Chapter 92: The Clever Sisters

  Upon hearing the news, Qizhen still felt a bit happy in her heart. If there's no grain, and if we don't take advantage of this opportunity to pick some, just buying grain will be a large sum of silver.

  The next day, the two of them had breakfast and heard the cheers of children outside. They slung their baskets over their shoulders, picked up their baskets, and went out too.

  In just two days, the large areas of golden wheat disappeared, and the fields were left with neat rows of wheat straw. The children started from the nearest field, cheering and rushing down. Each person had their own ridge to pick from, and they did so quietly and in an orderly fashion, without arguing or fighting over anything, as if they had a tacit understanding.

  Qī Zhēn'er took a look at the children, and they were basically all around five to eight years old. Those who were as big as her could already go down to the ground, so why would their families waste them by letting them pick up wheat ears? Fortunately, she had been malnourished since childhood and was thin and small, not looking much bigger than the others. Now that she was mixed in with the children, she didn't feel embarrassed either.

  The kids must have known quickly, and also from the adults at home, that another brother and sister had moved into the village. At first, they were curious when they saw them, but after getting familiar with each other for a while, they talked about everything.

  Qizhen'er also saw Erniang's younger sister, Sanni, who was only about seven years old. She was a shy little girl carrying a basket and holding scissors in her hand, deftly picking up wheat ears without speaking to anyone. If you greeted her first, she would just smile and then continue working with her head down. Qizhen'er couldn't help but feel that this was also a diligent little girl.

  Gleaning wheat ears is when the wheat bundles are tied up, some people are not careful and leave a few wheat ears behind, or some grains are trampled and cannot be picked up, so they are discarded by the owner. There are also diligent and meticulous people who will pick them up after tying up the wheat bundles. If you encounter such a household, basically nothing can be gleaned from that land.

  After Qizhen'er said a few words to Sān Niáng, the two of them became familiar with each other. When they were picking up the second piece of land, Sān Niáng's movements became slower and slower. When the children moved on to the next piece of land, Sān Niáng winked at Qizhen'er, leading her brother and sister to turn right, passing by two pieces of land, and entering a large piece of land over one mu.

  "This is the land of the Second Lai family in the village. They are all very sloppy, and every year they harvest the most wheat ears left behind." San Ni explained, "Next to it is the Ye Erbo family's land, which was previously harvested by the family's helpers, and it was very clean. However, my sister said that this year they harvested it themselves, and it wasn't clean either. But my sister doesn't let me go to their land, afraid of offending Aunt Lotus and causing trouble."

  Qī Zhēn ér carefully measured the two blocks of land and indeed, many wheat ears were left behind. It seems that the people who cut and bundled the wheat were not very careful. However, those two girls are really clever. They love money but can resist immediate benefits. Just for this point, their future days will be good.

  After picking for a while, Zhen'er couldn't help but sigh in admiration. These two girls are not simple at all. She said that she heard Ye Baiju say that the two of them had been seen wandering around the fields these past two days without cutting any wheat, and it turned out they were surveying the terrain.

  But this is also San Niang giving her a favor, after all, the two sisters must have thought of picking up the wheat themselves.

  She thought of what her sister said, to find one or two who looked pleasing. The wind picked up again as they harvested the wheat ears. She was afraid that she would be too conspicuous alone. After looking for half a day, she felt that Qi Zhen'er was reliable and treated her kindly. Unlike others who always made fun of her and her sister. Choosing her should be no mistake.

  San Niang finished speaking and quickly got busy. Qi Zhen'er didn't dawdle either, the scissors in her hand didn't stop moving, cutting off the wheat ears and throwing them into the basket on her back. In her heart, she also remembered this favor.

  Later, San Niang took Qi Zhen and her siblings to two more places, both of which had a lot of wheat ears. There were also some children who saw them wandering around, but no matter what, they didn't know Qi Zhen and her siblings well, so they thought it was better to be with familiar playmates and didn't come over to join them, otherwise the secret would have been exposed.

  When they returned home at noon, Qizhen and Huzi were both full. Some little friends saw that they had picked so many and were curious, but the children were still very simple and didn't think deeply, thinking that Qizhen's brother and sister were sharp-eyed and quick-handed, picking more than others.

  Later, Qi Zhen'er told Ye Baiji about this, and she was also shocked to hear that the two girls were only 12 years old, and her sister was only 7 years old, yet they already had such a plan?

  She went back and scattered the wheat ears on the only table to dry, which was something she had searched for a long time in her home.

  Looking around the relatively empty house, Qizhen felt deeply that there were still many things to be added at home. There were no farm tools such as hoes, rakes, and sickles. The furniture consisted of a wooden bed, a table, and four benches, but not even a tall cabinet. Her backyard was also untidy, if she didn't plant some vegetables, what would she and Huizi eat?

  The high millet has been harvested, and someone needs to be invited to help tie two beds of millet stalks (using hemp rope to bundle the millet stalks). One bed is laid on the bed, and a quilt is spread on top, making it more comfortable to sleep. The other bed is used for drying things.

  They picked up wheat for several days, because Er Niang, the vanguard, had already explored the "terrain", and with Qi Zhen'er's brother and sister's quick hands and feet, they actually picked up two sacks of wheat. Even Ye Baiju felt it was unbelievable.

  "You've got too much, haven't you?" Ye Baiji said: "Although I haven't picked this before, I've also heard that basically nothing can be picked up. Even the one with the fastest hands and feet only picked up a little more than a bag, and that was after finishing picking. How many days have you been picking?"

  Qizhen didn't notice at first, but when she packed up the wheat, she found that there was quite a bit. Just like Ye Baiji said, they had only started harvesting for a few days, and the village's land had only been harvested about half of it, even if she hadn't found this place with many fallen wheat ears, this year would still be considered a bumper harvest.

  Because of this, she benefited from the light of Er Niu and San Niu sisters. Qi Zhen'er didn't dare to ask them directly how much they had picked up, but looking at San Niu's smiling face in the following days, she also knew that she had a big harvest.

  However, they didn't say that because of this little thing, they were proud, and still followed their companions to the ground every day. At first, they always walked with everyone together, occasionally running to another field to stroll around, and then returning to the team. They had been doing this for several days, and everyone was used to it, so no one noticed their secret.

  Zi Zhen'er always thought that where there are people, there are hidden dragons and tigers, just like Confucius said, "Among three people walking together, I will find my teacher." Although they say scholars, farmers, workers, and merchants, the ones who truly live at the lowest level and suffer the most oppression are the peasants. The more they are oppressed, the greater their potential is stirred up. They may not understand much knowledge, or even be illiterate, but the strategies they use are no worse than those of the strategists.

  Maybe someone will say, isn't it just sending someone to familiarize themselves with the situation in each field first, and then grabbing an advantage when harvesting wheat? Who doesn't know that?

  Yes, this method is not very clever, as long as you think flexibly, you can basically come up with it. What's difficult is...

  It's rare not to let the villagers find out, not to let your little partners discover this secret, and you can use it year after year.

  She believed that Er Nai and San Nai sisters were not the first people to use this method, but they used it the most and also the most secretly.

  Tomorrow's update might be a bit late, so I'm saying sorry in advance~~~ Please give me some pink dust!

  Also thanks to Donghan Yue's peaceful charm ~~.