Chapter 40: Borrowing Sweet Potatoes

**

This half-bag of sweet potatoes weighed at least sixty pounds. Compared to five pounds of sweet potato rice flour, Liu Meilan naturally preferred to have at least sixty pounds of sweet potatoes.

"Hey, you—"

Liu Xiujian was stunned. This half-bag of sweet potatoes weighed over sixty pounds. Because it was originally stored in a hemp bag, she had just dragged it out without dividing it, but she didn't expect Liu Meilan to carry it away along with the bag.

Moreover, it seemed like Liu Meilan was afraid she might change her mind, as she didn't even care about her son and just took off with the sweet potatoes.

Liu Xiujian and Tang Ailian were both a little dumbfounded.

Seeing her daughter clutching the bag of sweet potato flour tightly, Liu Xiujian tapped her forehead lightly. "You little miser, now look what you've done. You can't bear to part with five pounds of sweet potato flour, and now someone has taken over sixty pounds of our sweet potatoes."

Tang Ailian gave her mother a disdainful look. "You gave it to her. The sweet potato flour is mine."

If Tang Ailian had a choice, she would rather give away those sweet potatoes personally selected and processed by her father than the sweet potato nutrition flour.

"I didn't intend to give so much." Liu Xiujian had just dragged it out, and she planned to take around ten pounds of sweet potatoes for Liu Meilan. However, she ended up carrying away the whole bag.

And she had no room to change her mind.

Seeing her mother leave, Li Xinye burst into tears, and Liu Xiujian sighed and had to feed Li Xinye a bowl of rice cake made from sweet potato flour.

Tang Ailian snorted and pushed the bag of sweet potato flour she was holding in her mother's direction. "Let Li Xinye eat by himself. Mom, help Ailian put away the sweet potato flour. Dad gave it to Ailian, and it's not to be given to anyone else." She became more fluent when no one was around.

Liu Xiujian sighed. This little "adult" was her daughter, who was just ten days away from turning one and a half years old.

Li Jiacun was more than six li away from Longtou Village, and Liu Meilan managed to return just in time for dinner after delivering the sweet potatoes.

This year, due to a severe drought, there was not enough food even for the people. Many production teams had to close down their pig farms. In rural areas, the members relied on the pork from the pig farms for their New Year's celebration.

With the pig farms closed, there was no pork for the New Year's feast this year.

Dragon Head Production Team managed to kill ten fat pigs for the New Year's celebration. Each family received a portion of pork, along with two pieces of tofu, to entertain the guests from Li Jiacun.

Smelling the aroma of meat, Li Shixue, the captain of Li Jiacun, sighed, "You guys at Dragon Head Production Team are lucky. You still have pork to eat. In our village, people are struggling to find enough food. The pigs were sold to buy grain, and now, we don't have any meat left. Sigh, different folks, different strokes, huh? Long Laoda, you won't leave us in the lurch, will you?" He was secretly assessing Dragon Jiusheng's intentions.

Dragon Jiusheng knew that Li Jiacun didn't have enough food. He sighed and said, "What can I do? You're the captain; you should figure it out."

Although Li Shixue, like Dragon Jiusheng, had risen to his position due to the wave of youthfulness among cadre members, his status was different. In reality, Li Jiacun was still controlled by a group of old folks. To make any decisions, they had to hold meetings, and during those meetings, only a few old men had a say. Li Shixue, as the production team leader, only had executive power but no decision-making authority. He was more like a puppet.

Li Shixue looked at Dragon Jiusheng and said, "I also wanted to plant, but when you told me to plant sweet potatoes, the mutual-aid labor was already over, and those old guys heard that we had to cut down rice seedlings to plant sweet potatoes. Each one of them treated me as a landlord and opposed it fiercely. How could I dare to plant?"

Although Li Shixue had also benefited from the rejuvenation of cadre members and was in a similar position as Dragon Jiusheng, his status was different. Li Jiacun was effectively controlled by a group of old folks who made all the decisions. Li Shixue only had executive power and no decision-making authority, making him more like a puppet.

Li Shixue thought for a moment and said, "Alright, I'll listen to you, Dragon Laoda. Lend us some sweet potato seeds. But what do you mean by sweet potatoes? I was hoping for rice seeds."

Dragon Jiusheng lowered his voice and said, "Yes, it's sweet potatoes. Honestly, last year, I received guidance from a master and learned that there would be a severe drought this year. The master said there might even be locusts in the second half of the year. Planting rice won't be useful. Just plant sweet potatoes and taro."

Li Shixue thought for a moment and said, "Alright, I'll listen to you. Let's focus on planting sweet potatoes this spring. We farmers can still have full stomachs if we grow enough sweet potatoes and taro. Let's make it clear: we're borrowing, okay?"

"I wouldn't deceive you. Borrow three thousand pounds of sweet potato seeds, and remember, it's a loan," Dragon Jiusheng replied.

"I can count on you, Dragon Laoda. You're my savior," Li Shixue said with relief.

After Li Jiacun took away the sweet potato seeds, Tian Toucun and Honglucun, two allied villages with Longtou Village, also came to Dragon Jiusheng's house.

"Dragon Laoda, you can't favor one and discriminate against others. You lent sweet potato seeds to Li Jiacun, but what about us?" Tian Toucun's team leader, Tian Laotong, shouted into Dragon Jiusheng's house without even entering.

"Hmph, am I that kind of person? It's the same for everyone. Each team can borrow five thousand pounds of sweet potato seeds. Let's be clear: it's a loan," Dragon Jiusheng generously treated them all equally and agreed to lend them three thousand pounds of sweet potato seeds each.

Usually, it took 30 to 50 pounds of sweet potatoes to plant seedlings on one mu of land. With 3,000 pounds of sweet potato seeds, they could plant seedling fields for 100 mu of land. Moreover, sweet potato vines could be harvested multiple times. If they didn't rush and took their time, they could even plant 200 to 300 mu of land without any issues.

(End of this chapter)