kingnovel Chapter 104 Everyone Digging for Giant Potatoes
Chapter 104 Everyone Digging for Giant Potatoes
When the group of children came up to her, Li Xiaonuan stopped them and asked, "Why are you running? Are you being chased by wolves?"
Blackie said in a crisp voice, "I'm going back to ask my dad to bring the tools to dig up big sweet potatoes. Sister Xiaonuan, there are so many big sweet potatoes growing in your field, they're really big!"
The children listening in chimed in, "Yes, there are so many big ones! Brother Xiaoyang said whoever digs it up owns it. We have to hurry home and tell the adults."
After saying that, the seven or eight mischievous boys ran off again in a flash.
Watching their retreating figures, Li Xiaonuan couldn't help but chuckle. The father and daughter continued walking and chatting: "When I saw those vines from afar, I thought they were wild vines, but they turned out to be sweet potatoes. Dad, don't you think we got a great deal?"
Father Li replied, "I was worried that someone would be jealous. Although sweet potatoes aren't anything valuable, there's a lot of them. Luckily, Xiao Yang knows how to play the innocent and says that whoever dug them up owns them. Otherwise, our family would definitely be hated again this time."
When the father and daughter finally saw the wasteland in the distance, a group of people who had been clearing the land were gathered around a spot, seemingly marveling at something. Even the two women they had invited to cook came over.
Li Xiaonuan, not bothering to put down the mung beans in her hand, followed her father excitedly to see what was going on. Jingjing saw Li Xiaonuan from afar and shouted happily, "Sister Xiaonuan, come and see! This sweet potato is really huge. Even Brother Xiaoyang can't lift it!"
Li Xiaonuan ran over in a few steps, and Jingjing led her to the space cleared by the men. She saw Xiaoyang digging around a pit with a pickaxe, clearly still working on it. Li Xiaonuan looked closely at the large sweet potato and realized it was indeed astonishingly big.
"This was dug by Brother Xiaoyang, and it's the biggest piece so far," Jingjing said proudly, looking quite pleased with herself.
Gradually, some people started helping Xiaoyang dig. Jingjing was so excited that she immediately called Li Xiaonuan to look at the sweet potato, and then reached out to grab it. Li Xiaonuan quickly grabbed Jingjing's hand and said to her, "Jingjing, don't touch the sweet potato. Otherwise, your hand will itch later."
Jingjing knew that the sap that flowed out after the sweet potato skin was broken would cause itching, so she sheepishly withdrew her hand. But she still followed Xiaoyang around the sweet potato tuber like a little elf. Several times, Xiaoyang almost hit her when he swung his pickaxe.
"Jingjing, stay away from me. The pickaxe in my hand has no eyes; it's dangerous. Go stand with my sister and watch for a while. You can come and see after it's all dug out." Xiaoyang really couldn't care less about Jingjing anymore, so he persuaded her.
Jingjing returned to Li Xiaonuan's side dejectedly and stuck out her little tongue in Xiaoyang's direction. Li Xiaonuan covered her mouth and chuckled, feeling pleased as she watched the two young people experiencing their first stirrings of love.
Because the sweet potato grew in barren land, and this barren land was very compacted with many rocks, by lunchtime, not even half of the sweet potato had been dug up. Jingjing was a little disappointed, and while everyone else ate, she stood alone around the sweet potato, admiring it from afar.
After the meal, sure enough, many men from the village arrived with their tools and joined the team digging for sweet potatoes. Of course, before they started digging, everyone went to the sweet potato that Xiaoyang had dug up and gave it a taste.
Zhou Rong's wife came along with her eldest son. As soon as they arrived, they started praising the Li family endlessly, saying how wonderful they were and how kind they were. Their obsequious manner was simply unbearable.
Li's father, unable to bear the deliberate flattery and fawning, excused himself to go back and rest and left. Li Xiaonuan watched the lively scene on the wasteland, especially with the mischievous little black bean around.
