Transmigrated as an Unwanted Ugly Girl

Chapter 468: Chapter 245: The Chicken and Egg Conversion Theory (Part 2)

Everyone nodded in agreement, saying that this wasn’t like harvesting lotus roots and catching fish—it was like picking up eggs!

At this, even Juhua couldn’t hold back her laughter, and Liu Xiaomei and the other girls laughed nonstop.

Zheng Changhe beamed as he watched his daughter! He felt Juhua had a real way with words. She wasn’t usually talkative, but when she did speak, she always had something well-thought-out to say.

Zhang Huai’s heart softened as he watched Juhua speak at length. When he saw Liu Sanshun smiling happily at her, he was surprised to find that he didn’t feel uncomfortable. Instead, he thought, ’Juhua is the best. Even with the rash on her face, so many people like her. Why should I be angry? I should be happy. If everyone disliked her the way they dislike Granny Hua, calling her lazy and gluttonous, then I’d have a reason to cry!’

He thought his reasoning was perfectly sound, but he didn’t realize that perhaps this magnanimity came from a victor’s mentality, born from his recent spiritual and emotional connection with Juhua. Or maybe it was because he was so full of love that he saw everything and everyone in a beautiful light.

Take this pond harvest, for example. He participated in the village’s pond harvest every year, but he’d never been this happy or excited. It was because he had helped dig this pond, he had helped get the lotus roots to plant, and he had often come with Qingmu and Juhua to stock the fish. This pond held their shared effort and hard work, so naturally, he felt an extraordinary connection to it.

His toes touched a lotus root, and he bent down, carefully digging along the segments bit by bit until he had unearthed the entire thing. It had four small sections, plump and round like a toddler’s arm.

He carried the lotus root to the edge of the pond. When Juhua saw it, she quickly pointed to the pile of seed roots and told him to put it there, explaining that such large, long ones should be saved for planting. Hearing this, he gave her a faint smile before turning back to dig again.

Qingmu watched his sister happily run back and forth, constantly directing and assigning tasks. She looked incredibly busy, but in reality, she wasn’t doing much of anything—even if she said nothing, people knew where to put the lotus roots and fish. He secretly chuckled to himself for a long time.

Huai Zi noticed and asked him curiously what he was laughing about.

Qingmu jutted his chin toward Juhua. ”Look how happy Juhua is. Don’t you think she’s acting like the village chief? When the village harvests the pond, that’s the chief’s job. But at least he gets into the water. Our Juhua just has to stand on the bank and give orders.”

Now that he mentioned it, Huai Zi realized it was true and couldn’t help but laugh as well.

Qingmu quickly added, ”Don’t let Juhua hear, or she’ll get mad.” It wasn’t that he was afraid of her actually getting angry, but he didn’t want to spoil his sister’s fun and ruin her good mood.

Juhua’s good mood wasn’t just because of how many lotus roots they dug or how many fish they caught. Her feelings were similar to Zhang Huai’s—her own family had dug this pond with their own hands, and she had personally gathered the fish from all over and tended to them as they grew. The joy of this harvest was naturally much more intense.

Once most of the lotus roots were dug up, people started catching the fish. Zheng Changhe called out, ”Pour all the small fish we’re saving to raise into the pond over here. After we’re done harvesting this pond, we’ll dig through the bank in the middle to connect the two.”

They felt this pond was truly excellent—just as Liu Xiaomei had said, it offered multiple harvests. Plus, both Juhua and Qingmu had suggested making the pond bigger. So, with the help of the Zhang family’s father and son, they had simply dug out another section over the past two days. At one mu, it was twice the size of the original half-mu pond. They had already filled it with water and were just waiting to finish harvesting this side before connecting the two.

Li Changxing said with envy, ”Uncle Zheng, your pond is the best—you can even grow lotus roots in it. With a pond this big, the lotus roots and fish you harvest must be worth more than a crop of shanyu and corn.”

Li Changming laughed. ”Of course it’s worth more—probably a lot more! The lotus roots alone will sell for a good bit of money, not to mention all these fish, and the water bamboo shoots and their greens you picked back in August and September!” He had essentially repeated what Liu Xiaomei said.

Zhao San roared with laughter. ”Brother Changhe, I don’t care about all that. You have to give me some lotus roots today. My Shi Tou told me that big sister Juhua promised him some glutinous rice-stuffed lotus root. If I go back empty-handed, my son will say I’m useless. My daughter can eat, too!”

Zhang Dashuan chuckled. ”Have you ever seen someone like this, demanding lotus roots while standing in the middle of the pond? If he doesn’t give you any, are you going to stop helping catch fish?”

Everyone burst out laughing at that.

Zheng Changhe said with a cheerful laugh, ”He’s only saying that because he knows I’m going to give him some. I dug up and sold some lotus roots back in August—they were tender then and sold well. The rest of these, aside from what we’re saving for seed, aren’t for sale. Everyone can take some home today and have a taste.”

Watching the buckets of fish, along with the Huang Shan and Ni Qiu, being brought up from the pond, Juhua suddenly realized she was becoming stingy. She felt a little reluctant to eat the Huang Shan and Ni Qiu just like that, thinking it would be better to raise them for another year and let them multiply.

In short, she loved to hoard all sorts of things, whether it was grain, vegetables, chickens, ducks, or pigs. Her desire to save up silver wasn’t nearly as strong. She felt that silver was only useful at specific times and in specific circumstances; sometimes, a bowl of rice was more practical than a piece of silver. Of course, in these peaceful times, it was still necessary to save some silver.

So, she discussed it with Qingmu as he brought up a bucket of Huang Shan. ”Brother, let’s just keep a few of the Huang Shan and Ni Qiu to eat and put the rest back. They’re still in our own pond, so it’s not like they can run away. If we put them back, we’ll have even more next year. Wouldn’t that be great?”

Qingmu’s surprise went without saying. Even Liu Sanshun, who had just climbed ashore, asked strangely, ”Juhua, there are still plenty of Huang Shan and Ni Qiu in the pond—we didn’t even catch the small ones. Are you worried you won’t have any breeding stock?”