Chapter 84
Of course, this is Gu Ran’s logic.
However, at this time, Gu Ran's name had not yet spread out of the Zhu family orange orchard.
When Liu Dongjia heard why the Zhu family cut down and burned all the orange trees on the mountain, and even dug three feet deep into the mountain to find and destroy all the roots of the orange trees, he was still skeptical.
When I heard that the Zhu family's oranges also developed the same disease due to the disease in the orange orchard, and the production this year was greatly reduced, and that in order to control the spread of the damage, the Zhu family also cut down a large area of orange trees suspected of being infected with the same disease, and dealt with them in the same way as the orange trees, I fell silent.
It is obvious that the Zhu family is determined to remove the diseased trees, regardless of the cost.
Since the Zhu family can do this, they must have already determined that keeping the orange orchard will do more harm than good.
What about your own orchard?
The orange trees in his family were just like those in Zhu's family. They first turned yellow, then withered, and finally rotted. Since the orange trees in Zhu's family were beyond saving, it meant that his orange orchard could not be saved either!
It is said that if the diseased tree is left for a long time, it will spread to other citrus trees.
Liu Dong's family grows the most oranges, but they also grow other fruits like tangerines and honey pomelo. He is also worried that this year the orange orchard will not produce any fruit, and even the other citrus fruits will not produce any fruit.
Liu Dongjia found out that the person who diagnosed the Zhu family's orange orchard as terminally ill was a woman named Gu Erniang from Xiaxi Village, so he went to Xiaxi Village in person to ask Gu Ran to take another careful look at his own orange orchard.
On the day Liu Dongjia came to the Gu family's cottage, Xu San and his group were also there.
Meeting this man, rumored to be the largest orange grower in Donglin Township, Gu Ran expressed his admiration for him. After hearing his explanation of his purpose, he said, "Master Liu, Mr. Xu San and I actually visited your orange orchard first."
"Then is our orange tree the same as the Zhu family's orange tree?"
Although Gu Ran couldn't bear it, he still nodded.
"It's different, isn't it?" Liu Dongjia struggled a little. "It took two years for the Zhu family's orange orchard to end up in this state, but my family's orange orchard has only just started to get sick. Is there still hope for recovery?"
So Gu Ran explained to Liu Dongjia the mechanism of the disease in citrus and the story of the citrus psyllid. Liu Dongjia got angry and said, "Does that mean the disease in our orange orchard was spread from the diseased trees in the Zhu family?"
"That's hard to say."
Although it was most likely that the citrus psyllid flew from the Zhu family's orange orchard to the Liu family's orchard, there was also a significant possibility that the orange trees themselves had developed a disease - because the two families' orange orchards were not far from each other and the geological water sources were similar.
Seeing that Liu Dongjia was so angry, Gu Ran did not dare to make any random remarks, otherwise Liu Dongjia would misunderstand that the Zhu family was the culprit, and if any big trouble arose, she would also be to blame.
After getting Gu Ran's affirmation, the orange tree was of great value, and Liu Dongjia's face became extremely ugly.
But the lesson of the Zhu family orange orchard was obvious. Even if he was reluctant to give up the orange orchard, it was likely that it would not produce fruit next year. It would be better to get rid of this scourge as soon as possible.
After returning, Liu Dongjia went in and out of the huge orange grove for several days, sighing and groaning. Finally, he gritted his teeth and made up his mind to burn down the large areas of orange trees that had not produced any fruit and had turned yellow.
I heard that not only the tangerine trees, but also some orange and pomelo trees that were found to be yellowing were all cut down and burned. The fields were burned with straw mixed with soil for three days and three nights, making sure to burn away the damaged soil (and also the remaining insect eggs hidden underground).
In the end, the two mountains that were once orange groves were burned into barren hills.
Gu Ran was also impressed by the Zhu and Liu families' immediate and decisive actions, which were like a gecko cutting off its tail to reduce losses.
Xu San, who came to the small house, said that due to force majeure, the contract for oranges ordered from the Liu family was invalidated, and Liu Dongjia had refunded the deposit in full.
"This is a natural disaster. I can't pursue it too much. It's just that the quantity of oranges ordered at the end of autumn is not enough. This is a big trouble." Xu San was distressed.
Counting the days, the merchant ship that returned to Zhengzhou a month ago is already on its way back to Jianzhou. This time, it is returning to purchase the latest batch of oranges to bring back to the north.
If the budgeted goods are insufficient, we will have to find other orange farmers to make up for it, which is also troublesome.
