Chapter 129: Playing dates, I sit at the table with the children
After sending my parents home, it was already completely dark when I came out.
The meal took more than an hour, and at the end we lit candles. It was already past nine o'clock, and with no moon these days, the stars looked particularly bright.
When they got home, Xiulan was cleaning up the dishes, and Lin Heng came over to help her.
"Give all of this to Xiongba." Xiulan arranged the food and handed it to Lin Heng, which also contained cooked chicken bones and offal.
Lin Heng brought it out and poured it into Xiongba's dog bowl. He looked at it and said, "This is a great meal tonight."
Xiongba said nothing, but ate with big mouthfuls, the bones making crunching sounds, and it was unclear whether he was satisfied or not.
Back in the house, Lin Heng washed Xiaoxia's face and feet, and then read a storybook to coax her to sleep.
When Xiaoxia fell asleep and he went out to take a shower, Xiulan had already finished washing.
"What are you thinking about?"
Lin Heng got on the bed and Xiulan asked.
"I was thinking about passing by Carpenter Liang's house in a few days and asking him to help make a big wooden tub for bathing. I want to take a bath." Lin Heng yawned and said.
Xiulan said softly, "If you want to take a bath, then get one. You don't need this little money now."
"Then let's take a bath together then?" Lin Heng chuckled.
"I knew you had ulterior motives." Xiulan snorted.
Lin Heng squeezed her hand: "Then why are you still lying in my arms?"
Xiulan snorted: "Then who made you marry me? I will lie there for the rest of my life."
…
The two chatted casually, biting their lips and flirting from time to time.
Lin Heng held his wife in his arms. He originally just wanted to eat a few bites of the meat buns, but he got out of control, which made his already exhausted body even worse.
"It's over! I don't even want to go down to the river tomorrow." Lin Heng sighed. Some things are really out of control.
Xiulan nestled in Lin Heng's arms and said softly, "Then let's go the day after tomorrow."
Her body was weak at the moment, and she just wanted to nestle in Lin Heng's arms. There was a faint scent of heather in the air.
"It's all your fault." Lin Heng said deliberately blaming others.
Xiulan rolled her eyes: “Yes, yes, it’s all my fault, it’s all because of me.
I don’t know who started it first, and they’re still begging for others to cooperate.”
"Haha." Lin Heng just remembered that his wife had just reminded him, but he didn't listen and just wanted to come.
"I'm asleep."
Xiulan regained some strength and lay down to rest.
Lin Heng also fell asleep quickly. He slept very soundly and did not wake up until after ten o'clock the next morning.
Lin Heng got up and went out. In the backyard, Xiulan was picking vegetables in the pavilion, and Xiaoxia was lying on the railing watching the fish, scattering some food from time to time.
On the grape trellis, the wild grapes planted previously not only survived, but the new vines had also climbed up the trellis.
Lin Heng suspected that if they had been planted earlier, maybe they would still be able to eat wild grapes now.
In the corner of the wall, the rotten cypress that had been left there without being taken care of has grown green leaves again, and its vitality is so tenacious that it is frightening.
Lin Heng walked over to take a look, then placed the flower pot on the edge of the fish pond.
This natural cypress bonsai fully expresses the concept of life and death.
"The meal is left in the pot for you. Go and eat it yourself. There's tea for you on the table." Xiulan said without raising her head.
"Okay." Lin Heng nodded and went to the kitchen to eat.
My wife made rice in the morning, and the dishes were cold cucumber shreds and stir-fried green beans.
Seeing the tea on the table, Lin Heng felt that his wife was so thoughtful. It was a cup of mulberry and wolfberry tea.
After the meal, he drank tea with mulberries and wolfberries. There was no other way, he had to replenish his body if he was weak.
Xiulan brought Xiaoxia over with her and was very satisfied to see that he had even eaten the mulberries.
"What are mom and dad doing today?" Lin Heng asked curiously.
Xiulan looked at him and said, "Mom and Dad went to help Sandie and the others thresh the rice today, so we have to thresh it too tomorrow.
Third Aunt came over this morning and said that we must go to eat lunch at noon."
"Is that so? Then we have no choice but to go. If we don't go, they will definitely come to call us." Lin Heng nodded. It was nice not to have to cook for himself.
Xiulan nodded, looked at her husband and said, "After you finish eating, let's go pick some dates. Mom said the dates on the beams have turned red, and many birds have been eating them these past two days."
After a pause, she began to doubt again: "Can you still climb trees now?"
Lin Heng immediately raised his head and chest: "Of course, who are you looking down on?"
"Then let's go. I'm just afraid you might fall." Xiulan smiled.
"Okay." Lin Heng went into the house to get a hook and a hatchet.
