Chapter 251: Rain falls in August, and cows freeze to death in winter

After Deng Shilan helped her eldest son buy a house in the county town, she and her husband helped to clean up the house inside and out before returning to her hometown.

Back home, the second son has already applied for a loan from a credit union. He is just waiting for the credit union to release the loan so that he can buy a truck and start his exciting trucking career.

As for the younger son and daughter, they stayed at home and helped with the land reclamation. Deng Shilan followed his younger brother's advice and contracted all the public hills and slopes in the village. The family would go there to reclaim wasteland when they had nothing to do. They reclaimed these hills and slopes in preparation for large-scale sugarcane planting.

Also returning with them were Deng Shirong and his daughter Zhang Xiuping.

Zhang Xiuping brought her child and father-in-law back this time, mainly to attend the full moon banquet of her younger sister Ou Guofang's son. In addition, it had been two and a half months since she left her hometown, so it was time to go back and live for a few days.

As for Bu Dashi, he did not go back with them, but returned two days later when he was about to leave home.

Although Bu Dashi works in the county town and it is not easy for him to go back and forth, the important step of visiting the home in marriage cannot be skipped.

After returning home and eating the noodles, Zhang Xiuping immediately took her child to look for her little sisters.

Deng Shirong sat under a longan tree, burning incense with a frown on his face. On his way back, he saw some people in the village planting sweet potatoes.

In Shuangwang area, sweet potatoes are planted twice a year, in April and August of the lunar calendar, also known as April potatoes and August potatoes.

It is now early August, and many people in the village have started planting August potatoes. This discovery made Deng Shirong not know how to remind them, because only he knew that the weather this year was different from previous years. Not only did the frost come early, but the low temperature also lasted for a very long time, until next spring.

It is normal for this kind of weather to occur in the north, but it is not normal at all when it occurs in Bobai, Guangxi, the southernmost part of the south.

According to his memories from his previous life, Deng Shirong knew that not only had several oxen frozen to death in the village this year, but all the sweet potatoes were also completely wiped out, so it was completely useless for the villagers to plant August potatoes now.

But how should he remind them? Deng Shirong racked his brains and finally came up with a folk proverb: "Rain falls in early August, and cows freeze to death in winter."

Coincidentally, it rained on the first day of August.

With this proverb, he can give the villagers a reasonable reminder.

As for whether the villagers listened or not, that was none of his business. He had reminded them anyway.

In fact, the loss of sweet potatoes is not a big deal, at most it is just a waste of labor.

After all, sweet potatoes are planted with sweet potato seedlings, which are plentiful in the village. You can harvest a large handful of them at a time, and no family is short of them. However, all the sweet potatoes were frozen to death this year, so we have to use sweet potatoes again to stimulate the growth of seedlings before we can plant them next year.

The most important thing is the several oxen that froze to death, which is the real big loss.

Thinking of this, Deng Shirong put the cigarette pipe aside, stood up and walked towards the home of Deng Yunjun, the team leader of the production team. Although with his seniority and prestige in the village, it would be no problem for him to call the villagers together to discuss this matter, but at this time the production team had not been disbanded yet, so it would be more legitimate to let the team leader to call the meeting.

Deng Yunjun was repairing the handle of a shovel in the hall. When he saw Deng Shirong coming over, he was the first to greet him, "Uncle Jiu, when did you come back?"

"I just came back a while ago." Deng Shirong sat down on a stool.

"Uncle Jiu, how is your restaurant business?" Deng Yunjun put down the shovel handle, picked up the cigarette holder next to him and handed it over, asking.

"I just burned a few cigarettes at home."

Deng Shirong waved his hand and replied, "The restaurant's business is pretty good. When you go to the county town for a meeting, remember to come to my place for dinner."

As the leader of the production team, Deng Yunjun was naturally not like other villagers who had never been out of the house. He had the opportunity to go to the county town for meetings. He was not very familiar with the county town, but he was familiar with several major roads.

"Uncle Jiu, where is your restaurant?"

“People’s Cinema, do you know?”

This is considered a famous landmark in the county. Deng Yunjun certainly knows it. He nodded and said, "I know this place. It's very close to the county government. When we go to the meeting, we always pass by the People's Cinema."

Deng Shirong said: "My restaurant is located diagonally opposite the People's Cinema."

Deng Yunjun smiled and said, "That's easy to find. What's the name of the restaurant?"

Deng Shirong said: "Suifeng Hotel."

Deng Yunjun nodded and said, "Well, I've made a note of it. I'll go to your restaurant when I attend the National People's Congress next year."

The two chatted about the restaurant for a while before Deng Shirong got down to business: "On my way back, I saw that many people in our village have started to grow sweet potatoes."

Deng Yunjun said: "It's already August, it's time to plant August potatoes."

Deng Shirong said: "Captain, in my opinion, this year's weather is not suitable for growing sweet potatoes!"

Deng Yunjun was surprised and asked, "Uncle Jiu, what do you mean?"

Deng Shirong said: "It rained on the first day of the new year, you should remember it, right?"

