When women get together, they will never lack topics to talk about. They chat about all kinds of rural news and family matters. Before they know it, it is almost noon and the girls and wives are saying goodbye one after another. Meng Tao and Dong Mei warmly invite them to have lunch. Everyone shakes their heads and says with a smile that they have to go home to feed the pigs and take care of the chickens and ducks, and cook for the people who are working in the production team and come back to eat. Meng Tao is still living there anyway, so when she has free time, they come over to talk and invite her to their home to play.

Meng Tao stuffed all the remaining sugar biscuits on the table into the children's hands and sent everyone out. Finally, she left Ge Xiangqin and Liang Qiuyue a few steps behind and gave each of them a cloth bag containing some candies, two cans of malted milk and milk powder, and a new set of clothes for each child.

These were gifts that had been prepared long ago, and there was a give-and-take relationship. When Meng Tao and Shen Yu held their wedding in Beijing and gave birth to little Yunhai, they both asked the Jinniu couple to send gifts and items.

Ge Xiangqin and Liang Qiuyue did not refuse. They thanked him with a smile, accepted the gift, and took the children home.

After lunch, Zhou Cuiling and Aunt Yang took the children home to rest, Xu Zhen took Xiao Yunhai to take a nap, Dongmei and Aunt Yu stayed at home, and Team Leader Bao and Jinniu took Meng Zhehan, Zhang Guoqing, Shen Yu and Meng Tao to visit the production team's "planting and breeding base".

This "breeding and planting base" relies on the "improved crop seeds collected from overseas" that Meng Tao sends back one after another.

When it comes to "breeding and planting base", Captain Bao becomes full of ambition, and when he looks into the future, he looks as if he is in charge of the whole country.

Jinniu's eyes lit up, and he didn't speak in a halting manner as usual. He popularized knowledge about planting and breeding, and then introduced that the village had achieved very good results last year with the care and support of the commune and county leaders, and with the help of Brother Liu Jianxin. The year-end dividends were distributed, and the whole village tasted the sweetness. The members also accumulated experience and will continue to work hard to gradually expand and build new agricultural production bases, and strive to become a model for the whole county, the whole region, and even the whole province! Jinniu was full of confidence, and he spoke eloquently, spouting some professional terms that Meng Tao couldn't understand. It is estimated that agricultural science cadres are almost like this when giving reports.

Meng Tao, Shen Yu and Meng Zhehan looked at each other and smiled. They thought, "A man should be looked at with new eyes after three days of absence. Brother Jinniu is now completely different from before. They were very happy for him and hoped that he would achieve greater and better results."

In the evening, they set up tables in the yard for dinner. There were four tables full of men, all sitting squeezed together. Meng Tao and Xu Zhen, Dongmei and Aunt Yu, Zhou Cuiling and Aunt Yang, as well as Qian Xiaoyun, Jiang Limei and He Huijuan, sat at a table in the house with their children.

He Huijuan and Jiang Xiaodong rushed back from the commune middle school after school in the afternoon, and Zhou Cuiling's father went with them.

Lin Dagang, Lin Erhu and two young men from the village slaughtered the two goats that Jinniu had bought and raised in the backyard. Lin Dagang and his brother also brought chickens, ducks and bacon. The Bao family, the Zhou family, the educated youth and other neighbors all brought chickens, ducks, fish, meat, rice and noodles. The meal was quite sumptuous.

The beer, Erguotou, roast duck, roast chicken and suckling pork that Meng Zhehan and Shen Yumeng brought back from Taocheng were rare items, so everyone came to try them.

At the end of the eating and drinking, many people were drunk, basically all young people, while the older men were fine.

Meng Tao knew what was going on. Older people didn't like beer and only drank white wine, but young people were willing to try it. It was easy to get drunk when drinking beer and white wine together. But it was okay. She stored the food she brought back in the space, and added pine needle dew to the water tank. She used this water to cook the food, and it would repair the body of anyone who ate it.

If I get drunk tonight, I will just take a nap and I guarantee I won’t feel any discomfort when I wake up tomorrow morning.

