Feast of villains

Chapter 100 100. The crying little hedgehog

Author: Yuyu Kuaidong

Chapter 100 100. The crying little hedgehog

Winter days are short.

Before five o'clock in the afternoon, the glow was already appearing in the western sky.

Nance helped set up the plastic greenhouse and walked carefully to avoid stepping on the newly planted potato seedlings. Next to the potato field was a wheat field, and a carriage loaded with soil was parked next to it. The wheat seedlings were all covered with snow.

, two workers were sitting on the edge of the field smoking pipes.

The soil in the carriage was mixed and used to spread on the corn seeds, but no one had done it yet, and the soil was frozen hard.

Li Ting jumped out from one side and shouted to the worker Vasily to pull the carriage to the corn field, then break up the soil and mix it with corn seeds to plant them together.

"It's okay, sir, the corn will definitely grow." Vasily replied carelessly.

"Please don't argue," Li Ting shouted in a hoarse voice, "just do as I tell you."

"Yes, sir." Vasily put down his pipe, grabbed his horse and walked toward the cornfield.

Li Ting followed up, picked up a clod of soil, crushed it in the palm of his hand, and kneaded the soil.

The acidity of the land eroded by natural disasters has exceeded the standard to some extent, and plants can hardly survive.

These soils were an important step in his soil improvement plan.

First plant cabbage on the contaminated soil, use the purification ability of cabbage to balance the acid-base index of the land, and then use the soil to cultivate new crops. As long as subsequent fertilizers can keep up, the survival of the crops can basically be guaranteed.

The failure to mix the purified soil into the corn seeds in time could not be blamed solely on Vasily, but it was still annoying.

Li Ting tried to calm down his anger more than once and tried every means to make the plan go as planned, but the reality often failed to go as planned.

Most of the residents in the town were uneducated. Not only could they not understand the meaning of some of his orders, they also thought that he was too old and confused to always make people do laborious and useless tasks. Moreover, there was a serious shortage of manpower.

Vasily came to the cornfield, took out a sieve, and put corn seeds into the ground while breaking up large clods of soil.

After looking at his less than agile hands and feet, Li Ting walked over, took the sieve from his hand, and prepared to sow the seeds himself.

"Where did you plant it?"

"Sir, here." Vasily pointed to a new ridge of land.

Li Ting walked to the edge of the field and finished sowing the ridge according to his own ideas.

He was no longer young. After working bent over in the fields for a while, his back ached and his eyes felt dizzy. So after sowing a ridge of land, he returned the sieve to Vasily and asked him to put the remaining

The seeds are sown.

"Oh, sir!" Vasily muttered, "In the summer, if there is any problem with this field, you can't scold me. You planted it yourself..."

"Well, you can see for yourself in the summer!" Li Ting said breathlessly, "In the summer, you will know how good the harvest will be on the land I let you plant..."

"You are so confident, I believe you." Vasily smiled and pointed to the field over there and said, "The corn harvested in that corn field last year was half of our previous per mu yield. I am really happy."

"Has your family planted corn this year?"

"Ah, sir, of course there is. I sold a quarter of the corn seeds you gave me at the beginning of this year, and planted the rest on my own land."

"Oh, just plant it, I'll go over there and have a look." Li Ting said, turned around and walked towards the end of the experimental field, "Stop talking, be careful to crush the mud. If something goes wrong, don't blame me for hurting you."

…”

"How could it be! Master, we are all very grateful to you..."

Li Ting walked through the experimental field and reached the foot of the mountain.

Some workers here are building a wooden shed, which is needed by the calf when it grows up. The heavy ax chops down the tree trunk, and the sawyer aligns the drawn black line, and pulls a large pile of wood chips to fall out.

The scene of labor in full swing is very good.

The farmland is in good condition and crops can be harvested next summer.

The calves, chickens and ducks are all growing vigorously and will soon be ready for the dinner table.

Everything was happy and happy. Li Ting walked out of the experimental field and looked up at the valley ahead.

Dusk has fallen, the twilight is vast, and the snow-capped mountains are covered with snow in the sunset, showing a stunning orange-pink jelly texture. If you ignore the danger hidden in the ravine and just look at the scenery, the snow-capped mountains in the sunset are undoubtedly beautiful.

