Chapter 47: Little Money, Little Money
Pruning loquat trees in winter is mainly to remove overly dense branches, reduce nutrient consumption, and improve cold and disease resistance.
Pruning the hundred loquat trees on the mountain is physically demanding work. Xia Wu, his father, and his brother worked for two days, then asked the women in the village to take over the job.
Coincidentally, the women working for her were the ones who came to pick loquat leaves last time.
The flu was prevalent and the villagers were coughing. Old Man Yang treated them and gave them loquat leaves boiled in water to drink. Now their coughs have eased a lot and they are somewhat grateful to the Yang family.
Xia Wu also wanted to improve his relationship with the villagers, so he simply taught them how to prune loquat trees, which could also generate income for them.
The loquat branches that have been cut down cannot be wasted. The good leaves should be picked and kept. If someone nearby comes to buy them, they will be sold at ten leaves for one dollar.
When someone places an order online, Xia Wu will ship the goods and give them away as a gift, so as to avoid waste.
Both offline and online reviews are very good, saying that boiling loquat leaves in water is indeed effective. As long as the flu epidemic does not pass, it is estimated that Xia Wu’s loquat leaves can still be sold for a while.
Fortunately, loquat trees grow leaves all year round, so there is no need to worry about them being plucked out.
There are more than a hundred trees, which can be sold for a long time.
Old Man Yang even specially prepared some loquat leaves for this purpose, intending to use them as medicine to treat villagers in the future. Since his own stuff is not valuable, it may save money for the people, so in his eyes it is a good thing.
Xia Wu is very busy every day. Not long after the apricot trees were planted, the other saplings she ordered online arrived one after another.
Peach trees, pear trees, plum trees, plum trees... and the most expensive blueberry seedlings.
There are only a few people in Xia Wu's family, and even if they had three heads and six arms, they would not be able to handle everything. At this time, the benefits of establishing a good relationship with the village party secretary became apparent.
Yang Guofeng was responsible for keeping watch in the village and finding people who could work hard and would not be lazy. They would not provide food and would be paid 100 yuan a day for planting trees. The villagers were very enthusiastic to sign up.
Yang Mingyuan had had enough of picking strawberries, and while wiping his nose, he asked Xia Wu if he could plant trees as well. However, planting trees required digging holes, filling them with soil, and fetching water for the plants. It was not a job a little kid could do at all.
"Go ahead and pick strawberries. When the fruit trees on the mountain bear fruit next year, I'll give you another job."
She planted a lot of trees, but she was short of manpower to do all the work. She wished there were more diligent children like Yang Mingyuan and his sister, and Yang Ping and Yang An, their brother and sister, to help with the work.
Xia Wu's heart moved, and she pulled Yang Mingyuan to her side with a smile, "Mingyuan, how are your relationships with other students in the class?"
Yang Mingyuan curled his lips, lowered his head, and said unhappily, "Not very good."
"What's going on?"
"They all bully me!"
"How did I bully you? Tell me and I'll give you some advice."
Yang Mingyuan looked up at Xia Wu, a little embarrassed, "Sister, didn't I bring them here to steal your strawberries before? After they tasted the sweetness, they wanted to steal again. I didn't let them, so they fought with me. In the end, I won, and they didn't dare to come anymore."
"But they don't play with me anymore. They say bad things about me at school every day. I don't want to play with them anymore."
Xia Wu felt a little sad when she heard this. She rubbed his head just once and then quickly withdrew her hand.
"Yang Mingyuan, how long has it been since you washed your hair?"
Yang Mingyuan blushed, "I, I don't have hot water at home. I'm afraid of catching a cold."
"It's not cold now. I'll get you some water so you can wash your hair."
There was a water heater at home, so Xia Wu turned on the solar energy in the bathroom, found a basin for washing clothes, filled it with hot water, and prepared shampoo, conditioner and a clean towel for Yang Mingyuan.
The bathroom heated up quickly.
"Take off your coat."
Yang Mingyuan obeyed and took off his coat, revealing a sweater underneath.
"Take off your sweater too."
He took off his sweater, revealing a worn jacket underneath.
Xia Wu tugged at his clothes, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, "How many layers are you wearing?"
Yang Mingyuan felt embarrassed himself. In the end, all he was left with was an autumn shirt. It was black and had not been washed for who knows how long. The arms were also shorter.
Xia Wu felt mixed emotions. Yang Mingyuan's siblings' parents worked away from home all year round, and the only elderly person in the family had difficulty living due to rheumatism. The two children usually had to take care of the elderly in turn.
Such parents are really...
Children also have self-esteem. Xia Wu didn't say anything and let Yang Mingyuan wash his hair by himself while she helped him.
"Just because you don't let them steal the strawberries, they won't play with you?"
"Well, I don't play with them either."
"That won't do. You don't even have any friends at school. What if someone bullies you?"
