Zhou Huaishan returned to the hotel and gave the medicine to Li Qiuxia. He then repeated what Wang Zhen had told her, "Stay here peacefully. If you are hungry, go to the kitchen and cook for yourself."
Li Qiuyue also said: "Little sister, go cook if you are hungry, we will come over tomorrow."
"Third sister, we have remembered. Please drive slowly on your way." Li Qiuxia took the child and sent them out the back door. She returned to the house and closed the door after the two of them walked far away.
She went back to the room, looked at Gao Dalin who had fallen asleep, and gave a biscuit to her second sister, "Just stay here and call mom when your old man wakes up!"
"Hmm!" The second sister took a bite of the cookie and looked at the paper bag, "Mom, brother eats it."
"Okay, let's save some for my brother." Li Qiuxia went out to the kitchen, washed the medicine jar, filled half a jar of water, and poured the medicine into it to soak.
Looking at the tiled stove, I touched it lovingly, then went out to look at the backyard, wondering when I would be able to build a yard like this at home.
She shook her head, went to the utility room to get a bucket, picked up a rag, filled a bucket of water and went to the front desk of the hotel. She started cleaning according to what Li Qiuyue had taught her.
When Zhou Huaishan and his wife returned to Deshengtang, Zhou Huaian and his party had already packed up, and the children happily waved goodbye to Wang Zhen and Yang Dongmei.
"Uncle Wang, Aunt Yang, we are leaving now. Come to my house and play!"
Wang Zhen and the other man also smiled and waved, "Okay, let's play next time!"
Zhou Jiaming and his friends ran towards the four-wheel tractor as soon as they got out of the alley. Zhou Jialiang pulled the door of the driver's seat and climbed up. "Dad, I want to sit on the driver's seat. It's my turn this time."
Zhou Huairong grabbed him by the back of his collar and said, "Go sit in the back. You're such a grown-up, and you still dare to compete with my sister?"
"Why?" Zhou Jialiang looked at him with grievance and dissatisfaction, "I already sat on it this morning. You said it was windy this morning so I should give it to my younger sister, and I did. Now there's no wind, and you still want me to give it to you. Do I have to suffer the consequences as the eldest? Woo..."
"As the eldest, you should give in to your younger siblings! You still have the nerve to cry, you must be itching again!" Zhou Huairong raised his hand in anger. This kid is becoming more and more disobedient. He will have to give him a good beating when he gets home.
"Brother." Zhou Huaian pulled him with a smile, "Jialiang is right, even if you are the boss, you can't always suffer losses!" After saying that, he put his arm around Zhou Jialiang, "Come on, our boss will sit in the driving seat today."
Zhou Xiaowen pulled him obediently, "Brother, I'll let you sit."
Now it was Zhou Jialiang's turn to feel embarrassed. "I don't need you to move aside. It's more spacious for me to sit in the back." After saying that, he broke away from her, reached out and grabbed Zhou Jiaming's hand, and climbed onto the truck bed.
Several adults laughed. "He almost got beaten for sitting in the driver's seat. It's embarrassing to let him sit there."
Zhao Huifang shook her head. "The bigger it gets, the harder it is to manage."
The tractor emitted a puff of black smoke. Yang Chunyan waved to Wang Zhen and the other man standing at the entrance of Desheng Hall, "Go in. We are leaving."
The two waved and turned to walk towards the alley.
As the sun set, Zhou Huaian drove his four-wheeled tractor up the slope. Zhou Huairong, who was driving a tractor, crossed the bridge. Before he went up the slope, he saw Zhou's mother walking towards him from the field road, carrying a bamboo basket full of grass and carrying Xiao Jiuer on her back.
Behind her followed Zhou's father and the old man. Each of the two elders was carrying a load of grass, and each was carrying a child on his back, and also holding a bamboo basket in his hand.
At this time of year, the rapeseed in the fields begins to bloom. If there are too many weeds in the rapeseed fields, they will compete with the rapeseed for nutrients. Whenever you have time, you should clear the weeds in the ridges and around the rapeseed beds to make the rapeseed bloom more and produce more pods.
Zhou Huairong said with some distress: "Huifang, you see, the old people in the family can't sit still at all. Whenever they have some free time, they either go to the medicinal field to weed and catch insects, or come to the field to pull weeds."
Zhao Huifang turned her head and said, "It was really mom and the others. It looked like they came out of the field after hearing the sound of the tractor."
Zhou Huairong stopped the tractor, and Yang Chunyan and her two sisters-in-law who were sitting in the truck bed also jumped off the tractor. "Mom, why are you still pulling grass with your kids? It must be so tiring!"
"This is nothing. I used to carry my child on my back and carry manure to the rice fields." Zhou's mother smiled and put down the bamboo basket. She wiped her sweat. Her hair was covered with tender yellow rapeseed petals. "The grass in the rapeseed field has grown to the height of my calf. It would be a pity if I didn't pull it back."
"Carrying children to work is for those who are young and strong. In a few years, you will become grandfathers. Why do you work so hard?" Zhou Huairong said and went to help his father carry grass.
Zhang Xiuxiang also said: "That's right, we can still talk about it after we get back!"
Zhou's mother said amiably, "It's okay. Don't listen to the boss. We haven't been doing this for long."
"Next time we go to Ning'an, we'll take you with us so you don't have to stay idle."
Yang Chunyan reached out to help her untie the straps. Little Jiuer opened her eyes and saw her biological mother. She pouted her lips and reached out to her. Then she went into her arms and nudged against her chest, "Mom, grandma, mom..."
Zhou's mother smiled and patted his little butt, "They're not hungry. I just fed them milk powder before I came out. I just had this thought."
"We'll eat when we get home." Yang Chunyan hugged him and patted his back gently. "Grandma is taking us to pick grass! Is it fun?"
