Xiao Qiao enters the farm gate

Lin Zheng was surprised when he heard him say fourteen cents a catty before, but now he was even more shocked when he heard the calculation.In the just-concluded rush harvest, the wheat and rice took so much effort to get so much for an acre of land. Who would have thought that although there are few watermelons planted, they are so valuable.

What Qiao Mo thought was, since growing watermelons is so profitable, why are there so few growers?If it weren't for the fact that rarity is the most expensive thing, no matter how delicious the watermelon is, the price would not be too high.

Lin Zheng knew his doubts, and explained: "Did you forget what the shopkeeper said when you bought watermelon seeds? Although there are seeds here, it doesn't mean that the seeds are good. From my point of view, even if the melons are good or bad Even in terms of output, they are not as high as ours. What's more, those who grow melons mostly work for big families. After all, watermelons are risky. The fertilizer in the field can't keep up. I don’t know, the melons are neither big nor sweet, so even if watermelon seeds are available, not many people take the risk.”

Another one is that people nowadays don't have the concept of economic crops, and they always think that it is safer and more secure to plant grains such as wheat and corn on their own land.

Qiao Mo said with a smile: "It's still my credit. I said that it is right to grow watermelons in sandy land. This year, there are few plants, and the seedlings per mu are conservative. Next year, we will get more fertilizer and more seedlings, and the yield will definitely be higher. .”

"En." Although Qiao Mo didn't know how to farm, but he had a lot of ideas in his mind, and Lin Zheng mostly supported his opinions.

After finishing a cup of tea, shopkeeper Xiao came, followed by three people.

Shopkeeper Xiao first introduced Qiao Mo and the two of them, and then introduced the three people who brought in: "This is Shopkeeper Liu from Jixiang Restaurant, this is Shopkeeper Wu from Wuji Store, and this is Manager Zhang from the Song family in the city. They heard that the watermelon at Mr. Qiao's house is ripe, and they were all interested, so I brought them together."

"Please sit down, three, and try our melons first." Qiao Mo is not good at talking about business, but he knows that when selling food, customers must first taste it.

He took a watermelon that he planned to leave to Fang Jinnian, cut it open, and shared a piece with each other.

There is nothing to say about the quality of the watermelon. The three of them are very satisfied. It is much better than they expected. Although the price is on the high side, this melon is ripe early, sandy and sweet, and it is still worth it.

Qiao Mo observed the faces of several people, and said with a smile: "I have sold a hundred melons to the tea house before, and there are not many left for the first-ripe melons. There may be a hundred more. It will take ten days until they are fully ripe." About seven or eight hundred melons will be available at that time. After the first crop is picked, the second crop will mature in a month. If you are interested, you can also book in advance. The price of melons this time is [-] cents per catty. The next time the price will be cheaper, [-] cents per catty, there will be no price for the late harvested melons."

It is a friendship price to give the teahouse fourteen coins, and of course it will be a little higher for them.Although the late cropped melons generally taste worse than the first cropped melons, they haven't been planted yet, so the price is hard to determine.

"There are only one hundred left..." Everyone had no objection to the price.

Shopkeeper Wu frowned a little, feeling a little less.His shop sells a lot of things, such as melons and fruit snacks, and what to sell when they are ripe. He planned to buy a batch of early-ripe melons to make a profit.

Auspicious Restaurant was opened by Fang Jinnian, and he bought melons as a fruit platter to enrich the menu of the restaurant.After listening to Qiao Mo's words, Shopkeeper Liu made some calculations in his mind, and said, "Then I want fifty, and after ten days I want two hundred, and I want three hundred later."

If it weren't for the other two buyers, Shopkeeper Liu would have wanted more than that.

After hesitating, he was robbed first. Shopkeeper Wu wanted to snatch the remaining [-] melons, but he was afraid of offending Steward Zhang of the Song family, so he said: "There are too few melons, let the rest be for Steward Zhang. Ten Give me two hundred in the next day."

The late cropped melons are not as good as the first ones. The shopkeeper Wu was afraid that the taste would be bad, so he didn't make an order.

Steward Zhang waited for them to finish before he said unhurriedly: "The masters of our family love to eat watermelons. Thank you, shopkeeper Wu, for letting me go. Then I will take the remaining fifty. The melons in ten days' time, I want them." Two hundred, and for the late crop melons, I want a hundred for the time being."

Shopkeeper Xiao at the side had already brought a pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and wrote down the document while listening to each other. After seeing each other's disagreement, they signed and marked it as proof.

Qiao Mo went to the city and did such a large business that he almost sold out all the melons in the field, so he couldn't help but smile.He immediately decided to expand the planting scale next year, increase the yield per mu, and make more money.

The next day, Lin Zheng hired old man Yu's car, and invited the Li family and his son to pick melons in the field.

It was still early, and there was no one to be seen on the road except for the bustling building.

A group of people arrived at the field, parked the car on the ground, took out the deep bamboo baskets that had been prepared earlier, and picked melons in the field.The work of picking melons is mainly done by Qiao Mo, and no one else has done it. It is difficult to tell whether the watermelon is ripe or not.

Qiao Mo touched them one by one, and Lin Zheng followed to pick them. After filling the bamboo baskets, Uncle Li and Li Liang carried the bamboo baskets to the cart.There are baffles on both sides of the car, just use bamboo baskets to block the front and back, and enough straw is spread on the car, and the melons can be loaded directly.There were about a hundred of them in one car, and the borrowed car plus Lin Zheng's own car was just enough to transport all the watermelons needed this time.