After taking a look, he picked up the slingshot on the wall.
"Honey, I forgot to ask, is that new kitchen knife easy to use?" he said as he walked out.
"It's very sharp, much better than the previous one." Xiulan responded, took the basket, and walked out with Xiaoxia.
"Hit the dates, hit the dates, I want to eat the dates!!"
Xiaoxia wore the small straw hat that Xiulan had tailor-made for her and waved her hands and cheered.
“Woof woof!!”
Xiongba, who was lying under the eaves, also ran out wagging his tail.
The little golden cat Jinbao turned over, yawned and continued to sleep.
The sun is a little strong today, but it's worth going out just to eat red dates.
As soon as you leave the yard, you can hear the sound of threshing on both sides of the river. The sun is shining and many families are threshing.
"You are also threshing the grain today." Lin Heng said to Li Caifeng who was drying the grain while passing by the Yang family.
Li Caifeng saw Lin Heng smiling and nodding: "Yes, the sun is nice today, what are you doing?"
Now she is no longer competing with Xiulan, so naturally she is not angry anymore.
Ever since the price of Coriolus versicolor increased and Lin Heng became rich, she had completely given up comparing herself with Xiulan and found a woman of similar ability to compete with.
"Let's go pick dates." Lin Heng responded with a smile.
"Oh, I have indeed aged in the past two days." Li Caifeng nodded.
When Lin Heng and the other two walked by, she couldn't help but feel envious.
Lin Heng gave people such a huge shock. Since he came back in May, he has changed a lot.
Lin Heng came to his family's sweet potato field on the east side of the village, about six or seven hundred meters away from the Shiban River. There was a cypress forest here, where his great-grandfather, great-grandmother and grandfather were buried.
To the east of the cypress forest is the sweet potato field. Next to the cypress forest grow two jujube trees as thick as bowls and a persimmon tree with a diameter of more than 30 centimeters.
This year, not only are there abundant dates, but there are also abundant persimmons. Green persimmons as big as children's fists are hanging on the branches.
Lin Heng took a look and found two red ones. He planned to pick them for his wife and children to taste.
"Dad, there is someone on the tree." Xiaoxia said, pointing at the jujube tree.
Lin Heng had also seen it a long time ago, there were three or four children picking dates. However, as the saying goes in the countryside, "There are no railings under fruit trees", if you pick a few and eat them, no one will say anything unless they are beaten up.
"Uncle Lin, let's pick some dates to eat." A child on the tree said with a smile.
"Come down, I'll kill them and you can pick up some to eat."
Lin Heng walked under the tree and said with a smile that the child seemed to be Liu Lan’s second son.
"Okay Uncle Lin, let us help pick it up." The children on the tree quickly climbed down.
"Xiu Lan, take your daughter away. I'm going to climb up the tree and start beating her."
Lin Heng said something, and first climbed up the jujube tree on the left. When he reached the top of the tree, he picked up a stick and started hitting it. The jujubes fell continuously like a rain of jujubes.
“It’s raining, it’s raining!!”
Xiaoxia was jumping and shouting, and if Xiulan hadn't held her back, she would have run down the tree.
Soon, Lin Heng had picked all the dates off the tree. The ground was covered with red dates, and Lin Heng had no place to stand after getting off the tree.
"Let's help pick it up." Several children started picking up the trash first.
Xiulan picked up the fruits with a basket, while Lin Heng climbed down the tree and pulled Xiaoxia with him. She picked one up from the ground and hurriedly stuffed it into her mouth, not caring whether it was dirty or not.
Lin Heng grabbed her, and she was still staring at him blankly with her mouth open.
"What are you looking at? Don't you know how to wipe the dust off?" Lin Heng took it, picked out a red one for her, wiped it and handed it to her.
These dates have never been treated with pesticides, so there is no problem in eating them after wiping them.
Xiaoxia took a bite, chewed it twice, revealed her dimples, and said crisply, "Sweet!"
Lin Heng also ate one himself. It was crispy, sweet and delicious, with a hint of the sourness and fragrance unique to dates. He couldn't stop eating after three bites.
I picked them up and put them into the bag while eating.
Xiaoxia finished eating one and picked up another one on the ground. She wanted to wipe it on her clothes, but then she remembered that her mother told her not to get her clothes dirty.
Looking at her father, she secretly wiped the date on the corner of his clothes, then took a bite and smiled happily.
Lin Heng didn't notice it at all, he was concentrating on picking dates.
Soon Xiulan's basket was full, and the snakeskin bag in Lin Heng's hand was also half full.
All together, it could weigh around 50 to 60 kilograms, not including some taken away by the village children.
