Jiang Yue noticed that the swing had slowed down and asked, "What's wrong?"
Jiang Nian raised his chin, motioning her to look over there, helplessly saying, "Those two are eating melons in the melon field!"
She was sitting with her vision obstructed. She followed his gaze and saw only two spots in the melon field where the grass blades were moving.
She stood up and said, "Are these two mice? Don't eat up all my melons!"
They walked towards the melon patch, and as they got closer, the crunching sounds of chewing stopped.
Jiang Yue looked and saw that they were indeed gnawing on the melon vine. Before one vine was broken, the other one had already been broken and they were starting to gnaw on the rind.
Seeing that they were discovered, the two turned around and tried to hide in the grass, their guilty conscience was visibly evident.
Jiang Nian grabbed them by the back of their necks, one in each hand, and lifted them up.
"Can you guys behave a little? You do bad things when I haven't seen you for a while!"
Suisui still dared to struggle, unwilling to give up his melon, but Jinjin didn't dare to move at all.
Walking into the melon field, Jiang Yue half squatted down, picked up the two melons and put them on the open space.
She tapped it lightly with her fingers, and a crisp breaking sound was heard. The melon that Suisui had bitten broke into two halves, and bright red juice flowed out, and a sweet aroma overflowed.
The melon skin was very crisp, and she easily broke it open with her hands. The middle part of the melon flesh was already red, but there was still a part near the skin that was green and not yet ripe.
Jiang Yue sighed, "Of course! They can pick out a red melon from a field of unripe melons. How can they tell when the melons are ripe when they are so small?"
"Maybe my nose is more sensitive."
Jiang Yue smiled, looking at those two small, pink noses. They were indeed very sensitive. Not only did they make trouble in the inner courtyard kitchen, but they also ran to the small kitchen in the front yard to steal food, and even dared to pick out the good ones. Aunt Yuan scolded them several times.
However, after realizing that it was not a mouse but the owner's pet that stole the food, Aunt Yuan stopped talking and just quietly put the food away.
Smelling the fragrance of the melon flesh, Sui Sui struggled even harder in his hands. Jiang Nian put the two of them down, and they immediately ran to the melon, staring at Jiang Yue eagerly.
Jiang Yue gave them half each and patted their heads, "You can only eat one a day, but you have to tell me next time and don't nibble on it secretly."
Sui Sui was busy chewing the melon, and took the time to reply, "Ah~"
Jiang Yue picked up another melon, went to the well, fetched water from it, washed it clean, and then cut it with a knife.
Her teeth are nothing compared to these ones. She can chew even hard melon rinds as if they were soft tofu.
The melon she picked was also half ripe. When she took a bite, it was juicy, sweet and delicious.
Jiang Nian had never eaten this melon before, but seeing his eyebrows slightly raised, it was obvious that he liked it very much. He ate the melon very quickly and finished half of it in just a few bites.
The watermelon was very juicy, so Jiang Yue couldn't eat too much. He only ate two slices, and most of the watermelon went into his stomach.
Jiang Yue touched his belly, as if he still wanted more. "Is that enough? Do you want to pick another one?"
Suisui's face was red from eating so much, and he looked over blankly: "How can Mom be so partial? I can only eat one a day, oh no, half a day! But Dad can eat whatever he wants!"
Jiang Yue pretended not to see it: Melon is very cold, children should not eat too much!
Jiang Nian shook his head. It was indeed very refreshing to eat this in summer, but one should know when to stop.
After harvesting the crops in the fields, the hired workers returned to the shop.
With the arrival of new grain, the price of old grain in the city has dropped a little, and many families are queuing up to buy grain.
The price of grain has dropped, and the people can use the extra money to buy meat and eggs, and the shops are doing a booming business.
The temporary workers hired from the nearby villages were not laid off, and it seemed that they were about to become permanent workers.
Yuan Zhuangtou led them to start composting and turning the soil again, planning to change to planting a batch of coarse grains and beans to nourish the soil.
Although most families only planted crops once a year at that time, since the master had given the order, Yuan Zhuangtou would naturally just follow the arrangement.
The people below don't need to worry about how the crops grow. Their wages or food are calculated on a daily basis, and the more work they do, the better.
Just as everyone was busy, several groups of people came to the farm and asked if they could sell grain. If they didn't want to sell new grain, they could sell old grain.
Some grain merchants began to have ideas.
Jiang Yue calculated that the average price of grain in the city was 20-25 wen per liter, but the grain merchants who came to buy it were only willing to give 12-15 wen per liter. This was the price of new grain. If it was old grain, the price would be even lower.
According to them, in previous years, the normal price for collecting grain was around 10 wen, and the lowest price was 7-8 wen.
For ordinary farmers, it is really sad that they work hard to grow crops but the bulk of the profits are easily taken away by grain merchants.
Jiang Yue used modern improved high-yield grain varieties, but the average yield per mu in such land was only about five stones. However, Yuan Zhuangtou was so happy about the grain.
Not to mention the inferior grain varieties used by others, the most common yield is about two stone per mu.
After working hard for half a year to grow crops, I only got a few taels of silver. My heart aches. In such a situation, how can I afford to buy good seeds?
The price of good grain seeds in the grain shop can be seven or eight times higher than the grain itself.
No wonder most people spend their entire lives digging for food in the fields, spending half of their annual earnings on crops, repeating the cycle year after year. Once they encounter the situation they experienced in the past two years, with no food left at home, they simply run into a wall and die, putting an end to everything...
Jiang Yue had no plans to sell grain this year. It was only the first year of good weather, and she had so many people to support, so she needed to store a lot of grain.
The government gave the people three years to recuperate, but in the fourth year of land reclamation, they had to start paying taxes.
The government would determine a specific amount based on the quality of the land and the number of registered residents, which was the tax amount. In this case, since the Jiang family's large expanse of uncultivated land was not on the register, they would be exempt from paying a large amount of land tax.
But the amount of land that had already been reclaimed was enough to cost her a fortune. If she didn't store food as a reserve, she would have to prepare money...
Besides, if she wanted to sell the grain, why didn't she just do it herself? It wouldn't be difficult to get a "grain selling permit" through connections.
Jiang Yue directly instructed Yuan Zhuangtou that if any grain merchants came to his door again, he could just refuse them without even having to talk to them.
This move made the servants in the farm feel relieved. With food in hand, they were not worried.
It was a hot summer day, and the watermelons in the backyard were ripe. Jiang Yue had planned to take them to the city to sell, but her husband and son were eating one every day.
A plate of melon chilled in the well is placed before and after meals. With this melon, the appetite is stimulated and the food tastes more delicious.
Jiang Yue was happily eating melons at home, and the people in the city were watching the gossip with great interest.
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