Chapter 549

The one who came to buy the shriveled seeds was Tao Dayong.

Previously, his father, Tao Jian She, had told him to come and buy them, but he insisted on waiting and seeing. By the time he waited for Li Jianguo to buy the tractor and believed that watermelon seeds could sell for big money, it was too late—they were gone.

Fortunately, Tao Daqiang found out that the Li family still had shriveled seeds, so after thinking it over repeatedly, he felt he could still buy them.

Saying they were shriveled was only relative to the seeds that had been sold. They weren't actually empty; they just weren't as plump. The empty and immature ones had already been winnowed out by Li Jianguo using a basket.

"Those shriveled seeds might not necessarily grow." Li Jianguo had intended to winnow these shriveled seeds and keep them to roast for the winter; he really hadn't intended to sell them.

"Uncle Jianguo, please just sell them to me." Tao Dayong pleaded, "I was just a bit slow before, and now you don't have any. I also want to earn some money next year!

Throughout the year, I can only earn a little extra money by following your Without Xiao Long, but the family expenses are quite high, and I also want to be able to ride a bicycle or something next year... Just sell them to me. If they don't sprout, that's my own business, and I definitely won't come looking for you!"

"It's not about whether you come looking for me or not; you can't use these kinds of seeds for planting." Li Jianguo was somewhat amused and annoyed.

Actually, when his father told him to go buy seeds, Tao Dayong had indeed wanted to, but his wife, Ma Chunhong, had blocked him and told him to wait.

Now, Ma Chunhong had also heard the news about Li Jianguo buying a tractor and knew she had made a mistake. She then told him to go find his father and have him split half the seeds for their family, because Tao Jian She had already bought seeds for ten mu of land.

Tao Dayong slapped his wife across the face.

Before, when Ma Chunhong blocked him from buying, he hadn't come, and later when he regretted it, he didn't blame his wife; he hadn't been firm himself at the time.

But for his wife to tell him to go find his father and have him split half the seeds—if he did that, he would truly be a spineless coward.

After slapping his wife, Tao Dayong came to find Li Jianguo.

He had thought it through very clearly: as long as there was a kernel in the seed, it would basically sprout. The seedlings might be congenitally weak, but he could just take good care of them later.

At worst, if others applied one jin of fertilizer, he would apply two; if others put in one part of effort, he would put in two.

If others harvested two hundred kilograms of seeds per mu, he would be satisfied with one hundred.

Never mind one hundred kilograms; if he could harvest fifty, he would thank Li Jianguo!

Fifty kilograms, at over two yuan per kilogram, that would be over a hundred yuan, and ten mu would be over a thousand!

Hey, if you can earn money, what farmer is afraid of not having the strength to work?

As for asking his father for seeds, he might have had such thoughts before last year, but after last year, seeing his younger brother becoming more and more successful, Tao Dayong would never have such thoughts again.

A man of such stature, still dragging his fifty-year-old father down in everything—was he even a person?

Li Jianguo was pestered by Tao Dayong until he had no choice, and finally sold those shriveled seeds to Tao Dayong.

"One yuan per kilogram, I'm not selling them to you for nothing." Li Jianguo said clearly in front of Tao Dayong:

"You are Daqiang's brother, and our two families have this relationship. Among these fifteen kilograms of shriveled seeds, there are five kilograms of good ones.

Once you step out of this door, I won't acknowledge this. Just keep it to yourself. If you really want to plant, you can plant a little less next year. If you have any management issues later, come ask me. Once you really earn money, take good care of your family and be filial to your father."

There was a small bag inside the bag of seeds given to Tao Dayong. Li Jianguo naturally had a surplus of seeds kept for his own family, but naturally, he couldn't tell others about this.

Tao Dayong, a grown man, felt his eyes sting at that moment upon hearing Li Jianguo's words.

He carried the bag back, and halfway there, he ran into Ma Jinbao, who laughed at him:

"Hey, Tao Dayong, didn't you say you wanted to wait and see? Why are you going to buy Li family seeds too? Do they still have some?"

"They don't, I took all the remaining shriveled seeds!" Tao Dayong raised his arm, "What else can I do? I don't have a flock of sheep like your family; if I want to earn money, I have to find a way!"

"They're selling shriveled seeds? Can that stuff even grow?" Ma Jinbao said loudly, as if he had discovered another piece of gossip, immediately attracting the attention of others nearby.

