Chapter 12 12 Chatting in the Village

Chapter 12 12. Chatting in the Village

The end of February and the beginning of March are the rare leisure time for farmers throughout the year.

The New Year has passed, and the children have flown away with their families. The swallows on the beams have not returned yet. There are more and more abandoned lands, and the withered yellow and gray-brown tones occupy a large area of ​​land.

Except for the green mountains in the distance and a large area of ​​​​green, the whole village is lonely and silent.

Today, the fields beside the bamboo forest of the old Song family are bustling again.

"Song Sancheng, what's wrong with your family this year? Are you ready to do something big after getting rich? So many fields are going to be cleaned up?"

"That's right, Old Song, what are you going to plant? Originally, there were two tea trees in the field, but you don't want them anymore?"

Everyone was invited by Song Sancheng to clean up the fields.

In the corner, the tiller was rumbling, and before tilling the land, they had to clean up the weeds and trees in the field first.

Otherwise, the small machine might get stuck.

Fortunately, there are many people, and working together is not only fun, but also quite efficient. After cleaning up a piece in front, the tiller plows twice in the back, which is just the right combination.

Those who come are all about the same age as Song Sancheng.

At their age, they are not wanted by most factories to work outside.

The age requirement can be relaxed for those who do hard labor, but the boss is also afraid of accidents.

In addition, people in their forties and fifties have suffered hardships when they were young, and many of them have physical pains...

Now they stay in the village, just busy for a while and rest for a while, and try not to burden the children.

Therefore, when Song Sancheng asked someone to work, it was not a good job to bend over and work hard for 150 yuan a day, but everyone was willing to come.

When they are old, they also want to have fun.

Song Sancheng also sighed: "This tea is not worth much, there is still a large area on the hillside. I haven't taken care of this for many years... What's the point of keeping it?"

That's right.

They are not a famous tea town, just ordinary tea in the mountain valley. After it is cooked, it is sold outside. It costs 50 yuan per pound and tastes sweet. Few people are willing to pay for it.

The tea trees in the field were planted because they didn’t want to see the fields bare…

But they are old!

Those farm work that requires extreme strength can’t be done anymore, so they slowly accept their fate.

“Then what do you want to do by cleaning up the fields and the mountains?”

The questioner is the neighbor Li Baoni.

Speaking of this, Song Sancheng doesn’t know how to start.

How to say it?

His daughter is not going to work and plans to come back to farm?

How many young people these days can farm? If you tell others, the villagers will laugh to death!

So he also said lightly: “It’s nothing. My Tan Tan works too hard and her body can’t stand it. I told her that we need someone to help with farming at home, so she can rest at home for a year or two, and then go out to work.”

That’s true.

Whose young people don’t venture out?

Neighbor Li Baoni also sighed: "That's true. My daughter came back from the Chinese New Year with a sallow complexion. When asked, she worked overtime until one or two o'clock. The salary is just so little, and there is nothing left at the end of the year."

Li Baoni's daughter sells clothes in a chain store. She is sweet and talkative. Now she is a supervisor. She has to take inventory late at night from time to time, go on business trips to expand stores, etc., which is also hard work.

Unfortunately, the overall environment has been bad in the past two years, and wages have not increased. We have to worry about whether there will be layoffs...

Speaking of children, every household has a difficult sutra to recite.

Zhou Shunshui, who was farther away, also sighed: "My son said last time that we old couple should go to the city to live with them and help take care of the children. The peppers in the supermarket at the door cost more than ten yuan per pound! Can we afford it?"

"Taking care of the children, sending them to kindergarten in the morning, picking them up in the evening and sending them to interest classes, they are not in the same place. The bus makes me dizzy. The air conditioner is on in the house every day, which is not as warm as our stove."

"I lived there for a week and couldn't stand it, so I just came back."

As for the old woman at home, of course she couldn't bear to leave her grandson, so she stayed there to take care of him wholeheartedly.

No matter whether farming is reliable or not, the reason Song Sancheng found is reasonable:

"Tan Tan also said that the food in recent years is not as delicious as before. I thought, since I stayed here, I might as well grow some vegetables and rice for the children, and it will be delicious for me."

The villagers were also happy when they heard it.

"Song Sancheng, you are the one who grows the most land in the village now, and you have become a landlord. When your rice is ripe, I will not buy rice, but yours."

"Yes, yes, yes, I will buy it too. The rice outside looks white, but it is polished and has no nutrition. It costs several yuan per pound, and it is not as fragrant as the rice I grew before."

Song Sancheng dared not agree: "My family only grows two plots of land, which is not enough for our family to share. I will not sell it."

Who here has not grown land before?

Everyone was unhappy when they heard this: "The two plots of land together have several acres. How many thousand kilograms of rice do you eat in a year?"

Song Sancheng also laughed: "What should I do? My good rice seeds taste good, but they are expensive. The best yield is only one thousand kilograms per mu. One thousand kilograms can produce seven hundred kilograms of rice, which is enough for two or three people to eat for a year."

"Won't my old man and old lady, the children's grandmother, uncles, aunts, and uncles... every household share a little?"

"This is just enough for my family to eat."

This is how relationships work in the village. Neighbors and relatives always have to share a little. It doesn’t have to be much, but you have to show your affection.

When everyone calculated, it couldn’t be much more, but there must be more: “No, I must eat your rice this year, otherwise I won’t come when you plant rice!”

Everyone agreed.

What this means is that they definitely don’t ask for money for helping to plant rice.

Song Sancheng didn’t dare to agree: “It’s just two plots of land. It won’t take us two days to plant rice by ourselves... Eat, eat, eat, come to help when we really harvest rice, and you’ll have enough rice!”

Everyone was laughing and joking. When a plot of land was cleaned up and ready to move to another place, someone remembered:

“Then you clean up these 10 or 20 acres of land, plant a few acres of rice, and what are you going to do with the rest?”

Song Sancheng didn’t hide it: “Grow vegetables.”

“I thought that if we don’t use pesticides, we can take the bus to the city to sell them, so we won’t lose money.”

That won’t make much money.

Without pesticides, the weeds and insects would grow in layers, and the couple would not have enough time to clean them up, not to mention the worry.

What's more, their road is not easy to travel. The bus to every village runs once a day, and it costs 40 yuan to go back and forth...

The vegetables need to be fertilized and labored. The many vendors in the vegetable market are all from rural areas near the city, closer than them, and the competition is fierce...

It's all hard-earned money.

Everyone did the math in their minds, it's really not worth it!

But then I thought: "This is okay, Lao Song, you have someone to take care of your family. We are old and no one wants us to work. It's good to grow vegetables by ourselves."

"I'll come to the field and buy and pick them when the time comes!"

...

...

Most of the crops grown in the village are of a single variety, and the ripening seasons of each household overlap, so vegetables often need to be bought.

In addition, it is now possible to sell pigs in rural areas, and it is also possible to kill pigs for yourself. Killing pigs and selling them is illegal and cannot be allowed.

Tantan is going to plant rice, watermelon, various vegetables, chestnuts from the mountains... beekeeping, because the honey of astragalus is really not to be missed! There are also many wild vegetables.

Raise pigs, dogs, chickens, ducks, geese, fish, shrimps, and water chestnuts.

What other crops do you like? Welcome to leave comments!