Picking Up a General to Plow the Fields

Chapter 264: Clutch of chicks

The hatching time of ducks and chickens was not the same, which meant it was impossible to put in a few duck eggs with the batch.
When the chicks hatched, there would still be a few days before the ducks finished.

When the eggs were hatched and the chicks collected, the temperature of the room would drop, and the duck eggs would be affected in their crucial incubation period.
How would this end?

He didn’t even know if the temperature of the duck eggs was even the same, after all he had no experience.
If it was the same, then that would be fine but if it was not, all the duck eggs would be ruined! Who would dare try?

Moreover, the temperature changed throughout the incubation.
For chicken eggs, the temperature was raised after 23 days.
Duck eggs needed 27 days and who knew what day their temperature needed to rise.
If they got the wrong day, the eggs would be ruined.

When Lian Fang Zhou saw Old Man Wang shake his head, she didn’t mind it.
Thinking about it, she said: “I will also buy one or two hundred duck eggs and you can give it a try! If it works, we will take the ducklings.”

Old Man Wang’s eyes lit up as he nodded excitedly, laughing: “This is fine! I will give it a try! However, it will have to wait a while.”

“That’s natural, we should finish the chickens first!” Lian Fang Zhou agreed.

So Lian Fang Zhou left five taels of silver, two for the duck eggs, and three as a deposit for the chicks.

Old Man Wang was very pleased and thanked her over and over again as he received the money.
Together with his son, he saw the three of them out.

On the road, Lian Ze couldn’t help but ask her: “Sister, why do you want ducklings? Where can we keep them? The creek beside our village can’t support many ducks?”

Ah Jian also found this a little strange.

Lian Fang Zhou laughed: “Why would we raise them in the small ditch by the village? Even if I wanted to, we will likely have twenty or thirty and that is too much for Madam Li! I’m just making preparations in advance and won’t raise them this year.
It will be fine to raise some next year!”

“Next year!” Lian Ze’s eyes were wide, unable to believe it.
He sighed helplessly: “Sister, your plans are really long term!”

Lian Fang Zhou and Ah Jian laughed.
Looking over, Ah Jian said: “Your sister always has a plan in her heart.
I think it’s okay to make preparations in advance, we won’t be busy until the end of the year.”

Lian Ze’s mouth twitched.
“Ha, whatever Eldest Sister plans, Brother Ah Jian says yes…” he muttered softly.

His words were small, so Lian Fang Zhou and Ah Jian did not hear him as they talked about other things.

Lian Fang Zhou had wanted to raise some this year, but it was a pity that she did not have enough money.
By now, there was only three thousand taels left.
After the cotton was planted, the management cost was not much but in the later stages she would need to hire people to make the tools for processing the cotton.
After all, she wanted to open her own cotton cloth shop!

All of this would require silver! Not to mention anything else, just hiring skilled weavers was costly.

After a few days, the news arrived that Lian Hai and Sun Ming had both passed the country exam and would be taking another one in April.
They had officially become scholars!

Becoming a scholar meant that they no longer needed to kneel and salute officials, pay household taxes, were except from hard labor, and could submit your opinions and suggestions directly to the county magistrate for local affairs.
Scholars also received five buckets of rice as a subsidy.

Looking at the future, becoming a scholar was the first step into officialdom and even if you couldn’t go further, becoming a teacher was also not bad!

In short, the benefits of being a talented person were real!

Lian Hai and Sun Ming now had one foot in the door.

When the news reached the village, everyone was happy and envious.
Lian Li and Madam Qiao straightened their backs when they walked and spoke louder.

Sun Zhang Xing and his wife cried for cry, both nervous and excited.
They were already making plans for April.

Madam Qiao’s excitement was bursting out of her chest and she immediately wanted to go make trouble at Lian Fang Zhou’s house.
However, she was stopped by Lian Li.

Seeing that she was dissatisfied, Lian Li only said coldly: “Ah Hai, is not just a talented person now, so why are you so anxious? You’ve been impatient for two days! If you let people see a joke, will you have the face to see them in the future?”

Lian Li’s meaning was that if Ah Hai didn’t pass the exams, they would be setting themselves up for embarrassment.
The word ‘fail’ was too unlucky, however, so the couple would never say it out loud.

Madam Qiao’s face was stiff: “We, Ah Hai is so smart! We are not like the Sun family, those poor ghosts, of course we will have a big blessing!”

The Sun couple went to express their gratitude to Lian Fang Zhou, making her feel very embarrassed! However, she accepted their thanks, despite her embarrassment.

The weather was getting warmer by the day and the sun was shining.
Lian Fang Zhou decided it was time to prepare for the cotton seedlings.

As for the related affairs of the other 60 or so acres of paddy fields, she left that to Qin Feng to manage.

Before the cotton seedlings could be planted, they had to be treated and the land needed to be sorted again.

Su Zi Ji took six workers to organize the fields while Lian Fang Zhou and her family processed the cotton seedlings.

Because cottons seeds needed to be processed every year, she had built a special room in the compound.
The building had two floors, the upper layer for drying and the bottom for storing.

Of course, the seeds at this time would be planted immediately, so they did not need to be stored.

With a total of seven to eight thousand catties of cotton seeds, it would take a long time to completely carry them over and pile them in the empty room.

Zhang Xiao Jun took his family and three workers to unload the cargo while Lian Fang Zhou, Ah Jian, and Lian Ze took three other workers to load the cart, which Ah Jian would drive back and forth.

People were constantly coming in and out, very busy.
When Lian Fang Zhou arrived, however, their neighbor, Aunt Liu was waiting at the door and immediately greeted her before she entered the yard.

Lian Fang Zhou did not say anything but Aunt Liu was determine to chat, making no move to leave at all.
At first she wasn’t bother but when she realized Aunt Liu wasn’t leaving, she stopped her and moved to the side, asking with a smile: “Is there anything wrong with Auntie? Just tell me if there is!”

“No wonder everyone says that Fang Zhou is a refreshing person!” Aunt Liu laughed suddenly, nodding: “There is indeed something!”

She lowered her voice slightly and moved closer to Lian Fang Zhou, asking in a whisper: “Fang Zhou, my aunt wanted me to ask you about your cousin Ah Jian, who has moved here from far away.
Is he married or betrothed?”

TN: I have no idea who Aunt Liu is, she’s not in my list of characters.
I thought maybe it was supposed to be Madam Niu, Zhang Li Zheng’s wife, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Anyone remember her?