Chapter 249: Filial Qiangqiang, not in vain

Li Long actually originally planned to return to the large courtyard tonight, stay for one night, and then go into the mountains early tomorrow morning.

It's just that he had to help Gu Bo Yuan process the meat and bones, otherwise it might stink tomorrow, so the time was delayed.

Then let's go tomorrow.

Returning home, the fragrance of meat was still permeating the courtyard, and the bones in the pot were still boiling, but the fire had been removed.

Li Qing Xia, Du Chunfang, Li Jianguo, and Liang Yuemei, the four adults, were all sitting in the courtyard chatting. Li Juan and Li Qiang weren't there; they should have gone to sleep.

The radio was placed on the windowsill, and it was playing music at the moment.

"Electricity should come in a few days." Li Jianguo said, "It will be better at night then."

"Um, when the electricity is pulled, buy another TV." Li Long took the conversation, "It will be better at night."

"How can we buy a TV?" Li Qing Xia hurriedly waved his hand, "That's too expensive!"

"Wait until the end of the year, sell the pigs, and we can buy one!" Li Jianguo also agreed with Li Long's words, "Watching TV at night is so exciting!"

Du Chunfang and Liang Yuemei didn't speak, just listening to the three men arguing about whether to buy a TV or not.

"Then if you buy a TV, won't the courtyard be full of people watching TV?" Li Qing Xia thought of another reason, "How messy can the courtyard be?"

Li Jianguo felt this was a reason. Although he quite liked the liveliness, thinking about a group of people watching TV in his own courtyard every day, that was also quite annoying.

"Big Brother, how much wheat has the group reaped?" Li Long changed the subject. Since it wasn't easy to buy here, buy it in the large courtyard first. Watching TV there wouldn't have any impact, and no one would run into the courtyard to watch it.

"Our group has reaped half." Li Jianguo said, "Most of them have been pulled to the field. After reaping for two more days, I'll pull the horse to thresh, and the wheat reaping will be handed over to others."

"I saw Daqiang today, he was stung by a hornet while reaping wheat..." Li Long smiled and said, "He asked me if I still catch fish, I said in a while. If he comes to take the net in the next two days, let him take it."

"That's fine, I'll go catch fish with him when the time comes." Li Qing Xia became interested, "Then go sell fish early in the morning... there's a bicycle at home, it's just sitting there..."

"You can do it!" Du Chunfang habitually retorted, "This is different from the hometown, can you sell the fish?"

"Then why don't you try and see?" Li Qing Xia didn't get angry either, responding with a smile. He had a good temper, had seen many things, and wouldn't get angry for no reason unless his bottom line was touched.

After chatting for a while, Liang Yuemei said the bones were boiled, and the four of them tasted a small piece each, and then the rest was taken to the kitchen.

The bone soup was also scooped out, and Liang Yuemei planned to use it to boil noodles tomorrow.

Li Long went back to the old horse number and brought some cooked meat to Old Luo.

"Xiao Long, heard you were back this afternoon, I was thinking whether you would come to the horse number." Old Luo looked at the meat and was quite happy. Actually, there was bacon in the kitchen, and he ate sparingly, after all, these meats were brought by Li Long, so he couldn't eat them all himself.

But Li Long hadn't been here for a long time, so he didn't eat much.

"Family side had some things to do, so I was busy." Li Long said with a smile, "Old Luo, are the livestock in the circle all good?"

"All good, all good." Old Luo said with a smile, "With the sugar residue you brought, I cut some grass every day, and they love eating it. The deer and roe deer run circles on the outer circle every day, and the activity is large, it's just troublesome to drive them into the inner circle."

"You'll get used to it." Li Long could only say this, "How are the vegetables planted? I want to pick some vegetables to take to the county tomorrow."

"Good, good, good, I was worried about what to do with so many vegetables. Can't dry so many dried vegetables..." Old Luo was happy, "Pick more. Is Xiaoxia working in the county? Take more. You have to buy all the vegetables there, it costs a lot of money. Since we have them here, just take them!"

They were all warm-hearted people, and Li Long felt quite warm listening.

Getting up early the next day, Li Long originally planned to make breakfast, but Old Luo had already boiled the corn grits porridge, cut a plate of the cooked meat Li Long brought back yesterday, and also made a plate of cold-mixed green peppers, and pasted cakes.

Li Long had breakfast with Old Luo, and then went to the Li family. Li Long thought about saying goodbye to his family, and then saw that Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei had already gone to work, Li Qing Xia was there, fiddling with the tires.

Li Qiang was also there, so Li Long asked:

"Qiangqiang, where is your sister?"

