Chapter 152 151: This is luck
Father Zhou thought for a moment and said, "Logically, the money should be given to the youngest couple. But if such a large sum of money is not divided among them, the brothers will definitely feel uncomfortable.
Now that the youngest is willing to share, we will do as he says, and after the family is divided, we will give them a little more subsidy."
Mother Zhou frowned, "We can't always let the one who is generous suffer the loss, right? Besides, all the money in the family was found by Chunyan. How can we two old people get the money to subsidize them?"
Father Zhou stroked the pipe in his hand, "Didn't the youngest son take on a vegetable delivery business? After the family was divided at the end of the year, they were busy digging herbs to sell, so they didn't have time to grow vegetables and raise chickens. We will help them grow vegetables when the time comes."
"We are all made of flesh and blood. If we, as elders, don't treat our family equally, the brothers will get along worse than outsiders."
"That's a solution!" Zhou's mother glanced at him. "The eldest and the third are both easy-going. I'm just afraid that Qiuyue and the second will complain behind my back."
Father Zhou sneered, "What nonsense! They haven't taken advantage of enough!"
Zhou's mother pulled him back and said, "Keep your voice down. You'll scare the child."
Father Zhou looked at his granddaughter who was sleeping soundly on the small bed next to him and lowered his voice, "This is originally the money of the youngest couple. If they are still not satisfied after giving them several percent, then they don't have to share a single cent."
"When the youngest gets the money back, I will explain this to the others. The youngest's family has suffered a loss, and we, as parents and old men, have no ability, so we can only help them while we can. If they don't want to, there's no need to divide the money, and whoever deserves it will get it."
After hearing this, Zhou's mother thought about it and still felt that it was inappropriate. "You make it sound simple, but why don't you think about it, it's more than a thousand yuan. No matter who sees it, they will be jealous. Wait until I think it over before you say anything."
"Okay!" Father Zhou sighed, put down his pipe and lay down. "I have to go to the rice fields tomorrow morning. After a few more days, we will start the kiln to make bricks."
"Yes, I'm afraid I'll be busy until the New Year before I can relax."
After Zhou's mother fell down, her mind kept turning, wondering how to best divide the matter.
****
The next day, just after daybreak, several families of the Zhou family got up.
It rained heavily again in the middle of the night, and the yard was wet and felt cold.
Yang Chunyan and Zhao Huifang wore boots, took flashlights, and carried baskets to the back of the house.
The ground was covered with white magnolia petals. A breeze blew by, and a refreshing fragrance wafted towards us.
At the edge of the taro field behind the house, a row of pumpkin seeds were planted along the ridge of the field. The grown pumpkin vines climbed everywhere along the ridge of the field behind the house.
Following the vines, there were several tender pumpkins on each vine. Two people picked pumpkins as big as rice bowls. Such big pumpkins weighed no more than 80 or 90 grams each, and tasted the best.
"Chunyan, the pumpkins we grow at home are as big as basins. Steam them and add them to cornmeal buns. They are sweet and delicious."
“The pumpkin buns taste really good!”
"If you steam it with white flour, it will definitely taste better."
"Keep working hard. Next year, if someone on the team harvests wheat, we can buy it and grind it into flour for ourselves."
"Hmm!" Zhao Huifang looked back, "Three or four more will be enough. I wonder if Xiuxiang and Qiuyue have finished picking the vegetables?"
"Let's go and take a look."
The two of them carried the basket down the ridge. In the vegetable patch below the ridge, Li Qiuyue and Zhang Xiuxiang were pulling lettuce... fennel, chives, and coriander.
Yang Chunyan and Zhao Huifang put down their vegetable baskets and went down to the fields to help pick the onions and coriander and put them into backpacks. They carried them home, picked out the old leaves, washed them, and put them into bamboo baskets. They waited for Zhou Huaian and his brother to finish their meal before setting off.
Yang Chunyan recalled that in her previous life, most of the villagers had built greenhouses to grow vegetables such as tomatoes, cowpeas, green peppers, and eggplants for export.
