Chapter 548: The villagers' hundred images upon hearing the news

When the tractor "putt-putt-putt" drove back to the village, many people who were paying attention to this side heard it.

Those with ordinary relationships were still embarrassed to go to the door now. After all, people had just returned from selling melon seeds in Shicheng, and if you went to the door to ask, it would be too urgent and utilitarian, right?

Anyway, there were always those who were more anxious, and those with closer relationships, so listening to these spread was fine.

For example, Lu Lu Dasao.

Liang Yumei, Du Chunfang, and Chen Li Rong were all pressing the last bit of Da-melon seeds in the courtyard, the warped ones that had been specially picked out.

The others were drying in the front courtyard, and Chen Li Rong had to go over to check from time to time, not to prevent thieves, mainly to chase away chickens and birds. No one dared to steal things in people's courtyards in broad daylight. If discovered, they would be beaten, and no one would pursue it even if they were beaten to death.

This was different from later generations.

It could only be said that slowly, the world was different.

So Li Long saw in later generations videos saying that people stole things in other people's houses, fell and died, and then asked the host to compensate and then sued in court.

The court could even accept such cases? It really felt a bit ridiculous.

The most disgusting thing was that even if the host was not responsible, they still had to compensate a certain amount of money for humanitarian reasons.

Wasn't this encouraging those immoral people to do evil?

The tractor drove back to the courtyard, Li Qing Xia and Li Jianguo got off, and Li Long turned off the engine and got off.

He planned to rest for a while, and then drive the tractor back to the county. Anyway, it would take a day or two for the remaining melon seeds to dry, so there was no rush to go to Shicheng.

Lu Lu Dasao rushed over from across the street.

"Uncle, your melon seeds are sold out? How was it?" Lu Lu Dasao was preparing to grow Da-melons, but following was following, the price still had to be asked. If it was asked clearly, there would be a bottom line next year.

"Two point eight!" Li Jianguo's voice was very loud. He had discussed it with Li Long on the way, and what should be said had to be said. Anyway, this matter could withstand inspection. Yuan Guomin also said that their roasted snack factory collected quite a few Da-melon seeds, and tons or even more than ten tons were not a problem.

So if there were many people in the team growing it, the sales channel was no problem.

But Li Long also reminded Li Jianguo that this thing didn't have to be pushed to others to grow. Why? Pushing is not a business.

This thing itself was a niche agricultural product. If grown on a large scale, the price would really be suppressed. So Li Long's intention was to leave about one or two hundred kilograms as seeds, leave some for Liang Donglou's side, distribute some to those with good relationships, and leave some for his own family.

As for others, if they were early, they could sell some. If they were late, they could only say sorry.

"So high? Then your family's land harvests one hundred to two hundred kilograms of melon seeds per mu, wouldn't it be five hundred-plus yuan per mu? That's equal to ten-plus mu of wheat!"

There was a reason why Lu Lu Dasao was so surprised.

Not to mention this era, even if it was put three or four decades later, if the country had no subsidies for growing grain, the net income would really not be much money.

But the bowl had to be held in one's own hands. The country's plan was very clear. Even if the price of grain was low, it had to encourage farmers to grow it and give subsidies.

After all, they had been pitted by the four major grain merchants in the world, and the lesson of the soybean incident was profound.

But farmers still hoped that farming would be more profitable. That's why Lu Lu Dasao was so surprised. The income of one mu of land was more than what many families earned in a whole year!

Li Jianguo laughed.

Liang Yumei was also surprised. The tractor had just arrived in the courtyard, and she hadn't had time to ask about the melon seeds, but Lu Lu Dasao had asked.

Chen Li Rong was also full of surprise. Although the situation of farming in her hometown was different from that in the North Frontier, the fact that growing grain didn't have much profit was the same.

One mu of land harvests five hundred-plus yuan! Chen Li Rong had also learned intermittently from Liang Yumei during this period that growing Da-melons had a certain investment. Seeds were expensive, seeders had to be bought by themselves, and later, if Da-melons had diseases or insects, they had to be sprayed with medicine, and later, pressing melon seeds had to hire people, etc.

With such a large investment, she was also worried about whether these melon seeds could be sold. After all, she had lived here for so long and had feelings. It was a lie to say she wasn't worried.

Now that she heard these melon seeds sold so expensively, she was also a bit surprised while happy.

If her family was in this team, it would be good to grow some Da-melons in addition to growing grain.

The income of one mu of land was more than half a year's salary of her husband!

