Chapter 212: Chapter 212: Three-color Peony
212 Three-color Peonies
At this moment, someone suddenly asked, "Village Chief, are you going to raise pigs too?"
At this time, the Village Chief’s eldest son, Lei Zi, raised his hand and said, "Yes, our family has already signed up."
Hearing this, many people couldn’t help but look at each other, their hearts somewhat reassured.
With the situation clear, the Village Chief announced that the meeting was over, and the villagers went home one after another.
After some people returned home, they gathered their families to discuss the matter.
Mrs. Zheng, who had a venomous tongue, badmouthed Zhao Dong while also thinking about making money. As soon as she returned home, her mind became active, and she began to inquire about how many families were planning to raise pigs.
「Three days later,」 besides the fifteen households that had already confirmed, another five or six households came to sign up with Zhao Dong.
Although it didn’t reach half of the village, twenty-one households were already a significant number. After all, some small villages only had about twenty households in total.
After confirming the number, Zhao Dong led several villagers to choose pig breeds.
As for where to find the best pigs, Butcher Zhao was the most knowledgeable. So, he took a few villagers to three or four villages, as well as the county town. It took nearly a month of going back and forth before all the pig breeds were finalized.
Zhao Dong’s family got six pigs, with two reserved for breeding.
Butcher Zhao also got six pigs.
Other families got four or three, or, more conservatively, just one pig.
Next, Zhao Dong and Sun Mei gathered everyone at the Zhao family’s home, and Sun Mei began to teach them various pig-raising techniques.
Because they bought piglets, there was no need to castrate them yet. Sun Mei first educated them on sanitation and maintaining a healthy diet for the pigs. This was to prevent diseases like swine fever from spreading if they raised many pigs in the future.
Sun Mei said, "...Especially the pig manure, you should promptly clean up the manure in the pigpens to prevent infections. But don’t worry about how to deal with the manure. I suggest you all go home and dig a pit on your own land specifically for pig manure. It can be used to make fertilizer and increase the yield of our crops."
"Later, my husband will teach you how to ferment the fertilizer..."
At this point, someone asked, "What exactly is fermented fertilizer?"
Zhao Dong explained, "The reason our crops don’t produce high yields is that they lack sufficient nutrients. So, we farmers can achieve higher yields by fertilizing the plants."
The villagers understood now and excitedly said, "We didn’t expect that we could not only raise pigs but also increase crop yields! This is simply too good!"
"Yes, yes, I suddenly feel that following Zhao Dong to make money is really wise!"
"That’s right, I told you before, Brother Dong would not harm us."
"More importantly, raising pigs doesn’t interfere with our farming. We can have our children gather pig fodder, and the beans we grow won’t be sold; we’ll grind them directly into bean cakes to feed the pigs!"
Everyone discussed the advantages of pig raising, all very excited.
At this time, someone suddenly thought of something and asked doubtfully, "Hey, Brother Dong, how did you learn so much about this?"
Zhao Dong couldn’t help but smile. Fortunately, he had already prepared an excuse. He immediately said, "This is all thanks to my daughter."
"My daughter is studying with the Teacher, and all of this information she saw in books and read to us."
"There’s a lot more in the books, including various methods of fermenting fertilizer, each one suited for different kinds of crops, all very useful..."
Zhao Dong told everyone the methods of fermenting fertilizer that he knew, leaving the villagers astounded.
After their surprise, a flurry of emotional comments followed: "You know, reading really is beneficial! It allows you to know so many useful things. Brother Dong, you must make sure your young girl continues her studies!"
"Yes, yes, reading is such a great thing! If I have the means in the future, I’ll also let my child get some schooling to broaden their horizons!"
「...」
Meanwhile, Zhao Zhitong, who was planting peony flowers with her Younger Uncle in the field, suddenly sneezed twice.
Sun Youcai immediately looked up and asked, "Tongtong, are you cold? Don’t catch a cold."
Zhao Zhitong shook her head and shouted, "No way, I’m in great shape! It must be because my father and mother are thinking about me, that’s why I sneezed, TEE HEE."
At this time, Sun Daqing chimed in cheekily, "Little cousin, you sneezed twice. My mother said that sneezing once means someone’s thinking about you, twice means someone’s scolding you, and three times means you have a cold. So, it’s not that someone’s thinking about you; it’s that someone’s cursing you, HAHAHA."
Zhao Zhitong immediately pouted and glared at him with dissatisfaction, shouting, "That’s not true, that’s not true! Someone is thinking about me!"
Then, the little ones started arguing in the field. After arguing for a while, they began running and playing in the tilled earth.
Sun Youcai, who had just finished hoeing the ground, saw the footprints in the field and jumped up and down with anger. He shouted at the little rascals, "You little monkeys, get out of here! I won’t bring you next time, no matter what!"
Zhao Zhitong: "Oh, don’t, Younger Uncle! We’re here to help you plant peony flowers. Without us, you would be so bored."
Sun Daqing also nodded continuously, "Yes, yes, we’re here to help."
Sun Youcai snorted, "Oh, please! ’Helping?’ You’re more of a hindrance than a help."
Zhao Zhitong placed her small hands on her hips, looking proud as she said, "If I didn’t come today, how would we cultivate a three-color peony?"
Sun Youcai was suspicious, "What is this three-color peony? Is it really reliable?"
Zhao Zhitong confidently said, "It’s totally reliable! We’ll just follow what the book says, and it’ll work for sure."
Sun Youcai shrugged, "Alright. After all, we don’t have to pay taxes on the newly reclaimed land for the first two years, so I’ll just consider it as humoring you."
At this time, Zhao Zhitong had already taken out the book.
She said in a childish voice, "Younger Uncle, the book says that peonies should be grafted from May to July or September to October. What month is it now?"
Sun Youcai didn’t understand what "grafting" meant. However, since it was written in the book, and things from books were always profound, he didn’t ask further.
Hearing Zhao Zhitong’s question about the month, he thought for a moment and said, "It’s April now. Let’s wait until next month. It will be May then."
Zhao Zhitong was not in a hurry, patting her little chest and confidently declaring, "Then let’s plant the peony flowers first. Next month, we’ll start grafting, and we’ll definitely grow three-color peonies!"
Sun Daji’s eyes sparkled as he stared at the drawing in the book, "WOW, the flowers in the book are so beautiful and colorful! They really have three-color peony flowers!"
Sun Xiaoxue exclaimed, "Ah, so beautiful! It’s the most beautiful flower I’ve ever seen."
Sun Xiaoyu nodded vigorously, "MMM-HMM, MMM-HMM, MMM-HMM."
Sun Daqing squeezed in eagerly, "Let me see, let me see! WOW, it’s true, so beautiful! These must be worth a lot of money!"
Zhao Zhitong nodded proudly, "Of course! When the time comes, we’ll be rich!"