Chapter 141
Shen Xuanqing’s words made Lu Gu hesitate. With so many livestock at home needing grass every day, plus the need to stock up on hay for winter, if he stopped working, wouldn’t the burden fall entirely on others? So he said, “If I don’t do it, Mother and the others won’t be able to manage.”
“Didn’t we agree earlier that you’d come up the mountain with me and stay for half a month or more? You wouldn’t be able to share much of the workload anyway.” Shen Xuanqing sounded a little helpless as he continued, “The work is endless, there’s always something to do. But with me and Eldest Brother here, why take everything upon yourself? If this goes on, you’ll end up worrying about everything, and eventually, all the work will land on you. How will you manage then?”
Seeing Lu Gu’s awkward expression, he smiled wryly. Taking advantage of the fact that Shen Yaoqing and Shen Yan were cutting grass some distance away and not looking over, he secretly squeezed his fulang's palm in reassurance and said with a smile, “Eldest Brother and I are strong laborers, after all. We won’t let the family suffer. If I tell you to rest, then rest. Once your hand heals, you’ll work more efficiently. If you keep letting it get wet, it won’t heal properly, and that’ll just delay things further, that would be a real problem.”
“Mm.” Lu Gu found this reasonable and nodded in agreement. He had always trusted Shen Xuanqing.
Seeing that he was convinced, Shen Xuanqing smiled and said, “In a couple of days, we’ll be busy plowing the fields to plant winter wheat, but we can’t neglect cutting grass either. Earlier, when I was in the fields, I talked with Eldest Brother about it. Drying hay is urgent, we should take advantage of the good weather to stock up early. I’m thinking of spending a little money to hire someone to cut grass for us.”
This stunned Lu Gu. Country folk always cut their own grass, who ever heard of hiring someone for it? Wasn’t this just wasting money? But he stayed silent, listening as Shen Xuanqing continued.
“I plan to ask He Zhi and his fulang. Cutting grass isn’t skilled labor, it just takes time and effort, so the pay won’t be much. Three copper coins for two cartloads. They can use our family’s carts.”
As he spoke, Shen Xuanqing picked up Lu Gu’s left hand to inspect it, but with the thumb wrapped up, he couldn’t see anything. He set it down again and said, “At first, I thought of paying them by the day, but then I considered that they have their own work too and shouldn’t be delayed. It’s better to pay by the cartload. Whenever they have free time, they can cut as much as they want, and we’ll pay accordingly.”
“This way, Mother and Yan Yan only need to gather fresh grass daily for the livestock. They won’t have to worry about anything else, so the workload will lighten, and they can rest too.”
Grass grew abundantly along the riverbanks and in the wild, available in plenty and free for the taking. The price was fair, neither too much nor too little, especially since a single baked pancake cost two copper coins these days.
Still, wild grass had never been worth much. Two cartloads for three copper coins was a decent deal for families with little land who had to take on odd jobs to make ends meet.
Lu Gu thought of the hay storage shed. Dried grass was much lighter than fresh grass, five or six catties of fresh grass might only yield one catty of dried hay. To fill an entire shed would take so many cartloads.
He voiced this thought quietly.
Shen Xuanqing chuckled. “As long as we can stock it full, no number of cartloads is a waste. If we run out of feed in winter, what will the livestock eat? A live rabbit, even sold cheaply, can fetch thirty copper coins. If it’s well-fed and sold during the colder months, it might even go for thirty-five or forty copper coins. One rabbit alone could cover twenty cartloads of grass.”
“And how many young rabbits do we have now? We won’t miss those extra fifteen or twenty coins.” He was always patient when explaining finances to Lu Gu.
This reasoning made sense to Lu Gu, who no longer worried about losses.
“Besides, this is just for winter feed. Once winter passes, we’ll cut the grass ourselves again.” With that, Shen Xuanqing gripped his sickle and began cutting grass briskly.
Lu Gu assisted by carrying bamboo baskets, doing no other work.
Once they finished, Shen Xuanqing went to He Zhi’s house.
It was the season for planting winter wheat, but He Zhi’s family didn’t have much land. After finishing their own work, they had to take on manual labor wherever they could find it. The offer of three copper coins for two cartloads of grass was tempting. Cutting grass wasn’t hard, just time-consuming. He and Chen Dongdong could gather plenty in their spare time.
The prospect of earning money was always exciting. As soon as Shen Xuanqing finished speaking, He Zhi agreed readily: “Sure. Once I finish the last bit of work in the fields today, I’ll start tomorrow.”
With the matter settled and no need to look for others, Shen Xuanqing didn’t linger. It was already lunchtime, and the family would be waiting for him to return.
At the dinner table, when Wei Lanxiang heard about hiring someone to cut grass, she wasn’t pleased, seeing it as a waste of money. “Why hire someone for grass-cutting? It’s not like I’m too old to move. Besides, we have plenty of bean stalks and wheat straw, two whole stacks of wheat straw this year! The cattle and sheep can eat that. And in half a month, the rice will be ready, once the straw’s dried, there’ll be plenty of that too. Why spend extra money?”
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