Chapter 372: My lips are so dry
Now only the trees by the river are green, the trees on the mountain have just sprouted tender leaves, and the Chinese toon is only three or four centimeters tall and can't be broken.
While burning paper for his grandfather, Lin Heng asked, "Dad, how did my mom talk to the matchmaker yesterday afternoon?"
Father Lin responded with a smile, "No problem, Zhang Gaolian agreed, and she doesn't want a dowry. But your uncle has to clean up the house, paint it with plaster, lay stone slabs, drink less and don't hit people, and buy her a sewing machine after she gives birth."
"This request is not excessive." Lin Heng nodded. He even felt that this was not a big request.
It was said that Zhang Gao Lian was pretty, but people in the countryside at that time were somewhat superstitious and many of them were unwilling to have contact with widows, so she herself did not make any excessive demands.
"It's not an excessive request, but it's a bit difficult for my uncle to drink less. It's hard for adults to change this habit, too." Lin Yue said with a smile.
"Then he has to change. He has no choice now, unless he doesn't want offspring." Lin Heng said. It can be clearly seen in recent years that his uncle's temper has changed a lot.
Father Lin smiled mysteriously and said, "I think you are worrying too much. Your uncle will definitely be controlled by Zhang Gaolian."
Hearing this, the two of them couldn't help but look puzzled.
Lin's father explained: "Because I heard that Zhang Gaolian's previous husband also had a bad temper and was as stubborn as a bull, but after they got married, he was obedient to Zhang Gaolian."
"I'm afraid this is not reliable. Maybe her previous man just had a good temper." Lin Yue said.
Lin Heng nodded and said, "I think so too."
"No matter whether this is true or not, let's just bring them together this time. If your uncle doesn't find a wife, he won't have another chance."
Father Lin waved his hand and continued, "Your mother wants us to meet in the next two days, and then your uncle will go back to get a house, and then we can pick a good day in the next two months to do some small things."
Lin Heng had no objection to this. After burning the paper, he touched Xiong Ba's head behind him, looked at his elder brother and father and said, "I'm going to go to Shuijinggou this way to see if there are any Chinese toon and fern. It's wetter over there and the trees grow faster. Do you want to go?"
"Then let's go together. It's not raining now." Lin Yue nodded.
He also brought the dog that Lin Heng gave him today. He named it Good Luck, hoping that it would bring him good luck in hunting.
"Then I'll go take a look too." Father Lin nodded in agreement. He didn't have much to do when he returned home today.
It’s not far from here to Shuijinggou. Lin Heng and his elder brother walked in the woods with the dog, while Lin’s father picked some Chinese toon trees on the roadside.
"Brother, let's not go out into the mountains to hunt this spring, right?" Lin Yue asked from afar while walking in the woods.
"We won't go in the spring because there's too much work to do. Let's hunt some pheasants and rabbits near our home. In July and August, we'll take Dad with us to Birch Cliff to look for ginseng and hunt. In October, we'll ask my uncle to go to Changping County and hunt black bears in a month as he said last time." Lin Heng said as he walked.
Changping is closer to the northwest. The mountains are high, but the trees are mainly shrubs. There are more black bears and roe deer, and there are also wolves.
When the time comes, call a few more people and have a big hunt.
"This is quite appropriate." Lin Yue nodded and said.
While chatting, the two were searching in the woods. Last year, there were not many mushrooms, but with the heavy rains this spring, there should be morels, pine mushrooms, and broom mushrooms. These are all mushrooms that grow at low temperatures.
“Woof woof~~”
As they walked, Xiongba cheered in front of them. Lin Heng approached and took a look, and immediately smiled happily: "I said there was, the morel mushrooms really appeared."
Under the fallen leaves, there were plump black-veined morels standing tall and graceful, so beautiful.
Lin Heng took out a plastic bag from his body and picked them one by one and put them in. After picking them, he looked at the morels in the bag and shouted to his elder brother: "This year's mushrooms will probably explode. I picked up two or three kilograms of morels in this nest."
This was very rare in previous years, but this year the first nest had a great harvest. He rubbed Xiongba's dog's head excitedly.
"I also found pine mushrooms here. This year is a good year." Lin Yue said happily.
In nature, whether it is fungi or plants, there are good and bad years. The bad years accumulate nutrients and the good years burst into growth. Only when crops are artificially thinned out with flowers and fruits will the good and bad years not be obvious.
Continuing to move forward, Lin Heng failed to find any other mushrooms. The temperature was still low and mushrooms were very scarce.
After a while, they arrived at the side of the well ditch. Lin Heng also came to his second morel nest, but unfortunately, no mushrooms grew.
Then he went into the ditch to pick Chinese toon. There was plenty of water in the ditch and the water plants were lush. The green grass was as high as a calf and the Chinese toon was about 15 centimeters tall, which was the best time to eat it.
"I've picked a big bundle." Father Lin showed off while holding up a bundle of Chinese toon, which weighed about four or five kilograms.
Lin Heng smiled and said, "It seems like a lot."
