Return to the small mountain village in 1983

Chapter 286 The dying old man
"Wow, the air is so nice this morning."

Lin Heng opened the window early in the morning and said.

"I'll sleep a little longer, I'm so sleepy!" Xiulan stretched and lay down again.

"You sleep on your own and leave the rest to me." Lin Heng smiled at her and said that it was normal to feel sleepy early in pregnancy.

"Hmm~" Xiulan just hummed and fell asleep again.

Lin Heng looked at his sleeping daughter, went out to complete his daily exercises, and practiced bow and arrow in the back mountain.

This kind of thing cannot be interrupted. Only by persevering can you have a healthy and strong body. Only after you have lived a lifetime will you realize how important a healthy and strong body is. The bad habits you had when you were young will turn into boomerangs and hit you hard in the forehead when you are old.

Lin Heng was still very weak when he was reborn last year, and he surrendered after only five or six minutes of having sex with Xiulan.

Now I can do it easily for 20 to 30 minutes, and I don't feel weak even if I do it two or three times at intervals. This is the reward of exercising.

The muscles in his arms are now strong, and there is no pressure at all when pulling a fifty-pound bow. Although his abdomen has not been deliberately exercised, there are obvious vest lines, and four abdominal muscles that are not very hard can be seen.

Xiaoxia ran over like a greedy cat, looking drooling.

The already fragrant bacon and venison become even more fragrant when grilled like this, and you can't stop eating them for a while.

He checked the time and asked Xiulan to take Xiaoxia to wash up while he took out the eggs and chilled them.

"It's very simple, just boil milk with tea leaves, and then add mashed strawberries." Lin Heng said as he handed her a piece of meat.

While the milk was boiling, Lin Heng went to turn over the eggs. They started hatching on the 16th, and it was already days ago. In fact, it didn't matter whether they were turned over or not. In five or six days, the chicks would hatch.

"Dad, I can put on socks by myself!" Xiaoxia said as she put them on.

If he could give one piece of advice to young people, it would be to exercise. If you stick to it, there will be great changes in both your physical condition and your spirit. Other investments may lose money, but investing in your own body will always make you money.

"Oh, I've been getting more and more sleepy lately." Xiulan yawned and sat up.

"That's awesome. Dad just happened to prepare something delicious for you." Lin Heng touched her head.

"Let's go dig for snails." After breakfast, Xiulan looked at her watch and said, it was already nine o'clock.

"I always like to watch." Lin Heng said firmly.

After the exercise, Lin Heng squeezed some milk and picked two cucumbers. After returning home, I took some charcoal and ignited it in the earthenware stove. I put a small casserole on it and slowly boiled the milk.

She licked the milk stains on her lips and took two more sips.

The reason why the eggs are turned is mainly to prevent the chicken embryos and eggshells from sticking together. Now that they are basically formed, this problem no longer exists.

"It's in heat, but I didn't let it out." Xiulan said.

"It tastes good! Dad is so awesome!!" Xiaoxia drank several sips before she had time to talk.

"Okay, okay, you knocked me down. The big monster is so scary." Lin Heng pretended to be dead and then dressed her up.

"Try the strawberry honey milk tea I made." Lin Hengjiang pointed at the milk tea in the cup and said, which was just warm at this time.

In the past two days, he had half removed the quilt covering the box to let the temperature inside drop a bit and maintain it at thirty-six or seven degrees.

Xiongba is having fun in the back and likes to come out and walk around with it.

Xiulan was very happy and said with a smile: "Go and dress Xiaoxia quickly."

When the milk was almost boiled, he added some tea leaves and continued to boil for a while. After cooking, filter out the tea leaves, then pour the mashed strawberries in, add a little honey, and a real cup of strawberry honey milk tea is ready.

Xiulan curiously picked it up and took a sip, her calm face showing surprise: "What a wonderful taste."

Boil the eggs in cold water for seven minutes and remove them. Half of the yolk will be runny and become a runny egg.

“It smells so good~”

He had already drank half a cup himself, and it tasted delicious.

"Get up and eat, there is something delicious." Lin Heng shook Xiulan and Xiaoxia respectively.

