It has rained a lot these past two days and the weather is quite humid. Small mushrooms have begun to poke their heads out of the long bags in the mushroom house, and Chen Chunhua no longer wants to let the children water the plants at will.
She had heard that there was something on the mushrooms that was bad for the body in the long term, so even when she and Lin Guoqing went in, they would wear masks she had made specially for them. It was just two thin layers of cloth with nothing inside, but it was better than nothing.
One night at the end of April, Lao Shi suddenly told Lin Guoqing not to come to the stall for the next two days and to take a few days off.
Lin Guoqing's face was full of questions. "Huh? What's going on?"
Lao Shi smacked his lips and said, "I heard some rumors."
Lin Guoqing suddenly became nervous. Are they here to arrest someone? Then today...
"It's almost Labor Day, isn't it? The higher-ups are going to recognize model workers and definitely spotlight a few bad examples... It's like this every year, so it'll probably only be these two days. You and your wife should just rest at home for a few days... We won't be coming tomorrow, so you can tell your regular customers later."
Seeing Lin Guoqing's visible panic, Lao Shi was a little amused.
"Don't be nervous, I told you in advance! Don't worry, I've developed an acquaintance there, and I'll let you know in advance if there's an inspection. Don't you think our business is pretty safe?"
Lin Guoqing nodded, "...how long will it take for you to come back?"
"A week, maybe. After Labor Day, there'll be three days off, and they're not exactly idle. The higher-ups don't want to think about this kind of thing, and the lower-ups don't bother to care either. They can get a little something when they catch someone, but it's better to earn it slowly over the long term, don't you think?"
Lin Guoqing felt that there was some truth to it. It was that when everyone chatted before and occasionally talked about who had been arrested, they would more or less involve themselves in the situation. Lao Shi greeted everyone in advance today, and everyone's heart became even more nervous.
Lin Guoqing plans to go back early today. If he can’t sell all the food, he won’t force it. He can just take it home and eat it himself.
After talking to the customers, they all understood and even bought twice as much food as usual.
"If you don't open the stall for a week, we'll have to go to the supply and marketing cooperative and compete with them for vegetables. It's better to buy more from you. If we buy too much, it won't keep, but it's enough for two or three days."
So Lin Guoqing returned home with an empty basket just after 6 o'clock today.
Chen Chunhua slept lightly today. When she heard the noise, she came out of the room. When she saw Lin Guoqing, she was a little surprised and looked back at the alarm clock.
"Why are you so early today?"
"Well, we can sleep well for the next week. Everyone who buys groceries over there bought more than usual, so they sold out early."
"Sleep well for a week? What does that mean?" Chen Chunhua looked confused early in the morning.
After listening to what Lin Guoqing said, she was still a little scared. "Well, I can't go this week. I can't go in for such a small amount of money. Besides, the village will be harvesting rapeseed oil and pressing it these two days. It's a lot of work and tiring. I need to sleep well at night."
There were voices in the main room. A little chicken struggled to jump out of the cardboard box, ran to Chen Chunhua's feet, and chirped around the two of them.
The chicks have grown considerably this month, but three or four have also died. Some froze to death while wandering outside, while others, born weak, suddenly died for unknown reasons. Each one was a treasure to the four children, and each death would trigger a deafening cry from the entire family.
Chen Chunhua recognized the chick, with its yellowish-white feathers and mottled wings, as the third child's favorite: the glutton. It was said he'd eat anything, and when the stone trough was filled with new feed, he'd always be the first to rush in, never to be outdone.
During the day, when Lin Shuchao followed his parents to the fields, he would bring a small glass bottle and catch insects for the chicks to eat, and half of the insects would go into the mouth of the glutton.
"Zuozuozuo~" Chen Chunhua squatted down and tapped the glutton's head with her finger, "Go back to your own box and play. Wait until the third child wakes up and let them give you more food."
Now the three adults in the family are no longer qualified to feed them. All the work has to be done by the four little ones, otherwise they will be unhappy.
Chen Chunhua asked Lin Guoqing to change his clothes and go back to his room to take a nap, and she would call him after she finished making breakfast.
When Chen Chunhua finished cooking and came out, she saw several children gathered around the cardboard box, and Lin Shu was feeding them a handful of chopped sweet potatoes.
Liang Shengdi sat on a chair nearby, frowning and saying with a horrible look on her face,
"What a sin! This is human food!"
Lin Shuchao ran in from outside with a chicken in his arms.
"Brother, the glutton just sneaked into the mushroom house. When I saw him, he had already taken several bites of the mushroom flowers."
Lin Shuchao calls those small mushrooms that have just poked their heads out mushroom flowers.
"The chicken ate the mushrooms?"
Chen Chunhua came out, wiping her apron off her body, and stretched out her hand to catch the glutton, but she failed to catch him as Lin Shuchao dodged her.
He knew that the bags in the mushroom house were used by his parents to make money. Now that his glutton had eaten the mushrooms, would his mother be angry and kill the glutton?
Lin Shuchao's little head was filled with fear. He shouldn't have spoken so loudly just now.
Chen Chunhua rolled her eyes. "Can I still eat it? You said he ate mushrooms, I just wanted to check on him. Chickens can't eat mushrooms blindly, you know? They might die of poisoning!"
Chen Chunhua's words contained some truth, but also some scare elements. Who told this kid to treat his mother as an enemy spy? However, Lin Shuchao panicked when he heard this, and his eyes were instantly filled with tears.
"Ah...really? Is that glutton going to die?" Lin Shuying and Lin Shugan also gathered around. Little Shumei had just left the room holding Lin Guoqing's hand and was actually still a little sleepy. But when she saw her brothers and sisters gathered around, she followed them happily.
"Mom, how is Glutton? Can he survive?" Lin Shuying asked quickly when she saw that her third brother had started wiping his tears.
The glutton was placed in Shen Chunhua's hands. Its two small, mung bean-sized eyes darted around, looking at everyone in the room, incredibly alert. Shen Chunhua wasn't quite sure. Perhaps it had just eaten and hadn't reacted yet, or perhaps...it was because it had a healthy constitution? A healthy stomach?
"I'm not sure. It looks okay now. Our mushrooms aren't poisonous, so it shouldn't be fatal... Let's give it some more water this morning, maybe it can help..."
If it really died, there would be nothing she could do, as there was no veterinarian in the village who could treat chickens.
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