After hearing what Xu San said, Gu Ran glanced at him and remembered that there were still oranges in his space!
Fujian has a hot climate. Depending on the type of citrus, early-ripening and late-ripening citrus fruits are available for sale as early as October and as late as March.
It’s just that the batch of oranges in February and March is difficult to transport back to the north.
Firstly, at that time, the ice on many waterways in the north had not melted yet, making it difficult to travel on the waterways. Secondly, the weather was getting warmer, and the temperature was more difficult to keep the citrus fruits fresh than in winter. They were often rotten when they were shipped back to the north. Therefore, very few people made a living by shipping late-ripening citrus fruits back to the north. Most people were like Xu San, who traded in the early-ripening citrus fruits.
Gu Ran, who loves citrus fruits, stocked up a lot of them from October last year to March this year, both early-ripening and late-ripening ones.
Because I thought that putting them in a space would keep them fresh, so when I came across delicious citrus fruits, I naturally bought them.
It seemed that she still had more than half of the oranges from the year left, because she had Pei Liuniang and Daju's family around her, so it was not easy to eat them whenever she wanted, so she saved them.
There were also a lot of canned oranges and marmalade that she had made.
Since Xu Sanchou doesn't have enough oranges by then, why don't she sell the remaining baskets of oranges at a high price?
So Gu Ran hummed, cleared his throat, and asked Xu San: "How many oranges did you order from the Liu family?"
Xu San looked at Gu Ran, "Why do you want to know this?"
"Well, I might be able to get you some oranges. How many do you want?"
"How much can you get?" Xu Sanlang asked back.
Gu Ran estimated the number of oranges he had stored. "About five hundred kilograms?"
Xu San's eyes lit up, "If you can really get it, I'll take care of it all."
"If I can really get it, how much money are you willing to pay?"
"Fifty taels of silver."
“That’s too little.”
"How is it less? I even marked up the price based on the local orange prices. It's fair."
"You know that oranges are cheaper locally, but the oranges you bought aren't sold locally. They're shipped to the north, where they're sold at a high price. You're guaranteed to make a profit." Gu Ran was not happy. "You're out of stock now. You have to pay at least double the price, one hundred taels."
Xu San sneered and pointed at Gu Ran with his fan: "Gu Erniang, I didn't expect you to take advantage of others' misfortune!"
"I'm not taking advantage of someone's misfortune. Think about it, there aren't many orange trees that ripen early. I can also guarantee that I'll get you such good oranges before October. I guarantee they'll be delicious."
Xu San bargained: "That can't be one hundred taels, that's too expensive. How about eighty taels?"
Gu Ran was still hesitant when Xu San fanned him and said, "Eighty taels. If you agree, I'll buy it from you. If you don't want to, I'll go to a few more villages to look for it."
"Are you sure that you can find farmers who will sell your early-ripening oranges in just over a month, and that the oranges they produce are of good quality and taste good?" Gu Ran asked back.
Xu San was stunned by Gu Ran's counter-argument.
"I heard that not every village has orange trees. Even in Jianzhou, there are very few families like the Liu and Zhu families who are generous enough to rent a mountain to grow oranges. Even if there are some, I'm afraid most of them have been reserved long ago. Besides, since the yellowing disease has appeared in Donglin Township, who knows, other places may also..."
"Pooh, pooh, pooh!" Xu San stood up holding the fan, not caring about etiquette, and said angrily to Gu Ran.
Gu Ran smiled and nodded at Xu San, and smiled slyly: "How about it? One hundred taels, five hundred kilograms?"
Xu San pondered.
"How about I give you some jars of orange jam as a bonus?"
"Can't it be any less?"
"No less, flat price, one hundred taels. If you want it, give me fifty taels as a deposit, and I'll definitely find you some oranges. If you don't want it, I'll save you the trouble."
Seeing Ran's determination, Xu San finally agreed.
Of course, this matter involved such a large sum of money, so it had to be handled with caution. Xu San called on housekeeper Xu to draw up the deed, and the two of them stamped and signed it before they paid an advance of fifty taels of silver to Gu Ran.
Seeing that he was about to get another hundred taels, Gu Ran couldn't stop smiling.
Xu San found her smile annoying and said sourly, "You've taken the money, but you have to keep an eye on it for me. If you can't produce 500 kilograms of the best oranges by then, you'll have to pay double the compensation."
"No problem, Mr. Xu San, don't worry. I, Gu Er Niang, always keep my word and do what I say." Gu Ran happily held a pile of silver ingots and touched them again and again. She was so happy that even her accent became distorted.
