Xiao Qiao enters the farm gate

Uncle Li helped find someone, and went to Lizheng's house to talk about adding a house site. After the survey was completed, the money was paid and the house deed was completed, the time for the construction of the new house was set.

The wheat is dried, bagged, and put into the warehouse.

Then it was time to harvest rice, and two acres of rice would be finished in two days.The most troublesome thing about recovering the rice is beating the rice. At this time, people beat the rice directly by hand. After drying, the rice is eaten and then shelled with a stone roller.

With such a busy schedule, it will take another few days.

Although the past ten days have been really tiring, but the mood is joyful. This year's harvest is good, and it is a bumper harvest year.The yield of wheat was higher than previously estimated. A total of about six shi of wheat was harvested from the five mu of land, which was nearly [-] catties.Two mu of paddy fields have harvested two stones of rice, six hundred catties, and can produce less than five hundred catties of rice.

The harvest of the paddy field is not good. Grandma Li's family harvested seven and a half stones of rice in the five-mu paddy field, which is better than their mu yield.Grandma Li's paddy fields are well-raised and well-fertilized. Although the paddy fields they bought were well-raised by the previous owner, they were not well-fertilized when they planted rice, and the yield did not increase.

After harvesting, the ground must be plowed and sowed again.

Another season of rice was planted in the paddy fields, all ten acres of dry land were plowed, five acres were planted with corn, two acres of soybeans, two acres of sweet potatoes, and one acres of sesame seeds.

After finishing the work in the field, the atmosphere in the village relaxed, but Qiao Mo's house became lively.

To build a courtyard according to Qiao Mo's request, it is not enough to rely on the villagers alone, and you have to find someone who knows how to do it.This person was introduced by Fang Jinnian. Not only did he come, he also drew a blueprint of the house according to Qiao Mo's dictation.Qiao Mo was very satisfied with this, and to express his gratitude, he made a special trip to send Fang Jinnian a thank you gift when he delivered the goods to the teahouse.

Fang Jinnian was checking the latest accounts, thinking about when Thirteen Incense would be put into production.

At this moment, Guanfeng put a delicate emerald green apple in front of him, causing his eyes to instantly focus on it.

Guanfeng smiled and said, "Master, this is given to you by Mr. Qiao."

"What a delicate bamboo weaving, he actually knows this."

Fang Jinnian took it in his hand with interest, and felt that it was quite heavy, and it seemed to contain something.Open the lid and look, there is a piece of oil paper wrapped, and when the oil paper is opened, there are small light green squares neatly stacked inside.

Take a piece in your hand and look at it, smelling the sweetness of sugar and the fragrance of mint.

A light flashed in his eyes, he put it near his mouth and took a sip, the coolness of mint in the sweetness rushed straight into his mouth, refreshing his mind.I have never liked sweets, but I unknowingly ate two of these small candies.

"Remind me after their house is built, and they have to prepare a housewarming gift."

Not to mention Fang Jinnian's thoughts, Qiao Mo has professionals, enough manpower, and plentiful food, so he works hard every day.In order to catch up with work, many people are invited, each person is [-] yuan a day, and there are two meals in the afternoon and evening, and there is meat in every meal.

The original old house was demolished, Qiao Mo and Lin Zheng didn't go to borrow from Aunt Lin's house, but borrowed the house from the clan and donated some money to the clan to repair the house.The food and sundries at home, as well as horses and chickens, etc., are temporarily stored at Grandma Li's house.

Lin Zheng was busy in the new house every day, and Qiao Mo and Grandma Li helped prepare the lunch and evening meals.

In his spare time, Qiao Mo fulfilled his previous words, taught Li Xue how to weave simple bamboo, and also started to prepare for the furniture of the new home.There is no bamboo at present, so he draws all kinds of ideas on paper, and ponders the method and difficulty of weaving.

On the eighteenth day, Li Xue got married.

The new house was closed for a day because of this. After all, people lived in a village, and many people wanted to have a wedding.Qiao Mo and Lin Zheng also changed into new clothes and went to Lin Daqing's house for dinner.They are both Lin Daqing's clansman and Li Xue's close neighbors, so they paid a double amount of happiness money, which didn't add up to much copper coins, but it was just for happiness.

In his busy schedule, Qiao Mo did not forget that something was about to mature.

Taking advantage of the cool air early in the morning, he and Lin Zheng went to the sandy field to look at watermelons.Standing at the top of the field and looking at it, the two mu of land is covered with melon seedlings, and the plump watermelons clearly show their existence, even if they are not ripe, they are eye-catching enough.

"Ah Zheng, I have to invite someone to come and look at the melons." Qiao Mo was worried that someone in the village would steal melons, which was a trivial matter, and he was even more afraid that someone would be jealous and come secretly to sabotage.If there is that day, it will be too late to regret, and I would rather take precautions early.

Lin Zheng thought about it for a while and said, "Let Uncle Lin Cang from the clan come and see it."

"Yeah." Qiao Mo had no objection, as long as there was someone around, no one would dare to come.Calculating the time, the watermelon should be ripe in about ten days, and it is time to find a market.

Thinking of this, I can't help but knock my head, forgetting such an important thing.

Thinking about it again, there are not many local watermelons planted, so it should not be difficult to sell, not to mention that if the watermelons are of high quality, the price may not be too bad.After weighing, Qiao Mo decided to wait ten days to find two ripe watermelons in the melon field to see how the quality was. If they were good, he would bring samples to the county town to discuss business.

Ten days later, Qiao Mo came to the melon field with a basket, and Uncle Lin Cang was resting in the shed.

