Chapter 82: Autumn Harvest
"Granny, I'll find some casual workers to help you with he autumn harvest."
There were always people who worked odd jobs for a living in town. In autumn harvest season, they usually would charge more, but generally speaking, it wasn't a large amount of money for Lu Lin.
Granny Shen nodded and said, "Lin, thank you so much, that is very thoughtful of you. But I've got this, I want to ask around in the village, I will hire casual workers in town if no one is available in town, don't worry, you are paying me good wages now, I can afford to hire some help."
Lu Lin thought about it and nodded. It would be a little disrespectful if he hired casual workers in town directly without inquiring the villagers first.
Lu Li n couldn't help but recall when he and Chen Xiao Mi built a new room, he asked the Village Head to ask the villagers whether were available to help out, the Village Head just turned him down without hesitation.
Shen Chi and Chen Xiao Cai were now engaged but Granny Shen didn't want to take advantage of Lu Lin.
Granny Shen thought that she didn't really live in the village any more. She thought she might will transport all the grains to the warehouse in the commercial house after she paid taxes in grain.
Granny Shen had observed some things recently. Chen Xiao Mi and Lu Lin said that they were working for the Big Boss who now was out on a business trip, but it was so weird that the Big Boss had never showed up.
Wan Li and his family's indentures were all in Chen Xiao Mi's hand. It baffled Granny Shen, she didn't think there would be a boss who trusted someone to such extent.
Granny Shen secretly suspected that this store belonged to Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Mi. However, she didn't dare say that to anyone. If this store really belonged to Chen Xiao Mi, Grandma Chen would probably kick everyone out and take forcible possession of it.
Granny Shen thought to herself, 'If the shop was really Chen Xiao Mi's, then it would be a huge deal. The villagers were so keen to be betrothed with Chen Xiao Cai when they heard that Chen Xiao Mi made two taels of silver per month. If they knew that Chen Xiao Mi was the owner of the shop, then even if Chen Xiao Cai and his grandson were engaged, there still would be people who wanted to replace Shen Chi.
There were so many girls trying so hard to marry those rich masters in town, even as a concubine.
Granny Shen gasped on that thought, she was so worried for her grandson.
......
Granny Shen counted the days and autumn harvest season was just around the corner. She asked for a few days leave and went straight to the village to check on the farm land.
Lu Lin asked Qin Lang to accompany Granny Shen. Qin Lang was so happy about this task, he guaranteed Lu Lin that he would protect Granny Shen no matter what.
Qin Ming's leg had recovered, and he had been asking more work from Lu Lin as well.
Lu Lin would ask Qin Ming to run errands or look after Chen Xiao Mai.
Qin Lang became more and more mature, Lu Lin appreciated this young man.
Although he was a little young, he was already quite imposing. Recently, he had been helping delivering goods to Willow Town. He had made his father proud.
It was still early August in lunar calendar, but the grains in the field were already ripe. However, most villagers decided to give it a few more days.
Granny Shen walked around the field and decided to start early to avoid any undue delay.
After making up her mind, Granny Shen directly hired some people from the village and offered them 30 cents per day.
Quite a few villagers had a big family, they could afford to work for Granny Shen without delaying their own autumn harvest.
"Granny Shen, the crops in your field can use a few more days!"
Granny Shen nodded and said, "Yes, I know what you mean! However, if there is a heavy rain, it will ruin everything."
"Yeah! It will be ideal to harvest them in a few days, but as you said just now, the weather is a bit unpredictable, it makes more sense to just get on top of it."
Granny Shen smiled. She also wanted to wait for a few days, but the villagers would get busy by then, it would be hard for her to hire help or borrow tools.
The people hired by Granny Shen were hardworking and honest. No one slacked off.
They all thought that Granny Shen was different from before. The Shen family used to be poor, and Granny Shen would just go to work in the field before dawn and come home after dark with her little grandson, she had never hired anyone, but now she hired several workers.
They did some rough calculation, and they all thought Granny Shen might not be able to earn much money from this harvest, she needed to pay their wages and agricultural tax in grain.
Many villagers knew that many dolls in the commercial house were made by Granny Shen. The villagers guessed that Granny Shen had made a lot of money, so they didn't care about the cost of hiring help. Some people thought that Granny Shen just became less stingy after Chen Xiao Cai and Shen Chi were engaged, because she didn't need to worry about her grandson in the future.
"Granny Shen, where is Shen Chi? I haven't seen him for a while!"
Granny Shen worked in the field for a while, then she came back home to prepare lunch. Some workers' wives offered to help her.
Granny Shen smiled and said, "Chi? Chi and some coworkers travelled to some other town to do business."
The women gazed at each other in surprise. "Travelled to some other town? Shen Chi is so young, but he is already travelling and going for business trips!"
Granny Shen smiled and said, "He's just messing around."
Willow Town was a long journey from them. Granny Shen had once followed the delivery team to visit the branch there. Although it was a little smaller, it was also perfect and well-organized. Granny Shen felt relieved immediately after she visited the store, she knew her grandson was in good hands.
