Chapter 148 Father's Change, Pleasant Time After the Rain
After squatting down on the treetop, Lin Heng took a closer look and found that on a fire pot tree in the distance, there was a grayish-white civet cat eating the early-ripening fire pots.
The so-called fire pot is a kind of persimmon. It is small in size, and all of its seeds are the same size as pumpkin seeds. The flesh is scarce and matures early. It is considered a wild persimmon.
Baimizi is bigger than a cat but smaller than a dog. A normal one weighs about 20 to 30 kilograms, about the same size as a wild hog badger. The larger ones are said to weigh up to 50 kilograms.
This guy loves to eat persimmons very much. Every autumn and winter, many people would squat under the persimmon trees to catch civet cats.
Lin Heng is very worried now, because the civet cat is on the tree and can discover every move of those under the tree.
That is to say, it has not been discovered because it is now three or four hundred meters away.
But it was impossible to get closer, let alone fifty meters. If we took a few steps forward, we would be exposed.
After thinking about it, Lin Heng had no idea what to do. People would hunt civet cats after they found it eating the persimmons from the tree, and would wait nearby in advance.
"Xiongba, it's up to you. Give it a try." Lin Heng rubbed Xiongba and gave the task to it.
Xiongba looked at the civet cat on the tree, then disappeared into the bushes.
Lin Heng waited silently. About half an hour later, the civet cat suddenly realized something was wrong and jumped off the tree.
“Woof!!”
Immediately afterwards, Xiongba rushed out from behind and chased after him.
The chase continued from the bushes to the low secondary mixed wood forest, and then to the tall broad-leaved forest on the mountain.
Ten minutes later, Xiongba came back dejectedly. He didn't catch up. He failed.
"It's okay, there are rabbits ahead." Lin Heng rubbed its head and comforted it. He was mentally prepared for this result.
The civet cat can climb trees, so it is really difficult for Xiongba to catch it.
“Ouch~”
Xiongba shouted and followed Lin Heng.
"It seems like I really need to buy a better bow." Lin Heng sighed.
The orange wood bow I have is not very useful. I can't get a modern compound bow for the time being, so I'll go get a Mongolian compound bow someday.
The effective range of his bow and arrow is fifty meters. If he wants to accurately hit small prey, he needs to be at a distance of twenty to thirty meters, and there cannot be too much wind.
This is not because of human incompetence, but because of the material limitations of traditional wooden bows. Unlike modern compound bows, which use material performance and modern technology to accurately hit targets at a distance of 300 meters.
Accompanying Xiongba, the man and the dog soon arrived at the edge of the soybean field at the foot of Hongfeng Mountain.
Xiongba entered combat mode again, keeping his eyes and ears open.
At the beginning, no traces were found on the edge of the ground, but Lin Heng was not discouraged and took Xiongba to search along the edge of the ground.
The soybean field is large, so there is always a harvest.
Plop!!
Suddenly, two pheasants flew out from the soybean field and flew quickly towards the mountain on the other side of the river with a loud noise.
Before Lin Heng and Xiong Ba had a chance to be stunned, there was a sudden noise in the field ahead, and a big brown rabbit ran towards the bushes and thatch on the mountain.
“Woof woof!!”
Without Lin Heng's order, Xiong Ba chased after him.
Because the distance was a bit far, he couldn't catch up with it for a while. He chased it all the way from the soybean field to the thatched grass, and finally forced it into a hole.
“Woof woof!”
Xiongba looked back at Lin Heng, indicating that there was nothing he could do.
Lin Heng walked up slowly from the foot of the mountain. Xiongba was lying at the entrance of the cave looking at the rabbit.
Lin Heng looked down and saw that the rabbit seemed to be in a panic and was not drilling into its own nest. It got stuck after about 30 centimeters, with its butt exposed.
Picking up the bow and arrow, Lin Heng shot an arrow into the rabbit. With a scream, the rabbit soon became motionless.
Lin Heng was not in a hurry. It would not be too late to take action after it was completely dead.
There is no need to keep any alive, as the rabbits we had at home are about to start breeding.
A few minutes later, Lin Heng easily pulled out the dead rabbit.
With a good dog, catching rabbits is not a difficult task.
After weighing it, Lin Heng estimated that it weighed about five or six kilograms. He rubbed Xiongba's head and said with a smile, "Let's go up to the cabin and take a look."