In addition, I specially packed a few more melons as a thank you gift to shopkeeper Xiao.

Qiao Mo picked a total of two hundred and five melons, and there were a few ripe ones in the field, so he made a special trip to stay at home to eat and give away.

At the same time, Qiao Mo did not forget to tell Uncle Lin Cang: "If uncle is thirsty, just pick a melon and eat it. You can still eat a few melons from home grown ones. You have to work hard for another month until the watermelon is ripe I don’t plan to vacate the land in the future, I plan to let it grow again.”

"Just don't worry, I'll take care of it." Uncle Lin Cang promised with a smile, and didn't say anything about picking melons and eating them.

If I didn't know it before, I might have eaten it, but I overheard them talking just now, a catty of watermelon was fifteen yuan, and a six to seven catty watermelon could be sold for a hundred yuan.This thing is really precious, how can he be willing to eat it, save a melon, you can cut more than three catties of meat.

Qiao Mo saw that he was reluctant to part with it, so he didn't say anything, anyway, he would just give two away when the time comes.

A group of people drove to the county town, fearing that the watermelon would be broken, so they didn't go fast, and it was almost noon when they arrived at the county town.First I went to the teahouse to deliver melons, then to the Jixiang Restaurant, and finally found the Song family.

Qiao Mo didn't know it at first, but later he found out that the Song family was a well-known scholarly family in the county.His family started farming and studying since his great-grandfather, and he was a fourth-rank official in the middle school. Later, he became an official and returned to his hometown to set up an academy to teach and educate people. He can be regarded as a great Confucian.

The academy run by the Song family is called Luming Academy, and it is the most prestigious academy in the county seat. Not only local scholars, but also many students from other places come to study.

The current dean is the grandson of Song Daru. Although he was elected, he did not become an official.The Song family also has a generation of younger generations, among them the eldest son Song Bo, who is 25 years old, has already won the Juren, but because his mother passed away, he went back to his hometown to observe his filial piety, so he missed the palace examination.

When inquiring about the news, Qiao Mo often heard people praise Song Bo, like a literary star descending to earth.

It's kind of strange to think about it, such a scholarly family, everyone loves watermelon, especially Song Bo.I heard that this habit was inherited from his great-grandfather. Every year, the Song family purchases a lot of watermelons, and even makes many poems and paintings about watermelons.

When the car arrived at the back door, after knocking on the door, the servant of the Song family smiled and asked the steward Zhang to come over after asking the reason.Fifty watermelons were weighed on the spot, because Qiao Mo specially selected some big ones in these bamboo baskets, so after weighing they were 650 five catties.

"A round number, 650 catties, a total of 750 Wen." Qiao Mo erased the fraction on the weighing scale, but did not erase the fraction of the money.People like the Song family don't lack those few copper coins. It's an attitude to wipe a penny, and he doesn't think too much money is hot, so why should he be poor and generous.

Guanshi Zhang paid the money immediately, nine taels of silver and 750 copper coins.

After delivering the goods, Qiao Mo looked up at the sun, and simply said: "It's already noon, let's go back after eating."

Several people have no objection to eating, but they have different opinions on what to eat.

Qiao Mo originally wanted to invite the Li family and his son to eat some delicious dishes in a restaurant, but they said it was not worth it, so they went to a noodle restaurant to eat noodles.Qiao Mo knew that they were used to being frugal, and felt that eating noodles was cheap and satisfying, but during this period of time, the family was busy building a house and collecting watermelons, which made the Li family troublesome. Let's eat.

"Listen to me, let's go to the restaurant!" Qiao Mo made a firm decision, and joked, "Uncle Li, brother Li Liang, don't be afraid of running out of money, we sold so many watermelons, a few watermelons are enough for us to stay in the restaurant." Have a good meal."

The Li family father and son laughed at what they said, so they stopped objecting.

Lin Zheng raised his hand to wipe off the dust on Qiao Mo's face, and after talking about a restaurant, a few people went over.

After entering, Qiao Mo was afraid that the Li family father and son would be polite, so he ordered the dishes by himself.I ordered a braised elbow, steamed fish, braised pork with preserved vegetables, eggplant with minced meat, homemade fried tofu, and vegetarian fried vegetables.Out of habit, apart from Qiao Mo eating rice, the Li family father and son and Lin Zheng both had a bowl of noodles.

Although there are only five dishes, the portions are quite sufficient, and several people have a big appetite, not to mention the sumptuous dishes that can only be eaten at a table during the Chinese New Year.A few people were also hungry, and they ate everything like a storm.

Qiao Mo went to pay the bill and wiped off a few coins, which amounted to five renminbi.

Five coins of silver is really worth two or three melons.

Li Liang on the side saw him, and couldn't help but be speechless, he felt distressed even if it wasn't his own money.

Five hundred wen is not a small number, and one meal is gone.But then I thought about it again, this money was earned by others, and Qiao Geer is very good at earning money, how to spend it is his own business, but it is his own, so he has enough oil and water for a meal.

On the way back, Qiao Mo sat in the car to settle accounts.

One hundred melons in the teahouse are 920 catties, which is 12 catties, and one catty is fourteen coins, and the fee is 610 taels of silver.Auspicious Restaurant asked for fifty, which is also Fang Jinnian's business. Although there are paperwork first, it is just to lower the price in front of the other two, so it is actually [-] Wen per catty, [-] per catty, and zero , received [-] money.

Adding in the Song family's 30 cents and [-] cents, and calculating the general ledger, today it sold a total of [-] [-] cents and [-] cents.