After being jilted, the entire neighboring village was filled with deep regret.

Chapter 115 Spring Ploughing Ends

Shen Yi pretended to lead a few people to the Daxun River to dredge river mud. Su Tai watched over their things by the riverbank. Shen Yi was in charge of dredging, while the villagers were responsible for transporting the mud.

While they were away, Su Tai put the river mud she had dug up from the water dimension into a bucket.

After two days of hard work, we finally managed to irrigate all twenty acres of wasteland with river mud.

Next, I just need to come over every day and turn the soil frequently.

Su Tai would also secretly go to the field to water it from time to time. In half a month, the twenty acres of wasteland were transformed into fertile fields, which looked very pleasing.

Seeing that it was almost done, Su Tai immediately brought out the sprouted malt, peanuts, and soybeans from home and said to Huang Xinghua and the others, "Today is the start of planting. Thank you for your hard work."

Everyone was incredibly envious when they saw the seeds, and someone couldn't help but ask, "Su Tai, can we buy some seeds from you? Don't worry, we'll pay for them."

Su Tai hesitated for a moment before nodding in agreement, "You don't need to pay. You can pay on credit first, and return the grain after the autumn harvest."

"Thank you so much!" Huang Xinghua was overjoyed and rushed towards the wasteland with the seeds in her hands.

The others followed suit and all worked diligently for Su Tai.

Of these twenty acres of wasteland, ten acres are planted with wheat, eight acres with peanuts, and the remaining two acres with soybeans. Wheat is the most troublesome crop, while soybeans and peanuts are planted much faster.

After the people who planted soybeans and peanuts finished their work, they immediately went to help plant wheat sprouts.

It was completed in just one day.

Su Tai paid the last bill and gave everyone a cabbage and coarse flour pancake as a token of her gratitude.

The villagers who had worked received their last payment and some bread, along with the seeds they had borrowed from Su Tai, and left with great gratitude.

Huang Xinghua carried the grain seeds and rushed back to her field. She called over Shen Mu and the children who were working and whispered, "I borrowed some high-yield grain seeds from Su Tai today. Quick, replace the ordinary grain seeds we planted. It's just a matter of working a few more days. We can harvest several hundred more kilograms of grain in the fall!"

Shen Mu's hands trembled as he held the grain seeds. "My dear wife, we really owe you a lot. Wait here, I'll go dig up those grain seeds right now."

He had held out hope, so he marked the places where he planted ordinary wheat, and he always found the right spot every time he dug.

The family of five worked in the fields until dark before returning home.

When they got home, Huang Xinghua took out the cakes from her arms and handed them to the children, her eyes full of love, "You can share them."

"Mom and Dad, eat some too!" The two older children broke the pancakes in half, and the aroma instantly filled the whole house.

The pancake, which had been split in half, was then divided into three portions: one for each of the parents and grandmother, and the remaining portion was for the seven siblings.

Shen Mu's blind mother, Granny Chen, refused to eat, insisting on saving it for her grandchildren. "Grandma hasn't done anything at home, she's not hungry, she doesn't need to eat the pancakes."

"Grandma, everyone gets hungry, please eat," Huang Xinghua's second daughter, Shen Xiang, sensibly advised.

The other children all said they wouldn't eat it.

Seeing this, Huang Xinghua looked pleased and urged, "Mother, please eat. You've worked hard taking care of the children these past few days. Su Tai is very generous; she put a lot of ingredients in the cakes. Try her cooking."

I worked for Shen Yi for sixteen days and saved up a little over half a tael of silver. According to Su Tai, they need to find someone to help with the autumn harvest. They might need to find a few people to help look after the crops. If we are lucky enough to be chosen, we will definitely be able to save some money this year.

Even if we're not chosen, it's alright. We've planted high-yield wheat all over the fields; this year will definitely be a bumper harvest." Touched by Huang Xinghua's vision, Granny Chen's cloudy, lifeless eyes welled with tears. Shen Mu silently wiped them away for her. "Mother, this year our family will definitely get better and better. Eat!"

After hearing these words from her son and daughter-in-law, Granny Chen finally agreed to eat the pancakes.

After seeing the villagers off, Su Tai and Shen Yi began to inspect the farm tools. They found no damage, which made Shen Yi happy for a while.

Su Tai found it amusing. While Shen Yi was collecting farm tools, she went to the kitchen to cook and asked Shen Yi to invite the Shen family over for dinner.

By late March, spring had arrived peacefully, and the earth was covered in green, though it could still get chilly in the evenings.

Su Tai placed the food in the main room.

The Xu family arrived late, their legs and feet still covered in mud, clearly having just returned from the fields.

Su Tai was somewhat surprised, "Second Uncle and Second Aunt haven't finished spring plowing yet?"

Exhausted, Ms. Xu slumped onto a stool, waving her hands repeatedly. "We bought a lot of extra land last year, and it's just the four of us working on it. It's really exhausting! My husband says the weather is bad and it might rain tonight, so we have to rush to plant the rest of the land!"

Seeing this, Su Tai quickly fetched water for them.

They waited until the family of four had washed their hands and feet before eating.

Tonight, Su Tai prepared braised fish, fried egg stewed crucian carp soup, braised pork, pheasant stewed with fresh mushrooms, a large bowl of meat buns, and a bowl of steamed buns.

The Shen family of four were so engrossed in their meal that they didn't even have time to talk.

Especially Shen Liang and Shen Wen, it is said that half-grown boys can eat their fathers out of house and home. These two each ate two large meat buns, two large steamed buns, a large bowl of fish soup, and other dishes. Their appetites were even greater than those of Shen Zhuang.

The group only recovered after they had eaten their fill.

Shen Yi took out a small jar of wine and had a drink with Shen Zhuang and his two sons.

Xu and Su Tai sat down and talked.

"Second Aunt, our spring planting has been successfully completed. However, I will need to hire six or seven people to help us take care of the crops in the fields. Shen Yi and I have observed that Huang Xinghua from Shen Mu's family and the two daughters-in-law from Uncle A Tie's family are quite good. There are also five other people I am quite satisfied with, but we don't need that many people. Could you give me some advice?"

Su Tai named the remaining five people. All the people Xu Shi had chosen were capable of doing the work; now it was just a matter of who was the most suitable.

Xu and Shen took this matter very seriously. The couple carefully analyzed the situation of the five people and finally selected three of them.

Su Tai breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, "Okay! That's them then. I'll have to trouble Second Aunt to go and tell them for me."

“It’s no big deal, I’ll go tomorrow! But you hire people to do all the work in the fields, why are you doing it yourselves?” This question had been bothering Xu for a long time.

Su Tai glanced at Shen Yi and said matter-of-factly, "Shen Yi will naturally disembark and continue doing what he used to do."

Shen Liang spat out all the wine in his mouth, his eyes widening in shock. "Sister-in-law, my cousin only earns eighty coins a day at most for helping people cross the river, but you're paying one hundred and eighty coins a day. That's not worth it at all!"

“There’s not that much! You have to go to the fields every day for spring planting, and then you can go every few days to water and weed. You don’t have to be busy every day, but it still costs several dozen coins a day, which is really not worth it,” Xu Shi calculated.

Su Tai explained, "So I plan to prepare some food and put it on the boat, so that Shen Yi can do some small business while ferrying people across the river. It's definitely much better than being stuck in the ground."

(End of this chapter)