Chapter 390: Secretly Watering
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
A moment later, the village chief’s wife realized that she had lost her composure and smiled awkwardly. “Aside from that, he didn’t eat anything else.”
Jiang Chuan continued to inquire, “Did you and the village chief both eat these mushrooms?”
The village chief’s wife shook her head, “Good things are scarce these days. The village chief has so much work to do in the future, I didn’t want to compete with him for it. He ate all the mushrooms, and I sent the leftovers to the neighbors. Their child is just over three years old, a time when it’s crucial to eat well, so I gave them to them.”
The village chief’s family were good-hearted people. Even when they themselves had little to eat, they still thought of others, which made Jiang Chuan feel for them.
Possibly out of a growing suspicion, Jiang Chuan, unsure of why, pressed on, “How is the neighbor’s child now?”
The village chief’s wife thought carefully, “I haven’t seen him for a few days. These past days, I’ve been so busy taking care of my husband, I haven’t had the time to go outside. But in this cold weather, who would want to go out? The child is probably bundled up at home.”
Jiang Chuan asked further, “Do you have any of the wild mushrooms left at home?”
The village chief’s wife laughed, “No, there aren’t any left. Those mushrooms weren’t enough; they were all used up in one meal.”
Jiang Chuan didn’t press any further, telling the village chief’s wife to quickly go back inside, while he rode away on his bicycle.
All along the way home, he pondered over the mushroom matter, finding it odd. Could the village chief have been poisoned by eating toxic mushrooms?
But then he thought, mushroom poisoning doesn’t show these symptoms, so he dismissed the possibility. Moreover, the village chief had grown up in the mountains and was surely familiar with mushrooms—knowing which ones were edible and which were not—so Jiang Chuan didn’t dwell on it.
When he returned home, dinner was ready. Zhou Lan had also stir-fried mushrooms today, but hers were cooked with pork and dried bamboo shoots— a dish that couldn’t be compared with the simple wild vegetable and mushroom stir-fry at the village chief’s home.
Eating the mushrooms, Jiang Chuan felt increasingly uneasy.
But soon, his attention was diverted by Jiang Xia’s words, “Dad, I’ve calculated that there are about five wells in the village used for irrigation. We just need to mix the interspace water into the wells.”
Zhou Lan added, “Now that the weather is cold and it’s dark after dinner, everyone usually goes to sleep. After we finish eating and I wash the dishes and put Jiang Gu to bed, we can set out, get the job done quickly, and come back to rest.”
Jiang Gu protested, “If mom and sister are going, I want to go too!”
Jiang Chuan and Zhou Lan objected, “It’s so cold and dark outside, what are you going to do? Just go to bed.”
Jiang Gu felt aggrieved, “Then why can second sister go, but not me?”
Jiang Xia said, “Second sister is going to do hard and tiring work. Mom doesn’t want you to suffer, can’t you understand mom’s concern?”
Hearing it was out of concern for her, Jiang Gu immediately brightened up, “Then I won’t go.”
Adding interspace water to the wells wasn’t a big task, so the three of them finished in just over an hour.
Concerned that the seeds might not thrive, Jiang Xia couldn’t resist adding a bit more interspace water than necessary. Only after they had treated all five wells with interspace water did they return home contentedly.
The next day, Jiang Chuan heard some troubling news at the commune; due to the ongoing drought, the water levels in the wells were dropping, and there soon wouldn’t be enough water to irrigate the fields for much longer.
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Jiang Chuan wasn’t so much worried about the lack of water for the fields, but rather that Jiang Xia, in her generosity the previous night, had added too much interspace water.
If the interspace water was used in excess, the fear was that the corn seeds might mature too quickly, raising suspicions among the villagers. Rapidly growing corn seeds might end up being avoided by everyone, which would be a case of good intentions leading to an undesirable outcome.
However, Jiang Chuan’s concerns were short-lived and soon resolved.
One might say Jiang Chuan was extremely lucky; as soon as he harbored these worries, the sky grew overcast in the afternoon, and not long after, small snowflakes began to drift down.
Although the snowfall was light, it persisted for a long time, falling throughout the entire afternoon without a break..
