Chapter 561: Winter has winter's business

Outside, heavy snow was falling, and inside, it was as warm as spring.

There were less than five days left until the task of handing in twenty thousand large reed bundles, but Li Long wasn't in a hurry at all.

He, Li Jianguo, and Li Qing Xia sat on chairs beside the fire wall, holding a slice of watermelon in their hands and eating it slowly.

"Old mother, you eat too." Li Long greeted Du Chunfang to eat watermelon. Du Chunfang shook her head and said with a smile:

"Hey, this melon is quite durable. It can still be eaten in the middle of winter, it's just not as refreshing as eating it in summer."

"That's true. Eating watermelon in summer, you smash it open with a hammer, and if it's good, you eat it; if it's not good, you throw it aside. In this winter, good or bad, it's all fine." Li Jianguo also took a slice of melon and said while eating.

This watermelon wasn't bad, yellow pulp, the taste was quite sweet, unlike some green pulp ones that made people feel a greasy taste.

After Chen Li Rong and her daughter moved away, the spare room in Li Long's big courtyard became empty. Li Long didn't set up a stove there and simply put more than one hundred watermelons in, planning to eat them slowly.

Watermelons couldn't be stored. They basically all went bad before November, and they were full of water inside.

Watermelons were different; the skin was thick, resistant to storage, and they had a unique flavor after the weather cooled down.

"Wear a cotton-padded jacket in the morning and gauze in the afternoon, eat watermelon around the stove." Li Jianguo spat the watermelon seeds into his hand, then put them into the bowl beside him, and said with a smile:

"I really didn't expect that this sentence I heard before, we are living it now."

It was morning right now. The reeds of the Li family had been tied, so there was no work. Wang De Long sent another cart of reed bundles the day before yesterday. Although it wasn't as much as the first time, adding the two times together made Li Long feel that the task would be completed in another day or two, so he wasn't in a hurry at all.

Right now, the ones who were anxious were those families who had a large amount of reeds at home but hadn't tied reed bundles well at the beginning.

"This snow, I don't know if the Big Haizi there is frozen solid." Li Qing Xia hadn't caught fish properly for a long time. Once winter arrived, he couldn't help it again.

"No, it has to be a few more days." Li Long shook his head. "This temperature isn't enough. There should be ice, but it's not frozen solid.

Those reeds are hollow, and they can still breathe into the water for a while. Breaking ice holes now is not only dangerous, but the fish won't gather either."

On this point, Li Qing Xia was convinced by his youngest son.

"What do you plan to do after the reed bundles are finished?" Li Jianguo asked Li Long.

Li Long picked up another slice of watermelon. Strictly speaking, when he was in the fields, he really didn't want to eat this stuff, and he was annoyed seeing it pressed every day. Now it was a good thing. After all, there weren't many fruits that ordinary people could eat in winter.

There would definitely be people who would look for those green stalks that weren't dry yet in their own corn stalk stacks and chew them to eat.

He suddenly thought that there were really insects in those green stalks. In the fields here, there was a kind of insect that was really powerful. It was called the cotton bollworm in the cotton fields, the corn borer in the corn fields, and they still had their shadows in the sunflower fields.

The same kind of insect could harm more than three kinds of crops at once, which was powerful enough.

In his previous life, he also followed others to chew corn stalks in winter and found overwintering corn borers inside.

This stuff was used as firewood when hauled home, so these insects didn't have a good end. It was just that those insect eggs that fell into the fields were relatively disgusting. Once they hatched in spring, they started to harm the crops.

Fortunately, there were no insects in the watermelon. If there were, the melon would have gone bad at the beginning, and there would be no way to save it.

"I plan to rest for a period of time after the reed bundles are finished, and then go to the mountains. Halimu and the others must have returned from the transhumance. I don't know if they have come down the mountain yet. It's not easy to ride a horse to haul things, so I'll bring some materials to them up the mountain."

This was something that had to be done every year.

Actually, Li Long could be idle if he wanted to, but these messy things weren't few all year round. Some things could be done or not, and some things had to be done.

There were voices coming from outside. Li Qing Xia stood up and looked out the window. The window covered with plastic cloth couldn't see the people outside clearly, but he thought it should be someone sending reed bundles.

Li Long threw the watermelon skin into the dustpan used as a trash can in the corner, stood up, put on his overcoat, and walked out, saying as he walked:

"Sending reed bundles in the middle of the morning, is it because there's no money?"

After going out and looking, it was Ma Jinbao's son, Ma Chenyang.

