Chapter 134: Seeds

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

Under the sunlight, Shen Mo stared blankly at Jiang Xia’s smiling face. He wasn’t sure if it was the nature of girls her age to mature quickly. When they first met, he had thought of Jiang Xia as a small girl. Now, however, he felt her features seemed to have grown and matured.

Sensing Shen Mo’s gaze on her, Jiang Xia turned around, “What’s wrong?”

Shen Mo averted his eyes. “Nothing, it just seems like you have a lot of secrets.”

The comment caught Jiang Xia off guard, but she didn’t let it show on her face. “I don’t have many secrets. I’ve just seen a lot, my parents taught me a lot, and I think a lot. That’s all!”

This time, Shen Mo didn’t respond. He stood up and went to work with the other villagers.

From the time the village chief announced the start of the autumn harvest to the time everything was done, it took about half a month.

Although the children did not have as much work as the adults, it was still a little difficult for Jiang Xia.

She had this magical water that could alleviate fatigue, but every household was busy working. Shen Mo and others would often drop by her place. If they suddenly became lively from drinking her magical water every day, it might raise suspicions.

Therefore, after discussing with her parents, Jiang Xia decided to only add a couple of drops of her interspace water while cooking and not use it otherwise.

With her mind on the issue of grain misreporting, she took the opportunity to Jiang Xia observed Shen Mo’s expressions during work. Seeing Shen Mo’s thoughtful face while dealing with the dried grains, she knew he would definitely delve into this issue, and this brought her some relief.

They started the grain harvest in mid-September and finished in early October. Normally, the villagers would have a celebration after completing all their work, but looking at the grain they managed to produce, everyone fell silent.

Especially since a significant portion of these grains had to be submitted as a levy, it was easy to imagine how little each family would get

Seeing the villagers’ spirits dampened, the village chief sighed and told everyone to head home and rest. He advised them not to worry about anything else for now.

All the grain had already been threshed and weighed in front of everyone, leaving no room for deceit.

It was only then that the villagers, who had been hoping for luck, admitted that Jiang Chuan’s family’s worries were right. They might not be able to survive the winter with only this amount of grain.

After the villagers left, Jiang Xia, Shen Mo, and the others helped the village chief to clean up the warehouse.

Seeing the village chief’s furrowed brow, Jiang Chuan tried to reassure him, “Chief, those seeds you distributed to the villagers, if everyone plants them as instructed, we should get a harvest before winter. It would at least provide some stored vegetables. Even if we run out of grain, having some vegetables in the cellar can help us through tough times.”

The village chief sighed, patting Jiang Chuan’s hand gratefully, “We owe so much to your family! As a village chief, I haven’t done as much for the village as you have.”

Jiang Chuan smiled, “Don’t say that, Chief. We’ve just done what we can. Besides, we owe our well-being to your help. Compared to what you’ve done, our efforts are nothing.”

A few days ago, the village chief had distributed the seeds brought by Jiang Chuan’s family. At first, the villagers were skeptical, wondering if Jiang Chuan’s family had some ulterior motive for giving away the seeds they’d worked so hard to find.

However, as days went by, and Jiang Chuan’s family remained silent, the village chief asked Xiao Wu to gather everyone together. Once everyone, except Jiang Chuan’s family, was present, the village chief announced, “I’ve heard all the recent rumors.”

This statement shocked many. They suspected Jiang Chuan had heard their gossip and had the village chief summon them to retract the seeds, putting them on high alert.

“There’s no need to be nervous. I’ve called you here privately today. I’ve heard your suspicions about the intentions behind the seeds.”

With a stern expression, the village chief took a deep puff of his cigarette before continuing, “Before they set out to find the seeds, they expressed concern about a poor autumn harvest and potential hard times for all. Back then, you didn’t believe them, accusing Jiang Chuan of making pretty speeches for personal gain. Now they’ve found seeds and distributed them without expecting anything in return, yet you continue to speculate about their intentions.”

“We must be grateful as humans!” The village chief expressed while glancing at the villagers present.

“Every family is going through tough times now. We live in the same village, seeing each other daily. In times of adversity, we should band together and find solutions. How can people be so narrow-minded?” he added..