Zhou Yumei said to Zhou's mother, "She was deeply hurt by Luo Dayou and the Yan family. She has given up on men. She can only take her time. If she meets a kind-hearted person, will she be willing?"
Mother Zhou looked at Luo Haili, who was smiling and holding little Jiuer, and sighed, "When your cousin is chatting, you should persuade her that beasts like Luo Dayou and Yan Yongxin are still a minority, and there are still many good people."
"I understand. I'll persuade her." Zhou Yumei felt that persuasion might not be useful in this kind of situation. She had to figure it out herself. She didn't want her mother to worry about it, so she had to agree.
The whole family sent them to the gate of the yard and watched them leave before returning to the yard.
When Zhou Huaian saw them off, he brought up the holiday gift for Lao Xiazi and also caught a black fish to take with him.
A few people walked to Zhou Yiding's house, and Zhou Huaian asked him to help send Zhou Yumei and others across the bridge, all the way to the Fangtian fork in the road, and then the two of them returned to the village and went to Lao Xiazi's house.
Walking outside the fence, they saw that the lights in the main room were still on. Zhou Huaian pushed open the fence door and the two of them entered the yard. "Uncle Xia, are you asleep?"
Old Shrimp came out of the main room, saw the two of them and said cheerfully, "It's so late, why are you two here?"
"I'll bring you some food." Zhou Huaian and the other man put down the basket. "We went to the river to fish today. My Chunyan said that black fish is good to eat, so I'll bring you one."
Old Shrimp looked at the lard and meat in the basket, feeling mixed emotions. "I was happy when you came to see me, why did you buy these things again..."
Zhou Yiding said with a smile: "Uncle Xia, stop talking like that. What you taught us is much more valuable than this."
The old shrimp rubbed his hands and said, "I just gave you a few words of advice. It's not worth it..."
"Oh, Uncle Xia, you are such a fool. You are just like those old women, so shy and unwilling to speak your mind!" Zhou Huaian said as he picked up the black fish. "It's still alive. Put some water in a basin to feed it and eat it tomorrow."
"Yes, yes, I won't say any more!" Old Shrimp took the black fish with a smile and put it in the bucket of water collected from the eaves. He came back and called the two to sit in the main room and poured another glass of water. "It's raining, mushrooms will come out, your family will be busy again!"
Zhou Huaian nodded, "It's time to harvest the mushrooms, but this year's seedlings haven't been planted yet. Things have all come together."
Lao Xiazi patted the two men on the shoulders and said, "Work hard and make a good living while the policies are good these years."
"Yes!" Zhou Huaian said, "I have something else I need your help with. The mushrooms will be delivered tomorrow, and my grandfather can't handle it all by himself watching the stove.
We would like to ask you to help us for a few months. You will have to take turns with my old man to guard the stove at night. The wage is two dollars a day, and three meals will be provided. What do you think?
Old Shrimp rubbed his face, looked up at him, and answered readily: "Youngest, uncle knows you want to help me, so I won't be polite like an old woman. I will go to work tomorrow afternoon."
Zhou Huaian nodded with a smile, "That's right, we are a hunter family, we should do things in a straightforward manner."
The old shrimp smiled and waved his hands, "People like us who have changed careers halfway through our careers cannot be considered hunters. The real hunters are much better than us."
Zhou Yiding looked at him curiously, "Uncle Xia, you also lived a hard life when you were in the army. Does the government provide you with any subsidies now?"
Lao Xiazi shook his head and said, "After the Xiao Zi was driven away, the civil war started. After the unit I was in was defeated, many soldiers didn't want to fight against each other, so they took the severance pay and returned home.
When I came back, I realized that my mother and husband were both gone... Now Secretary Xu and the people in Datian are very nice. They have distributed land to each household and gave me two acres of private land. I don’t have to pay public grain, and with your help, life is getting better."
Zhou Huaian and the others nodded, "Yeah! It's better now. At least it's not like before when we couldn't even fill our stomachs."
The two of them stayed with Lao Xiazi and talked for a while at his home. Zhou Yiding told Zhou Huaian that he had discussed with Zhou Daqing and Wan Xuejiao and that he would go to Sanchakou to rent a house tomorrow and then take Wan Xuejiao there to collect mushrooms.
Zhou Huaian nodded, "Before you go, go to my house and pull a tractor with bamboo baskets over. If you meet someone selling herbs, take the ones you think are good. For the good ones, it's the same as before. It's better to earn less than taking risks."
Zhou Yiding nodded, "I see. I've been following you for so long, even if I'm as dumb as a pig, I've learned a lot."
Zhou Huaian said with a smile: "There are no stupid people among us brothers."
At this time, someone came over with a flashlight. Zhou Yiding shone the flashlight over and said, "Old Xu, what are you doing so late at night? The water is so high today, why didn't you go to the river to fish?"
After Xu Hongbing squinted his eyes to see clearly, he smiled and said, "I went to my mother-in-law's house. I was supposed to come back after having lunch, but it was raining heavily and I got stuck there. I came back only after the rain stopped."
Zhou Yiding: "No wonder your mother is the only one digging ditches and watering the rice fields."
"Yes, I wanted to hurry back, but I was afraid that my child would catch a cold in the rain, so I had to wait until the rain stopped before returning." Xu Hongbing said, looking at Zhou Huaian, "The market will open tomorrow!"
"Well! The market will open tomorrow!" Zhou Huaian asked again: "You haven't planted the rice seedlings yet, when do you plan to go out and harvest the crops?"
