Transmigrated Farmgirl's Scheme to Get Rich - Chapter 187
Harvest
After working hard the entire day, Xiuying was about to return home after dinner. Mo Feng was escorting her back, but before they had walked onto the main road for too long, they heard the sound of a gong from the village’s threshing field.
“What’s going on?” Xiuying asked.
Mo Feng replied, “Let’s go and take a look.”
The two went to the threshing field. They saw governing official Wu ringing the gong, but not a lot of people had arrived.
A lantern hung from a tree, and Zhao’er was standing under it. Besides him were Mo Yan, Lu Junming, Zhou Liangsheng and Chuzi.
Zhao’er waved towards the people in the threshing fields and announced, “Members of Chenzhong Village, I am Mr. Cao’s apprentice Wu Tingzhao. It is said that the relationship between a master and a disciple is akin to that of a father and son. Currently, my master’s family’s wheat has ripened and needs to be harvested. However, my master’s wife and son are not currently present, so I am currently announcing this news in their stead.”
So he wanted to announce that the Cao family was hiring short-term workers. Zhao’er had returned to the village to discuss this with Mo Yan and the others. Mo Feng was disgruntled and wanted to drag Xiuying away, but she said, “Let’s stay behind to see whether or not this little boy can do anything.”
After Zhao’er finished speaking, Zhou Liangsheng continued, “For each acre of wheat you harvest and take down to the threshing field, you will receive three hundred dollars. For each acre of wheat you thresh, you will receive two hundred dollars. All of you can work together to receive this money, and anyone interested should come to me to sign up. We’ll pay you half of your compensation upfront, and the other half after you finish.”
Mrs. Li was also amongst the people in the threshing field, and had always treated herself as part of the Cao family. When she heard their words, she replied mutinously, “How could you people from outside of the village interfere in the Cao family’s matters? Do you think that there aren’t any people in Chenzhong Village?”
Mo Yan came out to say, “Auntie, I am a member of Chenzhong Village, and have frequently been aided by Mr. Cao, so it’s now time for me to return the favour. If you are able to take on this matter, why haven’t you done so yet? However, jobs like this which require hard labour and don’t pay well don’t seem to interest you anyways.”
Xiuying tugged on Mo Feng, “Look at her, confronting my mother in front of so many people and not giving her a shred of face. She didn’t show up to help her own family harvest wheat, but is happily helping another family get workers for the harvest.”
Her words successfully managed to ignite Mo Feng, and he rushed up to berate Mo Yan, “What’s wrong with you? You aren’t caring about the family’s harvest at all, but instead blindly helping another family spread word about their harvest?!” [1]
Mo Yan was about to say something when Cao Zhang’s voice came from the side of the threshing field, “They’re not blindly helping my family advertise the harvest, but instead helping me out.”
Mrs. Li immediately went over to ask with a smile on her face, “Zhang’er, you’ve returned? When did you come back, and did your mum come back with you?”
She spoke to him affectionately, and thought in her own heart that she was a member of the Cao family, but the ingratiating look on her face sold her out as a servant.
Cao Zhang walked under the lantern and turned to face the crowd, “I had just returned home when I heard them announce my family’s harvest, so I came over.”
Mrs. Li asked about Mrs. Cao again, and he replied, “My mother didn’t return home with me. I came back on my own this time, and I won’t be leaving again. From now on, like the other members of the younger generation in Chenzhong Village, I will be working in the fields when it’s busy and finding jobs to earn money when it’s not.”
The people present discussed amongst themselves, and Mrs. Li asked, “Then are you not taking the imperial examination?”
Cao Zhang shook his head, “I’m not taking it. How could the golden palace of the emperor be as carefree as life in the village?”
Since the young master of the family had come here to voice his support, the others couldn’t do much to dissent. A few people willing to act as short-term workers signed up immediately. Zhou Liangsheng recorded their names, and then handed the ledger to Cao Zhang.
Mo Yan knew that he had snuck out and returned home behind his mother’s back again, and again, it was because he was unwilling to marry Lu Jiao.
When the crowd had dispersed, Cao Zhang called towards Mo Yan, “Yan’er, could you stay behind? I have something to say to you.”
Lu Junming came over to pull her away, “It’s too late today, you can speak to her tomorrow.”