Du Chunfang was not particularly surprised. She blindly believed in Li Long. Growing Da-melons was Li Long's idea, the seeds were Li Long's, the seeder was Li Long's, and Li Long also went to Wucheng to ask the professor about how to manage and cure diseases.

Now that the yield of Da-melons had come up and the selling price was so high, what did this mean? It meant her youngest son was really powerful!

Du Chunfang looked at Li Long, then at the Da-melon seeds pressed under the board, and smiled with her mouth open.

"Then weigh ten mu of seeds for my family, I'll let Lu Tie Tou's dad send the money over later!" Lu Lu Dasao made the decision directly.

Liang Yumei smiled and asked:

"Then growing so much, don't you discuss it with Lu Tie Tou's dad?"

"Discuss what? Discuss back and forth, then don't grow the land? Our family doesn't do that! Your family grows well, so our family follows! Unlike some people, doubting this and doubting that, they can't even catch up to the hot shit!"

"Hahahaha!" Lu Lu Dasao spoke vulgarly, and everyone laughed. Liang Yumei went to get the scale plate, and Li Jianguo went to weigh the dried melon seeds.

Lu Lu Dasao asked again:

"Then how do you sell your melon seeds as seeds?"

"Three yuan," Li Jianguo said.

Selling for two point eight in Shicheng was because he took the initiative to find them, and the tractor fuel fee had to be calculated. Selling at home, it was three yuan, which was the unified price discussed with Li Long.

"Alright." Lu Lu Dasao didn't bargain, this thing was not easy to bargain.

She didn't know very well, but Li Long and Li Jianguo knew that these seeds were the only one at present.

The kind that you take it or leave it.

Lu Lu Dasao took the seeds back, and Lu Yingming soon sent the money over. In this day and age, every family had some surplus money, so this money couldn't be owed.

Next, Tao Jian She came to weigh ten mu of seeds and gave the cash.

He also chatted with Li Jianguo for a few words:

"I originally planned to grow five mu, but Dayong didn't want to, saying at least ten mu. I thought it was fine to grow well, and if I didn't understand, I would come over to ask you.

The seeds are not easy to scoop when harvesting Da-melons. Dayong said to learn from your family. He originally wanted to come himself, but his wife is about to give birth in these two days, so he didn't dare to come."

Liang Dacheng also came to weigh ten mu of seeds.

Maybe because Li Jianguo's family grew ten mu of land this year, everyone defaulted to ten mu as the main one.

Anyway, there was quite a lot of land in each family. In addition to the ration land, there was also some contracted land. The task of handing over public grain and the requirement of eating enough fine grain could be completed by the ration land, so what was the contracted land used for?

Wasn't it to earn money?

Just these few families took away more than half of the seeds Li Long suggested Li Jianguo reserve.

Next, the Da-melon seeds were dried. Li Long drove the tractor, took Li Qing Xia and Li Jianguo, and another forty or fifty kilograms of fish to Shicheng again.

Sure enough, there weren't so many fish when setting nets again.

Yuan Guomin, the raw material section chief of the roasted snack factory, didn't break his promise. He

By the time they returned from Shicheng, Jia Weidong had come over to buy seeds for five mu of watermelon, followed by Xu Chengjun and Xie Yun Dong, who each bought seeds for five mu as well.

The Li family only had about ten kilograms of seeds left.

Ma Jinbao actually came running over, too.

Li Long wasn't there, but Li Jianguo was at home.

"Old Li, I heard your watermelon seeds are selling for two point eight yuan per kilogram?" Ma Jinbao looked like he didn't believe it.

"That's right," Li Jianguo said while tidying up the shriveled seeds. There weren't many such seeds, and it wasn't worth using a wooden shovel to winnow them, nor was there suitable wind, so he was using a winnowing basket to toss the seeds and sift out the completely shriveled ones.

"Heh, such a high price... is it fake?" When Ma Jinbao heard this news, his first instinct was that the Li family was lying just to sell their own watermelon seeds.

"How could that be fake?" Hearing Ma Jinbao's words, Li Jianguo wasn't angry at all. This person was just like that; if he really took it seriously and started arguing with him, it would just prove Li Long's point.

Lowering one's own intelligence to match his—wouldn't that make one a fool?

"I heard your seeds are selling for three yuan? There's hardly anyone buying them now, right? How about selling me ten kilograms for one yuan?" Ma Jinbao was thick-skinned, so it wasn't surprising he would say such things.

"Not for sale." Li Jianguo's tone was very flat. At this moment, he felt more and more that the things his younger brother Li Long usually said were very reasonable.

For people like this, one should just treat them like a fart and leave them be. Otherwise, you'll just end up stinking yourself.

