Chapter 148: Meeting
Editor: Atlas Studios
Little Bowen looked around and finally said, “I’ll listen to Sister.”
Mu Yangling opened her mouth wide and was momentarily at a loss.
Mu Shi immediately said, “Let’s use this method. It doesn’t matter if it’s costly. I will think of a way.”
Shu Wanniang also said, “I’ll study that food therapy booklet again and see if I can improve the taste. Ah Ling, I know what you mean, but to us, nothing is more important than your brother’s health. When he recovers, what can’t he do in the future?”
Having instantly lost the courage to object, Mu Yangling asked her father curiously, “Father, what can you think of?”
Mu Shi rubbed his daughter’s hair and said, “Don’t worry about it. You just have to take good care of the family. I heard that you’re doing business with Little General and Young Master Fan? Then you have to be more careful. Don’t let them suffer a loss.”
“How is that doing business? I’m just helping them raise rabbits. The business aspect is Fan Zijin’s responsibility.” Seeing that her father was unwilling to tell her, Mu Yangling did not ask further.
The next day, she went to the streets to buy the ingredients on the food therapy booklet. As the three meals each day differed, there were many things to buy. Also, some of those ingredients were quite expensive.
Great-aunt had taken out all the money earned from selling rabbits over the past few days. It was only when Mu Yangling had money in her purse that she didn’t panic. After buying the goods, she carefully kept them in the basket on her back.
On the other hand, Pang Kongqing from Benevolence Hall was very happy to know that the Mu family had agreed to the food therapy treatment. He even introduced two provision stores to Mu Yangling. It was said that the things from these two stores were not bad, where dry fruits and miscellaneous grains could be bought. It was said that the quality was even better than the goods from legitimate grain stores.
Mu Yangling remembered that she still had barley rice to buy, so she went to one of the provision stores. As soon as she entered, she saw the owner of the provision store pushing someone out. “We really can’t accept this. Not many people here eat this.”
“Why not? You can eat it with grains after grinding it.” The person dragging a large sack had a worried expression on his face. His skin was dark and red from being frequently under the sun, so one could tell at a glance that he was an old farmer.
The boss waved his hand and said, “Who would be willing to eat this except during disaster years? Hurry up and take it away. I really don’t accept such stuff here.” As he pushed, a few corn kernels fell out and landed in front of Mu Yangling.
When Mu Yangling bent down to pick it up, she was surprised to see that there was already corn at this time.
The old farmer squatted on the ground with red eyes and was about to cry. He wiped his eyes and choked. “Didn’t people say that this is good stuff? Why isn’t it accepted? My mother is still waiting for the money to get the medicine. We’re really screwed by the Old Emperor. How much land have we wasted planting this thing?”
The boss could not bear it and could not help but say, “That’s from an old almanac. Emperor Shizong has been dead for so many years and the current Emperor has long forgotten those words. It’s also because you live in the deep mountains and old forests that you don’t know what’s going on outside. Do you think it’s still the same as before? It’s been decades since people planted maize. It’s not delicious and it’s a waste of good land. The yield is not high either. I really don’t understand why Emperor Shizong promoted it so much and even went all the way out to the sea to look for it.”
The boss shook his head and patted the old farmer’s shoulder. “I pity you too, but I have to support my family. I really have no choice. You should find another store. Perhaps someone will accept it.” The boss turned around and saw Mu Yangling carrying a basket on her back. He quickly asked with a smile, “Young lady, what do you want to buy?”
“Barley rice.”
“Ah, I just received a new batch. It’s top-notch and cheap. Come in and take a look.”
Mu Yangling raised her feet and was about to walk in when she turned around and saw the man sitting on the steps, looking blankly at the people coming and going on the street. Mu Yangling stopped in her tracks and turned to ask the boss, “Did he come from the deep mountains?”
“That’s right. No one has come out for decades. I heard that his mother is seriously ill and the barefoot doctor1 in the mountains can’t treat her. That’s why he wanted to bring her out to see a doctor, so he brought the grains from home to pay for the medicine. However, no one wanted the corn even if it’s free. It’s been decades since anyone planted this.”
Mu Yangling’s eyes widened. “Isn’t the yield of corn very high? Why isn’t anyone planting it?”
This time, it was the boss’s turn to be surprised. “Corn is high-yielding? The corn planted on good-grade land and carefully cultivated doesn’t even harvest as high a yield as wheat. It’s not delicious either. I really don’t understand why Emperor Shizong insisted on finding this thing.” The boss sighed and said, “It’s said in the history books that this is a failure of Emperor Shizong. After spending so much manpower and resources, all they got back was a useless grain. That’s true. Emperor Shizong was born as an emperor, and he has never farmed before. How would he know that corn is high-yielding?”
Because he was a transmigrator, of course he knew. Moreover, he was not wrong. Corn was indeed high-yielding. At least compared to wheat and rice, it was very high-yielding.
Mu Yangling thought in her heart.
When she came out after buying barley rice, the man had already carried his sack and placed it on the cart. She saw him walk to a corner, pick up a black-haired person wrapped in a blanket, and carefully place her on the cart.
Mu Yangling knew that it was his mother. Seeing him push the car helplessly, Mu Yangling could not move.
Mu Yangling didn’t like to eat corn. In fact, she hated it very much. In elementary school, she would even vomit when she saw corn porridge. In high school, she couldn’t understand why so many people liked such cheap and disgusting food when she saw her classmates order corn porridge every time they went out to eat porridge.
Even if the corn porridge they ate at that time was sticky glutinous corn and not the yellow corn that was used to feed pigs, she still could not accept it.
Because she was sick of eating it, having eaten it since she was young.
Those few years when she was stationed at the border with her father were the most arduous. She still remembered that year when there was a drought and the local people reaped a poor harvest. Every family could only eat yellow corn. As her father’s regiment saved all the rice and white flour and sent them to the welfare institutes and nursing homes for the children and elders, she could only eat yellow corn with her father.
Large corn kernels were crushed and placed in a pot to boil. Mu Yangling was only five years old at that time. Before dawn, her father made her wake up and sit in front of the stove to watch the fire, while he went to lead the soldiers to do morning exercises. She could only keep the fire going, hoping to make the corn porridge softer. However, even after using a large pot to cook for two hours, the corn was still hard and took a long time to chew it before she could swallow it. When the corn kernels slid into her throat, there was even a rustling sound. She truly disliked it, but she had no choice but to eat it.
Her father said that corn porridge was actually very delicious, and it was just that that year’s corn was too old, that’s why it hurt the throat when consumed.
Mu Yangling didn’t believe it at all. In her opinion, corn was disgusting.
That year, the drought made her eat corn porridge for a year and a half. From then on, she stopped eating corn. Mu Yangling felt that she still hated corn, especially now that she was seeing another family sad because of corn.
But it was undeniable that corn was indeed a high-yielding crop and could be prepared in many ways.