"What are you listening for?" Tao Dayong knew Ma Jinbao didn't have good intentions and scolded him, "Do you have donkey fur in your ears? I said I took them, and Uncle Jianguo didn't even take my money for these shriveled seeds!

I said whether these seeds grow or not is my own business. I cracked a few, and there are still kernels inside, they're just not very plump."

Ma Jinbao recalled, it seemed Tao Dayong didn't say he bought them, he said he took them.

Everyone else looked at him like he was a fool.

Wanting to see others make a fool of themselves, did you end up seeing it happen to yourself this time?

Tao Dayong didn't pay any more attention to him and walked into his own courtyard with the bag.

Just as he was about to put the bag in the spare room to keep it safe, he heard someone calling him:

"Dayong!"

Tao Dayong turned his head and saw his father, Tao Jian She, holding a bag in his hand.

"Dad, why are you here? Come in and drink some water!"

"No need," Tao Jian She waved his hand at the courtyard gate, "These are eight kilograms of watermelon seeds; take them and plant them next year."

"What about you?" Tao Dayong didn't expect his father to bring the seeds over, and he asked hurriedly.

"I'll just plant a little less."

"That won't do." Tao Dayong didn't take the seeds, "I already got seeds from Uncle Jianguo."

"What can you grow with those shriveled seeds? You need good seeds to grow watermelons!" Tao Jian She shook his head, "You can't fool around with the land!"

"Dad, I'm not fooling around!" Tao Dayong looked around to make sure no one was there and whispered: "Uncle Jianguo gave me some good seeds for your and Daqiang's sake.

You take these seeds back. Don't tell anyone about this; I have plenty to plant next year. I have quite a bit of sandy land in the plot I was assigned; I'll plant some there, manage it well, and I can earn money.

Besides, Daqiang is going to have a baby, and the family burden will be heavy next year. You take good care of them and don't worry about me; I'm doing just fine!"

Hearing Tao Dayong say this, Tao Jian She was still half-believing.

Tao Dayong turned and took a handful of seeds from the bag at the door of his spare room to show Tao Jian She. Only after seeing them did Tao Jian She believe him.

"Alright then, if you have any questions when you plant them, remember to go ask Li Juan's dad!" Tao Jian She went back carrying the bag, "Keep these seeds well; it's best to hang them up. You have to be careful about mice in the winter."

"I know." Tao Dayong felt warm inside.

Encountering concern from his elders twice in one day, no matter how useless he might be, he still had hot blood in his veins.

Ma Chunhong didn't return to her maiden home after being slapped by Tao Dayong. She knew her mouth had been cheap again. Since those events last year, Tao Jian She and Tao Daqiang had become her husband's sore spot, not to be touched.

It's just that sometimes she couldn't control her mouth; there was really no helping it.

Tao Dayong put the seeds away and entered the room. Ma Chunhong asked hurriedly:

"Did you get the seeds back?"

"Got them back."

"Are they really shriveled?" Ma Chunhong still held hope, "I just heard Dad talking outside, is it..."

"They are shriveled. Dad wanted to give us seeds, but I didn't take them." Tao Dayong said the truth.

"How could you not take them? Dad offered them voluntarily!" Ma Chunhong shouted immediately.

Tao Dayong glared at her, and Ma Chunhong stopped shouting immediately.

"Crack one yourself." Tao Dayong took three or five seeds from his pocket and handed them to her, "Take a look."

Ma Chunhong took the few watermelon seeds half-believingly; they looked quite normal.

She cracked one open and saw the kernel inside was good.

She looked up at Tao Dayong.

"These are the shriveled seeds Uncle Jianguo gave us." "Where are these shriveled..." Ma Chunhong said, "Isn't this..."

"Still talking?" Tao Dayong glared at her.

Ma Chunhong immediately shut her mouth and asked:

"Then..."

"They are a bit worse than the ones sold." Tao Dayong said, "But they all have kernels, just not very plump."

"Got it, got it!" Ma Chunhong became excited immediately, "Hey, this time... next year..."

Tao Dayong didn't pay attention to her; he knew what his wife was like. He seemed to have been like this before too.

Sigh, stupidity is sometimes a disease; you have to wait for it to get better on its own, it can't be cured.

After the excitement, Ma Chunhong eventually became suspicious again. Why would the Li family take care of their family? Could there be a problem with these seeds?

