Chapter 72: Judgment on a New Round of Bacteria Cultivation
Come back and have a nephew with her? What kind of talk is that?
Yan Xue subconsciously looked towards Qi Fang, and sure enough, she saw the man looking down at her with a deep gaze.
This made Yan Xue hurriedly explain in a low voice: "That's not what I said."
Qi Fang didn't say anything, but looked at her deeply with his peach blossom eyes again. When he heard the door of the main room open, he turned around to greet Yan Jigang.
The young boy was wearing a rabbit fur hat made by the second old lady. His face was red from the cold. As soon as he entered the door, he was lifted up by his brother-in-law.
He immediately burst into laughter, "Sister, brother-in-law, you're really back!" His big eyes curved up and he was extremely happy.
The second old lady then slowly came in from outside. "Xiao Qi is back now, so he won't leave, right?"
"Yeah." Qi Fang put Yan Jigang down and patted his head. "Everything is fine over there."
When Yan Jigang heard this, his eyes lit up even more. He immediately ran back to the house and took out two papers from the drawer to show Qi Fang.
Yan Xue smiled when she saw it, "It's the final exam paper. Jigang got first place."
Yan Jigang looked embarrassed, but he still looked at Qi Fang with bright eyes. "I didn't get full marks. I made a mistake in Chinese."
"Not bad." Qi Fang looked over the paper carefully. "It will be a role model for your nephew in the future."
Sure enough, the man remembered it again. Yan Xue wanted to pinch him, but he was on her left and it was not convenient for her, so she gave up in the end.
Yan Jigang was even happier when he heard this. After Qi Fang returned the paper to him, he happily took it back and put it back in the drawer.
After Qi Fang came back, although there was only one more person in the house, it seemed much more lively. In the evening, the second old lady even cooked two more dishes.
Qi Fang ate it all out of courtesy. After finishing, he half closed his eyes and listened to their conversation. It was obvious that he was a little full.
The second old lady guessed that he had just returned today and the couple had a lot to talk about, so she didn't let Yan Jigang disturb them and soon sent the young couple back to the house.
Qi Fang then closed the door, held Yan Xue's face, and continued the unfinished kiss.
After the kiss, he was still reluctant to let go, hugging her and asking about Yan Xue's shoulders, "How did it happen?"
"I accidentally stretched it, and it's almost healed now." The fixation belt had been removed, so Yan Xue didn't say anything to avoid worrying the man.
She asked the man about the county machinery factory, "Didn't they let you go? Why did they let you come back?"
"Secretary Qu wants them released, so we have to release them even if we don't want to." Qi Fang hugged her and leaned against the desk, and briefly told her what happened.
Yan Xue guessed that he really wanted to leave, and Wu Xingde might not be able to keep him. "So, are you going to switch to bulldozers and excavators next?"
"Well, let's see how their procurement progresses." Qi Fang was not in a hurry now that everyone had returned. "After all, there's still Director Liu in town."
Yan Xue also thought of the brake that was damaged by Qu Mingli. There are some things that you really know who did it, but you just can't do anything about it.
Compared to gentlemen, villains always live more unscrupulously. At least if it were Qu Mingli, he would never do something like damaging someone's brakes.
However, Qu Mingli can bring Qi Fang back if he wants, and he is not a soft persimmon that can be easily bullied. It would be best if Director Liu does not let him get any handle on him.
Speaking of this, Yan Xue thought of something else and said to the man, "Miss Yan wrote me a letter."
Qi Fang's brows furrowed immediately, "Why did she write to you?"
"She didn't say anything bad." Yan Xue first explained for Miss Yan, then said, "She just told me that she went to the countryside."
Yan Xue had never expected that Miss Yan would choose to go to the countryside in the end.
After all, she looked like she had never suffered any hardship. When she first came and saw where they lived, she asked Qi Fang, "Why do you live here?"
But after she went out for a while and returned to Yanjing, she did break up with Wu Xingde, and then, despite her family's opposition, she chose to go to the countryside.
"He has been in the countryside for several months. He recently wrote to me because there is not much work to do after the autumn harvest."
Although the letter still complained about how poor the conditions were and how hard the work was, he also sent Yan Xue a small ear of wheat, saying that he had picked it up from the field he had mowed.