Ma Jinbao was one of those who deliberately slowed down the speed. He couldn't get watermelon seeds from the Li family—of course, he didn't admit that his suspicion led to losing the opportunity, just feeling that the Li family was misleading them.

So when dealing with reed bundles, he wanted to suppress it, not that he didn't want to earn this money.

It was just that he didn't expect two carts of reeds from Xiahai Village to be sent over, which directly panicked him. Not only was he panicked, but his son was also panicked.

Their family had quite a few reeds, and other families had almost finished tying them, but they hadn't even tied one-third. Hearing that the reed bundles on Li Long's side were almost enough, they naturally became anxious.

Usually, they said they were afraid of the cold. This time, another heavy snow fell, and the Ma family didn't dislike the cold anymore. They got up before dawn and were still working after dark.

Even when the farm work was busiest, they hadn't been this busy.

Ma Chenyang was cursing his old man in his heart while complaining about Li Long.

But people with high prestige in the village went to talk to Li Long and were all pushed back. He knew that even if he talked, Li Long wouldn't care.

People wanted to make money; did they have to smile and compensate while helping the village make money?

Although Ma Chenyang had a similar personality to his old man, he at least wasn't stupid, so he worked hard to tie reed bundles every day, just wanting to earn more money.

Li Long wouldn't deliberately target his family. Qualified was qualified, and unqualified was unqualified.

"Little Yang, how many reed bundles did you pull today?" Li Long asked after going out.

"Eighty," Ma Chenyang said. "You check them. By the way, do you know that Xu Jianjun has been caught back?"

"Caught back? Who caught him?"

"Tao Daqiang." Ma Chenyang came to send reed bundles to Li Long early this morning, and one reason was that he wanted to pass this news over.

"Tao Daqiang went to his father-in-law's house to send things last night and saw someone acting suspiciously in the reed ditch, so he went up and caught him. As a result, it was Xu Jianjun. Then Tao Daqiang beat him up, and he was bruised and swollen. Xu Jianjun went to find the team leader this morning, but was scolded back by the team leader."

Ma Chenyang's family and Xu Jianjun's family were next door, so he knew about this matter relatively early. Xu Jianjun knew this was a scandal, so he wouldn't talk about it everywhere, and Tao Daqiang had to take care of his wife and was introverted by nature, so he wouldn't talk about it outside either.

He didn't even tell Li Long.

Li Long was also a bit surprised that Tao Daqiang had actually beaten Xu Jianjun.

Xu Jianjun dared to return, probably because he knew that the money owed for the burned reeds had been repaid by his family, and the rest was repaid by Xu Chengjun.

It was fine, so he dared to return, and he didn't know where he had been hiding these past few days.

Of course, the debt was repaid, but the anger wasn't. Li Long thought that Tao Daqiang beating Xu Jianjun up should be helping him vent his anger.

Xu Jianjun was barely one meter seven, and Tao Daqiang was one meter eight and could be twenty kilograms heavier than Xu Jianjun, and he was young, so it was very easy to beat him.

Li Long really didn't expect this.

He earnestly checked the reed bundles sent by Ma Chenyang and returned the ten or so unqualified ones.

Ma Chenyang pulled the donkey cart and had no opinion. After receiving the money, he said to Li Long again:

"Li Long, I can send another batch tomorrow, the day after tomorrow..."

Li Long calculated and said:

"It will be enough tomorrow. I will collect the last batch tomorrow night, and I won't come the day after tomorrow after hauling them away."

"Good, good, good, I know!" As soon as Ma Chenyang heard Li Long say this, he immediately led the donkey cart and rushed home. He thought about doing more as quickly as possible.

A reed bundle was 0.3 yuan, which was equal to one kilogram of flour!

Only a fool wouldn't do it!

Li Long loaded the reed bundles onto the tractor. At this time, he was no longer worried about anyone setting fire.

By lunchtime, a few more families had sent reed bundles, none of which were many, and the proportion of qualified ones wasn't high.

It seemed that some people were really anxious.

Li Long wasn't anxious. After lunch, he hugged two watermelons and went to Tao Daqiang's house.

The reed bundles in Tao Daqiang's house had also been tied, and he was breaking coal in the coal shed. The coal hauled by the large cart was in large blocks and had to be broken into small blocks before being taken into the room.

Seeing Li Long arrive, Tao Daqiang greeted him with a silly smile:

"Brother Long is here?"

"I heard you beat Xu Jianjun? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, he didn't even dare to fight back." Tao Daqiang didn't expect Li Long to know so quickly and said with a silly smile, "If he dared to fight back, I would have beaten him until his nose cried."

