There are three cherry trees on the back hill. One is a native variety here, which was planted the earliest, just as the house was built.
There are also two cherry trees that we purchased. They are bigger and sweeter than local cherries. We bought them together with the apple saplings.
There was also a pipa tree planted together with the trees on the back mountain. Now the trunks of these trees are as thick as a human's forearm and about three meters tall. Lin Heng performs dwarfing pruning every year.
When they arrived at the back mountain, the children didn't even look at the native cherry tree. Instead, they ran directly to the variety cherry tree and tried to reach it.
"I'll pick them for you!" Xiulan said, reaching out to find a suitable cherry. The breeze blew her skirt gently, making the pair of white and tender long legs under her slender waist even more dazzling.
"Let me do it."
Lin Heng walked over and said.
Although the tree is relatively short, the big, red fruits are all high up, so he has to climb up the tree to pick the big ones.
"So sweet." Lin Hengxian said after eating one. The cherry was already bright red and tasted extremely sweet.
"Dad, let me try it!"
"Dad, let me try it too!"
"I want to send a few!"
The three children watched Lin Heng eating on the tree, drooling anxiously, and the youngest son even hugged the tree trunk and tried to climb up by himself.
"We have both." Lin Heng quickly picked two good ones and put them in a bag for Xiulan to share with them.
"It's really sweet, it's a real cherry. It's much sweeter than the one Wang Caifeng next door gave me a few days ago."
After taking a bite, Xiulan was surprised. She didn't expect the cherry to not be sour at all.
The children spoke with their actions. They kept eating and nodding their heads. It was obvious that the food touched their hearts.
After picking some, Lin Heng said, "This is too slow. Let's open the film and hit it with a stick."
"Okay, let's stretch it open." Xiulan nodded and called over the three children, and each of the four people grabbed one corner.
Lin Heng took a stick and hit the cherries twice, and the red cherries fell down smoothly. The children cheered, and the chickens that were wandering in the back mountain also heard the sound and ran over to pick up the fallen cherries.
"It's over ten pounds already. Do you still want to fight?" Lin Heng asked Xiulan.
"Just beat them all, otherwise they will be damaged. After you're done, send some to your eldest brother and parents." Xiulan said after thinking for a while.
"Okay." Lin Heng nodded in agreement.
With the help of a group of people, they quickly picked most of the cherries, weighing more than 30 kilograms.
The reason why there are so few is that Lin Wei and his team came to pick them once in advance, and Lin Heng thinned the fruits in advance, otherwise the cherry grains would not be as big as they are now.
After picking cherries, Lin Heng started picking loquats. He picked most of them, weighing about 20 to 30 kilograms.
After returning home, Lin Heng gave some of the fruit to her elder brother and parents. When she got home, the children were already playing house in the yard. Apparently, they had had enough of the cherry loquats.
In the room, Xiulan was sitting on the sofa in her sandals, resting. She made a cup of saffron tea and ate a cherry from time to time, feeling very comfortable.
"Have they all been sent out?" Xiulan asked.
"Of course." Lin Heng nodded, walked over and sat next to Xiulan, took a handful of cherries and started eating.
"There are a lot left. Let's pick some local loquats and make loquat paste this afternoon. We still have some of the monk fruit and Fritillaria you bought last year." Xiulan looked at him and said.
"No problem. If you can't finish the cherries, you can add honey to make cherry jam." Lin Heng nodded.
As he spoke, he lay down on Xiulan's big white legs, looked up at her and said with a smile: "These legs are so comfortable to lie on."
"You're so beautiful." Xiulan poked him, but didn't let him get up. Instead, she looked at his ears.
Lin Heng was talking to her, and he playfully lifted up the hem of her skirt to look inside. As soon as he lifted it up, Xiulan slapped him in the face: "You rascal!"
"I'm curious." Lin Heng was very thick-skinned. Although he had seen everything, this half-covered look gave people a more unique feeling.
Apart from anything else, this pair of beautiful legs with a rosy white color gives people a completely different feeling under the strong light during the day than at night.
"You curious big-headed ghost, if you don't behave yourself, get out of here." Xiulan poked his head and warned him unhappily.
Lin Heng laughed and played with her for a while, then was severely beaten up by Xiulan with her feet, and then he lay down on the chaise longue on the sofa.
Lin Heng didn't continue to tease her, but went to get a book to read, enjoying the good time. He really enjoyed this era of information blockade, without all kinds of information bombardment to make people anxious, everything was simple.
