, we can use green manure, wild grass, dead leaves, fruit peels, crop stalks, … and river mud to make compost! As long as we apply fertilizer on schedule and in sufficient quantities, returning nutrients to the soil, we won’t have to worry! Moreover, we don’t have to plant rice three times every year; isn’t this year a disaster year? We can choose not to plant next year and let the land rest.”
Planting rice three times every year isn’t practical; it exhausts both people and land. It would be better to increase rice productivity.
“Compost? What compost?”
Ruo Xuan explained it simply. Seeing that the village chief was still confused and a little worried, she used the example of how fallen leaves in forests decay to provide fertilization for plants to grow year-round to explain how compost works.
In fact, the land is not afraid of plant growth; it’s the over-extraction without giving back that’s the problem.
Forest plants consume a lot of nutrients from the soil, but the fallen branches, fruits, and leaves decay and return all the nutrients back to the soil, sometimes even adding more because plant leaves absorb sunlight and dew, and they take in some nutrients from the air that the soil lacks.
However, people only take from the soil excessively. Take rice, for example; humans plant rice in the field, not only harvesting the rice grains but also the straw, and year after year, they only plant rice on the same piece of land without applying enough fertilizer. After a long time, the soil inevitably becomes infertile or severely lacks certain nutrients.
But nutrients in the soil can be replenished; it’s just a matter of adding back what’s missing!
The village chief found it to make sense but then asked, “But how do you know what nutrients the soil lacks? The ground can’t speak, can it?”
Ruo Xuan: “…The deity grandfather also told me about it.”
The village chief thought to himself, this deity grandfather was just too good.
Why couldn’t he ever encounter such a deity in his dreams?
Nevertheless, whether the dream was real or not, trying it out might result in an extra season of grain—why not go for it?
If it didn’t work out, they just wouldn’t plant the following year.
“Then I’ll give it a try as well! When I get back, I’ll have the missus soak the rice seeds, plow the land, and sow. Come on, let’s first go take a look at the barren hills.”
The three of them headed toward the distant hills.
“Xuanbao, why did you buy the barren hills? Barren hills are tough to manage without a water source, and even developing irrigation would be a hassle. If you have a way to make compost, you could buy more barren land and enrich it, turning it into fertile fields later on, which would be more cost-effective.”