It was still a bit difficult to make a grown man cry, but this also showed Tao Daqiang's determination.

"I brought two watermelons for you," Li Long said. "Your wife doesn't have to eat them, but you and Uncle Tao can eat them. Burning the stove in winter makes the house very dry, so you can eat something cold."

Tao Daqiang was holding an iron dustpan and couldn't help hold the watermelons, so he hurriedly stepped forward, lifted the cotton door curtain, pushed the door, and let Li Long in.

It was cold in winter, and every family would take out old cotton quilts and sew them into cotton door curtains to block the wind. After all, the current doors couldn't be sealed, and if they weren't blocked by door curtains, the heat in the room would leak out.

Tao Jian She was making shoes in the west room. That's right, Tao Jian She was making shoes—currently, he was sewing the soles. The child had no mother, so many things had to be done by him, the father. Although he didn't do it very well, it was good that he could support the two children so they wouldn't be barefoot.

Shoes were easy to say, but clothes couldn't be helped, so he could only beg the neighbors to help make them.

Now that Tao Daqiang had a child, Tao Jian She couldn't rest either. Although the daughter-in-law had finished observing the postpartum month, it was impossible to let her do too much work. Just managing the child took up most of the time.

Although children were relatively loosely managed at this time, it had to wait until the child was half a year old and could sit.

Actually, children in the countryside were raised by each family at this time. When it was the big pot of rice and big collective, there would also be a sister-in-law managing several children from several families in the same group.

Li Jianguo said that when Li Juan and Li Qiang were young, when there was a lot of farm work, both husband and wife had to go.

At that time, Li Juan was slightly older and better, but Li Qiang was too small, less than one year old, and was put in a large basket with a bunch of other children less than one year old or one year old. Whoever cried would be fed a spoonful of boiled water with sugar and steamed bun by whoever was there.

Unlike other places, sugar beets could be planted here, so at least white sugar wasn't so lacking, and there were quite a few places to earn money. Although the children were also quite hard, at least they wouldn't starve.

But it was only at this time. When they grew up and wanted to eat fine grain, it wasn't very easy, and everyone knew the drawbacks of the big pot of rice, so they finally carried out reforms.

Later, it got better and better, which was a later story.

!.

"Uncle Tao is making shoes? Is your eyesight okay?"

"It's good." As soon as Tao Jian She saw Li Long enter, he smiled, put down the shoe sole, and put the awl and needle away so as not to prick anyone.

After sitting and chatting for a while, Tao Daqiang suddenly said:

"Brother Long, I want to buy a tractor!"

Li Long looked at Tao Daqiang's firm eyes and asked:

"Is the money enough?"

"Enough."

"Then buy it next spring," Li Long thought for a moment and said, "It's too troublesome to get this thing in winter. If it's left at home, it will depreciate a bit by spring. It's better to buy it at the beginning of spring when the snow melts and before the work starts; it will be just right to use."

He had a tractor, so he naturally knew how troublesome winter was. Not to mention roasting in advance, the water in the water tank had to be drained at night, and there was a technique to roasting, so the pipe couldn't be roasted soft.

Others saw him driving the tractor majestically, but didn't know that he also had bitterness in driving the tractor.

Tao Daqiang was a person who listened to persuasion. Even his father couldn't persuade him, but Li Long's one sentence persuaded him.

Li Long knew that Tao Daqiang wanted to raise his eyebrows and exhale once too much, and also wanted to compete for the position of the second family in the Fourth Team to have a tractor.

Tao Jian She led two sons, and life was still difficult, much more difficult than Gu Bo Yuan's.

Tao Daqiang had suffered quite a few white eyes since he was a child because he didn't talk much and was called stupid and silly.

Later it got better, but he wasn't content. How much grievance had been suppressed in the past, he wanted to set off how big a wave right now.

Tao Jian She actually persuaded his son, but Tao Daqiang's idea was too straight, and he couldn't persuade him.

Tao Jian She didn't know whether he should be happy or unhappy.

Li Long went to the east room to see Yang Pingping and the child. He had been here once before and gave the child a red envelope of ten yuan, and Tao Daqiang didn't push it away and took it.

After talking for a while, Li Long left the Tao family and went to the old horse corral.

The snow on the road wasn't cleared much. This was one of the few times Li Long walked around the team. Usually, it was either a bicycle or a tractor, and there were few opportunities to walk.

