After lunch, the group of people walked back to the main courtyard along the shade of the trees. The sound of cicadas continued all the way. They were not sleepy at first, but now they were a little tired after listening to the chirping cicadas.
Xu Yinwai took a nap on the newly made bed. When she got up, she heard from Hong Qian that the housekeeper was here.
"Maybe the housekeeper thought that the girl planned to stay in Wanhua Village until she returned home after the autumn harvest." Hong Qian pursed her lips and said happily, "I missed the girl, so I came to the village to see her."
"Butler came alone? But what's the matter?"
"Go back to the girl. I came here with Mr. Accountant. He said he was here to review the girl's accounts for the first half of the year."
Xu Yin held her forehead: "He really loves to worry."
What was more worrying was yet to come... When she invited the housekeeper into the house, made a pot of tea, and listened to his intentions, her whole body broke.
"Are you saying that after the wedding, many people came to propose marriage? So you came to me to discuss which house to choose?"
"It's not that I have to choose my uncle from these people. But the girl always has to think about it and keeps putting it off. A matchmaker comes to the door every three days. The old slave can't make up his mind and always makes excuses. As time goes by, , worried that there would be rumors, which would be bad for the girl..."
The old housekeeper was worried.
He was really worried that in order not to be laughed at by others, those who wanted to get what they asked for would drag the girl into trouble and say that the girl was above her head or something. This would not be good for the girl's reputation in the future.
Xu Yin's mouth twitched: "I'm only sixteen years old, am I in such a hurry?"
"You are indeed quite old. When the old man was looking for a son-in-law for your wife, she had just grown hair."
Xu Yin: "..."
This was something bad in ancient times. A girl in her mid-teens or sixteen would only go to middle school or high school in modern times. If she didn't find someone, she would be in trouble. Say goodbye! She wants to go back to modern times!
"Then spread the word and I want to recruit a wife!"
Xu Yin made the decision boldly.
This trick could scare off many people in the 1970s, let alone in ancient times when the concept of family inheritance was very important. She didn't believe that people would come rushing to her door after saying this.
When the old housekeeper heard this, he felt relieved. Rather than getting the girl married, he of course hopes that the girl will find a son-in-law. If the master and his wife were still alive, they would definitely look for a suitable son-in-law for the girl.
"Then the old slave just said what the girl wanted?"
"Well, go ahead!"
It's best to scare away all the people who want to come to propose marriage.
It was rare for the housekeeper to come to Zhuangzi, so Xu Yin asked him to stay for a few more days.
When it comes to team building, of course the more colleagues from the unit are present, the better.
"Xu Kui is coming over in two days. Let's have a lotus-picking competition. Then two people will team up and row a boat to pick lotus seeds. Girl, I will be the winner. Whichever group picks the lotus seeds will have more and plump lotus seeds. Then Whichever group this lottery prize belongs to."
She asked Ziyuan to take out two twenty-two silver ingots and a pair of gold-coated silver hairpins.
Zi Yuan and several maids clapped their hands and said this was fun.
The old housekeeper was so talked about that he was ready to make a move.
Although it sounds like a game played by young children, who says that he can't play it when he is older? His legs and feet were nimble.
"Sikong, can you row a boat?"
The old housekeeper began to draw allies.
"boating?"
"That's right! The girl said that for the lotus picking competition, you have to row your own boat into the lotus pond to pick it. Those who can't row will be paired with those who can row. If you can't row, I will find someone who can row. Can you do it?"
"Well."
"What do you mean?"
"I haven't done it before, but is that difficult?"
"..."
The old housekeeper waved his hand and left the accounting room without hesitation and went to the nursing home room to chat.
Sikong: "..."
Realistic old guy!
Zhuangtou heard that the girl was going to take the servants of the house into the water to pick lotus pods, so he came over to ask for instructions:
"How many boats does the girl need? There are two fishing boats in the village, but there is only one boatman. If both boats are launched, then I will find another boatman."
"No need." Xu Yin said, "They can row it themselves."
Since it’s a team-building activity, it’s fun to row it yourself! Otherwise, just sitting on the boat and picking a lotus pod back without any difficulty, what's the point?
Zhuangtou: "..."
Row it yourself?
I didn't expect that the servants in the mansion were so capable, and everyone could even row a boat.
I think he has been working at Zhuangzi for so many years and is good at everything else except rowing. Even if he rows hard, the boat will not move forward and will spin in place...
Xu Yin didn't know what he was thinking, but she laughed loudly when she knew it: What a misunderstanding!
In the past few days, she would go out for a walk every morning and evening, and visited Wanhua Village all over.
Except for the five acres of lotus pond, Wanhua Village is all high-quality farmland, of which 80 acres are paddy fields.
Nowadays, rice flower fish are raised in ten acres of paddy fields relatively close to Zhuangtou's home, so that he can check them frequently; the rest of the paddy fields are still cultivated as in previous years.
The background of this world is an imaginary dynasty. There is no double-cropping of rice. Rice is planted in the beginning of spring and harvested in July and August. After that, overwintering wheat is planted and harvested in the following spring. The land keeps growing year round, but the yield is still very low.
As Xu Yin strolled, she was thinking, how can we increase production?
This place is not like the Southern Barbarians during the Yan Dynasty. Due to the lack of information in the Southern Barbarians, she can take out high-yielding seeds and argue that they were exchanged with Hu Shang. But here, traveling merchants can be seen everywhere on Luocheng Street. Perhaps because many spices come from foreign lands, Luocheng people are very receptive to foreign products.
I see traveling merchants selling foreign seeds. As long as the price is not very expensive, Zhuangtou will buy some back to see what he can grow.
Therefore, this trick will not work here.
Seeds cannot be optimized. For the time being, the only way to increase yield per mu is through fertility.
Xu Yin asked the head of Zhuangzi how the fertilizer he applied on Zhuangzi was piled. Then she talked about how the fertilizer she used to plant spices and flowers was retting.
Zhuangtou didn't expect the girl to even understand this, and he suddenly felt like he had met a close friend. Make a pot of tea and a plate of fried soybeans, and chat from afternoon to evening.
Xu Yin persuaded him to try the new retting method. If he was not at ease, just use a small amount of a few acres as a test field. Try it and you won’t suffer, right?
Zhuang Tou heard that it made sense and went to try it the next day.
It just so happens that the rice fields are drained at the end of the month, and they need to be fertilized again after that. Counting the number of days of retting, it happens to be almost enough, so let's use the fertilizer exposed field that the girl mentioned.
The head of the village was busy with the new fertilizer pie that Xu Yin painted for him. On Xu Yin's side, after Xu Kui, Xu Cai and other boys arrived, the team building officially started.
Everyone gathered under the shade of the trees by the lotus pond, listened carefully to Zi Yuan's explanation of the lotus pod picking competition, and started talking about it:
"You still want to row a boat? I don't know how!"
"I can! Are we a team?"
"Hey, hey, hey! Xu Dong, you said you would be in a group with me yesterday, why did you find someone else today?"
"You're too big, I'm afraid you won't be able to row."
"Hey! You guy!"
"Ha ha ha ha……"
The nursing home was filled with laughter.
Among the maids and servants, some are happy and some are sad:
"Sitting on a boat picking lotus pods? Will you fall into the water? I can't swim!"
"Don't worry! The water in the lotus pond is very shallow. Zhuangtou said that the deepest part is only up to our necks, so we shouldn't drown."
"..."
On the other side, Xu Kui looked at his father in shock: "Dad, you want to participate too? Isn't this inappropriate?"
"What's wrong? The girl didn't say anything, but you have the right to speak?"
"..."
What a man who speaks lightly!
