Xue Dong went to cut the grass, and the four people divided the work cooperatively.
"Jianzhong, the farm needs manpower. Come give me a hand. If you work long-term, sign a contract..."
He pulled him aside and clarified the terms in person.
"Alright, I'll work with you. I don't have a family to feed, so I don't need a separate food ration. I can eat a lot; as long as I'm full, nothing else matters. I'm not picky about the terms; the key is that we brothers can work together."
Qin Jianzhong was straightforward and agreed without a second word, indicating he didn't want food rations. As a bachelor, if he was full, the whole family was full. There was no use for food rations; being well-fed was enough.
"Then shall I pay you a salary or contribution points? Let's do contribution points; they have more uses."
Xue Dong didn't want to shortchange his brother, so he amended the terms a bit.
"Deal, you decide. You're the captain after all; what you say goes."
Qin Jianzhong had been a member of Xue Dong's team for several years, battle companions who could rely on each other in life or death, knowing each other thoroughly with mutual trust.
"Let me know what you need."
"Take good care of the farm. We're all loners; who knows, we might come to join you guys in the future."
"No problem; once the farm picks up, we'll need a lot of hands. If you guys have nowhere else to go, come join us. With our skills, are we really going to worry about not living well?"
"That's the spirit; we brothers should stick together."
The brothers laughed heartily, their hearts filled with hope as they looked at the tender shoots sprouting in the field.
In the afternoon, Li Pan went to the field to call people back for lunch.
For dinner, she cooked stewed fish and ducks, a few of which had been left over from before. Living frugally on her own, she liked to hoard things and always thought to save something good for when Xue Dong returned so they could eat together.
"How much stevia did you cut?"
"Almost done, I reckon there are more than ten thousand pounds, enough to offset the machinery Xue Dong brought back."
"Brother Bin, Pan'er discovered that both senna leaves and dandelion are positive, with very good medicinal effects, one for laxative and intestinal moisturizing and the other for clearing heat, detoxifying, and dissipating masses. How much do you think they're worth?"
"We need to do some tests. How about this, I'll take them with me, conduct the tests first, then discuss the price. I'll call you back; let me know what you need and I'll have someone hold it for you. Next time you come to the base, we can settle the accounts together."
"Deal. Shall we go cut some now?"
"Sure, Jianzhong, you stay behind and finish the work in the field. Dig through the water canal; we're going to pick medicinal materials."
"Make sure the price is good; we'll have more in the future."
Qin Jianzhong quickly added.
"Like I need reminding, I can't shortchange our own people, and I'm not stupid. I'm going back to get a seal put on it. Without testing, it doesn't count. Only with a tested seal can we talk about a good price."
Gao Wenbin gave Qin Jianzhong a disdainful glance.
"I'm just worried about little sister Pan'er being taken advantage of."
"Tsk, I'm not like you, you big, clunky pumpkin."
Gao Wenbin, annoyed, snatched some meat from his plate.
They enjoyed a lively dinner, and Qin Jianzhong was now counted as one of the farmhands.
After washing the dishes and filling the kitchen water tank, he went to work in the fields, gathering the cut grass, turning the soil over, and removing roots and stones to cast them out.
Xue Dong led Gao Wenbin and Zhao Quan up the mountain to look for senna leaves, Li Pan having told him the location and specially providing him with samples of senna leaves and dandelion so as not to get the wrong ones.
Li Pan couldn't leave, as she had to watch over the cave.
She took out the remaining salted duck eggs to boil and started kneading dough to steam bread buns for tomorrow's lunch, when Gao Wenbin and Zhao Quan would take some items back to the base and need something to eat on the way.
She also packed up ten pounds each of millet and cornmeal, along with two strips of cured meat wrapped in bags, leftovers from the New Year's celebration.
It's a matter of sentiment to have people come over to work; you can't really expect them to work for free. Zhao Quan has a family to take care of, so sending some food back with him makes sense, especially since we might need his help again in the future.
They didn't return until one o'clock in the morning, their faces brimming with joy.