And probably because she found something to do, she didn't seem as panicked as she was at the beginning. However, she still had some opinions about Qi Fang and asked him if he had bullied Yan Xue.
Yan Xue suspected that Wu Xingde was so anxious this time, perhaps because his marriage with the Yan family fell through and he no longer had a powerful Yue family to rely on.
People with strong backgrounds tend to be more forgiving than those without any foundation. If Wu Xingde and Miss Yan were already married, the Yan family couldn't give up on him just because of this one failure.
Now that the marriage with the Yan family is off and there is a problem with the hydrostatic system, it will be difficult for Wu Xingde to find such a powerful in-law family again.
Unless he can solve the problem by his own ability, instead of just thinking about solving it with the help of others and taking shortcuts.
Hearing Yan Xue say that Miss Yan went to the countryside, Qi Fang remained noncommittal and said, "Whatever you think is right."
It is true that Miss Yan has been a black person all her life. I guess the phrase "exchange it back" would not be acceptable to him.
And he obviously didn't want to talk much. After just a few words, he took out a wad of money from his shirt pocket and handed it to Yan Xue, "This time's salary."
Yan Xue felt something was wrong as soon as she saw the thickness. After counting, she found that there were more than 180 pieces.
You have to know that the man was only on secondment for two months. Although his salary increased by one level, it couldn't be that much even with the subsidies.
Yan Xue's eyebrows immediately raised, "Didn't I tell you to work less overtime? How many hours do you actually work overtime a day?"
The man paused after seeing this reaction and said, "Not much." Mainly because he later found out that people didn't want him to leave, so there was no point in him working overtime.
Yan Xue didn't believe it. It was not like she didn't know how to calculate. She lowered her head and thought for a moment, "At least three hours a day, right?"
Qi Fang was speechless and simply put his lips close to her ear and said, "There's nothing wrong with my body. If you don't believe me, you can check it out."
You don't know how to explain it, so you're just trying to change the subject or even start flirting?
Yan Xue didn't fall for his tricks. She took the money and hit him back. "Let me check if you've lost weight first."
It turned out that she hadn't lost much weight, and her abdominal muscles were still there, so Yan Xue naturally got up late the next day.
Fortunately, everyone knew that Qi Fang just came back yesterday, so no one came to call them.
But it was a different story when she woke up late for several days in a row. When Yan Xue opened her eyes, it was already past seven o'clock. She raised her foot to kick someone, but when she moved, she found something around her ankle.
She raised her hand to touch it, then sat up to take a look. It turned out to be an anklet made of snowflakes of different sizes.
I don’t know what metal the snowflakes are made of, the surface is very shiny, each snowflake has a different pattern, and when they collide with each other, there is a crisp tinkling sound.
Yan Xue's anger suddenly disappeared. She turned to look at the man and asked, "When did you put it on me?"
"After you fell asleep last night," the man heard her question, walked over and used his long fingers to move the snowflakes falling on the snow, "Isn't today your birthday?"
Is it a birthday present?
Yan Xue also lowered her head and shook it, feeling that the remaining anger could no longer be maintained.
There were no ready-made jewelry for sale in that era, and it would probably take a lot of time to polish these one by one.
And it was indeed done very beautifully. Yan Xue hid the chain inside her clothes, which was a little secret between the two of them.
Yan Xue’s birthday is in the twelfth lunar month, and after her birthday, there will be less than twenty days left until the Chinese New Year.
Last year, they got married in a hurry and celebrated the New Year in a hurry. Many things were prepared in a hurry. This year is different.
The forest farm store started supplying New Year's goods as of the beginning of the twelfth lunar month. The second old lady would go and take a look whenever she had time, with money in her hands.
I brought back a bunch of fish today, a chicken tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow I even got some canned braised pork. I quickly gave two to my grandson.
After finishing the shopping, I went home and started to feel bad again, "Did I buy too much? This must be a lot of money."
Yan Xue was watching from the side and laughed, "It's okay, your grandson-in-law and I have a lot of money."
The old lady was suddenly reminded of the box she had, and she couldn't help but pat it.
It didn't hurt anyway, so Yan Xue endured it with a smile. She cut the newly bought red paper according to the size of her house's door and prepared to take it to someone to write couplets and the word "Fu" on it.