He was looking around with the bag in his hand. The small Chinese toon trees in the ditch were in a miserable state. They were chopped off with knives every year. As a result, they had more and more side branches, and they had to be chopped off more severely.
Father Lin just took a knife and cut the crops. This was their own land, so they could cut the crops however they wanted. After that, they could wait for half a month and then harvest another crop.
Lin Heng followed his father, he cut down some while he picked up the ready-made ones. After a while, the eldest brother Lin Yue came out, holding a bag and boasting: "I was lucky today, I picked up four or five kilograms of pine mushrooms."
Pine mushrooms come in orange-yellow and orange-red colors, both are edible, and each one is plump, making people envious.
"Come and pick some ferns. There are a lot of them down here." Lin Heng waved at him.
The three of them walked from here to the bottom of the well ditch, and then went home along a small path here.
"Wife, I picked up three pounds of morels!"
As soon as he returned to the house, Lin Heng couldn't wait to shout.
"Really? There are so many! It looks like there will be more mushrooms this year." Xiulan suddenly became happy. If there are more mushrooms, she can enjoy the joy of picking them.
"Definitely a lot." Lin Heng nodded.
Xiulan went to get two small stools and two knives, and the two of them worked together to process the mushrooms.
While working, Lin Heng told her about his elder brother and father's harvest, as well as the situation of his uncle.
"That's good. You just need to urge your uncle to control his temper." Xiulan nodded.
As she was speaking, a bug on the mushroom crawled onto Xiulan's hand. She threw it to the ground and stepped on it to death without any fear.
Being gentle is different from being pretentious. People living in the countryside will not scream in surprise when they see a bug.
"It depends on my uncle himself. If he can't control himself, he can't blame others." Lin Heng sighed.
As they talked, the mushrooms and vegetables were soon picked. Xiulan stood up and said, "I'm going to cook. You keep an eye on your son."
Lin Heng looked at the two little guys. They were both grinning at him, and one of them was even eating his own hand.
Xiaoxia was playing with her toys and talking to herself.
After a while, Xiulan brought the food. In the morning, we had rice. The side dish was scrambled eggs with chopped toona sinensis mixed with egg liquid and fried, the other side was a simple dish of stir-fried meat with morels, and the soup was also a simple morel soup.
The fried eggs with Chinese toon have a strong Chinese toon flavor, while the fried meat with morels is a mixture of the meaty aroma and the delicious and tender mushrooms. Both are very delicious with rice, and Xiaoxia especially likes them very much.
The three of them finished their meal leisurely. It started to drizzle outside, which meant that they couldn't do anything in the afternoon.
Because she had a freezer, Xiulan froze the extra morels and Chinese toon mushrooms. There was no need to dry them, so she could just take them out when she wanted to eat them.
At around one o'clock, Lin's mother came with Lin Heng's aunt Lu Hongyun and uncle.
Because I specially asked someone to bring them a message yesterday, and today I just happened to bring it over while visiting the grave.
It was the same incident from yesterday that Lin Heng talked to the two of them about.
After listening, my aunt Lu Hongyun said immediately: "We can plant five acres of astragalus, and five or six acres of ginseng."
"That's about it. Our home is far from the mountains and forests. It's not cost-effective to plant crops too far away because they are prone to being stolen." said my uncle Li Baiquan.
"I understand." Lin Heng nodded.
After the chat, the two looked at Lin Heng’s twin sons, played here for a while, then declined the invitation to dinner and went home.
Lin Heng waited until the rain had subsided a little before walking over to Red Maple Mountain to check on the plum fish fry, and then looked at the astragalus seeds, which had not sprouted yet.
In the evening, his third father came over and reported the area of his own crops: four acres of astragalus and eight acres of ginseng. His family wanted to leave more land for growing crops.
His uncle has seven acres of astragalus and five acres of ginseng. As there are few people in the family, they do not plan to grow more crops.
His eldest brother's family wanted to plant five acres of ginseng, but the fields were already planted with kiwis, so there was no room left to plant astragalus.
The approximate number of acres was determined, a total of 16 acres of astragalus, 24 acres of ginseng, and finally the ten acres of ginseng for his third uncle were added, a total of 50 acres.
He had done everything for his eldest uncle, so he naturally couldn't forget his third uncle. After asking, he found out that his third uncle did not plan to plant astragalus, but chose to directly plant ten acres of ginseng.
As for his second uncle, he has been developing his own steamed bun shop in the suburbs this year, and he had no way of notifying him if he didn't come back.
After the calculation, Lin Heng calculated the approximate seed demand. One acre of Astragalus requires at least 20 kilograms of seeds. Since they have never planted it before, they calculated 30 kilograms per acre. For ginseng, 50 kilograms per acre are needed because the mortality rate of ginseng under the forest is relatively high if it is not taken care of.
In total, 480 kilograms of astragalus seeds cost 240 yuan, and 1,700 kilograms of ginseng seeds cost 1,360 yuan, a total of 1,600 yuan for the seeds.
