In the afternoon, Zhou Datian and Secretary Xu went to their respective purchasing points to collect mugwort.
The Zhou Huaian brothers had repaired the old house long ago. They had set up shelves all over the house and built sheds in the brothers' backyards. They could also hang a lot of mugwort in several rooms and on the rooftops. They were just waiting for everyone to bring mugwort to sell.
The next day, Zhou Yiding also went to Pulin Town to collect mugwort. Fang Zhiqiang, Xu Hongbing, Li Wu, and Xu Erchun also drove ox carts to the mountains to collect mugwort in remote brigades.
After Zhou Huaian and Zhou Huaishan had breakfast, they drove the tractor towards Baicaoping and Bailing Mountain. They had made a special trip there a few days ago to inform them that they would cut mugwort and sell it on the second day of May, so they went there to bring back the mugwort today.
After Zhou Dachun's family found out that Zhou Huaian's family was paying eight cents per pound for mugwort, they also wanted to go and cut some and sell it. However, they thought that the two families had completely fallen out, and they were worried that Zhou Huaian's vengeful kid would not accept their own mugwort.
But watching the villagers looking for mugwort all over the mountain, it felt like my money was being robbed, and I felt as uncomfortable as if I was being scratched by a cat.
Seeing him holding a pipe in his mouth and frowning so hard that he could kill a mosquito, Li Yinfu said unhappily, "Can't you ask the old man and the second son for help? All they do is smoke, smoke, smoke all day long. I'll smoke you to death."
When Zhou Dachun heard her cursing him to death, he immediately got angry. "Why didn't you go and tell her? You couldn't find Lao Er's house or something? And you cursed me to death. After I die, do you think anyone would want someone like you?"
Li Yinfu didn't expect that he would get angry so easily. Seeing that he was really angry, he was a little scared. "You old man, are you crazy?"
"Mom~" Chen Limei strode in and said anxiously, "Aunt San's family has almost finished mowing the field behind the house. If we don't go out to mow, all the mugwort seedlings on the mountain will be plucked out."
Mugwort costs 8 cents per pound, and although it is only harvested for seven days, where can you find such a good thing?
They watched helplessly as everyone in the village went to cut and sell the fruits, but these few of them happened to offend the God of Wealth. Only someone with a head stuck in the door could do such a thing.
"Never mind, let's go harvest first." Li Yinfu carried the basket that he had prepared long ago and gave Zhou Dachun, who was squatting there and almost lighting his pipe, an ultimatum, "Go find the old man quickly, and it would be best if you could also say a few good words to the second brother. Do you hear me?"
"Ah~" Zhou Dachun sighed and waved his hand, "Got it, bring Huaixing along as well."
"Limei went to pull him up." Seeing him walking away with his hands behind his back, Li Yinfu went to the woodshed to find a backpack.
Zhou Dachun first went to the back of Zhou Huaian's old house and took a look. He saw the corn in his corn field. The corn cobs were long and strong, and the green beans, mung beans, and cowpeas planted in the field were almost bending the corn stalks.
Walking forward, I saw that the sorghum ears in the sorghum field were heavy. The peanuts, sweet potatoes and cucumbers planted in the field were growing well. The plump cucumbers bent the sorghum stalks.
I remembered that I had intercropped these crops in my own fields. Because of the dry weather this year, all the crops grew sparsely, and most of the corn and sorghum were shriveled. Then I looked at the crops in front of me and couldn't help but say with envy, "Oh, this man has become prosperous, and even the crops are growing so well!"
After hearing this, Grandpa Gao from the field next door poked his head out, looked at him and said with a smile: "Dachun, how are your nephews' crops?"
"Okay!" Zhou Dachun replied with a wry smile, "Didn't Mr. Gao go to cut the mugwort?"
"They all left, leaving me at home to take care of the grandson. The kid wants to eat cucumbers, so I'll pick some." Grandpa Gao came out with a basket full of cucumbers. "His family has a good crop and invested a lot of money to build several reservoirs. We benefited from it this season."
"I heard that it was his youngest son who tinkered with it."
"Yes, boys are disobedient and naughty when they are young, but once they get married, most of them will be more sensible and take care of the family. Go and have a look at the herb field. The harvest this year is very good!"
"It's their fault. Look how good the Dasong kids are to your old man. They pooled their money to buy him a bicycle, took him to the provincial capital to see tigers and lions, and even took him to the big theater to watch plays.
Did your old man show you the photo? In the photo, your old man is dressed like a cadre who went to the countryside. He looks very good!"
Grandpa Gao picked up his little grandson who was digging out an ant nest at the edge of the field with one hand, and kept talking to him in front of him until they reached the ditch beside the grove, then walked down the ditch.
Zhou Dachun felt mixed emotions. He stood there and looked at him for a while, then turned around and saw Zhou Huairong and his wife and three younger brothers and sisters-in-law clearing the ditch. He looked at the old man and Zhou's father working in the medicine field, paused for a moment, and then crossed the ditch.
When he got closer, he saw two people bent over and busy digging furrows in the medicinal field. He took a deep breath, forced a smile on his face and walked forward, "Old man, second brother, are you still busy?"
Father Zhou stood up and glanced at him, then bent down to work again. Seeing this, the old man asked calmly, "What are you doing here?"
The bastard, you can't even see a human hair on your head. When he saw the youngest one collecting mugwort, he came here with a shameless face. He really won't miss any bargain.
