Planting Red Seedlings, Jiang Yuqing also told her old dad that she wanted to plant watermelons.
Jiang's dad didn't say anything and just agreed, and even asked her how many acres she wanted to plant. Jiang Yuqing thought about it and held up two chubby fingers.
Jiang Wenyuan was stunned for a moment: "Twenty acres? That's fine too!" Thinking of the big and sweet watermelons, Jiang Wenyuan unconsciously swallowed his saliva.
With his precious daughter's skills, she should be able to grow them, right? If it really doesn't work... just treat it as fertilizing the land!
Jiang Yuqing opened her mouth, barely swallowing the exclamation that had reached her lips.
She had only wanted to plant two acres at first, but her dad seemed to have more confidence than her.
So Jiang Yuqing decided that she must not disappoint her father's trust in her. This wonderful misunderstanding was how it came about.
Under Jiang Wenyuan's instructions, the Jiang family prepared the twenty-three acres of sandy land adjacent to the Qing River with sufficient base fertilizer. After leveling it, they planted Jiang Yuqing's watermelon seeds that had been soaked in spiritual spring water.
To keep the watermelons warm and moist, they also covered them with a layer of translucent oilcloth. After the watermelons sprouted, they would manually peel it open. Although it was more expensive, there was no other way.
As for the thousand-acre large manor rewarded by His Majesty the Emperor, it was five li north of the county seat, right next to the official road, with an extremely superior geographical location.
It was originally a private property of an official. After that official got into trouble and had his assets seized, this place was nationalized. Now it belonged to the Jiang family.
The manor totaled one thousand and seventy-six acres, all good fields. There was a small courtyard with a well that could be used by the steward living there to watch over the manor.
Farmers always have a special affection for land. Therefore, Old Man Jiang had already come to take a look with his sons before the Lantern Festival.
Old Man Jiang happily said that this good land must be planted with rice. The lady master immediately said that she would provide the seeds.
The rice in the Spiritual Realm were all high-quality conventional varieties, with stable genetics, not only high-yielding, but could also be self-propagating. The yield of this rice in the Spiritual Realm was about 1,000 kg per acre, slightly higher than that of large-scale cultivation of hybrid rice in the previous world.
Taken out of the Spiritual Realm for cultivation, affected by the planting environment, Jiang Yuqing did not dare to guarantee the yield per acre. Even if it was only 500-600 kg/acre, it would still be much stronger than the rice varieties of this era.
Jiang's elders already knew of her supernatural abilities, and were not surprised at all, not even by the sweet potatoes she brought out from the "fairy world".
Therefore, when they saw the plump and robust grains suddenly appearing in their precious granddaughter's little palm, Old Man Jiang immediately decided to use the rice seeds provided by his granddaughter.
The manor originally had tenant farmers. They were all refugees who had fled from other places in previous years. After the original owner's family was investigated and had their assets seized, the manor was nationalized. The incumbent county magistrate Qin Jue was not very good at dealing with these mundane affairs either, so he just collected land rent according to the original number and turned it in to the state treasury.
With his daughter providing seeds, Jiang Wenyuan wanted to turn this place into another quality seed base, so he naturally would not rent out the fields to tenants again. But this way, the tenant farmers who made a living by sharecropping would inevitably lose their livelihoods.
Jiang Wenyuan would never do such an unethical thing that cut off people's livelihoods.
Therefore, after discussing with the original tenant farmers, he changed the tenancy to an employment relationship. Each person would be paid five taels of silver per year, rest one day per month, and be hired to help manage the fields.
In other words, they would be long-term workers.
But this wage was already the highest in Qingzhou County. The highest-paid yamen runners also only got 7 taels of silver.
Considering their family circumstances, with wives and children relying on them for food, Jiang Wenyuan promised to pay them half the silver in advance after starting work, and the rest would be paid out together after the autumn harvest.
The tenant farmers counted on their fingers, five taels of silver per person, if two people from a family worked, that would be ten taels of silver. This price was sky-high in Qingzhou. The sturdy men working on the docks outside the city made at most thirty coins a day working themselves to death.
And they didn't need to pay food taxes either. They only needed to come to work as instructed every day, which could be considered drought-flood proof income. As long as there were no accidents midway, after deducting money for food, they could at least save five taels of silver.
Moreover, this was a manor awarded by His Majesty the Emperor to the county magistrate, the Count of Qingzhou. The credibility was guaranteed. Only a fool would turn down such a good deal.
After settling this matter, Jiang Wenyuan brought in Yang Tiesuo's family to be the steward. Not only was Yang Tiesuo a good hand at farming, the couple could both read and write, and it would be a waste not to have them manage things.
Jiang Yuqing’s second birthday was only a few days away. Because he had missed his precious daughter’s first birthday due to the exam, Jiang Wenyuan regretted it very much. He absolutely did not want to miss it this year no matter what.
He had originally wanted to find a nice, small horse as a birthday gift for his daughter to ride.
This kind of horse was short in stature, gentle in temperament, and had good endurance. It would be perfect as a mount for his precious daughter. But after searching for a long time, he couldn’t find a suitable one, and was quite puzzled.
Just as he was racking his brains about choosing a birthday present for his daughter, Jiang Yuqing received a package sent from Beijing. The courier said he would stay in Qingzhou for two days. If she needed to send a reply, she could have someone go to the Yongfu Inn to find him.