Since we are already halfway up the mountain, we might as well go up and take a look.
There was no change in the cabin, except that it seemed like it had been visited by birds, leaving a lot of bird droppings.
After taking a look at the growth of Dendrobium officinale, Lin Heng ran to the pine forest to pick up pine cones.
Of course, it’s not for picking pine nuts. The nuts of this black pine are too small to be picked at all.
He picked up these pine cones to make rosin. The ancients used pine cones to make rosin.
After picking up half a bag, he took Xiongba back home.
When he got home, his wife had already prepared rice and the dishes were heating in the pot, waiting for him.
"It's such a big rabbit, it's great." Xiulan praised with a smile as she watched her husband bring back a big rabbit.
"Eat it braised. You can also braise those bluefish and other things." Lin Heng said with a smile as he hung up the rabbit.
"Okay." Xiulan nodded in agreement.
After breakfast, Lin Heng skinned the rabbit, fed the internal organs to Xiongba, and gave the rabbit meat to his wife so that she could prepare it into braised rabbit meat.
He made rosin while taking Xiaoxia with him.
A fire was built in the front yard. When the firewood was burned out and only charcoal was left, a pot was placed on the stove and the washed pine cones were placed in the pot to dry over a low fire.
Xiaoxia watched curiously from the side and asked a question from time to time. Lin Heng gave her a pine cone and asked her to watch from the side.
While the pine cones were drying, Lin Heng went to get a piece of fragrant nanmu as thick as his wrist. Very thick and large nanmu trees are very rare, but there are still many of these small seedlings. After all, this is the Qinling Mountains.
Saw the small nanmu tree into small pieces, brush them with sesame oil and set them aside to dry.
He found a mortar and threw the dried pine cones into it and crushed them. When they were almost done, he borrowed a medicine grinder and ground them again. Finally, he sifted them to get the pine cone powder.
When borrowing the medicine grinder, Lin Heng saw the Acorus calamus that his parents were drying to sell. He took it back to dry on the kang and ground it into powder.
After a whole afternoon, he only managed to obtain three kilograms of pine cone powder and two kilograms of calamus powder. Although he was tired, Lin Heng felt very fulfilled.
"Honey, the rabbit meat and dried fish are ready. Please try them." Xiulan brought the freshly braised rabbit meat and dried fish to Lin Heng.
The braised rabbit meat and fish were both reddish brown, and the aroma of the stew was fragrant. Lin Heng tore off a piece of rabbit meat and tasted it, and his eyes lit up immediately. It tasted so good.
The original fishy smell of rabbit meat has completely disappeared, replaced by the pure aroma of the braised meat and the delicate taste of the rabbit meat. Even without dipping it in any soup, it will make you relish it.
"Wife, you are such a great cook." Lin Heng tore off a piece and fed it to her.
"Dad, I want some too." Xiaoxia would take a bite of anything she saw.
Lin Heng fed her a small piece and asked with a smile, "Is it delicious?"
"Delicious~" Xiaoxia nodded in a baby voice, indicating that she wanted more.
Xiulan smiled and said, "As long as it tastes good, I also braised a few eggs for Xiaoxia. You can try the braised fish, it tastes pretty good too."
Lin Heng tasted a piece of marinated herring, which was very soft and rotten, with the bones crispy. The best taste in the mouth was the fish skin, which was dried and marinated, and absorbed the soup, with the aroma of the marinade and the freshness of the fish itself, and the chewy texture, which was simply irresistible.
The texture of the fish meat is slightly worse than that of the fish skin, but the taste is not inferior at all. Lin Heng couldn't help but give a thumbs up to his wife.
"Then let's make cornmeal fish for lunch and have this to eat." Xiulan said with a smile.
"Okay." Lin Heng nodded, tore some meat for Xiaoxia again, and then went to help cook with his wife.
The cornmeal cold fish is ready, and Lin Heng also cuts the braised fish meat into pieces. It is most enjoyable to eat it directly without any fish bones.
When eating, add some pickled bamboo shoots to make it taste more fulfilling.
I am still savoring the aroma after the meal. Braised pork is such a great invention. It is so delicious.
In the afternoon, Xiulan helped to husk the corn, and Lin Heng went to help break the corn. Because they were on the side of the road this time, the broken corn was directly pulled back by a horse-drawn carriage, which was much faster than carrying it in a backpack.
