Farming Beneath the Changbai Mountains

In early September, the Xu family had already settled down. Wenhan, Zixuan and Pengcheng all went to the county school to study. Zhiming and Wencheng took the dried sticks from the Xu family to the south. They also collected some of the sticks, but the capital was too small, so they couldn't bring too much. The purchase price paid by Zhiming and Wencheng was 10% higher than that paid by these local people, so some villagers who were not in a hurry to use the money said that they would let Zhiming take it first and pay them later when they return. Uncle Zhiming and his nephew left with more than 400 kilograms of mallets. The Xu family's mallets alone weighed about 200 kilograms.

Both Xue and Zhu also returned to the town. Jingya was getting married in October, so of course she had to make good preparations. Jinghan, Jingxian and Mingyu all followed back to the town, and even Honglian and the others followed. Only Zhixin and the two families were left on the mountain. The ginseng seeds had not been sown on the mountain, and there were still some tasks that had not been done. Zhixin was worried and wanted to watch from the mountain.

The Lin family's winery has already started construction, and just in time for the new grain to arrive in autumn, the Lin Xing family collected a lot of grain and stored it. The Xing family also has a younger brother named Xingye, who is the Erlin that Xue mentioned at the beginning. Erlin's daughter-in-law was a bit mean and greedy, so she separated her family early. The Xing family has two sons and one daughter, the eldest is Zixuan, and Zixuan is studying in the county, so of course there is no manpower in the family. So Zhixin sent Guoan, Guoqiang and Anping to the winery. There wasn't much work in the winter anyway, so there was no need for so many people here.

Jinghan returned to the town and had nothing to do, so she helped Xue with some matters related to her eldest sister's wedding. Although he is not from a wealthy family, this marriage really cannot be too simple, so all kinds of things are very complicated.

Huixin gave birth to a girl, and it was the full moon on September 19th. Qing Nian now has a son and a daughter, so he told Huixin that he would not let Huixin have any more children in the future. Huixin promised, but in her heart she wanted to have two more children. There were too few children and the family was not lively.

On the morning of the 19th, the old man and Mrs. Chen took their family members to Qingnian’s house.

As soon as Mrs. Chen saw the white and tender baby on the kang, she was very fond of it. She took out a gold lock she had prepared and hung it around the child's neck. Then she held the child in her arms without anyone noticing. Give. "Oh, I saw a little baby again. Look at her small mouth, small nose and small eyes. She will definitely be a handsome girl in the future. Happy New Year, have you given the child a name?"

"Mom, we have a name. It's called Chuqing, which means the first clearing after the rain." Qingnian said with a smile.

After hearing this, everyone said that the name was good, and Jinghan also thought it was good. It was sunny after the rain, and the mood was very good. "Grandma, give me a hug for my sister. You haven't let me go since we got here. It's time for us to hold her for a while." Jinghan looked at the snow-white and pink little girl and liked it very much, so she wanted to hug her. hug her.

Ms. Chen said with some reluctance, "Then hold me for a while. You kids are so careless, so don't hurt little Chuqing." The old lady warned her uneasily.

Jinghan took the child from her grandmother and held it in her arms. This little guy is quite worry-free. He doesn't cry when no one holds him. He has two big black eyes and looks around chatteringly.

Jingxian and Mingyu also came to Jinghan's side, rushing to look after the child. "Sister, this girl is so fun. Look at her hands, they are so small."

"Okay, Jinghan, the child is still too young. You can't hold it for too long, otherwise it will be bad for the child's waist. Put it down first. We haven't given you the full-moon gift we prepared yet." Mrs. Xue was standing aside. said.

After listening to her mother's words, Jinghan had no choice but to put the child on the kang. Mrs. Xue took out a pair of small silver bracelets and gave them to Chu Qing. Mrs. Zhu took out a pair of anklets with two bells on them and put them on the child. Not lagging behind, Han took out a silver collar. Now, Xiao Chuqing had a lot of things hanging on her body.

"Sister-in-law, look at you, how can you prepare all this gold and silver for such a small child?" Huixin said hurriedly when she saw it.

"What's the point? You're the only girl in our family, and this is a full-moon gift for us as aunts to give to our niece. Our family is not the same as before. Just make some clothes. You can also get these silver things. Of course we can't do it to our little Chuqing, right?" Mrs. Xue said while teasing the little baby.

The family was chatting affectionately here. Honglian and the others were about to go to the kitchen to help, but Qingnian stopped them. "No, we're still serving drinks in the restaurant today, not at home. I don't have enough space here, and I'll be busy with work then. It's troublesome."

Upon hearing this, Mrs. Chen nodded, and then said to Honglian, "You guys go to the kitchen and help prepare two tables of food. Their men go to the restaurant, but we can still do it at home. There are fewer people and we are more comfortable."

