The Lucky Heiress

Chapter 35: Selling Sweet Potato Leaves 1

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In the following days, the Military Prefecture returned to its usual tranquility, Wei Ruo’s relationship with her family had become even colder than when she had just arrived.

This was particularly true with Yun, who used to be warm towards Wei Ruo. However, Wei Ruo’s response was never enthusiastic and now that Yun was cold towards her, Wei Ruo became even more indifferent.

Wei Yichen was somewhat worried about this but Wei Ruo didn’t care.

She didn’t care about the attitudes of the others in her family towards her because she had several important matters at hand.

Firstly, the sweet potatoes on Xiaoyang Mountain had already grown lush leaves.

Sweet potato leaves are also a fine type of food, which can be picked for consumption as a green vegetable and provide additional benefits before the sweet potatoes ripen.

What’s more, the benefit of sweet potato leaves is that the more that can be sold, the more that can be harvested and what can’t be sold can be left in the ground to provide nutrients for the sweet potatoes.

For the first harvest of sweet potato leaves, the wet nurse was a little uncertain, so Wei Ruo sent Xiumei there because she had mobility issues After Xiumei and the wet nurse met, they directed the laborers to harvest a portion of the sweet potatoes. The harvested sweet potato leaves were strung together in bundles with rice straw and then loaded onto a readily-transportable oxcart after being placed in baskets.

For the first harvest, aware that people might not be familiar with sweet potato leaves, Xiumei and the wet nurse picked only two baskets’ worth according to Wei Ruo’s instruction.

Then, they transported the oxcart to the market for sale, priced at two coins per bunch.

This price was set by Wei Ruo. It’s not expensive, aiming for a high volume of sales with a small profit.

Wei Ruo generally would not price agricultural products too high, aiming for quantity rather than high profits but on luxury items that only the rich and powerful could afford, Wei Ruo set the price as high as possible.

Selling sweet potato leaves was also for the purpose of better promoting sweet potatoes as a crop, to prepare for the market for an even larger amount of sweet potatoes.

On their way to the market, the wet nurse even went home and stir-fried a large plate of them to bring to the market.

At the market, they made funneled shapes with small dumpling leaves to hold the cooked sweet potato leaves, each only containing enough for one bite.

Then they had the laborers who were helping with the transportation cry out: “Two coins per bunch, free samples.”

Due to the scarcity of arable land in Xingshan County, vegetables were generally more expensive than in other regions. Plus, poor weather in recent years had lowered crop yields and combined with Japanese Pirates causing disruptions led to fewer merchant convoys, thus fewer vegetables being transported from other places. This resulted in the price of vegetables in Xingshan County being several times higher than other places.

Fresh green vegetables sold for two coins a bunch were indeed quite appealing, attracting many onlookers.

Although they hadn’t seen this before, there were ready-to-eat samples available.

The wet nurse very enthusiastically handed the dumpling leaves filled with stir-fried sweet potato leaves to the onlookers.

Once they learned that this was a vegetable that could be eaten, tasted refreshing and delicious, and was also affordable, some began buying it to give it a try.

In no time at all, all of the sweet potato leaves in the two baskets were sold out. After leaving the market, Xiumei followed the wet nurse back to their current residence.

There is a shop in the front, and a small house in the back, not a big place, but the wet nurse and her family were very satisfied the place.

Especially considering its location, which was rather good. It was close to the Military Prefecture and the shop at the front was in a busy area. Once they open for business, it should attract lots of customers.

After having lunch with the three members of the Xu Family in the small house, Xiumei returned to the Military Prefecture.

When she came back, she brought Wei Ruo sweet potato leaves and some other vegetable mushrooms. All of these were prepared by the wet nurse’s family for Wei Ruo, as they were worried she might not be used to the food at the Military Prefecture.

After that, Wei Ruo told Xiumei to stand guard outside her door and prevent anyone from entering.

She then visited her dimensional space and harvested the sweet potatoes that she had planted on two pieces of land within the space.

The speed at which plants grow in the dimensional space is not the same as outside. Whereas the sweet potatoes on Xiaoyang Mountain had just started to grow leaves, those in her dimensional space were ready to be harvested.

She harvested a total of two basketfuls of sweet potatoes, and gained a significant increase in experience points, leaving her less than one hundred points away from the one thousand points needed to level up.

Seeing level up on the horizon, Wei Ruo was increasingly looking forward to the new seeds that would be unlocked.

Wei Ruo decided to keep the sweet potatoes she had harvested in her dimensional space. As having two baskets of sweet potatoes appeared out of nowhere might arouse suspicion.

After Wei Ruo stored the sweet potatoes, as long as the environment in the space remained dry, they would not spoil in the short term.

Since it was currently inconvenient to remove the sweet potatoes from her space for sale, she decided to keep them there as a reserve for food.

Just in case she ever ran into trouble and ran out of food or water, the provisions stored in her dimensional space would at least ensure that she didn’t starve to death.

The next day, Wei Ruo went personally to the southern part of the city and used the document given to her by Wei Mingting to successfully persuade the guards at the south gate to let her through.

In the southern city, Wei Ruo has selected a flat piece of land that was convenient for transportation and near a water source as her experimental field.

She ordered the two laborers sent by Yun to weeding and tilling the land. After that, she asked them to transport water from a nearby river to irrigate the field every day.

Even though nothing had been planted in the field yet, having to water it every day. This was perplexing to many.

Furthermore, Wei Ruo wanted the laborers to shape the field into something suitable for rice seeding, even though it was nearing the Dragon Boat Festival and elsewhere, the rice stalks had already grown taller than people’s knees. Wei Ruo’s insistence on carving out a seedling field to grow rice now left some wondering whether she truly understood farming or not.

Wet nurse Zhang and the two laborers were skeptical, and found Wei Ruo’s actions peculiar.

After two days of work, Wet nurse Zhang couldn’t help but express her concerns to Wei Ruo: “Miss, why don’t you switch to other crops to plant? Although I haven’t tilled the fields for many years, I remember back in our hometown people used to say that there is a time and season for everything. Whether it’s planting crops, gourds, vegetables, there’s a specific time to do so. Once you miss that window, it won’t grow very well!”

“Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing. I guarantee you that once you’ve prepared the land, there will still be plenty of time to plant rice.” Wei Ruo of course understood the importance of timing.

It was almost June, and normally it would be too late to plant rice.

However, the rice seeds in her space were a variety that could be planted as either early-season or late-season rice.

The early-season rice would be flowering by next month, while the late-season rice wouldn’t be planted until the sixth or seventh lunar month. She could still make it in time.

By doing this, she could simultaneously conduct experiments on improving saline-alkali land and planting late-season rice.

If successful, not only could the arable land of Xingshan County be significantly expanded, but they could also plant rice twice a year, and increase grain production both horizontally and vertically.

“What about all those fruits, vegetables, straw, and rice bran you asked us to collect before?” Wet nurse Zhang asked.

“Keep storing those. In a little while, when the time is right, I’ll tell you how to use them.” Wei Ruo replied.

Wet nurse Zhang looked at Wei Ruo’s confident face, wanted to say something, but swallowed her words.

Let it be, saying anything wouldn’t make a difference. The miss didn’t seem like someone who would take advice easily.

Moreover, the miss had also said that if the project failed, it would be her issue, and she would be the one who would be punished. It had nothing to do with her..