Song Anxin told him not to rush, and said, "Fengshou's interest is in business, so he is always full of ambition when he goes to the county to deliver goods. It is his way of pursuing his dream."
She stared into Lin Fengnian's eyes and asked, "And you? What are your dreams?"
Lin Fengnian looked into his mother's bright eyes and couldn't say a word. He turned to look at the fields and stammered for a long time:
"I don't know what my dream is. I'm not as good at studying as Feng He, I don't have the business acumen of Feng Shou, and I'm not as likable as Feng Yao."
I know how to farm, and I enjoy farming. The soil gives me a sense of security, and watching it grow crops brings me great satisfaction.
Song Anxin smiled and said, "Who says you can't have dreams if you like farming? Food is the most important thing for people. If you can grow high-yield crops, that will be amazing. The whole Yin Dynasty will thank you and remember you."
Lin Fengnian's eyes lit up immediately: "Really? Mother, can you have dreams while farming?"
"Why not? I once read a story in a book about an old man dreaming of resting under the rice plants. Would you like to hear it?"
"You can even enjoy the shade under the rice plants?! How much grain must that rice produce? Mother, tell me quickly."
So Song Anxin told Lin Fengnian the story of Grandpa Yuan in the vast fields.
After hearing the story, Lin Fengnian was stunned. Then, an uncontrollable excitement appeared on his face, and his eyes slowly became extremely excited.
He said, “Mother, I have decided that my dream is to be like Grandpa Yuan. I want to grow rice that yields a thousand catties per mu, so that no one in our Yin Dynasty will ever go hungry again and starve to death.”
Song Anxin was very pleased to see that her eldest brother had found his interest, and said:
"Then you must study hard. No matter what your dream is, you need to combine knowledge with practice to achieve it better."
"I remember the study sells books about farming. Now that you can read, we'll buy a few when we go to the county town so you can study them carefully."
Lin Fengnian asked in confusion, "Mother, how can this kind of land be related to books, or even have books about farming?"
Song Anxin chuckled and said, "The imperial court also has the Ministry of Agriculture, where officials are specifically in charge of managing crops. Those books are naturally written by people who are knowledgeable in agriculture and want to teach everyone."
However, most farmers in this era were illiterate, and those who actually worked the land could not see it. The government did not educate these people much, so the farmers naturally did not know about it.
She continued, "However, rice research will definitely take time, but I currently have a planting project that I need you to participate in. Are you willing?"
Lin Fengnian said with a firm look in his eyes, "Mother, you said it, I'm willing, and I will definitely do it well."
"That's our mushroom cultivation project. We just finished inoculating one room yesterday, right? The second room, where we put the spawn trays, will also be filled with soil and inoculated when it's empty."
Two days after inoculation, the straw needs to be compacted twice to accelerate mycelial growth. Five or six days after inoculation, about 0.6 inches of seedbed soil needs to be evenly spread. Humidity and temperature also need to be controlled…
Lin Fengnian's eyes lit up as he listened. He loved the feeling of growing food after all the hard work, and his mother's words made it seem like it wasn't easy at all.
“In short, cultivating mushrooms is not easy. This is the first time I’ve cultivated them on such a large scale. I only know that some books describe the process of growing mushrooms. You have experience in farming and you like it, so I will write down some procedures for you later. You must study them carefully. This will be a great source of income for our family.”
Lin Fengnian immediately stood up and said, "Mother, let's go back now so you can write it down for me quickly and not delay the mushroom seeding."
Song Anxin smiled. Sure enough, people become more cheerful and optimistic when they encounter things they like.
After returning home, Song Anxin told Lin Fengshou about her arrangements for Lin Fengnian, forbidding him from going on delivery trips anymore.
"Mother, how about I have Stone and Little River go with me?" Lin Fengshou said.
Song An said, "Is it good to waste their time like this?"
Lin Fengshou scratched his head and said, "Hehe, the two of them said they also want to learn how to do business with me."
Song Anxin thought that was a good idea. As their family grew stronger in the future, they might be able to use the stones and the river directly.
But she couldn't let them escort her for free. She said, "Give them five coins for the escort. It's not much money. Ask them if that's okay."
"Sure, of course it's settled! Shi Tou and Xiao He didn't even think about taking any money. Mom and the others even said they'd help me wash the pig offal. I'm going to go call them now."
Song Anxin chuckled and said, "I know you guys have a lot of fun, but we can't keep letting people help us for free. Now there's more and more pig offal, and we clean it very carefully, so it will definitely take more time. Tell Shi Tou and Xiao He that they'll give you ten coins for each set of pig offal you clean."
Lin Fengshou said, "Okay, Mother, Shi Tou and Xiao He will definitely be very happy!"
When Stone and Little River came to fetch the pigs to wash in the water, they all happily thanked Song Anxin. Granny Han and Stone's mother were also overjoyed.
Song Anxin was also infected by their joy and was in a very good mood.
As evening approached, news came from the restaurants: Tianxuan Restaurant had ordered 136 boxes of food that day, Junyue Restaurant 78 boxes, Kelai Restaurant 67 boxes, plus two other restaurants and two taverns, totaling more than 400 boxes.
Song Anxin had expected there to be many, but she hadn't anticipated there would be this many!
The waiter who came to report said that the newly arrived county magistrate ordered fifty boxes of food directly from Tianxuan Restaurant.
Song Anxin could only force a smile. Hehe, she really had to thank him.
Currently, they only plan to pack about two hundred boxes. Because family members are sometimes busy with their own things, the people at the salted duck egg workshop are only responsible for pickling and washing the salted duck eggs. Therefore, sometimes only Song Anxin is packing the gift boxes, and there is still a large number left to pack.
So Song Anxin hurriedly went to Brother Lin's house, where the yard was full of boxes.
Brother Lin was busy making gift boxes for her, while Lin Erxi and Lin Dongzi were carefully applying tung oil to the boxes.
Upon seeing Song Anxin enter, both of them greeted her in unison:
"Hello, Second Aunt."
Hello, Second Aunt.
Brother Lin looked up when he heard the sound, but his hands didn't stop for a moment as he said:
“Fengnian’s mother is here. There are still more than thirty boxes of these dried tung oil boxes left. I was just about to send them to your house.”
Song Anxin smiled and nodded to the two younger ones, then said, "Big brother, we received word from the county restaurant that they want to order 410 boxes. How many boxes are still wet and how many are being coated with tung oil? Can we supply them all?"
Brother Lin paused for a moment, then said, "Erxi, tell your second aunt that Erxi is the one who keeps track of these quantities."
Lin Erxi immediately brought over a small board, which was covered with Arabic numerals she had taught her before, and even some equations.
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