Chapter 355 Not picky about land and easy to take care of

Chapter 355 Not picky about land and easy to take care of

The old woman trembled with excitement, but she didn't immediately offer a price. Instead, she pointed to her storeroom and said, "Besides these that are listed, I have... I have two more of these... You... You..."

This was an unexpected delight. Xie Wanniang raised an eyebrow. "If the quality is the same as what you've displayed, I can buy them all."

The old lady's joy cooled down a bit, because her son had picked out the best ones to hang up, and the rest were actually not as good as the ones that were hung up.

But she didn't give up. Instead, she and her grandchildren painstakingly carried several large baskets out of the storeroom. "These aren't as good as the ones hanging out to hang, but they were carefully selected by my son. Perhaps... perhaps..."

Xie Wanniang gestured for her and the children to pick out all the corn cobs and place them on her family's old wooden table.

Seeing that there was a chance, the old lady immediately called over her grandsons to help.

The family carefully placed the items on the table, while Xie Wanniang picked them up one by one to check them before carefully putting them into the empty bamboo basket.

In the end, apart from the two ears of corn that had been gnawed by rats that the grandmother and grandson had picked out, Xie Wanniang put all the remaining ears of corn back into the empty bamboo basket provided by the old lady.

She pointed to the ears of corn that looked good and said, "I can buy all of these. Now you can decide how much you want."

This family has a lot of corn on the cob, but because they haven't threshed it, it's still whole with the cob inside. Xie Wan's mother certainly won't pay for it just because of the pile.

The old lady was clearly aware of this as well. She estimated how much of her pile of things would be left after removing the core, and then estimated how many of her things were in excellent condition and how many were in poor condition. Finally, the old lady tremblingly raised her two hands.

"Ten...ten taels?"

She cautiously glanced at Xie Wanniang, thinking to herself that if Xie Wanniang was unhappy, she would immediately lower the price to eight, no, five taels.

Xie Wanniang calmly accepted her subtle scrutiny, "Alright, then ten taels it is."

After a pause, she instructed Haitang, "Haitang, go and bring down two boxes each of walnut shortbread and steamed rice cake from the car, and also a bag of brown sugar and a bolt of coarse cloth."

Haitang responded and left, while the others took the initiative to run over and help Xie Wanniang move the baskets.

The old lady never expected that Xie Wanniang would give them two more boxes of pastries, a packet of brown sugar, and a piece of coarse cloth, even though she had already asked for ten taels of silver for all the things in her house.

She couldn't help but wonder if she had asked for too low a price.

But looking at the things Xie Wanniang gave her, she couldn't help but think that the price she asked for probably wasn't much lower.

The old lady silently praised the noble person, thinking how kind they were, while cautiously asking Xie Wanniang, "Noble lady, may I... may I also exchange the pastries for cloth?"

Xie Wanniang was taken aback, but quickly nodded in agreement, "Okay."

She glanced at Haitang, who then turned back to Xie Wanniang's carriage to change the old lady's clothes.

The old lady's grandsons stared at the snack box, their mouths watering, but none of them threw a tantrum or complained that they wanted to eat the snacks.

Xie Wanniang thought to herself, "It seems that this old lady's family has raised their children very well."

She also noticed that the family actually had daughters, but the two girls were just sitting inside weaving cloth and were not called out by their grandmother to help with heavy lifting.

It was because she noticed this small detail that Xie Wanniang offered some additional items as a form of compensation after the other party quoted a price.

Yes, this was just a sudden act of kindness from Xie Wanniang, not some compensation for the old lady asking for too low a price.

The old man from the previous house didn't actually ask for a price that met her highest expectations, but Xie Wanniang still accepted his price without raising it herself.

After all, the other party didn't just sell her so many sweet potatoes and potatoes that could be used for planting for 30 or 50 coins; they had already asked her for a relatively high price of four or five taels of silver for a bag.

Once Haitang had exchanged the pastries for cloth, Xie Wanniang and the others prepared to leave the village and return to Dinghai County.

Before leaving, Xie Wanniang overheard the old woman saying in the carriage, "Shuanzi, go find your third grandmother and tell her that she wants to trade some cloth for an old hen."

The child named Shuanzi responded loudly, then asked curiously, "Grandma, are you going to stew chicken for us?"

The old woman's voice gradually faded, "Yes, isn't eating meat better than eating desserts?"

Xie Wanniang couldn't help but chuckle. This was the simple mindset of the poor: no matter how delicious the snacks were, they couldn't compare to eating a meal of meat.

Haitang has no shortage of meat to eat, but she also feels that eating meat is better than eating desserts.

Amidst the jolting of the carriage, she looked at Xie Wanniang with hopeful eyes, "Miss, when we get home, can I ask the kitchen to make some braised pork?"

"Sure." Xie Wanniang never hesitated to grant such a small request.

Haitang beamed with delight, "Miss, where are we going to plant these three crops you bought?"

"Baoding Prefecture".

Haitang asked in surprise, "These things can be grown in Baoding Prefecture too?"

Xie Wanniang nodded, "These things aren't picky about the land, especially sweet potatoes and potatoes. Not only are they not picky about the land, but they also don't need to be carefully tended like wheat and rice. With these things, we can use the good fields to grow wheat and rice, and then use the lower-quality fields to grow sweet potatoes and potatoes."

Although she didn't know the yield per acre of sweet potatoes, potatoes, and corn in this era, based on her historical experience from her previous life, it was highly likely that the yield would be higher than that of wheat, rice, and sorghum in the same period.

Optimizing grain varieties is a long process, and Xie Wanniang is not in a hurry. What she wants to solve now is the problem of food and clothing for the general public.

As for the general knowledge and theory courses she had tried to offer before, Xie Wanniang had already begun preparing teaching materials and plans to submit to His Majesty the Emperor because the teaching results were quite good.

Yes, just like with printing, Xie Wanniang also planned to leave the task of popularizing scientific knowledge to the emperor.

As for herself, as an ordinary person who prefers entertainment to work and can't force herself to become a "king of rolls," she felt that she should just take a comfortable life as her goal.

The group returned to Dinghai County amidst the constant jolting of the carriage. Xie Wanniang didn't even have time to wash up or change her clothes before having paper and pen prepared for her.

After having dinner with Jiang Yuan and the children, she began working late into the night.