Deng Yunjun nodded and said, "I remember that it rained quite heavily that day. What does this have to do with whether it is suitable for growing sweet potatoes?"

Deng Shirong asked, "As the saying goes, if it rains in early August, cows will freeze to death in winter. This is a saying passed down by our ancestors, and I think it makes sense. This year's weather may be colder than in previous years, and it may even be cold for a longer time. If we plant sweet potatoes now, they may freeze to death!"

Deng Yunjun's expression instantly became serious when he heard this. Although the village has now divided the land and everyone is working on their own, as long as the production team is not disbanded, he, as the team leader, has the responsibility on his shoulders. Any issues related to food are big problems and must be taken seriously.

"Uncle Jiu, is there any factual basis for your statement?"

"What factual basis is there?"

Deng Shirong shook his head and said, “As the old saying goes, the first day of June can predict the current year, and the first day of August can predict the next year. According to the experience summed up by our ancestors, there are sayings on the first day of the sixth lunar month such as ‘If it rains for half a year, even a widow will worry’, ‘If it rains for half a year, the autumn harvest will surely be harvested’, ‘If it is sunny on the first day of June, you can build a shed with grass for the cows’, and ‘If your face is sunburned on the first day of June, the fields will turn into rice crusts’.

There are also sayings about the first day of August such as "If it rains in the beginning of August, cows will freeze to death in winter", "If it is sunny on the first day of August, the rice will be as white as silver", "If it rains in the beginning of August, the drought will last until May of next year", and "If it is hot on the first day of August, there will be no frost for more than 60 days".

There must be a reason why these proverbs have been passed down. We cannot believe them completely, but we cannot ignore them either.

So, I think it’s necessary to remind everyone that whether it’s true or not, it’s always a good idea to prepare in advance.”

Deng Yunjun nodded repeatedly and said, "Uncle Jiu, what you said makes sense. It's better to believe it than not to believe it. Then I'll gather everyone tonight to talk about this matter?"

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Deng Shirong said, "That's why I came to see you. Anyway, I'm just reminding you, which is also a token of my appreciation. Whether they listen or not is up to them."

After settling the matter, the two chatted for a while and then Deng Shirong went back.

…

6pm.

Most of the villagers in Naye Village have already had dinner. Some are sitting at their doorsteps smoking, while others are visiting their neighbors and chatting.

At this moment, a rhythmic bell sounded suddenly. It was the bell rang by the captain of the Naye production team to call the members together.

In this era, every production team had a bell hanging on the wall (it was called a bell, but it was actually just a piece of iron). Before the land was distributed to each household, the bell was used to command the members to participate in collective labor. After all, it would be a waste of time to have people shouting from door to door.

Now that the land has been distributed to each household, the bell of the production team has not rung for a long time.

Now it suddenly rang, and all the members were a little surprised. They didn't know why the captain wanted to call everyone together.

Since they had nothing to do, the members who heard the bell walked towards the production team leader's house curiously.

Naye Village has only dozens of households. According to the national classification, it is not an administrative village but a natural village. To describe it in layman's terms, it is a "tun". However, locals generally like to use the word "village" instead of "tun", so the original name Naye Tun is called Naye Village.

A village with only dozens of households is naturally not very big, so when the bell rings, almost the whole village can hear it. In less than five minutes, people from every household came to the captain's house.

"Captain, why did you gather everyone here? What's the matter?"

"Captain, did you call us here to discuss the issue of electricity supply to our village?"

"team leader,……"

After the members gathered together, they began to ask questions about the team leader Deng Yunjun.

When Deng Yunjun saw that Uncle Jiu had also arrived, he cleared his throat and said, "Everyone, be quiet and listen to me."

After the members quieted down, Deng Yunjun continued, "I called everyone here today mainly because Uncle Jiu told me something today. We discussed it and felt it necessary to tell you about it. Whether you believe it or not, it's just a reminder for you."

At this point, Deng Yunjun looked at Deng Shirong and said, "Uncle Jiu, you should tell everyone about this!"

Deng Shirong nodded and said, "It rained heavily on the first day of the new year. Everyone remembers this, right?"

"Of course I remember this. It rained heavily that day."

"It was fine that morning, and it didn't look like it was going to rain. I went to the orchard to work for a while, but then the rain came. I didn't even have time to run home, and I was soaked all over. Fortunately, I didn't catch a cold, otherwise I would have suffered."

"Jiu Gong, does the rain that day have anything to do with what we are going to talk about now?"

"Nine Lords..."

There were nearly a hundred people present, and when Deng Shirong asked this question, more than a dozen people answered directly.

Deng Shirong said: "I wonder if you have heard the old saying: If it rains in early August, the cows will freeze to death in winter."

Dear big brothers, because there are many people who skip chapters, the average subscription is growing slowly, so starting tomorrow, Ershe wants to try to update big chapters. The chapter at 8 o'clock every morning will be cancelled, and a chapter of no less than 6,000 words will be updated on time at 7 o'clock in the evening. Thank you for your support! 　　 　 (End of this chapter)