"I'll tell the teacher!"
Xia Wu was amused by him, "I'll give you an idea. I'll make sure you get along well with the other students in the class."
She asked Yang Mingyuan to bring some snacks to class next week and say that it was pocket money he earned from working for Xia Wu.
In this way, someone will definitely ask Yang Mingyuan if they can come and earn this money.
As the middleman, Yang Mingyuan will naturally have no shortage of people to play with him, and Xia Wu will probably have no shortage of child soldiers next year.
If you blow dry your hair immediately after washing it, put on your clothes and then leave the warm bathroom, how can you catch a cold?
But Xia Wu followed Old Man Yang to Yang Mingyuan's house. It was an old bungalow with no electric water heater, only an electric kettle that had been used for who knows how many years. The TV in the house was bought more than ten years ago, and there was a thick layer of ice on the top of the refrigerator.
Parents who work away from home rarely come back throughout the year. No matter how poor the lives of the children and elderly at home are, they are powerless to help.
Seeing families like Yang Mingyuan in the village, Xia Wu could understand Yang Guofeng better.
The fruit seedlings were planted one after another. When Xia Wu had nothing to do, she would run to the mountain and water the seedlings with spiritual spring water when no one was paying attention. She always felt that the loquat leaves on the mountain were useful because they were watered with spiritual spring water.
If people drink the spiritual spring water directly, the effect will not be as great as if they water it on plants and then eat the plants.
However, watering on the mountain is difficult and water has to be carried. Xia Wu has an idea. He wants to build a water tower on the top of the mountain so that water can be transported down from the top of the mountain, saving a lot of manpower.
It’s a good idea, but I don’t have the money.
Xia Wu has now become a pauper again. Every day when he runs to the mountain, he looks around to see if there is anything that can turn into money.
After much thought, I decided that developing hot springs would be the fastest way to realize profits.
The last time I contacted Ma Fangzhou, he said he would take annual leave to fly over, but some work at the company delayed him for two days. He will probably come in the next few days.
After delivering the express to the town, Xia Wu had nothing better to do and went wandering around the mountains. With Yang Guojun watching over the tree planting, she didn't have to worry about making mistakes. She went to the loquat forest and watched the aunties cutting branches and picking leaves.
"Xiao Wu, when you weren't here just now, some people from other villages came up the mountain and tried to pick loquat leaves secretly. I stopped them."
The woman who was speaking was called Zhang Fang, she was 47 years old, with elderly parents and young children to take care of. Her husband worked at a construction site outside, and she was at home taking care of the elderly and children.
Xia Wu spared no effort to praise her: "Well done, next year when the loquats are ripe, I will pick more for you."
Several women were overjoyed and said with a smile, "These people are really something. I told them that ten pieces for one dollar are too expensive. They heard that the loquat leaves on your mountain are delicious when boiled in water, but they are still reluctant to spend one dollar. If there were no one around, they would probably steal them. You have to think of a way to stop them, otherwise there will be many more fruits on the mountain next year, and you can't have someone watching over them all the time!"
Once people have a stance, they will protect their shortcomings.
Since they work for Xia Wu, they naturally have to consider Xia Wu.
Now everyone in the village says that there are too many things to grow on Xia Wu Mountain, and her family will be too busy to handle it next year, so they will definitely have to hire someone to do it like they are doing now.
Those who are idle at home in the village all want to earn some money, so naturally they want to protect Xia Wu.
Xia Wu was also troubled by this matter.
Last time, the village party secretary asked her to ask for a few good dogs to guard the house. She went to ask, and it happened that someone's big dog had given birth to seven or eight puppies. But it would take at least a year and a half for them to grow up to be able to guard the house.
Far water cannot quench immediate thirst.
After the puppy is weaned, Xia Wu plans to take it home and raise it first.
She asked Zhang Fang and the others, "Auntie, I've been thinking about this too. It's too late to raise a dog to watch over the mountains now. Do you have any good ideas?"
Several women looked at each other and enthusiastically gave her advice.
"Just raising dogs isn't enough. You might as well raise some geese. The big white geese are just as good at guarding the house as dogs, and they lay eggs, which is great!"
"Or you could put up a sign at the foot of the mountain saying this mountain is under contract. Some people won't know it's under contract and will definitely come up and steal things."
"How about finding something to stop the foot of the mountain?"
"What can we use to block it? It's such a big hill. Putting up barbed wire must cost a lot of money!"
Barbed wire? No, no, too ugly.
Xia Wu doesn't want too many ugly things on his mountain.
"Instead of barbed wire, why not just plant some barbed wire fences?"
Xia Wu was quite interested. "What kind of fence has thorns?"
"There are so many. Don't wolfberries have thorns? And there are wild berries on the mountain. They also have thorns. They can block the road and grow fruit. How great!"
"According to what you said, we can also grow sea buckthorn. Sea buckthorn has many thorns and is delicious!"
