Chapter 621
Yesterday, Su Miao mingled in the crowd and secretly observed his new cousin's wife.
She personally thought that her cousin's wife was a good person. She was good-looking, spoke frankly, and was generous. She gave red envelopes to every younger generation, even her cousins.
When her parents-in-law were angry, their words were bound to be harsh, but she did not blush with anger, nor did she cry with fear. She answered whatever they asked, and her attitude was respectful but not humble.
With such a wonderful girl, no wonder the cousin married her regardless of anything and even argued with his family over her. It was really worth it.
As for the shortcomings that the elders care about, such as second marriage, raising children, and no one in the natal family, in Su Miao's view, they are not a big deal at all compared to being able to live a good life.
Besides, my cousin has been divorced himself, so there is nothing much to say about this.
According to Su Miao's observation, this cousin's wife is not an ordinary person, and she will probably be able to win over her parents-in-law soon.
The little girl with the red flower is called Xiaoting, and she is the new niece brought by her new cousin-in-law.
Because everyone in the village knew Su Miao's status in the hearts of the Su family's children, every time she returned to the village, she was the center of attention of the children.
So my cousin specially brought some New Year gifts and asked Su Miao to help take care of them so that Xiaoting could play with the children.
Looking at the well-behaved and lovely Xiaoting, Su Miao naturally did not refuse. Although she would be returning to Ning County soon, he was relieved to leave her to Xiaohu, the "king of children".
Xiaoting is cute and delicate, speaks standard Mandarin, and always has candies in her pocket to give to other children.
Whenever he sees a child, he will say in a baby voice, "Brother or sister, have some candy."
In just two days, she became the "sweetheart" in the eyes of the children.
Brother Yu lit the dry straw to ignite the firewood at the bottom of the kiln. The orange-red flames licked the earth, gradually burning the entire kiln white. The heat distorted the air, and from a distance, it looked like a miniature volcano.
When the firewood burned out, the earthen kiln was burning red, and each piece of mud was scorching hot. The children cheered and threw the wrapped chicken, sweet potatoes and corn into the hot earthen kiln.
Brother Yu gently pushed down the kiln roof with a shovel, and the hot soil collapsed, raising a cloud of gray smoke with sparks. He then kept patting it to allow the temperature to tightly wrap the ingredients.
"Okay, just wait until the food is cooked, then go fly the kite!"
"Okay~~~ Let's go fly a kite~~~~~~"
The children ran to a flatter area holding their homemade kites. My new niece ran clumsily after the kite, her red skirt standing out against the withered rice fields.
Su Miao didn't like running, so he squatted beside the earthen kiln and chatted with Brother Yu and Sister Hui. They had not seen each other for nearly half a year, and the three of them had endless things to talk about for days and nights.
After a while, Su Yu saw a cousin walking towards the village with an anxious look on his face, and greeted him:
"Brother Ming! What are you in such a hurry for? Come over here and eat some kiln-baked chicken!"
"Oh my! I can't eat anything right now! I just went to the fields to pick vegetables, and everything I planted is burnt and wilted!"
The three people squatting beside the earthen kiln stood up at the same time. Su Miao patted the dirt off his hands and saw that there were still beads of sweat on Ming Ge's forehead, and his face was more anxious than the burning red earth.
"What happened? Are a lot of things burned?" Sister Hui asked with a frown.
"Who knows what's wrong! I just went to water the vegetables and found that the leaves are all drooping. I dug up a few roots and they're already burnt. I was thinking that the vegetable prices would be high during the New Year, so I would take them to the county to sell in a couple of days. Now it's all over!"
Brother Ming stamped his feet in anxiety, and then ran back to the village in a hurry to call for help.
The grains and vegetables in the fields are the main source of income for farmers. When he heard that something happened to his family's vegetable field, Brother Yu also became anxious.
He said to his two sisters, "Take the children and dig out the chickens. I'll go with Brother Ming to take a look."
Su Hui and Su Miao were also worried about this matter, and they even lost their appetite for the baked chicken.
However, a group of children, when they heard the call to open the kiln, flew back like little sparrows hearing the dinner bell.
Carefully dig up the pile of soil, and hot air wrapped in an enticing aroma hits you in the face.
The banana leaves have been roasted until golden brown. When you peel them open, the chicken inside is an attractive golden color, the fat under the skin is still sizzling, and the corn and sweet potatoes are also hot and sweet.
After more than ten minutes, a large group of people walked towards this side. The leader was Brother Ming. He must have gone back to call his family to come and see. The villagers he met on the way heard that something happened in the vegetable field and followed him.
That’s how it is in the countryside. If something happens in someone’s family, a group of people will gather in no time.
Su Hui and Su Miao asked Xiaohu to look after his younger siblings and followed the crowd.
Ming's vegetable patch, a two-acre plot at the east end of the village, was usually lush and green, a renowned vegetable patch in the village. But now, the once-sturdy seedlings were all drooping, their leaves curled and yellowing at the edges, as if they had been burned.
"Oh, this isn't just wilting, this is burning to the roots!"
Seventh Uncle had the most experience in farming, so Brother Ming specially invited him to come and take a look. He squatted down to check, pulled apart the roots of a cabbage, took a look, and shook his head.
Brother Ming was so anxious that he kept rubbing his hands: "I was fine when I was getting fat the day before yesterday, why is it that today..."
"Brother Ming, you just applied fertilizer the day before yesterday? What kind of fertilizer did you use?" Su Miao keenly noticed the problem.
"Your sister-in-law bought urea from the county. We thought that after spraying it yesterday, the vegetables would definitely be beautiful next week. We took advantage of the high prices before the Lantern Festival and took all the vegetables from the field to sell!"
Uncle San frowned and said with some dissatisfaction: "Why don't you make compost yourself instead of spending money on fertilizer?"
Ming Ge explained, "Uncle San, didn't my family get a biogas generator? We used all the fertilizer in the house to generate electricity, so I figured since the vegetable prices are high, a little higher cost is fine."
Ming Ge was so anxious that he was sweating all over. He helped his seventh uncle walk up from the vegetable garden.
Seventh Uncle patted the dirt off his hands and said slowly:
“We used to use mostly organic fertilizers, but now we are using more and more chemical fertilizers promoted by the Agricultural Science Station.
It's not that it's bad, it's definitely something that only good agricultural science stations would promote, but these scientific things should be used in a scientific way, which is different from the way we used to just urinate on people."
Ming Ge asked anxiously, "Seventh Uncle, are you saying that the way I used urea was wrong? But I've used this urea before, and it's fine!"
"From what I've seen so far, I can only tell that it's definitely due to a problem with the fertilizer, but I need to investigate whether you're using it incorrectly or if there's another reason. I need to check carefully and see what fertilizer you bought."
Before Ming could answer, hurried footsteps could be heard from outside the crowd. Ming's wife, panting, squeezed into the crowd, holding a half-filled bag of fertilizer. "A-Ming! I... I brought the remaining fertilizer..."
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