Chapter 76: Super Farm System (42)

Three months passed in a flash.

Overall, the weather this year was favorable, and the Yuewan Brigade's harvest in the second half of the year was quite good!

Ever since the Brigade Leader estimated the per-mu yield of late rice and corn for each Production Team, his brow had smoothed out, and the smile had never faded from his face.

He said to the Scorekeeper who was tallying the per-mu yields: "Later, gather the per-mu yield figures from each Production Team. We'll follow the Commune's lead and select a Labor Model Production Team, and then we'll give a prize to the winning team."

As for what the prize would be, he had already thought it over—

When the Commune Cadre went to the city for a meeting, he had managed to get a batch of towels with minor defects. He had shamelessly wheedled a few of them, so he would just use those as rewards.

Towels! Towels that you couldn't buy with money if you didn't have coupons!

Using these as rewards would be enough to stir up the high spirits of the commune members, right?

The Scorekeeper nodded with a beaming smile: "Don't worry, Brigade Leader. I will definitely tally the tasks for each team's assigned fields clearly. I won't record a single extra point for anyone, nor will I shortchange anyone."

He paused, then let out an "Eh?":

"That's not right! This task field doesn't seem to belong to any Production Team..."

"Yaya ya!" The next second, he grabbed the Brigade Leader in excitement, "That, that, that person! Xiao Xie! Right! That fixed Experimental Field that Educated Youth Xie applied for, it seems incredible! The per-mu yield broke one thousand jin!"

"How much?" The Brigade Leader was stunned, thinking he had misheard.

"One thousand! I couldn't have calculated it wrong! The total area of the Banyue Mountain terraced fields is one mu and seven fen. Because that plot was a fixed Experimental Field applied for by Xiao Xie, no one else has interfered with it from start to finish. It has always been managed by Xiao Xie. When it was taken to the Threshing Floor for weighing, the amount recorded was one thousand seven hundred and sixty jin, so the per-mu yield definitely broke a thousand, right?"

"!!!"

The Brigade Leader couldn't sit still anymore; he took the lead and ran toward the Threshing Floor: "You fellow, really! Such a major event, and you only say it now?"

The Scorekeeper followed behind the Brigade Leader, running wildly while feeling aggrieved: "I just sat down to start tallying! How would I have had time before..."

"In a moment, you re-check it carefully. If Xiao Xie didn't report it wrong and you didn't fill it in wrong, don't count the grain harvested from that field as task grain, and don't distribute it either! Save it for seed! Save it all for seed!"

【Upgraded, upgraded! Oh ho ho ho! I've eaten the benefits of an upgrade again! Host, love you!】

Just as the Yuewan Brigade was welcoming the annual autumn harvest, the Super Farm System also ushered in an upgrade once again.

This time it was an upgrade from level two to level three, and the Black Soil expanded to twenty-five plots!

In the space, the crude Thatched Cottage upgraded into a small farmhouse courtyard with a fence wall.

The Chicken Coop in the corner of the yard also expanded along with it, and two chubby Gugu Birds that couldn't fly even if they wanted to were squatting in the nest laying eggs.

Although the babbling stream didn't expand, the water level was much deeper, and the variety of Fish and Shrimp in the stream seemed to have become richer.

The saltwater pond behind the house had doubled in size; it was now about the size of a standard indoor swimming pool.

As for the wild vegetables, mushrooms, bamboo clumps, peach trees, old grape vines, and so on that Xie Yang had brought into the Farm Space to settle down, they had all expanded their planting areas accordingly—

The bamboo clumps had multiplied into a lush bamboo forest filled with bamboo shoots;

The two peach trees were still just two, but they were much sturdier, and from time to time, peach blossoms drifted onto the surface of the river, creating a very beautiful scene.

Xie Yang looked around with satisfaction: "Xiaomengmeng, didn't I say so? Isn't your space becoming more and more beautiful?"

The Sub-system spun around happily:

【Mm mm mm! The Host truly has great wisdom! I will listen to you from now on! Whatever else you want to bring in, just go ahead; I will help you simulate their growth environment! I want to become the most beautiful, richest, and most outstanding existence among my kind! Yabi!】

Main System: 【...】

Too painful to watch!