Xia Wu knew about wolfberry, but she was not sure about the wild pomegranate and sea buckthorn that Zhang Fang and the others were talking about.
After checking online, I found out that wild bubble may refer to raspberry, and sea buckthorn is sea buckthorn. Both plants do have thorns and have high nutritional value.
The flowers, leaves and fruits of sea buckthorn can be used as medicine. They have the effects of strengthening the spleen, digesting food and nourishing the body. They are also rich in various vitamins.
Raspberries are not inferior to sea buckthorn. Some mountain farmers specialize in growing raspberries, which not only increases their income but also stabilizes the soil on the slopes. The fruit can be processed in many ways, such as raspberry juice, raspberry jam, raspberry wine...
Not to mention wolfberry, various health products on the market have always been very popular, with high nutritional value and even higher economic value.
Xia Wu made the final decision to plant these three plants as a fence. At the same time, he adopted other people's suggestions to put up signs and install surveillance cameras at the foot of the mountain, and raise some big white geese!
But this is another expense...
Xia Wu looked up at the sky with a melancholy look on his face.
Money, money, why didn’t she feel that money was so lovely and important in the past twenty years?
When you feel sleepy, someone will give you a pillow.
Xia Wu was still worrying about where to get money in the mountains. When she came down the mountain and returned home, she saw Grandpa Pu talking to her grandfather in her yard. He looked sad, but when he saw Xia Wu coming back, he smiled again.
"Xiao Wu, have you ever tasted the loquat honey from the mountain?"
Xia Wu shook his head, "Not yet. I've been so busy lately that I haven't been able to see it."
"Come on, come on, follow me up the mountain. Let's go see how much honey we have. I'm telling you, a big client wants to buy authentic loquat honey, and I thought of you right away. I'm offering a high price, so you won't lose out!"
Xia Wu's eyes lit up immediately. "How much is this?"
"Two thousand for a pound of loquat honey. Do you think it's expensive?"
"So expensive!" Xia Wu exclaimed softly, somewhat confused. "Master Pu, isn't this price too high?"
"You don't understand those rich people. Two thousand yuan isn't enough to fill their stomachs for a meal, but as long as the food is good, they'll still rush to buy it!"
Old Master Yang took Yang Hongwen and their honey collecting equipment and went up the mountain with them.
On the way, when Mr. Pu talked about the customer's experience of buying honey, Xia Wu finally understood.
The person who bought the honey was a comrade of Ji Yunzhou's grandfather. He was quite old and had been injured in the battlefield in his early years. His health had not been very good and he could only rest. Recently, the flu was serious, and when the younger generation of the family went to visit him, they accidentally infected the old man.
Young people may be fine after a few days of fever and cough, but it is different for the elderly. They have poor health to begin with, and getting infected with the flu is like walking through the gates of hell. It is said that half of their lungs turned white, but they were still rescued.
After he was rescued, his lungs were not in good condition. He had a sore throat, cough, and phlegm. But we didn't dare use strong medicine for fear that something might happen to the old man.
For a while, the family was very worried.
It just so happened that Xia Wu had sent some loquat leaves to Mr. Pu some time ago, asking him to boil some water with them and drink it when he was free. It would be effective in relieving cough and reducing phlegm. Mr. Pu drank it, but he didn't have a cough to begin with, so he didn't feel any benefit from it.
It was Ji Yunzhou's grandfather who came to chat with him, talked about the situation of his comrade-in-arms, and reminded him to take care of his health. Only then did Grandpa Pu tell Grandpa Ji about boiling loquat leaves in water.
Old Man Ji took this matter to heart and thought of getting some leaves to send to his old comrade, just in case it worked. Afraid of sending the wrong thing, the old man boiled some water and drank some himself, and he felt that it seemed to be useful.
He just wanted Mr. Pu to give him some more loquat leaves.
The loquat leaves sent to Mr. Ji were sent by Xia Wu.
But she never expected that there were so many twists and turns here.
The loquat leaves were sent over, and Mr. Ji's comrades also drank them. They did help a little, but the effect was minimal. It might be that their lungs turned white, and the symptoms were more serious than those of others.
Mr. Pu gave Mr. Ji some advice and asked his old comrade to buy some loquat honey to try.
After a few rounds of promotion, Xia Wu's loquat honey was sold out.
"They have money, they just want to save the old man some pain."
When they got to the mountain, Mr. Pu put on his mask, drove away the bees, and took out the honeycomb. "Wow, there's quite a lot of honey! I'm rich!"
Loquat flowers are much larger than strawberry flowers and there are more of them. There is only one box of bees for more than a hundred loquat trees. They collect honey day and night and accumulate at least ten kilograms of honey.
Finding something to pack up the loquat honey, Xia Wu looked at the nectar as if he saw countless red bills, and felt so happy!
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