After looking around in the field, I found that the watermelons are not small, so I chose one, patted the watermelon to listen to the sound, and checked whether the skin of the melon turned yellow where it touched the ground.Qiao Mo's method of judging whether a watermelon is ripe or not comes from his childhood memory. He felt that it was similar, so he picked the selected melon and packed it.I greeted Uncle Lin Cang and went home.

Qiao Mo directly picked up the basket and went back to Aunt Li's house. If he went to the new house, a melon wouldn't be enough.

I took a watermelon and soaked it in the newly dug well water, and called Lin Zheng and Uncle Li Li Liang to come back to have a rest, while Grandma Li and Brother Qiu squatted there looking at the watermelon in the water basin.Although watermelon has been seen before, it is a rare thing after all, and they really have never tasted it.

Qiao Mo broke open the watermelon himself, revealing the bright red flesh, even before eating it, he could already tell that it was an excellent melon.Qiao Mo cut it into pieces, shared a piece with each other, and couldn't wait to take a bite. It was really sweet and sandy, and the watermelon was just soaked in cool well water, and the watermelon was also cold, which was especially thirst-quenching.

"It's so sweet!" Li Liang finished eating one piece quickly, and took another piece to chew: "It turns out that watermelon tastes like this, and it really is a good thing. How much does it cost?"

"I don't know yet, let's go to the city first and have a look." Seeing that they were all satisfied with the food, Qiao Mo felt more confident.

Qiao Mo didn't delay, picked six watermelons and put them in bags, and went to the county with Lin Zheng that day.

Their first choice is naturally the old customer, Qingsong Tea House.

Needless to say anything else, first cut a melon and give it to shopkeeper Xiao of the teahouse to taste.

Shopkeeper Xiao nodded as he ate, and made a decision before he finished eating. Such a sweet watermelon must be ordered.In previous years, teahouses also collected watermelons to make fruit bowls, but the watermelons from other places were not very fresh when they were transported here, and they were easily damaged on the road, and the local watermelons were not as good as those grown in other places. This year is good, such good watermelons are automatically delivered to the door.

"I don't know the price of Mr. Qiao's watermelon?" Since they are old acquaintances, shopkeeper Xiao asked directly.

"Fourteen cents a catty." This was the price Qiao Mo had already thought about. "The watermelons are not yet fully ripe at the moment, so the price will naturally be higher when trying new ones, but Shopkeeper Xiao's teahouse asks for a lot, and he is a regular customer, even if it is fourteen cents a catty. Even if other people ask for a large amount, they will not exceed it." This price."

"The price is very fair." Shopkeeper Xiao smiled when he heard it, knowing that the other party didn't want to open his mouth, so he said straightforwardly: "The business of my small teahouse is pretty good, and watermelons are rare here. Every summer Every guest will order a plate when they come over. Let’s order a hundred melons first, and we will weigh them after you ship them.”

"Okay, I'll bring it to you tomorrow."

Qiao Mo estimated the output of his own field, because he was worried that the fertility of the field could not keep up, and there were only about [-] seedlings per mu.If one melon is left on a seedling for the first stubble, that is four hundred. Two mu and three parts of the land, at least nine hundred melons.Anyway, there is no other planting in the sandy land after autumn, so there is no need to rush to make stubble, and another batch of melons can be produced. Although it is not as good as the first stubble, there is still no need to worry about sales, and those melons are another matter.

Furthermore, he sells fourteen cents a catty of melons, which may seem expensive at first glance, but in fact he has inquired about it.The local watermelon will be officially launched about ten days later. Although it is affected by the taste and quality, the price is also around ten yuan.The taste of melons from other places is better, and because of the freight cost, the price is [-] to [-] yuan per catty.

It seems that the price is the same as that of foreign sweet potatoes, but you must know that the local melons are only five or six cents per catty, and the price is lower when the output is large.Going to other places to sell melons can make huge profits.

Compared with watermelons, peaches are six to ten yuan per catty, and pears are more expensive, ten to twenty yuan per catty.

Let’s not talk about the taste of Qiao Mo’s melons and melons from other places, but one is fresher.

After weighing it up, Qiao Mo decided to pay [-] cents per catty, which is a penny concession to the price of the teahouse.Although the price is higher than that of local melons, the quality of sweet potatoes is not inferior to that of foreign ones, and they are on the market ahead of schedule, so it is not considered a blind asking price.

"Shopkeeper Xiao, I have to trouble you with one more thing. There are still a few watermelons here. Please send someone to deliver them to Boss Fang. Our family is still busy building a house, so we won't visit him. If he is free, welcome He went to eat melons." Qiao Mo said and asked again: "There are still plenty of melons in my field, shopkeeper Xiao knows a lot of people in business, if anyone wants watermelons, they can remember us."

Shopkeeper Xiao first responded to the previous matter, and then said with a smile: "Mr. Qiao's watermelon is so good, I'm afraid I'm rushing to get it. The boss also runs a restaurant in the county, and it is also needed. In this way, Mr. Qiao and Uncle Lin Sit down and drink a cup of tea, I will ask the little guy to come and ask you."

"Then thank you Shopkeeper Xiao." Qiao Mo planned to prepare a few orders for Shopkeeper Xiao in addition to the watermelon for the tea house tomorrow.

Shopkeeper Xiao was still busy with the business in the teahouse, served them tea and snacks, and went to work first.

Qiao Mo silently settled the score in his heart.Today's watermelons are almost all piquant melons. I don't know it from other families. The melons in my field are not small. The usual ones weigh six to seven catties. Most of them are ten to fifteen catties, and the rare ones are around twenty catties.One hundred melons, calculated as ten catties per melon, is also one thousand catties.Fourteen Wen a catty, so it is 14 taels of silver!

"Ah Zheng, that's a lot of money!" I really didn't know, but I was shocked.