Zhou Huaian curled his lips, "Now even I don't care about his family, what can they do to my family?"

Zhou Yiding: "I heard the couple discussing that they wanted to borrow money from your family to buy a tractor, but they were afraid that my second father would not agree, so I didn't hear what happened next."

"I can't possibly lend them money." Zhou Huaian said with a smile, "Ever since he said those words at my house, he was hurt, and he no longer listens to Zhou Dachun like he used to."

Zhou Yiding thought about the past, "Second Dad used to be too honest. Sometimes the eldest wife's words were more effective than the second mother's. Look at the village, every time the honest people suffered losses."

"Of course not! He has too much work to do and doesn't care about my family. Whenever my dad comes to complain, he will obediently take my brother and others to help him with the work, and then go home to eat. My mom often quarrels with him about this."

As they were talking, the two arrived at the path along the edge of the field. There were mulberries, broad beans, and peas in the field below, most of which had pods.

The stalks of sweet rapeseed are growing very tall, and there are hardworking little bees collecting nectar from the tender yellow rape flowers, purple-red pea flowers, sedge flowers, and purple-white broad bean flowers.

Paddy fields like this, where a variety of crops are grown, are mostly used as rice fields. The broad beans, peas, and rapeseed planted in them are not grown for the pods, but are harvested when they are still green seedlings, taken home, and used as pig feed after being dried.

These days, the only fertilizers are ammonium carbon and urea, and people are reluctant to use them. Every household raises a few pigs, and watering the fields and making compost all depend on the manure produced by the pigs, so their feed must be sufficient.

The two chatted all the way until they arrived behind the old house. A refreshing scent of yellow horn orchid wafted in the wind.

Zhou Yiding sniffed and said, "Youngest, let's go find two yellow horn orchids and plant them next to the yard. They will smell fragrant for a long time!"

"Okay, find a few more and I'll plant one next to the fish pond."

"That's great!" Zhou Yiding nudged him and said, "Look."

Zhou Huaian turned around and saw Li Yinfu peeling garlic sprouts in the vegetable garden behind her house. She was too lazy to say hello to her and pulled him past under the yellow horn orchid tree.

Before the two of them reached Zhou Sanba's vegetable garden, Zhou Dachun had already arrived at Zhou Huaian's house. Seeing that the courtyard door was ajar, he pushed the door open.

"Woof-woof~" The two dogs shot to the door like arrows, baring their teeth at him and barking "woof woof woof" non-stop.

"You're blind, you even want to bite me!" Zhou Dachun swung the stick in his hand and hit Lai Fu on the back. Wangcai jumped up and grabbed the stick in his mouth, which scared him so much that his legs went weak and he almost fell to the ground.

"Wangcai, Laifu, come back!" Yang Chunyan ran over and stopped the dog, "What's up, Dad?"

Zhou Dachun pointed at the dog that was staring at him with a fierce look in his eyes, "What kind of dog do you have? Why don't you tie it up if it's so fierce? It's fine if it bites me, but what will you do if it bites someone else?"

Yang Chunyan glanced at the stick in his hand calmly and said in a cold voice: "As long as those people don't force their way into our house and don't beat them, the dogs will at most bark twice to scare people, but they won't pounce and bite."

You came to my house without even knocking at the door, and you even came with a stick to beat my dog. Who gave you the nerve to do that?

"..." Zhou Dachun was embarrassed by Yang Chunyan's attitude. Thinking of the purpose of coming here today, he could only swallow his anger and said, "Where are your husband and grandfather!"

Yang Chunyan pointed to the south wall of the courtyard. "Grandpa and the old man are in the back mountain. Just turn the corner and they'll be there. Also, Wangcai and the others are mountain dogs. They dare to bite even wild boars and old bears when they go up the mountain. When Dad comes over next time, you'd better shout outside."

Zhou Dachun paused for a moment and headed towards the back mountain.

The old man is now lowering the gates to block the water. It hasn't rained for half a month, and the herbs in the medicinal fields need watering. After the gates are lowered, the shallow water in the ditch slowly accumulates.

"Old man," Zhou Dachun stepped forward and looked at him with a distressed look on his face, "Where is Dasong? Why doesn't he come to release the water? Why do you, at your age, still have to do this job?"

"I'm not too old to walk, so what's wrong with letting some water out?" The old man glanced at him unhappily, "If you have the time to take care of me, you might as well take care of your Huai Xing.

You are already thirty years old, but you don't do anything serious. You just spend money and are chased by the police all over the mountain. You have brought shame to the ancestors of the Zhou family."

Zhou Dachun smiled and said, "Old man, Huaixing can't find a proper job. If he had a proper job, he wouldn't play around with money."

"Isn't it a normal job to dig truffles and sell them for money? What kind of normal job is that? Why don't you give him a job as an official?" The old man was so angry that he wanted to hit him with a hoe to see what was in his head.

Zhou Dachun looked at him pitifully, "Old man, I wish I had that ability. There are three brothers in my family, and my family is the most difficult now.

In order to pay off Huaixing’s debt in the past two years, we didn’t dare spend money during the New Year. We just cut two pieces of meat and took them home to make bacon. You didn’t see, as soon as the meat was served on the table, the two kids’ eyeballs fell on the meat.