Old Luo Shu was clearing the snow in the courtyard and was very happy to see Li Long come over.

Li Long found a wooden shovel and asked while clearing snow with Old Luo Shu:

"Old Luo Shu, are the things here enough?"

"Enough, enough. Rice and flour are all there, and there is meat. The oil is also quite a lot. How much can I eat alone."

After Chen Li Rong and the two children moved away from the old horse corral, Old Luo Shu cooked much less here. Li Long occasionally came and went in a hurry. Today, being able to work with him, Old Luo Shu was really very happy.

Li Long and Old Luo Shu cleared the snow in the courtyard and then went to see the livestock in the pen.

The wild boars were still wild and hard to tame, and they kept snorting when they saw someone come over. The red deer and roe deer held their heads high, thinking they were looking for food.

Li Long looked and turned his head to ask:

"Old Luo Shu, are those two red deer and one roe deer going to give birth?"

"Yes," Old Luo Shu said with a smile, "Little Long, I'm thinking that when the red deer gives birth, I'll grab that deer fetus and freeze it, and you take it back for Xiaoxia to eat.

Deer fetus is good for women. When Xiaoxia gives birth to a child and loses her vitality, only this can make up for it."

Li Long knew this, but he hadn't thought about it. Now that Old Luo Shu reminded him, he felt that this was really feasible.

In his previous life, he heard people say that those with chronic diseases like tuberculosis, people with long-term physical weakness, were good to eat placenta.

Deer fetus is a great tonic, especially good for women.

This can definitely be had!

It's just that I don't know if Gu Xiaoxia is willing to eat it?

But it doesn't matter. Get this stuff, roast it dry with tiles on the stove, grind it into powder, and mix it into food to eat.

For the health of the family, it's fine to hide it a bit.

"Good, good, good, I heard that after the deer gives birth to a deer baby, it will eat the deer fetus back. When the deer is about to give birth, Old Luo Shu, you tell me, and I will guard here then, so it will be safe."

"Fine." Old Luo Shu was naturally willing. He was also worried that if the deer gave birth to a baby in the middle of the night and he couldn't watch it, it would be troublesome.

Old Luo Shu said that these red deer would give birth in more than ten days, so Li Long wasn't in a hurry. These times were enough for him to hand in the reed bundles and then go to the mountains to send grain.

Returning from the old horse corral, Li Long found that someone else had sent reed bundles.

He calculated roughly that it would be almost enough tonight.

But since he told others, let them come tomorrow. Collect tomorrow, and then go to the supply and marketing cooperative to hand in the last batch of goods.

Reed bundles took up space, and Li Long had already sent fifteen thousand reed bundles to the supply and marketing cooperative. That place was big and easy to put.

Before the sun set, Li Long drove the tractor to the county. If he didn't leave, the tractor couldn't hold any more.

Returning home, Li Long thought about it and told Gu Xiaoxia about the deer fetus.

What surprised him was that Gu Xiaoxia didn't object!

"I know deer fetus is a good thing," Gu Xiaoxia said as a matter of course:

"I also know you won't harm me. If I really give birth to a child, I still have to raise him, so my body can't be weak. I feel... Sister-in-law's body is quite weak, and it seems she has had postpartum illness.

Juan and Qiangqiang are both good, but Sister-in-law is quite bitter."

Li Long thought and said:

"Then anyway, there is more than one deer fetus, so I'll get one for Sister-in-law then. We raise so many deer, and it seems they are finally useful now."

Gu Xiaoxia still had no pregnancy reaction at this time, which was quite unexpected.

She had also checked at the county hospital and officially confirmed she was pregnant.

But the pregnancy check at this time wasn't as complicated as in later generations. After confirmation, the doctor gave some precautions, and they went back.

At this time, medical technology wasn't so developed, there weren't so many instruments, and many fetal diseases couldn't be discovered, or rather, they weren't known at this level of hospital.

So even if Li Long wanted to check in detail, there was no way to check.

For example, Tang screening and the like.

The next day, Li Long still went to the team, collected reed bundles for half a day, and then told the whole team through Xu Chengjun's loudspeaker that reed bundles wouldn't be collected.

Li Long drove the tractor and left the team, driving towards the county.

Ma Chenyang looked at the reeds still piled up in the courtyard, wanting to curse but couldn't.

There were quite a few families with the same mood as him.

ps: (Dizzy, daughter has a fever, no time to write, only one update tonight. ) (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 564 =====

PS: (Dizzy, my daughter has a fever, no time to write, only one chapter tonight.) (End of chapter)