After the banquet was over and the villagers had been sent off, Jinniu said to Meng Tao, "Tomorrow is Qingming Festival. We don't need to go up the mountain too early. Let's wait until eleven o'clock."

Shen Yu asked beside him: "Is there anything particular about it?"

"No," Jinniu rubbed his hands, looked at Shen Yu and Meng Zhehan, and then looked at Meng Tao: "After you returned to the capital, Grandfather basically came here to stay for two days every month. When Dongmei and I got married, he remembered what we said at the beginning, and stopped the old woman and my father from causing trouble. He didn't invite anyone else, only brought Fourth Uncle and Old Eight to the wedding banquet. He asked about your situation, and I told him, so he knew that you had Xiao Yunhai.

This Qingming Festival, he guessed it himself, saying that you must bring the children back to the village to sweep the grave and worship the grandfather, and he will come at that time. I thought that if I didn’t see him today, it might be tomorrow, he will come early. ”

Meng Tao: "Come on, he is his brother after all, how can we stop him from coming?"

"If he arrives early, he'll be here by ten o'clock. Should we wait for him?"

"Well, just as you said, wait until eleven o'clock."

Meng Zhehan said: "In that case, let's drive over to pick them up."

Meng Tao was speechless. Knowing that they also wanted to go out of the village for a stroll, she said, "Just look at the roadside or the intersection. Don't go into the village. Be careful not to run into the old witch. You won't be able to handle her if she gets mad."

"Is it that scary?"

"It's amazing. If you don't believe me, you can go and try it. I've experienced it myself, not to mention Taurus."

Taurus smiled bitterly: "Yes, I am not afraid of her now, but I still don't dare to confront her face to face."

Bao Dongmei finished sweeping the floor and came over to hear it. She asked, "What are you talking about? You don't dare to confront anyone?"

Jinniu: "She's talking about the great grandmother of Daliao Village. The great grandfather is coming tomorrow, and I'm afraid the great grandmother will come along to cause trouble."

Bao Dongmei chuckled: "The old witch dares to come? Don't worry, I have a way to deal with her!"

"Don't worry, she may not come, and if she does, there's no need for you to go up. You're not alone now, so be careful."

"How can I not go? Wait until she brings Geng Caiyue to disgust me again? Don't worry, even if there are two or three of us, we can handle that old woman!"

Jinniu: "..." Can you not mention Geng Caiyue? He is also disgusting, okay? Meng Tao smiled: Sure enough, the old saying is right, brine and tofu, one thing conquers another, Jinniu has such a superb grandmother, so he has to marry a fierce wife.

Meng Tao also talked to the educated youth privately, using "inside information" as an excuse to ask them to study harder in the near future, as the college entrance examination would really be resumed soon.

The educated youth said they had been reviewing their lessons and were always ready.

Dongmei had already bought incense and candles under Aunt Yu's instructions. Jinniu killed a chicken, and Xu Zhen helped Meng Tao to steam a pot of white flour buns and prepare offerings.

Meng Zhehan and Shen Yu carried little Yunhai and little Wangcai and drove out of the village towards Daliushou. On the way, they actually found Meng Changshou. Following behind them were a big and a small boy, each carrying a cloth bag. They were the old man's fourth son Meng Laibao and the eighth son Meng Jinshan.

The three of them were hurrying along when suddenly a car stopped in front of them and the door opened automatically, startling them. They looked up and saw Meng Zhehan and Shen Yu inside. Meng Laoba jumped up with joy and shouted, "Brother Shen Yu! Brother Zhehan!"

Meng Changshou was so happy that he couldn't stop smiling. As he got into the car, he greeted, "My grandson-in-law and nephew, when did you get here? Where's Taohua?"

Seeing the little Yunhai in Meng Zhehan's arms, he said excitedly: "Is this the baby born to us? His name is Meng Yunhai?"

Meng Zhehan was amused and wanted to see Shen Yu's reaction.

Shen Yu looked indifferent.

Meng Laibao sat down and quickly reminded, "Dad, our eldest grandson is called Shen Yunhai."

