Chapter Thirty-Five: Selling Sweet Potato Leaves

In the days that followed, the Commandant’s Residence returned to its usual calm. Wei Ruo’s relationship with her family grew even more distant than when she had first arrived.

Especially between her and Madam Yun—the warmth Madam Yun once showed was met with Wei Ruo’s indifference, and now that Madam Yun had turned cold, Wei Ruo’s demeanor had grown even frostier.

This worried Wei Yichen, but Wei Ruo herself was unconcerned. She cared little for her family’s attitude toward her; after all, she had several pressing matters demanding her attention.

First, the sweet potatoes on Little Yang Mountain had grown lush with vines and leaves. Sweet potato leaves are a fine food—one can pick them as green vegetables before the tubers beneath mature, making them an extra source of income before the main harvest.

Moreover, sweet potato leaves could be picked and sold as demand allowed; any unsold leaves could simply be left to nourish the tubers in the soil. At the first picking, Nanny was unsure of the process, so Wei Ruo, unable to go herself, sent Xiumei in her stead.

As soon as Xiumei left the residence, she donned a veiled hat. Meeting up with Nanny, the two directed the laborers to harvest a section of the sweet potato field. The leaves were bundled neatly with straw, then packed into baskets and loaded onto an ox cart for transport.

For this first harvest, mindful that the townsfolk were unfamiliar with sweet potato leaves, Xiumei and Nanny, following Wei Ruo’s instructions, picked only two baskets’ worth.

They took the cart to the marketplace, selling the leaves at two coins per bundle—a price set by Wei Ruo, modest and intended for high turnover. When it came to farm produce, Wei Ruo always preferred to keep prices low and rely on volume. By contrast, she set high prices for luxury goods meant only for the wealthy.

Selling sweet potato leaves was also a way to promote the crop itself, a prelude to the coming harvest.

On the way to the market, Nanny stopped by home to stir-fry a large plateful, which she brought along as samples. At the market, the cooked leaves were portioned into small cones made from bamboo leaves, each holding just a bite. The laborers cried out, “Two coins per bundle, free samples to taste!”

In Xing Shan County, where arable land was scarce, vegetables were already more expensive than elsewhere. Recent years of poor weather had further lowered yields, and pirate activity had driven away merchant caravans, reducing the supply of vegetables from other regions. As a result, vegetable prices in Xing Shan were several times higher than in other places.

Fresh green vegetables for just two coins a bundle drew quite a crowd.

Though most had never seen such a thing, they could sample the finished dish.

Nanny offered the bamboo leaf cones of stir-fried sweet potato leaves to the onlookers with enthusiastic hospitality.

Learning that this was an edible vegetable, refreshing in taste and affordably priced, people began to buy it, curious to try something new. In no time, the two baskets of sweet potato leaves were sold out completely.

After leaving the market, Xiumei accompanied Nanny back to her current residence.

There was a small shop in front and a tiny house at the back—not a large place, but Nanny’s family of three was well content. The location was excellent, close to the Commandant’s Residence, and the storefront sat on a bustling street. Once the shop opened, there would be no shortage of customers.

After sharing lunch with the Xu family in the little house, Xiumei returned to the Commandant’s Residence.

She brought back sweet potato leaves and some edible mushrooms for Wei Ruo, gifts from Nanny’s family, who worried that Wei Ruo might not be eating well at home.

Later, Wei Ruo instructed Xiumei to stand guard outside her chamber, admitting no one.

Wei Ruo then entered her secret space, harvesting all the sweet potatoes growing on the two plots of land within. The growth rate inside her space was unlike the outside world—the sweet potatoes on Little Yang Mountain had only just filled the field with leaves, but those in her space were already ready for harvest.

She reaped two full baskets, and the experience value of her space soared, leaving less than a hundred points to reach the one thousand needed for the next upgrade.

With an upgrade in sight, Wei Ruo grew more eager for the new seeds that would become available.

She did not take the harvested sweet potatoes out of her space; producing two baskets of sweet potatoes out of thin air would arouse suspicion. Instead, she stored them in her space, where, in the dry environment, they would keep for some time.

Unable to sell them for now, she kept them as emergency provisions. Should disaster strike and supplies run short, she would have ready food and water in her space, enough to stave off starvation.

The next day, Wei Ruo went personally to the southern part of town. With a document from Wei Mingtin, she secured passage past the city gate guards.

In the south, she selected a flat plot with good transport and water access to serve as her experimental field.

She set the two laborers Madam Yun assigned to her to clearing weeds and turning the soil. She also ordered them to fetch water from a nearby stream daily to irrigate the land.

It puzzled the workers—watering a plot where nothing had even been planted.

Moreover, Wei Ruo had them prepare the field as a paddy for rice seedlings. It was nearly the Dragon Boat Festival, and other people’s rice was already knee-high. For Wei Ruo to start preparing a paddy field now made them doubt whether she had any real knowledge of farming.

Both Granny Zhang and the two laborers grew more vocal in their doubts, finding Wei Ruo’s instructions increasingly peculiar.

After two days, Granny Zhang could not help but say, “Miss, perhaps you should plant something else. I haven’t farmed in many years, but back home, people always said that everything has its season. Grains and vegetables must be sown at the right time—miss the season, and they won’t grow well!”

“Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing,” Wei Ruo replied. “I promise, as long as you finish preparing the field, it will still be in time to sow the rice.”

Of course, Wei Ruo understood the importance of timing. It was nearly June—ordinary rice could not be sown so late. But her rice seeds from the space were suitable for both early and late crops.

The early rice would flower next month, while the late rice would not be sown until the sixth or seventh lunar month—she still had plenty of time.

Thus, she could experiment with both saline-alkali soil improvement and late rice cultivation at once.

If successful, not only would Xing Shan County gain much more arable land, but it would also be possible to harvest two rice crops a year, boosting grain output both horizontally and vertically.

“What about the melons, vegetables, straw, and rice bran you had us collect, Miss?” Granny Zhang asked.

“Keep storing those for now—it’ll be a bit yet. When the time comes, I’ll tell you how to use them,” Wei Ruo replied.

Granny Zhang looked at Wei Ruo’s confident face and wanted to say more, but swallowed her words.

Forget it—there was no point. The young lady didn’t seem the type to heed advice.

Besides, she had said herself that if this failed, she alone would bear the consequences. It had nothing to do with anyone else.