Chapter 337 Helping Each Other
It was impossible to ask Zhou Liulang to cook porridge because the food was all in Qian's room.
Old Zhou's family had eaten up all the old grain long ago, and now they were eating new grain that had just been dried. The new rice that was husked at the mill was very fragrant when used to make porridge.
Zhou Liulang just sneaked into the room to steal rice but was discovered by Qian. Finally, He went into the room, scooped out half a bowl of rice and went out to make porridge for Manbao.
Qian called her daughter into the house and asked, "Why did you run back home?"
Manbao pointed at his finger and said, "I'll come back to get some things..."
Qian didn't ask her what she wanted to take, but just said, "Eat your meal in the academy before you come back, and don't bring food home."
As for the fact that Santou, Sanya and Sitou ate all of Manbao's food together, she did not blame them or scold them.
Children of this age will not be able to restrain themselves when eating.
Although the Zhou family did not let the children go hungry, it was impossible for them to eat well and be full. It was normal to want to eat.
As long as Manbao doesn't bring things home, the children at home won't miss it or argue about it. This is the best way.
So in the end it was Manbao who was blamed.
Manbao lowered his head and listened to the lecture, saying, "Mom, my friend said that people outside eat three meals a day, so that they can grow strong."
"Mother knows that people who eat four meals a day are healthier than those who eat three. However, our family doesn't have that much. We're happy to keep you alive," Qian said. "We don't have much rice at home, only enough for a little over three months. Luckily, the wheat harvest is good this year. Once we give the wheat seeds to the villagers, we can start eating noodles."
Qian said, "Although we will plant winter wheat this year, we still have to save some food for next year. If the master gets angry again one day, the family will have some preparations."
Therefore, it is impossible to eat white flour. The flour must be mixed with some ground bran to make brown or black steamed buns.
Because winter wheat has to be planted after the Double Ninth Festival, the villagers were too lazy to rest for a few days after the Mid-Autumn Festival and then began to come to Lao Zhou's house one after another to check on the wheat seeds.
This year's floods not only severely affected rice, but also wheat. In some families, wheat was even more severely affected than rice.
After all, wheat is less tolerant to waterlogging than rice.
However, the situation of Lao Zhou's family is somewhat of an exception. Everyone can see the condition of their wheat fields, and everyone secretly guesses that their yield per mu should still be around two dan.
They also saw the heavy ears of wheat, so everyone wanted to exchange wheat seeds from him.
One pound for one pound. The Zhou family had picked out the best wheat seeds long ago, and the rest of the wheat was used for food, so they naturally didn't mind exchanging it with the villagers.
The replaced wheat was also dried in the sun, and the Zhou family directly put the wheat into bags and placed them in Old Zhou's room.
Old Zhou still felt that he would only feel at ease if the food at home was under his own supervision.
Every time before going to bed, he would take a look at the grain bag in the room, and he would sleep more soundly. Every time he woke up and took another look at the grain bag, he would feel more energetic.
This is the same as Manbao always takes a look at the cash box in the system before going to bed every day, and the first thing he does when he wakes up is also to take a look at the cash box in the system.
Dr. D had not appeared since the last time they traded wheat seeds. Manbao walked around the village with her hands behind her back, and finally sighed at the bird that flew alertly to a tree just as she passed by.
It seems that I can only ask Brother Zhou Hu for help.
Zhou Hu also decided to plant winter wheat, but he planted less. He only exchanged 40 kilograms of wheat seeds from the Zhou family and planned to plant about two acres.
He is the only laborer in his family now, and he has to take care of his wife and children, so he goes out late and comes back early. When Manbao walked over with his hands behind his back, he was turning the fertilizer, planning to dry it out before spreading it in the fields.
Da Fu was helping with a shovel, sweat all over his forehead.
Manbao walked over like a little adult and asked, "Brother Zhou Hu, have you plowed your fields?"
Zhou Hu smiled as he turned the fat over and said, "Not yet."
Manbao said, "How about I ask my elder brother to help you plow the fields, and then you can help me catch some birds."
Manbao pointed at the birds on a tree not far away and said, "That kind, alive, catch more..."
Zhou Hu looked up at the birds in the tree and said with a smile, "If Manbao wants to play with birds, I'll catch two for you later."
"Let's catch them today. My eldest brother and his friends are plowing the fields today. Let them plow your fields as well."
Zhou Hu was stunned, thinking she was joking, but Manbao obviously wasn't.
She quickly ran to the field.
Zhou Dalang and his men were plowing the fields, and Manbao just mentioned it, and Zhou Dalang agreed.
They were going to help anyway, they just came earlier.
Plowing the fields requires at least one person to pull the plow and one person to hold the plow. A more labor-saving method is to have two people pull the plow and one person hold the plow, as done by the Zhou family.
Zhou Hu is the only one in his family now. Unless he uses a hoe to hoe out the two acres of land, he will have to ask others for help.
When Zhou Hu arrived at the field, Zhou Dalang and his men had already put the plow in Zhou Hu's field. Touched and ashamed, he ran over to hold the plow and said, "You haven't finished plowing your own field yet, how can you..."
"Hey, why are you being so polite to us?" Zhou Dalang pushed his shoulder and said with a laugh, "I've finished plowing all the fields on my side and am about to move to another place. I'll plow your one-acre field while I'm at it."
Zhou Hu decided to plant two fields, one of which was more than one acre in size, and the other was a smaller one that was closer to his home.
Zhou Hu heard this and sniffed his sore nose. He didn't refuse anymore and took the rope from Zhou Erlang's hand and said, "Let me do it."
Zhou Erlang smiled and did not insist, letting him and his elder brother pull the plow first.
Zhou Sanlang held the plow and walked three times, then Zhou Erlang and Zhou Silang stepped forward to take over.
Zhou Hu didn't want to be replaced, so Zhou Dalang pulled him away and said, "Take a break first, why are you in such a hurry?"
Zhou Hu silently followed the Zhou brothers in plowing the fields. The next day, after he finished plowing his own fields, he went to the Zhou brothers' fields to continue.
The Zhou brothers also tacitly agreed to the cooperation between the two families.
This kind of cooperation model is not uncommon in the village, but more often than not, the two families have similar labor and similar fields to be cultivated, so the cooperation between the two families is more efficient and faster.
But the old Zhou family and the Zhou Hu family are obviously not a match.
But the Zhou family, who were obviously at a disadvantage, didn't say anything, and no one in the village would talk about such a thing.
Many people even breathed a sigh of relief. After all, with the Zhou family taking over completely, they no longer had to go to Zhou Hu's house for help.
Otherwise it would be a burden for them and for Zhou Hu's family as well.
Every time I go to help, I have to eat at least one meal. Now Zhou Hu’s family is not well off, so I feel embarrassed to eat, and I feel embarrassed not to eat.
Manbao wanted to ask about her bird several times, but seeing that her brothers and Zhou Hu all looked tired, she could only say nothing. Then she looked at the bird with a worried look on her face as it flew between the trees and disappeared in a short while.
If I had known earlier, I wouldn’t have caught them so harshly. Now they are so vigilant.
(End of this chapter)
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