Chapter 125 New Year
"Brother, do you think it is really possible to catch a fox in this snowy and icy weather?" Wang Hongjun asked as they walked.
"Hey, why are you asking so many questions? Just follow your brother. If you don't believe it, don't come." Ma Youcai said to Wang Hongjun.
"Brother, do you want to catch a fox and give it to a girl?" Liu Bing said with a smile.
Dong Guoqing kicked Liu Bing and said, "What do you mean by seeing through but not saying it? You don't even have this much sense? How did you get along with Big Brother?"
Liu Bing was kicked and said unconvincedly: "You are capable of this, but you still want to know."
"Really? I want to know too." Wang Feng came forward and said.
"Go, go, go, hurry up, why are you talking so much nonsense." Ziyi took the lead and walked forward quickly. He really wanted to give Yike a fox fur to make a scarf.
"Let me tell you, I have been following this fox for a long time, but it was too cunning, and it disappeared halfway through my follow. This time I found its cave because of the snow, and this cunning thing left footprints." Ziyi talked about how he discovered the fox.
"So cunning that even my brother can't track him?" Wang Hongjun asked in surprise.
Ziyi glanced at Wang Hongjun and said, "Don't underestimate the fox. It is really cunning and cannot be caught by ordinary traps."
The few of them soon arrived at the place where Ziyi discovered the fox cave. The entrance to the fox cave was very hidden and difficult to find without careful observation. "This is a rabbit hole, and it's occupied by a fox. Rabbits usually have several holes. Let's block the other holes and leave two exits. We'll block the cage at one exit, and when the fox comes out and crawls into the cage, we'll cover the cage entrance. We'll light a fire at the other exit to smoke it out, to ensure it can only go through this exit. Who told it to occupy the rabbit hole?"
Ziyi directed everyone to work together and prepare for the work. Wang Hongjun started to light a fire and soon a fox rushed into the cage. Ziyi quickly closed the lid.
"Wow! This fox is so beautiful. Brother, such a beautiful fox, I can't bear to kill it." Wang Hongjun shouted.
"Go back and decide whether to kill it or not." Ziyi tied the cage and went home carrying it.
“Sister Yike, sister Yike…” As soon as Ziyi and the others walked into the cave, Ma Youcai shouted at the top of his voice.
"Hey! Here he comes." Yi Ke could hear Ma Youcai's hoarse voice from afar.
"Sister Yike, come and see what your brother Ziyi has caught for you?" Ma Youcai said behind Ziyi.
Ziyi strode towards Yike carrying the cage, and Yike saw a red animal in the cage. Ziyi lifted the cage and put it down in front of Yike, saying happily, "Take a look, do you like it?"
"What is this? A fox?" Yi Ke had never seen a fox before. He had only seen it in pictures in his previous life, so he was not sure.
"Yes! Red fox." Ziyi pushed the cage forward again.
Yi Ke went to the cage and took a closer look. This animal called a fox was wearing red fur, but the neck and abdomen were covered with white fur, just like a white shirt under a red cloak. It was very beautiful. The outside of the fox's ears are covered with red fur, but the fur in the center of the ears is white. If I wasn't afraid of being bitten, I would really like to stroke it.
"Brother Ziyi, this fox is so beautiful. Do you want to kill it?" Yi Ke was really reluctant to do so.
"You decide if you like, but foxes are hard to raise. I want to give you the fox fur to make a scarf."
"Then keep it first. If it still can't be tamed after a long time, then kill it."
So the fox escaped temporarily and was placed in a small stone house made of stones in a hidden cave. This small stone house was originally built to house the wild rabbits that had just been caught, and it has no roof. Now it's just right to keep the fox captive, just cover the roof with a few wooden boards.
Li Haoran and Du Qingcang came back empty-handed, with nothing in the trap. Generally, wild animals will not come out in the ice and snow unless they have no food and are forced to come out.