Seeing her so greedy for money, Xu San was amused for a moment. When he left Xiaxi Village in a carriage, he was still thinking about the deal and was filled with hatred.
If he wasn't afraid that he really couldn't get the whole batch of oranges, and wanted to leave himself a way out, could he have endured such a severe blow from Gu Er Niang?
"My dear, I see that the wife of the Gu family seems to be very knowledgeable about growing orange trees."
She diagnosed the disease that no one else could see, and it was exactly the same as the lesion reported by the Zhu family. If she had never grown orange trees, how could she know it so clearly?
"Didn't she say she had an orange tree of her own?"
Xu San thought of the small orange tree in the courtyard of his cottage, and the lively little cats in the cat yard. His mood gradually calmed down. As he thought about it again, he was amused. "This Gu Er Niang, I think she's even more extraordinary."
"Even if she's fake, she's been raised in the Marquis' Mansion for several years. Her knowledge and experience are certainly different from those of ordinary people. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been chosen by Prime Minister Qin and married into the Qin family!" Manager Xu also said admiringly, "My dear, don't you think that the lady of the Gu family is living like a fish in water in Jianzhou?"
"Isn't that me too?"
Xu San took the fan and started fanning himself again. Feeling the carriage was stuffy, he reached out, opened the curtain, and looked up at the sky.
"Everything about Fujian is good, except that it's windy, rainy, hot, and humid."
"My dear, is it going to rain again?"
Xu San nodded.
Clouds gathered in the sky, obscuring the light, and a new rain began to brew.
It was raining heavily, and the island forest was shrouded in a curtain of rain.
But compared to the days when every household was on guard against the rain, the atmosphere in the village is much more relaxed.
Because the five large windmills erected in front of the miasma forest have been proven to be able to blow away most of the miasma that rises after the rain, and the small part that slips through the net will float over. As long as you are careful not to touch it, it will dissipate as soon as the sun comes out. There is nothing to be afraid of.
Therefore, the villagers of Xiaxi will no longer be afraid of miasma, and they no longer have to leave their houses and stay in other houses because of the miasma after the rain, which is a troublesome thing.
So I will no longer be too resistant to things like rain.
Of course, the windmills have only been in operation for a short period of time. To be on the safe side, Village Chief Wu did not take it lightly. He also kept a distance from the land where the newcomers to Xiaxi Village were given to build their houses.
This will keep a way out in case the windmill breaks down or is temporarily out of service.
Gu Ran took advantage of the rainy day to collect some dried goods that had already been dried.
While she was busy, the three little cats that were released from the cat yard were also jumping around. They first looked at the raindrops falling on the ground with curiosity, and from time to time stretched out their claws to explore curiously. When they got tired of playing, they started to climb onto Gu Ran again.
The three little kittens, who were already kittens, have grown a lot bigger. They are at the age of learning to climb and hunt, and are extremely energetic.
Sometimes Gu Ran plays with the three little ones, sometimes he has to lock them in the cat yard first, and sometimes he takes care of the kittens while doing his work.
"Wow, look, there are mushrooms growing on grandma's body!" Then she picked off the cat mushrooms that were crawling on her body.
"Meow!"
It was still raining that day. Gu Ran, who was playing with the kittens, heard a knock on the door amidst the rain. He thought he had misheard and raised his index finger to shush the three little ones to stop. But when he listened carefully, he found that he had heard someone knock on the door.
Who would come to her house on such a rainy day?
Could it be Liu Niang?
Gu Ran let go of the three little ones in his arms, picked up the oil-paper umbrella beside him, walked along the corridor, and came to the gate of the courtyard: "Who is it?"
"Sister Gu? Is it Sister Gu?"
Gu Ran heard the shouting voice and was in disbelief. She quickly opened the door and saw a young woman outside who was soaked like a drowned chicken. She curled up with her hands hugging her body. When she saw Gu Ran open the door, her face was wet with rain, and she seemed to be crying and laughing at the same time: "Sister Gu, it really is you!"
"Xiangxiang, you..." Gu Ran looked outside the door again. Apart from Mai Xiang, there was no one else there. He almost got angry: "You came here alone?"
"Yeah!" Mai Xiang seemed a little excited. "I, I came here alone..."
"Go inside first, don't stand outside in the rain anymore."
Gu Ran didn't care why Mai Xiang came to see him. He pulled Mai Xiang into the house. Seeing the rain water flowing from Mai Xiang's body to the ground, he told her to go to his room quickly, prepared hot water for her to wash her body, and took out a set of clean clothes for her to change.
