Chapter 326 Chapter 327: Zhou Huaian’s Sadness (Two Chapters in One)
Zhou Huaian said with a smile: "You have already taken on the work in my house several times, so don't blame me for calling you to work every day!"
"Hehe!" Zhou Huaishan scratched his head and laughed, "Third brother may not be good at other things, but he can still run errands and do chores."
Li Qiuyue looked at Yang Chunyan and the other person awkwardly, "Youngest, Chunyan, don't argue with me about my petty-minded sister-in-law!"
Zhou Huaian rolled his eyes, "If I were your equal, I would have ignored you a long time ago."
Zhao Huifang and the other person smiled at Yang Chunyan and said, "Chunyan, youngest, sister-in-law thanks you."
Yang Chunyan looked at them with a smile, "We are one family, so we should keep our differences."
Mother Zhou and the old man looked at them and smiled with satisfaction.
Over the past six months, it has been thanks to Chunyan that she has brought the youngest brother onto the right path, and thanks to the two of them who are broad-minded and willing to lead the three brothers to make money and get rich together.
Now everyone in the village envies the second branch, saying that other families quarrel over trivial matters.
Not only are the brothers of the second branch as harmonious after marriage as they were before marriage, but even their sisters-in-law are like sisters.
When people get old, there is nothing more gratifying than having their children and grandchildren living in harmony and a prosperous family.
When the old man saw that the four brothers had parted ways amicably, he clapped them all happily and said, "Well, well, well, you are all great." Then he got up and went to the main room to fiddle with his radio.
Zhou Huaian looked at the smiling faces of the people and felt very happy. "Doctor Xiao Wang said that the boss from the provincial capital will cooperate with us again next year. We must be ready to do a big job next year."
Zhou Huaijun looked at him excitedly, "Youngest, what are you going to do next year?"
Zhou Huaian smiled and said, "We plan to spread the word about collecting red mushrooms and let everyone go to pick them and sell them. Then we will just collect and dry them at home.
Another problem is that of drying the mushrooms. Although we rarely have continuous rainy days here, if we encounter one, we will suffer a lot of losses if a batch of mushrooms rot.
I have discussed with Chunyan that we will build a baking room in advance, so we don’t have to worry even if it rains.”
After hearing this, Zhou's mother interrupted and said, "The youngest is right. We need to build a drying room in advance. Otherwise, if it rains, the color of the mushrooms dried in the shade will be worse than those dried in the sun."
Yang Chunyan said: "Now we are collecting from a few relatives, and next year we will buy in large quantities. Our brigade plus the two nearby brigades will have hundreds of households.
I heard that other teams would send mushrooms to us. Just think about it, we will have so many mushrooms by then that our whole family won’t have enough time to collect, clean and dry them in one day.”
Zhao Huifang and the others nodded after hearing this, "Chunyan is right! We'll listen to you and build a baking room for preparation."
Seeing that everyone agreed, Zhou Huaian said, "Now that we have agreed, let's divide the herbal seeds and scatter them in the hills behind the new house tomorrow."
Mother Zhou stood up cheerfully and said, "I'll get you some seeds."
Li Qiuyue looked at Yang Chunyan, "Sowing herb seeds is similar to sowing vegetable seeds, right?"
Yang Chunyan: "Probably. Take your time. Let's accumulate experience first, and it will be easier in the future."
Zhang Xiuxiang: "I think it should be easier than growing vegetables. Look at those plantains growing on the edge of the field. They are trampled on by people but they are still alive and well."
Zhao Huifang: "That's right. We dig the ground and weed every year, but the yellow weeds still grow back on the field."
After hearing this, Yang Chunyan thought that these days, farmers usually just sprinkle some ammonium carbon, phosphate fertilizer, and urea, and only use a small amount. The most used are farmyard manure and wood ash.
I have never even heard of the various pesticides such as paraquat, thiophanate-methyl, methyl parathion, insecticides, rodenticides, nematicides, molluscicides, fungicides and various herbal medicines.
The soil quality now is much better than when Wang Zhen and his colleagues were growing herbs. It should be much easier to grow herbs than back then.
Mother Zhou came out with a basket and said, "No matter what you plant, save some grass ash. Sprinkle the grass ash and mature fertilizer on the ground before sowing, turn the soil over and then sow the seeds. This will ensure that the plants will grow well."
Li Qiuyue took the basket with a smile, "That's right, it's right to listen to mom, you see, no matter what vegetables she grows, they are better than those grown by auntie."
Zhou's mother glared at her and said, "Stop it! You just say nice things. That time was not the case. If you think it's good, you should remember it. If you think it's not good for you, just let it go in one ear and out the other."
Zhou Huaishan nodded, "You are the one who said one thing and meant another. Have you forgotten how you lost the two hundred dollars?"
Li Qiuyue turned around and glared at him, "I've already said that I'll obey you in everything from now on. What's the point of looking up the almanac?"
"I won't turn it over when you really remember it one day." Zhou Huaishan took the beam scale, "Don't you see that grandpa is dozing off? Why don't you take Xiaolin back to sleep?"