The reunion dinner started at four in the afternoon. Both tables were filled with food. Braised pork, stir-fried rabbit, steamed bacon, chicken stewed with mushrooms, cabbage and meat rolls, stir-fried lettuce, stir-fried chrysanthemum with garlic, braised pumpkin with peanuts, braised winter bamboo shoots in oil, and cold carrots. In front of each person is a bowl of white radish and bone soup. After drinking the soup, they can eat white rice. If they want to drink, they can drink it first and then eat.
Thirteen grown men, including Li Haoran, Du Qingcang, Li Youcai, Chen Shengli, Ziyi, Ma Youcai, Wang Feng, Wang Hongjun, Dong Guoqing, Liu Bing, Li Dashan, Chen Dawang and Hu Xiangdong, sat at one table. There were twelve people in total, sitting at one table: Zhang Yuling, Wang Cuihua, Yike, Du Jiankang, Chen Yueer, Chen Fugui and his mother Tao Xiu'e, the two sisters Hu Lili and her mother Sun Meili, Li Xiaoying and her mother Chen Hongmei. Fortunately, when making the table, it was suggested to make it round, and the table is big enough, otherwise twelve or thirteen people might not be able to sit at the table.
Everyone ate their food while chatting about this year's harvest. Finally, I secretly summarized: one of the two cows was pregnant with a calf, the calf has grown a lot, the first chicks hatched have also grown up, some of the roosters were used to satisfy everyone's hunger, some were put into bamboo tubes and canned meat and sold, and some were made into salt-baked chicken and sold.
The hen remains laying eggs to continue hatching the chicks. In addition to the first batch of chicks hatched, three more batches of chicks were hatched later. Now there are at least more than a thousand chickens of all sizes in the chicken farm.
The number of ducks remained the same, but because they did not lay eggs, there was no way to hatch ducklings. The number of geese increased by eleven, and these were hatched from goose eggs.
Corn was sold in the winter at a good price. Because the snow melted late this year, sowing was late, and there was heavy rain, the crop yield was reduced. There has been continuous drought in the past few years. When the drought is over, there is freezing and heavy rain, and food is in great shortage. So Ma Youcai and his friends took the corn out to sell, and the price was twice as much as before. The corn sold at one cent per pound at the grain station, but Ma Youcai and his friends sold it at 18 cents per pound on the black market. Just from the corn, everyone earned about 300 yuan, which was half more than the original estimate.
Later, they sold dried sweet potatoes and dried fruits, which were shared equally by everyone. Each person earned more than 800 yuan. There were also other canned meats. Apart from paying Li Youcai and his family their wages, Li Haoran and Du Qingcang's family got an extra 20%, and the rest was shared equally by everyone.
Ma Youcai, Wang Feng, Dong Guoqing and Liu Bing made a fortune following Ziyi's family and became millionaires. Everyone has a deposit of at least three thousand. I can still remember that when Wang Hongjun found out about this, he was extremely jealous and shouted that he would not go to the provincial capital to guard it next year, but would come back to farm, raise chickens and make canned food with Ziyi.
Yike is also very happy because she is now a millionaire. The money she got plus Ziyi's money made the two of them a total of more than 12,000 yuan, one thousand of which was a reward for her ideas and methods.
Without methods such as roasting dried fruits, dried sweet potatoes, various canned foods, distinguishing male and female chicks, artificially hatching chicks, making organic fertilizer, breeding earthworms, raising pigs and cattle, etc., there would not be so much money to be made, so everyone decided to give out 100 yuan each as a reward.
The rest of the money comes from selling rice. They suggest that the millet they harvest be threshed into rice and then sold, and the rice bran be kept to feed pigs, chickens and ducks. The rice money was shared by the four members of their family; no one else got any.
Li Youcai, Chen Shengli and Hu Haohan also earned more than 300 yuan this year. They have never earned so much money in just two months in the past few decades, so they are also very happy.
