Chapter 138 137. Many Days of Radiance
Li Bai peach blossoms at the end of February.
It's that time of year again to plant rice and peppers.
The fields have been deeply plowed and exposed to the sun. The winter snow and spring rain have moistened the soil, and the dead branches and leaves have been decomposed by decomposers and turned into inorganic fertilizer.
Lei Li and Zhou Yi worked as construction workers. They watched the men in the village divert water to the dry land that had been used to grow peppers and turn it into paddy fields, and build ridges on the fields that had been used to grow rice and turn them into dry land.
In principle, the government would not allow such changes because the grain tax mainly comes from rice, followed by sweet potatoes and beans.
If the fields originally used for rice are used for dry farming, the taxes collected will not match the tax books. However, if the taxes collected remain the same or increase, the county government will not be so idle as to check how many acres of rice and sweet potatoes each household has planted.
——Unless you offend someone and the county government deliberately makes trouble for you, you will be arrested and put in jail for a few days and asked to pay some money.
Lei Li is not afraid of this.
County Magistrate Xu Xingzhe accepted so much bribes from him and they had been on the same side for a long time. Naturally, he would not turn against him easily, and his subordinates would not deliberately give themselves up to him.
It takes a village.
Men, women, husbands and children all joined in the work, and within a few days the fields had been transformed.
Green seedlings were planted in the fields, the water was rippling, and the snails in the fields were slowly nibbling on the grass roots, and were picked up by children and taken home.
The green pepper seedlings were planted in the ground, the soil was turned over, and the small insects hiding in the soil were turned out by the hoe and fell to the ground.
In addition to these two, Chinese cabbage, Chinese cabbage, beans, cucumbers, pumpkins, loofahs, green onions, scallions, ginger and garlic, which are suitable for growing in spring, are also planted.
At first glance, the yellow and black soil is dotted with green spots, nodding and waving in the gentle breeze.
"Although it's a bit hot this year, there's still plenty of rain. Last night it rained for a long time, and it was so damp that I almost got rheumatoid arthritis."
Lei Li looked at the clear, warm, blue sky. A black eagle was circling in the clouds and suddenly swooped down, not knowing which rabbit or chicken it was aiming at.
Ask Zhou Yi, "Do you think there will be another drought in Nanjiang this year?"
"I hope not."
Zhou Yi also looked at the sun hanging in the sky. The afternoon sun was already quite strong and the air was humid, making people feel hot and a little sticky.
"Let's go back inside. It's a bit sunny outside."
"good……"
Lei Li suddenly paused, his dark pupils narrowed slightly, and he pointed at the sky and asked, "What is that?"
"What?"
Zhou Yi looked in the direction of the sound and saw a distinct colorful halo suddenly appear next to the sun, which was just surrounded by thin clouds and empty.
At first glance, it seemed as if another big sun appeared, with two suns hanging high in the sky, and it seemed as if the original sun was suddenly magnified several times.
"It's a solar halo, also called a circular rainbow. It's an atmospheric optical phenomenon and a very normal natural phenomenon that can occur several times a year."
"Yeah?"
Lei Li narrowed his eyes and looked at the vegetable halo with suspicion and vigilance. "Why do I feel like I'm seeing this thing for the first time? It's so big and so obvious, like there's another sun."
"Tell me, this isn't a sign of a severe drought in Nanjiang, is it? Or a severe drought in Xiling?"
"No."
Zhou Yi shook his head and explained, "The appearance of a solar halo is due to the fact that when sunlight passes through cirrostratus clouds, it is refracted or reflected twice by the ice crystals within them, dispersing it into different colors of light in different directions, thus forming a colorful halo."
"Cirrostratus clouds, those light, thin clouds we see today, have countless ice crystals floating in the air. Ice crystals in a circle around the sun can refract the same color of light into the human eye, forming a halo of inner red and purple."
"But it's in color now, not a halo of red and purple."
Lei Li thought for a moment and asked him, "Are there many colors of solar halos? Besides this colorful one, are there other more obvious, different halos?"
"right."
Zhou Yi nodded with approval, saying, "Not all solar halos are exactly the same. The amount of moisture in the air and the thickness of high-level clouds all have a certain impact on the formation of solar halos."
"Sometimes the halo is so faint that you can hardly see it even if you look up and stare at it. Sometimes it is more obvious, like now, you can see it right away."
"There are also different types of halos: 9, 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 35, and 46 degrees. In some places, the most common 22-degree halo appears on at least 130 days out of 365 days a year."
“……?”
As a businessman, Lei Li was very sensitive to numbers. He tried to understand the meaning of these numbers, but he found that he couldn't understand them at all.
"What do you mean? What about 9, 18, 20, and 22° solar halo?"
"that is……"
Zhou Yi drew a diagram on the ground and explained, "A 22° solar halo is formed by the refraction and reflection of sunlight or moonlight by horizontally oriented hexagonal columnar ice crystals. It's a white halo with a reddish inner circle and a visual radius of about 22°, centered on the sun or moon's luminous body."
"That's it. The angle formed by this and this... Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"cannot."