At the time, she only cracked one and didn't dare crack more—if she cracked more, there would be fewer seedlings to plant next year, which meant fewer watermelons, and a few watermelons meant a kilogram of seeds, which was over two yuan!

Then, she planted the remaining three or four seeds in a flowerpot made from a broken washbasin outside the window. She had pulled out the original sun flowers in the pot.

A few days later, a few seedlings came out in the flowerpot, and Ma Chunhong was confused again.

There's nothing wrong with these seeds, right?

!.

The news that the Li family had bought another tractor reached Jiang Zhiyu's ears two days later.

Her news instinct was immediately triggered.

What great news this was!

There were fewer than five tractors in the whole township, and just here in the Fourth Team, the two brothers' families had two. And they were bought with money earned from planting cash crops—this was definitely big news worthy of the Prefecture Daily!

She immediately rode her women's bicycle toward the Fourth Team.

She had to interview them!

In fact, the framework and main content of the news report were already there when she got the news: the younger brother used a harvester to help farmers harvest wheat, saving time for summer grain storage while earning harvesting fees.

The older brother planted cash crops while ensuring grain production, achieving a bumper harvest and obtaining huge economic benefits. The two brothers both bought tractors, becoming leaders in getting rich in the village, and so on.

But she needed details.

Jiang Zhiyu could be considered an acquaintance of the Li family, and she knew the location of the Li family, so she went to Li Jianguo's courtyard with ease.

Li Jianguo and his wife, and Li Qing Xia and his wife, were all at the threshing ground knocking oil sunflowers. These oil sunflowers (everyone in the village called them sunflowers) had their heads cut off and hauled to the threshing ground, spread out to dry, and then each person took a stick and knocked hard on the sunflower heads.

This used the principle of vibration to shake the sunflower seeds off the sunflower heads. Because sunflower seeds were more fragile than wheat, it wasn't suitable to use a roller to crush them like wheat, as that would crush the sunflowers.

The knocked-off sunflower seeds would carry some skin from the flower disk, so they had to be winnowed. The subsequent situation was similar to wheat; after winnowing them clean, they were bagged and then taken to the Grain Bureau to pay the assigned quota.

Paying public grain wasn't just about paying wheat; it also included oil sunflowers, corn, and in some rice-producing areas, rice—the village itself had a public grain quota for rice.

Families who grew a lot of oil sunflowers would pay their sunflower quota, and the remaining portion would be pressed for oil at the township oil mill for their own consumption, with some portion sold.

The Li family didn't grow many oil sunflowers; basically, after removing the public grain quota, there was enough oil for the family's consumption with some surplus.

Fortunately, Li Long often sent over rendered meat oil throughout the year, which saved a lot of oil.

Seeing only a woman she didn't recognize in the courtyard, Jiang Zhiyu introduced herself first:

"Hello, sister. I am Jiang Zhiyu, the propaganda officer from the township. May I ask if Li Jianguo is in?"

"My older brother and the others went to the threshing ground to knock oil sunflowers." Chen Li Rong hurriedly pointed to the south and said: "My older brother and sister-in-law both went."

"Oh..." Jiang Zhiyu saw the brand-new tractor parked in the courtyard and immediately took out her camera to take two photos.

She felt a bit regretful; if Li Long's tractor were also there, it would have been great to take a photo of both tractors together.

What a pity, what a pity.

Then she rode her bicycle to the threshing ground.

There wasn't just the Li family knocking oil sunflowers at the threshing ground; five or six families were doing it. When knocking these oil sunflowers, they would chat while knocking, and their mouths wouldn't be idle either, cracking melon seeds, and most of their mouths were black.

Because oil sunflowers themselves are black.

This stuff is more fragrant when roasted than sunflower seeds because it produces more oil. It's just that the size is small, and eating too much makes your mouth black, so it only became popular in rural areas.

In the summer, when the village showed open-air movies, everyone would usually roast a pot of oil sunflower seeds and put them in their pockets, cracking them while watching the movie and swatting mosquitoes.

Usually, after the movie was over, you could see the ground covered in layers of melon seed shells.

Jiang Zhiyu glanced and found the Li Jianguo family. She rode her bicycle over, got off, and just as she was about to prop up the bicycle, Li Jianguo had already greeted her first:

"Officer Jiang is here?"

