Era: Started from raising livestock in the mountains

After sending my parents home, it was completely dark when I came out.

This meal took more than an hour, and we lit candles at the end. It was already past nine o'clock. There was no moon these days, so the stars looked particularly bright.

When I got home, Xiulan was cleaning up the dishes. Lin Heng came over to help her.

"Give all this to Xiongba." Xiulan sorted out the food and handed it to Lin Heng, which also contained cooked chicken bones and internal organs.

Lin Heng brought it out and poured it into the dog bowl for Xiongba, looking at it and said, "This is a big meal tonight."

Xiongba didn't say anything, but ate it with big mouthfuls, biting the bones with a crunchy sound, and it was unknown whether he was satisfied or not.

Back in the house, Lin Heng washed Xiaoxia's face and feet, and then read a storybook to coax her to sleep.

When Xiaoxia fell asleep and he went out to take a shower, Xiulan had already washed up.

"What are you thinking about?"

Lin Heng got on the bed, and Xiulan asked.

"I was thinking about asking Carpenter Liang to help me make a big wooden barrel for bathing when I pass by his house in a few days. I want to take a bath." Lin Heng yawned and said.

Xiulan whispered: "If you want to take a bath, then make one. You don't need this little money now."

"Then let's take a bath together?" Lin Heng smiled.

"I knew you had impure thoughts." Xiulan snorted.

Lin Heng pinched her hand: "Then why are you still lying in my arms?"

Xiulan snorted: "Then who let you marry me, I will lie for the rest of my life."

...

The two chatted in detail, biting their lips and flirting from time to time.

Lin Heng held his wife in his arms. He originally just wanted to eat a few big meat buns, but it got out of control. It made his already tired body worse.

"It's over! I don't want to go to the river tomorrow." Lin Heng sighed. Some things are really uncontrollable.

Xiulan nestled in Lin Heng's arms and said softly, "Then let's go the day after tomorrow."

Her body was also soft at this moment, and she wanted to nestle in Lin Heng's arms. There was a faint smell of heather in the air.

"It's all your fault." Lin Heng deliberately blamed her.

Xiulan rolled her eyes: "Yes, yes, it's all my fault, it's all for me.

I don't know who started it first, and begged others to cooperate."

"Haha." Lin Heng also remembered that his wife had just reminded him, but he didn't listen to anything and just wanted to come.

"Sleep, sleep."

Xiulan recovered a little strength and lay down to rest.

Lin Heng also fell asleep quickly. He slept a lot and didn't get up until more than ten o'clock the next morning.

Lin Heng got up and came out. In the backyard, Xiulan was picking vegetables in the pavilion, and Xiaoxia was lying on the railing to watch the fish, and occasionally scattering some food.

Over the grape trellis, the wild grapes planted before not only survived, but the newly grown vines climbed onto the trellis.

Lin Heng suspected that if he had planted it earlier, he might still be able to eat wild grapes now.

In the corner, the rotten cypress that had been left there without care has also grown green leaves again, and its vitality is frighteningly tenacious.

Lin Heng walked over to take a look, and placed the flower pot on the edge of the fish pond.

This natural cypress bonsai fully expresses the artistic conception of life and death.

"The rice is left in the pot for you, go and eat it yourself, there is tea for you on the table." Xiulan said without raising her head.

"Okay." Lin Heng nodded and went to the kitchen to eat.

In the morning, my wife made rice, and the dishes were cold cucumber shreds and stir-fried green beans.

Seeing the tea on the table, Lin Heng felt that his wife was so considerate. This was a cup of mulberry and wolfberry tea.

After eating, he ate the tea with mulberries and wolfberries. There was no way, he had to replenish himself when he was weak.

Xiulan came over with Xiaoxia, who was jumping and jumping, and saw that he even ate mulberries, and was very satisfied.

"What are mom and dad doing today?" Lin Heng asked curiously.

Xiulan looked at him and said, "Mom and dad went to help Sandie and the others thresh rice today, and we have to thresh rice tomorrow.

Sanma came over this morning and said that we must go to eat at noon."

"Is that so? Then we have to go. If we don't go, they will definitely come to call us." Lin Heng nodded. It was good not to have to cook by himself.

Xiulan nodded, looked at her husband and said, "After you finish eating, let's go pick dates. Mom said that the dates on the beams have turned red. Many birds have been eating them these two days."

After a pause, she was a little skeptical again: "Can you still climb trees now?"

Lin Heng immediately raised his head and chest: "Of course, who are you looking down on?"

"Then let's go. I'm just afraid that you will fall." Xiulan smiled.