The quilt slipped off, exposing Xiulan's snow-white and delicate skin. She had been doing exercises with Lin Heng a lot this year, and her figure had become better than before, especially her flexibility.

"Woof woof woof~~"

"How to make it? I'll make it another day." Xiulan asked curiously. This tastes much better than milk alone.

In addition to these, Lin Heng also set up a wire mesh, put dried venison and bacon on it and grilled it, and soon the oil was sizzling and giving off a rich aroma.

Putting the hot milk aside, Lin Heng put the eggs into a casserole and boiled them. He checked the time and asked Xiulan and her daughter to eat.

"Okay." Everyone nodded, they took the plastic buckets and two two-meter-long small nets and set off.

Xiulan glanced at him and said while putting on clothes: "You won't like to see your belly in a few days."

"We also made barbecue, it's very luxurious." Xiulan was also surprised.

After eating eggs and a few pieces of barbecue, this breakfast is simply perfect, and the rest of the day will be happy.

"I'll try it another day." Xiulan nodded, sat down and continued to taste.

"It's normal. It's like this when you're pregnant." Lin Heng watched intently.

"Is Xiongba in heat this year?" Lin Heng suddenly became curious about this matter.

After eating barbecue, you can also eat cucumber to relieve fatigue, which is really perfect.

Lin Heng came to Xiaoxia's bedside, and she suddenly stood up with teeth and claws: "Wow, I'm a big monster! I'm going to eat you!"

"Then let's find a mate for it in September or October." Lin Heng thought for a moment and said. The child-raised dog Laifu has not grown up yet and cannot be used for the time being.

However, you can find a suitable dog in the village and pair it with him first.

"Let's go to the Yang family's big field. It's on the edge of Xiahe ditch. I heard people say that there are a lot of snails in that field." Xiulan said.

"Then go take a look." Lin Heng nodded, and the three of them walked down the road.

From a distance, you can see your father and elder brother spreading fertilizer in the fields. His rice seedlings, planted early, are obviously thicker than those of other families.

"What are you doing?" Father Lin shouted from afar.

"Collecting snails." Lin Heng responded. He didn't go to help spread fertilizer. This job is enough for two people. He will help after weeding corn and soybeans in a few days.

"Your mother is herding cattle in Xiahe, you can come together." Father Lin shouted.

Lin Heng responded and pulled his daughter forward. After a while, they came to Xiahe River a kilometer away. There was water flowing from a small village valley here, and the river valleys on both sides were quite wide.

They saw their cattle and sheep in the distance, but they didn't see their mother.

"Grandma, grandma!"

Xiaoxia called several times but there was no movement.

"Let's go take a look in the fields first." Xiulan said.

Lin Heng nodded and picked up Xiaoxia across the river. Soon he came to the edge of the Yang family's field, which was a field covering an area of ​​one acre and two acres. At this time, the rice seedlings had just been planted in the field, and the water was clear and translucent, and the rice seedlings seemed very rare.

However, what shocked them was the large field snails crawling in the water. Under the warm sunshine, they carried the snail shells on their backs and moved quickly on the gray soil, revealing two horn-like tentacles.

"That's a lot. Sure enough, Liu Lan didn't lie to me!" Xiulan said in surprise. This was too much.

"There are so many." Xiulan reached out and grabbed one, then curiously examined it.

The snails in this field are really big and numerous, each one is as big as a mineral water bottle cap, and they are everywhere as far as the eye can see.

Lin Heng nodded and said: "This is much larger than what we caught in the river. This time we will catch some to raise in the fields."

Few people here eat snails. Many people think it is dirty, and some think it is poisonous.

But in fact, only fewer people eat it in the north, while the south has been eating it since ancient times. Moreover, making this thing requires skills. If it is done well, it will taste delicious. If it is not done well, it will smell fishy.

"Start catching." Xiulan nodded. There was no need to go into the water, just use the net to pick up the big one.

After a while, the two of them caught half the bucket. It was not easy. Sitting still was the result of Xiaoxia making trouble with the net.

"Hey, it's really you. I said it sounds like it." Mother Lin came down from the forest on the side, with surprise in her voice.

"We called you several times but you didn't answer." Xiulan replied.

