Chapter 60: Seeing Hope

He lived on edge for over half a month, worrying every day that he would wake up and find the Biker Gang blocking his door. During this time, George came by almost every day, occasionally bringing some groceries for him to cook. Liu Heming felt very grateful for George’s concern, as he was genuinely worried something might happen to him.

Today, he got up early, quickly ate something simple, then loaded the Bear Kids into the car and drove over to George’s place. Today was the day for harvesting the wheat on George’s ranch. Even though machines did most of the harvesting, some tasks still needed human help.

He thought he had arrived quite early, but John and Lewis were there even earlier. Even Anderson had come to help George.

“Dexter, hurry up and let us see the Bear Cubs! We haven’t seen them in ages,” Lewis called out loudly when he saw Liu Heming get out of the car.

“You all came so early! George, just tell me what needs to be done later,” Liu Heming said with a laugh as he lifted the Bear Kids down from the car.

George gave him a hug. “The work today is actually quite simple. The harvesters we rented are very efficient—one machine can harvest 8,000 bushels a day. Even though I only rented two, we can finish harvesting all my Wheat Fields in just one day.”

“Oh, let me introduce you—this is Ms. Jones from the Wheat Association. You’ll need to join the Wheat Association in the future too. They help us grade and sell our Wheat, which makes things much easier for us.”

“Hello, Jones,” Liu Heming quickly greeted her upon hearing George’s words.

“Hello. Do you have any Wheat to harvest this year?” Jones asked, looking at Liu Heming curiously.

“Uh… not yet. My Wheat hasn’t been planted. I missed the planting season after arriving here, but I’ll need your help next year,” Liu Heming replied, a little embarrassed.

“No problem. Here’s my business card. Please keep it, and you can contact me anytime if you have questions,” Jones said with a smile.

“Haha, everyone, come see how this year’s harvest looks!” George exclaimed, then gave the signal to the Harvester operators.

The roar of the engines started, and Liu Heming finally witnessed what efficiency looked like.

Those big Harvesters just went “vroom, vroom, vroom,” and in one pass, they handled the harvesting, threshing, drying, and loading. He also understood now why George used so little Fertilizer on his Land—the wheat stalks were all shredded and buried back into the ground. When it came time to sow Winter Wheat later, these would serve as excellent Fertilizer.

To his surprise, shortly after the harvesting began, the Harvesters stopped, and the Transport Vehicle following behind pulled up in front of everyone.

“Why did the harvesting stop?” Liu Heming asked, gently nudging John.

“About one Acre’s worth has been harvested now. Jones needs to grade the Wheat based on this sample,” John explained with a smile.

Liu Heming nodded. He had assumed the grading would happen after the entire harvest was finished, but it turned out they were quite efficient here.

A large wooden tub was brought over, and the Wheat from the vehicle was scooped into it and weighed. The Wheat on the vehicle filled a little over 38 tubs, with each tub of Wheat weighing about 58 pounds.

While they were weighing, Liu Heming learned that this wooden tub was the bushel measure—they were used to measuring Wheat yield with it here.

“George, is this yield considered high or low? How much money will your Wheat make this year?” Liu Heming asked curiously.

“This yield is about average, but here in Xiangshui Town, it’s considered high yield. It’s the highest yield we’ve had in recent years. Otherwise, my yield per Acre would only be around 35 bushels,” George said, giving Liu Heming a tight hug that nearly squeezed the air out of him.

“Without your Lake, I would have been grateful to get even 25 bushels per Acre this year. Dexter, you really are the lucky star of our Xiangshui Town.”

Feeling a bit embarrassed by George’s praise, Liu Heming rubbed his nose, but he was more concerned about the profit from the Wheat. After all, he was in a tight spot financially, and his only hope was this year’s Winter Wheat planting.

“Haha, Dexter, pricing the Wheat will require Jones’s help. She’s grading the Wheat now, and I think I’ll have a good harvest this year,” George said with a laugh when he heard Liu Heming’s question.

The evaluation was indeed a detailed task. Jones worked on it for a full half hour before giving the results.

“George, based on my initial estimate, your Wheat this year can sell for 273 US Dollars per ton. Congratulations—it’s a bountiful year,” Jones said to George after recording the figures in her notebook.

“Haha, did everyone hear that? Our Xiangshui Town can finally make money from growing Wheat again!” George shouted excitedly, then picked Liu Heming right up and started spinning him around.

It made Liu Heming a little dizzy, and he was also surprised that George, despite his age, was still so strong.

Truthfully, he still didn’t fully understand—it seemed like George wasn’t making that much per Acre at this price. And the yield didn’t seem that high either. Although his family had never grown Wheat before, he estimated that one acre of Wheat should yield at least around 700 jin. Converted to Acres, that should be about two tons.

After thinking about it for a moment, he figured out the key reason. The main issue was the amount of Land.

In the United States, there was a lot of Land and not many people, and farming was mostly mechanized, making it extensive. Back home, there were many people and little Land, and folks relied entirely on that Land, practicing intensive farming. That was why there was a difference in yield. Plus, if you calculated the yield per person, the United States actually had a higher per capita yield.

George was overjoyed, and the two Harvesters started up again. Liu Heming felt quite happy too—not just because George had a decent harvest and he shared in the joy of the harvest, but more importantly, he saw hope. He saw the hope of his own harvest next year.

After all, he had the System on his side. Next year, his Wheat would be much better than George’s in both yield and quality, and the price would be correspondingly higher. At the very least, all his efforts this year to prepare for planting hadn’t been in vain—next year, he would definitely make some money.

At the same time, he felt a little emotional. Whether in the United States or back home, farmers were among the hardworking folks. To experience the joy of harvest, one had to put in immense effort throughout the entire process.

He really wanted his ranch to start earning money quickly so he could pay off Sasha’s debt. But farmers had to dig their food out of the soil, and no matter what you planted, it took time to grow.