Chapter 167: Is There Any Way to Remedy This?
During this period of refurbishment at the docks, Wen Nong couldn’t go run his food stall, so he stayed at home to help out with the farm work.
As time went on, the appearance of the wheat in the fields could finally be roughly discerned. It was then that people began to notice a problem: the Wen family’s wheat was significantly thicker and sturdier than everyone else’s, and its growth was vastly superior to the rest of the village.
It wasn’t just the Wen family. The fields of those few households who had initially followed the Wen family’s lead and changed their farming methods were all growing far better than the other villagers’ crops.
This discovery finally brought the villagers to their senses. It turned out that before this, the Wen family really hadn’t been fooling around.
Old Man Wen was now blocked in the fields by people every single day whenever he stepped out of the house, all of them asking if there was still any room to remedy the situation in their own fields.
How could Old Man Wen possibly know if there was a way? When he had listened to his eldest son back then, he had also done so with the mindset of taking a massive gamble. Who could have known that his eldest son’s methods would actually be viable?
But now, everyone was running over to ask him, and he didn’t understand it at all.
Some people even went to the Wen family’s fields every day to study their wheat, watching closely to see how Wen Xiuzhu and the others usually tended the land. Aside from the fact that the weeds were cleared much more thoroughly than their own, there didn’t seem to be any other difference.
One villager even copied them and weeded his own land until not a single blade of stray grass remained, but he didn’t see any noticeable effect.
In reality, the complete lack of weeds in the Wen family’s fields was purely because the few people guarding those plots all day long had too much time on their hands.
On this particular day, Old Man Wen was genuinely annoyed from being surrounded. His primary fear was that these people would ruin the crops in his fields. Although they didn’t do anything other than squat nearby to watch, having them stare like that was enough to give anyone the creeps.
“Alright, alright, I’ll go back and ask Eldest. I’ll ask him if there’s any other way, but I don’t guarantee it’ll work! Stop ruining the crops in my family’s fields and go mind your own business. Don’t loiter in our fields anymore.” If it had been in the past, Old Man Wen would have thoroughly enjoyed this feeling of being the center of attention. But now, his fields and his grain were far more important than any of that.
However, when Old Man Wen relayed this matter to Wen Xiuyi, Wen Xiuyi’s brows knit tightly together.
“A crop’s yield is not only related to the soil quality, but also heavily dependent on the spacing between the sprouts. Dad, this is exactly why I insisted that you pull up some of the densely packed seedlings back then, and why I told you to directly discard those deformed, poorly growing duds. Only by doing that can the remaining sprouts absorb enough nutrients to grow better.
The wheat is about to head now. Trying to salvage it at this stage is afraid to be difficult.”
Having been a farmer his entire life, Old Man Wen naturally hoped that everyone’s grain yields could increase. He immediately asked, “Is there truly not a single way left then?”
Wen Xiuyi hesitated for a moment. He glanced over at Wen Yao, who was learning how to make shoes from Old Madam Luo, before retracting his gaze. He said, “Actually, it’s not entirely without a solution.”
“How do we do it? Tell me, and I’ll go pass the word to them. Anyway, once the method is given to them, whether they choose to do it or not is their own business. It’ll save them from crouching in our family’s fields every single day,” Old Man Wen said.
Wen Xiuyi explained, “Just like our family did: discard those deformed and weak seedlings, and then apply top-dressing fertilizer.”
Old Man Wen opened his mouth, and it took a long while before he spoke: “But our family spent a whole month just making compost before. If we have to wait another month now, the wheat will have already headed. Applying fertilizer at that time—will it still be of any use?”
Wen Xiuyi thought to himself, It definitely won’t be of any use by then. If they wanted to apply top-dressing, they had to do it right now. At the very least, it could still remedy a tiny bit of the damage.
“For this, using our family’s regular compost definitely won’t work. We’ll have to think of another way. Dad, let me ponder it for a bit. Once I think of a good method, I’ll let you know.”