This investment was not too big for Lin Heng. As long as there was no work, he would not lose money. If the output reached his expectations, he recalled the future price and could make at least 40,000 to 50,000 yuan, or even 100,000 yuan.
The difference lies in whether he can sell it directly to pharmaceutical companies. If he can, a hundred thousand is very likely.
If you can't, just draw once in the middle, and you'll have much less. But this is also simple, as long as the time is right, everything will be easy.
Also, if something unexpected happens two years later, for example, a relative thinks that he made money from others and does something weird to him, he will be able to see more clearly which people are worth bringing along.
"Are you going to Ancheng again to buy so many things at once?"
Xiulan rested her chin on the desk and looked at Lin Heng and said.
"No need. For such a big business, you can just let Taibai City Seed Center handle it. You don't have to make a special trip." Lin Heng smiled and shook his head.
"Is that so? That's good." Xiulan immediately smiled.
If Lin Heng was away for a long time, not only would she worry about his safety, but she would also not be able to take care of the children at home by herself.
The rain stopped the next day, but the sky remained gloomy, and it seemed that the rain was not over yet.
Early in the morning, Lin's father called Lin Heng and prepared to plant alfalfa, a forage grass. Its seeds only need to be soaked two hours in advance and there is no need to raise seedlings.
The method used for sowing was row sowing, which means digging furrows with a spacing of about 30 centimeters. This way of sowing is conducive to fertilization and watering.
The land on Hongfeng Mountain was reclaimed only last year. A lot of trees were burned and the land contains a lot of humus, so it can be planted directly without applying base fertilizer.
There are no rhizobia in this era, otherwise the seeds would grow better if mixed with them.
In the morning, Lin Heng came over and asked his father and others to sow seeds first, while he and his eldest brother quickly went to the city.
Lin's mother asked Lin Heng to bring his uncle with him and let him pick out two nice clothes, and then buy a set for Zhang Gaolian. She had already measured the sizes.
Since his uncle was going, Lin Yue said that he would stay at home to help with farming, and he would go just to accompany Lin Heng, and he would not go if his uncle was there.
Lin Heng took his uncle to the city, driving very fast along the way, and went to the seed station to talk to someone about the business.
In the end, he paid a deposit of 1,000 yuan and the seed station issued a receipt.
Fortunately, there happened to be a truck at the Ancheng Seed Terminal these two days. We called Ancheng directly and asked them to add the seeds that Lin Heng wanted to buy, and it would be shipped back the day after tomorrow.
"Lin Heng, you have really grown up!"
Standing up from the seed station, uncle Lu Honghai patted his arm and sighed.
He was shocked by the way Lin Heng chatted with the people here so fluently and could easily come up with topics.
I thought that his frequent trips were not in vain, as his eloquence was something that he could not match.
"Haha, I also practiced a lot." Lin Heng said with a smile.
After he finished speaking, he said, "Let's go, uncle, and buy you some clothes."
His uncle and Zhang Gaolian had agreed that they would not hold a big wedding, but just celebrate it in a small scale, so the clothes they bought this time would be equivalent to wedding dresses.
He picked out a set for his uncle and future aunt, which cost about twenty dollars, and he paid for them and gave them as gifts.
Then he asked his uncle to buy another set with his own money, as well as some things for cleaning the house and getting married.
Of course, you can't make a wasted trip here. It will be much cheaper to buy the things you can take with you in the city.
It was noon when they returned to the village and they managed to have lunch.
"Dad, how many acres of land did you plant this morning?" Lin Heng asked while eating.
Father Lin took a bite of the vegetable and said, "The four of us have planted an acre and a half this morning. The soil is loose so it's easy to plant."
"It looks like it will take several days to plant." Lin Heng said with emotion.
"It will take about ten days, after all, it's ten acres of land." Lin Yue said with a smile.
Lin Heng nodded, and asked when the date would be for his uncle to see him. Lin's mother replied that it would be the day after tomorrow, which happened to be a good day.
After lunch, Lin Heng went home during the lunch break. It was windy today and Xiulan did not bring the children to Hongfeng Mountain.
He went back not for any other reason but to see his wife and children. He was holding some unknown wild flowers that he had picked on the roadside.
It’s not that there is any special meaning. It’s just that when I see a beautiful flower, I will think of my wife, and I want to pick it and give it to her.
Xiulan sniffed the flowers and happily put them in the vase. Lin Heng grabbed her and said, "Wait a minute!"
"What?" Xiulan turned her head and looked at him.
Lin Heng took one and put it on her hair, saying with a smile, "You look even better with this as a contrast."
"I'll really have to keep an eye on you when you go out next time. You're even more sweet-talking than before!" Xiulan looked into his eyes and smiled tenderly.
"I'm telling the truth." Lin Heng said seriously, and after a pause, he looked down at Xiulan's moist and bright red lips and said, "My mouth is so dry, can you help me?"
Xiulan understood what he meant. She looked at him shyly at first, then suddenly hit him and ran away laughing: "If your mouth is dry, drink some water. There's some on the table."
(End of this chapter)
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