In the following days, Chunxiao picked a few more little ones and asked them to help Zhang remove the seeds from the cotton in the yard. The picked cotton would be very dry after two days of drying, but removing the seeds was a troublesome job, so it was more suitable for the little ones to do it.
Of course, there are not enough people to remove the seeds, but this is the only way for now. The ones that have been dried but have not been deseeded in time are put into sacks and separated.
Ever since she hired a few wives to pick cotton, women from the village would come over to look in from outside the fence from time to time. People from Zhou's side would also often come to ask about the employment situation. Although Chunxiao could hire a few more people, she didn't want to make this offer, for fear that if she did, more and more people would ask about it.
During the Mid-Autumn Festival in August, the family had a good meal at Yan Dashan's house. Chunxiao bought some wine in advance, and the whole family drank two glasses together, even Shuwen drank two glasses. Everyone was chatting happily. Yan Bingfa thought about waiting for Dahe's house to be completed, and then having a house-warming party together, inviting all the relatives to come and have fun with some people from the village, which is the so-called banquet. Dashan and Dahe had no objection. After all, the construction of the house should have been announced to the father-in-law.
The days passed in a flurry of activity. By the end of August, Yan Dahe's house was complete. Its layout was similar to Chunxiao's, except for the lack of a storeroom. The kitchen was a normal size, and the courtyard was slightly smaller. Since the wheat drying business began, the front yard of Dahe's house was paved with flagstones. Naturally, the courtyard wall was also built, costing 64 taels of silver.
Master Zhong was very happy despite being tired, and he just hoped that there would be more customers like him.
After the things were moved, the woman who did odd jobs was no longer hired, and the whole family started picking cotton.
Dashan and Dahe each had two mu of land. Chunxiao had packed the cotton they had harvested and had them take it home. By the 10th of September, all the cotton in the field had been harvested, and everyone was busy deseeding. It had been raining intermittently for the past two days, but it hadn't really affected their work in the main hall.
Zhang is now almost five months pregnant, and her belly is prominent. Zhou and Dahe prepare delicious food for her every day, so Zhang is now much rounder than before, and her skin has become whiter. She feels embarrassed that she is the only one with a white complexion while everyone else in the family has become darker, and thinks, "It would be great if this baby is a boy." She hopes to have a son.
"Second sister-in-law, the reason for having a son is nothing more than worrying about having no descendants to support you in your old age. You have savings now, and Duo'er and the others will be filial to you in the future. It doesn't matter if you have a boy or a girl." Chunxiao couldn't help but speak because she was afraid that Zhang would have too much mental burden.
Tian originally wanted to say something, but she had given birth to two sons, and she was afraid that if she spoke now, people would say she was talking without any concern for her waist, so she just quietly picked cotton seeds on the side.
"It's good to have a son, but it's okay if it's a daughter. I'm not like your aunt. Look, I love Duo'er and the others equally. I'm not biased towards Shuwen and Xiaoqi."
"Mom, it's because you're so good to them that I want to have a son. Otherwise, I'd always feel sorry for our family and Dahe."
"You're just overthinking it. Whether it's a boy or a girl isn't something you can decide. We'll just leave it to fate. If you really want a son, then if you don't have one this time, then you can have another one. Keep having children until you have one. Now we don't have to worry about supporting him."
Zhang burst out laughing when she heard that and hit Dahe angrily, "I'm not a pig. I won't give birth to babies for you one after another."
The children are now gathering eggs in the chicken coop. In August, the chickens at home started laying eggs. With 86 hens among the 100 chickens, they can now gather over 90 eggs a day. The children love going to the chicken coop to gather eggs. Adding in the eggs from Yan Dashan and Yan Dahe's chickens, 100 eggs a day is enough.
In the past few days, the men have gone to the fields to prepare the wheat fields and apply base fertilizer. Since there was a precedent of increasing wheat yields by applying base fertilizer, Yan Bingfa has regarded this as a necessary project in farming. Before, Wangzu and Dongsheng's family only soaked the seeds without applying base fertilizer. Although the wheat was harvested faster than other families, the increase in yield was not obvious. After seeking Chunxiao's consent, they also began to prepare base fertilizer.
Now it is September and the weather is starting to get cooler. After preparing the land, they decided to hurry up and plant some soybeans. Chunxiao has planted the cotton, so they will start pulling out the cotton branches and preparing the land to plant soybeans. Crop rotation is also good for the land.
After a few days, the cotton was finally threshed thanks to everyone's efforts. Dashan and Dahe's families each harvested more than 700 kilograms of pure cotton, with an average yield of 360 to 370 kilograms per mu. Although it cannot be compared with the modern high-yield fields that yield 700 to 800 kilograms per mu, Chunxiao felt that she was content. It was much better than the yield of dozens of kilograms per mu. She herself harvested more than 3,300 kilograms from her own 9 mu, and more than 400 kilograms of seeds.
According to the purchase price of 50 kilograms of cotton, the flowers on this acre of land can be exchanged for more than 18 taels of silver. The Yan family listened silently to Chunxiao's calculations. After hearing this, they felt that growing good cotton was really profitable.
"If it weren't for this braised pork, our family could have made a fortune from cotton in the future. Our little sister is the fairy child of the God of Wealth. She can make a lot of money from anything. Look, it's not like there are people who grow cotton, but who can grow it as well as our little sister? No one would believe this harvest if I told them."
Zhou loved people praising Chunxiao, and she couldn't stop laughing when she heard Tian say that. "The more you talk, the more it seems like she's right. How could ordinary people have such talent?"
"If you keep flattering me, I'll go to hell."
Zhang was laughing on the side.
"They've been working in the fields whenever they can these days. We don't know the exact number of cotton we've harvested yet. I'll tell Dad and the others about it later. I'm sure they'll be surprised too."
"What are you surprised about?" Shufeng came back from herding cattle with Shuduo and Paner.
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