Seeing them like that, we are too embarrassed to invite you to spend the New Year with us. I finally paid off the money I owed before the New Year, so I will prepare some New Year's goods for this year and invite you to spend the New Year with me."

The old man sat down on a rock by the ditch and took out his pipe. "Have you paid off your debt?"

Zhou Dachun stepped forward to help light the cigarette, "I have paid it back. I have to pay it back! The case is still pending with the police, so Huaixing doesn't dare to let them catch him. He is afraid that they will find out what happened last time. If he is caught and sentenced to several years in prison, it will be a disaster."

"Have you also paid back the two hundred yuan that Qiuyue gave?" The old man glanced at him. This eldest brother in the family was the kind of person who would not leave unless he got something for nothing. He came to him eagerly and was being too attentive for no reason. It must be up to no good.

Zhou Dachun blushed, "...No, I will definitely pay it back this year."

"The money owed to relatives is still money, so it's better to pay it back as soon as possible." The old man thought for a while, "Take good care of Huaixing. Now there are two seasons a year, and the money earned from picking red mushrooms and digging truffles can be saved.

The harvest from the fields, apart from the tax and fee, is enough for the family to eat, and if we raise a few pigs and feed some chickens and ducks, we will soon have enough money to live on.”

Zhou Dachun nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, we know, it's Huaixing, there's something else I want to tell you."

"Why doesn't Huaixing come here if he has something to say?" The old man glanced at him calmly, "Just tell me what you want to say. There's no need to go around in circles."

Zhou Dachun smiled and said, "Old man, this is what happened. Huaixing has a friend whose family pooled money to buy him a tractor last year. He usually helps people haul goods, and when he has time, he goes to the coal yard to help people haul coal. He became a millionaire after working for a year last year."

The old man nodded and said, "That's a good idea. When Huaixing is free, let him run with his friend for two years. When he has figured out the tricks, you can save up some money and buy him a hauler so he can earn money too."

"Huaixing has been running around with his friend for a while. He said that as long as he has a tractor, he will have no problem hauling goods." Zhou Dachun accompanied him and looked at him carefully. "We want to ask you to talk to Lao Er and ask you to lend us some money to buy a tractor for Huaixing. We will pay him back at the end of the year."

"You colluded with the youngest bear to steal the youngest's business. He didn't come after you, but you hated the second brother's family instead. You didn't even send truffles to sell, and you even said outside that the weight was not enough, and asked the villagers not to send them to sell. Do you think the second brother is a fool?"

The old man was getting angrier and angrier as he spoke, "Go away, go away, you're always up to no good, stop standing in front of me and do what you need to do."

Zhou Dachun said humbly, "Old man, please help us. Huaixing finally found a way out. Look, among the three brothers, our family is the only one that is getting more and more difficult. If you don't help him, no one will be willing to help him."

"Crawl down from here. I didn't see you calling me when I was eating meat and drinking, but you only thought of me when I asked you to borrow money."

"Old man..." Zhou Dachun looked at him eagerly with red eyes. Apart from him, no one was willing to help them. Their family couldn't even borrow a dollar in the village now.

If we miss this opportunity, more and more people will buy tractors in the future, and it will be difficult to turn things around.

The old man looked at his eldest son, whose hair had turned gray, and his heart softened. He waved at him and said, "Go back. I'll reply to you when I want to."

"Okay! Then I'll go back first." Zhou Dachun wiped his face and walked out of the back mountain.

Mother Zhou, who was standing not far away holding Xiao Jiu'er, watched him walk away and spat angrily, "Shameless!"

…

Yang Chunyan washed and hung the clothes at home, then opened the back door and went to the big pit. She saw the old man holding Xiao Jiuer, watching the water by the medicinal field. Xiao Jiuer was wearing a wreath made of forsythia on her head, and her little hands would occasionally pluck a tender yellow petal from the wreath.

She walked over and touched the wreath on Jiuer's head, "Oh, the wreath on our little Jiuer's head is so beautiful."

Xiao Jiuer also reached out to touch the wreath and pointed at the old man, "Grandfather, Grandfather!"

"Oh, it was made by the old man. It's really beautiful!" Yang Chunyan took it from him with a smile, "Grandpa, my eldest father came to the house to look for you just now."

"I see." The old man picked up the hoe, "I'll go over there and dig the ridge."

Yang Chunyan hurriedly said: "I'll go, the water is flooding and the road is slippery..."

"It's okay, just carry Jiuer back." The old man walked towards the drainage ditch with a hoe in his hand.

Yang Chunyan saw that he was in a bad mood, but she didn't dare to ask if his father had said anything. She just stood there and watched him walk to the drainage ditch before turning back down the hill and returning to the yard.

Looking at the time, he saw that it was already ten o'clock, so he took the sling and carried Xiao Jiuer on his back, then got a long needle for sewing quilts, and went to the vegetable garden with the vegetable basket.

"Be good, mom will peel garlic sprouts and go home. We will stir-fry meat for lunch."

"Ga gaga, gaga...beat!" Little Jiuer was imitating her words on her back, and occasionally saying something else.

"Son, it's about eating meat, not fighting!"

“Beat, beat…” Xiao Jiuer clapped her hands happily.

While teaching her son to speak, Yang Chunyan untied the rope tied to the fence gate and entered the vegetable field. (End of this chapter)