Chapter 3: Farming won’t make you rich, and you can’t even get rich
Chapter 3: Farming Can't Make Money
"You eat, I'll carry my daughter on my back to pick grass for the pigs. When you're done, we'll go up the mountain to pick mushrooms."
His wife Chen Xiulan looked at Lin Heng and said that she hoped he would not run out after eating.
She carried her daughter on a sling and a bamboo basket to collect grass for the pigs.
"Give me your daughter. I'll take care of her. You're too tired to carry her on your back!"
Lin Heng shook his head, put down his bowl, walked over and hugged his daughter Lin Xiaoxia.
Lin Xiaoxia was wearing an open-crotch red cotton jacket with flowers, and her face was rosy. She was used to being carried on someone's back, so she wasn't making much noise.
Chen Xiulan was a little stunned. Why did her husband suddenly act weird today and become so considerate all of a sudden?
He never hugged his daughter before, and even seemed to dislike her.
"Please take good care of her. You have to hold her. She can't walk very well yet. Don't let her fall. I'll be back soon."
Chen Xiulan warned her husband that she was worried that he would not be able to take good care of their daughter.
"Don't worry." Lin Heng said with a smile. Looking at his lovely daughter in his arms, Lin Heng couldn't help but touch her little face, his whole body smiling.
In his previous life, he hardly ever took care of his daughter Xiaoxia, and he had no money to send her to school. After his wife Chen Xiulan died, his daughter no longer recognized him.
He doesn't want to be like this in his life, so he starts to correct it from now on.
Chen Xiulan left with the bamboo basket, still feeling that it was a little unreal.
Even though her husband said he wanted to support the family well, he hardly ever hugged their daughter, let alone had such a genuine smile.
She only hoped that her husband would be a little more reliable this time, or at least persist a little longer, then she would be satisfied.
"Call me daddy!"
Lin Heng held his daughter in his arms and teased her with a smile.
"Mom...food...food..."
However, the daughter could only call "Mom", smiling with two dimples showing, opening her mouth to ask for food, and moving her hands and legs in the air.
Lin Heng knew that this was because he had never been close to her, so he ate a big bite and fed her a small bite.
"Oh my, the sun really rises in the west, and you can take care of children too." Lin's mother said in surprise when she saw this scene.
"Mom, can you please stop being so sarcastic? I told you I have really changed for the better and am living a good life."
Lin Heng said helplessly that his mother was too critical of him.
"Hmph, we'll talk about it only if you really change." Lin's mother glanced at him, totally unconvinced.
It’s really that Lin Heng has disappointed people too many times.
After saying that, Lin's mother took her hoe and went to the field. April was the busy farming season, and they had to repair the paddy fields and prepare for planting rice.
It just rained, which is a good time to plant sweet potatoes. Corn and soybeans can also be planted. Dad Lin and my eldest brother have already gone to work in the fields.
Lin Heng had no choice but to carry his daughter out of the gate.
Not far from the door is his family’s vegetable garden, which covers an area of about two acres. Next to the vegetable garden is a pigpen made of wood.
A piglet weighing more than 30 kilograms inside saw people coming and grunted, asking for food.
Lin Heng's house is at the foot of the Qinling Mountains. It is relatively flat here, and there are other houses in the village not far away.
Every household in Fengshu Village builds its house with its back against the Qinling Mountains, and the houses are all made of rammed earth.
The walls are forty centimeters thick, the skeleton is made of oak trees as thick as arms, and the roof is covered with bluestone slabs.
This place is far away from the city. In that era, there was no electricity and people still used kerosene lamps. As far as Lin Heng remembered, electricity was not available until the next winter.
The main reason is that a national highway connecting to the south is to be built nearby, otherwise electricity might not be available until 1990.
"Why are you here?"
Chen Xiulan, who was picking grass for pigs in the field, saw Lin Heng coming over and asked curiously.
"Can't you hold me anymore? Come, give it to me."
She thought her husband couldn't hold the child anymore, so she brushed the dirt off her hands and reached out to hold the child.
"No, I just came to see if there's anything I can help with."
Lin Heng shook his head, and his daughter Xiaoxia laughed in his arms.
Chen Xiulan was a little stunned when she saw this scene. It turned out that her husband was doing a pretty good job of taking care of the children.
In the distance, the mother who was planting sweet potatoes saw Lin Heng, walked over and shouted, "You have changed your ways, right? Give me the child and go make a nest."
When Lin Heng saw his mother, he obediently handed his daughter to her and went over to dig the ground.
His mother was looking for something for him to do because he was finally at home.
Lin Heng picked up a hoe and started to dig a hole. His sister-in-law inserted the sweet potato vines into the hole and pressed it with her hand. It was considered successful. Sweet potatoes are particularly easy to survive.
It had just rained and the ground was loose, but it was still very dry.
After only working for half an hour and digging seventy or eighty nests, Lin Heng was sweating profusely.
"Oh, I'm so tired!"
Lin Heng sat down on the edge of the field, wiped his sweat with his sleeves, and said with emotion: "Farming is really not worth it. I can't make much money after working all year round."
His body was not suited for working, and most importantly, he felt that farming was meaningless and that it was impossible to become rich.
Many farmers of his father's generation believed that as long as they worked hard on the land, their lives would definitely get better.
As a result, after twenty years, they are still farming and can only barely survive. Life is so difficult for farmers.
"If you don't farm, how can you live without food? You just eat and do nothing all day long. Look at your elder brother, he digs an acre of land without even taking a breath."
Mother Lu Hongmei glanced at him, gave the child to him, and went to make a nest herself.
He knew his second son couldn't do it, but he had to let him do it so that he could calm down.
Otherwise, when the family is divided, we will have to rely entirely on our daughter-in-law Xiulan, and she will be exhausted.
"Yes, Lin Heng, you really have to work hard, otherwise there will be no one to help you after the family is divided." Sister-in-law Liu Juan said with a smile.
She didn't like Lin Heng. Her husband worked hard to harvest the crops, but he was idle and did nothing, eating and drinking for free all day.
"I can't make money by growing crops, so I want to do something that can make money." Lin Heng responded with a smile.
"Humph, what have you done to make a fortune in all these years? In the end, aren't you still dependent on your family for food and drink?"
Hearing this, mother Lu Hongmei was furious. The second son in the family was the most educated and went to junior high school, but he turned out to be the least serious one.
It’s been three years since I graduated and more than two years since I got married, but I haven’t made any money, yet I’m still thinking about making a lot of money.
The eldest sister-in-law also curled her lips and didn't believe this nonsense at all. She just felt desperate for her younger sister-in-law Chen Xiulan. Her life would be difficult after marrying such a man.
"Wipe your sweat off and give me the child."
Chen Xiulan did not comment on Lin Heng's big talk. She handed over a handkerchief and hugged her daughter.
The handkerchief had turned white from washing and had no fragrance. Lin Heng wiped the sweat off his face and helped pick up the pig feed.
"Mom, Xiulan and I are going to the mountain to see if there are any mushrooms." Lin Heng said to his mother.
"As long as you don't run around with your bad friends, anything is fine."
The mother said with a cold face, her disgust towards Lin Heng's friends evident in her words.
Lin Heng nodded to show that he understood, and followed his wife home.
My mind kept recalling memories from my previous life, trying to find a way to quickly make my first pot of gold.
“I remembered it!!”
Suddenly he showed a hint of surprise and remembered something.
The update time is 12 o'clock every day. Please support my new book. This is the first time I try this type of story. I want to write a warm pastoral story. I hope you like it.
(End of this chapter)
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