Qi Fang saw it, but fell silent for a moment, then looked up at her, "Do you have any pens and ink at home?"
Yan Xue knew what he meant as soon as she heard it and was a little surprised. "You want to write it yourself?"
Qi Fang did not deny it. Seeing that there were no brushes and ink at home, he simply went to the store to buy them himself.
I bought it and finished it in one go. It is indeed a piece of calligraphy that is not inferior to anyone else's.
Even the illiterate Second Old Lady thought it was beautiful, not to mention Yan Jigang, who was so adored that he almost had stars in his eyes. "Brother-in-law is so amazing!"
"If you are interested, I will teach you when I have time." Qi Fang said only one sentence, then lowered his eyes again, looking at the words in a daze.
After the things were dry, Yan Xue came over to collect them. She couldn't help but ask him in a low voice: "Did you learn this from the teacher?"
"Not really." Qi Fang shook his head, "I learned it from my grandfather when I was a child."
"That grandpa is really awesome." Yan Xue couldn't help but unfold it and take a look.
Seeing her interest, Qi Fang said "hmm" and said, "My two uncles had better handwriting, but unfortunately they both joined the revolution and died."
No wonder he spent the last part of his life accompanying his grandfather as a young boy.
The topic was a bit heavy, so Yan Xue sighed softly: "I wish I had met you earlier, so I could have seen grandpa's original works."
Qi Fang said without thinking: "Then I will go and break off the engagement with her."
Then let Miss Yan use the breaking off engagement script to kill them both, right?
Yan Xue couldn't help laughing. "How old were we then? I was two years younger than you."
"He's two years younger, just right. No need to wait." Qi Fang took the brush and the ink dish to wash.
Yan Xue thought about it for a while before realizing that he meant he was two years younger, which meant they could reach the legal marriage age and get a marriage certificate in the same year.
This was quite ambiguous. She looked at the man again and asked, "Since you can write, why didn't you write it yourself last year?"
Last year was different from this year. Last year, he had never thought that he would leave the logging team and pick up his old job again...
Qi Fang simply put away the washed brush and ink and told Yan Xue: "Don't let Wei Guo know, otherwise someone might come and ask me to write."
Yan Xue still believed in Liu Weiguo's propaganda ability. Hearing this, she smiled and nodded, "The logging team will soon be coming down from the mountain."
However, before the logging team could leave the mountain, another incident occurred at the forest farm. Yu Yongzhi, who had been arrested for three months, was finally sentenced to five years.
Town-level units do not have the ability to handle these criminal cases. After an incident occurs, they are immediately reported to the provincial government for the final decision.
Although the Yu family still has some influence in the county, they don't have much power at the provincial level. They have been raising money and building relationships everywhere these days.
In those days, once a person was sentenced, not only would a public trial be held in the town and the verdict announced publicly, but they would also be paraded through the streets in a car. After two laps with a large sign hanging on their neck, they would be put on a train and taken to a farm for forced labor. Sometimes, they wouldn't be handcuffed, but their arms would be tied behind their backs with ropes.
Yan Xue's family were not good people, but among the two or three hundred households in the forest farm, there was always someone who happened to be in the town that day, watched the whole process, and came back to tell everyone secretly.
I dare not say it publicly, mainly because Director Yu is still the director, and the Yu family is superstitious about this, and no one wants to bring bad luck to the Yu family.
However, I didn’t expect that a few days later, news came from the field office that Director Yu had retired early due to illness.
At first, no one believed it, mainly because Director Yu was only 54 years old and still had several years to go before retirement, and he didn't seem to have any problems.
Although he was hospitalized for a few days due to anger and anxiety about Yu Yongzhi's incident, he was soon out and running around for Yu Yongzhi.
However, the forest farm is so small that some people still know some inside information. They say that the higher-ups want to investigate Yu Yongzhi's joining the security department. Director Yu's brother-in-law heard about it and asked him to withdraw immediately.
Now that I have retired and am no longer in the position, some things will be left unresolved. It is better than being investigated and losing my reputation.
Moreover, because of Yu Yongzhi's incident this time, even Director Yu's brother-in-law was affected and he really didn't have the ability to control Director Yu.
When Director Yu retreated, he immediately felt what it meant to be ignored after a visit. When they met before, they would always call him Director Yu, but now he is just called Old Yu.