Xie Yang suppressed a laugh, praised the Sub-system a few times, and then went out.

Today the Brigade was tallying the harvest, and she guessed the Brigade Leader would look for her.

Sure enough, not long after she came out, she heard someone calling her from the direction of the foot of the mountain: "Xiao Xie! Educated Youth Xie! Are you on the mountain?"

"I'm here!"

Xie Yang responded from afar, picked up a bundle of dead branches and firewood she had gathered, and went down.

Waiting for her at the foot of the mountain was the Scorekeeper.

However, the Brigade Leader had also come; while waiting for her, he had taken the opportunity to go to the Pig Pen to take a look.

He saw that Song Shuhe and his granddaughter were raising those five wild boars very sturdily; their long black bristles were shiny and bright, and each one was plump and strong.

It was only October now, and according to this trend, by the eighteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, the day for slaughtering the New Year pig, these five pigs could bring at least three thousand jin of meat to the Yuewan Brigade!

Incredible!

The Brigade Leader beamed with joy and praised the grandfather and granddaughter repeatedly: "Not bad, not bad! You two are very diligent! The Pig Pen is also cleaned very thoroughly! Don't worry! When I go to the Commune for a meeting at the end of the year, I will definitely report your reform achievements truthfully!"

Song Shuhe smiled and thanked the Brigade Leader.

Song Mingyu pursed her lips, wanting to say that all of this was actually the credit of Educated Youth Xie.

She taught them how to make the pigs eat more, sleep soundly, and gain weight every day; it was also she who taught them how to keep the pigs healthy and free from illness.

But she was unwilling to take the credit; every time she finished teaching them, she would add a reminder: "Don't tell anyone outside that I taught you."

"Grandpa, why doesn't Sister Xie let others know? Isn't it a good thing if they know? If she gets more exposure, maybe in the future when the Brigade has quotas for returning to the city or spots for worker-peasant-soldier students, they might recommend her."

Song Shuhe smiled and said: "You are not the fish, how can you know the joy of the fish?"

"..."

Song Mingyu sighed with an air of old-fashioned maturity: "Forget it, I'd better go pick up stones! Sister Xie promised me she would come to the foot of Banyue Mountain to build a house; how can we build it without stones?"

"..."

Over there, Xie Yang led the Brigade Leader up to the Banyue Mountain terraced fields and pointed out the dark, brownish-black soil that was different from ordinary mountain soil: "Brigade Leader, this is the secret to the thousand-jin per-mu yield."

"You mean this soil?"

"Right! Originally, the soil in this terraced field was similar to other mountain land—yellowish in color and with average fertility. I mixed in the charred black soil from the mountain after a fire, and used bird droppings and the caked pig manure swept out from the wild boar pen to compost it, raising the soil fertility of the terraced field to its best, which is why we have today's harvest. However..."

She paused: "The charred black soil can only be scraped from the top layer, so I'm afraid it might be a bit difficult to cover all the farmland in our Brigade. However, the batch of seeds grown in the Experimental Field are all plump, so they can be kept as rice seeds, and I don't think the yield will be bad."

"Good! Good!" The Brigade Leader clapped his hands in excitement, then patted Xie Yang on the shoulder, "Xiao Xie, you have performed a great service for our Brigade! I must give you a reward later!"

Xie Yang smiled: "Then I'll trouble the Brigade Leader to approve a plot of residential land for me at the foot of Banyue Mountain. I want to build a house myself and move out to live there, so it will be more convenient for work in the future."

The Brigade Leader hadn't said anything yet, but the Scorekeeper was so moved that their voice choked up:

"Educated Youth Xie, you truly are a selfless and noble Educated Youth! To help our brigade increase grain production, you would actually go so far as to abandon the convenient conditions of the Youth Hostel and move to the foot of this godforsaken Banyue Mountain. You are truly too great! It makes us commune members feel so ashamed!"

"..."