Chapter 26
Chapter 26
“More than a hundred taels of silver?” Qiu Bai was surprised.
Qiu Li nodded and said, “Yes! More than one hundred taels of silver and that is only part of the money made from selling the grapes. ”
When all the grapes were sold, it would be much more than that.
Qiu Bai couldn’t help feeling regret so he thought secretly: if he had known that Xiao Jingting was so capable, he would have paid more attention to Xiao Jingting. Recently, Xiao Jingting had changed a lot, and he didn’t seem to know Xiao Jingting anymore.
“ I don’t know what kind of trick Xu Muan used, to actually cause Xiao Jingting to get rid of his bad habits, and Xiao Jingting even bought him a pair of sleeve arrows, and I heard it was made from the steel needles of the fifth-grade demon beasts. It’s worth more than twenty or thirty taels of silver.” Qiu Li said again.
All over the body of the steel needle beast, only twelve steel needles on the top of its head, were the most valuable. The steel needles were unusually sharp. Beasts like the Grade 3 teeth- piercing Pig were unable to block the sleeve arrows’ attack.
Qiu Bai was a good judge of characters. At first, Xiao Jingting was indifferent to him but Qiu Bai did not take it seriously, thinking he was playing hard to get. However, after several contacts, Qiu Bai found that he was no longer in Xiao Jingting’s heart. Xiao Jingting now was really too odd. In the past, this person hated farming the most, and decided that farming was something lower-class people did, but now he was doing hard labors all day outside.
Xiao Jingting used to call Xiao Xiaofan a bastard, but now he always hugged that stupid kid and talked to him with a kind face.
The next day.
“The grapes are not for sale? Winemaking? ” Xu Muan was a little hesitant.
Xiao Jingting nodded and said, “Yes! The capacity of the market is limited. If we sell too many grapes, it will affect the price. However, it’s not that we won’t sell them, we’ll sell them just a few days later. We’ll just sell five or six hundred strings and eat the rest ourselves. ”
Xu Muan nodded and said, “You’re right.”
Xiao Jingting found that although Xu Muan was young he was a very picky person.
When Xu Muan was busy in the house, customers were coming to the door one after another.
The fact that Xiao Jingting had made a lot of money selling grapes had completely spread, and those
neighbors could no longer sit about so that they came to watch the scene.
The Xiao family had been rarely visited by others for a long time, but now it was bustling with people.
Many people stared at the grapes as soon as they entered the courtyard and wished they could move all the grapes to their own houses.
Previously, when Xu Muan was poor, he had sought help from a few neighbors who came over before, however, those neighbors all pushed him aside, so Xu Muan was very indifferent to these guests now.
When the guests came to the door, Xiao Jingting could not left them unattended all this time so Xiao Jingting washed two clusters of grapes and put them in the room, allowing two kids to entertain the guests, and went back to their work with Xu Muan.
Xiao Jingting doesn’t want to deal with those people, but those people were not easy to get rid of.
“Master Xiao, you are a good grape cultivator.”
“No, I just planted them casually.”
“But these grapes grow so well. If you work harder, the grapes you plant will be even better in future.” Qiu Li said.
When Xiao Jingting heard Qiu Li’s voice, he felt uncomfortable. “I’m flattered.”
“Master Xiao, how on earth did you grow this grape? This village is so poor and you are so wealthy. You should give everyone a hand. We are all your fellow villagers. If you give us a hand, everyone will remember your kindness.” Qiu Li said.
Xiao Jingting squinted. To grow the grapes well, one needed to pay attention to improving the soil quality, on the other hand, one needed to cut some unwanted branches. However, the most important thing was probably the spiritual spring water from his jade space.
“It is not that I don’t want to help you, but this grape-planting skill is the secret of our Xiao family. If it is leaked out, elders of the family will definitely come after me.” Seeing Qiu Li try to press him to help the villagers, Xiao Jingting immediately used his families as an excuse.
Hearing Xiao Jingting’s words, the crowd was in an uproar.
Xiao Jingting was exiled from the Xiao family, which was no secret to the villagers. At this moment, when Xiao Jingting said that grape-planting skill was the secret that Xiao family passed down, everyone immediately stopped asking Xiao Jingting to tell them the secret skill.
Big families attached great importance to safeguarding family secrets. Once the secret was leaked, not only would the family member who leaked the secret be severely punished, but these who knew the secret would all be silenced.
For the Xiao family, the Mound Village was too small.
Xiao Jingting looked at the shocked look on everyone’s faces and smiled in his heart. Using the Xiao family as an excuse was really helpful, but this was not surprising, the Xiao family could easily send a seven-level Qi practitioner to wipe the village out.
Qiu Li’s face turned pale and sullen, ever since the last time Qiu Bai brought back a few bunches of grapes, Qiu Li secretly cut a section of grapevine from the back mountain to plant it. However he failed to get the hang of planting grapes. His grapes were sour and puckery, and it was much different from what Xiao Jingting planted.
Qiu Li originally wanted to sound out Xiao Jingting’s method when so many villagers were inquiring about the grape-planting skill, but as soon as Xiao Jingting said it was a family secret, Qiu Li was too embarrassed to pursue the question.
The big families in the Wasteland were able to survive, relying heavily on those family secrets. If anyone attempted to pry into the secrets of these great families, one would be considered a mortal enemy of those families.
Qiu Li was helpless and could only be jealous of Xiao Jingting’s background.
Qiu Bai sat quietly there, eating grapes, his eyes somewhat dark.