Li Qiuyue nodded awkwardly and went into the house to put the child to bed.
Zhao Huifang also yelled at Zhou Jiaming, "You're going to study tomorrow, why don't you go to bed early? Do you want to be beaten again?"
"Oh oh!" Several little ones rushed out and went to fetch water to wash and go to sleep.
Mother Zhou took out the small bag of seeds and put it on the ground. "We found the seeds ourselves, plus the seeds given by the herbal medicine sellers in the village. That's all we have collected in total."
"We collected the most plantain, about four kilograms, three kilograms of Viola yedoensis, and three or four kilograms... In total, we collected seeds of more than a dozen kinds of herbs."
Wang Zhen told Zhou Huaian that the epimedium seeds had to be planted right after they were picked, and then he should scatter them in the forest on the top of the mountain that had not been cut down yet.
Zhou Huaian smiled and said, "Each family will get a share, and we will send it over there to scatter tomorrow. We will distribute the seeds we harvest later."
Zhao Huifang: "You brothers, divide it up. We're going to collect the herbs and red mushrooms we harvested today."
Aunt Zhou San and her family went into the mountains to pick mushrooms today. They stayed in the mountains until dusk and came back with a great harvest.
After a while, the brothers divided the seeds and came back to help.
Yang Chunyan said to Zhou Huaian: "The herbal seeds have been sown. Go check out the Magnolia officinalis seeds in the mountains and dig up the Fragrant Hills to plant."
Zhou Huaian sighed, "Alas! Things have all come together."
Zhou Huairong patted him on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry, there is enough sand for the construction site tomorrow. Big brother said we will take care of your work. Let's plant your herbal seeds first."
Zhou Huaishan also said: "I will go to Ning'an early tomorrow and help when I come back."
Zhou Huaian nodded happily, "I work much slower, I can't match your speed, I'd love for you to help me!"
Mother Zhou went to the room to check on Zhou Xiaoqian who was asleep and came out. "Chunyan, you said you wanted to lend money to Yumei to open a small shop. I thought about it and was worried that Yumei would not be able to hold on and her mother-in-law would take away the money and the shop."
"Mom, Sister Yumei is not as weak as you think..." Yang Chunyan repeated what she said to Zhou Huaian.
Zhang Xiuxiang said after hearing this: "Then we will say that we are in partnership with Yumei. Let's see if she still has the nerve to run the shop."
Yang Chunyan thought for a moment and said, "What my second sister-in-law said is a good idea. Before we lend them money to open a small shop, we should first make it clear in front of the He family. The He family should not be so shameless."
"That's not the case." Mother Zhou thought about it and said, "I think the He family doesn't have much money. While our kiln is running, let your old man make more bricks and tiles. When the time comes, let Huai'an help transport them to the town, and they can just find a bricklayer to build a house."
Zhou Huairong nodded, "Okay, I'll tell the old man tomorrow."
Several people cleaned the red mushrooms and hung them in a winnowing basket before going back to their rooms to rest.
Zhou Huaian said to Yang Chunyan, "If my third brother hadn't given her face, my third sister-in-law would have made our family restless."
"She has a strong personality but not that much ability. Plus, when she was at her mother's house, her brothers and sisters didn't get along well, so they were used to fighting over things. She was afraid that if she didn't fight over things, others would lose out."
"You're right. She can be annoying sometimes, but she's not a bad person at heart."
"Hmm!" Yang Chunyan yawned and pulled the quilt over her. "I'm so sleepy. I won't talk to you anymore."
Zhou Huaian approached her with a playful smile and lay down beside her, his hands groping dishonestly, "Wife, let's talk for a while, we...hiss~it hurts, it hurts..."
Yang Chunyan pinched the soft flesh on his thigh and twisted it, "I told you it won't work in the first three months, go to bed quickly, you have to get up early tomorrow to sow seeds."
Zhou Huaian lay back down and sighed, "Oh, how miserable! Why is my life so miserable..."
Yang Chunyan turned her head and glared at him, "Hurry up and turn off the kerosene lamp and go to sleep, or you can go to sleep in grandpa's room."
"Okay, okay, I'll blow it out and go to sleep." Zhou Huaian resigned himself to his fate, got up, blew out the oil lamp and went to sleep.
…
The next day, Zhou Huaishan went to Ning'an early in the morning. Zhao Huifang and her two sisters-in-law went up the mountain to pick mushrooms in the forest after dinner.
Yang Chunyan got up and waited for the sun to come out. She and Zhou's mother spread the drying mat in the yard and spread the red mushrooms out to dry. The air is dry and the sun is strong in autumn, so they will dry after two or three days of exposure to the sun.
Zhou Huaian pushed the chicken cart to the river dam and brought back two baskets of fine sand. He mixed the seeds that needed sand to grow in the sand and stored them.
Zhou Huairong carried a load of mature manure into the yard from the backyard, "Youngest, let's go see where is the best place to build the oven?"
