level up

Jiushu informed uncle Fa about the tax collection problem in the village. Uncle Fa agreed with her plan, though he had doubts about it. The time for sowing rice in space has gone down to one hour, Jiushu has a surplus of rice grain. She exchanged rice grain for wheat grain, and undercut the town's prices by a little.

Given MoQiu's parents are assisting her, her secret might be out today, if they actually take the initiative to calculate the amount of rice grain she is trading in. she suggested to the first village woman it might be better to cover the handcraft with grass, the advice ran all the way through the village in but half an hour. It's amazing how fast the communication worked even without phone and SNS

Jiushu chatted with every person willing to sit and chat. That is how she obtained her most important find of the day…

Spring onions, cucumbers and sweet potatoes.

She was lacking seeds for almost all vegetables, when one of the village women gave her a cucumber on top of wheat, she added a few catties of rice as a good will gesture for her. The next person brought spring onions, yet another, rapeseed. While she doesn't particularly prefer rapeseed oil, it did fill one of the key gaps.

She talked to them about what kind of weather produced which kind of vegetable, and how to plant the tubers.. All sorts of things. It seems she did a bit wrong in cutting chinese gold thread vertically last time. The roots must be cut horizontally, to hold the knot, ridge or any similar pattern on a root. This, she figured out.

As far as bulbs go, she had no idea that she is actually supposed to plant the tip towards upwards. She had been planting them all any how. She was under the impression the plants grow well like in a game. However, that can not be guaranteed. After all, last time she planted vertically cut gold thread, there was a major difference in which tubers sprouted.

For cucumbers, as long as she places the seeds in the ground, they seem to grow. What Jiushu did not know is they need an arch or at least a stick to grow around. Where is she going to get so many support structures? Unless she actually grows bamboo as a crop? Damn.. should she grow bamboo as a crop?

She counted the kinds of crops she has seeds for now. Rice, Goldthread, Amaranth, spearmint, wild garlic, sweet potatoes, onions, cucumbers and rapeseed. She is still missing some of the essential vegetables. She probably should place higher reward on those. Just as she waited, another woman came in.

"Little friend selling rice?" the woman asked.

"That's me, big sister. What are you exchanging?" Jiushu asked.

"Ah.. we don't have any wheat." the woman rubbed her hands embarrassedly.

Jiushu's enthusiasm cooled. This is one more rotten case. These people wanted to reduce price, get profit without giving anything of their own. They tried bluffing her with writing IOU's and some even tried to threaten her with tattling. Jiushu threw out the last of them without any hesitation. If they could go to the landlord and tattle, why in the world are they here with her? The landlord sounded like an unreasonable guy who will kill the messenger. All the same, she wondered which snake medicine this woman is peddling.

"It is like this, little sister. We plant ginger for the turn of a season, not wheat. The wheat crop was not as good last time. I heard that little sister is a very good person. You are as generous as guanyin, can't you help me out just this once? I will worship your ancestors as my own." the woman intoned.

Jiushu hated this kind of woman most, she puked at this kind of flattery. However, jiushu is also cripplingly fair at times. Since she has given her word to exchange something for rice, she is not going to give out freebies no matter how saddening some one's situation is, neither is she going to increase price even if the other side is dripping in gold.

"If the big sister wants to, you can exchange with the ginger." Jiushu told her.

She needed Ginger anyway, so she can make an exception here.

"Ah.. little sister.. Ginger is not going to be mature for another month. Can't you give me rice in advance? I promise to pay back this in a month. You can ask around the village. They will tell you I am sharp as a tack and swift as a horse when paying back." the woman implored.

Jiushu shook her head. She has a very simple ideal when it comes to financial matters. Stronger the sales pitch, lower the quality of product. Nope, she is not advancing any sort of grain to any one.

"Then I am sorry, big sister. We will not be here in a month. If you want the rice grain, you exchange it with either wheat or ginger." jiushu cut her down mercilessly.

Uncle Fa is watching from the side, and he looked very much like he wanted to intervene. After all, the woman in front of her looked fairly soft and sweet for a farmer, which in itself is strange.

"Heart less. How could you be so heartless for a young girl? Aren't you afraid you will be called a shrew? No man will ever marry you if you don't know where to push and where to pull." The woman said, dabbing her eyes.

