Chapter 404 The Rain Came

"Did I see wrong?"

Yao Man wanted to explain, but seeing Song Chunxue's expression, she wisely kept quiet.

“Possibly, after all, I’m not Lord Xie,” she said, getting up and walking out. “Then I’ll take you somewhere else to look around. You can go find the Taoist priest to calculate the opening date, but I definitely can’t go.”

"Hmm, I'll go ask." Song Chunxue pointed to the painting on the wall. "This lotus painting is beautiful, better than any I've seen before."

"Yes, this was a gift from Xue Xingyuan. I found it distasteful to look at, but he said it was painted by a famous artist, so I hung it here. I feel it suits me very well."

Yao Man showed her around the inn. All the decorations and furnishings were no worse than those at Zuiyunlou, and even had more ingenuity. No wonder she would be so capable in the future.

After coming downstairs, Song Chunxue carefully examined the accounts. She was illiterate before, but she knew arithmetic and had memorized the arithmetic formulas. After all, it was hard not to know how to count money to make a living.

She looked at it carefully; the accounts were very detailed. She hadn't seen anyone else's before, so she didn't quite understand them.

“Sister Song, you gave me the money, and I provided the manpower and labor. The remaining money is still yours. I don’t have the money to pay you back right now because I need money to buy groceries and wine for the opening.”

"I've thought it through carefully. The profits from this inn should be split 40/60 between you and me. I've used more of your capital, but I'll pay you back once I've made some money. Would you be willing, Sister Song?"

Song Chunxue understood that since she was only contributing money, a 50/50 split would be too much, so a 40/60 split was much more acceptable than she had expected.

Moreover, Yao Man would also have the accountant calculate and return the borrowed money.

If she can't understand the ledgers, how could Sanwa not understand them?

"Okay, I'll have Sanwa help me check it out. You've given me more than enough. Everyone's satisfied, and maybe we'll even have the chance to do business together in the future."

Yao Man patted her hand excitedly, "Sister Song, how could you know what I was thinking? I was blind before, I'm so sorry, so very sorry..."

"Alright, alright, I should go back now. I want to go check on the fields." Song Chunxue asked with a smile, "Want to eat some of my cabbages? We planted quite a lot this year."

"Of course, I can't take care of planting myself."

Just then, a few people came in from outside; they were there to select tea sets.

Song Chunxue was too lazy to put any effort into it, so she left early.

She strolled leisurely into the vegetable garden, intending to pick some vegetables to take home. From afar, she saw Hongying with her child, pulling sesame seeds with He Chuan in the sesame field.

Xiaoxu went to school, while Xiaolong and Xiujuan were playing in the dirt, like two happy rabbits.

Upon closer inspection, Xiaolong's pants and blouse were tossed aside, and he was only wearing a thin shirt.

Even so, there was still sweat on his forehead.

"Has Grandma come to pick sesame seeds?" Xiujuan asked with a smile as she rushed towards Song Chunxue.

"Hey! Xiujuan, what are you doing? Your grandma's clothes are so clean, but you're covered in dirt. Be more considerate."

Jiang Hongying shouted to stop them from a distance, then gathered the sesame seed lumps together with both hands, twisted each side a few times, and stomped on them.

Song Chunxue picked up the sesame seeds she had placed aside, put them on the rope she had twisted, pressed her knees on the sesame seeds, grabbed both ends of the rope with both hands, twisted and pressed, and a sesame seed piece was completed.

There is no soil on the roots of sesame, but if it is wheat, you have to stomp on it and shake off the soil.

Do you have gloves?

Having not done any heavy work in a long time, Song Chunxue's hands didn't have such thick calluses. If she were to pluck sesame seeds with her bare hands, her fingers would quickly break.

These semi-dried sesame stalks are very rough on the hands; if you don't wear gloves, your skin will swell up and easily get chafed.

She had never known before that you could wear gloves when harvesting grain. It was only after coming to the county that she learned that city people would sew gloves when harvesting grain.

However, the stitching isn't very precise; it's only enough to sew three fingers wide, just enough to fit five fingers.