Of course, if you knew that Ma Youcai and others made thousands of yuan, a few hundred yuan would not seem so attractive. In fact, their sweet potatoes are not roasted and sold like Yi Ke did, but are transported out of the mountains and sold immediately after harvesting.
It was just the autumn harvest at that time, and every family had food to eat, so the price was naturally not high, so they didn't make much money from sweet potatoes. But it was much better than before, at least there was some to sell, but they had to buy them outside before. Although I later saw Yi Ke roasting the sweet potatoes and selling them as dried sweet potatoes, and the price increased several times, I couldn't do anything about it even though I regretted it. I could only think about roasting and selling dried sweet potatoes next year.
After Yi Ke sorted out this year's harvest in his mind, the meat dishes on the table also smelled especially good. Li Dashan ran to another table halfway through his meal, saying that he didn't dare to drink anymore and was about to get drunk. In fact, he wanted to come and accompany his future wife, Chen Yue'er. You can tell by the way they exchanged glances.
"Sister Hongmei, is Dashan's wedding about to take place?" Zhang Yuling asked when she saw that the two young people had a good relationship.
"Let's do it after the Chinese New Year. The child's father said that he made a lot of money this year, so he will go out after the Chinese New Year to buy wedding supplies and get the wedding done." Chen Hongmei was also very satisfied with Chen Yue'er as her daughter-in-law, and wanted to marry her as soon as possible.
When Chen Yue'er heard people talking about her marriage, she shyly lowered her head to eat and was too embarrassed to even pick up some food.
Yike couldn't help but tease Li Dashan: "Brother Dashan, Sister Yue'er has no vegetables!"
Li Dashan quickly picked up two pieces of pork with chopsticks and put them into Chen Yue'er's bowl, which made Chen Yue'er glare at him in embarrassment. But that look was not fierce at all, instead it seemed like she was flirting. Li Dashan scratched his head stupidly, his eyes were fixed on Chen Yue'er without blinking, and it was only after his mother tapped his head that he came back to his senses.
Li Dashan stood up and pretended to get some food to hide his embarrassment. As soon as Li Dashan left, Chen Yue'er became more natural and the adults stopped talking about their marriage.
Although Li Haoran was drinking, he no longer allowed himself to get drunk. People have to stay up at night and set off firecrackers to welcome the God of Wealth. The men are very conscientious and only drink a little wine but eat the meat and vegetables with big mouthfuls.
"Brother, do you have any plans for next year? Take us with you no matter what you want to grow. We want to make money with you. If you hadn't taken us to canned food this year, we wouldn't have made more than a few hundred yuan. This is the first time in our decades of life that we have so much money in our pockets." Hu Haohan said with a smile.
Li Youcai followed Hu Haohan and said, "Yes, big brother, thank you for helping us get rich this year. Please help us next year as well. I promise that my whole family will listen to your arrangements. I will follow you for the rest of my life, unless one day you don't want me anymore."
Chen Shengli also stood up and said: "..."
"Uncle Li, what do you mean? You said that Uncle Hao won't want you one day. It makes our Uncle Hao seem like a heartless man. Aren't you going to let Aunt Hongmei scold Uncle Hao?" Ma Youcai spoke before Chen Shengli could say anything.
After Ma Youcai's jokes, Chen Shengli was unable to say what he wanted to say and had to sit down awkwardly. He also knew that Ma Youcai did it on purpose because of the way he had made things difficult for Ziyi and Yike at the beginning. He actually regretted it later, but it seemed like these guys just wanted to make things difficult for him and tried to stop him in everything he did. He is no longer the head of his family. His daughter-in-law and son have unanimously decided to let the eldest son Dawang be the head of the family. Everything has to be decided by the eldest son, so he has become a laborer.
"Ma Youcai, are you childish? Do you know how to respect the elderly? How dare you make jokes about Uncle Hao and Uncle Li?" Wang Hongjun immediately understood what Ma Youcai meant, which was to prevent Chen Shengli from speaking, and followed Ma Youcai's words.
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