The days passed peacefully and orderly. Chen Chunhua's fish balls were widely praised, but the couple did not specialize in selling fish balls.
When vegetables are available, I still sell them. When they are out of stock, I make fish balls.
What the regular customers eat on their tables depends mainly on what they sell today.
I made less than two yuan a day, and every seven days or so I'd buy a pound of meat to bring home for everyone to enjoy. The banknotes in the small drawer were piling up rapidly.
The Lin family hadn't eaten seven eggs a day for a few days before the eggs in the tin can were no longer enough.
Lately, Lin Guoqing has been bothering the chickens every evening, and during the day, he's pretending to raise the coop. The chickens are getting annoyed and aren't laying eggs anymore. They only lay one or two, or two or three eggs a day.
Chen Chunhua complained about Lin Guoqing, but there was nothing she could do. She had to ask him to ask Qi Caigen if he had any eggs when he went to pick vegetables in the evening, or ask him to help collect a basket of eggs in the village and bring some back.
The target in my village is too big. Everyone lives a similar life. How could they suddenly buy so many eggs to take home for no reason?
As for the chicken that Liang Shengdi had been longing for, she didn't have to wait long.
In early April, Lin Guoqing worked hard for three days and then stopped for two days, but finally he raised and built the chicken coop.
On the morning of the third day, when Chen Chunhua got up, she saw several children without their clothes on, squatting together in the corner at the entrance of the room.
"Where did this little chicken come from?"
Chen Chunhua looked at the box of chicks that suddenly appeared in the room with a confused look on her face.
Lin Shuying looked up at her. "Dad brought them back last night. You were sleeping so soundly you didn't hear them. He said he'd take care of them when you woke up, and told us not to touch them."
Lin Guoqing's original words were that if you touch it twice, you will die, and he also asked her to keep an eye on her younger brothers and sisters and not to catch them, especially her younger sister Lin Shumei.
Didn’t you see that she was squatting on the ground, still holding my little sister’s hand tightly!
Chen Chunhua was really too tired and slept too soundly. She didn't know when Lin Guoqing came back. She took the paper box and counted it. There were about 15 chirping birds.
She probably bought them from Qi Fagen. A few days ago, she mentioned to Qi Fagen's wife that she wanted to buy a few chicks to raise at home.
The aunt thought about it for a while and said that someone in their village had brooding chickens, and they would probably be there in the next two days. She would ask if they wanted to sell them then.
Nowadays, people don’t really like to raise chickens because they are difficult to raise and die easily.
So an adult chicken would sell for around five yuan, and a chick...at most, three cents. Chen Chunhua estimated that this box of 15 chicks wouldn't cost more than five yuan.
“Chichi…chichi…chichi…”
Lin Shumei pulled at her mother's trouser legs and kept shouting that she wanted to see her little chicken. Chen Chunhua squatted down to show it to her, but grabbed her hand to prevent her from touching it.
"Don't catch it, it's for grandma to raise."
“Chichi…”
"Yes, chicken, as small as you."
The chicks chirped and wiggled around, looking so cute. Fearing they would freeze to death, Lin Guoqing had spread straw at the bottom of the box and wrapped a piece of rag around the edge.
Chen Chunhua urged the children to get dressed and put on their blankets, and the older ones to take the younger ones to wash up. Then she carried the chickens out of the room, intending to get them some water.
I took out a jar of brown sugar that was almost empty, scooped out a little brown sugar, mixed it with warm water, stirred it, and added two drops of vinegar.
Just as he brought the shallow basin to the chicks, Lin Guoqing came back with an empty basket on his back.
"Hey, look at this chicken. When Uncle Qi gave it to me yesterday, he said it was only three days old. The old hen was quite aggressive. She must have snatched the chick while it was eating."
"Well, they look quite lively, so they should be able to eat. I'm worried they're too young, and the hen hasn't taught them how to eat yet."
The couple squatted in the main room together watching the chickens drink water. After a while, Chen Chunhua remembered that she had not made breakfast yet.
I quickly cooked the sweet potato porridge and poured in some broken rice and rice husks, crushed them into smaller pieces, soaked them in hot water, and fed them to the chicks when they cooled down.
When Liang Shengdi came out, she saw four children and one adult gathered on the floor in the main hall, and there was a constant chattering sound coming from them.
I walked over and asked, "Did you buy chickens?"
Lin Guoqing looked up and saw his biological mother, grinning.
"Yeah, didn't I promise to buy you a chicken before?"
Liang Shengdi nodded, and the next second her mind suddenly froze.
"Hmm? You bought me a chicken???"
"Yeah, didn't you say you wanted to eat it? I even promised you that you could eat the whole thing. Did you forget?"
Chen Chunhua leaned against the kitchen door, smiling and singing in unison with her man, with a cunning look in her eyes.
Liang Shengdi: "...It's still a baby chick, how do you eat it?"
"We can eat it once we raise it up," Chen Chunhua said confidently.
Liang Shengdi blinked, suddenly having a bad feeling, "Who will raise it?"
Chen Chunhua stared at her, smiling, with an inexplicable encouragement in her eyes.
"I???"
Liang Shengdi pointed at herself and was stunned. She had been too hardworking recently. Every day she either went up the mountain to dig bamboo shoots and pick mushrooms, or went to the river to catch fish and snails.
If she saw fresh wild vegetables by the river, she would dig them up too, believing that even a mosquito leg was meat, and that she could take anything her son and daughter-in-law could sell for money.
The baskets became bigger and heavier as they were woven. Lin Shu tried to catch up with his grandmother and almost developed strong arms.
In the end, the reward these two guys gave her was just a box of chicks?
For a moment, Liang Shengdi wanted to quit.
But thinking about it again, the food has been really good lately, with eggs every day, and even if there's no meat, there's always oil. She thinks this matter can still be discussed...
"I don't know how to raise chickens... These chickens are so small, it's not like I can just feed them... Besides, who will go to the mountains and rivers..."
Her working hours are very fixed now. She goes up the mountain in the morning, goes down to the river in the afternoon, eats, sleeps and snores at night. She really has no time to raise chickens.
Chen Chunhua touched her nose and said, "Raising chickens doesn't require a whole day of work. It's mainly just feeding and keeping them warm.
When Guoqing and I have time, we will make a warming box together. You can take it out to feed them when the weather is good and there is no wind.
When the sun is out, let them go out to bask in the sun. When the sun is not out, turn on the lights to keep them warm. Don't let them get wet in the rain, and don't let them get cold.
Feed them three or four times a day with broken rice and wheat bran soaked in hot water..."
Chen Chunhua's voice became softer and softer, and Liang Shengdi felt increasingly numb.
Is this easy? Doesn't it take all day to work? Are you kidding her?
Chen Chunhua had been thinking about raising chickens from the very beginning. She had been thinking about finding some work for Liang Shengdi.
But plans cannot keep up with changes. Liang Shengdi has been very busy recently. If she stays at home to take care of the box chicken, their income from selling vegetables in the evening will be reduced for at least half a month.
What should I do?
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