Chapter 251: The Great Planting Business for Wealth

Returning home in the evening, looking at the roadside, many trees had already sprouted tender leaves.

The trees near the river were the most obvious, with willow branches showing the most prominent green. They swayed in the wind like green hair, radiating vibrant life.

Back inside the house, Xiulan was in the yard picking through fiddlehead ferns. She had long since stopped wearing her cotton-padded jacket, replacing it with a double-layered coat.

“Are the fiddlehead ferns out already?”

Lin Heng asked in surprise. Although many trees had budded over the past two days, the vast mountain forests were still mostly bare. They wouldn’t turn completely green until around the Qingming Festival.

Xiulan looked up and said, “Mom picked some by the river while she was out herding the cows and brought a few over for us.”

“By the river, ah, that makes sense.” Lin Heng nodded, then added with a smile, “The work at the construction site will be finished in two or three days. When that’s done, I’ll take you and Xiao Xia for a spring outing by the Heihe.”

“Aren’t you going to hunt that Asiatic Black Bear?” Xiulan asked, looking up at him.

Lin Heng waved his hand. “My wife and child are much more important than hunting an Asiatic Black Bear.”

Xiulan laughed at his words. Her eyes curved into crescents, and the charming folds beneath them were quite beautiful. She watched him with a gentle gaze. “Go if you want to. It’s the same to us whether we go out or not.”

“Actually, it’ll still be a while before I can hunt the Asiatic Black Bear. There’s no rush,” Lin Heng said with a smile.

Xiulan nodded. “In that case, a spring outing would be nice. I actually really want to go.”

Lin Heng looked at her and teased, “And yet you just said it was all the same to you.”

Xiulan stood up with a playful smile. She reached out to tidy Lin Heng’s hair and tilted her head. “I was lying to you, of course!”

After saying that, she turned to walk into the house.

Lin Heng grabbed her and pulled her back, holding her in his arms as he laughed. “Lying deserves a punishment.”

“Don’t mess around, I need to make dinner. Besides, you’re so smelly.”

Xiulan blinked, trying to break free from Lin Heng’s embrace.

“Then I’ll make sure you’re just as smelly.”

Lin Heng didn’t let go until he had rubbed some dirt onto her face.

“I really want to give you a beating!”

Xiulan glared at him, then pursed her lips and went inside.

Lin Heng laughed heartily and went to the bedroom to take a shower. When he came out, he checked the Red Globe grapes he had grafted in the backyard. Callus tissue had already formed at the graft sites, and the buds had sprouted two small leaves.

These grafted Red Globe grapes had actually sprouted leaves before the Kyoho grapes next to them. This was normal, however, as the wild grape roots he had planted last year were far more developed than the Kyoho vines that had only been in the ground for a short time.

After checking the grapes, Lin Heng went to look at the seeds he had placed in wooden buckets to sprout. These included Forsythia, Astragalus, Ryegrass, Elephant Grass, and Alfalfa.

The breeding process was very simple. After soaking them in water, he wrapped them in cloth bags and placed them in wooden buckets, padded with green grass on the top and bottom. The moist and warm environment would cause the seeds to germinate.

All he had to do was take them out and soak them in water once a day.

Lin Heng opened a bucket and looked inside. They had all sprouted white, dot-like root tips. Planting them in the soil now would result in a much higher survival rate.

He had already planned out exactly how to plant them and where.

“Daddy, teach me how to play with the Rubik’s cube!”

Just as Lin Heng finished checking the seeds, Xiao Xia came over holding a 2×2 Rubik’s cube.

She had been suffering from a runny nose ever since her last bout of diarrhea and coughing, and she had only fully recovered in the last two days. Lin Heng was finally able to relax.

“Watch closely then!”

Lin Heng took the cube and gave her a demonstration. Even an adult who hadn’t learned the techniques could solve a small 2×2 cube, but it was very difficult for two year old Xiao Xia. She only knew how to scramble it.

Lin Heng solved it in no time, and Xiao Xia’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Let me try!”

She took the cube back and buried her head in it, trying to figure it out.

Lin Heng carried her to the main hall and set her down, then went to the front yard to check on the Ginseng seed nursery. Lifting a corner of the greenhouse cover, he saw that those hard Ginseng seeds had finally sprouted white bud points.

“It’s been a month, and they’ve finally sprouted.”

Lin Heng said with a deep breath. If they hadn’t sprouted soon, he would have started to doubt if the seeds were fake.

Beside them, the seedlings for the watermelons, cucumbers, and cantaloupes had already grown four or five leaves, while the green pepper seedlings were over ten centimeters tall. They had all reached the point where they could be transplanted.

The strawberry seedlings had grown many runners, and there were now about sixty or seventy plants, an increase of twenty or thirty. Furthermore, the original mother plants were about to bloom.

Lin Heng was considering whether to remove the greenhouse cover from the strawberry patch. After all, the weather was already very warm, with daytime temperatures reaching between ten and twenty degrees.

