Chapter 94 93: Dredging
On the way back, we occasionally met villagers who were carrying hoes to water the rice fields. By the time we got home, several of them were already soaked.
Zhou Huaian climbed up the steps with a stick, and Zhou's mother quickly collected a few dry towels and handed them to the others, "Youngest, is your leg okay?"
"It's okay, just a few stitches!"
Several children came out from the main room, "Mom, Auntie, did you buy some candy?"
Li Qiuyue glared at Zhou Xiaoru and said, "Who said that if you eat candy every day, your teeth will get worms if you eat too much!"
"……" When the children saw that there was nothing delicious to eat, they pouted and went back to play with the birds.
Yang Chunyan and Li Qiuyue took out the beam scale, machete and meat from the basket, "Mom, there are still three or four pounds of meat that haven't been sold yet. You can pickle it with salt."
Mother Zhou took the meat and the machete and said, "Leave the scale there and I'll clean it up. Hurry up and change your clothes to avoid catching a cold."
Li Qiuyue put the bag on the eight-immortal table. "Inside is the money from selling corn and pork. Can you see if it's soaked?"
"Yes, wait till I get the meat and hang it up."
Yang Chunyan helped Zhou Huaian into the house, changed his clothes, and counted out the money to be distributed to Zhao Huifang and the other two today and the money from selling honey. "This is the money from selling honey."
Zhou Huaian picked it up and counted it, then counted out half of it and took out five cents from his pocket, "Yan'er, these 41.45 yuan are for Erchun, and you can put the rest away."
Yang Chunyan took it and put it away. "Read a book for a while, and go to bed after your hair is dry. I'll go out and take a look."
"Yan'er," Zhou Huaian called her, "How are you going to divide the money from selling wild boar meat?"
Yang Chunyan stepped back and sat on the edge of the bed. "If you hadn't told me, I would have forgotten. How are you going to divide it?"
Zhou Huaian thought for a moment, then looked up at her, "Yan'er, if it weren't for the help of my sister-in-law that day, we would have both been injured. How about we split the money equally?"
"Then split it equally!" Yang Chunyan stood up and walked outside.
Zhou's mother was sorting out the money from today's sales in the main hall. Seeing her, she said with some concern, "The second son and his wife and Huifang went up the mountain to get the herbs you hid in the mountain yesterday. They haven't come back yet."
Yang Chunyan consoled him, "Don't worry, they may be digging those nests of kudzu root in the mountains, and they will be back soon."
"It's raining so hard, I'm afraid they'll run into something again."
"No, don't worry!"
Mother Zhou nodded. "Your cousin came to see you. Did you meet her on the road?"
"She met him! She heard that Huai'an chased his cow down a ridge and killed it, so she came to ask about it."
At this time, Zhou Huaishan and Li Qiuyue came over from the backyard wearing bamboo hats and holding hoes. "Mom, it's raining too hard. I'm going to help the old man irrigate the rice fields. The ditches in the fields on the back hill also need to be cleared."
"I'll put on my raincoat and go with my third sister-in-law." Yang Chunyan hurriedly got up and went back to the house to put on her raincoat.
Zhou Huaian leaned against the head of the bed and saw her coming back, "Are you going out to dredge the ridges?"
"Yeah!" Yang Chunyan opened the cabinet, took out a set of black clothes and put them on.
Zhou Huaian looked at it and said, "This raincoat is very convenient."
"Well! I'll make you one later."
Yang Chunyan put on her boots and went out. Li Qiuyue saw her raincoat and said enviously, "Yan'er, you still have a raincoat?"
Yang Chunyan patted the raincoat on her body and said, "My mother made it with linen soaked in tung oil. When we have free time, we can make it too."
"Okay." The two men carried their hoes and went to the backyard. When they opened the door, they saw Zhao Huifang and the other two walking to the back door in a panic, carrying baskets on their backs.
Yang Chunyan quickly stepped aside and said, "Sister-in-law, please go back quickly. Mom was worried about you just now."
Zhao Huifang walked into the yard and asked, "Are you two going to clear the ridge ditch?"