Moreover, Yu Yongzhi had relied on his family background to cause trouble in the past, and Yu Cuiyun was not a good-tempered person either. A few days later, Li Shuwu's wife had a quarrel with Yu Cuiyun.
Li Shuwu's wife is also notorious for her bad mouth. She always says bad things about prisoners and criticizes them for their shortcomings.
So the two of them started out by swearing at each other outside, and then turned into fighting each other. Although Li Shuwu's wife couldn't beat Jin Baozhi, who was more capable than some men, she had no problem fighting Yu Cuiyun to a draw.
After the fight, the two men's hair was disheveled. Li Shuwu's wife didn't forget to swear, "If you have the guts, go find your uncle. You'll see if I dare to report him to the county for abusing his power for personal gain!"
If it was in the past, Yu Cuiyun would not be afraid of her words, but now...
Anyway, Yu Cuiyun became sick with anger when she returned home and didn't go out for several days.
Li Shuwu's wife was like a victorious rooster. "Her father isn't even the director anymore, and she's still so arrogant. She doesn't even realize that without her father, she's nothing!"
Yan Xue found out about this relatively late, mainly because she had been busy with a new round of fungus cultivation these days.
She built four rows of shelves in the newly built cultivation room, two rows against the wall and two rows close together in the middle, with a thermometer on each row.
The test tubes containing the mother culture medium are placed on the two rows of shelves in the middle, and now the transparent mycelium has covered half of them.
Yan Xue always washes her hands when she comes home, and then changes into a white coat that she had asked someone to buy for her, trying her best to create a sterile environment for bacterial culture to avoid the growth of miscellaneous bacteria.
When I went in, Guo Changan was already there, checking the test tubes one by one to see if there were any bacteria and making records.
Seeing Yan Xue come in, he handed her the notebook and said, "It seems that compared to last year, there are fewer wasted strains."
"Yes, it's less, more than half." Yan Xue took it and flipped through it. "If the disinfection was done better, it could be less."
The current conditions are still too limited, especially for a small family workshop like theirs. It would be great if they could build a cultivation room with better temperature control.
After reading it, Yan Xue hung the notebook back on the shelf, then turned to the other side and looked at the test tubes on another shelf.
"The mycelium seems to be growing slower here than over there," Guo Changan glanced at the thermometer on the shelf, "even though both sides are at the same temperature."
This is also what Yan Xue was observing. Although she had some knowledge about wood ear cultivation and had visited other people's bases, she was not a professional after all, so her knowledge was limited.
So when she extracted spores for cultivation, she extracted two types in total, one grown at home and one wild one collected from the mountains.
She wanted to see whether wild mushroom strains were more suitable for cultivation, or whether the second-generation mushroom strains she cultivated herself were more suitable for cultivation.
But it was obvious that the mycelium of the wild strain grew slower than that of the second-generation strain. Yan Xue nodded and said, "When the time comes, plant the two strains separately."
"Do you want to see which one grows faster and has a higher yield?" Guo Changan reacted immediately.
Even though he had never come across it before and didn't understand it, after seeing Yan Xue cultivate the two strains of fungi separately, he began to have some awareness of this.
This is why Yan Xue felt that she had made the right decision to help this person. Guo Changan was indeed very capable, and his brain was quite quick compared to people who generally did not have much education in this era.
"We have to choose the right seeds when we grow crops, don't we?" she said with a smile. "If we don't choose the right seeds, the yield will be reduced."
Guo Changan knew this and immediately drew inferences, "If the fungus is cultivated for a few more generations, will it also degenerate like crop seeds?"
"That depends on the results of the experiments in the next few years. This is my first time growing something."
Yan Xue also recorded the growth differences between the two sides in the record book, took off her white coat and went out, "The day after tomorrow is New Year's Eve, you don't need to come these days, come back on the eighth day of the new year."
Guo Changan also walked out on crutches. Hearing this, he hummed, then thought of something and said, "Someone came to ask me about you."
Ask about her? Ask about what?
Yan Xue reacted immediately, "Did someone ask you about growing wood ear mushrooms?"
This is not surprising. Even if you haven't seen her selling it, you should know that the amount of black fungus she has dried is definitely a lot.