"Okay." Lin Heng went to the house to get the hook and hatchet.

He looked at it and took the slingshot on the wall.

"Wife, I forgot to ask, is the new kitchen knife easy to use?" He said as he walked out.

"It's very sharp, much better than the previous one." Xiulan responded. She took the basket and pulled Xiaoxia out.

"Pick dates, pick dates, I want to eat dates!!"

Xiaoxia wore the small straw hat that Xiulan made for her, waving her hands and cheering.

"Woof woof!!"

Xiongba, who was lying under the eaves, also ran out wagging his tail.

The little golden cat Jinbao turned over, yawned and continued to sleep.

The sun was a little strong today, but it was worth going out to eat red dates.

When you leave the yard, you can hear the sound of threshing on both sides of the river. The sun is good, and many families are threshing.

"You are threshing today too." Lin Heng said to Li Caifeng who was drying the grain after passing the Yang family.

Li Caifeng saw Lin Heng and nodded with a smile: "Yes, the sun is good today, what are you doing?"

Now that she no longer competes with Xiulan, she naturally loses her temper.

Ever since the price of mulberry rose and Lin Heng became rich, she has completely given up comparing herself with Xiulan. I found a woman of similar strength to compare with.

"Let's go date hunting." Lin Heng responded with a smile.

"Oh, I have indeed aged these past two days." Li Caifeng nodded.

When Lin Heng and the others passed by, she still couldn't help but feel envious.

Lin Heng was such a shock to people. Since he came back in May, this person has changed drastically.

Lin Heng came to his family's sweet potato field in the east of the village, six or seven hundred meters away from the Shiban River. There was a cypress forest here, where his great-grandfather, grandmother, and grandfather were buried.

To the east of the cypress forest is the sweet potato field. Next to the cypress forest grow two jujube trees as thick as a bowl and a persimmon tree with a diameter of more than thirty centimeters.

This year, not only are dates in abundance, but so are persimmons. Green persimmons the size of a child’s fist are hanging all over the branches.

Lin Heng took a quick look and found two red ones, and planned to pick them for his wife and children to try.

"Dad, there is someone on the tree." Xiaoxia pointed to the jujube tree and said.

Lin Heng had also seen it a long time ago. There were three or four children picking dates. However, as the saying goes in the countryside, "There are no railings under the fruit trees." If you pick a little and eat it, no one will say anything to you as long as it is not beaten.

"Uncle Lin, let's pick some dates to eat." A child on the tree said with a smile.

"Come down, I'll knock it off and you can pick up some to eat."

Lin Heng walked under the tree and said with a smile that this child seemed to be Liu Lan's second son.

"Okay Uncle Lin, let's help pick it up." Several children on the tree quickly climbed down.

"Xiulan, take your daughter away. I'll climb up the tree and start beating her."

Lin Heng said something, and first climbed up the jujube tree on the left. When he reached the top of the tree, he picked up the stick and started to smoke. The rain of jujubes continued to fall.

"It's raining, it's raining!!"

Xiaoxia jumped up and shouted, and would have run down the tree if Xiulan hadn't pulled her.

Not long after, Lin Heng pulled all the dates off the tree. The ground was covered with red dates, and Lin Heng had nowhere to stand under the trees.

"Let's help pick it up." A few children started to pick it up first.

Xiulan picked up the basket, and Lin Heng came down from the tree and pulled Xiaoxia. She picked one up from the ground and stuffed it into her mouth hurriedly, not caring whether it was dirty or not.

Lin Heng grabbed her, and she stared at him blankly with her mouth open.

"What are you looking at? Don't you know how to wipe the dust off?" Lin Heng brought it over, picked a red one for her, wiped it and handed it to her.

These dates have not been treated with pesticides, so there is no big problem if you rub them and eat them.

Xiaoxia took a bite, chewed twice, revealed her dimples and said, "Sweet!"

Lin Heng also ate one himself. It was crispy, sweet and delicious, with a bit of the sourness and fragrance unique to dates. He couldn't stop eating it after three bites.

Picking it up and putting it in the bag, eating it at the same time.

Xiaoxia finished eating one and picked up another on the ground. She wanted to wipe it on her clothes, but then she remembered that her mother said she was not allowed to stain her clothes.

Looking at her father, she secretly wiped the jujube on the corner of his clothes, then took a bite, showing a happy smile.

Lin Heng didn't notice at all and was concentrating on picking up dates.

Soon Xiulan's basket was full, and the snakeskin bag in Lin Heng's hand was half full.

It adds up to fifty or sixty kilograms, not including some taken away by the children in the village.