In just one afternoon, half of the corn from three acres of land was harvested.
In the evening, when having dinner at her parents' house, Xiulan brought over half of the braised rabbit meat, which was well received by everyone.
"Xiulan's cooking skills are really good." Lin's mother praised.
Lin Heng looked at his mother and said, "I was the one who caught the rabbit. Why don't you praise me, Mom?"
Mother Lin glanced at him and said perfunctorily: "You are also very good, but I think this is all thanks to my daughter-in-law."
Lin Heng: “…”
Xiulan smiled slightly and picked up a piece of rabbit meat for him to comfort him. Lin Heng stuffed the rabbit meat into his mouth fiercely.
"Dad, please find someone to pick a date for me. I want to transfer the grass carp fry in his fish pond to this one." Lin Heng said to his father.
Father Lin nodded: "Okay, I'll find someone to take a look at it for you tomorrow."
The next morning, everyone got up and the sky was overcast, and it seemed like it would rain heavily at any time.
Early in the morning, Father Lin asked his two sons to rush to harvest corn. No one knew how long the autumn rain would last. If it lasted too long, the corn would rot in the field.
This was really a race against the heavy rain. Not only them, but many people in the village climbed up the hill early in the morning to harvest corn.
This is how farming is. You rely on the weather for your livelihood, and it will be very uncomfortable if God doesn’t give you face.
Even though we harvested quickly, heavy rain still fell after eight o'clock. It took less than a minute from the beginning of the rain to the beginning of the rain.
"Dad, let's go back quickly. If you don't leave now, you'll catch a cold." Lin Heng advised.
Father Lin slapped his legs, looked up at the sky and wailed, "Why is God so blind? It would be better if it rained an hour later."
However, God responded to him with only more merciless rain.
Without saying anything more, he covered the corn with the prepared film paper, loaded it onto the carriage, and hurried back.
When he got home, his pants were soaked and the red dates were soaked. Lin Heng led it back to the stable and gave it some dry straw and some fresh corn leaves to eat.
After settling the red dates, Lin Heng washed himself with hot water at home, changed his clothes, and came to the old house with an umbrella. His father was still cursing God, saying that he was so disrespectful and the rain started as soon as it was supposed to.
Lin Heng walked into the house and said with a smile: "So, Dad, don't plant so much land next year. I'll buy a batch of fruit tree seedlings in the spring, and we'll plant fruit trees on all the land, leaving only four or five acres for us to grow some crops for ourselves."
If Lin Heng had said this in the past, his father would definitely have scolded him and asked him what he would eat without crops. However, Lin Heng's recent successes changed his mind.
He nodded and said, "That's right. Let's plant some fruit trees next spring."
Gradually, he came to realize that he could not make money just by farming.
If you look up, you will see that the only people in the village who have earned over a thousand yuan are weavers, beekeepers, snack sellers, and even herbal remedies. But there is no one who has earned over a thousand yuan by growing crops.
Even among those who grow crops, there are few rich people. They are often like the Lin family half a year ago, with a family of more than a dozen people squeezed into one house, unable even to build a house for their children.
Sometimes Father Lin sat alone on the edge of the field, looking at the land on both sides of the river. He had to admit that his second son was right: farming really could not make one rich.
After all, he has been farming for half his life, and no one knows it better than him.
Today's rain made him resent God for no reason. A hemp rope always breaks at the thinnest part, misfortune only finds the unfortunate, and life only bullies the poor. It is useless to work hard on growing crops because God won't help you.
"Okay, then Dad, brother, the three of us will go together to exchange the fruit trees. Let's go together."
Lin Heng smiled and said that it is a lie to children to think that success will come if they work hard. Only when they grow up will they understand that choice is more important than hard work.
No matter how far you go on a road that is doomed to failure, you will never reach the end of success.
"Well, let's shell the corn and hang it up first." Father Lin sighed and went to get a ladder.
The women peeled the corn, the children handed the corn to them, and Lin Heng and the other two tied the corn.
There are wires under the eaves. Starting from the bottom, wrap the corn around the wires and stack them up one by one. Finally, a thick and big bunch of corn is formed.
When the corn ears are dry in winter, you can pick them and peel them into kernels when you have free time.
There was a lot of corn this year, and my father's yard couldn't hold all of it, so we hung it up under the eaves of my eldest brother's house. There were still some left, and it took us two days to finish it.