The package contained two wooden boxes. One contained a whole set of pink pearl hairpins and ornaments, including pearl flowers, headband, earrings, necklace, bracelets, etc., more than ten pieces in all, just right for a little girl. The other contained a small gold seal engraved with her zodiac animal.
In addition, there was a letter at the bottom of the box. Although the handwriting was a little childish, it already had quite some style. This was from little Jing Yan sending her a gift.
The letter said that he was doing very well in Beijing, and missed the happy times in Qingzhou very much, and also liked the gifts she had given him very much.
The other box was from Li Deshun.
It contained a kingfisher bloodstone carved ruyi cloud pattern filigree necklace inlaid with jade. Her name was engraved on the inside of the necklace, clearly custom-made.
Not to mention the value, just the thoughtfulness of the old man was precious.
Thinking that the courier was still waiting for her reply at the inn in the city, she quickly found a pencil in the clinic office and started writing back.
Her hands were small, and holding a pen was difficult, writing was very laborious, and the speed was slow too. It took more than an hour before she finally finished the two letters that did not contain many words. She then asked her dad to find two boxes for her.
The box for Jing Yan still contained ten peeled candies on sticks, a box of bear cookies with the packaging removed. After thinking about it, she also put in a wooden Rubik's cube. Little boys would all like this, right?
As for Li Deshun's gift, she had originally wanted to give him medicinal plasters. But then she remembered that when he left after the New Year, she had given him a full fifty plasters. Even if his joint inflammation flared up again, it wouldn't run out so quickly.
Since Li Deshun liked tea, she simply put in a pack of top-grade Tieguanyin instead. It was fine to shear the hospital director’s sheep.
No wait, it was all hers now.
After packing the gifts and letters properly, she asked her dad to take them to the courier. The little dumpling clapped her hands and turned to run to the vegetable garden behind.
At this time, the vegetable garden contained all kinds of vegetables, including napa cabbage, bok choy, asparagus, garlic, celery, chives, spinach, radish, and even out-of-season string beans, cucumbers, peppers and eggplants.
They were all nurtured by Jiang Yuqing's abilities and the aura of the spiritual spring. Not only was the taste particularly good, long-term consumption also had the effect of strengthening the body, prolonging life and anti-aging.
Therefore, the Jiang family had been spoiled with the taste. After eating the homegrown vegetables, the ones bought from outside just didn't taste the same anymore.
The little dumpling was also diligent, running to the vegetable garden every day. There were so many vegetables they couldn't finish eating, and she really couldn't bear to sell the excess. The extra were given to relatives’ families.
For example, the Lin and Lu families on her mother’s side, while the Zhu family on her mother’s uncle’s side grew enough vegetables for themselves, so they didn't need others to give them any.
In addition to the vegetable garden in the backyard, Jiang Yuqing now also had melon fields to go to.
The melon fields were not actually very far from home, but the little dumpling was short and had short legs, so it was quite difficult for her to walk there.
Every time she went, she had to be carried by someone, which was quite inconvenient. She was thinking about whether to ask her dad to buy her a donkey to get around. However, when she only lightly mentioned it, her dad immediately rejected it.
The reason was quite bizarre. He said donkeys were too ugly and did not match her temperament.
Her dad’s brain circuits really left Jiang Yuqing quite speechless.
Her dad was so against it because he had suffered losses from donkeys when he was young.
At the very beginning, the stubborn donkey was rejected by Jiang's father.
Finally, it was March 20th. Jiang Yuqing's second birthday. It was a 10-day break from work.
Today, the birthday girl Jiang Yuqing was dressed up like a blossoming blue snowflake, just like the ones along the fence of her home.
On top of her little "snail feelers" she wore a pair of palace flowers. She wore a pink and blue mandarin jacket with butterfly and flower embroidery on the top pink portion.
The lower skirt portion had a pink satin base overlaid with a layer of pink gauze embroidered with small pink flowers, matching the top. On her feet were a pair of embroidered pink satin shoes.
Around her neck she wore a gold filigree agate bat pendant necklace gifted by Li Deshun. Her chubby little hands were adorned with a pair of gold bracelets cast with her zodiac animal.
Jiang Yuqing looked at herself in the mirror and felt she looked "rich and imposing." At least she didn't look bad.
It was just a family birthday celebration behind closed doors, so dressing up so grandly was really unnecessary. But the elders didn't think so.
They felt that little girls should be dressed up prettily. Moreover, their own child was so beautiful, not dressing her up would be a waste.
In the end, Jiang's father was unable to find a nice little horse, and could only regretfully give his darling daughter a miniature calligraphy set as a birthday present.
Jiang Yuqing's seven brothers mysteriously carried in a large cage covered with a red velvet cloth, saying it was a gift for their sister. And they asked Jiang Yuqing herself to uncover it.
Jiang Yuqing raised her eyebrows. No wonder the brothers had been acting so mysteriously these past few days, it turned out they were preparing a gift for her. Since it was in a cage, it must be some cute little animal.
Even the elders were curious what was under the cloth.
Jiang Yuqing didn't keep everyone waiting too long. She went to the cage and lifted the cloth, revealing a fluffy white cat with black stripes inside.
The sudden light startled the cat, which abruptly lifted its big head with a "Meow!" and slapped the cage with its paw, making the cage rattle.
Jiang Wenyuan's face changed drastically. He shouted "Tiger, danger!" and rushed out to grab his daughter into his arms, his heart pounding as if about to leap out of his chest.
The others also reacted, quickly taking the children away.
It turned out this was not a cat at all, but a whitened young tiger!
