With Grandma Zhou's incident behind them, the couple no longer had anything to worry about in Northeast China. They decided to return to their village to be with their parents and take care of their backyard before leaving.
In the county town's courtyard, Zhang Guoqing put his sleeping son down in the master bedroom and pulled Zhou Jiao out of the room. He whispered, "Let's start putting away everything we need to put away now."
Zhou Jiao nodded and followed him, starting from the study. "First, consider how long you'll need to keep enough food. I've taken everything from the study except the furniture."
"Just enough to feed them until the end of the year. Too much is unsafe, and they might not even eat it. Leave the things in their room untouched, and give them two extra quilts and the gramophone. I'll take the bicycles. You can do with anything else you have left."
Zhou Jiao had already thought it through. She had to prepare food, meat, firewood, coal briquettes, and other daily necessities for them. She also had to give them plenty of money and banknotes, and they could send back anything they needed later.
After cleaning up, the couple smiled at each other. After the village was done, they would really leave this home. Looking at the familiar furniture in the room, they really couldn't bear to leave.
When the family returned to the village, the foot of the North Mountain was completely silent. In the distance, a group of people were toiling away in the fields.
They passed by the old house and found it empty. It seemed their parents had gone to the fields to help. A glance at their own backyard confirmed that they were working with the others.
Zhang Guoqing didn't go to look for his parents. He left Zhou Jiao to clean the house and took the child to the backyard.
"Dad, they're all ours."
Zhang Guoqing laughed and said, "Yes, I won't give it to others."
After a quick look, he found the corn wasn't doing too well, but at least he had some harvest. The best was the sweet potatoes. He didn't have time for autumn planting this year, but he could have harvested some in two months.
"Son, stay here and don't move. Daddy is working."
Ping An easily dragged the bamboo basket in front of him and said, "I want to watch how Dad works. When I grow up, I will help Dad."
"Well, you are a good son to your father."
When Zhou Jiao came to the backyard, Zhang Guoqing had already finished most of the work, and Ping'an was squatting on the ground playing with sweet potatoes.
"Don't bother working, we're not in a hurry."
"Mom, Dad said those vegetables are not growing big and need to be pulled out."
Zhou Jiao looked in the direction the child pointed and smiled, "Yeah. That's because it's not nutritious. It won't grow. You need to eat more so it can grow faster."
Then, with a look of regret on her face, she said, "It's a pity that these fruit trees have only yielded a few harvests in total, and your father has wasted a lot of effort."
Ping An frowned and shook his head, "Sour!"
"Okay, we don't eat sour food. Tomorrow Dad will take you to the mountains to pick wild fruits, and we will find sweet ones specifically for Ping An." Zhang Guoqing couldn't help laughing when he saw the child's expression.
Zhou Jiao looked ahead and secretly clicked her tongue. Looking at the speed, this guy really is suitable to be a farmer.
"Are you planning on finishing the work in one afternoon?"
Zhang Guoqing smiled and shook his head, "How can it be so fast? We are sure to have people visiting us at home these days, so we should hurry up and shovel it out to avoid making holes."
Zhou Jiao nodded and took the children to pick vegetables. Due to the poor management and the rain, the seeds in this vegetable garden were wasted.
The family stayed in the village for three days, but they only saw their parents a few times. The enthusiastic Zhangs were busy helping with the wheat harvest, so exhausted they ate a bowl of sorghum rice in the fields and fell asleep as soon as they got home.
Zhang Guoqing watched his parents' complexions, which had finally improved, fade away again. No matter how he tried to persuade them, it was useless. Furious, he was helpless and could only give them as much tonic as possible.
He didn't object to his parents helping out on a voluntary basis, but it was really unreasonable for him to suffer the consequences and get exhausted.
Father Zhang smiled and patted him, "It's just the busy farming season these few days. The harvest is already bad, and if it rains again, the whole village will be doomed. Your mother and I are doing our best to help."