"Are we going to hit the other jujube tree?" Lin Heng asked his wife.
"Let's chop them all down, otherwise they will be eaten by bees and birds. My sister-in-law has already chopped down the big tree over there in the cornfield, so there's no need to leave any for them." Xiulan nodded.
These red dates are dried and are great for making tea or stewing chicken or pork ribs.
"Okay." Lin Heng climbed up another tree and soon knocked down most of the dates on the tree with a stick.
After picking up all the things, his snakeskin bag was still full, so he filled half of it.
"Let's go home." Xiulan wiped the sweat off her forehead and said, the weather was still too hot.
"Wait a minute, I'll go get some persimmons to eat." Lin Heng said, pointing at the persimmon tree.
Xiulan advised: "Don't climb the tree. Those two red persimmons are too far to reach. Forget it."
"No, I'll pick some persimmons and pickle them." Lin Heng said with a smile. He picked thirty green persimmons and put them in his pocket.
"That's fine." Xiulan nodded.
The so-called pickled persimmons are naturally not pickled in a sour jar, but pickled in warm water.
Put the green tomatoes in a bucket, cover them with some leaves and corn husks, add warm water and soak them. After four or five days, you can eat them.
At this time, the persimmons are no longer astringent, but become crispy and sweet, and very delicious.
However, please note that the persimmons must be almost ripe. Persimmons that are too green cannot be ripened by soaking.
"Let's go home." Lin Heng said with a smile. He really likes to eat pickled persimmons.
On the way home, the two of them picked a few tender corns from the cornfield and took them back.
Xiulan plans to make some red date, pumpkin and corn porridge in the evening.
"How about we cut some more and grind them into some corn cakes to eat?" Lin Heng asked, looking at the tender corn.
Corn pulp cake is delicious if eaten occasionally. It is a rural delicacy made by grinding older tender corn and fermenting it overnight.
It can be eaten steamed or baked into a glutinous rice cake. The special aroma is still very good.
Of course, this only applies if you eat it occasionally. Eating it frequently is not a good idea.
"Of course. Mom was saying yesterday that she wanted to eat it. But let's make it in the afternoon. Then we can chop more and grind it into paste to share among the three families." Xiulan nodded.
"Okay." Lin Heng nodded and walked back with Xiaoxia and Xiongba.
When she got home, Xiaoxia took off her shoes and climbed onto the mat.
Lin Heng took a sip of honeysuckle and houttuynia cordata herbal tea, which was made by Xiulan before he went out. It was now cold.
Honeysuckle and houttuynia cordata were picked on the Dragon Boat Festival and are the best. After taking a bite, I felt much cooler.
After resting for a while, Xiulan brought two dustpans and said to Lin Heng, "Help me sort them out."
"Okay." Lin Heng nodded, threw away the bad ones, and separated the red ones from the dark ones.
The red ones are taken out, washed, and dried into red dates, and the non-red ones are eaten by humans.
After they sorted the items for a while, Xiaoxia came over and made things worse.
We chatted and sorted at the same time, and it took more than half an hour to finish.
"I'll go get the scale to weigh it." Lin Heng turned around and got the scale to weigh it.
"Seventy-five kilograms of red dates, and thirty kilograms of them are not red. The dates are quite abundant this year." Lin Heng said with a smile.
These are all picked out. Excluding the rotten dates that were used to feed the badgers, there must be about 20 to 30 kilograms.
Xiulan also smiled: "It is indeed a good harvest. If we dry one pound of three pounds, we can get 25 pounds."
If the flowers and fruits of jujube trees are not thinned out artificially, the number of flowers and fruits will increase one year and decrease the next.
"Dad, I want to weigh myself, too." Xiaoxia looked at Lin Heng and said crisply.
"Then let me weigh it for you." Lin Heng looked at her and went to find a basket with a rope.
He asked his daughter to squat inside and he lifted her up to weigh her.
"Eighteen kilograms, Xiaoxia, you weigh eighteen kilograms." Lin Heng looked at her and said that this was a very healthy weight.
"She's gained a lot of weight now. She only weighed 15 kilograms in July." Xiulan said as she held her daughter out.
The food has been good in the past few months and my daughter has gained a lot of weight.
"I weigh 18 pounds!"
Xiaoxia didn't know how much eighteen pounds was, and she kept muttering it to herself. She ran to tell Jinbao several times, and told Xiongba several times, and also didn't let the wild boar and the musk deer go.
Lin Heng looked at Xiaoxia and Xiulan as they washed the red dates, scalded them in boiling water in a pot, and then took them out and poured them into a round winnowing basket to dry in the sun.
He also laid the gauze that Lin Heng had bought earlier to make a ground cage on top to prevent insect bites.