“Daddy, solve it for me again!”

At that moment, Xiao Xia ran over and handed the Rubik’s cube back to Lin Heng. Clearly, her own attempt had failed.

“Let me wash my hands first.”

Lin Heng washed his hands in the basin under the eaves and demonstrated it for Xiao Xia twice more. He felt that once Xiao Xia could solve this cube on her own, she could start learning how to write.

During this past month, Tian Yan had still been coming to Lin Heng’s house every afternoon. While she met with Lin Hai for dates and chess, she also taught Xiao Xia how to draw and play with paper cutting1.

She also took the opportunity to look through the books Lin Heng’s family had brought back from Ancheng.

Lin Heng had proactively asked to temporarily stop the writing lessons. It was better to start with some toys that could train finger dexterity first. Paper cutting and drawing were both quite suitable.

She was getting the hang of it quickly.

Xiao Xia tried a few more times, but when she realized she still couldn’t be as amazing as her father, she gave up. She turned to play with her toy frogs and rubber ball, or pulled Lai Fu around in a wooden cart.

“Dinner’s ready!”

A short while later, Xiulan had finished cooking.

For dinner, they had soft pancakes, stir-fried fiddlehead ferns with cured meat, sour and spicy shredded potatoes, and a dandelion salad.

The ferns were very crunchy, similar to garlic scapes, and had a great texture.

Lin Heng liked to spread a layer of fermented tofu with chili on a soft pancake and then roll the three dishes inside to eat together. The explosion of multiple textures and flavors in his mouth was a true delight.

“These ferns are really good,” Lin Heng noted with a nod.

“I’ll just eat one wrap. You take care of the other three.”

Xiulan said after taking a bite of her own roll.

Lin Heng nodded. Three were a piece of cake for him, no pressure at all.

After eating, he took a walk to help his digestion, then coaxed Xiao Xia to sleep. He quickly climbed into bed to rest as well, feeling quite exhausted after a full day of labor.

The next morning, he woke up to find it was raining. Opening the window, he saw that a fine, misty rain was indeed falling outside.

“Can we still work today?” Xiulan asked.

“If it stays this light, we can,” Lin Heng said, quickly shrinking back into the covers and hugging his wife for warmth.

They hadn’t lit the fireplace for the past two days, so the early morning was freezing. He had been shivering after checking the weather in just his underwear.

Xiulan obediently hugged Lin Heng, letting him draw warmth from her body.

“God bless, let this rain stop in a while. Let it wait until I’ve planted these things before it starts again.”

Lin Heng sighed. It was really the wrong time for rain.

“Don’t worry, it definitely won’t last.”

Xiulan said, pressing close to Lin Heng.

“I hope so.” Lin Heng turned his head to look at Xiulan and lay back down to sleep for a bit longer. It was only six-thirty, still early.

After sleeping for another half hour, the two of them got up together. The rain outside had actually stopped. Lin Heng excitedly picked up his wife and gave her a heavy kiss.

“Your words really are like gold2! I absolutely have to kiss these golden lips a couple of times!” Lin Heng said with a laugh.

“Stop it, it’s time to exercise,” Xiulan said, her eyes curving into crescents.

“Alright, let me show you your husband’s muscles.”

Lin Heng laughed and walked into the yard to exercise.

The rain clearly hadn’t lasted long, as there was hardly any water pooling on the Bluestone tiles.

After drinking some milk and eating breakfast, Father Lin and the others arrived. He looked at Lin Heng and asked, “It looks like it might rain today. Are we still working?”

Lin Heng nodded and said, “Yes, of course we are. Today, I’ll have the six skilled workers handle the road hardening on their own. The rest of you will come with me to plant Ginseng.”

Yesterday the weather had seemed normal and there were no signs of rain, but now that there was a trend toward it, he decided to get the Ginseng planted first.

Planting the Ginseng and then having a spring rain fall on it would be absolutely perfect.

“Alright, then I’ll go tell the villagers,” Father Lin said, getting up to head out.

“Dad, remember to tell them to bring hoes,” Lin Heng reminded him.

“Alright, I’ve got it,” Father Lin’s voice drifted back from over the wall.

“Uncle-in-law, you come with me to dig up the Ginseng seeds.”

Lin Heng said this as he went inside to grab two large baskets. He then peeled back the plastic sheeting and dug up the Ginseng seeds along with a layer of Humus Soil, pouring them into the baskets.

These Ginseng seeds had just begun to sprout white root points. Digging them up now would not hinder their growth.

Several people took turns carrying the baskets up to Red Maple Mountain. Lin Heng took out the work log and had everyone sign in first. After assigning the five skilled workers to their own tasks, he led the other twenty workers up the mountain.

“The planting depth for Ginseng is about five centimeters. Everyone use your hoes to dig trenches about five centimeters deep, with fifteen centimeters of space between each trench.”

“Some people will dig the trenches while others sow the seeds. Don’t plant the seeds too densely. Everyone, watch my demonstration.”

