When she returned home, Grandfather and Grandmother took one look at her and said, “You’ve gotten thinner, you’ve gotten thinner.”
Indeed, “parent’s standard first words after not seeing their child for a long time.”
She had not lost weight; she had even gained some! After all, she ate every day without exercising and occasionally ordered late-night snacks. It would have been strange if she had not gained weight.
Fortunately, the weight was distributed evenly enough. She looked fuller, not unattractive.
For dinner, Grandfather and Grandmother prepared many of her favorite dishes: potato-braised chicken, braised eggplant, braised spare ribs, boiled shrimp, mapo tofu, and tomato-and-egg soup.
She ate until her stomach was round and had no choice but to go out for a walk. Along the way, she encountered many elderly men and women. When they saw her return, they called out to her in surprise and asked her all sorts of questions.
Although it was somewhat annoying, most people in the countryside were like that. They had little sense of boundaries and loved asking about all kinds of private matters. They said whatever they wanted, and she could brush off anything she did not want to answer. After chatting for a while, she went home.
She had risen early that morning and barely slept on the way, so she felt sleepy that night. After washing up, she went to bed.
She did not get up until around ten the next morning. After eating some of the food left for her, she went to the fields.
As she walked between the fields, the golden wheat ears swayed in the wind. As far as the eye could see, there were waves of golden grain.
The common people of Ancient Times gazed enviously at the wheat. It had grown so lushly! Then they looked at the sparse wheat in their own fields. There was no comparison!
“Goodness, this wheat has grown so well!”
“Look how lush it is! Then look at what we grew ourselves. Ah, there’s no comparison.”
“How much grain will they harvest from this one mu of land?”
“At least half again as much as we do, I suppose! In a good year, we get a little over one dan. They must get two or three dan!”
These were people from the Ming and Qing dynasties, when yields were highest. One dan was seventy kilograms, so their estimate came to roughly 150 jin per mu.
In the other dynasties, it was only a little over 100 jin.
For the common people, seeing so much grain today made them far happier than the miraculous high-speed rail they had seen yesterday. After all, that was only something interesting to look at, while food was the most important thing in their lives.
An Ran arrived at her family’s field. Looking at the plump wheat ears, she asked grandfather, “It seems like we’ve had plenty of rain this year. Judging by the condition of the wheat, will this year’s yield be higher than in previous years?”
A smile appeared on grandfather’s dark, weathered face. “Of course. Look how full and swollen they are. This year’s harvest will be better than last year’s.”
An Ran asked curiously, “About how many jin of wheat can one mu of land produce?”
She had not helped her family harvest grain for a long time. Although she had done so as a child, she had never paid attention to the yield.
“Around 1,200 jin this year!”
1,200 jin?!!
The common people of ancient times erupted. That was eight or nine times their yield, even ten times!
How had they achieved this? Why could they harvest so much grain?
An Ran had no clear idea of the matter. “What is the highest yield per mu for wheat?”
“I saw it on Douyin. In one place, the wheat yield was nearly 2,000 jin. Our area cannot compare.”
“It seems rice has a higher yield than wheat. From what I saw before, the highest yield per mu was over 3,000 jin, breaking the world record.”
She opened her phone to check. She had remembered correctly.
She also looked up the grain yield of The Various Dynasties in Ancient Times. She discovered that even wheat yields in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the highest among them, reached only around 150 jin. “That’s far too little!”
“Exactly. When I was young, our whole family worked hard for an entire year and still produced only that little grain. We could not eat our fill. How could it compare with now, when we have so much left over that we have to sell it?” Grandfather sighed.
“We have to thank Grandfather Yuan Longping and all those experts who research crops!” She had never experienced that kind of hardship herself, but she owed her thanks to the Agricultural scientists who had devoted themselves to their work.
Upon hearing this yield, the people of ancient times erupted in an uproar.
“So much! If I could harvest this much grain, I would not have had to send my daughter away as a servant.”
“No wonder the people behind the Heavenly Screen can eat white rice every day. It turns out there is so much grain.”
“They are far too fortunate!”
They had thought 2,000 jin was an extraordinarily high yield, but they had not expected an even higher one.
Although rice had always yielded more than wheat, they had assumed the difference would be only one or two hundred jin. They had not expected the yield to exceed 3,000 jin.
This was not merely a number. It represented tens of thousands of lives!
The various emperors could no longer sit still.
Qin Shi Huang rose abruptly and asked Li Si in disbelief, “How much? They said wheat yields 2,000 jin and rice 3,000? Per mu?”
Li Si swallowed, his face likewise filled with shock. “That is what they said.”
The number was too astonishing. Their yield per mu at this time was only around 100 jin. This was twenty or thirty times their yield!
No wonder the people of Later Generations ate so well! He had to bring back the method of increasing Grain Yield!
During the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang was likewise shocked when he saw the figure. “That is far too much! I wonder if there is any way to contact her!”
Liu Che paced around the main hall in excitement. Grain Yield could reach such a level. How wonderful it would be if they could achieve the same.
But how could he contact the owner of the celestial screen?
As Liu Che thought about it, the fire in his heart was doused with cold water. He ordered people to seek out Talented and Unusual People. Anyone who found a way to contact the people on the Heavenly Screen and obtain a method of increasing Grain Yield would receive an official promotion and ennoblement.
Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty stared at the terrifying Grain Yield per Mu and breathed rapidly. He had experienced Famine himself and had even been forced to lead a group of nobles and Court Ministers eastward from Chang’an to Luoyang in search of food.
If their fields had produced such a high yield, he would not have had to leave Chang’an in such a sorry state.
Even the Tang Dynasty, regarded as the Celestial Empire during its prosperous Golden Age, frequently suffered from famine. The Guanzhong region was struck by famine in the first year of the Zhenguan era.
Even in times of favorable weather, no emperor could have refused grain with such a high yield. More grain would allow the common people to live and work in peace, making their Realm and Dynasty more stable.
Among the emperors of The Various Dynasties, anyone who was not utterly incompetent would have been shaken by grain with such an extraordinary yield. Every one of them would have wanted to know how to increase Grain Yield.
Yet none of them had any way to contact the people on the Heavenly Screen. They could only fret and rack their brains for a solution.
The Common People, especially those living through eras of Famine, went wild at the sight of a Grain Yield that seemed astronomical. One after another, they knelt and prayed to Heaven, hoping it would send them some grain.
Many sprawled on the ground and wept, asking why they had not been allowed to live in that Future Era. With such abundant harvests, there would have been no need to fear Famine. They would not have had to leave their homes, and their children and loved ones would not have died.
The thought of such a life made them want to laugh aloud. Unfortunately, they would not live much longer.
“Rice has always yielded more than wheat,” Grandfather said with a smile before taking An Ran home. The sun was high by then, so they would return to look again after sunset.
After they returned, the group sat beneath a tree’s shade, enjoying the cool breeze as they chatted about everyday matters.
An Ran heard a sound: “Bzzzt—” It sounded like an electrical short circuit. When she listened carefully, however, the sound had vanished. She asked Grandfather and Grandmother, but neither had heard anything. It was probably an Auditory hallucination.
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