20demayo Chapter 248 The moment to test humanity has arrived.
Chapter 248 The moment to test humanity has arrived.
The news that the Zhang family was still harvesting watermelons quickly spread to several nearby villages. When people arrived at the Zhang family's house carrying their watermelons, Nineteen, holding the notebook Xia Yu had given him, asked each person in line a question.
"Which village are you from? What's your name? How many watermelon seedlings did you buy?" If the information matches the register, then you can line up to wait for your watermelon seedlings to be weighed. If you don't have any information and your name isn't in the register, then you don't need to line up; they won't accept your seedlings.
Many people were indignant about this and wanted to cause a scene at the Zhang family's house. However, when they saw that Nineteen could casually pluck a blade of grass and throw it at a nearby tree trunk, embedding it quite deeply, their anger instantly died down, and they slunk away amidst the accusations of the crowd.
Many people were caught when weighing their watermelons, told that some of their watermelons contained their own seeds and therefore could not be accepted.
"That's impossible. I bought all my watermelon seedlings from your store, why won't you take them?"
"If all the seedlings in your watermelon garden were bought from me, then your watermelons must be mixed with watermelons from other people."
"No, they were all picked from my own field." Although the melon seller was a little guilty, he still answered stubbornly, thinking of the promised benefits.
Hearing his explanation, Uncle Ma didn't waste any more words with him. He directly ordered Feng Dahai and Zhang Suozhu to drag the man out of the group, and then asked Gao Shuanzhu to go to the village to call the family's relatives in the village.
Initially, Zhang Youtie was unwilling to sell the watermelon seedlings to outsiders. Anyone from another village who came to Zhangjia Village to buy watermelon seedlings would ask someone from Zhangjia Village to act as a middleman. Therefore, Xia Yu's notebook clearly recorded who the middleman was from the village, and even the relationship between the two families.
Gao Shuanzhu was not tall, but he was very quick. He soon called over the middleman that the man had found. It turned out to be Zhang Dahe, the second son of Lao Waila. The melon seller was the brother-in-law of Zhang Dahe's married sister, Zhang Chunhua.
Upon seeing the newcomer, the melon seller excitedly stepped forward and grabbed Zhang Dahe.
"Second brother, come and take a look. I clearly bought the melon seedlings from their store, but they insist that there are other people's seedlings among them and refuse to accept my melons."
Zhang Dahe glanced at Uncle Ma, who was being weighed, and looked at the newcomer.
"Uncle Ma won't blame you. When I had Chunhua inform you yesterday, I made it clear that we would only accept melons grown from seedlings bought here, and not melons grown from seedlings not from the Zhang family. You know what you did. Go back now, I can't help you."
"Hey, second brother, you can't do this. I only bought their melon seedlings because of you. How come you're abandoning me now?"
Hearing him say that, Zhang Dahe also got angry.
"For my sake? Let me tell you, the Zhang family's melon seedlings sell like hotcakes. If it weren't for Chunhua's sake, you could talk until the sky fell, and I still wouldn't have brought you to the Zhang family to buy melon seedlings."
After saying that, he pointed to the line where people were being weighed in an orderly manner.
"Why did you accept all their gifts? You should ask yourself what you did first. Hurry up and leave, don't embarrass yourself here." Zhang Dahe looked at his sister's brother-in-law with disdain.
Seeing that no one would stand up for her, Zhang Chunhua's brother-in-law, Zhao Erjia, left cursing and swearing. He wanted to go home and tell his mother about it, hoping she would help him get revenge.
The melons from the neighboring village were harvested over two days. Zhao Erjia's incident happened three times in total. Without exception, these three families were blacklisted by Xia Yu's family, and they would never be invited to do anything again.
Everyone who successfully sold melons and received their money was overjoyed. The pork sellers in town noticed that pork was selling exceptionally fast these past few days. In the past, selling one pig a day was considered a great business, but these days they could sell two pigs every day.