Early in the morning of October 4, Lin Heng got up from the bed and looked at the rainy day outside. He felt a little annoyed: "The autumn rain is really continuous."
"Autumn is like this, with lots of rain." Xiulan covered Lin Heng with a quilt and leaned against him and whispered.
The house was a bit cold after three consecutive days of autumn rain. Neither of them wanted to get out of bed. When Xiaoxia woke up, she was carried over and stayed in bed with them.
The three of them stayed in bed until nine o'clock, when they got up. They made three dishes and a soup for breakfast and ate them slowly.
At noon, Xiulan looked at the tanned leopard skin and added some prepared liquid. It would be almost ready in two days.
Lin Hengze put the fragrant nanmu wood that had been sawed into small pieces and coated with sesame oil into a pot and steamed it for two or three hours. He then dried it and pounded it into powder with a stone mortar. It took him most of the day to make three pounds of nanmu sticky powder.
In fact, if there was a blender, this would only take half an hour, but unfortunately I don’t have one.
But it's quite interesting to do it slowly, and sometimes it's fun to waste time.
On October 5, the rain was still falling. Lin Heng was very bored, so he went to the village with an umbrella and found a leaky old clay pot. He transformed it into a small stove that was 25 cm high and 30 cm in diameter.
The interior is coated with a mixture of yellow mud, straw crumbs and dragon beard grass. After adding charcoal, it becomes a piece of clay that can be placed on the table to burn. The surface and the base are only slightly warm but not hot.
"Wife, is the bacon cooked?" Lin Heng asked with a smile as he lit the charcoal fire.
"Okay." Xiulan took the cooked bacon, the chopping board and the knife, and cut the bacon into small pieces.
Lin Heng had made a grill net with wire, placed it on the clay pot stove, and roasted the bacon on it. After a while, a sizzling sound was heard and the aroma of the barbecue immediately came out.
"Come on, honey, have one first." After roasting it, Lin Heng blew on it and fed a piece to his wife first.
Xiulan chewed for a while, blinked and smiled, "It's delicious."
"Dad, I want one too~"
Xiaoxia had been opening her mouth for a long time, but Lin Heng didn't give her the first piece of meat. Now her little face was already sad. If she wasn't given the second piece, she would cry. There was no one who couldn't be coaxed by two pieces of meat.
"Here, here." Lin Heng said with a smile, and fed a small piece of meat into her little mouth.
"Great~" Xiaoxia smiled happily.
Lin Heng also got himself a piece. The bacon didn’t need any seasoning at all. It was just grilled directly. It tasted so good that people couldn’t stop eating it.
"Ah, now the rain is not so urgent." Lin Heng grinned. It was a beautiful thing to eat barbecue, listen to the rain, and look at the hazy figures of all things in the rain.
"Meow~" Jinbao sat on the bench and looked at the stove.
"Awoo~" Xiongba squatted on the ground and looked at Lin Heng.
Both guys were begging, but Xiongba was wagging his tail and grinning, while Jinbao was just rubbing the back of the bench, trying to maintain his dignity and pride.
After Lin Heng fed Xiongba a piece of meat, Jinbao could no longer sit still. He walked over and rubbed his hand, looking at him with his heterochromatic eyes and a pleading look.
It is no longer afraid of people. It will not leave even if the rope is untied. It is just like the musk deer, sleeping in the woods. It is not as comfortable as eating and sleeping here.
From time to time, it would catch a mouse to show Lin Heng and Xiulan its ability as a powerful predator. Most of the time, it played games with Xiaoxia.
"Here, have one too." Lin Heng touched Jinbao. His fur was shiny and glossy, and it felt very comfortable to touch.
"You don't need to eat lunch." Xiulan burped and said with a smile. Lin Heng knew how to enjoy life too much. She had gained weight from such a long life.
"We still have a few pears from the last time we bought. Let's stew some brown sugar pears to relieve the greasiness." Lin Heng said with a smile.
Anyone would be annoyed if they just sit and watch the rain when it rains, but it would be much more pleasant if they set up a small stove to roast some meat, stew something to eat, and then watch the rain.
Unfortunately, there is no clay pot at home, so he used the small iron pot he used in the mountains to stew it. I will write this down in my notebook and buy a few small clay pots when I go to the city to buy supplies next time.
In just over ten minutes, a pot of bright red rock sugar and snow pears was stewed, with red dates and a dendrobium added.
