Chapter 217 Beautiful Little Garden Konjac Warm Sun
After moving the bed back and fixing it, Lin Heng sat down to drink a cup of tea, rested for a few minutes, and then got up to go out for exercise.
Whether it is physical exercise or archery, perseverance is required and you should not interrupt if you can.
After the exercise, Xiulan looked at the remaining 34 koi in the wooden basin and asked, "Are these going to be poured directly into the fish pond?"
Lin Heng waved his hands repeatedly: "I dare not do that. There is still a black fish in the fish pond. These artificially bred fish fry are definitely fish food."
Xiulan nodded and said, "Then we can only put the fish in after we eat the black fish during the Chinese New Year."
"You can put two of them in the well first. One or two won't pollute the water."
Lin Heng thought for a moment and said.
The ancients have always had the habit of raising fish in wells. Having a live fish is very convenient for testing water quality, and if someone has poisoned something, it can be seen at the first moment.
The water in Lin Heng's fish pond flows out from the well spring, which is enough to test the water quality. But it won't matter if we put two more fish in.
The fish in the well are not fed and grow very slowly. They are fed with some native insects, so there is no question of water pollution.
"good!"
Xiulan nodded in agreement and caught two 20-centimeter koi fish and threw them into the well. The water in the well was crystal clear, without any moss or impurities, and the koi fish swam happily as soon as they were thrown in.
These two guys don't know yet that long days of hunger are waiting for them.
"How about keeping the rest in this secondary pool?"
Xiulan pointed to the secondary buffer pool where water flowed out of the well and said, "This is a 50-centimeter-deep pool connected to a 5-centimeter-deep stream waterway outside."
There is a giant salamander cave in the middle of the stream, in which the giant salamander that someone gave to Lin Heng is hibernating. The black fish cannot swim out in such shallow water.
Xiulan always felt that fish would easily die if kept in a basin, but only in a place with flowing water could fish be kept alive.
"Can."
Lin Heng naturally had no objection. It was just a few fish, so he had no objection if she wanted to take them out and smash them to death.
Xiulan took the fish and dumped it into the secondary buffer pool, while Lin Heng went to the old house to find three pottery jars with small holes. He simply repaired the holes and added the loess dug from the house, then planted the lotus roots he bought for ornamental lotus.
After planting, tie the lotus roots to the four corners of the fish pond and slowly sink them to the bottom of the water. In this way, the lotus roots are planted. Lotus leaves will grow in the spring of next year, and there will be beautiful little lotus flowers to watch in the summer.
Lotus roots will not rot in the mud, but will rot more easily if they are taken out and left alone.
After finishing, Lin Heng looked at his fish pond again. The calamus and moss planted this year were all alive, especially the calamus, which was lush and green. With some water droplets on it, it looked like fairy grass. It looked even more beautiful when the sun came out.
"Let's plant the wintersweets, too."
Xiulan looked at the fish for a while and said.
"good."
The two discussed it and finally decided to plant them beside the fish pond stream.
There are more and more flowers and plants in the backyard. By next spring, it will definitely be a beautiful little garden. Both of them are looking forward to the beautiful scenery.
Right now, what the two are most looking forward to is the wintersweet. The flower buds are full and the day of blooming is not far away.
After staying in the backyard for a while, Lin Heng went back to the house to check the malt. It was already seven or eight centimeters long and light yellow in color. If it wasn't made into malt sugar, it would be impossible to make it.
While Xiulan was working, Lin Hengxian tore the malt off the bamboo sieve. During the past few days, the roots of the malt not only penetrated the cloth underneath, but also the bamboo sieve.
The sound of the roots breaking when being torn sounds extremely pleasant.
After tearing off the malt, Lin Heng weighed it and found that there were five kilograms of malt in total.
After determining the weight of the malt, Lin Heng turned around and weighed out twenty kilograms of glutinous rice and soaked it in hot water.
"The noodles are ready. If you don't like it, come and eat it."
Lin Heng had just finished preparing the glutinous rice when he heard Xiulan calling from inside the room.
"Okay."
Lin Heng wiped his hands and walked into the kitchen with a smile.
"Give."
Xiulan had already scooped the noodles into his bowl. The noodles had just been boiled for a while and still had a little white core inside.
Lin Heng likes to eat noodles in this state. He doesn't like the soft and chewy noodles. He added some garlic and chili to the noodles and finished the bowl of noodles in less than three minutes while squatting under the eaves.
After drinking a mouthful of noodle soup and touching his stomach with satisfaction, he turned around and went into the house to wake Xiaoxia up and help her get dressed.