Mother Lin raised the epimedium and honeysuckle in her hand and said happily: "I got this but I didn't hear it in the forest. How many snails have you caught?"

"There are a lot of them in this field. I've caught half a bucket. I'm going to grab a bucket." Lin Heng said.

"Then let me help you." Mother Lin put down her bag and walked over.

"Grandma, I also caught a lot of snails." Xiaoxia held the snails in her hand and smiled, revealing her small white milk teeth.

"It's amazing. Grandma picked something delicious for you." Mother Lin praised her and took a leaf ball from her pocket. When she opened it, there was a ruddy goat's milk fruit inside.

"Wow, thank you grandma!" Xiaoxia happily hugged her grandma's hand and cheered.

"Wash your hands and eat quickly." Mother Lin touched her head and said. She picked two portions and one was for Lin Tao and the others. She was not a partial person.

This reminded Lin Heng of his grandfather, who used to always bring him various wild fruits.

With Mother Lin and Xiaoxia in tow, Lin Heng went into the water to catch the food in the middle of the field. He quickly caught a bucket of it, along with a plastic bag that weighed about five kilograms.

"I went to the river to wash the snails." Lin Heng said with a smile while carrying a bucket full of snails.

"I can enjoy it this time. This bucket weighs thirty or forty pounds." Mother Lin said with a smile. She also ate it once last year and thought it was good.

Lin Heng smiled and said: "It's about thirty kilograms, but there's not much meat."

But the snail is really a happy thing.

When he came to the river, Lin Heng poured some of the snails into the sack, then poured some coarse sand and kept rubbing the sack. After a few minutes, the snail shells poured out were so clean that no trace of mud or moss could be seen.

However, they are not edible yet. Next, you need to put them in a bucket with some edible salt and drip some oil on the surface. They will spit out the sediment in a short time. They left the snails to spit out sand, and the three of them played on the big bluestone by the river and waited. Xiulan took Xiaoxia to play by the water and soaked her feet in the water. Lin Heng was trying to catch fish in the water with bare feet.

After waiting for about half an hour, I dealt with the sediment spitted out by the snails, and then waited another half an hour. At about 11:30, I could start killing the snails.

Mother Lin went to see the cow, then came over and used pliers with Xiulan to remove the internal organs. The internal organs of the snail could be removed by pinching off the tip of the snail.

Lin Heng cleaned all the snails in the bucket and came over to help with them. After an hour, he killed about half of the bucket, which was enough to eat.

"I also drove the cattle and sheep back." Mother Lin stood up and said.

"I'll go, you guys wait for me on the street." Lin Heng stood up and said.

He ran quickly and soon drove the cow to the road, and then walked back with the snail. When he was almost home, he went to throw the five kilograms of snails he had caught into a muddy field at his house that was constantly flooded.

His father and elder brother had also finished their work and returned home. They were killing eels at the moment. Lin Heng took the snails they caught back to his house and planned to fry them and take them back to eat.

This thing requires careful use of materials and soul perilla. He is afraid that the snail will be ruined by his sister-in-law after all his hard work.

After one o'clock, Lin Wei ran over and shouted: "Second father, let's eat."

"Okay, my snails are ready too." Lin Heng nodded with a smile and took a pot of snails over.

"There are so many, Second Dad, why don't you call me when you catch snails? I'm a master." Lin Wei looked at a large pot of snails and drooled.

"You were at school this morning." Lin Heng took one for him to try.

Lin Wei took a sip and gave a thumbs up: "It's delicious, better than what my mother made last year."

Lin Heng smiled slightly and passed over with the snail. Xiaoxia and Xiulan both sat down.

"Today's meal is rich. Have a good meal." Father Lin looked at the dishes on the table and said with a smile.

"Let go and eat the snails." Lin Heng said with a smile.

When everyone was seated, they picked up their wine glasses and took a few sips before eating. Lin Heng took two chopsticks of vegetables for Xiulan and her parents and started eating the snails.

Although there is not much meat, it is really delicious when you take a bite. Not only him, but also his father and elder brother can't take any time off. This thing is perfect when paired with a small drink.

After the meal, there were snail shells all over the ground. This food tasted too delicious. Instead, there were some leftovers from other dishes on the table.

Finished the meal with some rice.