After Lin Heng finished speaking, he began to demonstrate with a hoe. Since he had bought plenty of Ginseng seeds, the planting density could be a bit higher, about one every three or four centimeters. After a year, quite a few of them would likely die off anyway.

Everyone present was a farmer, so they learned as soon as Lin Heng taught them and began the grand task of planting with great enthusiasm.

They chatted while they worked.

Someone felt that planting Ginseng seemed to have a future, so they asked, “Lin Heng, how much does a jin of these Ginseng seeds cost?”

“Yeah, if it’s cheap, we might plant some too.”

“Anyway, our own mountain forests are just sitting idle. It wouldn’t be bad to plant some Ginseng to sell.”

Seeing Lin Heng planting so vigorously, everyone began to have ideas, all of them very eager to make a fortune.

Lin Heng grinned. “It’s not that expensive, just five yuan a jin!”

“Hiss!!”

Everyone instantly sucked in a breath of cold air, their expressions freezing.

“Five yuan a jin, and you call that not expensive? Our daily wage is only eighty cents.”

“Heavens, that price is through the roof. Can’t afford it, definitely can’t afford it.”

Everyone shook their heads, their thoughts of getting rich by planting Ginseng instantly extinguished. They simply couldn’t afford the cost.

Lin Heng smiled. He had actually considered signing buyback contracts with the villagers. He would provide the money for the seeds, and once the villagers grew them, they would sell them to him at a pre-arranged price.

Ginseng has high medicinal value and the market demand is huge. Currently, the scale of Ginseng cultivation is very small, far from meeting demand, and the demand will skyrocket in the future once investment is attracted.

He knew the future market price for wild-simulated Ginseng, so it would be easy to set a buyback price. As long as this business succeeded, it would definitely be a profitable deal. He would make a large profit, and the villagers could get rich because of it; no one would lose.

But he was worried that after a few years, the villagers would see the market price of Ginseng and start to quibble with him, which would be a very troublesome matter.

He planned to think this matter over carefully. There was no rush right now. He would make a decision after he had some capital from selling his first batch of shrimp this year.

Time flew by. Because the land had already been cleared, the planting went very quickly, covering more than two mu per hour.

“Why is the sun out again? This damn weather.”

A little after ten, golden sunlight suddenly poured down, catching Lin Heng off guard.

“What if it doesn’t rain at all for the next few days?”

Father Lin looked at the sky with some concern. These Ginseng seeds cost as much as five yuan a jin.

“It’s fine, it will definitely rain. The ground in this forest isn’t too dry yet.”

Lin Heng shook his head, not particularly worried about it. Rain is inevitable in the spring. In fact, he hoped it would wait another day or two before falling.

With twenty-seven people planting, the speed was very fast. They planted nine mu in a single morning.

After finishing lunch, the group worked an extra hour in the afternoon to finish planting all the Ginseng seeds.

“In the end, we’re still short by one or two mu,” Father Lin said, looking at the empty space in the forest.

“It was measured by foot originally, so it’s normal for it to be a bit larger. We can just transplant some over in August or September.”

Lin Heng said with a smile.

“That’s true,” Father Lin agreed with a nod.

After glancing at the woods, Lin Heng turned to head home. The forsythia seeds and other things in the house needed to be planted, and he prayed it wouldn’t rain the next day.

Early the next morning, Lin Heng scrambled out of bed as soon as he woke up. Seeing that it wasn’t raining outside, he jumped for joy.

After breakfast, Lin Heng took the forsythia and pasture seeds to Red Maple Mountain. The area around the house, about four or five hundred square meters, had already been paved the day before.

After finishing his daily check-in, Lin Heng looked at the group and said, “Everyone, let’s start by planting the fields with me today.”

The planting site was the three mu of land that had recently been reclaimed just above the house.

“We’ll still be planting in furrows. Just five or six centimeters deep is enough.”

Once Lin Heng finished his instructions, everyone set to work.

Out of the three mu of land, Lin Heng used only half a mu for the forsythia. The rest was dedicated to pasture grass. Planting one mu for each type of grass was just right; once it grew, his livestock would have plenty to eat.

He only used half a mu for the forsythia because this year was just for raising seedlings. Forsythia is a small shrub, so it was better to let the seedlings grow for a year into small saplings before transplanting them.

“Lin Heng, do you think it would work if I planted medicinal herbs on the land above my house?”

Li Shiwei ran over and asked with a smile while Lin Heng was busy planting the forsythia.

“Of course it would. Growing medicinal herbs is definitely more profitable than growing regular crops. You could also plant pasture grass and get into livestock breeding.”

Lin Heng said with a nod. The poor transportation on the mountain didn’t mean there were no opportunities to make a fortune. He hadn’t mentioned these things before because he didn’t feel he was wealthy enough yet to be giving out advice freely.

But since Li Shiwei had come to ask him himself, Lin Heng was more than happy to help his friend strike it rich.

(End of Chapter)