Father Zhou came out carrying a dung bucket and saw the two men still laughing and joking. He said, "Youngest, get to work now. It's so hot in the sun, isn't it hot standing on the edge of the field?"
"I've brought the dung bucket, and I'm here to help fetch water." Zhou Huaian put Xiao Jiu'er on the mat, "Be good and play with your sister, your old man is going to fetch water."
"Go, Jiuer, go!" Little Jiuer turned over, got up and chased after him.
Zhou Xiaolin hurriedly pulled him and pointed at the thorny fruit tree behind the house, "Jiu'er, be good. Sister will go to the vegetable garden to pick thorny fruit and flowers for you."
"Sister, Guoguo!" Xiao Jiuer pointed at the banana tree behind the house and pulled her to the back of the house. He knew that the fruit on the tree was delicious, soft and sweet.
Zhou Xiaolin took a look and saw that the two bunches of bananas on the banana tree were green. "I can't eat them. They don't taste good."
"Let's go, let's go!" Little Jiuer didn't care about all that. He only knew that the last time his grandma brought him here, there was food.
"Wow..." Xiaolong burst into tears when he saw the two were about to leave.
This really stumped the little adult Zhou Xiaolin, so she turned around and shouted to the old man, "Grandpa, Jiuer wants to eat bananas."
Seeing this, the old man put down his dung scoop and came over, picked up the little fellow who was crawling up the ridge of the field, and said, "I'll cut it for you later, and take it back for your grandmother to cook it and eat."
"Guoguo, Guoguo!" Xiao Jiuer twisted his body and tried to walk towards the banana tree.
"Grandpa, give me some candy!" The old man felt his trouser pocket and found that he didn't bring any candy. Xiaolong over there climbed out of the mat crying again, and Zhou Xiaolin couldn't hold him back.
"Just sit still and I'll go pick some purslane fruit for you." The old man put Xiao Jiuer down and strode towards the purslane fruit tree.
The two little guys didn’t care about anything else. They sat on the mat with their eyes closed and howled “Wa…Wa…” each one louder than the other.
Zhou Xiaolin had no choice but to go to the sweet potato field and pick a few peony vines. "Don't cry, sister will make earrings for you. They are very beautiful."
By the time the old man found some ripe fruits on the jujube tree behind the house, the two little ones had stopped crying. Xiao Jiuer had long peony earrings hanging on her ears, and Xiaolong was chewing on a peony vine.
The old man gave the fruit to Zhou Xiaolin, asked her to take good care of her brother, and went to continue watering the fields.
When Zhou Huaian and his father were halfway there, they met Zhou Huaishan, who was carrying water. "I saw that the water in the ditch was scooped out in the morning, but it couldn't be scooped out in the afternoon."
After hearing this, Zhou's father frowned and looked at the sky. "It looks like it won't rain yet. This year's corn harvest is gone."
Zhou Huaian comforted him, "It's okay. There's a reservoir over there in the medicinal field. Let's open it and water the land behind the house."
"It's the only way." Father Zhou thought about it and said thankfully, "Fortunately, our family now has other ways to make money. If it were the same as the year when we were first allocated households, and we encountered such drought weather, your mother and I would be so worried that we couldn't sleep."
Zhou Huaian nodded and said, "Old man, when there are more seeds in the medicinal field, why don't we plant herbs here as well? We can use the money from the sales to buy grain and pay the public tax."
Father Zhou turned his head and looked at him, "What kind of herbs do you want to grow?"
Zhou Huaian, who was prepared to be scolded, did not hear the expected scolding. He looked at him in surprise and said, "Growing mugwort. Wang Zhen told me a few days ago that the mugwort with stems six or seven days before and after the Dragon Boat Festival is 5 cents per pound.
We planted mugwort all over the mountain. The ones harvested six or seven days before and after the Dragon Boat Festival were sold at 5 cents a pound after being dried in the shade. We could harvest two more seasons in the second half of the year. The wet ones were 3 or 4 cents a pound, and the dried ones were 15 cents.
If you think it’s not worth it, you can hang the mugwort in the old house and keep it for two or three years. The price of real three-year-old mugwort is not low! "
Father Zhou was a little excited after hearing this, "How much is one pound of three-year-old mugwort?"
Zhou Huaian did ask, "Wang Zhen said that three-year-old mugwort can be sold for about a dollar per pound. Also, when you grow corn and potatoes, you have to dig the ground every year.
There are no such problems when growing mugwort, and the harvest is better every year. With more than 20 mu of land, the harvest during the Dragon Boat Festival is more profitable than growing corn and potatoes."
After listening to his calculations, Zhou's father felt that it was indeed much more profitable than growing crops. "Okay, I'll listen to you. After we harvest the corn this season, we will go up the mountain to dig mugwort and plant it.
In addition to the mugwort harvested during the Dragon Boat Festival, all the mugwort harvested in the second half of the year is cut and hung in the old house to dry in the shade. If all seven or eight houses are hung with mugwort, they can be sold for quite a bit of money, right?"
Zhou Huaian said with a smile: "Old man, the wormwood we cut from more than 20 mu of land cannot be dried in the old house. We have to build a shed to dry it in the shade."
"That's easy. You can build a shed in the yard and the vegetable garden. Go buy some cement and harden the ground. After the wheat is harvested, your eldest and second brothers and I will climb up and repair the roof. It can be used for a few more years."
The more Zhou's father talked, the more he thought growing mugwort was a good idea. "It's settled. I'll tell your grandfather and your mother when we get back for dinner."
After hearing this, Zhou Huaian hurriedly said, "Let me make it clear first. If my mom scolds me, don't let me take the blame!"
