Chapter 103: Chapter 103: Ox Cart and the Barn
[Little Master, Little Master! Your neighbors just had a huge fight, hiss!] Ling Yu told Xiao Qingya excitedly.
Her younger brother explained in more detail. [Things are flying everywhere! Wooden buckets, a broom, bowls, and even clothes! I even saw someone’s underwear–]
Ling Yu hurriedly covered her brother’s chattering mouth and looked at Xiao Jingran awkwardly.
This man always had a gentle expression on his face, but she could feel that he wasn’t as kind as his appearance! She was worried he might think that they were corrupting Xiao Qingya.
Ling Yu coughed. [You get the image, right, Little Master? Everything was flying everywhere!]
[Whose house is it?] Xiao Qingya blinked and asked.
[Someone surnamed Sun.] Ling Yu answered in a confident tone.
They both had eavesdropped long enough for them to hear both parties raining curses at each other.
"Is it the Sun family a few houses away from us? The one who owns an ox cart?" Xiao Jingran gently asked.
He had just returned from cutting woods in the back mountain with Zhou Wenzhi and Xiao Fenghao, and now, he was resting, sitting on a chair near Xiao Qingya while occasionally poking the little one’s cheek to tease her.
Like a little cat, Xiao Qingya who was busy petting the System, would just push his hand away, huffing and complaining through her eyes.
Ling Yu nodded. "Yes, that one!" She added cautiously. "Both father and son aren’t on good terms with each other."
Upon hearing that, Xiao Jingran remembered the Sun family’s case that Xiao Yuyan had told him. Qiu Mu, the wife, had drowned and it was a suspected murder.
"Continue to watch over them," Xiao Jingran suddenly told them.
The Ling siblings were surprised. They thought that Xiao Jingran wasn’t the type of person who liked to hear gossip.
But it was natural for them to think that way since they had just arrived in this village and hadn’t heard the case about the Sun family’s wife. The discussion regarding them had died down a lot.
"Of course, Master Jing. Leave it to us!" They still obediently followed his words.
They inhaled the incense Xiao Jingran was burning, and sighed in happiness. The incense made them feel as if they were alive again.
[Host, don’t forget to use the fertilizer. This one should be more than enough for all your fields.] The System reminded her.
Xiao Qingya rubbed its belly. [Right, good reminder!]
She could use the fertilizer for the fields both at the village and the county later. Once she checked the instructions on the bottle, she actually needed way less fertilizer compared to the previous one.
It really deserved the advertisement they had put on!
The fertilizer actually also shortened the time needed before they could finally harvest the paddy rice by thirty percent! She couldn’t wait to try its effect.
As Xiao Jingran listened to the conversation between his youngest sister and the System, he couldn’t help but feel surprised again. There was actually such a miraculous thing.
No wonder as soon as Xiao Qingya fell asleep, the family would often gather to discuss the conversation between them. Even after staying with Xiao Qingya longer than him, the family was still, once a while, astonished by the topic.
The next day, while the women were going to the field to water the rice plants, the brothers followed Zhou Wenzhi to go to the back mountain again.
Xiao Jingran would bring some herbs back for the twins. No surprise about Xiao Fenghao’s actions too. He wanted to copy his eldest brother, and as usual, he would end up bringing some weeds home.
"Fortunately, we are getting some goat and oxen soon," Xiao Yuxi clicked her tongue as she sorted the herbs from the pile of weeds in Xiao Fenghao’s sack.
Xiao Yuyan giggled. "Our goats and oxen will thrive with Second Brother around."
Today, Shun Zi had brought his men to the Xiao family’s grain room to sort out the grains. They were planning to make some tiered products.
There would be normal seeds which were priced much lower. This was the kind of seeds they had acquired from other farmers.
Then, the Xiao family’s rice seeds. They would divide it into two; the better quality ones and the premium.
Xiao Qingya clicked her tongue when she heard that.
The System finally explained the reason while chuckling. [Host, Old Shun and his men actually want to raise the price slightly but they are worried it might drive away all the customers, so he created the premium tier.]
She nodded in understanding at the System explanation and couldn’t help but rub its chin. The System let out a purr, nearly burying itself in embarrassment at the involuntary sounds it let out.
It was clearly not used to being a cat yet.
Xiao Qingya had to put the fertilizer into a water vat at the fields. Other than that, she wanted to try a tactic—putting the pesticide early. The System told her it was quite effective to stop the rice plants from dying early on.
They didn’t try that before because the amount of pesticide they had was just too little and the effect would be minimized if they didn’t use the correct amount according to the instructions. Hence, they could only use it during the best time where the grain heads began to fill in.
[We should put the pesticide a week after we use the fertilizer, right, System?] Xiao Qingya tried to confirm her steps.
The cat nodded, licking Xiao Qingya’s palm fondly. [That’s right, Host. Both products are quite strong, and if there is a chance they might conflict with each other, the effect would be lessened.]
The little one bobbed her head up and down in understanding. She finally put a small amount of pesticide around a week later.
Time passed quickly, and unknowingly, the men in the family had been working on the ox cart and the barn for half a month.
Xiao Jingran didn’t always have the time to join Zhou Wenzhi and his second brother. Sometimes, Physician Bai would call him to teach him something.
The Xiao family naturally didn’t mind. Instead, they were grateful that Physician Bai was actually willing to settle down in their village for a while. He had sacrificed his love for travelling for Xiao Jingran and his family.
Today, they finally finished building the barn and the ox cart. Actually, they were only halfway finished since they planned to build another room for the goats.
However, they considered it enough for now.
"We can get the oxen first, then slowly build the other side for the goats." Zhou Wenzhi decided.
For the past month, there has been a noticeable change in him. The more the old man was working on building the barn and the ox cart, the more he seemed to be much more healthy.
"Thank you for your hard work, Father." Zhou Anran handed over a cup of soy milk.
Zhou Wenzhi took it, once he drank it, he let out a contented sigh. "These people are asking when you will start selling soy milk again."
The Xiao family had run out of soybeans three days ago, and naturally they stopped selling soy milk.
"The next batch of soybeans," Zhou Anran mumbled, and she frowned a bit. "We should check the fields in the county too."
"You bought some fields in the county?" Zhou Wenzhi raised his brows.
She was taken aback, almost forgetting that her father didn’t know about the Ling siblings’ existence and the fields given by them. As a result, she could only stiffly nod.
Zhou Wenzhi took another sip of his soy milk, closed his eyes briefly, and then, opened them again. "When are you going there?"
"We plan to do that after we buy the oxen," Zhou Anran admitted truthfully.
She saw her father nodding, and then said something quite unexpected.