"Went to school." Li Qiang was watching Li Qing Xia inflate the tires, and said after hearing Li Long's question, "My sister said they will be on holiday in two days, and there will be a parent-teacher meeting tomorrow, I don't know if my dad or my mom will go."

Li Long knew that Li Juan's grades had improved a lot this semester, and Li Jianguo or Liang Yuemei would definitely be willing to attend her parent-teacher meeting.

Li Long saw there was nothing to do in the courtyard, so he simply walked to the wheat field.

There were already several large piles of wheat bundles around the wheat field, and there was a layer of wheat bundles with broken waistbands drying in the middle of the wheat field. Lu's eldest sister-in-law and two other women were spreading the wheat ears flat in the wheat field to facilitate threshing later.

Before the popularization of combine harvesters, reaping wheat was a very cumbersome process. Threshing requires spreading the wheat first. After spreading it flat, the horse pulls the roller to press the wheat ears in circles. The main function is to press the wheat grains from the wheat ears.

Because it's spread thick, this horse-pulling roller to press wheat and thresh often takes two or three hours for a field of wheat—even if the four-wheel tractor is popularized in later generations, it takes more than an hour to thresh with a tractor.

The roller will completely press the wheat stalks flat, and the wheat grains will be threshed from the wheat ears as much as possible. Next, the wheat straw must be picked away, and the remaining wheat grains with broken wheat straw and wheat tails are swept into a pile.

Repeating this, after all the wheat bundles are threshed, the next step is winnowing and threshing.

Winnowing must wait for the wind, so the wheat field must be built in an open place without any buildings around, so that the wind can come in. The wind can't be too strong either; if it's too strong, the wheat grains will be blown away, which is a waste and troublesome.

Winnowing is usually done by two people cooperating, because what falls down is not just wheat grains, but also impurities such as broken wheat straw, wheat tails, soil blocks, and stones. This is the work of the person threshing. When the person winnowing winnows the first shovel, the person threshing watches. After the things winnowed fall down, the person threshing must be quick-eyed and quick-handed, and directly sweep the impurities on the wheat grains to one side, and at this time, the second shovel of the person winnowing is ready to fall.

People who cooperate tacitly winnow and thresh, very rhythmic.

Li Long thought while watching, there was no wind in the wheat field at this time, it was hot, although he didn't approach the wheat pile, the wheat awns seemed to be able to prick his body at any time, so Li Long turned and left.

This work, it's better not to touch it.

After walking a few steps back, he saw someone riding a bicycle towards this side.

This bicycle had a white wooden box on the back, covered with a quilt, and Li Long was happy.

Isn't this the one selling popsicles!

That person saw Li Long and the wheat field, and also shouted loudly:

"Popsicles! Selling popsicles! Popsicles! Selling popsicles!"

"How to sell popsicles?" Li Long stopped this person and asked.

"Popsicles are 0.03 yuan, cream popsicles are 0.05 yuan." The person said. It was quite cheap. Although there were no doll heads, there were cream popsicles, and Li Qiang would definitely like to eat them.

"You take three first and give them one each." Li Long took out a 1-yuan note and waved it, "I'll wait here for you, wait for you to come back and follow me to my house, it's right there, I'll buy some more."

"Good!" Meeting a big customer, the middle-aged man selling popsicles was immediately happy, he stepped on the bike and went to the wheat field.

The reason Li Long bought popsicles for Lu's eldest sister-in-law and the others was that they had actually seen him go over just now, but he turned back halfway, and Li Long felt a bit embarrassed.

Anyway, it's not a few cents short.

That person selling popsicles looked back while riding, for fear that Li Long would run away.

Li Long stood there, waiting for the popsicle seller to take three popsicles and give them to Lu's eldest sister-in-law and the others, and after seeing Lu's eldest sister-in-law shake her hand at him, he also responded, and after the popsicle seller came back, they went to the Li family together.

"Take ten cream popsicles." Li Long said, "You find the money first." This is to give him peace of mind.

That person happily found 0.41 yuan, and then uncovered the lid and began to take popsicles from inside.

！.

"How to divide?" Li Long teased Li Qiang.

"Grandpa one, grandma one, dad one, mom one, little uncle one, I one, my sister one..."

"How many are left?" Li Long asked again.

"Still left..." Li Qiang's mental arithmetic ability was quite strong, and he had long passed the stage of counting fingers. He immediately said, "There are three left."

"Then how to divide the remaining three?"

"My sister one... I... one, the remaining... give to little uncle!"

Li Long laughed loudly, touched Li Qiang's head, not in vain.

