Chapter 54 Spring Blossoms
There are many villagers working under Xia Wu.
There are Mr. Yang Si, Shi Hongniang, Qiu Lan, and now there is also Wang Minping.
Ever since Guihua's mother left Xia Wu last year and had a big fight with her son and daughter-in-law, she now lives alone. She has not asked to come back, and Xia Wu has not asked about it.
However, after the New Year, Mr. Yang Si could no longer sit still and took the initiative to talk to Xia Wu about Guihua Niang.
During the Chinese New Year, Guihua's son and daughter-in-law came back, and their daughter-in-law also came back. The two brothers had separated a long time ago and built houses next to each other. They used to see each other every day, but now they have become enemies and don't say a word to each other.
The two brothers had the same attitude towards their mother who gave birth to them. They ignored her and did not ask about her.
Some people in the village couldn't stand it and went to ask a few questions, but the two brothers acted like idiots, sticking their heads up and arguing with others.
"She's not even willing to spend a little money on her grandson, and she still cares about me, her son. I'm not the only son!"
"I give her 200 yuan a month. What else does she want? My life?"
As for where Guihua's mother should spend the New Year, the two brothers pushed each other and were reluctant to let their biological mother come to their home to celebrate the New Year.
If Guihua's mother heard what he said and did, she would not know if she would regret having the child.
On the twenty-ninth day of the lunar year, Guihua's mother was frying meatballs at home alone and had no plans to visit her two sons' homes.
Who knew that her grandson would come to her house and want her to spend the New Year with him. Guihua's mother was a little happy, but who knew that his real intention was not to spend the New Year with her, but to make some money for her.
Guihua's mother was completely heartbroken. She cooked the meal herself on New Year's Eve and went to the grave to burn incense for her husband herself.
On the second day of the Lunar New Year, several grandchildren came to visit her home empty-handed. Guihua's mother had learned her lesson. There was plenty of boiled water at home, but she had already hidden the money somewhere else.
The grandchildren returned home empty-handed, and rumors spread in the village the next day, saying that Guihua's mother was very stingy and was saving money for her own coffin, and was even reluctant to give her children New Year's money.
The villagers laughed at Guihua Niang's son and daughter-in-law, saying that they were very clever in calculating how to get something for nothing. But they were too shameless and went out to work after the New Year. Who cared what the villagers said?
Guihua Niang had a good relationship with Mr. Yang Siye and Shi Hongniang, and they could often get together to talk. When it came to these family matters, Guihua Niang had let it go. She was so old, she might die any day. She couldn't force the child back, no matter how cruel she was. She could only take it easy and pretend she didn't have the child in her life. She would take care of herself.
For this reason, Guihua's mother went to the village committee to ask Yang Guofeng whether the village would take care of her burial if she died one day.
Yang Guofeng smoked half a cigarette, scolded the Yang Daming brothers almost to death, and then comforted Guihua's mother: "The village committee is in charge of this matter. You should live your life as you should and pretend that you never gave birth to those two bastards."
Guihua's mother nodded and felt relieved. She told Yang Guofeng where she had hidden her money. If she died one day, she would ask the village committee to use the money to buy her a coffin and keep her funeral simple.
Both Mr. Yang Si and Shi Hongniang advised her that she was only in her sixties or seventies and was still in good health. Without any illness or disaster, it would not be a problem for her to live to ninety-one or a hundred years old. She still had a long time to live in the future and should always plan for herself.
They asked Guihua's mother to find something to do and come to work for Xia Wu. It didn't matter if she earned little, as long as she had someone to accompany her, she would not feel sick.
Guihua's mother was a little moved, but embarrassed, "How can a little girl like me still want me?"
So, Mr. Yang Si came to Xia Wu to ask about the situation.
"Guihua's mother also regretted it. She doesn't have any other money-making skills. If you see a shortage of people, let her do some work. We can all do some work and get less pay."
After getting used to working for Xia Wu, money became unimportant and he felt comfortable.
It is always more comfortable to have someone to talk to every day and to have younger people care about you than to lie alone in the house or sit at the door.
Without even thinking, Xia Wu said directly to Fourth Master Yang, "Okay, Fourth Master, please ask Guihua Niang to come. I can always find work for you."
"That's great! I've been doing farm work all my life, and I'm still willing to work even in my old age. I feel uncomfortable if I don't work for a day!"
Mr. Yang Si was very happy. He felt that he was living a more and more comfortable life. Thinking that the buffalo at home was running out of milk, what if Xiao Wu couldn't drink it? He even wanted to buy another buffalo.
Just like that, after the New Year, a courier was sent, and there were five villagers working under Xia Wu for a long time, including the newcomer Wang Minping.
Xia Wu didn't offer a high salary, fifteen yuan an hour. Several people could only work less than three hours a day, so the average daily salary was just over two hundred yuan.
Xia Wu can make the money back by selling strawberries.
