Chapter 397: Exotic Goods
Chapter 397: Exotic Goods
Under the moonlight, three small objects that seemed familiar lay on the ground, causing Shu Yu's eyes to light up.
Da Niu hadn't seen them yet and curiously asked, "I wonder what they dug up. It's a pity I was hiding too far away earlier and couldn't see clearly."
Pausing for a moment, he continued, "No wonder they insisted on severing ties with Fourth Uncle and reclaiming this courtyard. It turns out there's a treasure hidden in this yard. So..."
Before Da Niu could finish his sentence, he saw Shu Yu crouching down and picking up a small, dark object from the ground.
"What is this?" Da Niu frowned. "It doesn't look like melon seeds."
Shu Yu shook her head. "This is a sunflower seed, different from the ones you've seen before."
In this era, the "melon seeds" actually referred to watermelon seeds and pumpkin seeds, as sunflower seeds had not appeared in the Great Su Dynasty.
The sunflower seeds she held in her hand were obviously exotic goods.
For the people of the Great Su Dynasty, exotic goods were truly considered treasures.
"These sunflower seeds are valuable." Shu Yu remembered the records of sunflower seeds in the late Qing Dynasty, stating that they were worth "three to four taels per catty and could be pressed for oil."
Sunflower seeds were quite heavy when weighed, and if they were grown in large quantities, one could earn several hundred to several thousand catty in a day, which would be quite profitable for such exotic goods.
Furthermore, sunflowers could fertilize the fields. After burning the stems into ashes and boiling them with water until dry, they could be used to make alkali, similar to soap.
Sunflower seeds could also be pressed for oil, with about fifty dou (a traditional Chinese measurement) of seeds harvested per mu (a unit of land area), yielding one liter of oil per dou.
If they grew a lot of sunflowers, they could even turn it into a scenic spot like the peach blossom forest in the county town.
No, she couldn't think about it anymore. If she continued, she wouldn't be able to control her itching fingers.
Shu Yu shook her head, exhaled a breath, and lowered her voice as she said to Da Niu, "These things can be planted. I'll try planting them later. Yuan Laoda doesn't recognize them, but I do. When he sells them in the county town, we'll find someone to buy them."
Da Niu widened his eyes. "These really are treasures?"
"Yes, but we probably don't know many people who are familiar with them." No, to be more accurate, there were probably very few people in the entire Great Su Dynasty who knew about them.
Da Niu grinned widely. His Ah Yu was really knowledgeable.
Shu Yu carefully put away the three sunflower seeds and said, "Alright, now that we know the secret of this courtyard, let's go."
"Yes."
They slightly concealed the footprints beside the dug-up soil, then they climbed over the wall and quickly left Yuan's house, returning to Shishi Village.
They were lucky. Just as they reached the village entrance, it started to drizzle.
Seeing the rain, Shu Yu breathed a sigh of relief. "The rain came just in time. Our footprints will be washed away."
Although they had concealed the evidence before leaving, it was inconvenient to do such things in the middle of the night. Who knew if Yuan Laoda and the others would notice anything when they went there tomorrow.
Seeing that
the rain was getting heavier, Shu Yu quickened her pace and started to run.
"Brother Da Niu, I'll go back first. You should hurry home too. If there's anything, we can discuss it tomorrow when it's light."
Comments
Post a Comment