Chen Hong turned to Yu Hai and said, "Yu Hai, go to the village and find two people! Usually, when you're not home, my uncle and I are the ones who find people to help. But since you're home today, you should go yourself, otherwise people will think we don't value them!"
"Okay, I'll go find someone right now."
“Your Uncle Erhu and his wife are home. They don’t have much work to do in the fields right now, and their son and daughter-in-law are home too. If you get all four of them together, that should be enough. With more people, they can probably finish picking all the pears by tomorrow. Go over there now and see if they’re free tomorrow. Once it’s settled, we’ll go to the orchard to pick pears together tomorrow morning when the dew is still fresh,” Uncle said to Hai.
"Oh, I'll go now. Uncle Erhu's wife and her husband, Xiaofeng, are here too. Didn't they say they went to Qingdao to work? When did they come back? I'll go to their house to see them. I haven't seen Xiaofeng in a long time, and we can chat." After saying that, Yu Hai went out.
Chen Hong said, "Uncle and Aunt, don't leave tonight. Yu Hai is home too. I'll cook a few dishes and you guys can have a couple of drinks."
Chen Hong got up and went to the kitchen: "Uncle and Aunt, please have some tea. I'll go cook."
"No need, no need, your aunt and I will just have a bite to eat when we get back, so we won't trouble you."
"What's the trouble? We have to cook and prepare meals ourselves, don't we? It's just a matter of adding a couple more pairs of chopsticks. Dad, you watch the kids chat with Uncle and Aunt."
After speaking to her father, Chen Hong took a bamboo basket from the kitchen and went to the vegetable garden in the backyard to pick vegetables. In the backyard, Chen Hong and her father had prepared five vegetable plots and planted some seasonal vegetables.
It's currently peak fruiting season, with eggplants, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, green beans, string beans, potatoes, and a small patch of chives and scallions. The garlic was harvested long ago, and a small trellis of autumn cucumbers was planted instead. After this crop of cucumbers is harvested, the autumn cucumbers will be ready to eat in early autumn.
Although the vegetable garden is not big, we have grown some of the vegetables we usually eat, so we don't need to go out to buy vegetables when we need them. They are fresh and convenient.
In the corner, the celery and coriander seeds that Chen Hong had scattered had already sprouted into a bushel-long seedling.
The vegetables in the yard grew very well. Chen Hong never spent any money on them. She used farmyard manure from her own septic tank, mixed with chicken manure to make compound farmyard manure, which was used specifically to grow the fruits and vegetables for her own consumption.
The pear trees are fertilized with this kind of farmyard manure, which is why the pears are of exceptionally high quality, and fruit merchants are eager to buy them every year. Since the pear trees started bearing fruit, Chen Hong has never had to worry about selling her pears.
Before the fruit ripens, fruit merchants come to Chen Hong's house to place orders, predict yields, and buy in bulk. Every year, Chen Hong sets aside several hundred kilograms of fruit. On the one hand, Yu Hai needs to give gifts in Jinan, and on the other hand, relatives and neighbors who often come to help in the village also want to get a share to try.
Because the Laiyang pears from Chen Hong's family are particularly delicious, and relatives and friends love them after receiving them, Chen Hong sets aside several hundred kilograms every year to share with everyone.
Chen Hong picked a variety of vegetables and sat down at the kitchen door to prepare them. First, she made a cold bean salad, then a cold pig's ear salad with cucumber, stir-fried tomatoes and eggs, stir-fried eggplant, potatoes, and green peppers, stewed pork ribs with potatoes, pan-fried dried mackerel, cooked mung bean porridge, and steamed the steamed buns from yesterday. In less than an hour, dinner was ready.
Just after seven o'clock, Yu Hai returned, and everyone sat down to eat. Dinner was very pleasant. Yu's father didn't drink, but Yu Hai and his uncle each had a bottle of beer. After the beer, everyone had a bowl of mung bean porridge and started eating.
"Home-cooked meals are still the most satisfying. The food at restaurants and street stalls just doesn't suit my taste," Yu Hai said, taking a sip of mung bean porridge.
“Then don’t leave. Stay here from now on. This year, the pears can sell for more than 20,000 yuan. I see that the situation in the sea is much better this year. The catch of fish is more than before, and the price of seafood has also gone up. Although it’s a bit tiring, the income is not bad. It’s not less than what you would earn working outside.”
“I’ve been in Jinan for so many years, and it would be a shame to lose all the connections I’ve built and the sales channels I’ve developed,” Yu Hai stammered. “Let’s talk about this later.”
“I also think Yu Hai should come back in the future. It’s so much better to stay home and stay unemployed. The whole family can be together and not be separated. The children are growing up and will be starting school soon. Your father’s health isn’t good enough to take care of the children, and Chen Hong can’t go out either. If this continues, when will it end? Young people shouldn’t be afraid of hardship. If they do some farming and fishing and put in some physical effort, earning fifty or sixty thousand a year shouldn’t be a problem,” my uncle said.
"Well, let's talk about this later. Let's eat. Come on, Uncle, let's have a drink." Yu Hai didn't respond to this, and Yu's father remained silent, just like Xu Ce entering Cao Cao's camp. Uncle and Aunt saw that something was wrong and wondered what might be going on, so they quickly finished their meal and said goodbye.
After seeing her uncle and aunt off, Chen Hong returned home and started tidying up the dishes when Yu Hai glanced at his father and said to Chen Hong, "Chen Hong, don't tidy up yet. I have something to tell you while everyone is here."
Chen Hong calmly put down her chopsticks and bowl: "Go ahead and tell me, I'm listening."
Mr. Yu picked up his grandson and was about to go back to his room when he said, "You two talk, I'll take the child back to his room. Don't talk about this in front of the child."
"It's okay, Dad. Yangyang will be starting elementary school next year. He'll understand everything he needs to know. We don't need to carry him around anymore."
Looking at Chen Hong's calm face, Yu Yang was stunned. Did she know that I wanted to divorce her?
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