Chapter 3352 Extra Strong Sister 6
Bai Jingxing looked puzzled. "But didn't Daddy say that the grain yields were high everywhere and the country was peaceful and prosperous? How could she not eat well?"
Zhou Man stood up and dressed as he spoke, "Eating well and having enough to eat are two different things. Besides, although the grain yields are high in various places and the country is indeed peaceful and the people are safe, who says there are no poor people in this world?"
"It's only been nine years since the new rice variety was introduced. If we want to truly eliminate famine, I'm afraid it will take several more nine years."
"How could that be? My eldest cousin clearly said that the yield per mu of experimental fields in the Jingzhou area has exceeded nine stones. Isn't such a high yield enough to feed the whole family?" Bai Jingxing asked suspiciously, "Are they just lazy?"
Zhou Man said: "Of course there are lazy people in the world, but besides laziness, accidents and illness can also lead to poverty. Also, some families are landless and are born poor; some families have land but still have a hard time. There are so many different kinds of poverty."
Zhou Man put on her clothes and called out to the outside. A maid came up with warm water for her to wash. While she was washing her face, she asked her, "Are you interested in this?"
"It's just strange. How could a hardworking person still be poor when food is so abundant and so cheap?"
Every year, Bai Shan would summarize the grain prices in various places. Bai Jingxing and Xia Mu often got into trouble. In addition to having their books copied, they would also be called by Bai Shan from time to time to copy and summarize this data.
In fact, it was just copying the grain prices of previous years and this year into a table so that Bai Shan could see it at a glance.
So Bai Jingxing knew how the price of grain had been falling little by little in the past few years. Up to now, when the price of grain in the capital was low, the price of corn had dropped to two wen per dou, and the price of rice had dropped to three wen per dou. These were much cheaper than what her parents had said when they encountered floods as children and the price of rice was thirty wen per dou.
If this is not enough to fill her stomach, wouldn't her parents have starved to death?
Bai Jingxing looked unconvinced, so Zhou Man said, "If you're really curious, you can ask those poor people when you go with me to see patients and deliver medicine. Ask them what they do every year, how their harvest is, what they do every day, and what they eat..."
Bai Jingxing: "Isn't this a waste of time?"
"You're wasting time by ignoring the truth and clinging to your own prejudices," Zhou Man said. "You're wasting more than just your own time by not seeking the truth when you should."
Zhou Man wiped his hands and said generously, "Okay, go ahead. I can let you do less work today."
When Bai Jingxing really asked, he realized that there are many paths to happiness, but there are even more reasons for human unhappiness.
She was simply stunned.
A young lady had just been sent into wooden shed No. 7. She was the same age as her and was also ten years old.
She had a brother, thirteen years old, who was also sick and was placed in another wooden shed, while her parents had died of the illness a few days ago.
I'm afraid the future will be difficult for these brother and sister.
But before the epidemic, their family's life was not easy either.
Their family had land, which was her father's permanent land. Although they were only allocated 12 mu, which was not enough, there were 4 mu of paddy fields among them. If they cultivated it carefully, it was enough to support a family of four.
Bai Jingxing asked her what she did every day and found out that she would get up early in the morning to sweep the floor, then go to the river to wash clothes, and after coming back she would go out to pick grass for the pigs and cook pig food...
Her mother had to cook, feed the pigs, till the vegetable fields, and water the plants...
She could go out and play with her friends in the afternoon. As for food, she had porridge in the morning, multi-grain porridge at noon, and steamed buns in the evening...
According to her, life like this is much better than before. When she was very young, her family only ate two meals a day: porridge in the morning and porridge in the evening. On days when they were not working in the fields, the porridge was extremely watery, and the steamed buns were made with wheat bran...
Her father and brother were not lazy either, but they just couldn't save money. They didn't make much money from selling grain every year. They heard that there was no shortage of food outside, so their family was reluctant to sell a lot of grain. This way they could have three meals a day, and the meal at night was especially good.
She felt that being able to eat white rice or white flour buns in the evening was already a very good life.
Because they couldn't save any money, their family had decided to arrange a marriage for her. When she turned thirteen, her brother would get married when he turned sixteen. Then they would use the betrothal money to find a wife for her brother...
The young lady had a face full of sadness and regret. "It's a pity that my parents are both dead. I'm afraid no one will find a wife for me, and my brother won't be able to find a wife either."
Bai Jingxing was speechless.
In the evening, the mother and daughter had a heart-to-heart talk. Bai Jingxing specifically told her story and was very puzzled. "Why are the food prices so low? They can't even save money."
Zhou Man said: "With more food in the world, the price of food will naturally be lower. This is a good thing."
“But they can’t make any money.”
"Then ask her if her life is better now than before?"
Bai Jingxing: "No need to ask, she has already said it."
"That's right. They couldn't save money in the past, but they will have the chance to do so in the future."
"How do we save it?" Bai Jingxing couldn't help but sit up and asked with a sharp gaze, "Mom, is the price of food going to go up?"
"Silly child, if grain prices rise to a level that allows them to make money, the ordinary people will suffer in the end," Zhou Man said. "Don't always focus on grain prices and try to make money from them."
She said, "There are so many things in this world that can make money. Haven't you thought about it? With food prices so low, it's actually easier for them to make money."
Bai Jingxing looked confused.
Zhou Man said, "People, after having a full meal, will want to eat a good meal. I've said before, there's a difference between being full and eating well. Look at your head, your well-proportioned figure. Can you cultivate this by eating white rice and white steamed buns?"
"Because my dad is tall?"
Zhou Man: "...Because your mother gave you goat milk, mutton, chicken, and eggs every day, count on your fingers how many good things did you eat every day at home?"
"That's why you're growing so well," she said. "Everyone in the world is like this. With higher grain yields, they finally don't have to use all their land for growing food, nor do they have to put all their manpower into growing food, only to have the harvest still not be enough to fill their stomachs."
"They can plant and raise other things on the land, and they also have manpower to do other things, and all this income is money."
Bai Jingxing counted on his fingers to sort out the logic behind this, and finally realized, "The basis of all this is to increase per-acre yield and high grain yield?"
Zhou Man nodded.
Bai Jingxing was shocked. "It turns out that my cousin is so capable and has done such a big thing."
(End of this chapter)
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