Because they were treating everyone to dinner, one table couldn’t fit so many people, so two tables were put together in the central room. However, the central room wasn’t big, and with two tables, there was not enough space for the seeds. The seeds that were picked were naturally placed in the corridor outside the central room. After dinner, they would clean up a table and move it in.
Jiang Yue was helping to wash the vegetables while watching Xue Yifu follow Xue Yan into the room to look at the reworked drawing, but her mind was filled with the issue of the rapeseed.
She had also heard the conversation between Xue Erfu and Xue Dafu.
He was being bullied.
In fact, it was the oil mill people who were bullying the whole village.
If it was only once or twice, it might still be acceptable, but every year… If it wasn’t bullying, what was it? There was only one oil mill in town, so everyone had to sell their seeds to him.
If there was another oil mill…
Just as Jiang Yue had this thought, she heard Liu Guixia standing by the stove and sighing. “If only your cousin had really built up the oil mill last year. Then, the villagers in this town wouldn’t have to take the attitude of the people from the oil mill and suffer so much.”
“That’s right,” Yu Hongyan, who was sitting by the stove with a stick in her hand manning the flames, immediately agreed.
“But he didn’t learn well. He made a lot of things and extracted the oil, but the oil he extracted was of low quality and couldn’t be sold at all. He lost a lot of money. Otherwise, his family would have bought a lot of lands last year. I remember hearing his aunt say that he originally planned to buy one or two acres of land last year so that the family could expand. In the end, because the cousin opened this oil mill, the land couldn’t be bought. It’s a good thing that we didn’t try something like that.”
This cousin was named Xua Yan, the eldest son of his eldest uncle’s family.
“What happened to him after?” Jiang Yue asked.
Perhaps, she could make her eldest cousin’s oil mill open again.
Li Hehua was not surprised by Jiang Yue’s question, so she answered.
“It’s like this. Last year, he was introduced to the oil mill in town to do odd jobs, but he only did it for a few days before he came back. He said that oil extraction was easy. He understood the concept and wanted to open an oil mill too. He’s very confident.”
Jiang Yue eyes widened in shock.
“Then, my uncle thought that he could do it, so he let him do it. We gave him all our savings and built a big house to be an oil mill. But for some reason, the oil extracted was of poor quality. We farmers couldn’t even eat it ourselves. We brought it to town, but we couldn’t sell it at all. The oil mill was of no use, so we stopped using it. The uncle even locked the oil mill and stopped people from entering, saying that it would be troublesome to see it.”
Li Hehua brought the washed vegetables to Liu Guixia under the shed and then walked back. While washing other vegetables, she continued to talk to Jiang Yue.
“The family’s savings were gone, and the cousin had given up. He wanted to work in the oil mill again. No matter what, he would make more money than farming. But he had already left the oil mill, so obviously they didn’t want him back. So, he can only stay at home and continue to plant crops with his dad.”
Jiang Yue understood. It was because of his confidence that caused this trouble.
However, after only doing odd jobs for a few days, he was able to extract oil, although the quality of the oil was not good. It was enough to show that Xua Yan still had some brains.
“So,” Jiang Yue said, “His oil mill is still there, and the things inside are still there, but they’ve stopped working?”