Xiulan and Xiaoxia both loved it and drank it slowly with a spoon.
“Boom boom boom!!”
At this time, there was a knock on the door outside, and then Lin's father's voice came out: "Son, open the door quickly, I have something important to talk to you about!"
"What's the big deal, Dad?"
Lin Heng opened the gate of the yard and asked curiously.
"Look at the other side of the river." Father Lin said, pointing in the direction of the other side of the upstream Shiban River.
Lin Heng raised his head and looked in that direction. That was the place where he and his nephew Lin Wei used to catch rabbits.
Because it rained in the past two days, water from the mountain was pouring down directly from that direction.
"Oh my god! Mudslide!!"
It doesn't matter if you don't look, but when you do, you'll be shocked to see countless trees and rocks collapsing from the top of the mountain. There is a loud bang, and water splashes more than ten meters high.
The flowing stones and mud directly blocked the river channel, and the river water, like an angry dragon, was cut off and kept rising.
"It's over. The few acres of corn and soybeans below haven't arrived yet. We probably have lost one of our fields too." Father Lin shook his head and sighed. God really didn't bless him.
"How could this happen? There are trees all over the mountain opposite, so how could there be a mudslide?"
Xiulan and Xiaoxia also came out and looked at the other side in confusion.
"That's a soft rock mountain. It will definitely collapse if water pours in. I hope the families living near the river below are okay."
Lin Heng shook his head, he was also very anxious.
This rain will definitely cause the road to collapse. After the rain stops, it may be difficult for cars to pass for ten days or half a month. He still needs to go into the city to purchase goods.
"Look, Secretary Tian is coming down with his men wearing a raincoat. They are going to inform the people below." Father Lin pointed at the figure that appeared on the road and said,
"Secretary Tian, be careful." Lin Heng shouted loudly. This is a good cadre. I hope nothing will happen on the road.
"Remember to dig the drainage ditch behind the house. Be careful." Secretary Tian replied and led his men to the downstream.
Lin Heng looked at the door and estimated that the river would burst its banks within an hour. A huge head of water would wash away the entire downstream river channel, and even some surrounding areas would be unsafe.
Fortunately, his house is quite far away from the Shiban River. If the river had flooded to this extent, the entire Huangtan Town might have been submerged.
As far as he could remember, this mudslide occurred in the summer three years later, during a period of extremely heavy rain.
But it broke out now. It's really unpredictable.
Fortunately, the mudslide was not very large and at most destroyed the fields and houses that were too close to the river.
"Dad, where have you been?" Lin Heng asked his father who was covered in tissue paper.
Father Lin slapped his head and suddenly said, "There is one more thing I forgot to tell you."
"I went to collect grass for the cows in the morning, and someone in the village said that the corn was destroyed by wild boars. I went to take a look, and found that our half acre of corn was also destroyed by these damn wild boars." Father Lin cursed.
Originally, the corn might have a chance to be saved if it was still on the stalk, but now that it was knocked to the ground by the wild boar, it is definitely doomed.
"There's nothing we can do about it. I can't guard the wild boars in the second half of the day. Just eat them." Lin Heng spread his hands. There were too many wild boars in the mountains, and this happened every year.
"Oh!" Father Lin sighed heavily.
"Dad, come in and have some candied pears before you go back. We'll have barbecue."
Lin Heng pulled his father into the house, made him a bowl of hot candied pears, and cut some bacon to roast on the stove.
Father Lin drank the hot candied pear and ate the barbecue. He couldn't help but smile and said, "You still know how to enjoy yourself."
Lin Heng looked at his father and persuaded him with a smile: "Dad, you should learn it too. Now you don't have much pressure anymore. Don't think about working all day long."
"Okay." Father Lin nodded. There was indeed no pressure at home now, but he instinctively couldn't sit still.
After eating barbecue here for a while, Father Lin also thought that this small stove was good and wanted to go back and make one for himself.
"It feels like the mudslide is about to burst the dam. Let's go out and take a look." Lin Heng looked at his watch and said. Unknowingly, almost an hour had passed.
* * * PS: It's the last day of giving up. Starting tomorrow I'll earn 10,000 yuan a day. I'll work hard, friends. By the way, I'll ask for monthly tickets. I'll double the monthly tickets at the end of the month. So far, my monthly tickets have never exceeded 1,000 yuan in a single month.
(End of this chapter)
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