"Oh, Shen Yunhai...this is also our good grandson, our beloved grandson!"

Taking the car back to the village saved at least an hour. Then they waited for Meng Changshou to do something in the main hall. At half past nine, the group went out to the mountain to sweep the graves.

It was a season of sunny weather and growth, with fields and forests everywhere green and tender. Even though the annual tomb-sweeping ceremony was held, Meng Shengli's grave was still covered with a layer of weeds. Many people came, and everyone was busy mowing, pulling weeds, and cultivating the soil. Meng Changshou asked Jinniu to burn the first stick of incense, Meng Laibao the second, Meng Tao and Meng Jinshan placed offerings, and he went to the tombstone and chanted something, then waved for Shen Yu to burn incense, and asked Meng Zhehan to carry little Yunhai over and teach him to bow. Then everyone burned incense freely...

Seeing that the old man was talking nonsense, Meng Tao just let him do what he wanted. After all, such "superstitious activities" were not taken seriously now, but would become more and more serious in a year or two.

After the tomb sweeping, Jinniu and Jiang Xiaodong put out the burnt incense and other fire sources with water to prevent them from spreading and igniting the forest. That would be a big deal. Burning the forest and destroying the forest would cause Guo Jia property losses, and he would not only have to pay compensation but also go to jail.

It was past noon and the sun was already very hot. Everyone walked down the mountain along the path. Xiao Wangcai rarely came out to play, so he had fun in the forest and grass. He even caught an unknown colorful bird, brought it back and gave it to Xiao Yunhai to play with. Meng Tao saw that the bird was trembling with fear, but fortunately it was unharmed, so she let it fly and warned Xiao Wangcai not to pounce on others again.

When they got home, Bao Dongmei, Aunt Yu, Aunt Yang and others had already prepared the meal. Everyone was hungry, so they sat down to eat.

After dinner, everyone went about their business or rested. Meng Laibao pulled Jinniu out of the yard and stood by the door to talk. Meng Tao was cleaning the table in the yard, listening carefully to what they said.

It turned out that Meng Laibao asked Jinniu to talk to his father-in-law, Captain Bao, to secretly give him some improved economic crops cultivated in Linshui Village so that he could take them back to Daliushuang to plant.

Jinniu refused without further explanation: the higher authorities have designated Linshui Village as an important pilot village, and will provide full support in terms of technology, agricultural machinery, fertilizers, and loans needed for future expansion of the base. Correspondingly, all the cash crops currently produced by the production team will naturally be directly purchased by the higher authorities.

It is still the early stage of trial planting, and the harvest is not much. Scarcity makes things valuable. The leaders above have also instructed us not to distribute these crop seeds without authorization, even to relatives.

When the time is ripe, the agricultural science station will promote it uniformly.

Since it concerns the interests of the village and their own families, the people of Linshui Village of course obeyed and no one sent seeds to relatives from other villages. However, some people were vain and could not help boasting to their relatives and friends about the considerable harvest from the fields in the village. Word of this spread like wildfire, and almost all the nearby communes knew about it.

So when Meng Laibao made this request to Jinniu today, he probably thought that Jinniu could easily do it, after all, his father-in-law was the team leader.

Meng Laibao said anxiously, "Sanwa, uncle has never treated you badly before, has he? Your eighth brother has always thought of you. Now that the family has been divided, I don't have anything I want. I am short of everything. I understand that you have just started a family, so I won't ask you for money. If you just give me a little bit of the seeds, I will plant them in my backyard plot, and I can use the money from selling them to pay for the eighth brother's tuition and buy some paper and pens."

Taurus: "No, uncle, please don't embarrass me."

"What's the problem? It's just a matter of talking to your father-in-law!"

"No means no, you guys should go back quickly and don't walk at night so late."

“…”

Meng Tao gave Taurus a thumbs up in her heart. This means she has grown up. She knows how to say no and no longer gives her all for a little bit of warmth and kindness.

Captain Bao heard from Shen Yu and Meng Zhehan that they were going back tomorrow and Meng Tao would be leaving with them, so he came over to talk to Meng Tao.

(End of this chapter)