"Yes, Comrade Li Jianguo, hello everyone!" It wasn't Jiang Zhiyu's first time seeing Li Jianguo's family. After greeting everyone collectively, she went straight to the point:

"Comrade Li Jianguo, I heard you planted ten mu of watermelons, harvested nearly ten thousand yuan, and then bought a new tractor, so I came to take a look and interview you about your experience and feelings on getting rich."

"Officer Jiang, who are you listening to nonsense from? Where is there nearly ten thousand yuan? It's just five thousand yuan or so." Li Jianguo denied it hurriedly upon hearing this, "If growing watermelons could earn that much money, wouldn't others have planted them long ago?"

"Well, everyone is spreading it so exaggeratedly because they really didn't expect that farming could have such high economic benefits." Jiang Zhiyu herself had been a bit exaggerated. She took out her notebook and threw out the prepared questions one by one, starting to interview Li Jianguo.

Li Jianguo also told the truth: the idea was Li Long's, the seeds were bought by Li Long, and the technology was learned by Li Long from a professor at the August First Agricultural College, and he even specifically went to visit and ask for advice in person.

Jiang Zhiyu became particularly attentive when she heard this; this was getting rich through science and technology! Currently, farmers basically rely on experience for farming, and at most, they go to the county agricultural school for further studies or listen to the experience of students from the agricultural school.

It was impossible for farmers to think about going to a university like the August First Agricultural College to ask professors about farming.

In the eyes of the vast majority of people, including Jiang Zhiyu, those university professors were great scholars, busy with ten thousand things every day; how would they have time to pay attention to the demands of old farmers? Even if a farmer came to ask for advice, they probably wouldn't have time to receive them.

But this example completely broke everyone's inherent thinking, and this was great news!

What is news? News is just something fresh that has happened. Like Li Jianguo harvesting over five hundred yuan per mu from farming, that's more than ten times the income of ordinary people farming; this is big news.

And Li Long going to the August First Agricultural College to ask for farming technology, this is also news; after all, everyone didn't think of it, felt it was impossible, but he went and did it!

Jiang Zhiyu secretly said that she really came to the right place this time; otherwise, she really wouldn't have known about such things!

If this were written out, it would definitely make it to the Prefecture Daily. She even wanted to boldly submit it to the Autonomous Region Daily!

Currently, slogans like "strengthening the country through science and technology" and "science and technology are the primary productive forces" were being shouted loudly. If she titled this manuscript something like "Science and Technology Bring Huge Benefits to Farmers," it would most likely make it to the Autonomous Region Daily.

Jiang Zhiyu couldn't help but be jealous that Ma Xiao Yan was able to make it to the Autonomous Region Daily by reporting on Li Long's news, while she also wrote, but could only make it to the Prefecture Daily.

In the past, making it to the Prefecture Daily was already a very remarkable thing; after all, she was just a news officer in a township, and she had actually exceeded her quota this year.

But now, if there was a chance to make it to the Autonomous Region Daily, would she not want it?

That was simply too desirable. Making it to the Autonomous Region Daily was not only a proof of her own ability, but there were also rewards!

Jiang Zhiyu had already begun to reconstruct the framework of this news report in her mind. She must highlight the central position of technology guiding agriculture and make the content of Li Long going to the August First Agricultural College the focus.

It's a pity Li Long wasn't here, and Li Jianguo didn't know the specific details very well, especially the name of that Professor Wu, his specialty, etc. —he didn't know anything very clearly.

Jiang Zhiyu simply asked clearly about where Li Long lived in the county, intending to go to the county tomorrow to find Li Long.

Although she knew Li Long worked at the supply and marketing cooperative as a temporary worker, he was often not at the cooperative, so there was no way around that.

After Reporter Jiang left, Du Chunfang, who was slowly knocking oil sunflowers, asked with some worry:

"Is it good for Without Xiao Long like this? If too many people know, will it affect him?"

"He has already been commended by the Autonomous Region and has been on the Autonomous Region's newspapers, radio, and television. What is there to fear about this now?" Li Qing Xia knew very clearly.

"Then why can't we see it on our TV?" Du Chunfang's thinking immediately shifted to other aspects.

"Well, the movies in our area can't receive the Autonomous Region's channel." Li Qing Xia knew a little about this too; it was all heard from Li Long.

Li Jianguo listened and smiled; it was also quite fun to listen to his father and mother bickering.

Rural old men and women basically wouldn't get dementia at this time; they didn't have the energy for it, they were all working. Living to old age and working to old age, they had no time to get these diseases.

It will be different in the future. (End of chapter)