Chapter 189 – Harvesting the Baby Rapeseed

Village Chief Wang never expected the Zhou Family Village to be so bold.

They were actually planning to build a reservoir on their own. Although the reservoir wasn’t large and many villages could manage such a task, being able to do it and wanting to do it were two entirely different matters.

Especially at a time like this, when people in many places didn’t even have enough to eat—who would still have the energy to waste on something so laborious? Were they just full with nothing better to do?

After chatting for a bit longer, Village Chief Wang left.

Over the next few days, the villagers of Zhou Family Village finally witnessed the power of the greenhouse. The crops inside were growing at an astonishing speed—so fast it left people speechless.

According to their observation and experience, the growth rate of these crops was about one-third faster than normal!

All of a sudden, the way everyone looked at Zhou Yimin changed.

But Zhou Yimin understood that it wasn’t just the effect of the greenhouse—the fertile riverbed soil was also a major factor. Without sufficient nutrients, it would all be for nothing.

“Let’s start harvesting the Baby Bok Choy today,” said the old party secretary.

The Bok Choy plants had grown beautifully—lush and tender—he almost couldn’t bear to eat them.

All the women in the village had come, waiting for this very moment.

Whether the village could start earning money, and whether the people could live better lives, all hinged on this first step.

At the old party secretary’s order, everyone joined in the Bok Choy harvest. Today, they would harvest one truckload and take it to the steel factory to test the market.

Zhou Yimin had already brought over the truck from the steel factory, just waiting for them to finish harvesting and load it up.

“If we don’t harvest them now and let them flower and seed, we could press them for Bok Choy oil too,” someone sighed.

Zhou Yimin understood how much people craved oil.

However, waiting for the Bok Choy to flower and set seed would still take quite a while.

“By the time they flower and seed, the daylilies will have gone cold,” someone nearby retorted.

Who didn’t want more oil to cook with? Their village also grew a fair amount of peanuts every year, which they used to press peanut oil. Each household might get a pound or so; the rest went to the village canteen.

Peanuts weren’t eaten casually—they were saved for oil pressing. Even the peanut seedlings, shells, and residue were all useful and wouldn’t be discarded.

“Then let’s leave some? Keep a few rows.”

Zhou Yimin, who had sharp ears, walked over and shook his head. “No need. With that time, we could grow another round or two.”

Right now, he was focused on speeding up crop growth, shortening growth cycles, and increasing yields. Only then could Zhou Family Village rise quickly.

The villagers worked deftly and efficiently.

Before long, they had harvested a full truckload of baby rapeseed.

That accounted for about one-sixth of the Bok Choy planted on the riverbed. After harvesting, with proper fertilization and watering, the crops could be harvested again in no time—a second and even third round.

However, with each additional harvest, the yield would drop by a level.

“Alright, I’ll head back to the steel factory first,” Zhou Yimin said.

The old party secretary and the others all reminded him to be safe.

Everyone was waiting for good news.

At the time, the market price for Baby Bok Choy was three cents per jin. That meant one hundred jin was just three yuan—very cheap.

This truckload weighed around 6,000 jin. Though the truck wasn’t big, there was no concept of “overloading” back then—as long as it fit, it was fine.

At market price, this entire load of Bok Choy wouldn’t even be worth two hundred yuan.

Zhou Yimin brought the Bok Choy back to the steel factory, where Section Chief Wang personally oversaw the inspection. The factory placed great importance on their partnership with Zhou Family Village, seeing it as their own vegetable garden.

As such, the purchase price they offered was slightly above market rate. For instance, for this batch of baby rapeseed, the factory offered five cents per jin.

“You guys at Zhou Family Village really know how to grow vegetables. This Baby Bok Choy is excellent,” Wang Weimin said after randomly inspecting several baskets. He was very pleased. These were noticeably better than what was found on the market—at the very least, visually flawless.

No complaints at all.

Wang Weimin even grabbed one and ate it raw—it was slightly sweet.

“The village is counting on these crops to get through the New Year. We’ve been taking care of them every day—of course they’re good,” Zhou Yimin said, pulling out a pack of cigarettes and handing one to everyone present.

When it came to social niceties, Zhou Yimin considered himself quite capable.

Even though he didn’t smoke, he always carried good cigarettes to share at any moment.

“Great! Let’s weigh them,” said Section Chief Wang.

They lifted basket after basket onto the scale, with someone keeping records nearby. Soon, the tally was done—the total weight was 6,481 jin. Section Chief Wang simply rounded it up to 6,500.

At five cents per jin, that came to a total of 325 yuan.

They issued Zhou Yimin a receipt and paid him on the spot—no delays.

Farmers already had a tough life—who could justify delaying payment to them? These were their hardworking rural brothers—they couldn’t afford to lose face like that.

“On behalf of the villagers of Zhou Family Village, thank you all! I’ll treat everyone to a meal another day,” Zhou Yimin said, cupping his fists.

Everyone chuckled knowingly, silently praising Section Leader Zhou for being good with people.

With the money in hand, Zhou Yimin didn’t linger at the factory. He drove back to Zhou Family Village, ready to continue tomorrow.

Truthfully, several thousand jin of vegetables was just about enough for one day at the steel factory—maybe even not quite enough. Section Chief Wang also told Zhou Yimin they could bring more the next day.

When Zhou Yimin returned to Zhou Family Village, he saw that many people were gathered.

The old party secretary and others were nervously waiting for news, afraid the steel factory wouldn’t want that much.

“You all haven’t just been standing here waiting, have you?” Zhou Yimin asked in surprise.

The brigade leader gave a bitter smile. “We were worried. Yimin, how’d it go? The factory leaders didn’t say anything, right?”

“They praised our vegetables and asked us to bring more tomorrow—enough to reach 7,000 jin. Here, this is today’s payment,” Zhou Yimin said, handing the 325 yuan to the old party secretary.

The old man’s hand trembled as he took it.

He didn’t need to count it—just by the feel, he had a rough idea.

“This much?”

It was beyond their expectations.

They hadn’t known the exact purchase price from the steel factory, though it was promised to be a little higher than market. But how much higher? They had no idea.

“Five cents per jin—325 yuan in total. Count it if you want. If everything’s good, I’ll head home,” Zhou Yimin said.

Five cents per jin?

Everyone present was slightly stunned.

They had expected it to be more than three cents, but they hadn’t imagined it would jump straight to five—almost doubling the price!

Everyone was overjoyed, their faces lighting up with smiles.

Now the village had money.

Just this batch of Baby Bok Choy alone could bring the village nearly two thousand yuan in income.

Two thousand yuan!

In the countryside, that was a massive sum. Last time, even ten wild boars had only fetched about that much.

And there were still other crops to sell. By year-end, Zhou Family Village might earn over ten thousand yuan. Aside from the collective funds, a portion would be distributed to individual households as a kind of dividend.

So of course, all the villagers present were thrilled.

“This is great.”

“We can finally have a prosperous New Year this time, right?” someone said hopefully.

Suddenly, everyone was full of motivation, feeling like they could dig up several acres of land in one breath.

(End of Chapter)