Chapter 1327: Chapter 1305: Angry
Manager Bai laughed and said, "There’s nothing we can do. This place is close to the mountains. Not only do weasels steal chickens, but mountain rats are particularly big and often injure the chickens. The estate bought a few geese, which were recommended by Old Master Zhou."
After all, there aren’t many families raising geese in Luojiang County, so they aren’t easy to buy.
The three of them, who originally planned to go into the chicken coop to grab a few eggs, immediately gave up the idea. Forget it, they decided it was better to just watch from a distance.
The estate’s hired laborers lived quite well. In addition to their fixed monthly wages, during each harvest, they received bonuses. For instance, with the chickens and ducks raised by the estate, three-tenths of the yield would be given to them, while the bran and other feeding costs were covered by the estate.
The four households of hired laborers all came out to meet Bai Shan and the others. Aside from the two new households, the other two were very familiar with Manbao and the others, having worked together on planting, weeding, and harvesting wheat and rice before.
The three of them surveyed the land and, along with Manager Bai, roughly planned the planting arrangements for the following year.
Of course, fertile fields were designated for planting rice and wheat. As for the less productive land, Manbao planned to plant more ginger and yams. She looked at the hill, which still had only about twenty fruit trees, and said, "Later, I’ll talk to my brothers about leaving some privet branches for you to propagate."
The laborers naturally had no objections, but Manager Bai was somewhat hesitant. "Didn’t they say medicinal herbs don’t sell well?"
Though others wouldn’t know, he was well aware that the Zhou family’s privet berries were only accepted in limited quantities by Jishi Hall in the county, and the prices were significantly lowered. That’s why they had to send them to Yizhou.
But he also heard that even the pharmacies in Yizhou couldn’t take all of their privet berries.
Manbao said meaningfully, "Don’t worry. Plant as much as you can. Once everything is processed, my Fourth Brother will take care of it."
Even if their plans for the Imperial Hospital didn’t pan out, building another female hospital would ensure that more doctors came to see patients. More doctors meant more patients, and more patients meant more medicine being consumed.
Bai Shan had apparently predicted this as well. He nodded to Manager Bai and said, "That’s right. Plant as much as you can. Don’t worry about not being able to sell it."
Manager Bai turned to look at the lush green mountains and sighed. "Young Master, clearing these mountains to plant medicinal herbs will take a lot of manpower."
Manbao suggested, "Why not buy two more oxen?"
Manager Bai began to consider the idea, thinking it might be feasible. After all, one ox could equal two laborers.
The three of them roughly planned the land and then walked to the edge of the canal. Seeing fish in the water, they borrowed wooden buckets from the laborers and tried to fish.
Manager Bai shook his head and left when he saw them being playful and off-task again. Bai Shan stopped him and asked, "Have this winter’s fish been harvested yet?"
Manager Bai replied, "They’ve already been caught."
The three were disappointed—they had missed this year’s fish harvest.
But they didn’t lose heart. Since the laborers’ families had fish baskets, Bai Shan tied one to a wooden pole and lowered it into the water, dragging it slowly forward.
Daji followed behind them, watching them play with water—or rather, fish.
But catching fish in the canal wasn’t easy. After busying themselves for half a day, they didn’t catch any big fish or even palm-sized small ones, just a net full of tiny fry.
Looking at the fry, Bai Shan and the others decided to pour them back into the water. These tiny fish would grow into next year’s big fish; they couldn’t trap and exhaust them all now.
After playing for most of the morning, they felt hungry and realized it was already noon.
The laborers invited Manbao and the others to stay for lunch, but the three of them declined.
The laborers thought about it and decided to gather a basket of duck eggs from the house to give them as a gift for their masters.
Manager Bai glanced at the basket of duck eggs but said nothing.
Manbao and the others were delighted and carried the duck eggs back to the village.
Sitting on the mule cart, Manbao casually picked up a duck egg and played with it in her hand. Observing how much larger it was than a chicken egg, she curiously asked, "Manager Bai, how much are duck eggs at the market?"
Manager Bai replied, "Two wen for three."
Manbao paused for a moment. "Chicken eggs seem to be three wen for two, aren’t they?"
Manager Bai nodded. "Duck eggs aren’t as tasty as chicken eggs."
That’s why, when dividing the estate’s three-tenths of eggs among the laborers, he used duck eggs to replace chicken eggs and sold the chicken eggs instead.
He glanced again at the basket of duck eggs but didn’t mention this to the masters.
Manbao didn’t think much of it and said while holding a duck egg, "Ducks aren’t as tasty as chickens either, and they’re dirtier. If our farm wasn’t far from the village and didn’t have a big canal in front, I wouldn’t even want to raise them."
Bai Shan took another look at Manager Bai, then at the basket of duck eggs, and seemed deep in thought.
Bai Shan said to Manbao, "Take these duck eggs home and eat them."
Manbao shook her head. "No need. My family has chicken eggs. Let’s take them to your house instead."
Bai Erlang said, "If you both don’t want them, I’ll take them."
Both Bai Shan and Manbao nodded together. "Alright, they’re yours."
Bai Erlang said, "I’ll have the cook fry them for lunch. Come to my place for the meal."
Bai Shan and Manbao both declined, saying they wanted to go home for lunch.
Bai Erlang sensed something amiss and told Daji, "Later, we’ll take the road to my house after crossing the bridge. Hmph, I refuse to believe these duck eggs taste so bad."
When Bai Shan and Manbao heard this, they didn’t decline and followed him to deliver the basket of duck eggs to the kitchen.
No one knew where they would eat lunch, so the Bai family’s cook hadn’t prepared anything for them. But it didn’t take long; the stove was still warm, and there were ready-made dishes and rice. Fresh vegetables were directly cooked.
The cook promised to make a dish with duck eggs for them, finally managing to shoo them out.
Bai Shan reminded, "Don’t cook too much; three are enough. Too many will go to waste."
Manbao added, "Use more ginger. I heard duck eggs are more fishy than chicken eggs."
Bai Erlang said, "Cook freely; don’t hold back."
Cook: ...
Bai Shan turned to Bai Erlang and said irritably, "If there are leftovers, you eat them! We didn’t trick you into taking them; you wanted them yourself, so why are you mad now?"
"Exactly," Manbao chimed in. "Wasteful, don’t you know?"
Bai Erlang replied, "I hate how you two aren’t upfront in your words."
Bai Shan quipped, "Well, I passed them to Manbao, didn’t I? I didn’t pass them to you."
"Exactly. I passed them to Bai Shan, so you weren’t involved," Manbao added.
Bai Erlang became more indignant. "Now I’m even angrier!"
The cook heard their bickering as they walked ahead without delaying their stride. She hesitated for a moment before turning to Manager Bai and asking, "Are they arguing?"
Manager Bai was speechless for a moment. He had no idea why they were arguing.
Daji remained unaffected. Once he saw they had returned home safely, he left them behind, swung his arms, went back to the neighboring Bai Manor, had lunch, and went to rest.