Chapter 3184 Inquiry
The emperor jumped down from the field and shouted back, "Old man, I'm here to look for my relatives. I heard that the farm of Dr. Zhou, the imperial physician in the capital, is here."
"Hey, are you here to see the boss?" The tenant farmer immediately came forward and asked with a smile, "Where are you relatives from? Why don't you go to the capital?"
The emperor paused and said, "We came from Yongzhou and were going to the capital, but we occasionally heard from our family that the Zhou family had a farm here, so we thought of coming here to visit our relatives."
"This is it," the tenant farmer proudly waved his sickle in a large circle and said with a smile, "See? This whole area is our boss's land."
The emperor had already lowered his head to look at the rice at his feet. He held up a rice ear in his palm, his heart pounding: "Father, your rice is growing well this year."
The tenant farmer, who was about to enthusiastically lead the way, was immediately distracted when he heard this. He nodded vigorously and said, "Isn't it? This is the best harvest I've seen in my fifty-plus years of life."
Yin Li was sharp-eyed and immediately stepped into the rice field. He reached out and pulled a rice ear, "Your Majesty, my Lord, look!"
"Hey, why are you pulling my rice so carelessly?" the tenant farmer said anxiously. "These good rice ears are meant to be kept for seeds. Give them back to me."
Yin Li glanced at the emperor and smiled as he handed the rice to the tenant farmer. "This is the first time we've seen such long and full ears of rice. We're so surprised," he said. "Old man, how do you grow your rice? At first glance, the ears are longer than ours, and they're so heavy. It's obvious we've had a bumper harvest."
The boss did not stop them from spreading the news, and even told them that he could answer any questions they had and recommend their new rice seeds. So the tenant farmers didn't stutter at all and just talked about the new rice seeds.
"...Speaking of which, my wife also deserves credit for this new rice seed."
"Oh? What do you mean?"
At this time, the emperor and Yin Li were already sitting in the field, right next to the rice. The rice plant was quite tall and could barely block the sunlight on their faces, but half of it was sunburned red.
The tenant farmer wanted to chat with them while he harvested the rice, but seeing that they were all squatting and Yin Li took out a handful of copper coins, he squatted down as well, stuffed the coins into his arms, and said, "My wife is very attentive, so the boss hired her to weed and pest control the rice. Isn't this all due to her contribution?"
The emperor couldn't help but smile and asked, "I heard that the Zhou family has set up a lot of experimental fields in the farm, specifically for cultivating grain seeds."
The tenant farmer looked at the emperor and Yin Li suspiciously, and said in a much slower tone, "Your Excellency has been here for so long, why don't you go to the boss?"
Yin Li smiled slightly and said, "Zhou Dalang should be in the fields right now. Even if we went to the farm, we might not be able to see him. Isn't it a good opportunity to see such a great harvest, can't we help but ask?"
The tenant farmer immediately asked, "What kind of relationship is there between your family and the landlord?"
The emperor said without changing his expression: "In-laws."
He said, "I have a daughter who married the cousin of their uncle."
The tenant farmer counted the relatives on his fingers. This relationship was not difficult for them to calculate. So he slapped his thigh and said, "Oh, aren't they sisters-in-law? They are relatives, indeed."
The tenant farmer's eyes narrowed with laughter, so he didn't hesitate to speak. He stood up and pointed to a yard in the distance and said, "Do you see that yard? That's our landlord's yard. Uncle Zhou must be busy working in the fields right now. It's not far away, though. The fields are not far behind the house."
Emperor: "The experimental fields are over there too?"
"Yes, that piece has now become a test field." He said, "At the beginning, it was only two or three acres. Later, as more and more seeds needed to be tested, we planted more and more. Hehe, to be honest, before this year, we were worried that the boss would use this piece of land as a test field and we would have nothing to farm. We didn't expect the new seeds they tested to be so good."
The emperor stroked the rice ears in front of him and asked affectionately, "Is the harvest from this field this year considered good or bad?"
"It's just so-so. The best ones are still those experimental plots planted by Uncle Zhou and his family. What a pity! They've almost harvested all of them, except for one plot. It's incredibly fertile. One ear of millet might hold 300 grains, and one rice plant might have ten or fifteen ears. Isn't that amazing?"
In the end, they still couldn't count how many seeds there were in a rice plant.
Emperor: "Have you counted them?"
"We have counted them, but it wasn't us who did it. It was the headman of the village. Hehe, we couldn't count them, and neither could Uncle Zhou. He would get confused after counting over a hundred. In the end, it was the headman who counted them. He's better than me."
The emperor became curious and asked, "How many can you count?"
"Eighty!" he said hurriedly, "It's almost one hundred, but my grandson is amazing. He can count beyond one hundred now."
Speaking of his grandson, the tenant farmer became restless and asked, touching his sickle, "Sir, do you have anything else to ask? If it weren't for me, I would have to harvest the rice. My family is harvesting rice in another field and should be here soon..."
If you come over and see him not using his sickle, but instead bragging and chatting here...
The emperor turned his head to take a look at the golden, heavy rice ears, smiled and stood up, "Okay, let's go find our relatives, father-in-law, you can go ahead and do your work."
Yin Li helped the emperor onto the road, "Your Majesty, the sun is too strong. Let's go to the Zhou family's farm first."
The emperor nodded slightly and mounted his horse.
Zhou Dalang and Zhou Wulang were harvesting rice in the field. When they heard the sound of horse hooves, they took the time to look up.
Then he was stunned for a moment and immediately stood up.
Although they didn't know the emperor, they knew Yin Li!
Zhou Dalang hurried up from the field, "Master Yin, what brings you here? The sun is so bright! Come inside and sit for a while! Lao Wu, stop harvesting and go back to boil some water."
Zhou Wulang agreed, wiping the sweat off his face while jogging to the ridge of the field.
The emperor said hurriedly: "No, we are here to see the rice."
Yin Li said, "Master, please go inside to cool down and drink some water. You look a little pale."
Zhou Dalang and Zhou Wulang looked at the emperor curiously, not understanding why Yin Li called him "Master".
The emperor met their confused looks and smiled in response. However, before leaving, he pointed to a pile of rice that had just been harvested and said, "Take a handful back. I want to count how many seeds are on each ear."
The guard went down and hugged him.
Zhou Dalang and Zhou Wulang didn't mind, they just took them home in confusion.
There are only two brothers living in this village now, but more often it is Zhou Dalang who lives there alone.
Zhou Dalang led them into the hall and asked Zhou Wulang to boil some water. He then carried a teapot and poured water for them, saying, "This is the water I boiled this morning. It's cold now. If you don't mind, just moisten your mouth with it. I'll boil some water for you to make tea later."
See you tomorrow, good night
(End of this chapter)
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