"We picked a lot, and now your farm won't lack tools and agricultural machinery; things will be much faster. These things could exchange for quite a few Contribution points and money,"
Gao Wenbin happily said to Li Pan.
"How many things did you get?"
"We picked a thousand pounds of senna leaves and slightly less dandelion, about eight hundred pounds. They were growing in large patches, and we kept on picking. We have to go again in the morning since we might have missed some. We'll weigh them again tomorrow."
"You've worked hard. Go and wash up and sleep. I've boiled some hot water."
Qin Jianzhong also came back, having cleared the land where he had cut the grass in the afternoon, opening another fifteen acres, just a little bit left unfinished, to be done in the morning.
Everyone washed up and hurried to sleep.
Xue Dong came to replace Li Pan, "You go sleep, I'll watch over the cave. You're really silly, working during the day and staying up at night, how can you stand it? You should've waited for me to come and handle this."
"I wanted to try and see if I could succeed. Now that I can make bricks, we can save a lot of money on cement. I'm planning to fire more bricks to pave the courtyard and the yard walls."
"That's fine, I'll handle the firing, and you can direct."
"All right, just maintain this gentle fire and add some more firewood in the middle of the night; it shouldn't burn too fiercely."
"Okay, go sleep now."
Having washed up, Li Pan yawned back to her room and fell asleep almost instantly as soon as she hit the bed plank.
After just a few hours of sleep, as the sky was just beginning to brighten, all the men got up to start their day's work. There was still much to do—Qin Jianzhong was going to install the remaining water pipes, which would make watering the fields more convenient later on.
Gao Wenbin and Zhao Quan went back to the mountain to do one last sweep of the Medicinal Materials and bring them back, then weigh them. Xue Dong went to the field to build a framework and a greenhouse for the vegetable garden as Li Pan had requested, to prevent a downpour from flooding it.
Li Pan intended to go to the field to deploy her superpower for a check; there was no need to water today. She would come back to watch over the cave, and by the afternoon, the bricks could be taken out of the kiln.
Gao Wenbin and Zhao Quan were back from the mountain within an hour, having picked almost everything. They couldn't carry any more; the Space superpower was not infinite.
Gao Wenbin went to help Xue Dong install iron frames and test the signal and electricity again, while Zhao Quan and Li Pan were responsible for weighing, recording, and bundling the Medicinal Materials.
When they finished, there were one thousand two hundred pounds of senna leaves and eight hundred and fifty-six pounds of dandelion. There were over fifteen thousand pounds of Stevia.
For the time being, senna leaves and dandelion were weighed but not priced; they wrote down a note and stamped it with an official seal to take back for testing and formal valuation before setting the price.
Stevia had been tested before—a twenty yuan per pound price was confirmed. Li Pan couldn't process so much sugar from it and decided to sell it fresh, slightly cheaper than selling it as sugar, so the base could take it back and process it.
They then gave five hundred Contribution points per pound, all credited to Li Pan's account.
For Stevia, the transaction was straightforward with money and Contribution points. They wrote a slip, signed, made a thumbprint, stamped with an official seal, and then just swiped on a phone to complete the deal. Network signals, electric and water meters had all been neatly installed, with annual payments.
For now, the water meter wasn't needed because the lake was very large, but it was still installed in advance, as they needed to lay more water pipes in the future for the base.
From now on, the farm's electricity supply would be two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening, while the base residents would only have it for two hours in the evening, or the pressure would be too much to handle.
Xue Dong even made an advance purchase on credit—a water pump, water pipes, a sprinkler irrigation system for the fields, solar panels, power banks, storage batteries, and some cement sand delivered in advance. If it was not enough, they would buy more. They also exchanged for five sets of various kinds of farm tools, bought an electric tricycle, five hundred pounds of diesel, two generators, among other miscellaneous items.
This time, the cost was offset by the Stevia. The given price was quite reasonable, the plant would grow back, and they could periodically harvest and swap it for money. Now the farm could add quite a few things and get on the right track.