But strawberries alone are not enough.
Xia Wu planted more than two acres of strawberries. She didn't use any pesticides. On the surface, she only applied fertilizer, but in fact, she secretly watered the strawberries with spiritual spring water. Otherwise, how could these strawberries continue to bear fruit and be harvested?
As spring came, strawberries were at the end of their strength, so Xia Wu planned to shift his focus and develop more ways to make money.
She now makes money mainly through several aspects. One is shooting videos. On average, she shoots about six videos a month. The price is based on the number of views, and she can earn 10,000 to 20,000 yuan a month.
The second is selling strawberries. The price has remained unchanged and the sales volume is stable, but the momentum is insufficient and the strawberries are about to go out of season.
The third is selling honey. More than one hundred loquat trees are in full bloom this year because of the irrigation of spiritual spring water. This is good news for the bees and even better news for Xia Wu.
Honey is collected once every two weeks, about ten pounds at a time, and each time it can be sold for a price ranging from several thousand to ten thousand yuan.
It is with this money that Xia Wu can successfully purchase wolfberry, raspberry, and sea buckthorn seedlings, hire people to plant fences, and pay them wages.
As the hilltops grew greener day by day, Xia Wu knew that the current difficulties were only temporary.
What she needs is time, and what Xia Wu lacks the least is time.
Soon after the New Year, it was the beginning of spring. Someone rode a motorcycle into the village to sell fish fry. The shouting from the loudspeaker startled Xia Wu, and she hurried out to stop the person.
“How much are the fish fry?”
The motorcycle stopped, and a middle-aged man got off. He spoke in the local dialect, "I'm selling crucian carp fry. Five cents each. Want to take a look?"
"Let me see," Yang Guojun also came out of the house. The father and daughter walked over. The man selling fish fry opened the straw cover, revealing densely packed crucian carp fry in the water.
He picked up a handful of crucian carp fry with his hands. They were not big, only about two or three centimeters. "I raised them all myself. Don't be fooled by their small size. They are very active. Look how strong they are!"
The fish seller asked again, "Is this pond yours?"
Yang Guojun smiled and said, "Yes, I put some fish in it a few years ago, enough for my family to eat."
"There are a lot of fish in there. If we put more fry in, I don't think we can keep them alive."
The pond in front of the Yang family's house is only about two acres in size. Its advantage is that it has running water and is connected to the village river. Its disadvantage is that the pond mouth is small and the family doesn't catch fish very often. When it is cloudy or rainy, the water surface is densely packed with fish floating up to absorb oxygen.
The fishmonger was honest and said, "You can buy if you want, but don't buy too much, or you won't be able to keep them alive."
Xia Wu smiled and said, "Don't put it in this pond."
The lake at the foot of the mountain is bigger than the one at my doorstep. It would be a shame not to raise something there.
Xia Wu wanted to put some fish fry in there first, and then raise some chickens, ducks and geese after the weather got warmer.
A crucian carp fry cost five cents, but Xia Wu bought one worth two hundred yuan. They said there were thousands of fish, but when they were put in the bucket, they looked so few.
She dumped the fish directly into the lake at the foot of the mountain, hoping they would be big enough to eat by autumn.
Liu Guizhen rarely poured cold water on her. She smiled and said, "You're raising fish, geese, and ducks. If you don't raise fish, you'll eat them all. How can you wait until autumn for them to grow into big fish?"
Xia Wu was very open-minded about this. It didn't matter whether she ate or the ducks and geese ate, it was all the same, survival of the fittest.
Didn’t you see that Mr. Park’s free-range chickens are delicious?
Ever since the man selling fish fry said that there were too many fish in the pond at the door, Yang Guojun took this matter to heart. He would check on the pond early in the morning every few days. Sometimes the fish would wake up early to absorb oxygen, and a large group of them would turn black, which seemed to be a bit too many.
Yang Guojun said to Xia Wu, "The fish seem to be too dense here. In the past few years, we were so busy spreading the fry that we forgot to catch them. Do you want to catch some and bring them to town to sell?"
He knew that Xia Wu was short of money, but the family really didn't have much extra money to support their daughter. Although Yang Guojun didn't say it, he was anxious in his heart.
However, spring is the time when fish spawn and give birth to young fish, and using nets to catch them would be excessive, so this matter had to be abandoned.
Overfishing is bad, but fishing is not a big problem.
Xia Wu had nothing to do anyway, so he borrowed a fishing rod from Mr. Yang Si and learned how to fish.
I don’t know if she was lucky or there were just too many fish in the pond, but after fishing for more than an hour, the bucket containing the fish was full.
There were mostly grass carp and crucian carp in the pond, all of which were quite large. Since they couldn't be eaten up at home, Xia Wu asked Shi Hongniang and the others to share some with them and take them home.
