Chapter 76 Liujiawan's foreign debt, Zhou Sinian playing tricks on people

Ming Dai curled her eyes and replied with a smile: "Sure, put it in a basket filled with soil, as long as you control the temperature and humidity, you can grow it. I'll try it first, and if it works, I'll teach you."

Auntie Huang exclaimed in amazement: "This is the first time I've heard of this. It would be great if it could be grown. We wouldn't have to eat only cabbage in the winter."

After saying that, she called Mingdai and herself to go to the cellar to take a look.

Ming Dai glanced at Zhou Sinian by the stable, who seemed to be having a good time with Liu Laifa, so she followed him without worry.

Liu Lai was shivering as he cut the hay, not daring to stop. He was screaming in his heart: Mother! Save me!

Unfortunately, Aunt Huang was so excitedly showing Mingdai around her cellar that she didn't notice her little son's eyes were about to go crazy.

At this moment, Zhou Sinian was enthusiastically putting the dry grass that Liu Laifa had bundled into the stable. He bundled a handful, and he put a handful, working in perfect harmony.

He also stared at the horse while it was eating grass. As soon as it stopped chewing, Zhou Sinian glared at it, scaring it so much that its teeth started chattering and rubbing against each other.

Zhou Sinian looked at the diligent man and horse and smiled with satisfaction.

Going down to the cellar, Auntie Huang lit the oil lamp. Mingdai opened her mouth wide as she looked at the cellar filled with vegetables.

Auntie Huang pointed at the mountain of dishes with pride and said, "Miss Xiao Ming, take a look and see if there's anything you like to eat. Auntie will prepare it for you to take away."

Ming Dai gave Aunt Huang a thumbs up and said, "You really know how to live. How long will it take to finish all these dishes?"

Auntie Huang was so flattered that her face lit up with smiles: "We have to wait until spring to eat these. We can only eat fresh vegetables in spring. We have to rely on these vegetables to survive the whole winter and the first spring. Even though it's a lot now, we have a big family, and we have to send some to my mother's family in the mountains. They have little land, and they don't have enough food, let alone vegetables, so every bit here and there is gone.

I'm not bragging, other families don't have as many vegetables as I do. In order to grow these, I dug up the land in my backyard and planted them.

Fortunately, we don’t have chickens at home, otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to keep them and they would have died long ago.”

Ming Dai was about to ask this: "Auntie, I've always wanted to ask, why don't we raise pigs? We do have chickens, but not many, and you don't raise any at home either."

Aunt Huang was picking up leek roots for her and sighing, "If you had come here a few years earlier, you would have seen this. We used to raise chickens and pigs. Chickens can be raised as long as a family has no more than five. As for pigs, we have plenty of space here and there are many people in a family. A capable family can raise two or three pigs and just sell a mission pig before the New Year."

Our village had a pig farm at that time, raising 23 pigs of various sizes. I was responsible for cooking pig food.

Unfortunately, there was an outbreak of swine fever in the commune behind us, and even the pigs in the surrounding villages were infected."

At this point, Auntie Huang's voice choked up a bit: "Two pigs died at the beginning. They had diarrhea and couldn't stop. The county veterinary station was so busy that they couldn't call anyone. Your uncle and I took the pigs to the county in a horse-drawn carriage for treatment. Another pig died on the way. When we arrived at the county veterinary station, we found out that the pigs in several nearby communes had contracted swine fever and there was no cure.

The veterinarian told us to take them back and isolate them, and keep as many as possible.

Unfortunately it was too late and they all died in the end. We were so heartbroken!

The sick pigs were taken away by people from the county and buried, saying that sick pigs cannot be eaten, and eating them will kill people, how painful it is, they are all meat!"

Ming Dai nodded and said, "It's true that you can't eat it."

Aunt Huang sighed, "We are so sad. These pigs were raised with donations from the brigade and the commune. The pigs are dead, but the debt is still there. Your brigade leader uncle has become so worried that his hair has turned a lot whiter."

Fortunately, we have been able to pay back some of the debts over the past two years, and the commune understands our situation. They now require our village to participate in the task of repairing the reservoir every year, but the money allocated to the village is less, and we are living a tight life.”

