CHAPTER 142: 142 VARIETIES OF SUGARCANE

Jiang Hu carried a basket full of cow dung over, helped by Liu Yang to place it in their yard.

"Didn’t we agree to split the money from selling the sorghum stalks? But the shopkeeper Liu gave us an even amount, so instead, I decided to bring you a basket of cow dung."

Liu Yang was a bit embarrassed: "No need to be so particular about it. The sorghum stalks don’t fetch much money. If it weren’t for you, Brother Jiang, we couldn’t have sold the syrup at such a high price."

Thinking about the silver ingots, Liu Yang felt a bit excited.

Jiang Hu couldn’t help but laugh: "I didn’t expect it either, but shopkeeper Liu said that he can afford to pay this price and still make a profit."

Liu Yang nodded repeatedly: "That’s because it’s you, Brother Jiang, doing the selling; if it were anyone else, they might not have gotten this price."

Shopkeeper Liu had great trust in Brother Jiang and treated the Jiang family differently from others.

Even though the whole Fu’an Village sold goods to Tongfu Restaurant, there was a difference indeed.

Jiang Hu didn’t deny it and just laughed: "Anyway, making money is a good thing. Where’s convenient for you? We should move this cow dung first."

Liu Yang realized and, seeing the cow dung, couldn’t help but smile broadly.

"Brother Jiang, I really scored big this time."

This cow dung is truly valuable.

Not only is it needed for farming, but it’s also from Brother Jiang’s home.

Usually, when Jiang Hu had more than he could use, he’d just dump it into the manure pit, so when villagers came by to collect manure, they could get a bit.

Now, bringing such a big basket directly to his house was something you couldn’t buy with just money.

Jiang Hu didn’t say much more, together with Liu Yang, they emptied the cow dung next to the pigsty behind the house, then carried the empty basket back.

On the way, they ran into Liu Yang’s parents returning from work, who they greeted with a simple nod without saying much.

By the time Jiang Hu got home, he overheard Xiaomi asking Liu Ze.

"Ze brother, what exactly is sugarcane? What does it look like? Can we plant it ourselves?"

Jiang Hu paused what he was doing with the basket, a thoughtful look crossing his face.

Liu Ze sat under the eaves in a rocking chair, holding a book, while next to him, Xiaoxue was embroidering a handkerchief their dad had recently bought.

Xiaomi propped her cheeks with her hands, curiously watching Liu Ze.

Liu Ze flipped through a few pages of the book and then handed it over.

"Look, this is what sugarcane looks like. It’s definitely something that can be planted, though I’m not sure how to do it."

Xiaomi stretched her neck for a look: "It looks a lot like the sorghum in the field."

Jiang Hu walked over: "Xiao Ze, let me have a look."

Xiaomi looked up at her dad with a smile: "Dad, are you thinking about planting sugarcane too?"

It was only a fleeting thought, but now seemed tempting after Xiaomi mentioned it.

Liu Ze handed the book to Jiang Hu, adding fuel to the fire.

"Uncle Jiang, if you want to plant it, I can ask my dad to help find some seeds. Once you make sugarcane syrup, you can give a little to my dad, because my mom loves making pastries."

Many pastries need sugar, but not every family has the sugarcane syrup from the Jiang family.

Even though there wasn’t a trace of sugarcane syrup yet.

Jiang Hu was even more tempted, knowing Liu Ze’s parents did business in the county and had connections. If he really wanted sugarcane seeds, they’d surely find some.

However, he wasn’t in a rush to decide.

"No rush, no rush, let me think about it first."

Making syrup did bring in a good amount of money, but he needed to consider it thoroughly.

The sugarcane illustrations in the book did look a bit like sorghum, but sugarcane didn’t have seeds on top.

Next to it was a description, Jiang Hu recognized a bit of it, something about being perennial, solid herbaceous, with rhizomes, thick and well-developed stalks.

The rest talked about benefits and such that he couldn’t quite understand, but he remembered what the sugarcane looked like and gave the book back to Liu Ze.

Xiaomi continued with her cheeks in her hands: "Sugarcane must be really tasty, that time I ate sorghum stalks, they were super sweet, sugarcane must be sweeter."

With a look of anticipation, she seemed quite excited.

Seeing this, Jiang Hu almost didn’t restrain himself and wanted to immediately ask Liu Ze for help.

Luckily, he held back.

He patted Xiaomi’s head: "Don’t rush, it’s so hot these days, it’s not time to plant yet. Let’s wait until I get some information first."

Xiaomi sniffed and quickly darted away: "Dad, you were just handling cow dung, and you haven’t washed your hands yet!"

Jiang Hu’s hand froze in mid-air.

Then he noticed the smell, he had been handling cow dung and was still reeking of it.

Normally he wouldn’t mind, but now with guests at home, it was a bit embarrassing.

"I forgot, you all have fun. I’ll go look for your mother."

With that, Jiang Hu hurried towards the back of the yard, hearing that second aunt was still cooking pig feed.

Xiaoxue tapped Xiaomi.

"You never used to mind before."

Xiaomi stuck her tongue out at her second sister: "I was just teasing Dad."

Xiaoxue shook her head helplessly and went back to her embroidery.

Xiaomi was still mulling over the sugarcane, almost forgetting that sugarcane is also a fruit.

In the secret space, there were all sorts of fruits, and naturally, there was sugarcane, and two types!

One type was the slender green-skinned sugarcane, and the other was the thicker black-skinned sugarcane.

The green-skinned was thinner and softer; the black-skinned sugarcane was thicker and harder.

But looking at the book Liu Ze had, it was hard to tell whether it was green-skinned or black-skinned.

Xiaomi pretended to yawn, rested her head on the stool, closed her eyes, and instantly entered the secret space, directly heading to the fruit area.

There were too many things in the space, her memory wasn’t that good to remember everything.

The earlier-planted fruit trees were common apples, pears, oranges, and she had planted a banana, which unexpectedly, actually sprouted.

Then some peculiar ones like durians, jackfruits, and pomegranate and longan trees weren’t scarce either.

But those trees are perennial; they couldn’t bear fruit anytime soon.

As for the sugarcane, she hadn’t really paid attention before. It was mainly stacked in bunches on the side, almost forgetting it was also considered a fruit.

Xiaomi touched her chin, looking at the dozens of bundles of sugarcane before her.

"Seems like there isn’t much space left; never mind, let’s plant a few of both types for now, and if Dad really plants sugarcane next year, I can just take a few sections out."

With a wave of her hand, a few sticks of both green-skinned and black-skinned sugarcane flew out, then were cut into sections, each section having a bud point, and each bud point would be a few sugarcanes.

She then moved to the corner of the space, where there was about ten or so square feet left, just enough to plant these sugarcanes.

She dug grooves, laid the sugarcane horizontally inside, with the bud points facing up, watered them with spiritual spring water, and then covered them with soil.

The space was truly delightful, requiring no manual labor; just with a thought, everything was done.

After finishing all this, Xiaomi went to check on the chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, and the field mice brought in last night.

The field mice were nowhere to be seen, only a few burrows were visible, and the grains were gone, but she could still sense them.

Xiaomi gathered some wild grass seeds and grain seeds and planted them in the empty spots above.

Once she finished with everything, it had only been about a quarter of an hour when she heard her second sister calling for her and quickly exited the space.