"Yes, if the children hadn't been lucky and Jiahao hadn't arrived in time, I really can't imagine what would have happened."

Madam Yang sighed softly and said no more.

The next day, as expected, Village Chief Ma drove his oxcart and waited at the Li family's door.

A crowd of onlookers had gathered nearby.

After waiting for a long time, the door of the Li family remained closed. Just as Village Chief Ma was about to knock on the door, Li Dacheng helped out Li's elderly mother, who looked haggard from the night before.

Overnight, Aunt Li seemed to have become a different person; her hair, which used to have some black strands, had turned completely white, leaving people sighing with regret.

Village Chief Ma breathed a sigh of relief. Li Dacheng helped the silent Aunt Li onto the oxcart: "Village Chief Ma, let me go with my mother."

Village Chief Ma paused for two seconds, then nodded.

*

When the Shen family arrived at the field to finish harvesting the rice they hadn't completed the night before, many villagers came over to give them some news.

"Village Chief Ma took Aunt Li to the city this morning. You didn't see it, but Aunt Liu's hair has all turned white!"

The Shen family members weren't keen on discussing this, their expressions indifferent. Only Chen, the more diplomatic one, stepped forward and echoed the other party: "Is that so? They deserve it. You weren't here last night, were you? Tsk tsk tsk, my nephew and niece's faces were whiter than her hair!"

The other party clicked their tongues in amazement: "Really? Those two kids are so pitiful. What kind of misfortune has the Li family suffered? Li Dacheng is such an honest and simple boy, and it's bad enough that he married such a terrible wife, but his mother is already this old and still thinking about causing trouble. I heard she even stole your rice? Oh dear, she was the one who refused to ask your family for some advice in the first place, how come it's become your fault in the end?"

"Oh well, never mind that, let's get busy. Let's get to work too."

"Yes, yes, everyone's waiting to see how many kilograms of rice your rice will yield!"

Chen changed the subject in a few words, and seeing this, the people around him went about their own business, so the Shen family was able to get some free time to work.

The Shen family took turns working on the large stack of rice, and it was finished in no time.

Shen Lao Er and Shen Lao San transported the threshed grains home, and then used a wheelbarrow to transport all the grains to the grain mill at the entrance of the village, where the people of Xinghua Village threshed their rice.

The rice husks are removed by water milling, exposing the rice grains inside. In this process, the rice grains are separated from the empty husks, and lighter straw and impurities are sucked away.

Next, the hulled rice grains need to be milled to remove the bran and turn the rice grains from brown to white.

Those with the means will polish and grind the rice grains to make them look shinier and taste better.

Farmers typically don't take this step.

The Shen family has many members now, but the land was originally allocated to the previous two generations of the Shen family. At that time, the Shen family did not have many members and only received three mu of land. Later, after Old Man Shen married Old Man Shen, the couple had three sons. The three mu of land was not enough, so they saved up money to buy two more mu of land.

This five mu of land (approximately 50m x 65m in this text) is neither too big nor too small, just enough to support the Shen family of more than a dozen people.

In Nanlin County, the average yield per mu was about two shi, or about 240 jin.

Due to the severe drought, the Shen family originally estimated that if this year's yield could reach seven or eight shi (a unit of dry measure), it would be considered very good.

But now it seems that it might be more than ten shi!

Lili sat on the front cart, with Shen Jiahao laying a layer of straw on it and a small blanket on top of her. It was very comfortable.

The Shen family pushed eight carts in a row, their smiles stretching to their ears.

Last night's unpleasantness was immediately forgotten, leaving only the joy of a bountiful harvest.

Shen Jiahao pushed the cart from behind and asked Lili, "Lili, how many kilograms of rice do you think we can get? Based on my experience, one cart can hold one shi and eight dou, so eight carts would be fourteen shi and four dou, and we can get at least eleven shi and five dou of rice!"

Lili almost couldn't keep up with Shen Jiahao's pace. After becoming a child, her math skills also declined. Luckily, she couldn't keep up with his pace.

Lili counted on her fingers for a long time before she finally understood that eleven shi and five dou was about 1,400 jin.

That's 280 jin per mu.

The yield of 280 jin per mu has exceeded the average level of Nanlin County. Moreover, this is not during a time of favorable weather, but during a severe drought. This means that if things get better in the future, the yield may be even higher than this year's 280 jin.

No wonder the Shen family members were all beaming with joy.

This number may be insignificant to Shen Lili, a modern person, but it is very inspiring in this backward era.

Lili chuckled, "Lili thinks so too."

Liu's face lit up with a smile at the thought of the rice bin being filled to the brim this year: "Oh my, we've really hit the jackpot this year! There's no sign of a famine at all. This is much more than in previous years!"

Mrs. Chen: "That's right. After paying taxes, we have more left than we did a few years ago before we started paying taxes. This is all thanks to Lili's little ideas. Thanks to Lili, we have had a bumper harvest."

Lili waved her hand shyly: "No, no."

The family chatted and laughed as they arrived at the village entrance, where a large crowd had already gathered, all queuing up to harvest the grain.

Suddenly, they saw the Shen family bringing eight wheelbarrows, which surprised everyone, even though they were somewhat prepared.

"No, I'm not seeing things, am I? Eight cars?"

"Oh my, did I calculate that correctly? This is more than the yield per mu of Nanlin County in its prime, isn't it?"

"No mistake, no mistake, congratulations in advance, big sister!"

The villagers' words were all well-intentioned, tinged with envy, but completely devoid of jealousy or bitterness.

What a joke! If it weren't for the Shen family, their own fields would be in a terrible state. Now they've also benefited. Although they're not as good as the Shen family, they're at least barely able to match the yield per mu in Nanlin County.

In this day and age, who else but Xinghua Village could have such a scene?

They were too grateful to the Shen family to have any other thoughts.

Old Mrs. Shen was naturally happy and didn't say anything polite: "Thank you, how many more houses are there ahead?"

Aunt Wang happened to be coming out of the grain yard when she heard Old Lady Shen asking. She came over and said to her, "Er Gou and my old man are busy inside. There's only one cart left. Once we finish, there will only be two households left. It will be your turn soon."

Old Mrs. Shen nodded and hurriedly told everyone to park the cart next to the grain yard so it wouldn't block the road.

Lili greeted Aunt Wang with a smile, and Aunt Wang took out a piece of candy from her sleeve and gave it to her: "I went to bed early last night and didn't have time to come and see you. How are you? Are you still feeling tired?"