Intoxicated.

But the danger is heartbreaking.

In the past few winters, Li Ting has also encountered the migration of some strange animals, and he had survived the previous few times without any danger. But this year, he has no confidence. According to the news from hunters in the mountains, this herd of wild boars has

There are hundreds of them... His experimental field is at the foot of the mountain, so there is no way to avoid it.

If it were a pack of wolves, he wouldn't be that afraid.

But wild boars are omnivores. They not only eat crops, but they also eat seedlings...

The sun has set behind the mountains, and the shadows have lengthened. The unclearly layered mountains appear darker and larger, pressing down heavily toward the ground.

Li Ting felt a little out of breath.

All this is in vain, he thought to himself. The longing for future agriculture has become a kind of simple despair from the day he fled to this small town. He did not show his loneliness, but as he followed

In Nance's eyes, it became the decadence of a loser.

"It's all in vain," Nance stepped forward and said.

Li Ting looked back at the person who came and was silent.

In the last light, Nance looked him over.

His face looks like he is in his fifties, his hair is starting to turn gray, his body is still strong, and he does not look old. His eyes still exude a light of majesty and calmness, which is natural for people who have had countless amounts of money.

However, there is not much temperament left. Apart from the light, there is more of a sense of decadence. He has been hit hard by society, fought hard, and finally lost.

Perhaps due to the impact of his long-term isolation from the world, there was a sense of dejection floating in his frowning brows and deeply sunken eyes.

"These wooden stakes alone can't stop the beasts," Nance said, pointing to the half-man-high broken fence next to him.

The corners of Li Ting's eyes trembled, and his lips opened slightly, as if he wanted to refute.

But after all, he couldn't find the confidence to refute. He just trembled and walked back to the small building next to the experimental field with heavy steps.

Nance followed slowly behind him.

It was a row of two-story small bungalows. The window frames on the exterior walls and the eaves were all painted with white paint. However, the white paint had been yellowed by the sun for a long time, and became a kind of color that looked like it was blown by the wind and rain.

Drenched in the whiteness of nothingness that loses everything.

The heavy wooden door opened with a creak.

The air was turbid and dusty, as if it were an abandoned house that had been abandoned for who knows how many years.

The white-gray walls were covered with black mold spots, and the wooden floor had been worn so badly that it creaked with every step.

Li Ting entered the door, wiped the sweat with a towel, and then wiped off the dirt on his hands, and then moved out a coal stove. He took a clip and put the honeycomb briquettes he burned into the coal stove, and wiped it with his fingers that were so cold that his skin was cracked.

Matches. His hands are small and black. They are hands that have been working outdoors for many years.

Nance sat down on the stool in front of the coal stove.

There was no decent furniture in this room, just a wooden bed, a rough table, a utility cabinet, three chairs, and everything else was farm tools.

The items on the table were arranged in a mess, with dirty plates, water glasses, pipes and sawdust all mixed together. Only the hoes, shovels and farm tools beside the wall were arranged in an orderly manner, which didn't make me suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder.

"Would you like some tea?" Li Ting asked.

"Okay." Nance nodded.

Li Ting brought an iron kettle covered with thick black ash and put it on the coal stove. While waiting for the water to boil, he took out a machete and some wood and started chipping away at the stakes.

The kettle began to steam on the coal stove.

Nance held his head and stared at the spout to kill time.

"You adapted very quickly." Li Ting glanced at him and said, "The amount of time in town is unbearable. Like you, I naturally learned how to pass the time."

"Have you ever thought about going back to where you were?" Nance asked directly.

Li Ting did not answer the question. He concentrated on examining the wooden stake he had cut and placed it next to him with satisfaction. Then he started to make tea and poured Nance a cup from an enamel cup.

The tea is fragrant.

"Thank you." Nance replied shortly.

Li Ting remained silent, filled his pipe with cigarettes, struck a match and lit it.

After taking a few puffs of cigarette, he picked up a piece of wood from under his feet and continued to chip away at the stake.