"You are so modest! Shen Chi soon will become a big shot. Granny, you just need to enjoy your blessings in the future."
Granny Shen smiled and said, " Enjoy my blessings? You are so sweet."
"I'm just saying the truth, Chi will definitely take good care of you in the future!"
"Granny Shen, you have five mus of land now. You're now living in town, it's not easy for you to take care of your field!"
Granny Shen nodded and said, "Yeah, I've been thinking the same thing! So, I want to rent some land out."
Granny Shen was also worried recently. She had always been in the town. She always thought what if some bad people pulled out her seedlings while she was away, she wouldn't be able to find out in time.
She couldn't weed, fertilize or water the crops in time now that she lived in town.
It was Lu Lin's idea to rent out some field, Granny Shen initially was reluctant to part with her land. However, it didn't take her a long time to think it through, Lu Lin had a point.
When the women heard Granny Shen say that she wanted to rent some field out, they were all excited. They all wanted to have more field.
Granny Shen transported all the grains to Lu Lin's shop in town after the autumn harvest.
Lu Lin was a little surprised by Granny Shen's gesture. However, he insisted on paying Granny Shen. Granny Shen didn't want to take the money, but Lu Lin was quite persistent, so they met each other halfway, Granny Shen took half the money.
......
"This Granny Shen really is rich now! She has hired several workers in autumn harvest, you know that? And she paid every worker 30 cents per day."
"I heard that Granny Shen planned to rent out her field."
"Really? To rent out all of her field or just some? "
......
As soon as Zhang Jin returned home, he saw a few villagers gathering in his house.
"Father, why do we have so many guests today?" asked Zhang Jin.
Zhang Cheng glanced at Zhang Jin and said, "Granny Shen said that she is old and she wants to rent out all of her field, she asked me to witness it."
Zhang Jin nodded and said, "I see, how is Granny Shen going to do this?"
"She wants forty percent of the harvest, she and the tenants will discuss the details."
Zhang Cheng nodded and said, "Forty percent is not much. Many landlords collect fifty percent of the harvest. In this way, the tenants won't have much left in hand. Granny Shen is a nice person."
"Did Granny Shen rent out all of her field?" asked Zhang Jin.
Zhang Cheng nodded, "Yeah! Five mus, all rented out."
......
"Granny Shen, she is too nice, she has worked hard for the harvest, and now she has transported all the harvest in our warehouse!" Lu Lin felt so sorry.
"Well, hopefully this is going to comfort you, I think Granny Shen did the right thing by transporting the grain to our warehouse. We're not living in the village any more, imagine someone has stolen all the grain! Plus, she is nice to us, we can be even nicer to her, we are a family now. Don't overthink it, all right?" Chen Xiao Mi stroked Lu Lin's hand gently.
Lu Lin thought about it and nodded. The villagers were usually very nice, but no one knew how far they would go when they were starving. If grains were left in an empty house, it was also very possible that they would be stolen.
"It's a bumper harvest year this year," Chen Xiao Mi said.
Lu Lin nodded, "Yeah! Thankfully, the country is prosperous and the people are at peace. I don't think we can still do business if it's a bad year, it will be unsafe for us."
......
Granny Shen's autumn harvest went on smoothly, and the Lu family was different.
In the village, even women needed to help out in autumn harvest, but Lin Xiu'er and Li Fang Yue were both pregnant, they had been slacking off on house chores, so naturally neither of them helped out.
Lu Cheng Yu went to school, so his family did not dare to trouble him with things like this. Therefore, only Lu Ming and Lu An were available.
Grandpa Lu knew his two sons very well, so he hired some help from the village, offering each one of them 25 cents per day.
25 cents was a handsome pay at ordinary times, but many people were hiring during autumn harvest season. 25 cents didn't look as great.
Even though Grandpa Lu had hired help successfully, but the help had a discussion in private. Granny Shen had offered the help 30 cents per day and Grandpa Lu only offered 25 cents, which made him look a little stingy.
Lu An had lost his job, Grandma Lu couldn't ask Lu An to hand in any money now, she became more and more stingy.
At the beginning of the autumn harvest, Grandma Lu would just find fault with the workers. She repeatedly despised how slow they were, she was always spouting off deducting their pay if they didn't speed up, she kept forcing them to work overtime.
When the host Lu Lin's parents were alive, Grandma Lu scolded them daily as well. And she would become aggravated if the host Lu Lin's parent defended themselves, therefore, they would just ignore her as time went by.
Lu Ming and Lu An had quarreled frequently during this period of time. Grandma Lu loved them both, she would just keep mute when her two sons argued. And now she just vented all her anger on the help, she would just break out into curses out of thin air.
Grandma Lu had a good opinion of herself, she didn't find it improper to abuse the help.
The villagers who took the job really needed money, they just tolerated the unfair treatment. However, soon the whole village knew how mean Grandma Lu was.
There was also a comparison between Grandma Lu and Granny Shen. They all agreed Granny Shen was a saint.