Chapter 218: Chapter 218: Banana Seeds

After sending off the officials, the Qi Family members all gathered in the main hall.

At this moment, the large dining table in the main hall was filled with many items, all of which were rewards written in the imperial decree.

“Fourth brother, do these rewards belong to our family or the village?”

Qi Dafu asked Qi Quanjin.

Qi Quanjin didn’t speak, but Qi Ercai said, “The imperial decree states that the rewards are for the fourth brother alone, so these rewards have nothing to do with us.”

As soon as he said this, everyone’s expressions were a bit stiff.

Although his words were correct, still…

It’s not about scarcity, but imbalance.

Qi Quanjin understood this principle and immediately said, “Second brother’s words aren’t right. The reason the imperial decree only mentions my name is because the Emperor doesn’t know the names of the others, so he used my name as a representative.”

“As for these items, like the golden plaque, it must be for our village.”

“As for the other gold and silver, whether it’s considered for our family or includes the villagers, we need to discuss this properly with our father.”

These words slightly improved everyone’s mood.

Actually, the Qi Brothers were feeling okay, but the wives of various houses felt somewhat uncomfortable.

After all, everyone contributed during the locust plague, and now that the reward went to just one person, it was understandably disheartening.

“What do you need to discuss with me? The family’s future will rely on you brothers, so you discuss and decide!”

Qi Zheng was now feeling the cold wind, and the alcohol hit him all at once.

Earlier, with two important figures present, he managed to hold on, but now without such pressure, he suddenly felt heavily drunk.

Leaving these words behind, he let Qi Dalang carry him to the back room to rest.

With the old man absent, everyone looked at each other, unsure of what to do.

Yi Meng glanced around and said, “Let’s bring the imperial decree first, and I’ll check the exact quantity of the rewards before deciding how to distribute them.”

“Alright!”

Qi Quanjin was the first to respond.

Qi Dafu, as the eldest son of the family, took on the task of fetching the imperial decree.

Although it was just the next room, Qi Dafu felt like he was traversing a thousand mountains and rivers.

Every small step he took, he paused, afraid of shaking or dropping the tray carrying the imperial decree.

Finally reaching the main hall, Yi Meng was about to laugh in exasperation and said to Qi Quanjin, “Brother Jin, you and elder brother hold the imperial decree so I can check the quantity.”

“Huh?”

Before Qi Quanjin could respond, Qi Dafu’s face turned pale with fear: “I, I can’t, can’t do it, I, I don’t dare.”

Yi Meng looked speechlessly at Qi Quanjin, using her eyes to ask him what to do about this.

Qi Quanjin was also nervous, but not as much as Qi Dafu.

After thinking it over, Qi Quanjin said to Qi Ercai, “Second brother, let’s hold it together!”

Qi Ercai’s heart almost jumped out of his throat, but he nodded vigorously: “Okay!”

So everyone watched as Qi Ercai and Qi Quanjin nervously and carefully unfolded the imperial decree.

Although everyone wanted to take a closer look at the decree, none dared to get too close, all stepping back at least two meters.

Yi Meng was even more exasperated.

But she understood that in this era of supreme royal authority, seeing an imperial decree was akin to seeing the Emperor, so being nervous was normal.

“You two just hold it, I’ll look.”

Yi Meng instructed and began to check.

The most noticeable was the golden plaque, three meters long and one meter wide.

It was made of dark wood with three large golden characters carved on it: “Yongping Village.”

There were also a hundred taels of gold and a total of ten bolts of various silks.

The most plentiful reward was seeds.

Probably because Yongping Village was agrarian, just like the rewards given to the Prefecture City, the variety of seeds was the most numerous.

Yi Meng could read but wasn’t knowledgeable about seeds, so she had Qi Dafu and Qi Sangui come over to help identify them.

All the seeds were measured by the pound, ten pounds each, each type in a brocade bag, totaling twenty varieties.

Common rice and wheat seeds, as well as various vegetable and fruit seeds.

However, although the vegetable and fruit seeds also weighed ten pounds, their quality varied, and careful selection would be necessary for planting.

“Jin Niang, is this corn seed?”

Qi Sangui opened a bag and immediately pulled out an ear of corn.

Duan Jin glanced at it and nodded: “Yes.”

Now there were an additional ten pounds of corn cobs, even if the germination rate was only half, it was still a decent amount.

“Meng Niang, what kind of seed is this?”

Qi Dafu opened a bag and showed it to Yi Meng.

Yi Meng looked at it, also puzzled: “I don’t know either.”

She compared it with the contents of the imperial decree and took a while to distinguish: “This should be banana seeds.”

Each irregular black seed was slightly larger than a soybean.

In her two lifetimes, it was Yi Meng’s first time seeing banana seeds.

“Banana, what kind of thing is that?”

Qi Dafu looked bewildered.

The others also looked at Yi Meng, clearly none had heard of this thing.

Yi Meng said, “It’s a kind of fruit, very fragrant and soft, but I’ve only seen it on trees. As for the seeds, this is my first time seeing them.”

Everyone understood and thought Yi Meng knew a great deal.

Yi Meng inwardly chuckled wryly.

As the seeds were verified one by one, everyone was very happy.

But Yi Meng couldn’t quite share in the joy.

Though she hadn’t farmed in her past life, she knew that plant cultivation was region-specific.

In cold places like Concord City, trying to grow bananas seemed absurd.

If one insisted on planting them, it would mean planting one year, cutting back for one year, and planting again the following year.

Besides, she had eaten lots of bananas in her past life but had never seen real banana seeds, indicating bananas hadn’t yet been artificially evolved to the form known in later generations.

Who knew if they could even be grown, or what their flavor would be.

This concern didn’t last long.

The rewards looked numerous, but the variety was just those items.

The Qi Family felt the rewards were copious, but Yi Meng couldn’t help comparing them to the novels and TV dramas from her former life.

In those, the Emperor rewarded items like thousands upon thousands of taels of gold, while here it was only a hundred taels.

Sigh, truly, fiction imitates life and elevates it!

Once checked, Qi Quanjin quickly re-secured the imperial decree and brought it back to Dalang’s room.

“Let’s discuss how to arrange these rewards now!”

Yi Meng laid the transcribed reward list onto the table, her gaze sweeping across everyone present.

Everyone looked at each other and then unanimously turned their gaze to Qi Quanjin.

Clearly, they all wanted Qi Quanjin to make the arrangements.

Qi Ercai said, “Fourth brother, you’re the village chief now, so you should handle this!”

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