He watched for a while, then decided to get to work first.
He carried the basket of humus back to the field and then piled it up there.
These corn seedlings had all been fertilized at least once, and around the middle of next month, he would apply one more round of strong seedling fertilizer to promote the budding of flowers and boost the yield.
"Ah Niu, your farming's not bad at all!"
Wang Furen came over, rarely initiating conversation with Qin Niu.
Normally, Wang Furen hardly paid him any mind.
Especially when he saw Qin Niu talking with his daughter, he would immediately put on a stern face and quickly call his daughter inside.
He was afraid that Qin Niu would spirit away his beautiful daughter.
"Wang Uncle flatters me!"
Qin Niu responded indifferently.
"Do you have any surplus grain at home? If not, you can come work in my field, and I'll give you food."
Wang Furen wouldn't usually show this level of concern for him.
It must be that he saw the good growth of the corn Qin Niu was farming and thus had the idea to recruit him.
Any family with a bit of good land, unless they had many sons, would certainly need to hire help for farming.
Moreover, since farming was so arduous, wealthy people seldom farmed themselves; they hired others to work for them.
"Thank you for your concern, Uncle Wang, but my family still has grain."
How could Qin Niu possibly work for someone else?
Even if he were to work, it would definitely be as a skilled laborer. For instance, like that senior farmer who earned an annual salary of thirty taels of silver, he'd be a manager.
"That fertilizer you carried back from the mountains looks good, are you selling it?"
Wang Furen, true to being a businessman, was very shrewd.
He must have been observing Qin Niu farming in secret for some time now.
Now that he saw the corn Qin Niu was farming grew so well, he had guessed it was because of the quality of the fertilizer.
"How much are you willing to pay per basket, Uncle Wang?"
Earning some money to buy an ordinary cultivation technique to practice wouldn't be bad.
The humus was plentiful in the mountains, and Qin Niu had plenty of strength.
As long as the price was satisfactory, he would be happy to sell some to Wang Furen.
"How about five wen money per basket?"
Wang Furen was really a shrewd merchant, offering only five wen money per basket of fertilizer; he really thought Qin Niu was a naive fool.
Even the most ordinary cow dung could sell for about ten wen money per basket.
Qin Niu's fertilizer was a high-grade mixture he had formulated himself, equivalent to modern-day chemical fertilizers.
The price definitely needed to be higher.
"Not selling."
He didn't even think about it, rejecting outright.
"Then how much do you want per basket?"
Wang Furen's expression didn't change, he even walked into the field, bent down to grab a bit of the humus Qin Niu just carried back, examined it closely, then brought it to his nose to smell.
"Considering you're a neighbor, fifty wen a basket. If I sell to someone else, I would ask for at least sixty wen."
Qin Niu set a price.
It was five times that of ordinary cow dung.
"You, have you gone crazy thinking about money? Fifty wen for a basket of fertilizer, who would buy that? Besides, this stuff is all over the mountain, you just have to spend some effort to carry it down."
Wang Furen was shocked by the price.
But Qin Niu was full of confidence.
"If Uncle Wang thinks it's expensive, he can choose not to buy."
Wang Furen's eyes rolled around, but he didn't reply.
Qin Niu's plots were inferior, yet the corn he grew was even better than that from good land. Look at the growth, so green and lush, and every plant was thick and flourishing, pleasing to the eye.
"I heard from my daughter that you often go to the book market to buy books to read?"
Wang Furen started prying for information.
"Occasionally!"
Qin Niu had already picked up the empty basket and was ready to head home.
The Ant Queen was at a critical moment, and he must go to the mountains to keep an eye on it.
It was also a good opportunity to gather some firewood to take home.
"The corn and wheat you farmed last year were nothing special, but this year's crop is looking so good. You learned it from those books, right?"
Wang Furen was persistent in his inquiries.
"Uncle Wang, is there anything else?"
Qin Niu couldn't be bothered to waste more words.
Unless Wang Furen agreed to marry his beautiful daughter to him, the situation would certainly be different.
But was that possible?
"How about this, I'll give you one tael of silver for your fertilizer formula."
Wang Furen, gritting his teeth, decided to buy the knowledge.
A basket of fertilizer would quickly be used up. One must use at least five baskets per mu of land to barely meet the requirement.
If he acquired the technique, he could directly hire people to collect it from the mountain, inexhaustible and endlessly available.
His calculation was sound.
Unfortunately, Qin Niu was not foolish.
"Not selling."
Just two words.
Wang Furen was momentarily choked up, standing in place for a long time before regaining his composure. Looking at Qin Niu's retreating back, his eyes narrowed slightly.
This Ah Niu seemed not to be the simpleton he had appeared to be!
"Fifty wen a basket, that's too expensive! My daughter is close to this youngster; let her help to haggle the price, she should be able to get it much cheaper..." Wang Furen's eyes flickered as he thought up a plan.
After a moment, he shook his head.
"Let's forget it, it's not worth involving my daughter to get a cheaper price on fertilizer. This Ah Niu is much sharper than he appears."
Wang Furen took a handful of fertilizer back to his home to study.
It was mixed with some leaves that had not yet completely decomposed, and he could vaguely make out what kind of leaves they were.
"These are dwarf pine leaves, these are magnolia leaves..."
Wang Furen's earnest study of the compost's contents goes without saying.
Qin Niu going home to take his woodcutter's axe, carrying pole, and rope to gather firewood in the mountains also goes without saying.
After chopping enough wood for one load, his proficiency with the Slash Martial Skill had improved a bit.
Every successful slash could add 0.01 proficiency.
Not too fast, but also not too slow.
Three hundred slashes a day would be 3 points of proficiency.
After chopping wood for two loads, he went back to check on the young ants in the Ant Nest.
"Wow, the first young ant has turned into an insect!"
Qin Niu found that the deepest-colored young ant had already turned over onto its back, lying on the ground. Its two antennae were moving nonstop, but its body remained motionless.