"Mom, you're bad!" Little Jiuer was unhappy because she didn't get to drink the milk she had been thinking about all day, and she hugged her neck and pushed it back and forth.
"I told you once and you remembered it." Zhou's mother laughed, "At noon, he kept asking to see you and eat your grandma. I told you that your mom was mean and didn't leave grandma for Xiao Jiuer. You see, he remembered it now."
"Mom, bad!" Xiao Jiuer said again. Yang Chunyan smiled and patted his little butt, "Little lazy pig, who told you to sleep in?"
Li Qiuyue came over holding Xiaolong in her arms, "Mom, Xiaolong is covered in mud, even on his hair."
Mother Zhou laughed and said, "I got a mat and put them on the edge of the field. Xiaojiu walked along the edge, pulling the rape leaves and flower buds everywhere, and Xiaolong crawled on the ground, grabbing mud everywhere!"
"Mud is good. It will help the baby grow faster if it gets a little earthy." Zhang Xiuxiang also said with a smile.
Zhou Huairong and Zhao Huifang moved Zhou's father's load and bamboo basket onto the truck bed. Several old people also got on the tractor and went up the hill to the drying dam. Zhou Huaian stopped there and waited.
More than a dozen children got into the truck. Zhou Jiakang boasted to them with his hands dancing about watching TV, eating in restaurants, and eating candies he had never eaten before in Ning'an today, which attracted the children's envious exclamations.
Seeing that they had caught up, Zhou Huaian started the tractor and went back. The children did not get off the tractor either, but followed him to the grove. After the tractor stopped, they got off and walked back playing and fighting.
They looked so happy and excited, as if they had also gone to Ning'an.
After arriving home, Zhou Huairong and Zhou Huaijun were busy pouring out the grass and spreading it out to dry upstairs. Yang Chunyan and her sisters-in-law were busy cooking. Zhou Huaian took Xiao Jiuer, who obviously couldn't walk but was very interested in walking, to see Fu.
"Woof woof woof!" The two dogs lay together. When they saw their owner coming, they looked up and barked a few times, then wagged their tails as a greeting.
Zhou Huaian looked at the wound on Lai Fu's back and saw no signs of redness or swelling. He felt that his dog had a good recovery ability.
"Wang, Wang!" Xiao Jiuer only knew how to call Wangcai. He sat on the ground and moved over to grab the dog's wagging tail. The dog didn't move and let him play with its tail.
Zhou Huaian unbolted the door to the backyard, picked up Xiao Jiuer, and kicked Lai Fu and Wang Cai, "Go, take a walk and come back."
"Woof woof woof, woof!" The dog happily jumped up the stairs. After going up, he turned his head to look at the father and son, then turned around and ran towards the back mountain.
"Youngest brother, the dog ran away. When will he come back?" Father Zhou walked over with a pipe in his mouth.
"Grandpa, grandpa!" Xiao Jiuer turned around and grabbed his pipe.
"It's hot!" Zhou's father hurriedly took down his pipe and put out the leaf tobacco, fearing that he would accidentally catch it and burn his hand.
"They go out for a run and come back." Zhou Huaian said with a smile, "If you want to chase mountain dogs, you have to let them go out for a run. It's not good to keep them locked up for too long."
Father Zhou put his pipe behind his waist and said, "I've heard people say that mountain dogs have to find their own food."
Zhou Huaian laughed and said, "They didn't have anything to eat before, so they had to find food for themselves!"
"That's true." The three generations of grandparents and grandchildren slowly went out of the mountain and walked around the medicinal fields.
Zhou's mother washed her face and saw the old man sitting on a straw stool wrapping leaf tobacco. She thought about going to the kitchen and saw Zhao Huifang cutting vegetables in front of the stove, Yang Chunyan and Li Qiuyue sitting in front of the stove picking vegetable moss, so she pulled a stool and sat over to help.
"Where did the youngest go with Little Nine?"
Yang Chunyan: "He said he wanted to go check on the dogs and let them out for a walk."
"It's good to simmer." Zhou's mother pinched off the burnt yellow leaves of the garlic sprouts. "The rapeseed and wheat in the field are changing every day. The wheat is about the same as last year, but the rapeseed is good this year. Even the stalks are thicker than last year."
Seeing them heading to the old house, Yang Chunyan asked with a smile, "Have you been to see those mango trees?"
Mother Zhou smiled and nodded, "I've seen it, it's growing pretty well. The chuanxiong is also growing well. The cut ling stalks can be used to plant at least two mu of land."
Yang Chunyan: "Next month, we will go to the mountains to dig up the herbs that Huai'an and his friends found and plant them. By next year at the latest, those empty fields will be fully planted."
"Chunyan, we should be able to pick the yellow gardenias we planted last year this year, right?"
As Li Qiuyue was speaking, she suddenly remembered that there were yellow gardenias, mountain incense, chicken shit vines, and stinking peonies everywhere in the mountains. She could ask Qiuxia and the others to dig them up and plant them in the mountains. In any case, it would be better than planting corn and sorghum.
Yang Chunyan: "Yes, I just planted it last year, but it didn't produce much fruit. Yesterday, my younger sister and I went to check it out and saw a lot of branches sprouting out, all lush and green. I have to take time to prune the branches that are too dense."
Li Qiuyue: "Chunyan, can you let my little sister's family dig some yellow gardenias and plant them in the mountains?"
Yang Chunyan smiled and nodded, "Sure! As long as they are willing to grow it, it should be better than growing potatoes and sweet potatoes."
"Your little sister?" Zhou's mother then remembered to ask Li Qiuyue about her return to her parents' home. "You went back to see your sisters. It has been a long time since you have seen them. How are they doing?" (End of this chapter)
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