Chapter 114

Although the summer had begun in May, the hottest months were July and August. Cicadas had started screaming early in the morning, so people didn’t have a quiet environment to sleep in. When it was hot at noon, they had a slimmer chance to sleep well. Since there were no electric fans or air conditioners, they could only cool themselves with palm leaf fans.

Recently, Liu Tong had become more addicted to sleep, and now Xu Ran’s most difficult task was to keep him cool with a fan while he was sleeping.

However, he would fall asleep himself as he waved his fan most of the time. His sleeping positions were quite strange: he would skew either left or right and had never maintained a straight position. After that, Liu Tong firmly asked for a substitution, and then the tough task was given to Shao Yu.

Xu Ran, who had nothing to do, went to Xu An’s home to see the furniture, but Xu An and Wu Mei were discussing the matter of sending Dahu to school.

Dahu was already nine years old this year. If he still didn’t go to school, it would be too late. In the past few years, this had been delayed because they had been in the original family. When they had just built their new family, their family conditions had been bad. Now they had made some money with the help of Xu Ran, so they could afford to let Dahu alone attend school.

There were a few schools in Xu Village, but not many children went to school here. The Fuzi, who was teaching now, was extremely old and had also been Xu Ran’s teacher back then.

When he heard their discussion, Xu Ran then remembered that his two kids were also at the right age and that he had already been to primary school in June. Although there were no school levels here like primary school, middle school, or high school, it was good to go to school early because people had a good memory at a young age.

Wu Mei and Xu An meant to send Dahu to school, but they were worried that Xu An’s brothers would take the chance to ask for money, so they were in a dilemma.

Hearing that, Xu Ran had an idea and said to Wu Mei, “Even if Dahu goes to school, he must wait until next year. Surely, it is too late this year. Coincidentally, I’m going to send Tangtang and Guoguo to school the next year. When the time comes, Dahu can go with them. Xu An, If your brothers ask about it, you can tell them I paid the tuition fee. The villagers all know the relationships between us few families, so it is acceptable to say I paid the tuition fee for you. Xu An, I don’t think your brothers will come to me to ask for money!.”

Wu Mei and Xu An pondered it over and thought that it was a way, and then they nodded and said, “OK, we’ll have to bother you, Xu Ran. But we assume that you’d better do this for Wu Lan’s and Liu Qing’s families too, saying that all of us agree to send our kids to school together next year. If you only do this for us, there are people who will always gossip about it.”

Xu Ran thought about it and agreed, and he said, “Then let me do it. I’m not afraid of doing it for many families.”

The matter of sending children to school was settled. After that, Xu An took Xu Ran to see the furniture he had made. In Xu Village’s mountain, there were plenty of bamboo trees, so Xu Ran had asked Xu An to make a few beds for coolness. They had different sizes, and some were even foldable. They could be used as beds to sleep on, but it was best to use them in summer.

The rest items were some cabinets and chairs. Some were made of wood, and some bamboo, but all of them were small items. In fact, Xu Ran had not been able to think of any furniture to make, so he had asked Xu An to turn a few of the things in his memory into reality.

These items were worth large sums of money even in ancient times, let alone in modern times.

Generally speaking, Xu Ran was very satisfied.

After walking around in Xu An’s house, he went home and saw a carriage parked outside his house. He knew the horse. It was the one who had carried him home the last time. It seemed that his letter had been received, and Lin Xi had been sent here to take goods.

Fortunately, Xu Ran had written down the cooking method of the bean jelly and all things related a long time ago, so he could let him take them straight away. The only nuisance was that all the chickens had been set free this morning, and it was not easy to catch them now.

Xu Ran invited Lin Xi to their house and poured him a bowl of cooled boiled water.

Lin Xi conversed with Xu Ran for a while, then took out a banknote from his inner pocket, and gave it to Xu Ran.

Xu Ran took it and found that its face value was as high as one hundred taels. He shook the banknote and asked Lin Xi, “Why so much money? Did your master say anything?”

Lin Xi said, “My master said that the previous goods were sold well, and your share of profits was dozens of taels. Besides, I will take the chickens and ducks back this time, and the rest will be used to buy them.”

After hearing Lin Xi’s explanation, Xu Ran no longer refused it. The total number of the chickens and ducks was forty or fifty. Indeed, it costed much money to buy them.

No doubt, Lin Xi would not be able to leave today, so Xu Ran asked him to rest for a day and wait until tomorrow morning the chickens and ducks were caught before leaving. Lin Xi had no objections. He had been quite tired after driving the carriage for two days and two nights, and it would be safer to rest for a night and then depart.

Lin Xi was a servant’s son of the Lin Family and the confidant of Lin Hua. Xu Ran had specially introduced the cooking methods of the sliced cold chicken and the bean jelly to Lin Hua, who had recorded them carefully.

On the second day, Xu Ran only kept two or three egg-laying chickens and caught all the rest.

Lin Xi had come with lots of chili and soybean, which Xu Ran had taken, but he had packed some potatoes, asking Lin Xi to take them back to Lin Hua and others to eat, but not to sell them.

Only when Lin Xi had left did Xu Ran have time to tell Liu Tong about letting Tangtang and Guoguo go to school.