Hearing Wen Xiuyi put it that way, Old Man Wen stopped pressing him. He asked a few more questions about when the potatoes and sweet potatoes in the fields could be harvested before finally preparing to head back.
Once they saw the members of the old residence out, Wen Xiuyi shot a meaningful glance at his son and daughter before slipping into his own study.
Wen Yao and Wen Jun respectively coaxed the two sisters and Sanxi back to their own rooms before following him into the study.
“What is the matter with our Professor Wen? His brow is furrowed so tightly it could practically crush a fly,” Wen Yao teased the moment she stepped through the door.
Wen Jun looked at Wen Xiuyi and poured him a cup of tea. “Dad, what’s wrong? Encountered a problem?”
Wen Xiuyi took a sip of the tea, let out a sigh, and related the current situation in the village.
Wen Yao looked utterly speechless. “Back then, Dad was pouring his heart out to teach them, yet no one was willing to listen. Now that they see our family’s grain growing beautifully, they’re starting to get anxious.”
Wen Xiuyi also remarked, “Ai, with the way I was acting back then, who would dare to listen? Only your grandpappy and the others were bold enough to follow behind us and take a gamble. The reason I called you two in is to discuss this matter with you.”
Wen Yao spread her hands. “Dad, my brother and I don’t know the first thing about farming. What is there for us to discuss?”
Wen Xiuyi remained silent, merely staring intently at Wen Yao.
After a long pause, Wen Yao finally clued in. She pointed a finger at herself. “Dad, don’t tell me you want to…”
Wen Xiuyi nodded.
Wen Yao: “…”
“Alright then. But how are you going to explain the source? Besides, there are so many fields out there; just think about how much chemical fertilizer that’s going to require.” She knew it. Professor Wen simply couldn’t bear to see the hardships of the common people.
Wen Xiuyi looked at the two of them and said, “That’s exactly why I called you here to brainstorm. See if there’s any way we can bring it out without raising suspicion.”
He turned to Wen Yao and added, “Think about it carefully. In the plot of the original book, how did the female lead usually bring out items from her space to use?”
Wen Yao recalled carefully. To be completely honest, the comfortable life of this recent period had caused her to almost entirely forget the original plot line.
After a moment, she said, “Generally, they would just find an excuse to go out for a trip, and when they returned, they would bring the items back with them, claiming they had found them somewhere outside.” Having finished, she couldn’t help but complain: “I honestly don’t know if the characters in that book lacked brains or what, but not a single person ever suspected a thing.”
Wen Xiuyi paced back and forth across the room before musing, “Then is it possible that if we bring it out, it won’t arouse anyone’s suspicion either? After all, we are currently walking within the plot of the book.”
The brother and sister exchanged a look. “It’s not entirely impossible, huh.”
Wen Xiuyi looked at the siblings and halted his pacing. “Then… shall we give it a try?”
What else could Wen Yao say? Her old dad had spoken, so even if it wouldn’t work, she had to make it work.
“Alright then. We’ll find a time to go out for a trip, and then we can just haul the goods back. But Dad, exactly how much do we need?” Wen Yao asked.
Wen Xiuyi considered it for a moment and said, “It’s best to use compound fertilizer. A single mu of land requires roughly fifty catties. With so many fields in the village, we’ll need at least one or two tons.”
“…”
One or two tons. Let’s call it two tons—that was four thousand catties. At fifty catties a bag, that was eighty bags. It didn’t actually seem like that much.
“Then where are we going to haul it back from? And what’s our cover story?”
The father and daughter trio launched into a deep discussion regarding this issue. Ultimately, they decided to make a trip to the prefectural city. On one hand, they could go out to see the world, and on the other, they could use this exact opportunity to repackage the compound fertilizer and haul it back.
“We can’t just give it to them for free either. When the time comes, have your grandpappy step forward. Those who are willing can bring money to buy it, and those who aren’t can just forget it; we’ll save it for our own family’s use,” Wen Xiuyi said.
Wen Yao smiled. “Dad, I’m not running a charity. I definitely have to make a profit on the items I buy back; otherwise, it would be a complete loss.”