After a while of busy work, Mai Xiang wiped her hair with a handkerchief and looked around the small house in surprise: "Sister Gu, is this your house?"
"yes!"
Then, she saw a few unfamiliar cats that she had kept a distance from because she was shy: "Sister Gu, are these your cats?"
“That’s right!”
Then he saw the flowers and orange trees planted in the corner: "Sister Gu..."
"Okay, let's have a cup of hot tea to warm ourselves up."
"Why!"
Mai Xiang followed Gu Ran into the hall and sat down at the desk.
While she was washing up, Gu Ran took out some fruits and pastries and even brewed a pot of tea.
Look at Maixiang being drenched by the rain. I don’t know how long he has been walking in the rain. It’s not good to catch a cold. It would be good to drink a cup of hot tea to drive away the cold.
Mai Xiang took the hot tea handed to her by Gu Ran, her expression still excited. She looked at him as if she wanted to say something, but Gu Ran signaled with his eyes that she should drink the tea first, so she took the tea and started drinking it in small sips.
Gu Ran pushed the pastries in front of her and asked her to eat some to fill her stomach.
After finishing her round of eating, Mai Xiang secretly glanced at Gu Ran again and said, "Sister Gu, you are really amazing. You have lived so well in this village by yourself."
"You're quite impressive. You dared to come all the way from Nanyu Village to Xiaxi Village by yourself."
Gu Ran looked at Mai Xiang and thought to himself: Wow, is this still the Xiang Xiang that I met on the road to exile?
The woman who used to be so timid that she would feel uneasy when talking to strangers and didn't even dare to speak loudly, is now so brave that she dares to go out alone.
"Tell me, why did you come to see me alone out of the blue?"
"I came to see Sister Gu and see how you are doing!" Mai Xiang said perfunctorily with wandering eyes.
"I don't believe it." Gu Ran shook his head. "Tell the truth, otherwise, I wouldn't dare take you in."
Maixiang has a father, mother, and brother at home!
Mai Xiang looked at Gu Ran, lowered her head, and began to cry silently.
Gu Ran panicked, "I didn't do anything, and I didn't scold you, so why are you crying?"
Mai Xiang was still crying and shaking her head.
"Who wronged you?"
"Yes, it's my mother!"
Aunt Mai.
"What did your mother do to you?"
"She wants me to get married." Mai Xiang wiped her tears and said, "But I don't want to get married."
Gu Ran understood as soon as he heard it.
Yes, Maixiang is fourteen years old this year, right? She looks like a normal girl.
Like the original owner, she was married off at the age of fifteen, and then exiled at the age of seventeen. Then she was angered to death, tsk!
"So you don't want to get married, have you told your mother?"
"I did, but she forced me to get married."
Mai Xiang looked at Gu Ran with red eyes, "I'm angry and don't want to stay with my mother. I want to come to you, Sister Gu, for help. Is that okay?"
Gu Ran was overwhelmed.
If it was a woman like Pei Liuniang, who had no relatives or friends, she would naturally take her in without hesitation, but Mai Xiang has a father and a mother. If she took her in casually, it would be troublesome if something happened to her that didn't turn out well.
"Of course, of course. But your parents, seeing that you're missing, won't be worried and anxious!"
"They don't worry about that. They just want to marry me off and use the bride price to build a house."
Gu Ran was stunned. It turned out that there was something else going on here!
When Mai Xiang started talking, Gu Ran realized that the Mai family was originally an ordinary farming family. They did not bring much money with them when they were exiled. After settling in Nanyu Village, they were busy reclaiming wasteland and farming. Therefore, they have been renting a house from a wealthy family in Nanyu Village until now and have no extra money at all.
Last year's autumn tax, each of the four people in the family had to pay more than two shi of grain. In the end, they pooled some money together to pay the tax.
Although we planted so many acres of land this year, there are only four people in our family, and we cannot do the farm work on dozens of acres of land. So we have to ask people in the village for help, and we have to raise some money for the wages.
After calculating it piecemeal, the money that was originally not much would have been gone long ago even if he had been frugal with it on a regular basis.
It just so happened that at this time, a family in Nanyu Village fell in love with Mai Xiang and offered a betrothal gift of ten taels of silver. Seeing that her family was struggling to make ends meet, Aunt Mai decided to accept the marriage.
Coincidentally, that family happened to be the family of Aunt He whom she had visited before, and the son of a young man from the Yang family, Aunt Yang Er.
