CHAPTER 95: BETWEEN THE HILLS AND FIELDS

Little Millet followed his older siblings and wandered around every household in the village, collecting a bag full of sunflower seeds, peanuts, and candies. Then they led a large group of children from the village to visit their own home for New Year greetings.

When they left home, they happened to meet other children who were planning to visit their place first. But they ended up following Da Wa’s call to go to someone else’s home, leaving Jiang Hu’s second aunt sitting inside for a long time, thinking no children would come.

Unexpectedly, a large group eventually came, and almost all the children under ten in the village, boys and girls, lined up to offer New Year’s greetings to Jiang Hu’s second aunt, happily receiving a handful of goodies.

The Jiang family lived far away, and although the village children knew of them, they hadn’t really visited. Now, they finally had the chance, so naturally, they wanted to play a bit.

The boys clustered around Da Wa Liu Hai, while the girls were with Er Ni and Little Millet, and the young fellow Iron Egg had to be where the fun was.

The house was rarely this lively. The second aunt happily boiled a pot of water, added a few chrysanthemum blossoms and a bit of sugar, instantly attracting the little girls who loved beautiful things.

The second aunt poured them two bowls of chrysanthemum tea. The house didn’t have enough bowls, but since they were all children, sharing wasn’t an issue.

There were few girls in the village, and only five came to the house, all around five or six years old, with one even wearing patched clothes.

As for the older or younger ones, neither the second aunt nor Jiang Hu wanted to think much about it.

A girl with small pigtails took a sip of the chrysanthemum tea, her eyes lighting up instantly: "It’s so good, fragrant, with the taste of flowers, and a bit sweet."

"Really? Let me try it too."

The little girls crowded together, taking turns sipping the chrysanthemum tea from the two bowls, and seeing they liked it, the second aunt wrapped a few small packets of chrysanthemums in gauze, giving each one a pack.

This chrysanthemum tea was free; there were plenty in the mountains behind. She had gathered a lot when she was free, only to find later that it was hardly consumed.

The little girls politely said thank you to the aunt, making her extremely happy.

They lingered until noon, just before it was time for lunch, before leaving reluctantly, with one little girl pulling Er Ni aside, saying enviously, your mom is so gentle.

Little Millet nodded repeatedly, wasn’t she? Her mom was the best.

The lively yard finally quieted down. Jiang Hu, who had been missing, returned with a hoe from behind the house.

"Hu Ge, during the New Year, where have you been?"

Jiang Hu heaved a sigh: "There were too many kids, chattering away, my ears were hurting. You mentioned before wanting to water those chrysanthemums this year, so I went to do some weeding."

The second aunt shook her head helplessly: "The kids are actually quite adorable."

But there were too many of them to keep an eye on.

"Take a rest first, I’ll go cook."

Jiang Hu quickly put down the hoe, washed his hands, and followed her into the kitchen: "I’ll make a fire."

They had meatballs for lunch today, along with the fish and rib soup left over from last night.

They didn’t have any relatives here. Jiang Hu had been separated from his parents and brothers, and the second aunt’s family was nowhere to be found.

So, in the coming days, they just needed to rest well at home.

But resting didn’t mean there wasn’t much to do. Feeding the pigs, cows, chickens, and rabbits aside, they couldn’t stay idle and had cleared a patch of wasteland behind the house.

By clearing, it merely meant removing the weeds. There were many wild yellow chrysanthemums there, which bloomed in little bunches, covering the hillsides.

Chrysanthemums don’t die in the winter, but their above-ground stems wither. In the following year, as the temperature rises, new ones grow back.

Jiang Hu and the second aunt both recognized the wild chrysanthemums and simply cleared the weeds, removed the withered branches, lightly tilled the soil, and then poured two buckets of fertilized water over the wild chrysanthemums.

On the second day, Jiang Hu brought a few pounds of garland chrysanthemum and two handfuls of pea shoots to town. It was the only thing still available at home.

The main objective wasn’t to sell vegetables but to collect swill.

The Tongfu Restaurant was quite large and hosted the New Year’s Eve dinners for two wealthy families, so there was bound to be a lot of swill.

Jiang Hu initially wanted to take his wife and children to town to see if it was lively, but the second aunt refused.

And so, by the fifth day, the New Year festivities gradually faded, and more people started working in the fields.

This year, the fourth day marked the beginning of spring, and the weather was gradually warming. At least, during the New Year’s days, it was always sunny, with wind and sun, making the daytime work a bit warm.

"Hu Ge, look, the sorghum didn’t freeze to death but even grew so well."

Today was meant for digging. When sowing wheat, they left spaces specifically for interplanting corn and similar crops.

In one or two more months, they could plant corn and sorghum. After the wheat was harvested, soybeans and mung beans could continue being planted.

The following months would be busy with farm work, especially since they had gained an extra acre of rapeseed. They’d have to prepare everything.

In the past half-month of not visiting this area, the sorghum had shot up considerably and even showed signs of appearing the ears.

Jiang Hu pinched the sorghum ear area: "It feels quite full, probably not a low yield."

The second aunt: "This sorghum grows so fast. At this rate, it’ll be ready to harvest in two or three months, right?"

Going by that calculation, this sorghum matures in less than five months, considering last year’s sorghum took over seven months to harvest.

Jiang Hu nodded and thought for a moment: "Second aunt, how about we don’t plant sorghum this year and grow more corn? We could plant this once it’s harvested, what do you say?"

There were only about 20 plants, but if luck was on their side, the seeds they harvested might be sufficient to plant half an acre.

The second aunt had no objections: "I’ll follow your lead. If it works, we might save two months."

If it doesn’t work out, it wouldn’t matter much to them currently. After all, this year, the wheat was growing well, lush green, with even the stalks thicker than before.

Even though the ears hadn’t formed yet, the second aunt firmly believed the harvest would be good.

Little Millet listened to the entire discussion between her parents with great satisfaction.

This was sweet sorghum, a hybrid crop similar to hybrid rice.

The sorghum yields higher and matures quicker, but most importantly, from what she read in books these past few days, the roots and stalks of this sweet sorghum were rich in sugar, as sweet as sugarcane.

But that wasn’t the important part. The crucial thing was that this sorghum stalk might even be able to produce syrup?

If it could be produced on a large scale, sugar might no longer be a rare commodity?

But she was too young to do anything about it or to say much, and fortunately, she had plenty of time to ponder these things.

As for how she knew these things?

Haha, would she admit to having a few small bookstores in her space?