After returning home, I took the herbal tea made from honeysuckle and went to the backyard pavilion. I sat on the bench and watched the fish playing and chasing in the water while eating.

"The lotus is about to bloom, and the buds have grown." Xiulan pointed at the two graceful lotuses and smiled.

"The Dragon Boat Festival will be here in two days, and it will definitely open." Lin Heng nodded. The weather is already very hot now.

The fish pond is now heavily occupied by lotus leaves. Fish can only be seen in the center. Lin Heng plans to cut some lotus leaves in the afternoon. Too many will affect the view.

Xiaoxia finished here for a while and went to swing under the grape trellis over there, while Xiulan leaned against Lin Heng and watched the fish for a while before falling asleep unconsciously.

Lin Heng looked at her sleeping face with a slight smile on his lips. As the pregnancy lasted longer and longer, she gradually began to have symptoms of pregnancy. Now she was just drowsy, and she would probably start to have morning sickness soon.

Pregnancy is really hard work.

Seeing the sun shining down, Lin Heng picked her up and took her into the house. He put her on the boat and tried to leave, but she was caught by her like an octopus.

Lin Heng thought she was pretending to sleep. Upon closer inspection, it was probably just an instinctive habit. He lay next to her and waited for a while before he was able to escape.

"Dad, I want to go play with Yang Qing. I gave her strawberries yesterday." Xiaoxia tilted her head and said after Lin Heng came out.

"Then I'll take you there." Lin Heng pulled her.

When I went to the ginkgo tree in the center of the village, I didn't find Yang Qing. After asking someone, I found out that her mother had sent her to kill pigs.

It is not unusual for people in rural areas to start working at the age of four or five. Xiaoxia could only play hopscotch with others. After playing for a while, she went home bored.

Lin Heng took her to the study to play paper-cutting. At about three o'clock, there was a knock on the door: "Is Xiaoxia there?"

After a while, a little girl opened the door and came in.

"I'm here, I'm here!" Xiaoxia ran out happily.

"Look, I discovered the crotch fruit today." Yang Qing took out some goat milk fruit to share with Xiaoxia.

"Wow, it's so red." Xiaoxia exclaimed, and the two quickly started playing together.

Lin Heng rested for a while. It was almost four o'clock and he was going to take a hoe to help his parents weed. Before he got up, he found that Xiulan had woken up from her sleep.

"You weed and I will go too." Xiulan said with a smile. She naturally knew that this was discussed at noon.

"Then let's go." Lin Heng smiled and nodded. It's good to walk around without showing any signs of pregnancy. Just work less.

Xiulan took the lead, and Lin Heng carried a bag of ammonium bicarbonate and walked to the cornfield. Yang Qing went back and said something, took a basket and went up the mountain with Xiaoxia. She made an excuse to kill pigs and her mother only allowed her to run around.

"The ammonium bicarbonate needs to be placed farther away. A tablespoon of corn is enough for one corn plant, and the distance must be five or six centimeters." Lin Heng watched Mother Lin and Xiulan demonstrate it.

They applied fertilizer, and he, his elder brother, his father, and his sister-in-law used hoes to weed.

"Understood." The two nodded and started applying fertilizer according to Lin Heng's request.

Such people are very curious about this thing and are looking forward to the results of this year's fertilizer and purchased seeds. At present, the seedlings of these purchased seeds seem to be just larger than those of their own seeds.

Father Lin asked curiously: "Then we just dig up the grass and cover it with fertilizer?"

"Yes, that's all." Lin Heng nodded, demonstrated, and everyone started working in a hurry.

Although the families are separated, everyone still works together, which makes the excitement faster.

"Many people in the village are talking about our family now. It all depends on the effectiveness of the seeds we buy." Father Lin said with a smile. He no longer questions the effectiveness of fertilizers because they have been tested.

The same land was used to grow peppers, one was treated with urea, one was treated with dung water, and the other was treated with nothing. The last comparison was too obvious. The one treated with urea was ten centimeters taller than the other two. The effect was not very good at all.

"I guarantee that they will want to buy it next year after reading it." Lin Heng said that the yield of the seeds he bought was an overwhelming victory.

"Then you can sell it directly in the village and make a profit." Lin Yue said.