In this weather, it will take about three or four days to dry.
As for the remaining thirty or so kilograms of fresh dates, they can only be eaten by humans.
This is not a lot. Lin Heng and Xiaoxia ate nearly half a pound of it in the short time they were together.
After picking the dates, they sat in the house to drink tea and enjoy the cool air. After Lin Heng had a good rest, he went to soak the green tomatoes he had brought back in warm water.
Xiulan used Lin Heng's tempered steel dagger to peel the tender corn, then washed it and ate it in the evening.
After finishing all this, the two of them washed their feet in their sandals and lay down on the mat.
Spread the mat on the ground and it will be much cooler to lie on it.
Lin Heng found a book and read it for a while before putting it down. He lay down aimlessly, staring at the wooden ceiling in a daze.
"Aren't you going to work on the fish pond?" Xiulan asked as she was playing with her daughter's dolls.
"Let's do it tomorrow morning. I don't want to do it today. There's no rush. We won't release the shrimp fry until next year." Lin Heng said.
The second fish pond has not been disinfected yet. Tomorrow morning, we will get two to three hundred kilograms of quicklime to disinfect it, and then soak it with water.
“Boom boom boom!!”
Lin Heng had just prepared Xiao Mi for a while when there was a knock on the door.
"Brother Lin Heng, come to my house for dinner." Lin Hai's voice came from outside the door.
"Here I come." Lin Heng got up putting on his shoes.
On the way out, he checked his watch and saw it was already half past one.
"Brother Lin, the meal is ready, come and eat quickly."
As soon as Lin Heng opened the door, Lin Hai hurriedly spoke.
"We're leaving right away. Do you want to eat dates?" Lin Heng asked.
Lin Hai shook his head: "No, I have plenty at home."
"Okay then." Lin Heng nodded, changed his shoes, and took Xiulan to Lin Hai's house.
"Brother, you are so awesome. You became rich so quickly." Lin Hai said enviously on the way.
He watched Lin Heng rise step by step, and his envy was beyond words.
Lin Heng laughed and patted his shoulder: "What's the point of being rich? The store doesn't make much money."
"That's better than us farmers. Brother, what do you think I can do to make money?" Lin Hai began to seek advice.
His relationship with Tian Yan has been developing well recently, and he wants to change his situation more and more.
Lin Heng thought for a moment, looked at him and said, "Well, you can plant fruit trees. I will go buy fruit tree seedlings tomorrow spring, and I can help you buy some, or you can come with me. Although it will take several years to bear fruit, it can be a long-term business if you take good care of it."
"Okay, then I'll go with you then." Lin Hai nodded.
As they were talking, they had already arrived at Lin Hai's house. From a distance, Lin Heng saw Lin's father and eldest brother surrounded by a group of people chatting.
Seeing that the Lin family has become wealthy, many people want to learn from them or get close to them. This is human nature.
"Boss Lin is here."
"Boss Lin is living a carefree life now."
Seeing Lin Heng, a group of people smiled and complimented him.
"Please stop making fun of me for being the boss. I don't make any money at all." Lin Heng shook his head and said with a wry smile.
"We don't believe it. Take us with you when you have money."
"Tell everyone how much money you made."
A group of people continued to talk, with a bit of a booing tone.
Lin Heng reluctantly took his wife and children into the house. He didn't want to say anything more to these uncles. That's what happened when there were so many people around.
Inside the room, Lin Hai's brother Lin Shan looked at Lin Heng and said with a smile, "Hurry up and sit down. The meal will be ready soon."
After he separated from the family, he built a house in Shanghe, which was quite far from the center of the village. He usually focused on farming and met Lin Heng seldom.
When he heard about Lin Heng's recent deeds, his jaw almost dropped. His cousin, who was incompetent and useless, actually became successful. For a moment, he was envious and jealous.
"Lin Heng and Xiulan, please take a seat. The dishes will be served soon." Third Aunt Li Xue was even more friendly. She came out personally to pour water for Lin Heng and Xiulan, and gave Xiaoxia a biscuit.
"No need to be so troublesome." Lin Heng said quickly.
"It's not a big deal. You guys sit down first, I'll go serve the dishes." His third aunt smiled and shook her head.
Lin Heng stood up and wanted to help, but was held down by his third mother, who said that they were enough.
There were many people helping to thresh the grain today, so three tables were set up, one for the men drinking, one for the women, and one for the children.
Lin Heng didn't feel like drinking outside, so he took Xiulan to sit at the children's table.
As soon as he sat down, all the uncles who were chatting outside came in and sat at his table without any prior arrangement.
Lin Heng: “…”
(End of this chapter)
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