Two hours later, Xiulan woke up from her nap and crawled over to him again. She stuffed a peeled loquat into his mouth and asked, "Honey, what are we having for lunch?"
Lin Heng spat out the loquat seeds, closed the book, thought for a moment and said, "Rice?"
"Let's make fish noodles." Xiulan hugged his shoulders and put her face close to him and said.
"Okay, I'll help you. I haven't eaten fish noodles for a long time." Lin Heng nodded in agreement.
"Then wait until 12:30."
Xiulan looked at her watch, then lay on top of Lin Heng, then looked toward the yard and asked, "Are the children still playing in the yard?"
"Yes, a few more friends came and asked them to go out, but I didn't agree. They seem to be playing hopscotch now." Lin Heng nodded.
Now that the children are a little older, they are very busy all day long, playing house, skipping rope, hopscotch, playing with sandbags, chasing roosters, walking the dog, etc. They simply can't stop playing.
"It's time for Xiaoxia to go to school in the second half of the year. Should she go to school in the village or in town?" Xiulan asked Lin Heng while lying on her back.
Lin Heng thought for a moment and said, "Let her stay in the village for now. There's not much to learn in elementary school, so I can teach her myself. When she's older, we'll arrange for her to go to the city, and then we'll go to the city too."
No matter how beautiful the countryside is, it is still far behind the city in terms of education and medical care. Children have to be sent to the city even if they don't want to.
But it doesn't matter. If you have money, it's the same in the city, and you can still have a rural life experience. As long as he firmly grasps the dividends of the times, it will not be a problem to develop the entire Taibai City into his base.
After becoming the richest man here, he will go to Ancheng to develop his business, and finally set up some investment companies to invest in future high-quality companies across the country. When his children grow up and the social environment becomes better, he can take his family to travel around the world.
"This is the only way." Xiulan nodded. Having lived in the city for a period of time, she understood the difference between the city and the countryside.
After a while, the two went to cook together. Lin Heng called the children into the house, including those from the village, and distributed a lot of cherries to them. They all grinned with joy and kept saying thank you.
There are some naughty kids in the village, but there are more children who are sensible and help with housework at an early age. Lin Heng gives snacks to everyone equally, hoping that they will feel more warmth when they recall their childhood in the future.
As a farmer's child, he understands the helplessness of farmers' children better.
For lunch, they cooked cornmeal fish and used persimmon vinegar to make a simple vinegar sauce which was very fragrant. After it was ready, Lin Heng called the children to eat. The children who were playing with Xiaoxia ran away one by one, except Yang Qing who was brave enough to eat a bowl of rice at Lin Heng's house.
Although it was fish with cornmeal, the dish was not bad, and the little girl's face was flushed as she ate it.
"Come on, let's go pick some more loquats from the old tree."
Xiulan changed into trousers and came out and said.
"Let's go." Lin Heng nodded.
"Dad, let's go feed the hens first." Xiaoxia said, pulling him.
"Okay then, let's go over there." Lin Heng said with a smile. Xiaoxia goes to Hongfeng Mountain to feed the chickens every day these days.
They took the children to Hongfeng Mountain first. When Xiaoxia was feeding the chickens, Luming and Duheng stopped scratching the chickens. They learned their lesson after being pecked last time.
Father Lin looked at Lin Heng and said, "Son, we are going to plant rice tomorrow, so come over early in the morning."
"No problem, I will definitely be the first one to come." Lin Heng agreed with a smile.
Mother Lin looked at Xiulan and said, "Pick some loquats and come over to get the magic tofu. I just made it."
Xiulan took Lin's mother's hand and said with a smile: "Mom, you and Dad can come over for dinner tonight, and bring some for us. After dinner, we will go catch cicada monkeys and scorpions to plant rice tomorrow."
"That's fine. I was just about to catch it." Mother Lin said with a smile.
After Xiulan said this, she immediately became interested. Cicada monkeys and scorpions are both good things. At least their relatives have accepted these things and they taste delicious.
"Okay, then let's go pick loquats first." Xiulan nodded.
Then they took their children to pick loquats from an old loquat tree in their home. Some loquats had already been picked from the tree by villagers, and the remaining ones were very tall.
Lin Heng simply cut off some branches, which was equivalent to showing off the branches. In the end, he picked about 20 kilograms of loquats. After taking them home, he started to make loquat paste.
I won’t make cherry jam because I gave some to the children in the village at noon, and tomorrow my uncle, aunt and others will come to help with the rice planting and eat some, so I guess there won’t be much left.