Zhang's mother nodded with a smile. "Even the villagers in their seventies and eighties are helping out in the fields. You should go back to the county town tomorrow morning and don't show up in the village."
"I've been leaving for a while now, so I wanted to spend more time with you guys."
"Silly son. Once you're settled, your father and I will go to the capital. It's not like you have to come back. Don't worry, your father and I will definitely come to see you."
Zhang Guoqing nodded helplessly at her. If she didn't go with him this time, who knew when she would go to the capital again? Judging from her parents' behavior these days, she had to trick them into the capital as soon as possible. Otherwise, no matter how much food she had left, it would be useless.
At night, Zhou Jiao began packing up and clearing out the house. There was really no need to leave anything here. Her parents couldn't refuse anyone who came to borrow it, so she might as well be a one-size-fits-all approach.
The next morning, Zhang's father and his wife went back to work and said goodbye to their parents.
This time, Zhang Guoqing was pulling a cart full of supplies, followed by Zhou Jiao holding their son. Before they were halfway there was a little bit of wood left, and Zhou Jiao was already sitting on it, holding her child.
Not long after I got home, Zhao Yuanyuan was banging on the door and shouting loudly.
"I'll go open the door, you look after the child." After saying that, Zhou Jiao looked at the sleeping Ping'an worriedly.
As soon as the door opened, Li Qinglin and a few others were standing outside with smiles on their faces.
Without waiting for Zhou Jiao to ask, Zhao Yuanyuan counted on her fingers and said, "Swimming crab, abalone, scallops, Wenha, conch... Oh, my mouth is watering. Do you want to eat?"
Zhou Jiao was unmoved and asked them to come in first. If they were so loud, the neighbors would misunderstand.
The group entered the living room. Zhao Yuanyuan's eyes lit up when she saw Zhang Guoqing. "Brother Xiaowu, Jiaojiao really loves seafood. How about it? I finally found a place. Do you want to go?"
Zhou Jiao chuckled. It seemed these people had developed a taste for the wild yellow cattle Zhang Guoqing had hunted last time, and now they were craving seafood.
Zhang Guoqing looked at Li Qinglin and the others. "Did they really find the land? The fishermen salvaged it and wanted to sell it to the fish farm, didn't you know that?"
Zhang Yuntao rolled his eyes at him. "Everyone knows this. You remember Wang Hai from our class? His cousin's family is from a fishing village. Now they're exchanging food with their village."
Zhou Jiao had no interest in going to the beach again. Needless to say, the fishing grounds were far away. The smell of burning food was too strong, and she still had plenty in her space.
Seeing their excited faces, Zhang Guoqing stood up with a smile and said, "I'll go there with you first. If it's possible, let them send it over and we can eat at home. It's too troublesome to go back and forth."
Seeing that they were leaving as soon as they said they would, Zhou Jiao quickly asked him to take a small bag of cornmeal with him. Otherwise, it would be troublesome to run back again.
Less than two hours later, Zhang Guoqing returned alone with a bucket of water and a bamboo basket of supplies. The total weight of the water he had collected was less than 30 kilograms, and he asked for 5 kilograms of cornmeal.
Zhou Jiao nodded in understanding when she learned that Zhao Yuanyuan and her family had exchanged five pounds of cornmeal for theirs. No wonder her family had also exchanged five pounds of cornmeal for theirs.
Zhang Guoqing smiled as he recounted what had just happened. When they arrived, Wang Hai's cousin's house was packed, but no one had anything to exchange. Eventually, the village canteen offered to exchange some of their items, and several villagers contacted relatives in the county town to exchange some.
He figured the other party wouldn't come again. The journey was too far, and even getting a ride depended on whether their work schedule allowed them to come here. Besides, these seafood were only for the sake of freshness, not to fill their stomachs. Aside from a few of their wealthy families, no one was willing to exchange them for these things.
Zhang Guoqing delivered two crabs to each of his neighbors on the left and right, and informed them of the news. But before he even entered the door, the prodigal Lao Chen and Wang Dasheng had already ridden away on their bikes.
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