Black Bean couldn't get his father to come this time, but he did manage to persuade his uncle. His uncle was about the same age as Xiao Gang, still a child. The two children darted through the grass, searching for suitable vines to start with.
The two of them walked around for a while, still undecided. Little Black Bean's eyes darted around cleverly, and she ran to Xiao Yang's side, whispering, "Brother Xiao Yang, when you dug up this big sweet potato before, was the sweet potato vine big?"
Xiao Yang stopped what he was doing, wiping his sweat as he replied, "It's not very big. Near the roots, the leaves are all withered and yellow. And the vines at the roots look like they're dead; the ground is bulging up really high and they're cracked badly."
Black Bean rolled its eyes again, said thank you, and ran off laughing.
Sure enough, this time the uncle and nephew didn't wander around aimlessly. Instead, they stopped in front of a pile of withered vines and started digging.
The news that Li Xiaonuan's family had harvested many large sweet potatoes from the land they bought spread throughout both the old and new Zhoucun villages. Moreover, Xiaoyang had previously boasted that anyone could dig them up. Therefore, most of the curious villagers went to the wasteland with great enthusiasm to see what was going on.
After two days of this commotion, the villagers dug out the big sweet potato that Heidou and his uncle had dug up, and everyone was stunned.
"Oh my, this sweet potato must weigh seventy or eighty pounds. How could it get this big?" the matchmaker said sourly from the side.
She also asked her son to dig, but he was lazy. Luckily, her son was cunning and knew how to find hidden gems. So, in the past two days, he dug up quite a few large sweet potato pits that others had dug much deeper but had temporarily left for other matters.
Because of this, the villagers who came to dig for the sweet potatoes had fought with the mother and son many times. But the woman was clearly a rogue, and no one could do anything about it. If they were to fight over the sweet potatoes, it would be a laughing stock. Besides, the sweet potatoes belonged to the Li family, and since the Li family hadn't said anything, they couldn't make too much of a fuss.
Black Bean had long disliked the mother and son, especially the son, who was always staring at their pit. So, as soon as Matchmaker Jin spoke, Black Bean chimed in, "Aunt Jin, why don't you ask Big Monkey to dig a big one for you? I see there are still quite a few big sweet potato vines in this area."
The matchmaker, still tinged with sarcasm, said, "Look at what Black Bean is saying. Your brother Monkey isn't nearly as lucky as you. Tell me, how did you find such a big sweet potato back then?"
Black Bean pretended to be puzzled and said, "I don't know, we just dug randomly. My uncle tripped here, so we started digging here."
Seeing that she couldn't get any information, the matchmaker snorted and walked away. Some busybodies gathered around Black Bean's big sweet potato and suggested, "Black Bean, why don't we weigh your big sweet potato and see if it weighs twice as much as you?"
As soon as he said this, a chorus of agreement arose. Black Bean happily let them cheer him on. Black Bean's father, who had rushed over upon hearing the news, was so delighted that he picked Black Bean up and tossed him into the air twice, making Black Bean cry out loud.
Finally, the large sweet potato from Heidou's family weighed 76 jin (approximately 38 catties), which was 36 jin (approximately 18 catties) heavier than six-year-old Heidou. The one Xiaoyang had dug up earlier was slightly smaller and only weighed 59 jin (approximately 24.5 catties).
A pointless potato-digging battle finally ended on the fifth day of clearing land at Li Xiaonuan's house. The reason, of course, was that there were very few large potatoes left to dig. Besides, these large potatoes weren't exactly valuable; digging too many meant they couldn't be eaten, and they wouldn't fetch a good price.
Initially, everyone went there out of curiosity. Of course, many also went hoping to get a good deal. But regardless of their motives, it was a good thing for the Li family. After all, thanks to them, that wasteland became much easier to cultivate. Indeed, the progress of land reclamation in recent days was significantly faster than on the very first day.