It was hard to say if Ma Jinbao intended to provoke Li Jianguo with these words, but at least for now, it seemed he had miscalculated. Li Jianguo was immune to both soft and hard tactics, and there was nothing he could do.

"Alright then, I suppose I can find watermelon seeds elsewhere, right?" Ma Jinbao said as he walked out, "I wonder what price they're selling them for."

Li Jianguo smiled upon hearing this.

He could tell that Ma Jinbao meant: if your family won't sell, there are plenty of others who will. I don't believe I can't find cheaper ones.

In fact, there were quite a few people in the team harboring similar thoughts. Zhang Qiang and Xu Jianjun had both said similar things at the store, the gist being that the Li family's claim of selling these seeds for two point eight yuan must be fake, and that they were only saying the price was so high to sell their seeds.

Maybe these seeds were only selling for fifty cents or a yuan, and they were only saying that to sell their own seeds at a high price. This argument still had quite a market.

It wasn't that people didn't believe the Li family because they trusted these people; it was mainly because the prices of agricultural products these days were generally quite low. The prices of oil sunflowers and sunflowers hadn't exceeded fifty cents, and white sunflower seeds hadn't reached a yuan. Could these watermelon seeds really reach two point eight yuan? That was a joke!

People's limitations lay right there.

"Let's see what happens when so many people grow these watermelon seeds next year." Some were waiting to see the joke, although this joke might take a long time to wait for.

"If they really buy them at over two yuan, then those families will have made a fortune."

Those who were wavering were, of course, watching from the sidelines. They were worried that the value the Li family spread was fake, but also worried that if it happened to be true, their own family would miss this money-making train.

"How could it be true? The Li family didn't even say how much they were planting next year; it's all rumors about how much others are planting." Someone thought they saw it clearly, "Isn't it obvious they're just fooling others?"

In fact, Li Jianguo had kept seeds for twenty mu of land. Firstly, there wasn't any suitable land left. After all, watermelons need sandy soil, and of the family's land, only a dozen or so mu were suitable; piecing together a whole plot to make twenty mu was the absolute limit.

Secondly, dibbling and the final seed pressing were labor-intensive tasks. If they planted more, it would easily compete for labor with other food crops, especially in the early stages of sowing.

That would be quite troublesome.

!.

Next year, Chen Li Rong would most likely go to Kuitun. By then, the work at home would fall on the couple, and even if they had a tractor as planned, they wouldn't be able to keep up.

Only those with close relationships knew this; others were unaware.

It was under these circumstances that Wang Cai Mi arrived at Li Jianguo's courtyard.

Li Jianguo had already gathered all the watermelon seeds. He thought if someone came to buy the remaining ten or so kilograms of seeds, he would sell them; if not, he would just keep them.

The seeds had already been sent to the Liang family, and they had discussed what kind of land to plant and how to plant them. Liang Donglou was quite happy, and of course, the most excited one was Liang Wenyu.

He had actually been pondering this matter of making money by farming. Land was scarce in the village here, and how to plant most profitably was something he had been considering. He hadn't expected his brother-in-law and the others to have figured it out first.

This was quite a surprise.

"Old Brother Li, do you have any more of those watermelon seeds?" Wang Cai Mi asked about this as soon as he arrived.

"I do, but not many left." Li Jianguo was cleaning up things in the courtyard.

He had already decided to actually buy a tractor. He needed to tidy up the things in the courtyard; otherwise, if he drove the tractor in, he would have to consider where to put it.

As for the horse-drawn carriage, he would follow Li Long's suggestion and give it to his father-in-law's family along with the horse. He had told Liang Yuemei about this, and she was quite excited.

Knowing that it was Li Long who proposed this, Liang Yuemei felt that the hard work of those years hadn't been in vain!

"Old Brother Li, tell me the truth, can those watermelon seeds really sell for such a high price?" Wang Cai Mi asked softly.

"Of course." Li Jianguo wasn't annoyed and said very calmly, "The Shicheng Roasted Goods Factory is right there. If you don't believe it, you can go ask them directly."

This was the limitation of some rural people at the time; he would rather believe his own guesses and judgments than go to public places to ask.

The fear of dealing with government offices was something accumulated over thousands of years and couldn't be changed overnight.

That is why many things that drive honest people to madness would appear in later generations.

Honest people really don't want to face officials, but if they are truly pushed to the edge, they really won't care about anything else.

Wang Cai Mi smiled awkwardly upon hearing this:

"I was just asking. So, did you buy your seeds from a seed company?"

