Ordinary observers in fast time travel

Chapter 1281 Harvest
But is Myolie Lu such an easy person to fool?

Well, you can tell just by looking at her expression right now.

Shi Jia tried to change the subject twice without success, and could only cover his forehead and look at Lu Xing'er with a helpless expression, "Xing'er, you should ask Lord Wan and the old lady first."

Lu Xing'er pouted, "Sister Li, do you not want to stay?"

Shi Jia sighed. She hadn't been able to be too direct before because Lu Xing'er was pregnant, but now she couldn't delay any longer. She looked directly at Lu Xing'er and nodded, "Yes!"

Upon hearing this, Lu Xing'er was struck dumb. "Sister Li, you, I, haven't I been good to you?"

Shi Jia felt inexplicably guilty, perhaps because Lu Xing'er had been kind to her. "Of course, Sister Xing'er is very good to me, but I have my own plans and can't stay in the Wan family as a cook forever."

She emphasized the word "cook" very much.

Lu Xing'er's body trembled, and tears slid down her cheeks. The old woman next to her comforted her while giving Shi Jia a meaningful look.

"I'm fine." Lu Xing'er pushed away Granny Lu and looked at Shi Jia with her teary eyes. "Sister Li, I'm sorry."

"Huh?" Shi Jia's heart skipped a beat. "Sister Xing'er, you—"

"Sister Li, should I not have let you come to the Wan family to be a cook?" Lu Xing'er bit her lip.

"Why would you think that?" Shi Jia asked, somewhat puzzled. "And speaking of which, I should be thanking the Wan family for this job."

Lu Xing'er blinked, "Then why doesn't my sister want to?"

Some things don't need to be said twice. Shi Jia didn't answer, but Lu Xing'er understood. "I understand."

"Granny Lu, I'm a little sleepy." Lu Xing'er held the baby, looking dejected, as if she had lost something important.

"Madam, let me carry the young master." Granny Lu helped Lu Xing'er into the inner room.

The maids serving nearby immediately stepped forward to clear away the teacups and pastries.

Shi Jia silently withdrew.

Since that day, Shi Jia rarely saw Lu Xing'er. But Shi Jia never entrusted Lu Xing'er's meals to anyone else again. Time flew by, and a year had passed.

Shi Jia hurriedly handed over his work to Manager Luo, collected his last month's wages, and then returned to Dashan Village with Wang Tiehua, Xiaocao, and the little guy.

Today is the day for harvesting sweet potatoes.

"Eight hundred and five jin. Not bad, next one."

"Seven hundred and eighty jin? That's a bit low."

The man holding the carrying pole across from them immediately looked disappointed. "Why is there so little?"

"Next." Village Chief Li waved his hand.

Immediately, someone carried up several loads of sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes in the baskets were all plump and round, which was very pleasing. He carried one load after another, making a total of eight loads.

That wasn't all. Finally, a woman followed, struggling to carry a large basket filled with plump sweet potatoes.

"Eight hundred and sixty-five jin!"

The release of this number caused an uproar, like stirring up a hornet's nest.

Wow! So many!

"Tie Tou, how do you grow them? What's your secret?"

"I'm afraid it's not number one."

"I think it's number one. Who else has more than him?" "Could this be all of his sweet potatoes? Didn't the village chief say to weigh the yield per acre?"

"Yes!" Suddenly everyone's eyes were focused on Tie Tou.

"Tie Tou, did you pull up both acres of sweet potatoes?" someone asked.

"No, no, I only harvested one mu. If you don't believe me, go and see for yourselves." Li Tietou quickly waved his hand.

Some people still didn't believe it, so Village Chief Li cleared his throat twice. "Quiet down, everyone. To ensure fairness, I had someone check everything before weighing. You can all rest assured."

No one dared to question the village chief's words, and the weighing continued. In the end, Li Tietou's family won first place.

"My home, it really is my home! This is wonderful!" Li Tietou's family cheered.

Shi Jia returned at this moment. "What happened?" She walked towards the crowd, and the family who rented her land noticed her and quickly greeted her, "Sister Li, you're back."

"Aunt Tian, ​​are the government officials coming to collect the sweet potatoes?" Shi Jia asked, puzzled, as she saw the piles of sweet potatoes laid out on the open ground.

"No, the officials will be here in two days," Aunt Tian said with a smile. "Today they're weighing the yield of sweet potatoes per mu (unit of land area), and Tie Tou's family came in first place."

She said enviously, "Sigh, his family doesn't have to pay taxes this year. They have more than a dozen people in their family, and they have several hundred kilograms of grain. Sigh, they're just a little short."

"What's missing?" Shi Jia blinked and asked again, "What's the yield of sweet potatoes per mu (unit of land area) at Tie Tou's family?"

"Eight hundred and sixty-five catties!" Aunt Tian said with envy and jealousy.

"Eight hundred and sixty-five jin?" Shi Jia was stunned. How could that be so little? "What about the others? What about my family?"

Aunt Tian sounded a little nervous upon hearing this, "Seven hundred and sixty jin. Sister Li, the sweet potatoes that other people grow are about the same weight. Mine are only seven hundred and ninety jin."

She wasn't just giving a perfunctory answer. Did she think her family didn't want to win first place? That would mean a year's worth of taxes!

"So little?" Shi Jia didn't care whether Aunt Tian was being perfunctory or not. She hadn't even considered winning first place, and even if she did, it wouldn't be hers. After all, she didn't even have land to cultivate.

What she cared about was the yield per mu (unit of land area) of sweet potatoes! In her memory, the yield of sweet potatoes per mu was five to eight thousand jin (unit of weight)!

"Quite a lot. Sweet potatoes have the highest yield per mu among grains. If they didn't keep for so long, I would have planted all my crops with sweet potatoes long ago," Aunt Tian said.

Is this still the highest?

A look of bewilderment flashed across Shi Jia's eyes, but he quickly saw the hardships farmers faced in cultivating the land from Li Yunniang's memories. Suddenly, a heavy pressure fell on his shoulders, making it difficult to breathe.

Aunt Tian, ​​who was standing nearby, noticed that something was wrong and quickly asked, "Sister Li, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"

"No." Shi Jia shook her head. She understood. She finally understood why the people here were unwilling to grow sweet potatoes. It wasn't because they didn't taste good, nor because they were difficult to preserve. It was simply because their yield wasn't high enough to make them give up other grains.

After all, even rice, if properly cared for, can yield 600 jin per mu! How can we give up rice for 200 jin of sweet potatoes that we might not be able to eat?

"Oh, by the way, Li Meizi, why did you suddenly come back?" Aunt Tian asked.

"I just came back to take a look," Shi Jia said casually. She had come back because she heard that Dashan Village was going to harvest sweet potatoes. In addition, she also wanted to investigate whether the environment of Dashan Village was suitable for experimental fields.

I never expected to receive this terrible news as soon as I got back. Oh well, it's because she didn't find out more clearly. But, "Aunt Tian, ​​you just said that Tie Tou's family's sweet potato yield was over 860 jin per mu?"

"Yes, didn't I just say that?" Aunt Tian looked at her suspiciously. How could this girl be so forgetful?

"Then, Auntie, do you know where his sweet potato field is?"

"It's in the east end of the village, all newly reclaimed land this year. I don't know which plot exactly. Why are you asking?"

"No, I'm just curious about what farming methods Tie Tou's family has."