"Do you want to hit the other jujube tree?" Lin Heng looked at his wife and asked.

"Beat them all, otherwise they will be eaten by bees and birds. My sister-in-law has already beaten the big tree on the other side of the cornfield, so there is no need to leave it for them." Xiulan nodded and said.

These red dates are very good when dried, whether you make tea or stew chicken or ribs.

"Okay." Lin Heng went to another tree, took a stick and whipped most of the dates off the tree in a short while.

After picking it up, he didn't even put it in the snakeskin bag, so he filled half of the bag before filling it all.

"Let's go home." Xiulan wiped her sweat and said, the weather was still too hot.

"Wait a minute, I'll get some persimmons to eat." Lin Heng pointed at the persimmon tree and said.

Xiulan advised: "Don't climb the tree. The two red persimmons are too far away to reach. Forget it."

"No, I will pick some persimmons and pickle them to eat." Lin Heng said with a smile. He picked thirty green persimmons on hand and put them in his pocket.

"That's okay." Xiulan nodded.

The so-called pickled persimmons are naturally not thrown into a sour jar for pickling, but pickled in warm water.

Put the green persimmons into a bucket, cover them with some leaves and corn husks, add warm water and soak them for four or five days before eating.

At this time, the persimmons are no longer astringent and become crispy and sweet, very delicious.

However, please note that the persimmons must be almost ripe. Persimmons that are too green will not be cooked properly.

"Let's go home." Lin Heng said with a smile. He likes to eat pickled persimmons.

On the way home, the two broke off a few tender corns in the cornfield and took them back.

Xiulan is going to make red dates, pumpkin and polenta for dinner.

"How about chopping more and grinding some pulp to eat?" Lin Heng asked, looking at the tender corn.

Corn pulp cake tastes good if you eat it occasionally. It is a rural delicacy formed by grinding older tender corn and fermenting it overnight.

It can be eaten steamed or baked into pulp cakes. The special scent is quite nice.

Of course, the premise is that you eat it occasionally. If you eat it often, it won't work.

"Sure, mom was still saying she wanted to eat it yesterday. But let's do it in the afternoon. Then we can chop more and grind it into paste for the three of us to share." Xiulan nodded.

"Okay." Lin Heng nodded and walked back with Xiaoxia and Xiongba.

When they got home, Xiaoxia took off her shoes and climbed onto the cool mat.

Lin Heng drank a sip of honeysuckle and dogwood herbal tea, which Xiulan had made before she went out. It was cold now.

Honeysuckle and dogwood were picked on the Dragon Boat Festival and are the best. After taking a sip, the whole person felt much cooler.

After resting for a while, Xiulan brought one or two garden dustpans and looked at Lin Heng and said, "Help me sort it out."

"Okay." Lin Heng nodded, threw away the bad ones, and separated the red ones from the dark ones.

The red ones were washed and dried into red dates, and the dark ones were eaten by people.

The two of them sorted for a while, and Xiaoxia ran over to make things worse.

It took more than half an hour to sort the dates while chatting.

"I'll go get a scale to weigh them." Lin Heng turned around and took a scale to weigh them.

"Seventy-five pounds of red dates, thirty pounds of unred ones, this year's dates are quite abundant." Lin Heng said with a smile.

These are all picked, and there must be twenty or thirty pounds of rotten dates that are fed to wild hogs and badgers.

Xiulan also smiled: "It's really a good harvest. Three pounds of one pound can be dried to dry 25 pounds."

Jujube trees are not artificially thinned for flowers and fruits, and they are more and less every year.

"Dad, I want to weigh it too." Xiaoxia looked at Lin Heng and said crisply.

"Then I'll weigh it for you." Lin Heng looked at her and went to find a basket with a rope.

Let his daughter squat in it, and he lifted it up to weigh it.

"Eighteen pounds, Xiaoxia, you weigh eighteen pounds." Lin Heng looked at her and said, this is a very healthy weight.

"You're a lot fatter than before, only fifteen pounds in July." Xiulan said as she carried her daughter out.

The food has been good in the past few months, and my daughter has also gained a lot of weight.

"I weigh eighteen jin!"

Xiaoxia didn't know how much eighteen jin was, and she kept mumbling it. She ran to tell Jinbao several times, and told Xiongba several times, and didn't let go of the wild boar and musk deer.

Lin Heng looked at Xiaoxia, and Xiulan washed the red dates, boiled them in a pot, and then took them out and poured them into a round dustpan to dry.

She also spread the gauze that Lin Heng had bought for making ground traps on top to prevent insect bites.

