Chapter 134: Seeds
Trantor: Dragon Boat Trantion Editor: Dragon Boat Trantion
Under the sunlight, Shen Mo stared nkly at Jiang Xia’s smiling face. He wasn’t sure if it was the nature of girls her age to mature quickly. When they first met, he had thought of Jiang Xia as a small girl. Now, however, he felt her features seemed to have grown and matured.
Sensing Shen Mo’s gaze on her, Jiang Xia turned around, “What’s wrong?”
Shen Mo averted his eyes. “Nothing, it just seems like you have a lot of secrets.”
Thement caught Jiang Xia off guard, but she didn’t let it show on her face. “I don’t have many secrets. I’ve just seen a lot, my parents taught me a lot, and I think a lot. That’s all!”
This time, Shen Mo didn’t respond. He stood up and went to work with the other vigers.
From the time the vige chief announced the start of the autumn harvest to the time everything was done, it took about half a month.
Although the children did not have as much work as the adults, it was still a little difficult for Jiang Xia.
She had this magical water that could alleviate fatigue, but every household was busy working. Shen Mo and others would often drop by her ce. If they suddenly became lively from drinking her magical water every day, it might raise suspicions.
Therefore, after discussing with her parents, Jiang Xia decided to only add a couple of drops of her interspace water while cooking and not use it otherwise.
With her mind on the issue of grain misreporting, she took the opportunity to Jiang Xia observed Shen Mo’s expressions during work. Seeing Shen Mo’s thoughtful face while dealing with the dried grains, she knew he would definitely delve into this issue, and this brought her some relief.
They started the grain harvest in mid-September and finished in early October. Normally, the vigers would have a celebration afterpleting all their work, but looking at the grain they managed to produce, everyone fell silent.
Especially since a significant portion of these grains had to be submitted as a levy, it was easy to imagine how little each family would get
Seeing the vigers’ spirits dampened, the vige chief sighed and told everyone to head home and rest. He advised them not to worry about anything else for now.
All the grain had already been threshed and weighed in front of everyone, leaving no room for deceit.
It was only then that the vigers, who had been hoping for luck, admitted that Jiang Chuan’s family’s worries were right. They might not be able to survive the winter with only this amount of grain.
After the vigers left, Jiang Xia, Shen Mo, and the others helped the vige chief to clean up the warehouse.
Seeing the vige chief’s furrowed brow, Jiang Chuan tried to reassure him, “Chief, those seeds you distributed to the vigers, if everyone nts them as instructed, we should get a harvest before winter. It would at least provide some stored vegetables. Even if we run out of grain, having some vegetables in the cer can help us through tough times.”
The vige chief sighed, patting Jiang Chuan’s hand gratefully, “We owe so much to your family! As a vige chief, I haven’t done as much for the vige as you have.”
Jiang Chuan smiled, “Don’t say that, Chief. We’ve just done what we can. Besides, we owe our well-being to your help. Compared to what you’ve done, our efforts are nothing.”
A few days ago, the vige chief had distributed the seeds brought by Jiang Chuan’s family. At first, the vigers were skeptical, wondering if Jiang Chuan’s family had some ulterior motive for giving away the seeds they’d worked so hard to find.
However, as days went by, and Jiang Chuan’s family remained silent, the vige chief asked Xiao Wu to gather everyone together. Once everyone, except Jiang Chuan’s family, was present, the vige chief announced, “I’ve heard all the recent rumors.”
This statement shocked many. They suspected Jiang Chuan had heard their gossip and had the vige chief summon them to retract the seeds, putting them on high alert.
“There’s no need to be nervous. I’ve called you here privately today. I’ve heard your suspicions about the intentions behind the seeds.”
With a stern expression, the vige chief took a deep puff of his cigarette before continuing, “Before they set out to find the seeds, they expressed concern about a poor autumn harvest and potential hard times for all. Back then, you didn’t believe them, using Jiang Chuan of making pretty speeches for personal gain. Now they’ve found seeds and distributed them without expecting anything in return, yet you continue to specte about their intentions.”
“We must be grateful as humans!” The vige chief expressed while ncing at the vigers present.
“Every family is going through tough times now. We live in the same vige, seeing each other daily. In times of adversity, we should band together and find solutions. How can people be so narrow-minded?” he added..