As expected, Guo Changan said "hmm". "Wang Lianfu stuffed a pack of cigarettes in my hand and asked me if I grew my own wood ear mushrooms and how I did it. And Zhang Laile from the farm office casually asked me a few questions, but when he heard I didn't know, he stopped asking."
Wang Lianfu is the son of Old Man Wang. Apparently, the old man didn’t give up even after being chased by the dog.
Yan Xue knew that Guo Changan would not tell anyone, and he could not tell anyone since she made the mother culture medium herself, so she simply did not ask any more questions.
But Guo Changan lowered his voice, "And Li Shuwu's wife, she went to ask my mother."
This is so shameless. Guo Changan became like this because of Li Shuwu.
I guess no matter how good Aunt Guo's temper is, she would be pissed off to death by Li Shuwu's wife, and beating her out with a broom would be the least of her worries.
Of course, Guo Changan didn't say this to Yan Xue to complain. "Anyway, be careful. The forest farm is so small, there will always be people who are jealous."
Yan Xuexin, the smaller and poorer the place, the more he can't stand seeing people like him suddenly living better than him.
Asking around and wanting to learn was easy, and if someone couldn't make the money themselves, no one else could. In her previous life, she'd seen someone take on a fish pond that no one else in the village wanted to lease. They'd made 300,000 yuan in their first year, only to find someone drugging the pond the following year.
She thanked Guo Changan sincerely, and asked him to wish her and Aunt Guo a happy new year, and then sent the man out of the hospital.
When she got home, she moved the dog's kennel to the backyard and locked the breeding room. No matter who wanted to go in, they had to ask her and the second old lady for the key first.
Amid the sound of firecrackers, Yan Xue welcomed her second year at the forest farm, together with Qi Fang, the second old lady, and Yan Jigang.
The house has become bigger, there are more people at home, and there is a radio playing on the semiconductor radio on the table. It is many times more lively than last year.
In the evening, when Qi Fang set off firecrackers, Yan Jigang stood in the yard and watched, while Yan Xue and the second old lady stood inside the main hall door and listened.
When the dumplings were served, Qi Fang ate a date with his first bite, but Yan Xue ate a coin with her first bite. The second old lady said that she would definitely be rich next year.
When Yan Jigang woke up on the morning of the first day of the New Year, Liu Weibin was already waiting for him and took him to visit every household to wish them a happy new year.
Yan Xue had a quick meal, and people from the Liu family, the Guo family, and even Lang Yue'e's family came to pay New Year's greetings, as well as nearby neighbors.
It was only after she traveled here that she understood what it meant to be as lively as the Chinese New Year. In her previous life, there weren't so many people paying New Year's greetings. At most, relatives and friends would visit each other.
It wasn't until the eighth day of the Lunar New Year when the logging teams returned to the mountain that the bustle subsided, but those who had just returned to work had obviously not yet regained their working state.
When Yan Xue entered the site, everyone inside was sitting on the fire wall eating melon seeds. When they saw her, they handed her a handful.
"I have a share too." Yan Xue didn't refuse the other party's kindness and took it with a smile.
Someone immediately made room for her on the fire wall. "You deserve this spot. If it weren't for your Master Qi who built this fire wall, we wouldn't have had such a good year."
Speaking of the firewall, some people thought of Director Yu. They remembered that he didn't allow them to lie on the firewall, but he secretly lay on the firewall himself.
Now that he is no longer the director, people speak without restraint and bring up a lot of trivial matters.
Yan Xue listened quietly while cracking melon seeds, not saying much. She waited until everyone had said enough before raising her opinion.
"I came here to say hello. Could you give me some of the firewood from the cartloads of firewood that each household gets this year?"
Although the Chinese New Year has just passed and the family members have not yet gone up the mountain to clear the forest, and the distribution of firewood will have to wait, Yan Xue likes to be the first to do anything.
After he finished speaking, everyone looked at a man in his thirties sitting to the side, "Erzhuzi is looking for you."
Ge Erzhu, who was being watched, was visibly stunned and asked Yan Xue: "Does your family still need tree stumps this year?"
This reaction was obviously not right, so Yan Xue nodded and said, "What's wrong? Can't we split up this year?"
"It's not that we can't divide it. This stuff is not very useful except for padding the piles." Ge Erzhu said: "It's just that several families have come to the farm to say hello before, and the tree stumps have already been reserved."
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