Chapter 186 Planting Vegetables
Jiang Cuihua had complained to her once before, that she was worried that Huang Xiaoyue would get pregnant at this critical juncture.
The Liu family’s stored food is running low.
Having a child means one more mouth to feed in the family.
If I were like Liu Ersao, with no milk to feed my child...
That would be even more frustrating.
Gu Cheng thought of something and curled his lips: "If parents don't have enough food, we can send some over."
The wild boars and salted meat they had hunted earlier were exchanged for thousands of kilograms of food, plus the food Liu Yinyin had stored at home...
The three of them could not finish it even in two or three years.
If the two parents are in trouble, it is reasonable to help them, and the family is not without such conditions.
Liu Yinyin's brows relaxed: "Let's see how the situation develops."
It hasn't come to that point yet. Jiang Cuihua will talk to her if there is anything.
There is no need to send food to the Liu family at the moment.
Liu Mingyuan brought a lot of vegetables, including a handful of celery, a handful of water spinach, eggplant, sweet potato leaves, and twelve eggs.
Enough to eat at home for two or three days.
It wasn't actually much, so Liu Yinyin didn't send it to Aunt Zhou's house.
Maybe life in the county town was too boring, after breakfast the next day.
Liu Yinyin still rode her bicycle and took Gu Yanyan to Liujia Village.
She thought about harvesting all the vegetables in the field, tidying it up, and then planting a new crop of vegetables.
When I have time, I will go to the mountains to dig some wild vegetables.
The Liu family also raised a pig for her.
Liu Yinyin can't just sit there and do nothing.
In the countryside, raising pigs is becoming increasingly difficult for villagers.
The last time I went to Liu's house, Liu Yinyin heard Jiang Cuihua muttering that the weather was too dry and they couldn't find any wild vegetables in the mountains.
Not to mention wild vegetables, even the edible tree barks on the nearby hills had been stripped clean.
The villagers knew that this year would be a bad harvest, so they started to stock up on wild vegetables and tree bark, fearing that they would have nothing to eat in the future.
Liu Yinyin had also stockpiled several bags of dried wild vegetables before. After moving to the county town, she sent those bags of dried wild vegetables to the Liu family as food for the pigs.
But the villagers themselves were running out of food, so where would they get extra wild vegetables to feed the pigs?
Jiang Cuihua said that the number of families raising pigs in the village can be counted on five fingers.
After arriving at Liujia Village, Liu Yinyin went to the Liu family first.
She brought a bag of brown sugar, a bag of fermented rice cake, a piece of cloth and ten pounds of cornmeal.
The fermented rice cake and cornmeal are for the Liu Laifu and his wife to eat.
Brown sugar and fabric were bought for Huang Xiaoyue.
The fabric was a defective fabric I bought at a department store a few days ago.
Liu Yinyin told the truth: "The cloth is defective, but it is just dyed a different color. It will not affect the making of clothes."
Huang Xiaoyue didn't expect her sister-in-law to help her buy the fabric so easily. She smiled happily: "It's good enough that there are defective fabrics. How much did it cost? I'll give it to you."
Cloth is hard to buy, and people in the city would not reject such good defective cloth, let alone people in the country, who would be eager to get it.
Liu Yinyin told the number truthfully.
Huang Xiaoyue was stunned: "It's so cheap?"
As country folk, if they wanted to buy a piece of cloth, they had to save money and cloth coupons, which was very tiring.
I didn't expect that defective cloth does not require cloth coupons and the price is so cheap.
Liu Yinyin nodded and said, "I also asked someone I know to buy it for me."
The defective cloth was for internal consumption by department store employees. If it weren't for Aunt Zhou's daughter-in-law Bai Jing, Liu Yinyin would not have been able to buy such cheap cloth.
Huang Xiaoyue gave Liu Yinyin the money and said gratefully, "Yinyin, thank you so much."
Although Liu Yinyin didn't say it explicitly, she knew in her heart that not everyone could buy such a cheap defective cloth.
Liu Yinyin smiled: "You don't have to be so polite, Third Sister-in-law. You always help me a lot."
Last time I gave her about a hundred pounds of sweet potatoes, enough to buy several pieces of cloth.
This was Huang Xiaoyue's first pregnancy. She attached great importance to the baby in her belly and was willing to spend money on him.
Not only him, Huang Laizi was also happy when he heard the news.
Yesterday, Liu Mingyuan went to Shuangxi Village to tell his father-in-law that Huang Xiaoyue was pregnant.
When he returned, he brought back 20 kilograms of flour, 2 kilograms of honey, and 1 kilogram of brown sugar.
He also secretly stuffed a hundred yuan into the bag and asked Liu Mingyuan to give it to his daughter.
It can be seen that Huang Laizi was also very happy when his daughter became pregnant.
When Huang Xiaoyue just got pregnant, Jiang Cuihua didn't let her daughter-in-law go out to work, and told her to stay at home and have a good rest.
Besides, there is not much work to do in the fields now.
After delivering the things, Liu Yinyin said a few words to her and then left.
Everyone else in the family went out to find food, and Jiang Cuihua stayed at home to take care of the children.
Liu Yinyin wants to go to the mountains to dig wild vegetables.
Jiang Cuihua glanced at her and said, "It's so hot today, don't bother going there. There are no wild vegetables for you to dig in the mountains."
It is not easy to go up the mountain to pick wild vegetables nowadays. Not only do you have to climb over several mountains, but there are also few wild vegetables on the mountain. You may not be able to pick up a basket of wild vegetables even if you go out for a whole day.
Some people in the village are unwilling to go out to pick wild vegetables. How tiring is it to go up and down the mountain? With so much physical exertion, it is natural that you will get hungry quickly.
The wild vegetables I collected after working so hard all day are not enough to replenish my energy. I might as well stay at home and sleep.
Of course, not many people have this idea. Most villagers are hardworking and will not live off their savings.
Liu Yinyin glanced at the sky. The sun was scorching hot at the moment and it was indeed not suitable to go out.
It seems that I won’t be able to dig up any wild vegetables today.
Liu Yinyin said, "...I'll go home later to tidy up the vegetable garden."
Jiang Cuihua nodded and sighed, "Yinyin, there is something I need to tell you."
Liu Yinyin was stunned for a moment: "Mom, if you have anything to say, just tell me directly."
Jiang Cuihua said worriedly, "This weather is really weird. The water in the river is almost dry, and I don't know how long the water in the well can last. Last evening, your father went to the end of the village to fetch water for you to water the fields.
Someone followed your father to fetch water there, and probably because there were so many people fetching water, your father had a conflict with them and almost got into a fight.
Liu Yinyin was shocked when she heard this: "If they want to get water, just let them do it. Why would Dad quarrel with others?"
Jiang Cuihua grumbled, "Some people are fetching water endlessly, and your father couldn't stand it, so he complained to them."
Liu Yinyin was also very distressed. She moved to the county town mainly because of the problem of fetching water.
At this critical juncture, it would be inappropriate to prevent people from fetching water.
Liu Yinyin's place has vegetable fields and sweet potatoes, but now that no one lives there, the door has to be closed.
Otherwise, the things inside will be stolen.
Liu Yinyin considered, "How about I stop growing vegetables?"
After a while, dig up the sweet potatoes. If you don’t plant vegetables, there will be nothing in the field.
But...it's a pity to leave the land empty.
Jiang Cuihua agreed: "I think it's okay. There's not much water in the well now. We can't afford to carry water to water the fields every day."