After seeing them leave on a carriage, Cao Zhang stood there and stayed there for a long time. When Mo Feng sent Xiuying back to her doorstep, she said, “Your sister might be young, but she’s good at seducing men. Lu Junming’s practically her servant, while Cao Zhang holds her in his heart. Who do you want her to get married to?”
Mo Feng replied disdainfully, “She can marry whoever she wants, it’s none of my business.”
“That’s where you’re mistaken, it’s absolutely your business. After all, you would be in-laws with an inseparable connection. Between Lu Junming and Cao Zhang, who would you want to be your brother-in-law?”
“Obviously Cao Zhang, he has a gentle temperament and is easy to interact with. Lu Junming might be wealthy, but his disposition is unagreeable, and he’s hard to approach.”
“Then get your mother to engage the two of them sooner rather than later!”
Since ancient times, the reason a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law don’t get along is ultimately because someone overstepped their boundaries. Xiuying and Mo Feng hadn’t even been engaged yet, but she was trying to meddle in her future sister-in-law’s wedding already. If she actually became Mo Feng’s wife in the future, she’d have an even tighter hold on the household than Ms. Liang.
In the past, when Mrs. Cao was present in the village, she would hire short-term workers long in advance, in preparation for the harvest, but this year she didn’t even care about the wheat in the fields.
Cao Zhang and the people willing to act as short-term workers agreed to start in three days, so they could also help recruit more workers. Last year, Dagan would help with this kind of work, but since he had to juggle his job at the workshop and his work at his family’s own fields, he didn’t help out this year.
Harvesting wheat had a sensitive time window, and in a few days all of the fields were empty. After the men had finished harvesting the wheat in their own fields, they worked for the Cao family or even went outside of the village. The women weren’t idle either, as aside from taking care of the household, they also had to take the time to complete their work from the workshop.
One day, Dagan was going to the Wu family to collect the work done for the workshop. When he stepped in, he saw governing official Wu collecting his dried wheat. He squatted down to put a full bag of wheat on his shoulders when he sprained his waist when he stood up, and he wasn’t able to move.
At that time, Dagan entered and greeted him when he immediately asked Dagan for help to remove the bag of wheat he had placed on his shoulders.
Dagan placed the bag on the ground, “Governing official Wu, your waist being sprained may be a serious matter, you should ask Mr. Cao to come here and take a look!”
Governing official Wu tried to walk, but clenched his teeth in pain just by moving. Dagan called Xiaoyue over to take care of her father while he fetched Mr. Cao.
Before long, Mr. Cao and Zhao’er arrived, and Xiaoyue helped her father lie down on a kang. Mr. Cao started massaging his midsection while Zhao’er observed carefully.
After the massage, Mr. Cao applied medicine to the strained portion of governing official Wu’s waist, then bound it with a cloth, “You need to stay sedentary for the next few days, and limit your amount of movement.”
After thinking of the wheat in his courtyard that hadn’t been collected yet, governing official Wu became panicked, “How can this be? Xiaoyue can still collect the wheat in the courtyard slowly, but the fields haven’t been tilled yet! She can’t do that work!”
Mr. Cao pressed governing official Wu’s body, which had sat up in his agitation, back down, “Are your fields more important or your body? Your waist injury isn’t a small matter, and it might become a recurring pain if you don’t take good care of yourself.”
Xiaoyue also told him, “Dad, it’s more important for your body to be fully recuperated. It’s not a big deal to till the fields a few days late.”
“But there will be heavy sunshine the next few days. If I wait, the fields will be untillable.”
Dagan added from the side, “Governing official, don’t worry, I can help out in the fields, you just focus on getting better.”
Now he was injured, governing official Wu couldn’t till the fields no matter how much he wanted to, so only said, “Then I’ll have to trouble you to find the time to till the fields for me. I’ll pay you the same rates as the Cao family would.”
Dagan replied, “Don’t think about it! We’re from the same village after all, how could I accept money for just a little bit of money? Just rest at home peacefully, I’ll deal with the work in the fields!”
P.S. Most of November is going to be hectic as I have a lot of major events coming up. Just a heads up in case chapter frequency is irregular.
[1] I’m fairly certain that Mo Yan brings money back to the Mo family via her work at the commercial firm, although I don’t think the amount is explicitly mentioned within the story. However, if Ms. Liang is able to go from barely affording salted eggs to being able to take out ten thousand dollars for a donkey and a carriage, I don’t think Mo Feng can’t really say anything here.