"Yes." Li Jianguo nodded; this wasn't a secret. When they were planting the watermelons, someone had asked during idle chat. At the time, no one thought this thing could sell for such a high price, so no one cared. Who knew it would turn out like this now?

"The Shicheng Seed Company or the one in Maxian?"

"Neither, the one in Wucheng." Li Jianguo understood; this Wang Cai Mi must have believed that their seeds could sell for such a high price, but didn't believe in the quality of the seeds they were selling.

He was digging for the source, intending to go buy them from the seed company, right?

Actually, this was nothing; it was very normal.

Sure enough, after asking, Wang Cai Mi made some small talk and left.

He didn't mention buying seeds again.

However, the seeds were truly not hard to sell. That afternoon, someone whom no one expected came to the Li family's home and bought the remaining watermelon seeds.

Ma Yinbao.

Ma Yinbao's son, Ma Long, had stolen watermelons from the Li family and had been beaten by Ma Yinbao until his nose howled for days, and then he obediently followed his father to work in the fields.

It could be considered forcing a hoodlum to turn over a new leaf ahead of time.

Although Ma Yinbao was a bit slow, he was different from Ma Jinbao; he was very serious about farming and also wanted to get rich from the land.

After he bought the seeds, he was scolded by his brother Ma Jinbao, but Ma Yinbao didn't tolerate his brother and retorted directly.

In any case, the two families had long since separated, and Ma Yinbao also looked down on his brother.

When others went to the Li family to inquire about the watermelon seeds, either openly or secretly, Li Jianguo would directly announce that the seeds were sold out.

Then, two days later, the Li family drove back another tractor.

Most people didn't pay much attention, thinking it was Li Long's tractor that had been driven back.

But the neighbor across the way, Lu Lu Dasao, soon discovered the difference.

This damn thing was a new tractor!

Brand new!

Li Long's tractor had been bought for a long time, and he didn't cherish it much, so there were quite a few mud spots on the vehicle.

This one was different; it was truly brand new from head to toe, inside and out!

She hurriedly called her husband, Lu Yingming, out and pointed it out to him.

The couple found it curious and walked over to the Li family to take a close look at the tractor.

Li Jianguo looked proud and, with a touch of reserve, put the starting crank away.

"What? You bought a new one?" Lu Yingming was still shocked.

"Yeah, since we made money from the watermelon seeds," Li Jianguo had been waiting for him to ask, "I thought about buying a tractor."

"Doesn't Xiao Long have one?" Lu Yingming asked, feeling both envious and puzzled.

"His runs around everywhere; sometimes he goes to the mountains, sometimes to Shicheng, it's uncertain. It's troublesome when we need it and can't find it, so it's better to buy one ourselves."

He said it so easily, as if he were buying a bicycle.

Hey, for some families, buying a bicycle isn't actually easy either.

To put it another way, it was as easy as buying a basket of eggs!

"What about your horse-drawn carriage?" Lu Lu Dasao couldn't help but ask, touching the fender of the tractor as she did so. This tractor looked truly beautiful!

"The carriage is being taken to Juan's maternal grandfather's house," Li Jianguo said, "They don't have a carriage, so it's just right for them to use."

Lu Yingming and his wife were truly envious looking at the tractor. In the eyes of rural people at this time, a small car wasn't as practical as a tractor. This thing was truly good.

The news that the Li family had bought another tractor immediately spread throughout the team through Lu Lu Dasao's mouth.

She specifically pointed out that this tractor was bought by the Li family with the money from selling watermelon seeds.

These days, she had been chatting with the village women and had been teased more than once about being fooled into buying seeds.

Now, it was finally time to strike back.

There was no need to wait until next year; right now, they had sold the seeds and used the money to buy a tractor. With the solid machine sitting right there, was there anyone who would still say it was fake?

A few individuals would say it was Li Long who paid for Li Jianguo's tractor, but they were immediately refuted.

For two reasons: first, those who spread such gossip didn't believe the younger brother would give the older brother such a large item; second, most people in the village knew Li Jianguo's character. If Li Long bought Li Jianguo a bicycle, he might accept it, but for a large item, he wouldn't.

People are like that; regardless of whether the people in the team are good or bad, they still know Li Jianguo's character.

Otherwise, that eighteen-inch color TV would be sitting in Li Jianguo's room instead of Li Qing Xia's.

Consequently, for a time, many people ran to the Li family again to inquire about the watermelon seeds.

"They're gone. Except for some shriveled ones we plan to boil with five-spice for the New Year, the rest are all sold out." Liang Yuemei felt triumphant this time.

"Even the shriveled ones are wanted!"

"What?" This time it was the Li family's turn to be surprised. (End of chapter)