"I think so too." Lin Heng nodded, and then said: "Brother, you can actually open a shop in the village, which is also very profitable."

He is too lazy to open another store in the village. Compared with the business he has now, the small stores in the village are really a drop in the bucket. Moreover, Xiulan said that she prefers to make things and run in the mountains with him, and does not like to sit at home and sell things all day long.

But for his eldest brother, earning a few hundred yuan a year is considered a large amount of income.

"We have also thought about it, the cost may not be low." Sister-in-law Liu Juan was very interested and asked quickly.

"You can get it done by investing only four or five hundred yuan if you buy a few goods. If you just sell daily necessities in the village, you can make four or five hundred yuan a year. You can get the goods from my store in the town, and you don't have to go to the city." Lin Heng thought for a while and said.

Lin Yue took the lead and said: "Let's save money for a year first, and I'll see if I can hunt. If I have money, I'll go."

He didn't want his wife to ask his brother to borrow money again. Lin Heng had given them enough help and they couldn't take advantage of him in everything.

Liu Juan glanced at her husband and could only agree: "Yes, let's save money first."

"Let me know when you have made your decision." Lin Heng nodded and said, and did not say anything close to his face about lending money to his eldest brother. It was too much to help him.

He gave a way to make money. Whether they can succeed depends on their own efforts.

Just like the fertilizers and seeds, let them feel the effects this year. If they want to use them next year, they will have to buy them themselves.

This year they planted much less corn and soybeans than last year, and they cleared all the grass in two days in two days.

Then I spent another day fertilizing the sweet potatoes and turning the sweet potato bowls.

Doing farm work is not an easy task, but when you get rid of the need for survival, it is okay to do it slowly and for fun.

While doing farm work, Lin Heng did not forget his shrimp seedlings. He would check on them at least twice a day to make sure they were fine and growing up day by day.

The Dragon Boat Festival passed quietly in these two days. They planted mugwort and calamus on the door, and also picked honeysuckle, Houttuynia cordata and other good medicines for fire on the Dragon Boat Festival.

But the meal was not eaten at his own home, but at his uncle's house. Lin Heng looked at his dying grandmother again and gave her milk powder made by Xiulan and freshly picked strawberries.

The old man's legs and feet were getting worse and worse, and it was difficult to walk. But he still smiled happily when he saw Lin Heng, holding his hand and stuffing him with rock candy as usual.

Lin Heng and Xiulan fed her strawberries and told her that Xiulan was pregnant with her second child. The old man was so happy that he couldn't talk clearly.

But it doesn't matter, Lin Heng knows that she just wants to talk to someone, they just need to keep smiling and nodding, and the old man will be happy.

His grandmother liked mint and planted a large area in the corner. Lin Heng could drink mint water whenever summer came. It's just that my uncle always felt that there were too many obstacles in the way to be removed, so the old man often quarreled with him for this reason.

But my uncle didn't eradicate it this year because the old man was too old and he couldn't bear to make her angry.

Lin Heng wanted to spend time with his grandmother often, but unfortunately the distance was too great and he could only come once every few months. Before his rebirth, his grandmother didn't survive last winter, so now he especially cherishes the days spent with her, and even asks his mother to come more often.

Thinking of these, he couldn't stop feeling sad. Aging was something that money couldn't change.

He persuaded his family to live a healthy life more frequently and took Xiulan Xiaoxia to exercise because he had experienced the feeling of losing a loved one.

Even though I know that rebirth cannot change the passage of time, I still want my parents to live a little longer.

……

On the morning of June 5th, the weather was gloomy today, and it seemed like it was going to rain. It rained more and more as summer entered.

Xiulan's pregnancy symptoms became more and more obvious and she couldn't get enough sleep. Lin Heng got up early and made breakfast. In the past few days, strawberries began to ripen in large batches. In the morning, he cooked Xiulan Xiaoxia's favorite strawberry honey milk tea, boiled eggs and then Ask them to eat.

"It's so rich." Xiulan came over and said with a smile after washing.

After picking up the milk tea and taking a sip, she suddenly put down her mouth and ran out of the door.

"Well……"

She held the door and vomited violently.

(End of this chapter)