News arrived from the capital. Five days had passed since Steward Qin came to collect the melons. Upon hearing the Emperor's decree, Steward Qin didn't waste a moment and drove his carriage to Zhangjia Village. Accompanying him were some merchants from the capital who had come to buy melons.
The merchants from the capital, after inquiring about the price the Shen family paid for watermelons in the county town and the town where Xia Yu's family lived, surprisingly offered a high price of twenty coins per pound.
At the Zhang family's house, Steward Qin relayed the Emperor's message: the Emperor specifically requested watermelons from Zhangjia Village, which presented a problem, as many of those watermelons had been sourced from other villages.
The family discussed the matter for a long time in the house, and finally Xia Yu came up with a solution. Because of the watermelon fruit platters that the various restaurants in the Shen family were giving to their guests, many guests wanted to buy some after tasting them. So they decided to transport all the watermelons they had collected to the restaurants to sell to the guests, and send the ones collected from Zhangjia Village to the palace.
Manager Qin hesitated at Xia Yu's suggestion, unsure if the watermelons from other villages tasted the same as those from Zhangjia Village.
Seeing her hesitation, Xia Yu asked Uncle Ma to randomly select a few watermelons from those watermelons, cut them open on the spot, and said that they tasted the same as the watermelons from Zhangjia Village.
Manager Qin found this result very strange. Why were the melons grown from the seeds kept in their mansion not sweet? He didn't hide his suspicions and asked directly.
“We usually start by growing seedlings in a greenhouse, and then sell the seedlings to those people. Why don’t you try it next year?” Xia Yu said.
After hearing Xia Yu's explanation, Steward Qin nodded silently. But those were all things for the future. Even if they could grow melons as sweet as those from Zhangjia Village, what difference would it make? The Emperor had already specified that he wanted melons from Zhangjia Village. Even if they grew them, they couldn't send them to the palace, otherwise it would be considered deceiving the Emperor.
Having confirmed that the melons Xia Yu and his group had collected were just as sweet, they reported this to Madam Shen. The next day, Steward Qin took an oxcart to the Zhang family to collect the watermelons. This time, when leaving the city, Steward Qin only needed to greet a few city gate officials before smoothly exiting the city.
After the merchants from the capital spread the word about the price they would pay for melons to the various villages, it immediately sparked a lot of discussion.
Some felt they had lost out by selling to the Shen family, the most famous example being Zhang Tianming's wife, Li Cuilan. Others felt that if the Shen family hadn't come to buy them, their first batch of melons would have already ripened and rotted in the ground, and they remained grateful to Zhang Youtie and the Shen family.
Xia Yu's family naturally received the news as well. Just the day before, Steward Qin had said that the Emperor wanted several thousand more catties of melons delivered to the palace, and the very next day, other merchants were offering higher prices for the melons. Zhang Youtie felt a headache coming on; if the Shen family didn't raise their prices, it seemed unlikely they would be able to get melons from Zhangjia Village.
The group was discussing something inside when a commotion broke out outside. Xia Yu's family members found it strange; who was making such a racket?
When they went outside, they saw Zhang Tianming's mother, Zhang Liu, and her second daughter-in-law, Gu. One of them was pulling hard on Li Cuilan's arm, while the other was trying to cover her mouth.
"Auntie, what are you doing?" Liu asked curiously.
"It's nothing, it's nothing." My wife has gone mad, I'll take her back right now, Zhang Tianming's mother said with an embarrassed smile.
"Oh, Mother, let me go. I have something to say to Third Brother. Third Brother, the watermelons that other people harvested are all..." Before she could finish speaking, her sister-in-law forcefully covered her mouth.
"Sister-in-law, let's go home, stop making a scene." Gu's face was so red it was almost bleeding when she spoke.
"Sister-in-law, let her go and let her finish speaking," Liu said to Gu, her face expressionless.
Even if she hadn't finished speaking, Xia Yu and the others roughly understood what she meant. Xia Yu's lips curled up coldly; the moment to test humanity had arrived.