Chapter 224: 224 Harvest
After seeing off Feng Baoshan and Ma Changshun, Yuanyuan finally left this place.
To be honest, Yuanyuan felt she had been much lazier this year; there were quite a few weeds in the field, but she truly felt she couldn’t handle it all.
So she decided to let things be, out of sight, out of mind.
This straightforward way of thinking actually wasn’t so bad.
Ever since the winter wheat received fertilizer, it looked much sturdier. It seemed that this year’s harvest would be decent.
The threshing ground was ready, so now it was just a matter of waiting for the wheat to mature.
In the evening, Feng Baoshan sent someone over to pick up fertilizer, leaving only two tons for Yuanyuan because the farm was really short on it. It couldn’t be helped.
The person who came told Yuanyuan to go to the farm office to collect the money when she had time.
Yuanyuan liked this matter, so she drove to the farm office the next day.
"Director Feng, can we raise pigs?"
"You can, as long as you have the time and energy."
Yuanyuan didn’t say much. She wasn’t planning to raise them now; she was thinking of leaving in the fall anyway. If she really started raising pigs now, she’d have to trouble others.
She went to the Zhao Family’s place, but all five brothers were weeding in the field, so she just exchanged a few words with Sun Yun before leaving.
Life went on uneventfully like this, with daily routines in the field. The weight she lost from being too tired before had not come back yet. However, her mental state was quite good, and Yuanyuan couldn’t believe she would get sick.
She wasn’t planning to thin out the corn seedlings, but they did need some greening work.
So Yuanyuan started driving the small donkey to do this.
It was just thirty acres of corn, and it took a week to finish. That’s how it was—whether there were weeds or not, it was like that.
Going into August, there was much more rain. The crops visibly grew, and the water reserves in the reservoir that was dug last year also increased significantly.
On this day, as Yuanyuan passed by and saw the vast water surface, she thought about the many fish she still had in her space, so she released a large portion into the reservoir. This way, the reservoir would have fish too. In the future, if she wanted to eat fish, it wouldn’t be such a hassle.
Before September even arrived, the winter wheat was ready to be harvested.
Even if worried, Yuanyuan had to do it. So she picked a day and started cutting at four in the morning. Honestly, cutting wheat was really tiring; she was crouched the whole time.
Since she was alone, she focused on cutting ahead, placing the harvested wheat to the side to be collected into space at night and taken to the threshing ground.
Since everything was quite far apart, no one knew she was cutting wheat.
By the end of the day, she had cut over two acres by herself. She was so tired she couldn’t straighten her back.
She gathered up the wheat and took it to her threshing ground, hoping it wouldn’t rain in the coming days. At this rate, it would take a week to finish cutting.
She didn’t even go home. Instead, she entered the space here directly to shower, drink water, and eat.
Only when she felt refreshed did she come out, realizing there were livestock at home that needed feeding.
The next day, it was the same routine, but she was a bit faster than the day before, managing to cut three acres.
Cutting wheat was the most unpleasant task. It was especially prickly. Even with a straw hat on, Yuanyuan still felt her face was sunburned and quite painful.
After six days, all the wheat was harvested.
The wheat harvested on the first day was ready for threshing. She borrowed that nunchaku-like stick from the farm office, along with a stone roller for pressing the wheat.
"Xiao Su, I’ll send a few people over tomorrow to help you,"
Yuanyuan understood what Feng Baoshan meant.
"Director Feng, I’ll keep a thousand pounds, and the rest will be submitted."
Feng Baoshan was all smiles. This girl really was considerate.
"Good, very good. This wheat shouldn’t be kept for eating. We’ll try it out at the end of the year as well."
"Director Feng, it’s too late now. Last year, I planted it in August."
"No worries, this year is just an experiment. The wheat that comes down tomorrow will be brought back. The farm office has an experimental field, and we’ll start planting the day after tomorrow. We won’t plant too much."
Yuanyuan didn’t say anything more. Everything was already arranged. She packed up her tools and went back. She didn’t do any work today, truthfully quite tired. Since help would come tomorrow, she’d just wait.
By nine in the morning the next day, about ten people arrived, including Ma Changshun.
With more people, there’s more strength. Everyone had brought their own lunch, and Yuanyuan just made some vegetable soup.
By the end of the day, they had harvested two thousand pounds in total.
"Xiao Su, the yield of this wheat is really high,"
Ma Changshun looked on enviously. Farmers long for good-growing crops and a good harvest.
"I really didn’t expect such a yield. Once all the threshing is done, we’ll know the per-acre yield."
That night, Yuanyuan piled all the wheat straw outside. This was also fuel. Even though she wouldn’t be home in the winter, she needed to leave more kindling.
Besides, wheat straw is the best for baking pancakes. The fire isn’t too harsh. So she kept it all.
For three continuous days, all the wheat was threshed, and Yuanyuan really only kept a thousand pounds of wheat.
The final number was in: five hundred pounds per acre.
Ma Changshun was thrilled. What did five hundred pounds per acre mean?
"I’ll go back and plant a few acres of wheat. There’s quite a bit of wasteland next to my home; I’ll plant it. Even if it’s just for next year’s seeds, it’ll be worth it."
Yuanyuan was quite pleased, too. She hadn’t expected such a yield. Actually, this wasn’t an accurate number because the land measurements weren’t precise, but an acre could surely produce four hundred pounds.
That means the yield of spring wheat would certainly be better than this.
Yuanyuan happily rewarded herself with a feast upon returning home and even had a glass of red wine, but since she wasn’t used to drinking, she drank too much.
In a daze, she lay in the space, reminiscing about the past life and her experiences since coming here.
This silly girl grinned widely. Turns out she’s so lucky. It’s great to have another chance to live; really great.
The next day, she got up feeling energized. She began tidying up the threshing ground since there were still seventy acres of wheat waiting for her.
This time she didn’t use her superpower, but for these seventy acres, she would have to. Otherwise, if she relied on herself to cut it, it wouldn’t be done in a month. This wasn’t a simple equation of one plus one equals two; those fifteen acres took six days. Seventy acres couldn’t be done in a month. It’s manual labor, not machinery.
The threshing ground was more compacted this time.
Now the corn kernels were already milky and could be boiled for eating. Yuanyuan suddenly craved boiled corn, so she picked two to take home.
This kind of corn wasn’t as tasty when boiled as sticky corn or sweet corn.
But since she had grown it herself, it came with a sense of accomplishment, so Yuanyuan ate both corns.
Her workload was such that she couldn’t finish it all. After all, the spring wheat still had over ten days before it needed harvesting, and in a little over a month, the corn would also need to be harvested.