"But I don't like it."
Mai Xiang calmed down a bit and looked at Gu Ran with envy in her eyes. "Sister Gu, I watched you survive Qingyi on your own. The Qin family, even though they are the prime minister's family, still treated you so badly..."
Did Mai Xiang seem to be worried that her future husband's family would treat her badly? Was it because of her own affairs that she had a psychological trauma? Gu Ran silently said to himself, "I'm guilty."
"So what? There are good people and bad people in this world. I just didn't want to be lucky and met a bad husband. But it doesn't mean that your mother helping you find a husband is bad!"
That being said, the Yang family, Old Man Yang, seems to be a nice person, and Yang's family members don't seem to be kind. I guess they are a good family, or am I just misjudging it?
"You've lived in Nanyu Village for so long, you must know a little about the Yang family, right? Are they not good?"
"It's good, but it won't be my own family after I marry into it. It's my husband's family." Mai Xiang bit her lip. "I'm still an outsider, just like you are in the Qin family."
I didn’t expect that Mai Xiang, at such a young age, could see things so clearly. Gu Ran was speechless.
"Sister Gu, I want to be like you, to be able to live on my own and work with others." Mai Xiang looked around the small house and said enviously, "Can you teach me?"
How to teach?
Gu Ran scratched his head and said, "You, please let me think about it first."
Mai Xiang nodded.
"However, since you are here, you still need to send a letter to your parents, so that they won't worry about you because they think something happened to you."
"Then, if my parents still force me to get married, Sister Gu, can you help me persuade them?" Mai Xiang looked at Gu Ran with wet eyes and pleaded.
Gu Ran looked at Mai Xiang and nodded helplessly.
Mai Xiang breathed a sigh of relief and smiled lightly: "I knew Sister Gu would help me."
It was still raining outside. Gu Ran planned to wait until the rain stopped and then ask who in the village had gone to the city so that he could help take a message to the He family, and then ask the He family to help deliver the message to the Yang family in Nanyu Village.
If the Yang family knows about it, then naturally they will be notified.
This will take at least two or three days, so it seems I can only settle with Maixiang for the time being.
West Wing...
Gu Ran thought of Pei Liuniang who had not returned for a long time, and walked into the west wing. He saw that it was full of her belongings. She had given him money as rent for her room, and it seemed not good to let someone else live there, even if it was Xiangxiang.
So Maixiang was also settled in the side room.
Mai Xiang found Gu Ran to support her, and she felt much more at ease and settled down there with peace of mind.
This stay lasted for seven days.
The rain continued for another three days. No one traveled far on rainy days: the waterways and rivers were turbulent, so no one took out a boat. The mountain roads were slippery and difficult to walk on, and there was the danger of mudslides, so no one dared to go.
On the fourth day, Gu Ran found someone to deliver the letter to the county town.
On the seventh day, Aunt Mai and Mai Dong came to Xiaxi Village. When they saw Mai Xiang, they were furious: "You are so brave, Xiangxiang! Now you are so bold that you don't even listen to your mother and dare to run away?"
"Mom, if you force me to do something I don't like, of course I will run away." Mai Xiang regained her nervous expression when she saw her mother. She spoke in a low voice, but still remained stubborn.
“You…”
"Hey, Aunt Mai, don't be impatient. Just take your time and tell me what's going on."
"How can I talk slowly? This girl is so infuriating. I've been looking for her all these days, and she just came to you without saying a word."
Gu Ran invited Aunt Mai, who was almost pissed off, and Mai Dong to have some tea. After she calmed down a bit, he said, "Xiangxiang has come all this way to ask me for advice. I can't let her down! Besides, I also think that Xiangxiang is still young, so there's no need to rush into marriage."
"You don't understand what's going on in my family." Aunt Mai felt choked up and impatient with Gu Ran.
Which girl dares to disobey her mother?
For a family like them who had just been exiled to the village, it was already very good to be noticed by the local people.
The Yang family is not a bad or poor family. She found such a good family for Xiangxiang, which is also for her own good.
"Of course I don't understand your family's affairs, and I don't need to understand them."
Before Aunt Mai arrived, Gu Ran had already discussed it with Mai Xiang, "How about this, I heard from Xiangxiang that the Yang family plans to give a betrothal gift of ten taels of silver?"
"So what?"
"Then, Aunt Mai, don't force Xiangxiang to get married. I can lend you ten taels of silver!"
Aunt Mai was stunned.
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