In this weather, it will take about three or four days to dry.

As for the remaining thirty or so jin of fresh dates, only people can eat them.

This is not a lot. Lin Heng ate half a jin of it during the time he took Xiaoxia.

After finishing the dates, the two sat in the house to drink tea and cool off. Lin Heng rested well and went to soak the green tomatoes he brought back in warm water.

Xiulan used Lin Heng's hundred-tempered steel dagger to cut tender corn, washed it and ate it in the evening.

After finishing these, the two of them rinsed their feet in sandals and lay on the cool mat.

The mat was spread on the ground, and it was much cooler to lie on it.

Lin Heng found a book and read it for a while, then put it down, lying down aimlessly, staring at the wooden ceiling in a daze.

"Aren't you going to work on the fish pond?" Xiulan asked, she was playing with her daughter's dolls.

"Let's do it tomorrow morning, I don't want to do it today. There's no rush, the shrimp fry won't be released until next year." Lin Heng said.

The second fish pond has not been disinfected yet, tomorrow morning, get two or three hundred kilograms of quicklime to disinfect it, and then soak it in water.

"Dong Dong Dong!!"

Lin Heng had just prepared to take care of Xiao Mi for a while when there was a knock on the door outside.

"Brother Lin Heng, come to my house for dinner." Lin Hai's voice came from outside the door.

"I'm coming." Lin Heng got up with his shoes on.

On the way out, he looked at the watch, it was already half past one.

"Brother Lin, the meal is ready, hurry over to eat."

As soon as Lin Heng opened the door, Lin Hai said hurriedly.

"I'll leave right away, do you eat dates?" Lin Heng asked.

Lin Hai shook his head: "No, I have a lot at home."

"Okay then." Lin Heng nodded, changed a pair of shoes, and took Xiulan to Lin Hai's house.

"Brother, you are so amazing, you became rich all of a sudden." Lin Hai said enviously on the way.

He watched Lin Heng rise step by step, and his envy was beyond words.

Lin Heng laughed and patted his shoulder: "What's the point of being rich? The store didn't make much money."

"That's better than us farmers. Brother, what can I do to make money?" Lin Hai began to learn from others.

He has been developing a good relationship with Tian Yan recently, and he wants to change his situation more and more.

Lin Heng thought about it, looked at him and said: "Well, you can plant fruit trees. I will buy fruit tree seedlings tomorrow spring. I can help you buy some, or you can come with me. Although it will take several years to bear fruit, it will be a long-term business if you take good care of it."

"Okay, then I will go with you then." Lin Hai nodded.

As they were talking, they had already arrived at Lin Hai's house. From a distance, Lin Heng saw Lin's father and eldest brother being surrounded by a group of people chatting.

Seeing that the Lin family had become wealthy, many people wanted to learn from them or get close to them. This was human nature.

"Boss Lin is here."

"Boss Lin is living a carefree life now."

Seeing Lin Heng, a group of people smiled and complimented him.

"Don't make fun of me with the word boss. I didn't make any money at all." Lin Heng shook his head and smiled bitterly.

"We don't believe it. Take us with you when you have money."

"Tell everyone how much money you made."

A group of people continued to talk, with a bit of a teasing intention.

Lin Heng reluctantly took his wife and children into the house, not wanting to say anything more to these uncles, that's how it is when there are so many people.

In the house, Lin Hai's brother Lin Shan looked at Lin Heng and said with a smile: "Hurry up and sit down, the meal will be ready soon."

After the family split up, he built a house in Shanghe, which is a bit far from the center of the village. He usually farms and rarely meets Lin Heng.

When he heard about Lin Heng's recent deeds, his jaw almost dropped. His cousin, who was in a hopeless situation, actually became rich. For a moment, he was envious and a little jealous.

"Lin Heng, Xiulan, you guys hurry up and sit down. The dishes will be served soon." Third Aunt Li Xue was even more kind. She came out to pour water for Lin Heng and Xiulan, and gave Xiaoxia a biscuit to eat.

"Don't bother so much." Lin Heng said hurriedly.

"What's the trouble? You guys sit down first, I'll serve the dishes." His third aunt smiled and shook her head.

Lin Heng also stood up and wanted to help, but was held down by his third aunt, who said that a few of them were enough.

There were many people helping to thresh the grain today, so three tables were set up, one for the men who were drinking, one for the women, and one for the children.

Lin Heng didn't want to drink outside, so he took Xiulan to sit at the table with the children.

As soon as he sat down, all the uncles who were chatting outside came in and sat at his table without any prior arrangement.

Lin Heng: "..."