Chapter 198: Consensus
Editor: Atlas Studios
Mu Yangling and Fan Zijin both turned to glare at Qi Haoran. Qi Haoran stuttered for a moment under the duo-attack. Then, he turned to Mu Yangling hesitantly and said, “This should be ours, right?”
Mu Yangling thought about it carefully. What Fan Zijin said made sense. On the other hand, it was clearly wrong for her to think of taking advantage of these two people.
Mu Yangling nodded and said, “Alright, then what percentage do you think belongs to you?”
Under Fan Zijin’s glare, Qi Haoran suggested, “10%?”
Mu Yangling rolled her eyes. “What’s 10% enough for? Go away and let Fan Zijin speak.”
Satisfied with Mu Yangling’s generosity, Fan Zijin said, “It’s useless for us to take the corn. It’s at best a novelty for us. It probably won’t earn us much money even if we sell it.”
Mu Yangling nodded. “So?”
“Therefore, I want the planting method and planting data. Most importantly, this belongs to Haoran.”
Mu Yangling and Qi Haoran shook their heads, indicating that they did not understand.
Fan Zijin looked at the two equally stupid and adorable people in front of him. He found a patch of grass and sat down, gesturing for them to sit down and have a long talk. Mu Yangling glanced at the cornfield as Fan Zijin said, “Don’t worry. Yanmo and Fei Bai won’t take all your corn. These two brats are smart and know that we have things to discuss.”
Qi Haoran and Mu Yangling sat opposite Fan Zijin and supported their chins as they listened to his explanation.
Seeing the two of them move in unison, Fan Zijin felt a little uncomfortable. He cleared his throat and said, “Previously, the corn yield was 300 catties per acre because the planting method was wrong. Although they aren’t ready for harvest yet, based on my estimation, the yield should be no less than 500 catties per acre. This is even on the worst low-grade land, plus using inferior base fertilizer. Coupled with the drought this year, even in the worst case, it should produce 500 catties per acre. What if it’s under good circumstances? Ignoring everything else, if we plant wheat in such a low-grade land, we might not even be able to produce 100 catties per acre in the end. If the entire Great Zhou’s low-grade land is planted with corn, even if we encounter a disaster year, the commoners won’t starve or be forced to leave their homes and have their families destroyed! Think about it, this is a huge contribution.”
Mu Yangling understood. “You want Qi Haoran to take the credit.”
Fan Zijin raised his head proudly. “This military field is under Haoran’s name and you’re a military household under Haoran. Haoran bought the seeds and even came when the seeds were planted. Don’t you think this is Haoran’s credit?”
The corners of Mu Yangling’s mouth twitched. She patted his shoulder and said, “You should have said so earlier. It’s useless for me to keep the information to myself. I’ll write down the planting method into a book and send it to you later. You can take the credit for it.”
When Fan Zijin saw that Mu Yangling had taken the bait, he immediately smiled in satisfaction.
Qi Haoran widened his eyes and said, “Why do I need this credit? What I want is military merit. I have no problem earning that myself.”
“This is more useful to you than to Mu Yangling. Since you have resources, why waste them for nothing?”
Mu Yangling asked them, “Then are you still taking a share of the corn?”
“It’s useless even if we take it. We’ll just take some when we feel like eating it. The rest is all yours,” Fan Zijin said decisively.
Mu Yangling stood up and patted her butt. “Alright, let’s go back now.”
Seeing that no one was listening to him, Qi Haoran was angered to death. Just as he was about to flare up, he thought of Mu Shi and immediately snorted. He thought to himself, ‘When it comes time to take credit, Mu Shi will have to be involved anyway. I’ll just push Mu Shi out then. The credit for Mu Yangling’s farming should go to her father, right?’
At the thought of this, Qi Haoran immediately became smug. He looked at the two of them and thought to himself, ‘Just you wait. I’ll surprise you.’
No one knew where Yanmo and Fei Bai had gone, but they were still nowhere to be seen. Qi Haoran shouted at the cornfield, “Are you planning to spend the New Year inside? Come out quickly!”
Yanmo and Fei Bai answered vaguely from inside. After a long time, they ran out with their heads full of grass and each carried a bag of corn.
Mu Yangling looked at the two bags of corn and glared at them. “Can you finish eating so much? The corn is still tender. Furthermore, you can’t keep it after peeling off the skin. If it goes bad later, I’ll stuff it into your mouths. It’s a virtue to love grains and not waste them, understand?”
Yanmo nodded and bowed. “Miss Mu, I wanted to help you conserve the corn, but I thought of giving some to our eldest young master to try, so I specially picked more.”
Only then did Mu Yangling feel better. “Since it’s for the general, you have to choose carefully. I’ll choose some good ones for you later. Don’t peel them off so that they can last for three to four days even when the weather is hot.”
When the group returned to the Mu Residence, Great-aunt was standing at the door and watching. When she saw Mu Yangling, she got angry. Before she could see who was standing beside her, she scolded, “Seriously, weren’t you just fetching water? Why did it take you so long? Gosh, I thought something had happened to you.”
“Great-aunt, look who’s here.” Mu Yangling gestured for her to look at Qi Haoran and Fan Zijin. “I’d come back long ago. I thought that our corn should be edible by now, so I brought Little General and the others to pick them.”
When Great-aunt saw Qi Haoran and Fan Zijin, she welcomed them warmly and hurriedly asked them to go in. She took the corn from Yanmo and the rest and said, “I’ll go prepare this. Hurry up and sit down. I’ll get Xiuhong to pour tea for you.” When she reached the door, she realized that she hadn’t eaten corn before and didn’t know how to prepare it. So, she came back and pulled Mu Yangling. “Ah Ling, go prepare it. I’ll pour tea for Little General and the rest.”
Mu Yangling sent the things to the kitchen and placed the corn in the big pot after washing them in the water. Shu Wanniang watched curiously from the side. Seeing that she had merely poured some salt into the pot before lifting the pot, she hurriedly asked, “That’s it?”
Mu Yangling nodded. “Yeah, what else do you want? Considering salt is so expensive, I’ve already put in so much of it. That should be enough to add flavor to the corn. Alright, let’s start the fire.”
Shu Wanniang said hesitantly, “I remember that there are several dishes made of corn in the books. There’s one called ‘Bountiful Gold-Jade’ and another one called ‘Abundant Prosperity’. What’s this one called?”
Mu Yangling rolled her eyes and said, “This is called corn boiled in salt water. I don’t dare to say anything else, but Emperor Shizong must have eaten this dish before.”
Shu Wanniang smacked her daughter’s head and said, “You’re talking nonsense again. When Emperor Shizong said the names of these dishes, corn had yet to be discovered.”
“Then how do you think Emperor Shizong knew about corn and the names of the dishes made of corn? He must have eaten it before. Perhaps he ate it in his dream.”
Not at all believing her daughter’s words, Shu Wanniang stood up and picked up the remaining corn beside her to ponder. “This corn does look good. I’ll see if I can make a few dishes out of it later.”
“Considering this is yellow corn, it probably doesn’t taste good. You have to use glutinous corn and sweet corn for something flavorful. But no matter what it tastes like, I don’t like all corn.”
“Why? It smells quite fragrant to me.”
Mu Yangling made up a story. “When I was learning how to grow corn from Bodhisattva Guan Yin, I was forced to eat a lot of corn. I ate it every day and every year. I ate so much that I felt like vomiting whenever I saw corn, so I have no desire to eat it anymore.”