AYLS – Chapter 103

Director Jiang had taken an interest in the bean field and specifically sought out Lin Qiao and the others to ask how they were growing them.

If they had good experience, it could be promoted widely.

Lin Qiao naturally understood the real reason—anything produced by female lead’s space simply couldn’t be explained by science. But could she say that? Of course not.

So she pretended to be clueless, saying she just took care of them normally, following the same process as everyone else. Maybe because the plot of land was small, she was able to tend to it more carefully.

Or perhaps it just so happened that the soil there was especially suitable for growing beans? Or maybe the seeds were good—it was really hard to say.

She turned to Su Weizhen and asked, “Zhenzhen, what do you think?”

Su Weizhen said, “I can’t say for sure. To be honest, I barely pay attention to this bean field either.”

Li Ermei added, “Could it be because we water it more? We water on a fixed schedule and in fixed amounts.”

“I think it’s love. Beans that grow up in love will naturally grow better. It’s the same with people.” Needless to say, this was Li Yan’s conclusion.

Chief Jiang was about to say something when…

Sister-in-law Zhang coughed lightly. “Could it be the seeds? They aren’t farmers, after all. Comrade Li Yan had never even planted anything before.”

Chief Jiang asked, “Where did the seeds come from?”

Su Weizhen had already prepared her explanation. “Back when I followed the troops, I met a fellow villager on the train who was selling them. I originally bought them for nourishment, but when I saw the beans looked like seed beans and the quality looked especially good, I couldn’t bear to eat them. I stored them carefully in a glass jar, planning to plant them in the little plot back home someday. But I never got the chance, especially after some family conflicts last time—my heart just wasn’t in it. This time the chicken farm needed them, so I brought them out.”

Hearing this, Chief Jiang looked a bit disappointed. How was he supposed to track down someone from several years ago on a train?

And besides, who knew whether the seeds were truly the reason.

“Besides the bean seeds, what else was there?”

“There’s also half a small bag of wheat.”

Chief Jiang immediately said, “Don’t eat that yet—how about selling it to our logistics department?”

Su Weizhen laughed. “If the logistics department wants it, I’ll just give it to you. Keeping these things with me is just wasting them. I actually wanted to plant them long ago but never got the chance.”

Even though wheat seeds didn’t cost much, the sentiment was genuinely precious—and worth recognition.

The logistics comrades were delighted and praised Su Weizhen’s high ideological awareness.

Su Weizhen said she was only doing what she ought to do. She even made sure to praise Xiao Qiao, saying that it was all thanks to her good suggestion—that she finally had the opportunity to plant them. If these seeds could help everyone, then that would be the best outcome.

Lin Qiao quickly said, “I can’t take that credit. It’s all Zhenzhen’s contribution.”

Sister-in-law Zhang laughed. “Don’t push the credit around. If these seeds really are good, then it’s a great blessing for everyone—you’ll all be rewarded. Honestly, ever since we opened the chicken farm, things have been going so smoothly. Good things just keep happening. We won’t talk about feudal superstitions, but even so, the coincidences are too many. This shows that we were meant to run this chicken farm. And if we do it well, you’re all meritorious contributors.”

Her words made Li Ermei beam with joy.

Li Yan didn’t feel proud—after all, she joined later.

But seeing everyone talk so happily about farming and raising chickens, she felt that both were extremely important.

The matter of the seeds hadn’t been confirmed yet, so they couldn’t draw conclusions. The chick trials hadn’t even started. Everything still needed time to verify. They would need to plant another crop of beans to be sure.

The once-bustling chicken farm soon returned to calm, with everyone returning to their own tasks.

The beans were harvested only after the autumn harvest ended. Since Lin Qiao and the others had never harvested before, Sister-in-law Zhang invited two army wives to help.

There was no choice—Li Ermei, the only one with experience, had a big belly now and couldn’t bend down.

Li Yan watched silently as the matured bean plants were cut down with sickles, and she gave them a quiet salute. All life deserved respect.

Lin Qiao: “…”

This really wasn’t something you could act out.

The bean plot wasn’t large, so the harvest ended quickly, and then the beans were laid out to dry.

Finally, after weighing and calculating the yield per mu, the result came out to 310 jin per mu.

This yield shocked not only the logistics department but also the regiment leaders.

Soybeans had always been difficult to grow and produced extremely low yields—so much so that many considered it a loss-making crop.

Even in newly reclaimed land like theirs, people rarely planted soybeans, preferring coarse grains instead.

Otherwise, why would nutrition-deficient people nationwide rely on hospitals to distribute soybeans as supplemental food? The yield was simply too low.

Especially in their area—the land was newly reclaimed, the soil quality wasn’t good, and crop yields were generally poor.

Survival was basically the best one could hope for.

Now, beans that had barely been fertilized produced a yield over 100 jin higher than other fields. It was unbelievably beyond expectations.

Regiment Commander Zhang even ran over to grab some beans in his hands, saying they were round and plump—nothing like something grown in this soil, almost as if they’d fallen straight from the heavens.

Chief Jiang said, “They didn’t fall from the heavens. The chicken farm grew them because they wanted to raise chickens.”

