"Okay, then I'll go to the large alkali field first."
As he spoke, Sheng Xiping found a triangular cloth bag and put the three pencil cases, pencils, erasers, notebooks and other items into it.
He also packed the things he had bought for Liu Changde and Qin Qiuyan inside. "Let's go, your third uncle will take you home."
Upon seeing this, Liu Qiang and Liu Peng happily followed Sheng Xiping back to Dajianchang Village.
In mid-April, the fields were still not ready for planting, but there was still a lot of work to be done in the ginseng fields, such as breaking up pillars, building sheds, and thatching sheds, which began one after another.
The household contract responsibility system hasn't been implemented here yet; the commune members still work collectively. Liu Yujiang and Liu Yuhe lead the commune members up the mountain every day, not returning home until quite late.
The Liu family consists of Liu Changde and his wife, their two daughters-in-law, and several children.
The Liu family is quite interesting. The brothers Liu Yujiang and Liu Yuhe have a total of seven children, all of whom are boys; they don't have a single daughter.
Qin Qiuyan longed for a granddaughter every day. Every time her daughter-in-law got pregnant, she would say every day that she wished it was a granddaughter, but her wish never came true and the baby was born a boy.
Nowadays, it's not allowed to have more children. Both of Liu's wives had their tubal ligations done. Qin Qiuyan longed for a girl her whole life, but in the end, her wish was not fulfilled.
"Master, Mistress, what are you doing at home?" Sheng Xiping shouted as soon as he entered the Liu family's gate.
The Liu family now has five dogs left. Daqing was killed by a lynx when they went hunting in the mountains two years ago.
Erqing was killed by a large brown bear just as winter began last year.
Xiao Huang, the female dog who fed Hua Hua, mated with Hua Bao in the spring of the year before last, and they ended up having a puppy.
The mother dog was old, and everyone said that the dog knew she was getting old, so she gave birth to a puppy for her owner.
Last winter, while hunting brown bears, Xiao Huang was also seriously injured and died after arriving home.
So now, the Liu family only has Xiaohua, Xiaohui, Dalong, Erhu, and Da Pang, the only dog born to Xiaohuang.
The dogs were all familiar with Sheng Xiping. Hearing his movements, they lifted their eyelids slightly, but none of them got up; they remained lying in their kennels.
The two wives of the Liu family were busy cooking in the kitchen when they heard the noise and looked outside. They saw Sheng Xiping accompanying Liu Qiang and Liu Peng into the house, and they quickly came out to greet them.
"Oh, is that Xiping? Come in and talk. Dad, Mom, Xiping is here."
Inside, Liu Changde and Qin Qiuyan were playing with the children. Liu Xin, the fourth child of Liu Yujiang's family, was born in the spring of 1979 and was three years old by the traditional Chinese age reckoning. Liu Xiang, the third child of Liu Yuhe's family, was born at the end of 1978 and was four years old by the traditional Chinese age reckoning.
The two children are only about three months apart, and at this age they are running around everywhere and never have a moment to rest.
To keep the children from causing trouble in the kitchen, Liu Changde and Qin Qiuyan, the elderly couple, each held one child and played with them on the kang (a heated brick bed).
Sheng Xiping carried the things into the house, greeted the two wives of the Liu family, and then stepped into the east room. "Master, mistress."
"Hey, Xiping, didn't you go to the provincial capital for a meeting? When did you get back?"
Qianchuan and Dajianchang are only so big together. The news that Sheng Xiping went to the provincial capital for a meeting had already spread far and wide, and everyone knew about it.
"I just got back this afternoon. I bought a few pencil cases for the kids."
I originally intended for Qiangzi and Xiaopeng to retrieve it, but the two kids were too scared, afraid their dad would beat them. So I came along, just in time to see my master and mistress.
Sheng Xiping put the cloth bag in his hand on the kang (a heated brick bed), and then took out two jin (1 kg) of maroon and two jin (1 kg) of dark blue woolen yarn.
"These are yarns I bought for my parents. I think the color is quite nice, and the yarn is also good and very soft. When you have time, I'll ask my sister-in-law to knit them a couple of sweaters."
For an adult sweater, you would typically use 1.7 jin of yarn, leaving 3 liang of yarn left over from 2 jin of yarn, which you can add later when you take it apart to wash and change it.
Sweaters wear out over time, so there's less chance of unraveling and re-knitting. If you don't leave any leftover pieces when you buy them, you won't be able to find the same color later, and they won't look as good.
Many people wear woolen pants that are not solid colors; often, each section is a different color.
Those were sweaters that had been changed several times, and when they really ran out of yarn, they switched to knitting woolen pants.
That's why you often see grown men wearing brightly colored woolen trousers in the countryside during spring and autumn.
"Oh dear, look at you, you even brought us things after going out. This yarn isn't cheap, why did you spend this money?"
Qin Qiuyan knew it was a good thing as soon as she saw the yarn. She was happy, but she couldn't help but say a few words to Sheng Xiping, complaining that he was too extravagant.
Sheng Xiping smiled dismissively, "Master's wife, what's the point of making money? Isn't it just to support our elders?"
As he spoke, Sheng Xiping took out his pencil case, pencils, erasers, notebooks, and other items and placed them on the kang (a heated brick bed).
"These are for the children, so they can keep them for their studies."
When they were taking out the yarn earlier, Liu Xiang and Liu Xin didn't pay much attention, but when they saw the pencil case, pencils, and erasers, their eyes widened immediately.
He took two steps at a time and arrived in front of Sheng Xiping, reaching out to grab the things.
"Oh my god, this won't do! These are for the older brothers to study with. If you break them, your dad will beat you when he gets back."
Liu Changde and Qin Qiuyan exclaimed in surprise and quickly reached out to pull the two children back into their arms.
The two children immediately became unhappy, and the younger one started to wail loudly.
Upon seeing this, Qin Qiuyan's face darkened, and she raised her hand to slap the kang mat, saying, "Let's see who's disobedient. If they're disobedient, I'll beat them up."
The old lady slapped the mat on the kang (a heated brick bed) loudly, but none of the slaps landed on her grandson.
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