Gourd Farm Chapter 8
Translated by Etherna (ko-fi)
Chapter 8: Almost Revealed the Secret
Yang Feng finished packing his things and prepared to go back. While passing by the fertilizer shop, he remembered that they had almost run out of urea at home. He decided to go in and take a look.
It was the busy planting season, and the small seed store was already crowded with people. Tractors were lined up outside the door, with several families pooling their resources to bring them over. However, Yang Feng did not have a good relationship with the people in the village, and nobody was willing to help him. He also did not own a tractor, so he had to wait patiently.
After a while, the number of people inside the shop began to decrease, it was only then that Yang Feng finally had the chance to step forward.
Yang Feng looked at the owner, who had a beer belly and was sitting comfortably in his boss chair, eating watermelon and drinking iced tea. The chair creaked and groaned under his weight, but it seemed to be of good quality, or else it would have fallen apart already.
"Boss, how much is the urea?" Yang Feng asked.
The boss looked up and raised an eyebrow at Yang Feng. "How much do you need? It's one hundred and three yuan per retail bag."
"I just need one bag for now since we haven't started planting in our land yet," Yang Feng replied.
"Okay, no problem. They're all outside. Where's your vehicle? I can help you carry it up," the owner offered.
"No need, I can do it myself," Yang Feng declined.
After paying for the urea, Yang Feng carried the bag and placed it on his bike. He didn't seem to mind that it was weighing down his bike.
It looked like he would have to push his bike back home. He decided to work diligently and save money for a tractor in the coming years.
After an hour of pushing, stopping, and resting, Yang Feng finally saw the entrance to his village. His throat was dry and he felt like he was breathing smoke.
As he reached the old locust tree at the entrance of the village, a group of idle old men and women looked over at him.
"Hey, Xiaofeng, what are you doing out in this scorching weather?" they asked.
It was Zhu Zhihua, the village committee administrator, who was always curious about everything that happened in the village. There was nothing she didn't know about as long as it was a village matter.
She was faster than a news reporter, and even though she had retired many years ago, she couldn't shake off this habit.
"I went to the town, Auntie Hua," Yang Feng replied. He then prepared to push his bike with the urea back home, but Auntie Hua stopped him by grabbing his bike.
"Come over here, I need to ask you something. It won't take up too much of your time," she said.
Feeling embarrassed to leave after hearing this, Yang Feng pushed his bike to the base of a nearby tree and began fixing its leg.
Suddenly, Aunt Hua produced a watermelon from somewhere and offered it to Yang Feng. "Look at you, all sweaty. Eat this watermelon quickly," she said.
Aunt Hua was a genuinely kind and warm-hearted person. Whenever there was trouble or difficulty in the village, you could always count on seeing her lending a helping hand.
Now with a dry, sore throat, Yang Feng didn’t stand on ceremony and eagerly took the juicy watermelon and asked as he ate, "Aunt Hua, what happened?"
Curiously, Aunt Hua asked him, "When you were in the city, did you study agricultural planting techniques with an expert?"
Upon hearing Aunt Hua's question, Yang Feng was completely dumbfounded. Besides washing dishes and delivering takeout in the city over the past few years, he had never even planted a blade of grass, let alone studied agricultural planting techniques.
"Aunt Hua, I see you're becoming more imaginative these days. I always knew you were good at getting information, but I didn't expect you to be so creative," he quipped.
"Stop it, Yang Feng. I'm not joking with you," Aunt Hua replied sternly, with a serious expression on her face.
Taken aback by Aunt Hua's sincerity, Yang Feng's face also became serious. "Aunt Hua, I'm not joking either. I really haven't studied it."
After observing Yang Feng for a while, Aunt Hua decided he wasn't lying. She had watched him grow up and knew him well.
"Yang Feng, how did you come up with the idea of going back home to farm, and you manage your vegetable garden so well."
When Aunt Hua asked about the vegetable garden, the older folks around clearly perked up.
It seemed that these people were all quite interested in his vegetable garden, which was not surprising since the green vegetables and chili peppers in the garden were quite eye-catching.
It looked like Yang Feng would have to be more careful in the future. As the saying goes, "It's not the thief who steals, it's the one who covets."
This didn't mean that Yang Feng was small-minded, but whether in the countryside or in the city, good things would always be coveted by some unscrupulous people.
He thought about how to deflect the question. He couldn't tell them about the gourds. That was something only someone with less brains would do.
"Aunt Hua, the things planted in the vegetable garden this time were not because of my good skills, but rather because I came back from the city recently and bought good seeds from there. Do you usually buy seeds from the stalls or seed shops in town?"
"Yes, where else can we buy them if not in town?"
"That's right, my seeds are different from yours to begin with, so how could the things that grow from them be the same?"
At this moment, an older lady next to them spoke up, "Auntie Hua, what this young man is saying is probably true. My nephew's aunt, who lives near my house, had a much larger harvest this year than us because she used different seeds. She got over 200 more pounds of wheat than we did."
The people around them started to whisper to each other, even Auntie Hua was drawn into the conversation.
Yang Feng was relieved that the topic had finally changed, so he said to Auntie Hua, "I'll go ahead and head back now."
"Okay, go ahead," Auntie Hua replied, still engrossed in the conversation.
Yang Feng pushed his cart and headed home. After taking a few steps, he heard Auntie Hua call out to him, "Little Feng, let me know next time you go to the city, and bring me some of those same seeds."
"I got it, Auntie Hua," Yang Feng replied.
Yang Feng was just trying to get by. Without the help of the gourd, he wouldn't have been able to do it.
After a simple meal at home, he took his bag and headed to the vegetable garden.
He looked at the watermelon he had planted a few days ago. The watermelon seedlings had already reached the plastic film covering them.
The lush green sprouts were growing tenaciously with great vitality. Yang Feng poked holes in the plastic film with his hands to expose the watermelon seedlings. This would help them grow better.
The longer he used the gourd, the more he could feel the abnormality of the gourd water.
This water seemed to have varying degrees of effectiveness on different plants. He hadn't mastered it yet and could only explore slowly.
In order to speed up the growth of the second batch of strawberries and prepare for selling them at the market, they have been watered with a lot of gourd water these past few days. Now, all the strawberries are red and shiny, and the sunlight reflecting off of them is almost blinding.
The owner of the local steamed bun shop needs twenty pounds of vegetables tomorrow morning, but it looks like he can only give him ten pounds for now.
First of all, he is still in the process of building up his vegetables’ reputation, now if he were to supply restaurants, the production wouldn't be able to keep up and it wouldn't be beneficial for his current goals.
He quickly put all the vegetables into the bamboo basket. The vegetables were still too tender and couldn't be stacked too much, or they would all be crushed.
After washing the vegetables, he placed them on a board to drain the water. This would make them lighter to carry in the morning.
As the sky was getting dark, he hurriedly grabbed a bucket and watered the vegetable in the garden. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to work later when the mosquitoes come out.