Zhou Huaian: "I just checked it out. The open space near the wall in my backyard is quite large. It's just right to build a baking room there."
Zhou Huairong thought for a moment and said, "Hmm! Your backyard is great. Let's go over and tell the mason."
"Yes." Zhou Huaian looked at the ripe manure he was carrying, "It will take a long time to carry it one load at a time. I think it's better to use a chicken cart to push it over."
Zhou Huairong nodded, "You push the chicken cart to the backyard, I'll go find some broken sacks to put them in."
Half an hour later, the two brothers pushed the chicken bus to the new house. Zhou Huaian found the bricklayer and told him about building the oven. After the bricklayer looked at the location, he went to do his own thing.
When he arrived at the back mountain, Zhou Huairong and his brother had already started working.
"Youngest, you are responsible for spreading the mature fertilizer."
"Yes." Zhou Huaian picked up the bamboo basket, filled it with cooked fertilizer mixed with wood ash, spread it evenly on the ground, and then raked it with a plow before starting to sow seeds.
The herbs planted this time include Viola yedoensis and Plantain...
Most herbal seeds are very small, smaller than sesame seeds. After the seeds are spread, use a wooden rake to cover the seeds.
When Zhou Huaishan came back from Ning'an, the four brothers worked hard for a whole day to plant all the herbal seeds from the four families.
When Zhou Yiding came down from the mountain, Zhou Huaian gave him the money to buy millet. He felt relieved when he thought that his family had stored more than a thousand kilograms of millet, which solved the problem of food in the future.
In the next half month, Yang Chunyan and her friends went to the mountains to collect Magnolia officinalis seeds whenever they had time. The Magnolia officinalis seeds they picked were stored in fine sand like the stinking peony.
According to the instructions in the book on medicinal herb cultivation, part of the root bags dug up from the coral grass were sent to Deshengtang, and the rest were divided into small plants with root systems according to the stems for planting.
…
In a blink of an eye, it was the eighth day of September. The ninth day was the day to raise the beam. Zhou's mother bought some glutinous rice from the villagers and started to steam the glutinous rice and make glutinous rice cakes.
The glutinous rice that had been soaked overnight was steamed in a rice steamer and then poured into a large stone mortar. Zhou Huaian and Zhou Huaishan held the wooden pestle in their hands and pounded the glutinous rice in the mortar with "Hey yo~ Hey yo~"
The pestle used to pound glutinous rice cake is smooth and shiny, and the sticky glutinous rice will not stick to it after it is lifted up after pounding.
The two of them pounded the glutinous rice cake, while Zhou's mother was responsible for turning the glutinous rice cake in the stone mortar. The three of them, mother and her two children, cooperated with each other.
There are some particular ways to make glutinous rice cake. First you pound it and then you hit it. You need to use all your strength to pound it each time.
When the glutinous rice is pounded into a sticky ball, and becomes fine, smooth, and extremely tough, move it to the chopping board that has been placed aside. Knead it repeatedly, flatten it with a rolling pin, and cut it into small cubes for throwing on the beams when they are put up tomorrow.
Before the pounding was finished, Zhou Huaijun came in a hurry, "Youngest, the yin and yang master and the well digger are here, go and tell them how to dig the well that your sister-in-law mentioned?"
Zhou Huaishan asked hurriedly: "Youngest, have you bought the water pipes?"
Zhou Huaian nodded, "Brother Huang said he bought it, we can just go and get it back any day we want." He looked at Yang Chunyan, "Yan'er, are you going?"
Yang Chunyan shook her head, "Just tell the master what I told you."
"Yeah!" Zhou Huaian washed his face, hurried to the new house, and took the Yin-Yang master and the well-drilling master up the mountain to find water veins.
The three of them first found the water vein of Zhou Huairong's house, and finally arrived at his house.
The gentleman and the well digger looked at several places and finally decided on the location that Yang Chunyan pointed out to him.
Zhou Huaian told the two of them about Yang Chunyan's idea of digging a well and then burying pipes to bring water home.
After listening to the questions carefully, the well digger stood on the mountain and looked at the houses at the foot of the mountain. He walked back and forth twice and nodded repeatedly in approval.
It was decided that the work would start the day after tomorrow, and then the Yin-Yang master and the master left.
Zhou Huaian sent the two to the stairs and returned to the mountain. Looking at the busy people at the foot of the mountain, he felt mixed emotions.
Yan'er's dream was too real. Could it be that what she experienced was not a dream, but their past life?
If it's true, how did she survive such a hard life alone?
A person lives all alone in the mountains, with no one to talk to. A person goes up the mountain to collect herbs all alone. If the herbs are too heavy, there is no one to help carry them home. How scared he would be when he encounters wild animals!
When I was seriously ill, I could only lie there and wait for Xiaoqian and the others to come...
The more Zhou Huaian thought about it, the sadder he became. His heart was torn apart... He squatted on the ground, buried his head in his hands, and choked...
After a long while, he took a deep breath, stood up, put his hands on his face and rubbed them hard a few times, then walked towards him quickly.
(End of this chapter)
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