Zhang Huai popped a melon seed into his mouth, observing the group in the room. Some were loudly CRUNCHING on crispy rice crackers dipped in sauce, some were chewing small dried fish, some were eating dried bamboo shoots, and still others were cracking melon seeds. All the children, big and small, were happily busy.

He asked Li Changyu, who was eating a dried fish, "What do you think?"

Li Changyu nodded. "I’m feeling much more confident now. Don’t worry. With all these great products, if I still can’t make a success of this business, I’d have to be a complete idiot."

He and Huai Zi began to earnestly discuss how to sell these products. They were completely focused, offering each other pointers, as if those unspoken issues between them never existed at all. As they talked, they both tacitly avoided looking in Juhua’s direction.

Qingmu was chewing on a crispy rice cracker with sauce, sucking in air from the spiciness. He smiled at the two of them and said, "I have some ideas, too. Next year, I want to build two workshops. One sausage workshop, specifically for making cured meat and sausages, and a pickle workshop for making things like spicy cabbage, savory sauce, chili flakes, and pickled ginger. Even these small fish could be prepared in the pickle workshop. The acorn flour can still be made by each family individually."

Zhang Huai nodded. "These are all things we produce ourselves, so we definitely can’t let the fields go fallow. Besides, isn’t the whole point of all this hard work to earn more money to buy more land? That way, our descendants will have some security."

Qingmu, thinking about the things he and Juhua had been researching, said, "That’s right. I’m planning to plant two seasons of rice next year to increase the fields’ yield."

Liu Sanshun was overjoyed to hear everyone praising his sister’s skills. Chewing on a piece of dried bamboo shoot Jinxiang had brought over, he said to Qingmu, "That won’t work. Planting two seasons is a nice idea, but it’ll exhaust the soil. I planted a crop of Big Cabbage in my field this year, and my dad chewed me out for it. He said it would definitely affect next year’s rice harvest."

Qingmu smiled. "Sanshun, think about it. We’re raising four pigs now. At my place, if you count the piglets, we have five. What do you think that pig manure is for? We’re also raising more chickens than usual, and ducks too. It’s only because we have all this fertilizer that I dare to plant two seasons of rice."

This was the circular agriculture and animal husbandry that Juhua often discussed with him.

Juhua believed that even if doing business was profitable, they had to remember that agriculture was their foundation. This was especially true for country folk like them, who were not natural merchants. They couldn’t put the cart before the horse. If they were to abandon their fields to compete for a living against seasoned city businesspeople, it was easy to imagine how difficult that would be.

Therefore, her goal had always been clear: use Qingnan Village as their foundation to develop agriculture and animal husbandry, and only then find ways to market their products.

So far, it seemed their progress was steady.

Juhua happily ate some more dried bamboo shoots and small fish. Hearing her brother and Sanshun talking about farming, she thought for a moment. ’It would be best to get everyone involved,’ she decided. ’Just a few of us won’t be enough.’

In fact, people like Liu Sanshun, Li Changming, and Li Changxing were all very capable.

She said to Liu Sanshun, "Sanshun, you’ve seen the fish in our family’s pond, haven’t you? They’ve grown so well in such a short time. You know a lot about fish, so why don’t you raise them?"

Liu Sanshun was both happy and crestfallen upon hearing this. He sighed and said to Juhua, "Of course I want to raise fish. But my family doesn’t have any land where I can dig a pond. I’ll see if I can buy some land next year and dig one. I’m confident I could do a great job raising fish if I had the chance."

His complete lack of modesty made everyone laugh.

But Juhua said, "Everyone’s going to be busy next year. Why don’t you talk to the village head about contracting all the village’s fish ponds?"

Li Changyun asked in surprise, "Contract the fish ponds? Those ponds belong to the village. How can you contract them?"

Qingmu, Zhang Huai, and Li Changyu all looked at Juhua, waiting to see what she would say. Even Liu Xiaomei and Jinxiang stopped cracking their melon seeds.

Juhua said, "It’s true the ponds belong to the village, but no one’s managing them! Last year, they assigned someone to cut grass to feed the fish, but they weren’t very thorough. If Sanshun were to manage them, the ponds would surely yield much more by the end of the year than in previous years. You could agree on a quota with the village based on past yields. You’d hand over a certain amount of fish to the village each year, and the rest would be yours. The village would have less to worry about, and you’d earn some income for your hard work."

Liu Sanshun was overjoyed. "That’s a fantastic idea," he said. "I’m just afraid the village won’t agree."

Juhua said with certainty, "They’ll agree. Think about it. Take the round pond, for example. If its yield has been around three hundred-some jin of fish for the past three years, and you tell the village you’ll hand over four hundred jin a year, how could they possibly refuse?"