Chapter Ten: With a Clear Conscience?

"That is true. As long as you have a plan, it would be a great pity to give up after ten years of hard study."

Liu Jianjun found Yang Xingwu’s words very reasonable. After all, life in the countryside and the city were worlds apart; in the rural areas, one had to exhaust every bit of effort just to barely survive.

He had a distant uncle who farmed in the village. His parents would carefully save the clothes he and his sister had outgrown, washing and folding them to give to his uncle whenever he visited. During a period of food scarcity a while back, his uncle had come to visit and eaten eight steamed buns in a single sitting. It had shocked Liu Jianjun, who was terrified that his uncle might overeat, but through their casual conversation, he learned of the bitter hardships the villagers endured.

At that time, he had asked his uncle if people would mock them for wearing those old clothes.

His uncle had replied, "Why would they mock us? The villagers all envy me for having a relative in the city! Don't look at these as clothes you've outgrown; when your younger brother and sister wear them, they look quite stylish in the village. Many kids there are seven or eight years old and still running around naked!"

Only then did he realize that not everyone had enough to eat, nor did everyone have clothes to wear.

Because of this, upon discovering that a classmate of his came from a rural background, he felt a deep curiosity, and after learning about Yang Xingwu’s situation, he grew to admire him immensely. Born into such a family, just being able to get enough to eat was already a struggle; his drive to study had moved many teachers and classmates alike.

In contrast, while his own grades were merely average, he was the child of a machinery factory worker. As long as he could get into a technical school, he would have a bright future. Even if he failed, his family could arrange for him to work as a temporary laborer for a few years, and with the right connections, he could eventually become a permanent employee.

"Don't worry! It took me ten years to travel from the village school to the town, then to the county, and finally to the city, just to sit in the same classroom as you all. If I give up without putting up a fight, I would be letting down these ten years of effort, and even more so, the earnest expectations of my parents, the hopes of my siblings, and the aspirations of everyone in Yangjiazhuang!"

"Well said. Then I will wait for you at school. I hope you don't fall too far behind! Good luck!"

"Good luck!"

After Liu Jianjun finished speaking, he took his wheat ears and headed back into the residential compound. Yang Xingwu stopped paying attention once Liu had disappeared inside. He had more important things to attend to; sentiments and melancholy could wait until after graduation. With that thought, he began calling out to customers again.

By noon, the two cartloads of wheat ears were finally sold out. The family happily led their ox to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy a hundred jin of cornmeal before climbing onto the cart to head home. With the ox cart to transport them, it was much easier than walking, and they arrived home before dark.

On the way back, Yang Kaishan had his youngest son drive the cart to his daughter’s house. He first gave her family a good portion of grain, then instructed them to load up a cart of wheat ears and head to the city to sell them the next morning.

Since they had found a way to make money, the family naturally wanted to help their own. Of course, they had to keep it quiet to make their fortune, or else word might leak out and ruin the opportunity for everyone. However, this kind of business could only last for another day or two. Since it was Sunday, the machinery factory was crowded and full of eyes; any news would have spread quickly. They could only rely on the timing to capture as much of the "biggest cake" as possible.

Once the family arrived home, they hurriedly unhitched the ox and led it into the shed at the old house. Liu Cuihua and her two daughters-in-law immediately began feeding the animal. Today, these two beasts were the family’s greatest contributors.

After feeding the livestock, the whole family gathered to eat. Since they had worked together, they ate together. Once the meal was finished, they shooed the children away and began counting the money. The family counted it several times, still finding it hard to believe. They hadn't expected a single cart of wheat ears to bring in over four hundred yuan.

Yang Xingwu was also stunned when he heard the total. Based on his own calculations, it should have been around three hundred and sixty yuan. Calculating it this way, each mu of land had yielded an extra twenty yuan—was it because of the extra twenty thousand ears?

Yang Kaishan, seeing the confusion on his family’s faces, spoke up immediately: "It’s correct. A mu of land yields about 250,000 to 300,000 ears. About seventy or eighty percent are plump grains, but didn't we sell the rest by the heap?"

"That’s true. The remaining ears were a bit small and not very plump, so we just sold them by the pile!"

"Exactly!" The family listened to Yang Kaishan’s explanation, recalling the sales, and finally understood.

Yang Chunsheng was overcome with excitement at the sight of so much money. "Four hundred yuan for two mu of land means two hundred per mu. We have twenty-eight mu of land in total, which is five thousand four hundred yuan! Half a ten-thousand-yuan household! Oh my heavens!"

Seeing his eldest son so overjoyed, Yang Kaishan gave him a swat on the back of his head. "You blockhead, if we sell it all, what about the public grain tax? Just for those twenty-eight mu, we have to pay the equivalent of ten mu in grain."

Hearing his father's words, Yang Chunsheng realized he had forgotten about the grain tax. "That’s still a lot! Eighteen mu would still be over three thousand. That’s over a thousand per family—we could build a new house, and we wouldn't have to worry about the money for Xingwen to get married!"

"That is true!" Yang Kaishan couldn't help but feel happy as well.

This solved the family's immediate crisis. As the family chatted happily, Yang Xingwu’s professional habit kicked in. As a math teacher, everything could be turned into a math problem. Thinking of his grandfather’s words, a related math problem came to mind. It wasn't particularly difficult, but because it was tied to agriculture, it often made many students doubt their own calculations.

The gist was: if the weight of a thousand grains of wheat is about 40 grams, and a mu of land produces 300,000 ears, what is the yield per mu in jin?

A standard ear of wheat contains about 20 to 40 grains, so taking the median value, it would be 30 grains. The "thousand-grain weight" refers to the weight of one thousand dried wheat kernels after harvest. The problem wasn't hard; it just involved a large amount of calculation and the final conversion of yield.

The result was over seven hundred jin. In this era, that figure would certainly be considered inflated, but considering various factors and the different wheat seeds used, it was understandable. Farmers in this era kept their own seeds and were reluctant to use chemical fertilizers. Not to mention the issue of fertilizer coupons, a single jin of urea cost nearly eighty cents, which most people couldn't afford. The so-called thousand-grain weight of 40 grams also lacked reliable reference value, which was the main cause of the discrepancy.

Fortunately, Yang Xingwu hadn't sold the wheat ears by weight; otherwise, he wouldn't have earned so much. It wasn't that he didn't want to sell by weight, but the family was so poor they didn't even own a scale. Besides, if a customer bought a yuan's worth of wheat ears, counting them out one by one while bent over all day was exhausting!

However, this accidental turn of events allowed him to earn quite a bit more. Yang Xingwu didn't feel guilty about it. Even if he had sold them cheaply at the start, once competitors appeared later, those who had bought his wheat ears would still complain about him. Since he was going to be criticized anyway, why not earn more before they started complaining?

This way, he could earn the money with a clear conscience.