25 Chapter 25
◎Wash the ground with well water and improve the soil◎
Qi Song held the stone in his hand, placed his fist on his abdomen, and remained silent for a while. Just when Mu Yun thought he could wait, he suddenly exerted force and struck out unexpectedly -
Crack, and the treetop where the two birds had just been perched broke.
Mu Yun was secretly surprised.
"For this kind of hidden weapon to be lethal, there are two main things."
Qi Song walked forward, and Mu Yun followed. He searched the ground for the stone he had thrown. "Look at this stone. It's different from the two you just threw."
Mu Yun took it in his hand and examined it carefully. The stone was slender and teardrop-shaped, sharp at the top and round at the bottom. It was about three inches long and weighed six or seven taels.
"I accidentally saw this among the paving stones these days. This kind of hidden weapon needs to be of hard texture. Bluestone is the best, granite is the second best, and yellow stone is the worst. It should be available anytime and anywhere. Don't throw it away." Qi Song put the stone into the bag on his waist and kept it away.
The two continued to move forward.
Mu Yun couldn't help but ask, "What about the second one?"
"Secondly, you need a solid foundation. Grip it like this," he demonstrated, "and channel your energy into these fingers. To exert force, shake your wrist, snap your fingers, and strike out in an instant."
Seeing Mu Yun practicing silently by shaking his wrist, Qi Song added, "But the escorts in our escort agency don't use hidden weapons to hurt people. When escorting people around the world, peace is the most important thing. They just want to scare the little thieves."
After spending these days together, Mu Yun's opinion of Qi Song has changed a lot. It seems that he really came to teach him about the escort agency. The last time he was looking for an escort agency to escort grain in Puyang City, Qi Song taught him how to choose an escort agency, how to deal with people, and how to look at the escort agency from the perspective of the cargo owner.
Mu Yun went over everything that had happened since Qi Song arrived in his mind, and the two of them walked for several miles in silence.
"Uncle Qi, there is one thing I don't understand. Why did you come to me?" It was definitely not because of the promise he made to his father. It was obvious that he didn't treat him differently after his father passed away a few years ago. And how could the relationship between him and his father compare to that with the head of the Wu family?
He has worked in the Wu family for many years and is familiar with the job. He is already at the age to enjoy his retirement. What reason is there for him to give up the Wu family's work and come to him?
After he arrived, he also worked as a gatekeeper. When he killed the tiger, he was truly saving it. He worked non-stop every day to build walls and pave the ground in Zhaojia Village. Why?
Mu Yun couldn't understand.
Qi Song looked at the vast mountains in the distance and said, "In addition to being outstanding in martial arts, a bodyguard must also be fearless in the face of danger and willing to die. The bodyguards are both the property and the people."
His piercing gaze returned to Mu Yun's face. "There's one thing I don't understand. How did you, the young master of the Wu family, become Madam Cheng's uncle, serving her wholeheartedly and devotedly? Who was that big brother? Did you accept his escort?"
It didn't matter who that big brother was; Madam Cheng had never mentioned him. Madam Cheng had paid him money, asking him to pretend to be her uncle, to keep secrets, to protect her life, to walk the walk for her. The relationship between him and Madam Cheng was that of escort and customer; he was taking Madam Cheng's escorts.
Although he has many shortcomings, he is not a mature bodyguard.
Suddenly, a flash of light shone into his mind, and Mu Yun suddenly realized that Qi Song was sending out an escort! He was the escort!
Master Wu, why do you do this?
***
Mu Yun and Qi Song went to the town and got something out of it. When they came back they asked Cheng Mu what she thought.
Cheng Wei required that the roof and other three walls of the greenhouse be rollable. Qi Song happened to see a workshop making felt tents and thought of the Mongolians who used felt tents as houses on the grasslands. Their roofs were made of willow wood and surrounded by two to three layers of wool felt. They could be rolled up and had good warmth retention.