While Xiulan and Xiaoxia were eating noodles, Lin Heng had already started washing the pot. After washing the pot, he placed the wooden barrel filled with glutinous rice in the pot, added water and started a fire.
After steaming the glutinous rice, Lin Heng chopped the malt and piled it in a basin.
After finishing these, Lin Heng remembered why Wang Zhou hadn't come yet. He went to the old house to ask and found out that the boy had slipped out after breakfast, apparently to look for Liu Cihua.
"Would you like to go dig konjac?"
Father Lin asked, holding a hoe.
"Can."
Lin Heng nodded. Konjac grew near his home and he didn't have to go far. The glutinous rice in the house would take a while to be steamed.
Every year when the Chinese New Year is approaching, my family will go dig konjac to make konjac tofu, which is considered a special dish for the Chinese New Year.
The two men took the tools and went out of the yard and met Lin Wei and Lin Tao.
"Grandpa, Second Dad, where are you going?" Lin Wei looked at the two of them and asked curiously.
Lin Heng touched his head and responded, "Dig konjac."
"Then let me help you find it, Second Dad."
Lin Wei said quickly, he really wanted to play with Lin Heng.
"Can."
Lin Heng said this and walked forward.
Although the konjac plant withers in winter, it leaves round holes on the ground, making it very easy to identify.
"One here."
As soon as he arrived at the field, Father Lin was the first to find one.
Lin Heng looked up and saw that the hole was only slightly thicker than a thumb, so he estimated that the konjac was about one pound.
However, konjac of this size is completely edible, but it is difficult to find a large konjac weighing about ten kilograms.
"Second father, we saw two konjacs here."
After a while, Lin Wei, who was running around in front, shouted excitedly that he and his brother were found.
Lin Heng gave him a thumbs up and praised, "Great! Remember to mark it so we can find it later."
Children will be very happy if they are encouraged, and will work happily, especially if the work does not require much effort.
With them helping them search, Lin Heng and his father dug much faster.
Father Lin walked over and took a look, then turned to Lin Heng and said, "There should be a very large konjac in my area. Look for it. Lin Wei and the others don't seem to have found it."
"good."
Lin Heng nodded, took a hoe and pushed aside the fallen leaves and searched around. If his father said there was something there, then it must be there. If he couldn't find it, it was probably because the hole was blocked.
After all, it's just a hole left by a rotten konjac stalk. It's normal for it to be blocked for various reasons.
After searching for a long time without finding anything, Lin Heng had to dig in several suspected locations.
When digging to the third place, Lin Heng was stunned after digging out the compacted soil. What came into his eyes was a palm-sized snow-white color.
"Damn it! I dug this big konjac to pieces."
Lin Heng looked helpless, wondering how could such a big konjac grow so shallowly?
This konjac is as big as 20 to 30 centimeters, and is definitely a large konjac weighing more than ten kilograms.
Father Lin has obsessive-compulsive disorder. Seeing this, he felt helpless. He spread his hands and said, "It doesn't matter anyway, we are just eating."
Lin Heng nodded and carefully dug out all the rest. This konjac had to be held in both hands, and it was the largest one he had dug so far.
After digging a few more, the basket was full, with about forty or fifty kilograms of konjac, enough to grind konjac tofu for three families.
"Let's go back."
Father Lin said this and walked back with the konjac.
His parents were the ones who made the konjac tofu. Lin Heng just had to take some when it was done. There was no need to go through the process again.
When he returned to the house, Xiulan had already taken out the steamed glutinous rice and put it out to dry. When she saw him coming back, she said, "The temperature is about right, you can start cooking."
"good."
Lin Heng washed his hands and touched the glutinous rice in the basin. It felt warm, about 50 to 60 degrees.
Pour all the chopped malt in the morning, stir it evenly with your hands and let it sit for six hours. When the time is up, drain the juice and boil it dry to get maltose.
After washing the dishes, Lin Heng walked out of the yard, looked at the mother and son, and asked, "Mom and Dad should be grinding konjac, do you want to go over and play?"
"You go ahead, I'll get some sun."
Xiulan leaned on the bench, basking in the warm winter sun, squinting her eyes and not wanting to move, just waved at Lin Heng.
Xiaoxia was playing with two newly brought puppies nearby, and had no time to pay attention to him. Xiongba lay lazily on the ground, looking at the two puppies being played with, and seemed very happy, as if he was recalling his childhood.
It had been played with like this by Xiaoxia before, and now it seemed very happy watching other dogs being played with by Xiaoxia.
Whenever the two puppies were naughty and wanted to run away, Xiongba would always act like a kind and enthusiastic dog and run over to catch them and hand them over to Xiaoxia.
