He didn’t go to call Da Bao or anyone else, but went to fetch his father himself.
When Captain Zhao saw the rice seeds starting to sprout, his eyes shone brightly. The fact that the seeds were germinating meant that last year’s harvested rice grains could be sown.
"We’ll plant them tomorrow, we’ll plant them tomorrow; these are not enough," he said.
Carrying the germinated seeds, Captain Zhao headed for the team leader’s office and called over the people there.
"Our rice grains harvested last year can germinate, and the germination rate isn’t low," he announced.
The team cadres were instantly delighted.
"Adding these twenty pounds of rice seeds, we still need fifty pounds more," one noted.
"For corn seeds, we are still short by a hundred pounds."
One hundred and fifty pounds of seeds in total.
Why buy seeds every year instead of using the previous year’s harvest as seeds? One reason is the low germination rate, but also because the yields were low.
"This time, I’ll let Educated Youth Yun handle the seedling cultivation. She has read some books on agriculture before," he decided.
What?
It was Educated Youth Yun who cultivated the seedlings?
Did she have such a skill?
"Then let her handle it this time as well. One task, one leader, and also allocate work points to Educated Youth Yun," the women’s director suggested to Captain Zhao.
"I think it’s a good idea," he agreed.
In the end, the task fell to Xiaoxiao.
This made Xiaoxiao feel somewhat helpless.
What could she do?
She exchanged some rice seeds and corn seeds, repeating the previous seedling cultivation steps.
But before she could finish her work, the team leader from the neighboring brigade came looking for her.
"Educated Youth Yun, Educated Youth Yun, I know I’m making an awkward request, but I really have no other choice. We weren’t able to buy many seeds..." he pleaded.
"I’ll give you some sprouting solution, something I’ve recently tested," she offered.
Captain Zhang immediately accepted, knowing that if the sprouting solution could raise the germination rate, it would be invaluable.
He had heard of its effects.
"This is a pound of sprouting solution, enough for five hundred pounds of seeds to germinate. You must keep an eye on it, it may take just two to three days for germination," she explained.
That effective?
If it could truly enhance germination, their brigade wouldn’t have to go hungry this year. "How much does this thing cost?" he inquired.
Xiaoxiao wanted to say it was free.
However, it was Tianlei who spoke up with a price, "Captain Zhang, ten yuan. My wife spent many days on this, gathering numerous herbs from the mountains and consulting plenty of books to make it happen. We’ve already sown our first batch of seeds."
Captain Zhang had e to check because he’d heard about the concoction.
"Not expensive, not expensive at all..." he muttered.
Captain Zhang handed over a Union banknote, carefully taking the glass bottle back to his brigade.
After the cultivation cycle was over, Xiaoxiao stopped worrying about the seeds and refocused on her studies, even setting questions for Tianlei.
Educated Youth Wang and Educated Youth Liao still came to her home to copy test papers, unabashedly asking Xiaoxiao whenever they encountered something they didn’t understand.
All seemed calm.
It was not so calm on the Yun Family’s side, however.
Eldest Sister-in-law Yun and her husband had moved out, but their allocated house had not e through yet, and the rental place was small. It was fine for a family of four but not as spacious as the Yun house.
They partitioned it into three rooms: one for Father Yun and Mother Yun, one for themselves, and one for their two children.
But now the two children were with them in one room, and as they were still a young couple, it felt very cramped.
Moreover, her man had failed to secure a promotion to director, with the position going to someone else.
This filled Eldest Sister-in-law Yun with seething frustration.
She blamed everything on her younger sister-in-law.
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