CHAPTER 101: SOUL OF FARMING

While Xiaomi was telling herself she was out of luck, she also promised to check Uncle Liu’s field later in the afternoon!

Uncle Liu had invited her so warmly, and for those couple of pounds of eels, it was only polite to accept, right?

For lunch, her second aunt steamed mantou, a mix of buckwheat and white flour, giving it both the chewiness of buckwheat and the softness of white flour.

They cooked two to three pounds of big eels, filling a large pot. Jiang Hu found two clean jars, divided the eels into three portions, and while they were still hot, took them to the Liu family and the village chief’s household.

The eel soup was thick and aromatic, perfectly paired with the uniquely flavored mantou. Everyone ate until their stomachs were round and left the table burping.

The fields had been prepped beforehand, and the time had come to plant corn. Now that the kids were a bit older, Jiang Hu’s second aunt didn’t need to keep them by her side all the time anymore.

However, Xiaomi, who originally planned to stay home that afternoon, changed her mind and decided to join them in the field, even though she couldn’t help much, she wouldn’t get in the way of her elder brother and sister.

Planting corn involved digging a hole, dropping two seeds in, grabbing some cow manure, watering it with manure water, and then covering it up.

While her brother and sister couldn’t do much else, dropping seeds and grabbing manure were tasks they could manage.

Don’t misunderstand; this cow manure had been fermented, with corn stalks and dry grass mixed in. Over the past few sunny days, Jiang Hu had turned it over with a hoe to let the sun dry it out.

And when grabbing the manure, they didn’t do it barehanded. Her second aunt had stitched together some gloves from fabric scraps to handle the manure.

After lunch, the family rested for a bit before getting ready to head out. Just as they stepped out the door, they encountered the village chief coming over with a ceramic pot, presumably to return it.

They hadn’t expected that the village chief would personally make the trip.

"Off to the fields already?"

"As you know, village chief, our family is small. If we don’t start early, everyone else will be done, and we’ll still be at it."

The village chief stepped inside, handing the pot back to the second aunt. It was clean and had been washed.

"That’s true, you two work hard," the village chief nodded, then smiled kindly at Xiaomi, patting her head.

"Xiaomi, you’re going to the fields too? I haven’t seen you playing in the fields lately. Didn’t you catch a big eel before?"

Xiaomi blinked, wondering what the village chief meant.

Jiang Hu immediately understood and explained with a smile, "We didn’t want the villagers to misunderstand. The chief knows that while the eels aren’t owned by anyone, the fields do belong to others."

Oh, Xiaomi realized that since Uncle Liu had been catching many eels recently, even the village chief was tempted?

If he knew that Uncle Liu’s rice would also grow better this year, would he be even more excited?

Xiaomi hadn’t forgotten that the field where she and her brother caught eels was precisely where Uncle Liu was growing seedlings!

When her family was growing seedlings, she’d followed a few times and secretly poured Spiritual Spring water into their field, which led her father and brother to go eel catching that night.

At that time, she didn’t realize that it was the Spiritual Spring water that allowed her father and brother to catch so many eels.

Xiaomi’s big eyes were innocent and pure, as if she didn’t know anything at all.

Indeed, the more innocent Xiaomi appeared, the more the village chief thought she lived up to her name as Little Lucky Star. Ordinary children weren’t so smart and good-looking.

Then the village chief said, "No worries, I can’t speak for others, but my fields are right next to yours. Xiaomi is welcome to catch eels there anytime, okay Xiaomi?"

The last two sentences were directed at Xiaomi.

Xiaomi blinked, seemingly confused, and nodded, "I know."

Before, when she’d gone to the fields with her parents, she’d seen the village chief’s family busy at work.

The village chief took it as a yes from Xiaomi. By then, her second aunt had returned the pot, and the village chief didn’t keep them any longer.

"Alright, you go ahead and start your work. I’ll head back now."

Seeing how things were, it was clear that until the Jiang family’s fieldwork was finished, Big Brother wouldn’t have time to take Xiaomi to play in the fields.

As for Xiaomi going alone?

The village chief wasn’t a fool. Even he knew that wasn’t going to happen.

It wasn’t clear if it was the village chief’s words that tipped others off, but that afternoon, as everyone was busy, people working near their field would purposely come by to invite Xiaomi to catch eels when she had time.

Xiaomi happily agreed to each invitation, though whether she’d go or not, she’d decide later.

After all, the summer was long, there’d always be boring times, right?

They planted corn, peanuts, and soybeans almost all at once. Sorghum was nearly ready to harvest, and various vegetables too.

With the previous profits from selling vegetables, Jiang Hu spared no effort to cut a few tree trunks from the mountains. Along the edge of their wheat field, he placed a stake every meter and used bamboo strips as ropes, tying them in sets of three at upper, middle, and lower levels.

Below each stake, they planted climbing vegetables like loofahs, cucumbers, string beans, and cowpeas.

Meanwhile, winter melons and pumpkins were planted in unused areas around the house, like on slopes covered with wild chrysanthemums and Chinese cornel.

These slopes, slightly steep and unplowed, were cleared of grass by second aunt and Jiang Hu, providing an ideal spot for planting vigorous climbing plants like winter melon and pumpkin.

And this method wasn’t exclusive to their family. Many families with nearby slopes did the same, saving space and avoiding tax grains.

Since they had prepared in advance, it only took the Jiang family three or four days to plant the corn and soybeans. Oh, they also planted over a hundred pounds of sweet potatoes.

The sweet potatoes mainly relied on the vines. In April or May, they would insert vines for propagation.

When Xiaomi saw her parents planting sweet potatoes, she planted a few in her space too. Later, she’d mix in some of the space’s sweet potato vines, and that would be enough.

In the space’s vegetable garden, despite its original size, when they harvested the rice, Xiaomi suddenly understood.

A small vegetable garden like this, dedicating it to one thing, wasn’t practical as she couldn’t suddenly conjure a lot of things.

Rather than that, it was better to use it for breeding seeds!

So now, Xiaomi divided the garden into several sections, planted different things in each one, harvested seeds, then figured out how to bring them out.

In her idle time, Xiaomi also expanded the space, originally just a vegetable garden for raising chickens and rabbits. Now it had become several acres of various fertile fields.

Wheat, corn, rice, planting crops from different seasons together seemed like child’s play!

Beside the apple trees grew orange trees, coconut trees next to banana trees, and underground a small patch of ginseng sprouts, a true wonder to behold!

For a moment, Xiaomi felt as if something inside her had awakened.