The Farm Life Of a "Fool"

Chapter 42

Xu Ran always knew that Tangtang and Guoguo were thoughtful, but he did not expect them to be so thoughtful that he felt sad.

He squatted, held the two kids in his arms, and said, "You are my treasures. How could I bear to scold you? I believe in you. You just do your best. That's enough"

"OK." The two kids nodded in unison and ran away with the copper coins in their hands.

Xu Ran went to do his job after giving Tangtang and Guoguo the instruction. As for the matter of the ash, he really didn't want to care about it, leaving it all to Tangtang and Guoguo, but he fully trusted them, although they, his sons, were only five years old.

The modern strawberry was grown in a greenhouse or in pots. Even the one grown outside was covered by a thin plastic sheet, but he couldn't find such stuff or get anything to replace them in this period, so he had little choice but to try his hardest to figure out how to keep the strawberry leaves from being eaten or making him sick. However, it was clear that this would not be an easy mission.

He wasn't particularly smart, and he'd never worked in this field before, so he knew little about it. However, this was not the main issue. For farmers, spring was a busy season. He wouldn't be able to find someone to plant strawberry seedlings at this time. As a result, he became much more irritable.

He went out to the village to speak with a few elderlies or see if he could find strawberry seedlings in some family's field because he had no one to talk to at home. He might bring some home if he noticed them. Since everybody had gone to work, there were few people moving about in the village. Xu Ran walked around but didn't see many people, so he went straight to the place where there were many fields.

In the fields, working people could be seen everywhere. He noticed that these people smiled when pushing the hoe in their hands. Spring was their hoped-for season. They hoped for a good harvest this year, enough food to eat and warm clothing to wear, and an improvement in their lives thanks to the crops in the fields.

He would welcome anyone he encountered with a smile and then walk around the field ridges, whether they were friends or not. If the field owner was easygoing, he would ask for a few strawberry seedlings whenever he saw them. Those who were kind would give him a few seedlings, while those who were mean would just give him one or two, but he didn't mind. As long as they were willing to give him, he was very happy.

He also asked that if anyone would like to work for his family when he went to hire laborers by the time. A few who had worked for his family before instantly agreed, telling him to just go to them when it was time.

It was very troublesome to grow strawberries. What was important was to be careful and not to damage the tender seedlings, so Xu Ran thought that it was better to hire Ge'ers, but he also needed to hire ten men to dig the fields.

It was naturally better if Ge'ers could make the money. Xu Ran asked about them and almost got all the laborers he needed. When the time came, he would only need to see the specific situation.

A difficult problem had been solved, so he was slightly relieved.

After that, he went home with a bunch of strawberry seedlings. When he was home, Liu Tong was also home. Then, the two of them planted the strawberry seedlings in the field outside the gate of their house before going to have lunch.

–

Xu Ran returned to the village head the next day. He hoped to settle the purchase of 10 mu of land as soon as possible. He was scheduled to take the imperial examination in March, so he needed to get his strawberry planting in order before then. The fact that Xu Ran was so involved on the land gave the village chief a headache.  At the same time, he also felt a little lucky that he had checked out yesterday where he could get some land available for Xu Ran.