"My mother-in-law said she would bring her two aunts to help plant the rice seedlings tomorrow. My family has more than two mu of rice seedling fields, and five people can finish the work in one day." Xu Hongbing said with a smile, "I still want to team up with Li Wu. We have agreed to go early the day after tomorrow."
Zhou Huaian patted his shoulder and said, "Okay, come to my house tomorrow afternoon. We have added a few more varieties this year. I will go back and set the purchase price here. You guys who have to travel a long way can handle it."
"Really? That's great." Xu Hongbing hesitated for a moment, then leaned close to his ear and whispered, "My second child is here, and it's just right that you've increased the variety. You'll have two babies in the future. I'll work harder this year to earn more."
"That's right, keep up the good work!" Zhou Huaian gave him a thumbs up and whispered, "Congratulations!"
Xu Hongbing cupped his fists towards the two of them, his eyes narrowed into slits as he smiled, and nodded rapidly, "Yeah yeah!"
Zhou Huaian and the others looked at the silly grinning Xu Hongbing and were happy for him. "Now we're back. If you want to eat fish, go to my house and get the fishing net."
"Great! Great!" Xu Hongbing waved happily and walked towards home.
After the three of them went their separate ways, He Dakuan walked out from the corner of the brigade. Looking at Zhou Huaian and Zhou Yiding who were arm in arm, he felt a sour taste in his heart.
Zhou Huaian looked back and saw no one. "Ding Ding Cat, why do I feel like someone is watching us from behind?"
"Why didn't I feel it? You're already an old man, but you're still more timid than a mouse." Zhou Yiding glanced at him sideways, "Do you want your sister-in-law to accompany you when you go to the toilet now?"
"No, just tie the dog outside."
“It’s still the same.”
"You think I like it?" Zhou Huaian sighed, "I was squatting there alone, and my mind started to wander. The more I thought, the more scared I became. There was nothing I could do."
"Forget it. Seeing that you are doing evil, I will send you back and come back later."
Zhou Huaian looked in the direction of his home. The light at the gate was already on. "Just come with me to the outside of my eldest brother's house."
Zhou Yiding nodded, "Now that we have electric lights, the village looks much brighter than before."
"That's right. When our hydroelectric power station is built, we will pave the roads in the village like in the city. We will also plant some electric poles and install street lights in the dark places beside the main road."
Zhou Yiding glared, "Fuck! By then, wouldn't our Funiu Town be more comfortable than Baima Town?"
Zhou Huaian smiled proudly, "Of course, Baima Town will also ask us to buy electricity when the time comes!"
Zhou Yiding thought about it and it was true. "The days ahead will become more and more beautiful! It's like a dream!"
"The best is yet to come!" Zhou Huaian hugged him, "Let's buy a car in the future and go wherever we want."
Zhou Yiding rolled his eyes at him and said, "Later, it's not like your kid can't afford it now."
Zhou Huaian shook his head, "We can afford it, but there's no need to. My grandfather said that there's meat inside a screw, so we have to keep a low profile and make money quietly."
Zhou Yiding felt that this was absolutely right. "My old man also said that when the sky is wild, it will rain, and when people are wild, they will suffer disasters. We have only been free for a few years, so we should be careful."
"Yeah! It was only in the past two years that I discovered that the words passed down by the older generation all make sense. That's why I used to feel annoyed when I heard them say these old sayings."
"It proves that your child is sensible now!" Zhou Yiding stopped and pointed at the gate of Zhou Huairong's house with a smile, "Look, even though we know you are timid, your elder brother has turned on the light."
"Well! Go back and come back to pull the bamboo basket tomorrow."
"Okay!" Zhou Yiding waved his hand and turned back.
When Zhou Huaian got home, he saw everyone was watching TV in the west wing. What was rare was that only his family was there tonight.
When Zhou's father saw him coming back, he said, "The youngest one is back too. Let me make some arrangements for tomorrow. Today we have dug the ridges for three mu of land. You can start planting rice tomorrow, and the eldest and I will dig the ridges for the remaining few mu of land."
After hearing this, Zhou Huaian said, "Old man, we picked a lot of bamboo fungi in the bamboo forest we rented last year. Let Chunyan and the sisters-in-law pick mushrooms and find golden cicada flowers tomorrow morning, and we will go plant the rice seedlings."
Father Zhou nodded and said, "If you hadn't told me, I would have forgotten about this. The mushrooms in the forest cannot be delayed. Let them pick mushrooms and find golden cicada flowers, and we can plant them tomorrow."
Zhou Huaian glanced at the old man watching TV nearby and felt that the two old men in the family had changed a lot in the past two years. In the past, if they dared to pick mushrooms without planting the seedlings first, they would have been hit on the head with a cigarette holder.
"Someone should be bringing mushrooms to sell tomorrow afternoon." He smiled and looked at Zhou Huairong and the others, "There's another good thing. This year they're not only collecting red mushrooms, but also morels, chanterelles, big-foot mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, green mushrooms..."
"Youngest," Zhou Huairong looked at Zhou Huaian in surprise, "Really? Even miscellaneous mushrooms can be sold for money, why don't they sell Acanthopanax?"
Before Zhou Huaian opened his mouth, Zhao Huifang rushed to say, "Before, Chunyan said that red mushrooms could be sold for money, but we didn't believe it. Now it seems that Chunyan is capable, and there is another way." (End of this chapter)
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