Courtyard House: Rebirth of a Shopkeeper in 1937

After the Gui Army passed through, the atmosphere in the village quietly changed. The villagers no longer focused solely on the harvest from their own few acres of land; instead, they all turned their attention to the land on both sides of the newly built road. As more and more soldiers and travelers passed by, land prices around the road quietly rose. This change did not escape the notice of the Long family; their gazes towards the nearly two-tenths of an acre of land in front of the shop gradually turned to regret and resentment.

In the village's threshing grounds and similar places, villagers often gather to chat, and the topic invariably revolves around the fluctuating land prices: "Dawei is really lucky! He just bought that plot of land by the roadside from the Long family a while ago, and the price has already gone up! If he had bought it two months later, he would have had to spend at least an extra dollar!" The discussions contained undisguised envy, along with a hint of optimism about the future value of their own land. Those villagers who were financially well-off and owned land by the roadside were already starting to think about building houses. These past few days, their parents had repeatedly told their children not to mention their land purchase to outsiders. Although they had paid a high price initially, they had actually gotten a good deal, and talking about it everywhere would inevitably make them unpopular.

The newly built road is almost finished; only the sections for clearing the mountain and building the bridge still need some time. The bamboo shelter no longer needs water for the villagers working on the road construction; now that everyone uses the new road, the shelter can't just sit idle. It's still drafty and has no walls, so we need to think of ways to utilize it as soon as possible to avoid waste. Xingbao found a moment to share this idea with his father.

That morning, during recess, the siblings were artificially pollinating rice in the experimental field. Their classmates gathered around the edge of the field to watch—they had never seen anything like it before. Even passing villagers who saw them simply smiled indifferently, thinking it was unnecessary.

At lunchtime, the news somehow reached my grandfather's ears. He deliberately sat at the counter of the kitchen and waited. When he saw Xingbao, Guixiang, and the others coming out of the backyard, he quickly waved to them, "Xingbao, Guixiang, come here quickly, Grandpa has something to ask you."

The siblings rushed over, chattering excitedly, "Grandpa, please feel free to ask us anything!"

Grandpa gathered his thoughts and slowly said, "Today I heard someone say that you're doing some kind of artificial pollination for the rice seedlings in the fields. Tell Grandpa, what exactly is going on? What's the purpose?"

Gui Xiang answered first: "Grandpa, Grandpa, I know! Xingbao said there are too few rice seedlings in our experimental field, and the rice flowers are too small. He was worried that some flowers wouldn't be pollinated, so he did artificial pollination so that we could harvest more rice!"

Grandpa stroked his beard, pondered for a moment, and asked, "So, does that mean the rice seedlings in Grandpa's field also need to be manually pollinated?"

Upon hearing this, Gui Xiang quickly turned to look at Xing Bao and his two older brothers. Xing Bao had a sudden inspiration, thinking this was a good opportunity to promote artificial pollination, and hurriedly asked, "Grandpa, how much chaff do you harvest in your rice every year? If so, we can try artificial pollination."

Upon hearing this, Grandpa's eyes immediately lit up: "A lot! Of course there's a lot! It's heartbreaking to see so much chaff mixed in with the perfectly good rice after harvest; in the end, we can only feed it to the pigs. Tell Grandpa, how do you do artificial pollination? Is it difficult? Grandpa wants to try!"

Xingbao was a little proud and said loudly, "Grandpa, this method is not difficult at all! You just need to take two sticks and gently press down on the rice seedlings. But you have to be careful, you can only do it in the morning, and not too early. The exact time to start depends on how well the rice is heading in your field."

"They've started heading a few days ago!" Grandpa knew the growth of the rice seedlings in his field like the back of his hand.

At this point, the eldest brother suggested, "Let's go take a look at Grandpa's field now!"

The siblings all turned to look at their father. He looked at them with a hint of exasperation and said irritably, "Why are you looking at me? Do I need to agree to let you help? But Xingbao and Guixiang, you two better be careful not to slip and fall into the field."

The nearest paddy field to Grandpa's house was just across the road, on the other side of the bamboo shed. The group arrived quickly. Xingbao was short and could only see the rice seedlings at the edge of the field, and there weren't many ears yet. To be on the safe side, Xingbao had his older brother lift him up every now and then to check on the seedlings. Grandpa's paddy field was a little over two mu but less than three mu, divided into eight sections along the riverbank, not clustered together. Guixiang was initially jumping around on the ridges, almost slipping twice, but luckily her older brother, who was following behind to protect her, caught her in time, and she calmed down and joined everyone in checking on the growth of the rice seedlings.

It was already noon. Everyone had rushed out without even putting on their straw hats, and the steam rising from the fields made it feel like a giant steamer; soon everyone was drenched in sweat. By the time they finished inspecting all the rice paddies and returned to the kitchen, almost half an hour had passed. Mother, heavily pregnant, had already prepared water and was waiting under the eaves with several washcloths in her hand. The siblings, who had originally intended to cool off in the bamboo shed, rushed across the corridor and happily took the cloths from Mother to wipe their faces. Brother Dashan and Sister Shanshan also carried the food directly to the eaves. As they ate and chatted, Xingbao spoke first: "Grandpa, the rice in your fields hasn't headed enough yet; we'll have to wait another two or three days before we can artificially pollinate it."

The eldest brother felt this was a good opportunity to put his knowledge into practice, so he volunteered: "Grandpa, I'll take my younger siblings to the fields these next few days to keep an eye on things. Once the conditions for artificial pollination are met, I'll take all the students over to take a look."

Grandpa nodded: "Okay, I'm relieved to have you all keeping an eye on things for me."

The second brother chimed in at this point, "Grandpa, I see that all the rice seedlings in Fugui and Xuewen's fields have already sprouted ears. Aren't ours a bit too late?"

After Second Brother finished speaking, the table fell silent. Second Brother really had to bring up the very thing he didn't want to say! Seeing the heavy atmosphere, Xingbao said softly, "How about we let Black Charcoal try plowing next spring? I've noticed it's gotten quite strong these past few days!" To get Snowball and Black Charcoal up to guard the house and pull carts as soon as possible, Xingbao had been feeding them plenty of spiritual spring water. Now, these two little guys were very clever; they hadn't grown much taller, but their strength was already far greater than when they were first weaned.

Grandpa's eyes lit up, then dimmed again: "Blackie is still too young, let's raise him for another year."

Knowing Blackie's actual situation, Dad quickly chimed in, "Why don't we get the plow ready first, and let Blackie try it next spring? The sooner we teach it to plow, the less flustered we'll be later."

"Alright, let's do it that way. I'll take care of buying the plow." Grandpa made the final decision, and that's how it was settled that Charcoal would "help with the work"!