Hong Lian nodded and led the three Hong Shao out. Qingnian's family now not only has the grandma, but also bought two little girls. Qing Nian is now a big shopkeeper, and his family can afford to support others, which is perfect for Hui Xin to take a good rest. A few girls were preparing lunch in the kitchen.

At the beginning of the year, many people came to the Tao family one after another, including neighbors, colleagues and friends celebrating the new year. When Sizhong arrived, Qingnian saw that most of the people had arrived, so he took everyone to a nearby restaurant. After all the men left, Mrs. Chen led several nearby daughters-in-law and the women from the Xu family to set up two tables at home and everyone had a meal together.

After eating Chuqing's full-moon wine, Mrs. Zhu said it would be better to just take Huixin and his wife back to the Xu family, just in time for the confinement period. Mrs. Chen thought about it and thought it would be okay. With so many people accompanying her, she wouldn't be afraid of anything going wrong. They happened to be celebrating the New Year and came back from drinking in a restaurant. After everyone discussed it, they agreed to move to the confinement today.

So Xue's sister-in-law quickly helped clean up, and everyone drove the oxcart to take Huixin, her daughter, and Jinghui back to the Xu family. Qingnian did not follow him. He lived in the town and could go to Xu's house at any time. There was no need to follow him at this time. Besides, there are still many things to deal with in Renji Hall, and Qingnian doesn’t have time to follow Huixin all the time. It just so happens that Huixin returns to her parents’ home, so Qingnian can feel more at ease.

On September 22nd, Zhiming and Wencheng returned from their trip. The gatekeeper, Lao Wang, was very happy when he saw that his second master and second young master were back. He quickly helped drive the carriage into the yard, "Second Master, Second Young Master, you go into the house quickly, I will take care of it here."

Zhiming and Wencheng arrived at the house where the old man lived. As soon as they entered the house, they happened to see Mr. Xue and Mr. Zhu chatting with the old lady. When Zhu looked up, she happened to see her husband and son. "The father of the child, Wencheng, you are back. Why is it so fast this time?" In the past, they would go out and not come back for more than a month.

The old man and the old lady also noticed the father and son at this time. "The old man and his wife are back. Hurry up. Come on, get on the kang." The old man said,

Mr. and Mrs. Zhiming did not get on the kang, but sat on the edge of the kang. "Father, mother, I'm back. It was a coincidence that we went to Anguo this time. We happened to meet a big businessman from the south who took us there. He wanted all the more than 400 kilograms of sticks. And he also asked us to help him collect the medicinal materials here. We remembered that Jingya was getting married, so we didn't delay outside and collected some that we didn't have here. I got the medicinal materials and came back quickly." Zhiming said about this trip. "This year's sticks sold at a very good price. One kilogram can be sold for six taels of silver, which is two or three times higher than what we have here. We sold these more than 400 kilograms of sticks for a total of 2,500 Two taels of silver. If I hadn't met this big merchant, I would have sold it for four or five taels. This person had never been to Anguo in the past. This year, I suddenly wanted to go and have a look. Unexpectedly, we happened to meet him. "

When the old man heard this, he was also very happy, "Okay, it's better to sell it for more money. Third child, did you have about a hundred kilograms without giving money to others when you left? Go back to the village and give it to others tomorrow. You have to press my button I mean, I will increase the price by another 10%. After all, they will let me take the stick away first if they trust me. "What do you think? "The old man is a real person. The market here is just one pound. It would be great if the stick can be sold for more than two taels of silver. The sticks that Zhiming took away were priced at two and a half kilos, which was already much higher than the local ones. If the price increased further, it would be a lot.

Zhiming nodded without thinking, "Sure, dad, you can do whatever you say. We are all fellow villagers in the same village, and we can't enrich ourselves and cheat others. We will have to collect more sticks in the future. , it has to be higher than others, so let’s calculate it as 2 taels and eight cents?”

The old man nodded, "Sure, let's do it. I also know that it's not easy for you to go out. Those who go out don't have good food and housing, and they have to worry about carrying all that money? This is already much higher than selling to others. , I think the Wu family and the Li family have nothing to say. "How can the old man not feel sorry for his children and grandchildren? Of course I felt uncomfortable watching my son's life. "By the way, where are the medicinal materials you collected? Did you bring them back?"

"No, we sold them all. On the way back, we sold them all. The price was not bad, just doubled. It was just that the collection was a little less, so we only collected a thousand taels of medicinal materials." Zhiming was a little regretful. Said. This was the second time they went out to collect medicinal materials. There were many things they didn't understand yet, so they didn't dare to collect more. Unexpectedly, there are many medicinal materials that are very expensive in the north. Several pharmacies are vying for the medicinal materials they bring back. All of a sudden, the medicinal materials turned into two thousand taels.

"Grandpa, my father and I plan to go to the south again after Jingya gets married. There are still a lot of sticks from other people in our village that have not been sold. We will go back and collect some when we have time. We will go back and forth this winter. Pouring out the medicinal materials a few times will make us more money than growing sticks," Wen Cheng said excitedly.