"Old man, tell the youngest brother that we were wrong that day and shouldn't have lied to you." Seeing that Zhou Dasong was still concentrating on his work and ignoring him, Zhou Dachun gritted his teeth and said:
"We have collected enough money to buy a tractor, but we are still a little short. We also want to cut mugwort and sell it. Can you talk to the youngest brother and stop treating us as enemies?"
After hearing this, the old man gently kicked Zhou Dasong, who was working hard, and said, "Second brother, your son, you tell the story."
In fact, the old man told Zhou Huaian two days ago that if Zhou Dachun's family sent mugwort, he should accept it, so that he wouldn't have to borrow money from him when he wanted to get the tractor.
Zhou Huaian readily agreed and said: "If you want to sell wormwood for hundreds of yuan at a price of a few cents per pound, how many pounds should you cut? You've been asking for it, so I have to do it! Anyway, if one more household sends wormwood to sell, we can make more money."
The good thing about him as the youngest child in the family is that he does his bad things openly, unlike some people who do things secretly.
Father Zhou thought for a moment, then stood up, looked at Zhou Dachun and said, "Just send it over to sell. We are not enemies, but we are not that close either. From now on, we can just be ordinary neighbors."
The old man was stunned for a moment after hearing this. Before he could speak, Zhou Dachun looked at him with a wronged look and shouted, "Old man, what do you think the second son is saying?"
"Alas!" The old man sighed, thinking of the losses Zhou Dasong had suffered at his hands over the years, and thinking of his own heartless eldest son, he waved his hand at him and said:
"Don't feel wronged. You, as the eldest brother, have not acted like an eldest brother these years. The two brothers get along worse than outsiders. You can't blame them. Come back quickly. We still have work to do."
Zhou Dachun's face, which was already a little dark, suddenly turned dark red, and he turned away angrily.
Father Zhou looked at the old man in surprise. He thought that after saying this today, the old man would give him two cigarettes!
"Hurry up and work, why are you looking at me?" The old man said, waving his hoe and continuing to dig the ridge.
He was worried that the weather had been dry for several months, and when the rainy season came, there would be a high probability of heavy rain. He had to clear the ridges, drainage ditches and gullies in the fields in advance so that the herbs and crops in the fields would not be flooded when the heavy rain came.
"Oh!" Zhou's father suddenly felt that the hoe in his hand was much lighter, and the scorching sun didn't seem so hot anymore.
Yang Chunyan and a few other people dug out the branches, stones and sand that had accumulated in the ditch and piled them on the edge of the field. They finished their work in the morning because the villagers who were going to cut mugwort would come in the afternoon, so they would be busy for the next few days!
The scorching sun shone on her body, and sweat dripped like raindrops. Li Qiuyue wiped her sweat and said, "Sister-in-law, is it really going to rain heavily?"
Zhao Huifang smiled and said, "You forgot. It didn't rain for several months in 1979 or 1978. It started on the Dragon Boat Festival. The water in the Xinhe River rose and submerged the stone bridge. The mud and rocks on the Guanyin side flowed down and almost buried the families at the foot of the mountain."
Zhang Xiuxiang: "It was in 1978. The elders in the village said that the mudslide in Guanyin was caused by a giant python turning into a dragon and escaping from its cave. The water flooded the stone bridge and it was like a dragon entering the sea and passing over the bridge. They all described it with details, as if they had seen it with their own eyes."
Yang Chunyan laughed and said, "Do you think there are dragons in this world? My grandma and grandpa have seen dragons before. They said they saw dragons with their tails swinging in the sky when it rained heavily. When I was a kid, I would stare at the sky whenever it rained heavily, but I never saw one."
Zhao Huifang and the other two all laughed after hearing this, "We want to see it too, but we haven't seen it once before."
Zhou Huairong: "They say there were many monsters before liberation, but after liberation, the world became peaceful and the monsters dared not come out."
They were chatting and laughing, and didn't feel very tired while working. It seemed that not long after, Zhou Xiaolin came with her short legs and called them to eat.
…
After lunch, the midday sun was scorching, and no one went out to work. They took a nap at home. Yang Chunyan and her sisters-in-law carried their loads and went to the old house to fetch a few loads of straw.
When he got to the backyard, he untied all the straw and spread it on the ground. He sprinkled some water on it and piled it aside for later use.
When the weather is dry, the straw is brittle and can be easily broken if a little force is applied when tying the mugwort. Moisten it with water so that it will not cut your hands and will not break easily when tying it.
In the afternoon, before four o'clock, Zhou's mother was doing needlework in the main room with her two children. She heard the dog barking while blocking the door, so she hurried out and saw that many people had already arrived at the gate of the courtyard.
As soon as Mrs. Xu saw her, she shouted, "Guilan, tie up your dog quickly. It's very fierce and it's scary to see."
"They won't bite me when I come out." Before Zhou's mother finished speaking, Lai Fu and Wang Cai retreated to the main room and lay down. She thought about it and decided to put them on dog leashes to prevent everyone from trembling with fear.
Mrs. Xu said enviously, "No wonder your dog can help chase the mountains. It turns out to be so clever."
"The dog from Yiding's family taught me this." Zhou's mother said to everyone, "Come in and sit down. I'll turn on the TV and you guys can watch it. I'll go call Chunyan and the others to come back and weigh you."
"Yes, yes!"
Mrs. Xu came to watch TV every day during this period, and helped to tell other villagers to put down their baskets and carrying baskets. Then Mrs. Zhou turned on the TV, and everyone gathered around to watch. (End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com