Father Zhou turned around and asked, "Aren't you afraid that your grandfather will scold you?"
Zhou Huaian rolled his eyes. "My grandfather can listen to reason, but you two are stubborn. No matter if it's right or wrong, you always scold me and don't give me any face at all."
"Who told you to be so disobedient before? People come to our house to complain every few days." Father Zhou glared at him and said, "You went to the youth camp with Yiding and threw stones into other people's toilets, splashing shit all over their buttocks.
He used bamboo poles to drive the landlubbers raised by the brigade into the ditch, caught leeches and threw them on other girls, dug holes on the edge of the field to make traps, and then lay on the side and watched people fall into the traps.
I cut a triangular hole in your dad's pumpkin and pooped in it. When people took it home and cut it open, the pumpkin started to emit "poisonous gas" and the whole pot of rice was ruined. The stench in the house didn't go away for three days, and your dad almost moved the kitchen from the north corner house to the south. "
Zhou's father was still furious when he thought about the things he did when he was a child.
It might be that the older children were too sensible and obedient, and the youngest was too naughty. Ever since he started running around the village, people started coming to their house to complain. The two always thought that this kid was here to collect debts.
"Then why don't you tell me, that time when you and my mom took turns playing doubles, you almost beat my butt into pieces, and I couldn't touch the bench for several days." Zhou Huaian thought of the time when he had stir-fried bamboo shoots with pork, and felt that his butt still hurts a little, but it really made him feel better.
His grandmother told me that Zhou Dachun’s family replaced all their pumpkins with potatoes that year. They didn’t even dare to eat sweet potatoes. The main reason was that the colors of the two were too similar. When they saw sweet potatoes, they would think of the old golden pumpkin.
Father Zhou suppressed his laughter and glared at him, "You are ruining the food, how can you not get a beating? A big pumpkin can feed a whole family, and with some dried sweet potatoes, you can have a meal, but in the end, a pot of pumpkin rice is soaked in shit.
Your father was so angry that he chopped up the chopping board and used it as firewood. If the iron pot was not so expensive, he would have smashed the pot. The family ate potatoes and taro for a year, and they said they wanted to vomit when they saw pumpkin and sweet potato.
"Why don't you say anything? It's obviously their family that's overdoing it every time, but you still help them. Every time you make my mom cry at home, even my grandma says you're a naive guy who's more afraid of Dad than Mom and her husband."
Zhou Huaian quickly changed the subject. He said that he was too naughty when he was a child and did too many bad things. Sometimes he really deserved to be beaten.
Father Zhou recalled the past and said awkwardly, "When your eldest father was young, he was very kind to me..."
"Forget it!" Zhou Huaian sneered, "My grandma told me that my dad only cares about money and is heartless. You value friendship, but your weakness is that you are easily influenced and have no memory.
You are so foolish that you risk your life for a few nice words from others. You are fooled by my eldest father every time. Third father is smarter than you. He doesn’t care about anything that has nothing to do with him. You can’t fool my eldest father at all..."
"Damn it!" Zhou's father glared angrily, "You kid is getting more and more excited the more you talk!"
"Don't be angry, old man." Zhou Huaian saw that he was really angry, and smiled at him again, "I haven't finished speaking yet. I think you are doing very well now. You have deeply realized that Zhou Dachun's sweet words and deception are just arsenic poison."
"...I don't want to bother with you!" Father Zhou gave him a look, picked up the dung bucket and walked towards the corn field.
"Old man, wait for me. It will be more fun if the two gentlemen come together and go back together!" Zhou Huaian chased after him, shouting.
Zhou's father, who was walking in front, didn't even turn his head. He looked up at the big house and recalled the past. He felt that he was really useless at that time.
Thinking about it, I thought that it might be because I was scared by him beating me when I was a child, so as long as he showed a little good face, I would agree happily, and it gradually became a habit.
The father and son arrived at the corn field one after another, and saw Yang Chunyan, Zhang Xiuxiang, and Li Qiuyue who also came with a dung scoop and a dung bucket.
Zhou Huaian asked worriedly: "Yan'er, why didn't you eat in town? My sister's shop has no business?"
Yang Chunyan put down the dung bucket and picked up her son who was clinging to her trouser leg. "Yes, the business is so busy that we can't handle it. After the shop opened, there was a constant stream of people buying clothes."
"Fang Dongming is also there helping to look after the shop today, so we came back thinking about watering the fields." Li Qiuyue also picked up one and said with a smile while sitting on the edge of the field.
"Fang Dongming!" Zhou Huaian and the others looked at them in surprise, "My sister agreed to date him?"
Yang Chunyan nodded, "I agree to look around first. Mom is very happy. She said Fang Dongming is not the same kind of person as He Jianjun and will treat Sister Yumei well in the future."
The old man also nodded, “Several acquaintances in Fangtian Brigade also said that Fang Dongming has good character, so it’s good for them to look everywhere.”
Zhou's father said, "Let them look everywhere. As long as the two of them get along well, it's fine."
After everyone talked about it, they all thought it was a good thing and went to work separately.
Yang Chunyan saw that the three children's faces were all sunburned, "Third sister-in-law, the sun is too strong, why don't you take them back?"
"Okay!" Li Qiuyue picked up Xiaolong, who was clamoring for milk, put him on her back, picked up Xiaojiuer, and followed Zhou Xiaolin to take them home.
Zhang Xiuxiang asked Yang Chunyan to stay in the field to water the crops. She picked up the dung bucket and followed him to the ditch to scoop water. They worked until dinner time. They had watered four mu of corn fields. In addition to the sorghum fields, there were still ten mu of fields waiting to be watered. (End of this chapter)
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