Chapter 161: Live Broadcast from the Heavenly Palace (36)

Shanqian Village, Yushun Town, Nanzhou Prefecture, Daliang.

"One shi, two shi, three shi... twenty shi!"

"Village Chief! One mu of land yielded a full twenty shi of mountain eggs!"

"How much?"

The Village Chief's hand, stroking his graying beard, trembled with excitement.

He used his pinky to clear his ear, thinking earwax had blocked his canal and caused an auditory hallucination.

"Twenty shi!"

"Exactly twenty shi, not a bit more or less!"

The villagers were overjoyed.

"It seems the Compost Method from the Heavenly Palace really works!"

"Need you say it! The Heavenly Palace can grow high-yield crops of forty or fifty shi; our twenty shi is nothing compared to that."

"You can't say it like that. The mountain eggs we used were dug up from the mountains and didn't go through what the Little Marquis called... Seed Screening! That's right, we didn't screen the seeds; we planted the good and the bad together. Twenty shi is a pretty good harvest."

"If we hadn't planted them all, where would this twenty-shi harvest come from? We searched the entire mountain just to dig up that one basket of mountain eggs."

"You're still not satisfied with twenty shi? I'd be grinning in my sleep! If I hadn't heard the people from the Heavenly Palace say you could cut them into one-inch square pieces and leave two buds on each to use as seeds, that basket of mountain eggs might have already been in our bellies."

"..."

Shanqian Village backed against a large mountain, and the villagers lived off the mountain; the mountain eggs were something they had discovered in the hills.

That was after a hunter claimed to have found Sweet Potato in the mountains, and the Village Chief gathered all the able-bodied laborers to go into the mountains to search for them.

They looked similar to the Potato the Heavenly Palace people talked about, just smaller in size and with darker skin than the ones from the Heavenly Palace.

But what if they were "Potato"?

Just as people come in different colors and sizes, perhaps potatoes were the same.

So, when the Little Marquis followed the staff to learn how to grow potatoes, they copied him step by step—cutting them, leaving the buds, burying them in the soil... they followed suit and planted the mountain eggs in the fields.

Because they had only dug up one basket, they didn't separate them beforehand but planted them all together, which happened to fill about one mu of land.

Today, seeing the potatoes planted by the Little Marquis and the Princess being harvested, they happily ran to the fields and dug out the mountain eggs.

The Little Marquis and the Princess planted less than half a mu of land and harvested about two hundred catties of potatoes.

They planted one mu of mountain eggs and harvested twenty shi!

It couldn't compare to the Heavenly Palace's harvest, but it far exceeded their previous yields!

It was even higher than the yield of a bumper year with perfect weather!

"Good, good, good!"

The Village Chief was moved to tears!

"Now, distribute the grain according to the proportions everyone contributed! Once it's divided, go home and have a full meal!"

The villagers were about to cheer when they suddenly heard the sound of horse hooves.

Everyone looked up and saw a team of officials dressed in flying-fish robes with swords at their waists leap off their halted horses and stride toward them.

"I heard you discovered a grain crop here similar to a potato? It was harvested today, and the yield reached twenty shi? Is this true?"

The villagers: "..."

Did they dare to lie?

The baskets full of mountain eggs were still sitting at the edge of the field.

Which unreliable scoundrel had leaked this news?

"Achoo!"

The Village Chief's five-year-old grandson sniffled and looked up at the Village Chief:

"Grandpa! The Little Marquis is already eating the Potato Feast his aunt made! When can we divide the mountain eggs and eat our fill? I'm hungry! Grandpa, didn't you say the mountain eggs had a bumper harvest? Can you let Grandma make a mountain egg feast for me to eat?"

Case closed!

The Captain of the Guards rewarded the Village Chief with one hundred taels of Silver, then took nineteen shi of mountain eggs and rushed to Jingcheng overnight.

The villagers of Shanqian Village looked at the ten gleaming ingots of snow-white Silver in the Village Chief's hands, then at the single basket of mountain eggs left at the edge of the field for spring planting, not knowing whether to cry or laugh.