Cheng Mu decided to make the roof and walls of the greenhouse in this way. She could also surround the walls with a layer of wool felt.
Qi Song went to measure the size, and in the afternoon they went to the town again to place an order at the workshop.
By the time the forty acres of land were plowed, the willow wood frames and wool felt were ready, Cheng Mu had also recovered from her confinement.
Finally I can leave the house!
The first thing she did was to take a walk in the backyard and look at the two newly built small rooms. The kang had been set up and was just big enough for one person to lie down. The room was not big, and after entering the room, she could kick the kang when she turned around. The width was just enough to put a box. Cheng Mei took note and made a suitcase for each of them.
The kitchen is open and connected to the yard. There is an earthen stove and a lot of firewood piled on the side. There is an entrance to a cellar, which is as big as a water tank.
The eight-immortal table that was previously in the main hall was moved to the courtyard, and the stove in the main hall was removed. I should buy two more armchairs so that there is a place for guests to sit when they come.
A wheel was installed on the well, making it easy to draw water with a bucket. A special toilet room was built with a drain outlet leading to the outside of the house.
The entire yard was kept tidy and clean by Yu.
She exited through the back door and walked to the barn and greenhouse. The barn was in front, the greenhouse in the back. To keep it warm, the greenhouse was low, with the joists and ceiling already installed. The temperature was still high, and the wool felt was rolled up.
Cheng Mu picked up a pickaxe and started digging the ground. Just as she did that, Yu rushed over and snatched the pickaxe away from her.
"Hey Madam Cheng, you just came out of confinement. If you need anything, just ask us to do it."
Cheng Xi couldn't wait to grow vegetables.
There are nine plots of land in total, three of which are planted with potatoes, one with onions, leeks and garlic, one with cucumbers, one with carrots, one with white radishes, one with spinach, and one with cabbage.
Cheng Mu handed the seeds she took out of the space to Yu, "These are some seeds that Mu Yun bought in town. Plant them in the next few days."
"Just leave it to me, don't worry about it, Madam Cheng."
Yu asked Cheng Mu, "Is it okay to hold a full-moon banquet for Xiaoliu and Xiaoqi tomorrow?"
"Sure, what are the customs here?"
In order to celebrate Xiaoliu and Xiaoqi's full moon, Mu Yun went to the town early in the morning to buy roast duck and wine from Qingyunlou.
Guier put all the eggs saved at home in a basin, washed them, and after cooking them on the stove, she took out the red yeast rice powder, dissolved it in a bowl of red water, dipped a cloth in the color, and rubbed it on the eggs, turning the white eggs into red wedding eggs.
Yu tied colorful strings around the children's shoulders, and Cheng Mu put silver collars on them. Dong'er and she each held one child and walked them around the house, signifying their departure.
There were no other guests, just the family members. The eight-immortal table was filled with food, and everyone sat around it and had a happy meal.
The next step is the most important ceremony, shaving the head.
Shaving is one of the major skills of a bodyguard. Qi Song taught Mu Yun, and the full moon haircuts of Xiaoliu and Xiaoqi were given to Mu Yun.
A crowd of people gathered around to watch. It was Mu Yun's first time, so his hands were a little unsteady, for fear of hurting Xiaoliu and Xiaoqi.
Cheng Wei helped hold the baby's head to prevent them from moving around, "Let's get started."
Gui'er made faces to amuse the babies, who stared at her with their round eyes.
Dong'er sang softly, "I sit in the middle of the courtyard, wearing a purple crown and a red robe. I shave the dragon's head. I shave gold, silver, and a herd of mules and horses..."
Dong'er's child did not live to be a full month old, but she raised these two children to the age of one month. The sadness in her heart has slowly faded away. Before long, she will have a new baby.
White Dew comes early, Cold Dew comes late, so it is the right time to plant wheat at the Autumnal Equinox.