"As for chickens, a lot of them died after the swine fever, so people were afraid that they would not survive and waste food, so they raised fewer chickens. My family was afraid that your uncle would feel bad when he saw the chickens and thought of the pigs, so we stopped raising them."

After hearing this, Mingdai finally understood why this place was even poorer than she had imagined. It turned out that the village still had foreign debts.

Aunt Huang dug out a basket of leek roots and wrapped them all with straw to prevent them from freezing.

“So, everyone in the countryside wants to move to the city. If a family has a relative in the city, their status will be three points higher.

Why?

It's because they have a stable job and don't have to rely on the weather for their food.

The old lady Qing from the back of the village not only married her daughter to the county town, but also found a temporary job for her eldest grandson. Young ladies from all over the country were willing to date him because they saw that he had a job in the county town. Even if it was a temporary job, it was better than the men in the village who had earned a lot of money.

Ming Dai nodded: "It's the same in the city. It's easier to find a marriage partner if you have a job than if you don't."

"Let's not think about people like us. We can't read a word. They say we need to take an exam to recruit workers in the city. Next year, I'll send Tiedan to the commune primary school for two years and see if I can find him a job in the city. We'll also change our family background so your uncle won't complain that I gave birth to three children, none of whom can be used. Hahaha."

Mingdai looked at Aunt Huang who was laughing and thought she was really optimistic.

She has always been close to such people, like a little sun, and she especially hates those who complain and whine without reason.

"Tiedan and Goudan are both very smart and have no problem going to school."

Auntie Huang was digging potatoes into the sack and laughing, "Haha, let's hope so. Don't be like their father, who can't get anything out of them even with a stick. He's very fleshy."

The two men chatted while picking vegetables, including potatoes, sweet potatoes, shepherd's purse, old pumpkins, and some dried vegetables. There were two sacks of different sizes. Zhou Sinian carried them without feeling that they were heavy or dirty, as the potatoes and sweet potatoes were covered in mud.

Mingdai thanked him again and again, and finally had a big winter melon stuffed into her mouth before she could leave the captain's yard.

After they left, Liu Lai breathed a sigh of relief and shook his sore hands. His entire back was wet from being stared at by a madman.

Ma: Finally it’s gone. It’s almost killing me!

Ming Dai was busy chatting and had no idea that Zhou Sinian had done something evil again.

Zhou Sinian expressed dissatisfaction with the sack on his shoulders with a cold face. She described various delicacies to coax the unhappy him to carry the sack home. When passing by the educated youth site, Chen Erhong and Fang Mingyang happened to be out fetching water. Seeing them carrying the sack on their shoulders and in their arms, they were envious.

Mingdai nodded as a greeting and ran after the long legs.

Chen Erhong brushed her hair and whispered, "Ming Zhiqing and the captain's family are very close."

Fang Mingyang frowned as he heard this.

I heard that from the Sanlishan Commune next door, an educated youth was recruited back to the city for work, and the application form was stamped by their team leader.

When they got home, Mingdai first took Zhou Sinian to sweep the snow off the roof.

After making his request, Zhou Sinian leaped up to the top of the wall, pulled out a long branch outside the courtyard wall, and poked the eaves with it. A waterfall of snowflakes instantly fell from the eaves, hitting Mingdai, who was unprepared below, all over her head and face.

Ming Dai quickly jumped away from under the eaves, pointed at the innocent-looking Zhou Sinian on the wall and threatened: "If you do bad things again, you won't have to eat delicious food at noon!"

The last time Zhou Sinian put her on the locust tree, she realized that this guy had turned bad and would play tricks on her. He must have done it on purpose when he threw snow at her just now!

Thinking about the silly roe deer meat in the space, Zhou Sinian immediately learned his lesson and reminded in a deep voice: "Get out of here."

After Mingdai hid in the house, he continued to poke open the snow on the roof, which just covered the place where Mingdai had just stood.

Ming Dai: Haha, he really knew that the falling snow could hit her. He didn’t need to add licorice when he boiled the medicine at night. It would make you suffer!

Zhou Sinian was having a great time playing in the snow and had no idea that he would have to drink bitter soup again in the evening.