She couldn't manage so many fields by herself, so she rented them out. She only kept two acres of land to grow some herbs. She usually went into the mountains to dig herbs and sell them. She lived a stable life.
Zhou Huaian came out of the kitchen with the old man, holding a straw hat and carrying a kettle. "Yan'er, we are leaving. When you have time, go into the mountains with your sister-in-law to pick some big figs and bring them to Brother Huang and Doctor Xiao Wang tomorrow morning."
"Okay! Be careful on the road."
Zhou Huaishan pushed the chicken cart, and his mother gave Zhou Huaian the basket of eggs. "Don't put the eggs on the chicken cart, or they will break."
"Got it!"
After watching the three people leave, a few people went back to call the children to get up and eat. Zhou's father and the brother Zhou Huairong also came back carrying hoes.
There was a heavy rain last night and the ditches in the fields were full of water. As soon as it got light, the father and his two sons took their hoes and went to check on the rice fields to dig out the water.
During the rice heading stage, it is important to maintain moisture in the rice fields.
However, if the water is too deep, the soil ventilation will be poor, which will affect the growth of rice, easily causing premature aging of the rice root system, making the stems soft and easy to lodging, affecting the growth and development of young panicles, causing more degeneration of lemmas, and reducing the fruit set rate.
After a while, the rice reaches the heading and flowering stage and becomes more sensitive to water.
When it rains heavily, the water in the rice fields should be drained to reduce the humidity in the fields and allow the soil to ventilate, so as to promote the normal heading, flowering and pollination of rice. Otherwise, poor pollination and fertilization will result in many barren rice grains, stripe rust, browning of ears and other serious diseases.
After breakfast, the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law spread out the herbs to dry. Zhou's mother, Zhao Huifang and Li Qiuyue stayed at home to dig the ground and sow the seeds. Yang Chunyan and Zhang Xiuxiang went out to the mountain with their backpacks.
The sky is blue after the rain. It is a good day to pick mushrooms after the heavy rain. Some people carry baskets on their backs or baskets, and hold bamboo sticks in their hands, and walk towards the forest on the mountain.
"Xiuxiang, I heard that your family has started collecting herbs?" asked a woman about the same age as Zhang Xiuxiang.
"Well! If you dig them up, you can send them over. Sticky grass, plantain... As long as they are picked clean, we will take them."
"Yes, I'll dig it up and clean it up when I see it, and send it to your home." The woman glanced at Yang Chunyan, pulled Zhang Xiuxiang and asked in a low voice, "Do you know about the subsidy quota for your grandfather's family?"
Zhang Xiuxiang nodded, "I know, I know. You know my family's situation. We need to earn money to repair the house, so we dare not spend money recklessly."
"Yeah, one hundred dollars is not a small amount. If it's ten or twenty dollars, I'll pool my money and give it a try."
They met several people one after another, all of whom came to ask about buying herbs. The two men told them the price of the herbs they wanted to buy.
Yang Chunyan and Zhang Xiuxiang did not pick up any fungi on the road, but walked straight towards the big banyan tree.
Coming down the slope and climbing a high ridge, Yang Chunyan saw the white chicken mushrooms below at a glance, "Second sister-in-law, look!"
Zhang Xiuxiang stepped forward and looked down the ridge. "Oh my god, other people can't find it, but we can find a lot of it when we walk here!"
Yang Chunyan said happily: "We have good luck in the mountains today. Who knows, there may be some good things waiting for us ahead!"
"I think you've been particularly lucky since you found that thing."
“What good luck!”
The two men ran down, looked at the buds that looked like white clouds, put down their backpacks, cut some grass to put in the baskets, and started working.
The old steps are to pat the mushroom cap, lift it up with a bamboo stick, knock off the mud stuck on it, and gently put it into the backpack.
The joy in my heart was no different from finding a treasure.
Zhang Xiuxiang's mouth was almost cracked to her ears, "Chunyan, hurry up, or the mushroom cap will open."
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com