The sound of the baby crying out for milk continued in the yard, which was quite pleasant to hear.
Lin Heng looked for a while and turned to leave.
He didn't go directly to the old house, but went to look for Wang Zhou first.
After searching for a long time, Wang Zhouren didn't find it, but he saw uncle Lin Xuping and aunt Li Ping coming towards him. The two of them were walking down the mountain carrying a lot of kudzu roots.
Seeing that Lin Heng had a stern face and didn't say anything, he couldn't help but think of the news in the village that Lin Heng bought a sidecar motorcycle yesterday.
At this time, the two of them inevitably thought about how good it would be if their relationship with the Lin family had not become so bad.
In fact, although their relationship was cold before, it was not to the point of breaking up. It was only in May this year when he learned that Lin Heng's father had obtained ginseng that he could not help but go to his house to ask for it, which caused a complete fallout.
Seeing Lin Heng's family getting richer day by day, with delicious food every day, while they still had cornmeal for two meals a day and could not even eat rice or noodles, the two of them felt even more uncomfortable. They felt remorseful and jealous, thinking that all the good things in the world were taken by Lin Heng.
As time went by, the two regretted their original decision more and more, but they both understood that their previous actions had completely lost the opportunity to integrate into Lin Heng's circle.
Lin Heng had no idea what the two were thinking, nor did he care.
After searching for a while, he saw Wang Zhou on a slope above the river. The boy was talking to Liu Cihua who was herding cattle.
After taking a look, he left and turned to check the situation of the Hongfengshan Shrimp Pond.
Except for the fish pond where grass carp is raised, the water in other ponds is only 20 to 30 centimeters deep, indicating that there is still a thin layer of ice on top.
I looked around and there was no sign of leakage.
After the Chinese New Year, we will have someone build the warehouse, indoor breeding pond, etc., and then we can start raising shrimps.
When Lin Heng returned home, his father had already ground all the konjac, leaving only a little.
Konjac is a magical thing. It is poisonous in itself, but it can be eaten if it is ground into a paste with alkaline water and then cooked.
"You really don't need my help?"
Lin Heng asked again.
Mother Lin shook her head: "You can't get it, so don't make things worse."
Lin Heng thought that not only could he cook it but he could also do it very well, but he kept silent as he could eat the ready-made food.
Turned around and went back into the house.
"Have you finished with the konjac?"
Xiulan saw him come back and asked with her head tilted. The warm sunlight shone on her loose hair, seeming to give her black hair a layer of faint golden light.
Lin Heng glanced at Xiaoxia who was still playing with the puppy, walked over and sat next to Xiulan, and said with a smile: "I didn't help, I went out for a walk."
"Is that so? Then do you want me to clean your ears?" Xiulan tied her hair up and asked with her head tilted.
"Very well."
Lin Heng nodded repeatedly.
Xiulan brought out the ear spoon, and Lin Heng lay comfortably on her legs, basking in the sun and enjoying her gently covering his ears.
After cleaning his ears, Xiulan asked Lin Heng to lie down for a while.
Sometimes he is busy, and sometimes he dozes off out of boredom. Lin Heng feels that this time is worth wasting just by basking in the sun.
At two o'clock, when Xiulan was preparing to make lunch, Wang Zhou pushed open the door and walked in.
Looking at the scene in the house, I suddenly felt a little envious.
"How was the private meeting?"
Lin Heng sat up and asked with a smile.
Wang Zhou immediately stammered: "It's... it's OK."
"What do you mean by 'alright'?" Lin Heng asked with a smile.
Wang Zhou continued to stutter: "Well, I told her that I will go to her house to propose marriage tomorrow after I save some more money."
"All right."
Lin Heng estimated that he was not brave enough to do anything out of line, and he probably didn't even hold hands for a while.
For lunch, Xiulan prepared a few dishes to treat Wang Zhou, and in the afternoon he said goodbye and prepared to return to town.
Since Lin Hengdu already had a motorcycle, he naturally wouldn't let him walk back. He drove out and sent him down.
"Dad, I want to take a ride too."
Xiaoxia ran from home to the street with the rag doll in her arms, wanting to sit on this big moving toy.
Xiulan shouted at the door: "Just take her out to play. My sister-in-law and I are going to dig some wild vegetables."
"good."
Lin Heng nodded and turned to look at Wang Zhou: "Then you can help hold Xiaoxia."
There's nothing wrong with taking Xiaoxia for a walk, but I'm afraid she'll catch a cold.
"good."
Wang Zhou held Xiaoxia and sat on the side seat. He was also a little excited, as this was his first time riding in a sidecar.
(End of this chapter)
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