This way, the clean corn was all placed into hemp sacks by the people brought by Zhang Qianhu.
Lian Manman’s family had also prepared hemp sacks, but Zhang Qianhu didn’t use them; he had brought quite a few of his own. Each one was of the sa size and bore the mark of the soldiery, clearly standard issue for carrying military provisions.
The sacks filled with corn were then arranged in one area by Zhang Qianhu and his n.
Lian Manman watched this all unfold, rubbing her sowhat reddened palms from husking the corn, feeling a involuntary twitch at the corner of her eye. She had a premonition that this corn was soon to be taken away from her, and she would have to be cheerfully unresisting.
When it was nearing noon, the ti for lunch, Zhang Qianhu took the initiative to propose that they had brought their own dry food and needed only so hot water from Lian Manman’s family.
Zhang Qianhu led his subordinates away from the large Chinese basket, and they lined up on the empty ground nearby, sitting down one by one. They then began to take out their dry rations from their pockets to eat.
This stance ant that Lian Manman’s family’s plan to prepare a al for everyone to enjoy was inevitably abandoned. Moreover, they themselves couldn’t eat too richly either, needing to hurry with the work at the appointed Chinese hour.
Zhang Qianhu said hot water with their dry food would suffice, so naturally, Lian Manman’s family wouldn’t just prepare hot water. Lady Zhang and the others boiled two large pots of thick salty vegetable and at soup, carrying them over to Zhang Qianhu in the buckets from the shop that were used for porridge and soup in the morning.
Zhang Qianhu and his n were of course deeply grateful.
Lian Manman’s own family had a frugal lunch as well, consisting of stead buns made with triple-mixed flour, at soup, and only one simple dish of dipping vegetables—dried tofu wrapped with green onions.
Hurriedly finishing their noon al, everyone returned to the threshing ground to continue with the work.
At the beginning of Wei Hour, Shen Liu, who had kept saying he would co, finally arrived, albeit considerably late.
To say he was late might seem inaccurate, though. Although Shen Liu appeared much later than Lian Manman had estimated, his arrival couldn’t be described as "late."
The speed of his carriage was only slightly slower than Zhang Qianhu’s team of fast horses. This slight delay was most likely out of consideration for the procession of officials following behind him. After all, within Liaodong Prefecture, nobody could have faster or better horses and carriages than General Shen, the General in Charge of Conquering Invaders.
When Shen Liu alighted from his carriage, everyone hurried forward to pay their respects.
"Everyone rise," said Shen Liu as he stood there, glancing around, and nonchalantly waved his hand.
Tables and chairs were quickly brought for Shen Liu to sit down. As for the officials from Liaodong Prefecture and Jinyang County Town, they could only stand and wait on both sides.
Only Official Li and another middle-aged civil official were offered stools to sit at a lower position adjacent to Shen Liu.
Lian Manman stood among the crowd, observing Shen Liu. He seed leaner in the face compared to the last eting, indicating that he had indeed been quite busy lately, but he looked more spirited.
Today, Shen Liu was dressed in a treasure-blue brocaded robe embroidered with floral designs, his black hair wrapped in a brocade hat, a jade belt around his waist. Even at a distance, Lian Manman could feel the clarity and soft luster of each piece of jade.
"Is all of the corn here?" Shen Liu’s gaze quickly swept through the crowd as he asked.
"Replying to Sixth Master, yes," Lian Shouxin and Zhang Qianhu answered, one after the other.
Shen Liu nodded.
"All right, carry on with the work," he said.
The crowd returned to their places and continued to husk the corn.
A coachman was driving Shen Liu’s carriage out, and behind the carriage, two fine horses were tied, one white without a single stray hair, and the other a greenish color, slightly shorter than the white horse but plump and strong, heftier than all the other horses around, each and every one.
Manman was familiar with these two horses. The white one should be Shen Liu’s mount, and the greenish plump horse, it seed like Fatty Shen had ridden it before?
Fatty Shen ca too, but why hadn’t she seen him?
Just as Manman was thinking this, the curtain of Shen Liu’s carriage moved, and a round, bun-like face peeked out.
Fatty Shen had long and slender eyes, but this didn’t affect his vision. In fact, his eyesight was even better than the average person’s. In just a glance, he had spotted Manman.
Shen Qian hurriedly waved his hand at Manman.
Manman, holding corn, lifted it slightly and then put it back down. Indeed, this little fatty was always following Shen Liu wherever he went.
A servant hurried to the carriage; Shen Qian said a few words to him. The servant first shook his head then appeared quite helpless, but still he picked up the little fatty from the carriage.
Once Shen Qian got out of the carriage, he left the servant behind and ran up to Shen Liu.
Shen Liu raised his hand to pat Shen Qian’s head, then waved to the side, and soone brought over a stool and picked Shen Qian up to sit on it.
While Manman was threshing corn, she thought to herself, what’s the point of rely watching; why didn’t they want to try threshing corn themselves?
To Manman’s slight disappointnt, it seed that no one wanted to try.
While they were threshing corn on one side, people had already brought a large scale over on the other side and started to weigh the corn.
Manman thought for a mont and then whispered sothing to Wu Lang standing beside her. Wu Lang got up and went to Shen Liu, speaking softly to him.
Shen Liu nodded.
Wu Lang then gestured to Wu Jiaxing, and the two of them picked up a bag of corn of slightly poorer quality that wasn’t good enough for seeds, loaded it onto the carriage, and left the threshing ground, heading straight for the mill in town.
This was sothing Manman’s family had discussed. After all, everyone had only ever eaten boiled tender corn; they did not know what fully matured corn tasted like. Taking advantage of the fact that Shen Liu and the others had co, they decided to mill so cornal and make corn cakes for everyone to taste.
Manman eagerly anticipated Wu Lang’s rapid return, because she was craving corn cakes.
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Delivering a second update, ask for likes
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Ruoyan’s completed farming novel recomndation:
Title: "Rebirth: When Flowers Bloom and the Moon is Full" (includes both the main story and extras, complete) (Direct link below, click to visit)
Summary: Transmigrated as a castaway wife wrongfully accused of losing her virtue, she carries a little bun and joins hands with an economical and practical man in a sweet life. (To be continued. If you like this work, please feel welco to cast your votes and monthly tickets at Qidian (qidian). Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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