Lei Li shook his head honestly. Not only did he not understand, but he also felt a buzzing pain in his head. Seeing that Zhou Yi wanted to continue explaining to him, he quickly stopped him and said,
"Explain it to me later. Let's get back to the solar halos. According to what you just said, solar halos are simply caused by too much rain and too thin clouds, so the sun acts like a mirror for itself."
"……Um."
Zhou Yi nodded hesitantly, "It should be... right? However, if you look at this mirror from different angles, besides the different colors, you might even see multiple suns, a rare phenomenon of multiple suns shining simultaneously."
“???”
Lei Li's body trembled in shock, "Several suns? You said it wasn't a drought coming. One sun would burn people to death, but several suns appear at once—might as well pack up and wait for death!"
"It's just an optical phenomenon. It's fake. Even if there are more suns, it's still fake."
Zhou Yi quickly explained, "It's just like the magic tricks we saw during the Lantern Festival, where rabbits, birds, and flowers appeared from a hat. In fact, these things were put in beforehand, using a sleight of hand to deceive our eyes."
"The same is true for this multi-day shining."
“…”
Lei Li thought for a moment and said, "It's like I'm looking at several mirrors at the same time. Although there are multiple versions of me, we all know that only one is real. The others are fake and can't hurt anyone."
"right!"
Zhou Yi nodded heavily. "Although there's a saying that goes 'Sun halos mean rain at midnight, and moon halos mean wind at noon,' it only means 'if a sun halo appears during the day, it might rain at night.' There's no scientific evidence linking sun halos to floods and droughts."
"So we don't have to worry too much. Just live your life normally. If you're really worried about Nanjiang, just let Mengluo and his father know."
"It's really a drought. His father, as the largest rice merchant in Zhongchuan Prefecture, can't run away with donating to disaster relief."
It is true that it got hot earlier this year than in previous years, but this is Xiling, not Nanjiang. The distance is long, and information flow is not fast.
Zhou Yi didn’t know whether there would be a drought in Nanjiang. He hoped not, otherwise, who knows how many people would die from the drought and locust plague.
"That's true."
Lei Li thought for a moment and said, "Don't Wulihe Village and Liujiatang Village grow our peppers? Let's talk to them about the rice-fish-duck symbiosis method. Let's harvest more ducks this year."
Ducks are omnivorous.
They eat everything from grass roots and seeds to snails, field snails and locusts.
Lei Li wanted to go and provide support in case of emergency. They couldn't eat so many locusts and couldn't avoid the locust plague, but they could still slaughter the ducks and feed them to people.
—
Lei Li let go of the matter of the halo, but the villagers were in a panic.
Soon, the village chief brought a large group of villagers to the Lei family to look for Lei Li and Zhou Yi.
This kind of halo is rare in Qingmi County.
Most people only encounter such an event after living for decades. It is like two suns. It is also the time for spring plowing. Everyone's life has finally improved a little, so naturally they are afraid of natural disasters.
Zhou Yi explained it, but no one understood.
It was Lei Li who made them understand with his rough words about looking in the mirror. Knowing that the halo had no major impact, they all felt relieved and went back.
The peppers in these fields are all part of the Lei family's fortune. If Lei Li loses, they'll be the ones to suffer the most. If Lei Li isn't worried, why should they be? Didn't you see that Chen Xiangrang, the shopkeeper, is still in the county town?
Speak of Cao Cao and he will appear.
Chen Xiangrang also came without stopping in the evening. Even Meng Luo temporarily put his lover aside and ran to Sanlihe Village to find Lei Li and Zhou Yi.
"I was the one who took the lead in starting this chili pepper business. My eldest brother and father both take it very seriously and told me to tell them if I have any difficulties."
Meng Luo looked miserable and said, "If a natural disaster happens in the third year, how can I explain it to them?"
Love cannot be forced, and career is not going well, so he might as well just give up living.
"Small problem, small problem."
Lei Li patted Meng Luo's shoulder carelessly, so hard that Meng Luo almost vomited blood. "If you're really worried, just allocate more money. It's so hot out, why don't you buy some green bean soup and herbal tea for the villagers to cool down? If they get heatstroke, who will work?"
"Too."
Meng Luo nodded in agreement, then realized, "Even if it doesn't delay work, we still have to allocate money to buy it. Heatstroke is no small matter. What if someone dies?"
As he spoke, he took out all the silver he had and gave it to Lei Li. "I only brought these few hundred taels of silver. If it's not enough, tell me again. It's so hot out, buy some smoothies and cold drinks for the villagers."
"Okay."
Lei Li accepted the silver with a smile.
He was no longer the Lei Li who had been blinded by the sight of money and wanted to embezzle it - these few hundred taels of silver were not worth his attention.
Lei Li turned around and gave the money to the village chief.
He was asked to keep an eye on the people and affairs in the village, buy cold water or cold tea for those who needed them, and provide the school with paper, pens, tables and chairs. If any poor family fell ill suddenly, he could use the money to cover the cost.
These few words moved the village chief to tears. He held Lei Li's hand and said that he was kind and thoughtful.
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