Before the New Year, Zhao Jing came back and Yang Guofeng found her a job as a customer service representative at Xia Wu, earning 3,000 yuan a month. There was a break for a few days because of the Chinese New Year, so Zhao Jing was idle at home. After the New Year, when Xia Wu started work, she came to work.
She carried the two fish Xia Wu had given her home and said, "Mom, shall we cook fish tonight?"
Li Hongli asked her, "Where did the fish come from?"
"Xiao Wu caught this. Give us two each. Look at this grass carp. It must weigh at least three or four pounds, right?"
Li Hongli was very happy. She put the fish in the basin and Zhao Jing went to the kitchen to cook.
At noon, the whole family was together. Zhao Jing mentioned her work at Xia Wu's house again. Her father suddenly asked, "Aren't you going to go out to work?"
What is coming will come eventually. Zhao Jing lowered her head and put the rice into her mouth grain by grain.
"I don't want to go out."
Her father slammed his chopsticks on the table and asked, "How much money can you make working at home?"
Zhao Jing said dissatisfiedly: "It's three thousand a month. It's just a few steps away. I eat at home every day and don't spend much. I can save at least two or three thousand a month. Why don't I make any money?"
"Can it be the same?"
"Why is it different?"
Li Hongli grabbed her husband and told him to stop talking.
"Jingjing doesn't stay at home all the time. Hasn't she been away from home all these years? If she comes back, she can at least make a hot meal for you and your father. Can you still rely on her alone to support the family?"
"Okay, just stay home."
Zhao Jing's grandfather also spoke up to help.
In this way, Zhao Jing secured a brief opportunity to stay home and rest. When her coworkers contacted her and asked which factory she planned to switch to, Zhao Jing boasted, "I'm not leaving this year. I've found a job at home."
She is very satisfied with her current life. It only takes a few minutes to walk from her home to Xia Wu's home. She breathes fresh air every day and eats organic vegetables grown by her own family. Zhao Jing feels that she has become a little prettier.
Especially when spring comes, everything comes back to life, the weather gets warmer, and walking on the road with the spring breeze blowing is a rare enjoyment in life.
The fruit trees planted by Xia Wu on the mountain have a survival rate of up to 100%. When spring comes, new branches and new buds appear, and there are new changes every day.
She put raising chickens, ducks and geese on the agenda and took Liu Guizhen, who was knowledgeable about the business, to the market in town.
The spring market sells everything. Bamboo baskets evoke chirping sounds. Looking inside, I see newly yellow chicks huddled together. Liu Guizhen squats down, grabs a few and examines them. "Sister, how are your chicks?"
"Two dollars and a half each. They're all eggs from our own hens. They're good."
"I bought a lot, will you sell it for two?"
"How much do you want?"
“How much is in a basket?”
"There are at least sixty or seventy of them in this basket. If you want them all, I'll give you a discount."
"Okay, count how many there are."
The chicken seller found another basket and counted the chickens. There were sixty-seven chicks in total. "If you want them all, take them for one hundred and fifty yuan."
"Are there more males or females?"
"Oh, there must be more females. If you take them home and raise them for a few months, they will start laying eggs."
Liu Guizhen didn't have the patience to pry open the skin of each chicken to check its gender, so she paid 150 yuan and took the chicks away.
"The chicks don't have a hen, so we need to raise them at home for at least a month or two, and then release them into the mountains when they're older. Otherwise, there won't be any left before summer."
Xia Wu nodded. She didn’t understand, so she just listened to her mother.
There are more people selling chicken and ducklings at the market, but not many selling gooselings, and one gooseling costs fifteen yuan.
It was no use for Liu Guizhen to bargain with others.
After returning home, Yang Guojun renovated the pigpen in the backyard, dividing it into three areas and separating the chickens, ducks and geese. These little guys need to be raised for a while before they can be released at the foot of the mountain, otherwise they will have no ability to protect themselves.
The fruit trees on the mountain are in bloom, and from a distance they look pink and white, like a floral mist hidden in the forest.
After the loquat tree has finished its flowering season, it starts to bear fruit. You can see the green loquat fruits on them without even turning over the leaves.
Xia Wu planned to move the beehives to another place in the orchard on the other side. Fearing that it would affect the purity of the loquat honey, he took his brother to the mountain to collect honey.
She did not ask Mr. Park for help. She watched Mr. Park's operations a few times before, practiced a few times in her mind, and then did it herself after taking protective measures.
The honeycombs were taken out, the honey was harvested, and finally the box was resealed. Everything went smoothly.
There should be about ten pounds of loquat honey left.
The batch of loquat honey collected before the New Year was finally bought by Mr. Ji. I heard that the effect was good, so Xia Wu didn't ask about it in detail.
When she got home, she made some loquat honey for her family. It tasted good and after drinking too much, her throat felt really cool and clear.
It happens that people are prone to dry throats in spring, so Xia Wu simply kept some loquat honey for herself and made tea for her family to drink.
You can't sell all the good things to others while your own people can't enjoy any of the good things.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