Twenty days after the wheat field's alfalfa was plowed, it was the autumnal equinox. The cut alfalfa stalks, buried in the ground, had already rotted and turned into fertilizer. The temperature was neither too hot nor too cold, requiring a coat during the day. It was around 10 degrees Celsius, and with winter still a month away, it was perfect for growing wheat.
If the wheat is planted early and the temperature is high, it will germinate early and grow vigorously, but it will suffer frost damage when the winter cold wave comes.
If the wheat is planted late and the temperature is low, it will be difficult for it to germinate. If a cold wave comes and it is still in the germination stage, it will be prone to frost damage due to its weak resistance.
The villagers rely on the weather and seize the farming season.
After planting more than twenty acres of wheat, Cheng Xi felt relieved.
Next, I concentrated on taking care of the vegetable garden in the greenhouse.
Cheng Mu dug a well in the vegetable garden with the intention of using the well water to wash the land and improve the soil.
First, turn over each piece of land several times, turn it deeper, and break the soil into smaller pieces. Then build a fence around each piece of land and pour well water into it to soak it. Drainage ditches were made along the well-shaped road in advance. The soaked water flowed along the drainage ditches to a place a hundred meters away from the greenhouse.
Zhao Datian has been farming here for decades and has never seen such practices as land washing and land modification. He comes to watch out of curiosity every day.
Zhao Shitou went back and told Mr. Zhao Baye about Cheng Mu's land-washing. Mr. Zhao Baye had never heard of it before. However, according to his observation, although Mrs. Cheng did not look like a farmer, she had some farming methods, such as intercropping. When he was young, he heard from a traveling businessman that there was such a farming method in the south, but they had never done it this way in the north. Was she doing this to reduce losses, or was there something else going on?
"Let's see what she can grow first."
After the land is soaked like this three times and then dried thoroughly, some salt crystals can be seen originally, but they are difficult to find after washing.
Zhao Datian, "It's really strange."
Since soaking the fields is useful, Zhao Datian still doesn't understand. In the past, when growing rice, the fields would also be soaked. Why didn't the land be improved, but instead became worse and worse?
Cheng Wei pointed to the drainage ditch and said, "It's very simple. The water inlet and outlet must be separated. The water must be drained far away, away from these plots of land, to prevent it from seeping into the ground and dissolving into the groundwater."
***
What Cheng Mu had given Yu before were only the vegetable seeds. The potatoes that she had secretly moved out of the space and placed in the granary had also sprouted in the past few days.
Cut the potatoes into small pieces and plant them in the soil one by one.
The weather was getting colder and colder. When it was time to heat the kang in the house, the wool felt on the top of the greenhouse was lowered and a circle of wool felt was also wrapped around the wall. The greenhouse was very warm and the vegetables in the field began to sprout.
After the kang became warm, Xiaoliu and Xiaoqi no longer needed to wear such thick coats and only wore thin coats.
Dong'er was sewing shoe soles under the window, and she caught a glimpse of the child turning over on the bed.
She put down her needle and thread, happily picked up the rattle, and banged it in front of Xiaoliu to tease her. Xiaoliu laughed, raised her upper body high, and waved her little arms.
"Xiao Liu, you're amazing! How did you suddenly turn over? How did you do that? Try turning over again and see how it goes."
Dong'er turned Xiaoliu over and teased her with a rattle, "Come on, turn over, turn over."
Cheng Mu first opened the warm curtain and came in, asking her, "Can Xiaoliu turn over?"
"Well, she just flipped over suddenly. I asked her to try again. Xiaoliu, try harder!"
Xiaoliu's face turned over, but her body didn't move. Cheng Mu lifted one of her legs, and Xiaoliu took advantage of the momentum and turned over immediately.
"Oh my, it really turned over, it can turn over!" Dong'er shouted happily.
Cheng Mu asked Xiaoliu to try a few more times, and each time was better than the last. After a few times, she mastered the skill of turning over very well.
Cheng Mu gently poked Xiaoliu's face with her finger and said, "How come you are so outstanding? You should teach Xiaoqi more."
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