“Raising chickens—using such good beans to feed chickens? What a waste!”

Commander Zhang’s heart ached. “They can use my own rations to feed the chickens instead. These should be saved for seed. Good seeds can grow more next year.”

Chief Jiang smiled. “I discussed it with them. They think the same. They only had one request—that next year they’d like more land allocated to the chicken farm. They also want to try planting the good wheat seeds.”

“Approve it. Of course approve it! They can plant whatever they want.” Commander Zhang said happily, “In times like these, even chicken farm technicians are eager to farm, hahahaha.”

He added, “They must be rewarded—absolutely. This year the chicken farm developed rapidly, and now they’re even farming with excellent results. Outstanding.”

Chief Jiang nodded. “At the end of the year, they’ll get certificates and prizes. Their names are already submitted.”

Because the beans were too remarkable and too beautiful, the logistics department discussed with Lin Qiao’s group and agreed that instead of feeding these beans to the chickens, they could use other feed from the logistics department. These beans should be saved as seed to plant more next season. Lin Qiao’s intention all along was to reduce the chicken farm’s burden, and later Su Weizhen also wanted to use this opportunity to test whether the crops from the space could be grown and popularized like the chickens.

So no one objected.

Especially not Li Ermei and Li Yan—because the logistics department said the chicken farm workers would each get a few jin of beans to taste.

Li Yan believed that the beans shouldn’t be eaten by chickens. Instead, they should be eaten by humans—or better yet, kept as seeds to continue the life cycle. That would be a beautiful ending. As for her portion, she had no intention of eating them; she planned to store them carefully as a memento of the first life she had ever grown.

News about the chicken farm raising chickens well and growing crops well spread quickly.

So the chicken farm became a star unit this year. Whenever the leaders brought it up, they never stopped praising it.

Even the families of the chicken farm workers were praised.

Commander Zhang complimented their wives for contributing to the regiment, bringing in benefits, and making real achievements.

They were “excellent military spouses.”

Gu Huayuan and Xu Yuanzheng accepted the praise without any modesty. In their eyes, it was completely normal for their wives to be praised—if they weren’t praised, that would have been strange.

Working so diligently every single day that they didn’t even have time to take care of their own husbands—how could such dedication not produce results?

Besides, their women really were exceptionally outstanding. They deserved every bit of praise.

Gu Huayuan even pretended to be modest, saying, “Commander, with you praising her so much, even I feel embarrassed. But Comrade Xiao Qiao is a very humble person. She always thinks she needs to do better. She’s never been arrogant. When it comes to work, she truly is excellent.”

Xu Yuanzheng: “…My Comrade Weizhen is the same way.”

Instructor Chen didn’t know when it happened, but he had started to feel that hearing others praise Ermei no longer sounded unrealistic. Now, hearing everyone praise their own wives, he joined in as well. “My Ermei has indeed made great progress.” Compared to before, she was practically a different person.

The only one who still felt it was unreal was Zhang Tuo.

Li Yan raising chickens and farming—and even being praised for it? It just didn’t feel real. Li Yan? Farming and raising chickens?

Commander Zhang noticed he hadn’t said anything, so he added a few words just for him, saying that Comrade Li Yan was doing pretty well. She hadn’t adapted when she first arrived, but she gradually got used to it.

She used to be in the art troupe, and now she could even learn farming and chicken-raising. That was rare.

Leaving the commander’s office, Zhang Tuo still felt like he was dreaming.

He ran to ask Gu Huayuan, “Li Yan’s really doing that well? She’s not unwilling?”

Gu Huayuan said, “Why don’t you go back and see for yourself?”

“…I don’t really get the chance to see her now. She comes home late every day, eats, and falls asleep quickly. She gets up early the next morning.”

That was how Zhang Tuo was—tough everywhere else, but soft when it came to Li Yan. Even though he had spoken harshly before, he still sneaked around to check on her. He originally thought that if she was really heartbroken, he would swallow his pride and go back—after all, even if she didn’t love him, she still relied on him.

But when he later saw that Li Yan wasn’t sad at all after their separation—and was instead living more energetically, as if his absence was a good thing—he abandoned that idea.

In a fit of pique, he decided not to bother her anymore.

Gu Huayuan had heard from Lin Qiao about Li Yan’s transformation and had been quite moved. But he couldn’t bring himself to tell Zhang Tuo the truth. He couldn’t exactly say:

Your wife suddenly thinks romance is unimportant now. She believes raising chickens is more important. She’s decided to treat this as her ideal career and has thrown everything else aside.

That would have been too harsh. So he simply suggested that Zhang Tuo go find out for himself.

Zhang Tuo shook his head. “Forget it.” Now that she’d even won awards, it was clear she was doing better and better after leaving him. He didn’t want to go back just to be disliked.

He’d just live like this.

The logistics department soon sent out rewards to all the autumn harvest teams and individuals in the regiment. They were even planning an award ceremony so everyone could have a lively time and celebrate the increased harvest compared to last year—another year, another improvement.

The chicken farm also received a notice, saying that they would be receiving both a group award and individual awards. They were told to prepare to receive certificates.

The moment they heard that, everyone burst with joy.