"Hmm! Are those Polygonum multiflorum vines still there?"
"The Polygonum multiflorum vine is still there, but there are only a few of the Herba Centipelagoae, Herba Ibises, Herba Plantaine and Dandelions left. They must have been eaten by wild animals."
Zhang Xiuxiang walked in and said happily, "Chunyan, we dug up those kudzu roots. There are at least two hundred kilograms."
"That's great! Go back and change your clothes, we're going to the mountains."
When Yang Chunyan and Li Qiuyue arrived at the mountain, they saw that the ridges and ditches were full of water. They hurriedly dug up the ground and dug aside the mud blocking the ditches so that the water in the ridges and ditches could flow smoothly.
The wind and rain blew the corn stalks and sorghum stalks all over the place, and some of them fell over. The two men picked up some branches and propped them up and tied them up.
Li Qiuyue wiped the raindrops and said, "Damn it, God! When it doesn't rain, there's not a drop of rain for months. When it rains, it's a torrential rain. It's really drought-stricken when it's dry, and flood-stricken when it's flooded. Chunyan, why can't we have a balanced rainfall here?"
In Yang Chunyan's memory, there were very few times of good weather and good harvests. Even thirty or forty years later, she still watched the crops die during droughts.
"I remember the team meeting asked everyone to dig reservoirs. I think we can dig a few reservoirs under the ridge after the busy work is over, so that we can cope with the drought."
"That thing is not very useful. My mother's family has already dug it out. When there is a drought, the water in the pond will dry up in no time."
"It's not a pond, it's like a manure pit at home, with cement inside and stone slabs on top, with an inlet and an outlet. When the water is full, just pump it out and put it in a bucket."
"That's going to cost a lot of money. Cement seems to cost five or six yuan a bag!"
"It does cost some money, but building a larger reservoir can last for many years. It's better than watching the corn and potatoes die in a drought!"
"That's true. If you work yourself to death and don't have anything to eat, you'll be hungry."
The two walked on the edge of the field. The mud was swollen by water, and every time they stepped on it, it was covered with yellow mud. The mud on their shoes was thicker than the soles, heavy, and slippery when they walked.
Li Qiuyue used a hoe to scrape the mud off the bottom of her boots and sighed, "People in the city still have it easy. There are gravel roads everywhere, and even if it rains hard, your feet won't get dirty."
"It's OK for city dwellers who have jobs, but for those who don't have jobs, even buying scallions and coriander costs money, and life is hard!"
"That's right!"
Just as the two of them cleared the corn and sorghum fields, Zhao Huifang and Zhang Xiuxiang also came carrying hoes.
"Luckily Huairong went to pick up grandpa. The old man fell down, his foot was twisted, and he also got a big bruise on his forehead. He sat on the step and cried!"
Yang Chunyan thought of the old man's death and said worriedly, "Grandpa is old, his legs and feet are not so flexible, and his eyesight is not good. I think it's better to sell the sheep as soon as possible."
Li Qiuyue said angrily: "That's right. Every year during the reunion, Auntie would say that Grandpa was partial. How come she didn't see that most of the dozen or so sheep belonged to him?"
Zhao Huifang said: "My mother told him to sell the sheep. He can live in our house from now on and won't have to move around. The old man also agreed and said he would find a livestock dealer to take the sheep when the weather clears up."
Yang Chunyan: "It's better this way. If we fall, we will all be criticized."
The rain gradually subsided, and the corn leaves, sorghum leaves, sweet potato leaves, etc. were washed clean by the rain, revealing a watery green.
The four sisters-in-law worked for more than an hour before they cleared the ditches on the mountain.
Zhang Xiuxiang looked at the sky and said, "It looks like it won't rain tonight. Let's get up early tomorrow to pick mushrooms."
Li Qiuyue nodded repeatedly, "Let's go check on the chicken mushrooms in the mountain nest first, to prevent others from picking up the nest."
Zhao Huifang turned her head and looked at Yang Chunyan, "Chunyan, do you still need to dig herbs tomorrow?"
"Bring your tools with you, and take home any good ones you find."
(End of this chapter)
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