"Yes, I just sewed two pairs after waking up from my afternoon nap. I plan to wear them alternately when they wear out." As she spoke, Jiang Hongying took out a pair of gloves from a dry food bag not far away. They looked like they were sewn from an old undergarment.

"Grandma, Grandma, don't you think I'm amazing?"

Xiujuan took off her outer garment, her hair was messy and fluffy, covering her head, and buried her legs in the pit.

Song Chunxue chuckled, "Impressive, Xiujuan is truly impressive."

"Ah Lai, am I not feeling well?" Xiao Long was also uncomfortable, so he stuck his head in the dirt with his bare bottom exposed.

Jiang Hongying, who was standing nearby, shouted, "Xiaolong, do you want to get beaten up? Who's going to wash your hair?"

As she spoke, she took a few steps forward, scooped up the little dragon, and patted it twice.

"Slap! Slap!"

Normally, he would just glare angrily at Jiang Hongying, but today, with his grandmother there, he immediately threw himself into Song Chunxue's arms and burst into tears.

This made Xiujuan burst into laughter.

"Ah Lai, Xiao Long peed in the dirt, and now it's stuck to his head, hahaha~"

Song Chunxue grabbed Xiaolong's shoulders and looked closely at his forehead. "No wonder, this beating wasn't for nothing. Aren't you dirty? Go dig a hole somewhere else."

He Chuan quietly pulled up the sesame seeds, and after a short while, he pulled up a row and then turned around to pull them in this direction.

"I remember planting five or six acres of flax this year, that's quite a lot. I'll pull them up with you tomorrow."

“Mom, you go ahead with your work. We don’t have anything else to do. We can finish picking them in two or three days.”

Song Chunxue took off her brand-new outer garment and placed it on the sesame seed bundle, then tied the hem of her skirt together, making it as convenient as her pants. She then squatted down and skillfully began to pluck the sesame seeds.

"The sesame seeds are a bit short this year. They were dried too much in the sun before. There are thick clouds to the west. I don't know if it will rain tonight." Song Chunxue said as she pulled the sesame seeds and moved forward. "If it rains now, the potatoes and buckwheat can still be saved."

Jiang Hongying sighed, "Yes, we see thunderstorms every day, but they never come this way. They always go north or south. Our land is so hot that even the wheat can't cover the ground. But the millet and sorghum are still okay. A few more rains can save us."

Song Chunxue chimed in, "Yes, the weather can vary from place to place, especially in summer. One place might have thunderstorms while another doesn't, and the crops will be different."

She used to think she knew whether this year would be a drought year and which crops would have a good harvest, but it turns out that Lijiazhuangzi is completely different from here.

Unless it's a rare, severe drought affecting three or five counties, the crops on the mountains and the crops on the plains are completely different, like two dragon kings looking after each other.

But she discovered a pattern: rain tends to fall in areas with many trees and high places, and thunderstorms also tend to occur in these areas.

The further north you go, the barrener the mountains become, and the lower the terrain, the less rain there is. Sometimes it doesn't rain for months at a time, but then suddenly it can flood an entire village.

So even though this place is arid year-round, most of the courtyards are located on the mountainside. Who knows, one day the Dragon King might send down a great flood, and you might wake up in the morning to find yourself drowned on some earthen bank.

"Boom..."

Suddenly, thunder rumbled from the northwest.

Song Chunxue hurriedly bundled the sesame seeds, saying, "Quick, quick, it's going to rain."

"It looks quite far, we might not get off," He Chuan said slowly.

"You don't know, there's an old saying: 'When it rains heavily, you have to carry a baby in the sesame field.' It always rains like this now. Hurry up and pack up and run back, we might not even make it in time to finish everything!" Jiang Hongying said anxiously, speeding up her pace.

Song Chunxue shouted, "Hurry up and dress the child. Hu Ma can get ready tomorrow. Let's run!"

Jiang Hongying quickly put down the sesame seeds and hugged Xiaolong in her arms. "He Chuan, grab Xiujuan and run!"