Liu Tong would definitely not stop their children from going to school, but he thought it was a little too early to let them go to school the following year. After all, they would only be seven in May next year.

Therefore, Xu Ran told Liu Tong the idea of not allowing their children to lose at the starting line, which finally convinced Liu Tong.

Now with their chickens and ducks gone, they needed to buy a new batch.

Xu Ran thought about it silently at home. Perhaps they also needed to buy a female goat. When their child was born, he could go straight to drink the goat milk. Surely, it would be healthier than eating rice porridge or other porridge at a young age.

Time flew. It was the end of July in the blink of an eye. Since the arrival of Gao Quan, the cornfields had been given to him to take care of.

At night, Xu Ran brought back a few tender corncobs, making corn porridge for the family and boiling some for everyone to eat.

The tender corn could also be used to make the steamed corn pulp bread. Xu Ran had eaten it a few times and thought it tasted very good. Maybe he could try making it. Although he didn’t know the specific process, he assumed that it was similar to that of the steamed rice pulp cake.

Since not many corn seeds had been sown in the first year, Xu Ran had not planned to feed the pigs with the corn. This year, he could pick the tender corncobs and eat them directly. After giving some to the many people he knew and selling some, he estimated that not much would be left.

Since the corn had become edible, Xu Ran had been going to their fields several times daily. When he returned, he would never be empty-handed.

His family had fallen in love with the corn since they had tried it the last time. Xu Ran had also tried cooking different foods with it, including corn pork rib soup, fried corn, and even popcorn.

But now, the corn was still too tender for making popcorn.

Of course, there was another very important thing. The house had really been finished this time, including the things Xu Ran had required to build later. The interior of the house had all been covered with lime powder, which was white and created a very bright view.

They would have to wait sometime before they could move into the house, but Foreman Li and his colleagues had completed their work, and Xu Ran had paid for all their work. The money for their work alone was hundreds of taels, and Xu Ran had also given them an extra bonus of fifty taels. When the money paid for the previous materials and the money that had not been paid for the furniture Xu An had finished were added to them, the total amount was about one thousand taels. It was really a large amount.

The moment he paid the money, Xu Ran did feel that he was an upstart. Of course, this was rare. Presumably, this would be the last time like this in his lifetime.

The house was transferred to him on the fifth day of July. In the evening, he also treated the workers of the construction team to a big dinner. This was a farewell dinner. No one knew if they would see each other in the future, but the strangers had become friends after being together for a few months.

In this case, it was inevitable that some of them would get drunk, but Xu Ran still remembered what had happened last time, so he didn’t taken a sip.

The next day, Xu Ran saw the construction workers off himself.

In mid-July, Xu Ran started to mobilize his whole family to pick the corn. At first, he gave some to Zhuo Yun’s and Qin’s families, and then he sold some to Mr. Chen. Besides, some were carried to He Shui Town by Lin Xi with his carriage.

Previously, the cold noodles and the bean jelly had won a good reputation in He Shui Town, and Xu Ran had pocketed a dividend of two hundred taels, hoping that the corn could get a better effect this time. And the corn production was good this year. Xu Ran did not go and sell the steamed corn pulp bread after making it, but gave some pieces to the families he was familiar with.

Then he asked the village head to gather the villagers together, ready to talk about the corn.

The production of corn was high, and it could assuage people’s hunger. When rice and brown rice could not sustain people’s lives, corn could be a good substitute for the two kinds of grains.

Xu Ran’s requirement was very simple: if they wanted to sell their corn, they would have to sell half of it to him at least. If they chose to eat it, he would not stop them, but if they wanted to sell, they would have to sell half of it to him before they wished to sell the other half to whomever they liked, and he would not care about it.

His family definitely couldn’t grow that much, but if the corn got good feedback in He Shui Town, the amount needed was sure to be huge. If he couldn’t supply the amount, he would have to buy it somewhere else.

Naturally, those in Xu Village who were willing to listen to him were his best candidates.

Xu Ran was completely trying to get the villagers’ opinions. To those who agreed, he would give the corn seeds; those who disagreed could leave directly. At the same time, he also said that the corn seeds were sold in town, but their price was high.

Undoubtedly, it was he who had asked Zhuo Yun to raise their price—half a kilo sold for a tael of silver. It was believed that those who wanted to grow corn would give up when seeing the price.

The village head’s family had grown one mu of corn. Naturally, he knew the production of corn, and he had tried the steamed corn pulp bread made by Xu Ran, so he was clear whether the food could keep people from hunger or not. He wished all the villagers to grow the corn.

However, they had never grown it though they knew its benefits, so they were still a little hesitant, thinking, “What if we harvest nothing due to bad weather the next year? Our fields will be occupied, but we won’t have grain. Then we’ll have to starve, won’t we?”

Everyone had their considerations, and Xu Ran did not force them. But he had said what he should say, letting them go back and think about it carefully. If anyone was willing to grown it, he could go to the village head and register his name.

When these people had left, Xu Ran bought another ten mu of land from the village head. This time, the land was not uncultivated land, but since it had come to this time, even if he grew something, it would be too late to pay this year’s taxes for it. With this in mind, Xu Ran simply did nothing.

These fields would all be used for growing vegetables and potatoes the following year.

This was Xu Ran’s initial plan.