The loquat paste is boiled until the evening, and then stored in the original glass jar. This thing has a very high sugar content and basically will not go bad. If you are worried, you can add some honey.
At dusk, Lin's mother and father came over with magic tofu, flashlights and ultraviolet lamps.
"Have you prepared the loquat paste?" Lin's mother asked with a smile.
"Yes, I've boiled four pounds of loquat paste. Mom, you can take a can back and drink it. It can cure cough." Xiulan said, pointing to four bottles of loquat paste on the table.
"Sure, your dad coughs often." Lin's mother nodded.
After a few brief words, Xiulan went to prepare dinner. She cooked some noodles, some cold tofu, and some stir-fried vegetables.
Lin Heng supported Xiulan in cooking and took out the mutton, pork and braised dishes to thaw and eat them tomorrow when they were planting rice. After discussion, they decided to eat here tomorrow, as it would be inconvenient to get the vegetables from Hongfeng Mountain.
After dinner, Lin's father stayed at home to take care of the children, while Lin Heng, Xiulan and their mother took flashlights and went to the back mountain. Cicada monkeys are not difficult to find, and you can find some by walking a few steps in the woods.
Scorpions are more difficult to find. The best place to find them is in the stone embankments built in the fields, where there are many scorpions.
"Honey, how many cicada monkeys have you caught?" Xiulan came over and asked after a while.
"Thirty-two, how about you?" Lin Heng showed his bottle.
"Then I'm better than you. I caught 45." Xiulan boasted.
Then he added, "Hubby, let's go catch scorpions. We've had enough of the cicada monkeys."
Catching scorpions requires running around, and she was a little scared to do it alone.
"Okay." Lin Heng nodded, called his mother, and the three of them went to catch scorpions.
Because of the previous capture by Lin's mother and sister-in-law, the number of scorpions has decreased a lot, and it is not as easy to catch them as before.
They searched everywhere wearing water shoes and holding ultraviolet lights. They were happy every time they caught one, and before they knew it, it was 11:30 in the evening when they found it.
"It's so late, let's go back." Lin Heng looked at his watch and shouted.
"Let's go, this is definitely enough for us to eat." Xiulan nodded.
"Then let's go back. We still have to plant rice tomorrow." Lin's mother also nodded.
The three of them returned home immediately. Father Lin was still playing games with the children. When he saw them coming back, he asked, "How did you harvest?"
"Look for yourself."
Lin Heng went to get two plastic basins, and the three of them poured the cicada monkeys and scorpions into the two basins respectively.
"Oh my, you have a good harvest, enough for two or three meals." Father Lin said in surprise when he saw so much in the basin.
"I'm pretty lucky today." Xiulan said with a smile.
Everyone looked at it again, then poured the cicada monkey into a bag, drowned it in water, and then put it in the freezer.
Put the scorpions in a basin and keep them alive. Then clean and fry them when you eat them the next morning. They can get rid of all the dirt overnight.
"Okay, then we'll go back first." After finishing, Lin's father said this, and left with Lin's mother.
Father Lin had already washed the children's hands, feet and faces, and they were already sleepy. Lin Heng only told them half a story and coaxed them to sleep.
The two of them went to wash up after the children fell asleep. They had been sweating all day, so of course they needed to take a good wash.
"Wife, can you wear your daytime skirt and a pair of cotton stockings?"
After taking a shower, Lin Heng leaned over to Xiulan's ear and whispered.
Xiulan blushed and whispered, "We still have work to do tomorrow, why don't you take a break?"
"That's tomorrow's matter." Lin Heng grinned.
Xiulan rolled her eyes at him and said nothing, but when Lin Heng came back from the bathroom, he found her leaning on the bed wearing a little skirt and white stockings, with her hair tied up in a bun with a hairpin.
"Wife, you look so beautiful..."
Lin Heng walked over quickly and came to her side.
…
"Oh, I think I got up late."
The next morning, Lin Heng woke up, looked at his watch and sat up.
Xiulan looked at her watch and spread her hands, saying, "I guess my uncle and aunt have already gone to the fields. This is all right, right?"
"It doesn't matter. I used to get up late anyway." Lin Heng waved his hand nonchalantly, then looked at Xiulan and said with a sly smile, "It's all your fault, my wife. Your beauty led me astray."
He really worked hard last night and used up all his strength.
Xiulan rolled her eyes at him coquettishly, clenched her fist and warned him, "If you keep talking nonsense, I'll beat you up. You'd better get up quickly, lazy bum." (End of this chapter)
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