The wish to eat a full meal of mountain eggs would not be realized today.

But every household received a sum of money, and using it to buy grain and meat would allow Shanqian Village to have a collective, bountiful New Year!

"Auntie, are these all dishes and rice made from potatoes? They look so pretty!"

"That's right! These are the fruits of Jinbao and Linbao's hard work, and Auntie has turned them into the most delicious food. Are you happy?"

"Happy!"

"Then let's toast first." Xie Yang took the lead in raising a cup filled with warm Corn juice and said with a smile, "To celebrate the big Potato harvest that the two babies planted and prepared themselves!"

"Cheers!"

The two children grinned and vied to raise their little chubby cups.

The aunt and the two children took a sip of Corn juice, then picked up their chopsticks and started on the table full of Potato delicacies!

At the corner of the table, the ragdoll cat, whose fur was kept sleek and shiny, buried its head in eating Potato Mash made with pure milk.

"The French Fries are so crispy!"

"The Baked Potato is so fragrant!"

"The Potato Stewed Chicken is so yummy!"

"The Potato Beef Brisket is the best!"

"Auntie, what is this?"

"This is a Cheese Potato Pancake. It's made similarly to a Corn Pancake. Try it and see which one tastes better."

"It's all delicious! Jinbao loves eating Potato so much!"

Xie Jilin nodded upon hearing this: "I love eating them too. Aunt, let's continue planting Potato next spring!"

"..."

Before bed, Nuo Nuo Ma made a video call to Xie Yang, her face full of helplessness:

"If I had known, I would have gone to harvest Potato with you all today. I originally thought since it was the last weekend, I'd accompany him to review and cram a bit. As a result, the brat's bottom seemed to have thorns in it; he couldn't sit still at all. It got to the point where the homework assigned by the teacher isn't finished yet, let alone the study plan at home. It made me so angry my liver hurts."

"Forget it, forget it, enough about me. How about you? How was today? Was the Potato harvest alright?"

Upon learning they had harvested two hundred jin, Nuo Nuo Ma was incredibly surprised: "From such a small plot of land, you harvested two hundred jin of Potato? That's impressive!"

"Mom, who is it? Who harvested two hundred jin of Potato?" The sharp-eared Feng Zinuo pushed the door open and ran in, "Who are you talking to on the phone? Oh! Is it Aunt Linbao? Does that mean the Potato at Linbao's house have been harvested? Mom, Mom, I want to go harvest too! I want to harvest Potato! I want to harvest Potato!"

"..."

Nuo Nuo Ma was stunned!

In order to get a good night's sleep on time tonight, she had no choice but to promise her son that if he could get up before 7:30 tomorrow morning, she would take him to the vegetable garden to harvest Potato.

If she had known it would come to this, she might as well have gone to harvest with Xie Yang and her nephew and niece today.

Nuo Nuo Ma has Nuo Nuo Ma's troubles, and Xie Yang has Xie Yang's worries.

She was fretting over the mountain of Potato piled up in the kitchen.

It wasn't that she was worried they wouldn't keep, but rather—

With so many, when would they ever finish eating them?

Could it be that for the next few months, they really had to have Potato at every meal?

After thinking about it, she found a large black plastic bag and started loading Potato into it.

"Aunt?"

The brother and sister had finished washing up, and not seeing Xie Yang in the bedroom, they found her in the kitchen.

Xie Yang felt a little guilty: "Ahem, aren't we going to your Great-Uncle's place for the New Year? If we bring them some Potato you grew yourselves, they will definitely be very happy."

"Great! Great! Jinbao will help pack them."

Xie Jilin felt a little anxious inside.

He was happy to send Potato to Great-Uncle and the others, but wouldn't Aunt be packing too many?

His little brain spun frantically, and he finally came up with a win-win solution:

It didn't matter if they sent more Potato to Great-Uncle and the others; he would work hard in the spring to grow even more Potato than this time, which would also help relieve the pressure on Aunt.

Yes, that's what he would do!