Chapter 398: Debate (Thanks to the book friend "Jinyiwei: Rongrong" for the reward)
Mr. Zhuang quickly asked, "Where did you get the seeds?"
Bai Shanbao yawned and said, "I bought it from Manbao's family. She said her seeds were good and gave us a discount. But it wasn't really that cheap. Village head Bai said it was as expensive as the grain store in the county town."
Manbao was unhappy and didn't want to sleep anymore. He got up from the bed and said, "Then my family delivers the food to your door, doesn't it? And the wheat seeds were sent by my sister-in-law. Will the grain store in the county send you the wheat seeds?"
Bai Shanbao said quietly, "This year's wheat seeds are three times more expensive than in previous years."
"Yes," Manbao said without feeling guilty. Instead, he pinched his waist and said, "So I sold so many wheat seeds that I have no noodles to eat. Now my family mixes the steamed buns with bran."
There were a lot of replaced wheat in the Manbao system, but she couldn't just wave her hands and take it out, and she couldn't eat the wheat either. She could only stuff a few handfuls of wheat into the grain bag when she had the chance, and she didn't dare put too much in.
Once, she just stuffed a little more food into her mouth, and her mother was surprised and said that the grain bag at home was full after she ate it.
Then Koko strictly forbade her to stuff more wheat into the box, and only allowed her to stuff two handfuls every few days. With so much wheat in the box, she didn't know how long it would take.
So Manbao was very worried. She became anxious when she heard about changing seeds. She felt that she would never buy or change seeds from people in the future again.
How good is a direct seed-for-seed swap?
Unfortunately, no one was interested in her wheat seeds.
Manbao sighed.
Bai Shanbao was extremely stingy, mainly because he was in charge of the finances of the small farm. They had spent a lot of money on seeds, farm tools and various other things in the spring. His grandmother probably disliked their excessive spending, so she allocated a sum of money to him and let him manage it himself.
He has no income now, but he has to pay wages to temporary workers every day and spend money to buy food for them. He is under a lot of pressure, okay?
Bai Shanbao felt that it was fortunate that they had planted a lot of vegetables in the land in front of the mountain a month ago, so they didn't have to buy them, otherwise he would have been even more heartbroken.
Although Manbao also likes money, she is never stingy when spending it. The main reason is that the money is not in her hands and she is not in charge of it, so she does not feel sad at all.
One of them couldn't understand the other, and they started arguing.
Mr. Zhuang was originally concerned about the wheat seeds, but seeing this, he no longer cared. He moved a little and sat at the edge of the wooden bed, watching the two of them quarreling back and forth with great interest.
Bai Erlang had fallen asleep, and even after being woken up, he didn't open his eyes, but continued to lie there pretending to be asleep. As they started arguing more and more fiercely, he couldn't help but get up and yelled, "Stop arguing!"
They both stopped and looked at him.
Bai Erlang said angrily, "Isn't it just money? My father has it. I'll ask him for it later. How much do you want?"
"No!" Bai Shanbao and Manbao refused in unison.
Bai Shanbao said, "This is our business. We already signed the contract. How can we violate it?"
Manbao also said: "Besides, we are not short of money now. Even if we are short of money, we should borrow it instead of asking for it."
Bai Erlang yelled, "Then what are you guys arguing about? You're not sleeping in the middle of the day, what's there to argue about?"
"How can this be a quarrel? We are clearly discussing how to save money." Bai Shanbao said unconvinced.
"That's right," Manbao also said, "How can a family become wealthy? That's by increasing income and reducing expenditure. We don't have a harvest yet, so we can only reduce expenditure if we don't have income. And you're still the owner of the village, and you don't worry about anything at all! Eating for free is the most shameful thing!"
Bai Shanbao then emphasized, "Eating free rice is the most shameful thing!"
Bai Erlang was speechless. He couldn't argue with them, and it seemed he couldn't beat them either, so he snorted, turned around and ignored them.
But Manbao and Bai Shanbao reached an agreement, "Let's spend less from now on."
Bai Erlang couldn't help but turn around and said, "Why save? The time for spending money has passed. Don't we start making money as soon as the wheat is harvested?"
"We can't sell this wheat," Manbao said. "We have to save it for food. We'll need to hire temporary workers to make food for us later."
Bai Shanbao had a different suggestion. "They can't eat that much anyway. Food is expensive right now, so we should take this opportunity to sell more. When the summer harvest comes and the price drops, we can buy some back."
Manbao, however, felt that food was more important than money. She said, "Food can be exchanged for money at any time, but money cannot be exchanged for food all the time."
"We can't eat so much, so why keep so much food?" Bai Shanbao said, "We have to exchange it for money while the price of food is high, otherwise after the summer and autumn harvests, the food will be worthless."
Bai Erlang looked at this and that, silently saying nothing.
Manbao thought about it and realized that it was true. The situation on the farm was different from theirs.
When their family harvested grain, they would keep most of it. Only when the family really needed money would they take out some grain to exchange for money.
But their farms obviously don't need so much food.
Manbao asked, "How much do you sell it for?"
"Just sell it directly to the grain store."
Manbao, who had sold grain with his brothers several times, knew that the prices at the grain store were generally lower than those paid by merchants from outside, so he asked, "Who do you usually sell your grain to?"
Bai Shanbao shook his head, "I don't know."
Bai Erlang said, "I know. I sold mine to Uncle Wu."
He had met Uncle Wu several times with his father. Every time, Uncle Wu would bring him delicious candies and toys.
Manbao's eyes sparkled as he said to him, "When Uncle Wu comes to collect grain again, remember to introduce us to him."
Bai Erlang patted his chest and said, "No problem!"
Mr. Zhuang watched and listened with a smile. After they had discussed and stopped arguing, he continued to ask, "Manbao, where did your family get the seeds?"
"Grown them," Manbao said, "Every year my parents pick the best wheat ears for seeds."
"But this amount of wheat seeds obviously can't be picked out by simple selection. This means your wheat is also very good. Was the wheat you planted in previous years also better than others?"
"Yes," Manbao nodded confidently, saying, "Just take good care of it, weed frequently, and apply more fertilizer."
Mr. Zhuang nodded. At that time, he didn't know that the entire Qili Village had exchanged wheat seeds with the Zhou family, and this year the per-acre yield of winter wheat in Qili Village had increased by nearly twice that of other villages.
Even the villagers of Qili Village themselves don’t know.
Because who would bother to weigh the wheat for no reason? Even though they did weigh it this year, they had never weighed every acre in previous years. They just calculated how many bundles of wheat they could carry back from one acre, and they were happy if they estimated it was a good harvest.
(End of this chapter)
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