I am not even a man.. Why in the world are you putting a show in front of me? Jiushu wondered. She is worst suited for a sheeming drama. It is only after a moment she understood why the woman is putting on the drama. For uncle Fa. Jiushu stayed silent. After all, the woman is not her sister, nor her mother. She is not obligated to solve her problems. If she does not leave in five minutes, Jiushu will throw her out.

Another man entered as the woman started wailing in a higher tone.

"You .. What did you do to Mei Hua?" he thundered at her.

Jiushu did not explain. After all, Uncle Fa is there to deter any men who got ideas of strong arming her. The woman wailed louder now that she has a supporter. Jiushu still did not speak. The man threatened her again.

"You, hurry right now. What did you do to Mei hua?" he asked again.

Jiushu stayed silent.

The man made a move as if to strike her. In but a moment, Uncle Fa moved in front of her protectively, his menacing aura spilling out.

"It is your girl who started it first." the man said angrily.

Jiushu did not speak, neither did uncle Fa.

This idiot is clearly separate from her, but he is going to suffer for the sin of coming to the rescue of wrong people. The man held the woman, while Jiushu and uncle Fa stayed in the same position unmoving.

The woman's wails continued.

One minute..

….

Two minutes

….

…..

….

Ten minutes.

Men are just not equipped to deal with tears. In this age and era, even more so. When ten minutes passed and the woman did not stop crying to explain, the man slowly returned to his senses. Rather, he remembered he is here to exchange his own grain, and he got stuck in the drama needlessly. He has a sister and mother at home, if he did not exchange wheat to rice this time, they won't even have enough to eat in the coming season. He pushed the woman away. The woman looked at him aggrievedly, and spilled more tears.

"Uh.. hmm.." the man cleared his throat awkwardly.

"What are you going to exchange grain with?" Jiushu asked boredly.

"Uhh… uhh.. With wheat." The man said even more awkwardly.

"How many catties?" Jiushu asked.

"A big sack." the man answered. They had the yield of almost five sacks per mu, half a sack they kept as seed, another sack, he is exchanging now. He was late only because he went to the town to sell rabbits he hunted. He enquired the cost of rice, and it has risen to one catty for seven iron coins already. It is said it will rise more when more refugees file in tomorrow. As soon as he heard from his sister there's a girl exchanging wheat at four catties per one cattie of rice, he ran here.

Jiushu gestured to the man to move out quietly, the man followed her. The girl is still crying inside. She exchanged the wheat for rice outside. She noticed the mud on his shoes Just as he was turning the cart away.

"Big brother! Are you coming from the town by any chance?" Jiushu asked.

"Oh! You have sharp eyes, little girl. I hunt around in the mountains. If you want any mountain goods, ask me, I will get you any… wild honey, mushrooms or rabbits.. Any thing." the man answered with a confident smile.

"Do you have any honey with you now?" Jiushu asked just out of curiosity. She did have enough condiments to last for a while, but they are all from MoQiu's family. She needs to give them back at an appropriate time. She needs to buy her own, but she had no idea of how much everything cost.

"I should have a jar. It goes for a silver nugget in the town." the man told her.

"If you want to sell that, I will pay with rice, big brother. Also, I am buying any vegetables in their weight with rice. If you bring me a plant that's fruit or vegetable along with roots, I am giving out a catty of rice for each variety of plant." Jiushu told him.

"Any variety?" The man's eyes widened in surprise.

"Aye. any variety, as long as I don't have it, but you must be able to tell me how to grow it." Jiushu told the man.

He nodded his head and waited for a while as if he wanted to say something.

Jiushu paused and turned to him.

"Meihua… She is pampered by the landlord. She doesn't mean you harm, it's just that she is spoiled. Don't take it to heart, little girl." the man said seriously. Jiushu nodded and returned to her tent.

Ah.. seems the girl did live a comfortable life. As much as she wanted ginger, even Jiushu knew when you are doing a shady deal, you do not deal in untrustworthy partners.

The girl is still there, her cries subsided to an extent. She is still looking aggrievedly at Uncle Fa. Jiushu decided to put an end to this farce.

"This big sister, I have changed away last of my rice. You should stop crying and leave now." Jiushu told her coldly. No point encouraging bad behavior.

The woman sent another glare at them, before leaving them to their own business.

This is the reason Jiushu hated dealing with people. The rotten ones are unavoidable. All your ninety nine good people will become useless the moment you meet a rotten one.