In the past, as soon as he appeared, Xiao Jingting’s gaze would immediately stop moving and focus on him, but this time when he came, it was as if Xiao Jingting didn’t see him. Seeing Xiao Jingting stroke Xu Muan hair, Qiu Bai felt jealous and bitter in heart.
Qiu Bai picked up the grapes and ate one after another, while Xiao Xiaofan kept staring at him with wide-open big eyes.
Qiu Bai was only concerned about his own appearance and paid no attention to Xiao Xiaofan’s angry face, nor did he notice the strange look of everyone around him.
There were plenty of grapes, and people in the village also knew that this grapes were expensive. So after eating two grapes, they stopped eating but Xiu Bai ate half string of grapes alone.
“Well, have you found anything yet?” Seeing Qiu Bai and Qiu Li come back, their father couldn’t wait to ask.
During this period of time, the Qiu family spent a lot of effort growing grapes and their other work on the field was delayed. Seeing Xiao Jingting making a lot of money while they got nothing, their father felt as if there were claws scratching his heart.
Qiu Li shook his head and said, “No, Xiao Jingting said it was one of the secrets of the Xiao family.”
“The secret of the Xiao family?” their father was stunned. “Villagers had an innate respect for large families, and upon hearing that it was one of the secret of Xiao family, their father couldn’t help but felt discouraged.
There were countless disputes in the Wasteland. Once upon a time, a man from a village learned the secret of the Meng family’s cultivation of balsamine from a spirit plant master who betrayed the Meng family, and started planting balsamine himself, but before the balsamine could grow up, everyone in that village was slaughtered.
“There are several big families in the village who seem to have come up with something.” Mr. Qiu said.
When Qiu Li heard his words, his heart was suddenly filled with jealousy. He spent so much effort and achieved nothing. Those big families made progress by relying on the masters’ ability in their big family and made progress all of a sudden.
Mr. Qiu sighed and said, “It’s not our money, and it’s no use trying to make it!” Then he changed his tone and said, “However, if growing grapes is really the secret of the Xiao family, and those people have studied it, their death is almost due.”
Qiu Bai lowered his head, thinking about the brocade that Xu Muan was wearing. His clothes didn’t look fancy, however, Qiu Bai knew that it was not cheap.
Xu Muan used to dress like a beggar, but now he looked so decent.
Qiu Bai suddenly felt that it would be a good choice to marry Xiao Jingting.
Xiao family.
Looking at the bunches of grapes outside, his heart was filled with excitement, and Xu Muan thought: when this batch of grapes mature, they will be able to earn more than 100 taels of silver, which will be almost enough to redeem those few mu of first-class fields.
This time, Xiao Jingting sold the earliest batch of ripe grapes and made the grapes from the medium-level fields into wine. When the last batch matured, Xiao Jingting said that some of these grapes were left to eat and the rest of them would be sold for money.
Xu Muan turned his head and looked at the mess of cups and plates on the table and frowned. This time, there was an endless stream of guests who came to their house and then needed to be entertained. Xu Muan was reluctant to give grapes each time so he went to the street to buy some snacks and then put on two plates of grapes to make it look better. But still, it made Xu Muan heartache.
Two bunches of grapes could be sold for at least four hundred copper coins, and although those snacks were much cheaper than grapes, they still costed money. Before he was even unwilling to spend a single copper coin.
Xiao Xiaodong and Xiao Xiaofan helped Xu Muan clean up the house.
“You’re back, huh? Where did you get the pheasant?” Xu Muan was curious as he looked at the pheasant in Xiao Jingting’s hand.
“It fell into a trap and I caught it.” Xiao Jingting said.
Xu Muan was stunned and then said joyfully, “That’s really great.”
Xiao Jingting nodded his head and said, “Yes! I’ll make a spicy chicken.”
Xu Muan nodded and said, “Good!”
Xiao Jingting looked at Xu Muan and was somewhat amused. In his previous life, Xiao Jingting liked to eat spicy food, but in this life after cooking few spicy dishes by chance he discovered that Xu Muan liked to eat spicy food much more than him.
The next day, when Xiao Jingting took Xu Muan to sell grapes, he encountered some problems.
Xiao Jingting originally signed contracts with the restaurant and more than a dozen families in the city. When he went to sell grapes, Yuehe Restaurant bought all the grapes they ordered as before. However, several big families refused to buy those grapes and several others wanted Xiao Jingting to reduce price. Xiao Jingting did not agree, because it was these big families who violated the contract. In the end, Xiao Jingting was unable to sell more than 200 clusters of grapes so he planned to buy more jars and make wine from all the unsold grapes.
Looking at Xiao Jingting, Xu Muan said, “The owner of Yuehe Restaurant said that several big landlords have also begun to grow grapes, selling a cluster for 100 copper coins, which is much cheaper than ours, so…”
Xiao Jingting laughed and said, “If I can’t sell it, I will just eat it myself. Anyway, we can eat it.”
Xu Muan smiled. Grapes were good, “Those people don’t know what they’re doing, ah! They will regret it later.”
Although Xu Muan didn’t know how Xiao Jingting’s grapes were grown, he was sure that Xiao Jingting’s grapes were different from those of others.
Before, Xu Muan’s strength depended on eating the Lieyan Herb, which had a fierce medical effect. In the process of taking it, Xu Muan’s meridians were damaged and Xu Muan discovered the disadvantages of the herb. However, in order to survive and take care of the children, he had no other choice.
However, recently, Xu Muan found that drinking grape juice can repair his damaged meridians. During this period, he had been eating well, and his previously damaged meridians had almost recovered.