"I don't like eating this..." Du Chunfang took the popsicle Li Qiang handed over, and although her face was blooming with joy, she still said a habitual sentence.

"You have so many things, eat it!" Li Qing Xia didn't spoil her, "There is a grandson giving you a popsicle to eat, can you think of this in your hometown?"

It's not that the children and grandchildren in the hometown aren't filial, it's that there's no such economic condition.

"Put the rest in the kitchen." Li Long said while eating the popsicle, "Cover it with a small quilt. When your dad and mom pull the wheat bundles over, you give them to them..."

"Good!" Li Qiang promised readily while licking the popsicle.

There was already watermelon cooling in the water bucket by the pressure well, but watermelon has watermelon's goodness, and popsicles have popsicles' goodness.

Riding the bicycle, Li Long left the Li family and went to Old Luo's place.

Old Luo had already picked quite a few vegetables, placed in two large baskets.

"You tie the baskets directly on both sides of the bicycle, these vegetables are better in the baskets than in the bags, they are not easy to spoil." Old Luo said.

In the baskets were knife beans, cowpeas, eggplants, peppers, cucumbers, etc., and there were also two or three tomatoes, not many.

"The seedlings were planted late this year, not many tomatoes are ripe." Old Luo explained, "Wait another month or so, then you won't be able to finish eating."

"If you can't finish eating, make sauce, dry them." Li Long took a sentence, picked up two wooden sticks to pick the two baskets, tied them on both sides of the bicycle back seat.

"Old Luo, I'm leaving, do you need anything?" Li Long first took out 20 yuan and handed it to Old Luo, this was the promised wages, and then asked again.

The basket contained yardlong beans, cowpeas, eggplants, chili peppers, cucumbers, and the like, along with two or three tomatoes—not many.

"Fine, I'll bring it to you next time." Li Long smiled.

Li Long left the village with the vegetables and went to the county.

After passing the middle school, he looked over there, there was nothing to see now.

Continuing forward, looking at the wheat fields on both sides, it seemed that the wheat bundles were a bit less than before. Are there still people picking wheat ears sporadically in the wheat fields? It seems that Li Juan and the others also have work-study tasks to hand in wheat when school starts next semester?

The work-study at this time is all handing in physical objects when school starts in autumn, or handing in money. For example, the task is to pick wheat ears, then hand in wheat when school starts in September, about 5 kilograms.

The tasks now are simple, and later the tasks became varied, handing in hops, handing in melon seeds (medicinal), handing in safflower, etc.

Because there is little safflower planted, little melon planted, and no one plants hops, so in the end, they can only hand in money—the money after conversion.

A few years later, work-study uniformly became picking cotton. For a period of time, students in the whole county would be organized to pick cotton in September, and even the lowest grade was placed in the third grade—the second grade really couldn't pick, otherwise they would be pulled over.

Later, it was reported by parents, this thing is really a bit "crazy." After all, so many people come from the mainland every year to pick cotton to earn money, why must such small students go?

Later, cotton picking machines were popularized, the cotton picking army declined, and this work-study became history.

He thought while riding forward, suddenly a child rushed out from the side of the road in front, Li Long hurriedly pressed both hand brakes to the end, the bicycle tires stirred up many stones on the ground, fortunately, it stopped before hitting the child.

That child was stunned by the fright, and the small bundle of wheat ears she was holding also spilled all over the ground. A few seconds later, she "wow" cried out.

It was a little girl.

Li Long's sudden braking also caused many vegetables in the basket behind to fall. He sighed, pushed the bike to the side of the road and parked it, walked to the little girl and asked:

"Are you okay? Where is your home?"

The little girl saw Li Long approaching, scared to retreat with hands and feet on the ground, while retreating and shouting loudly:

"Mom! Mom!"

As if Li Long had done something to her.

Li Long hurriedly retreated, this misunderstanding can't happen!

The girl saw Li Long retreat, felt not so scared, climbed up, didn't want the wheat ears, and ran towards the east side of the road.

It was only then that Li Long saw that there was an abandoned cement culvert on the side of the dry canal on the east side of the road, and a woman walked out of it.

This mother and daughter were both dressed in rags, looking quite pitiful.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 250 =====

Seeing Li Long retreat, the girl felt less afraid; she scrambled up, abandoned the wheat ears, and ran toward the east side of the road.

Only then did Li Long notice an abandoned concrete culvert pipe by the edge of the dry canal on the east side of the road, from which a woman emerged.

Both mother and daughter were dressed in rags and looked quite pitiful.

(End of chapter)