"It's normal for you to feel uncomfortable, but it doesn't mean that you can't change it. Everyone has a day when things turn around." Nance drank tea slowly and talked to him here and there, "This is not the end of the world. You

It’s not like there’s no way out, there’s no need to make yourself look like you’ve lost everything. You can still work well when you return to the original world.”

"Are you doing a good job?"

"some."

"That's good." Li Ting waved the knife and said, "It's good to be serious and work down-to-earth, otherwise it's easy to have wild dreams. This town is small and poor and cannot afford to support idle people, so everyone is doing their own thing.

Only by working hard in this world will we not all die."

Nance thought about it and asked: "Is there something holding you back?"

"Have you seen those people outside?" Li Ting glanced out the window.

It was already dark outside, but the afterglow of sunset still lingered faintly over the distant mountain tops. A group of peasant women and old people who had worked hard all day, shouted in twos and threes, and rushed back to the town together.

Nance glanced at it and then looked back.

"Bang!"

The door was suddenly kicked open.

"Oh, what a misfortune, my aunt is about to freeze to death." Miss Su, with a lot of dirt on her face, rushed in with a lot of wind and a lot of cold night air on her body.

She glanced at the two men in the room, then sat on the last chair next to Nance, picked up his enamel cup and took a sip of hot tea. The two men didn't say anything, so she took off her shoes.

He put his feet in front of the coal stove to warm himself and muttered: "You have to work in the fields when you are a guest at someone else's house. It really refreshed my understanding. Uncle Li, you are so curious..."

"Ha~"

Li Ting smiled lightly.

Just as he was about to speak, Li Qingxian came in from outside holding an owl, and he closed his mouth again.

"No, here you go, help it catch the lice." The girl threw the owl to Susha and walked around the house for a while, flipping through the things in the house. It seemed that she couldn't find anything she was interested in.

She frowned, showing a look of disgust, then turned around and slipped out of the door.

After she went out, the whole world seemed to be asleep, and it was so quiet that there was only the roar of the mountain wind.

"Goo!"

Doraemon shouted at Li Ting.

That aggrieved voice was ten thousand times more aggrieved than when Nance forcibly sucked it.

"Don't move!" Susha patted its little head, peeled off its feathers, and helped it catch the lice that were brought out from the chicken coop.

The lice that were unfortunately caught were thrown into the coal stove and cremated.

Li Ting put down his work, held the enamel cup and said: "The people who come to work here wake up early every day, eat breakfast in a hurry, and then automatically and consciously devote themselves to their work. Except for the occasional laziness and clumsiness, they are all good in other aspects."

It's passable. However, that is based on my tolerance. Apart from me, they have no place to make a living. There are not many of them. Counting long-term workers and some who occasionally come to help, there are always three to five hundred...

"

Nance frowned, and Susha turned her head to look at him. After a moment, he sighed and murmured: "You mean, after you leave, these people will starve to death, right?"

"I'm not boasting, but it's true." Li Ting took out the nail clippers from the glove box and cut his fingernails step by step. "Right now, many seeds are still in the research stage and are not stable enough. Without me watching, they won't be able to plant them."

Live. No details to comment on, roughly

This is the situation. Surrounded by mountains on three sides, it is relatively closed, and the residents are generally stupid. I can do some things in peace. Please outsiders like you do not disclose the situation to the outside world, otherwise once it reaches the ears of the four major grain merchants, this

The town is about to be in disaster."

"Don't worry, I'm pretty reliable when it comes to keeping secrets."

"I feel relieved to hear you say that." Li Ting gathered the scattered nail clippings together and threw them into the coal stove. Then he took out a box of dried sweet potatoes from under the table and chewed them with relish. "You guys should also eat some to supplement.

Work hard. There is also salt here, you can eat it with it."

Nance picked up a piece of dried sweet potato and was about to eat it.

"Gu!" Doraemon had never seen this thing before, so he thought it was something delicious and immediately opened his mouth to ask for it. Nance had to feed it a piece first, but it just held it in its mouth for two seconds before spitting it out.

On Si’s hand, “Gugu (this is poison)!”

"Is it that exaggerated?"

Nance wiped it on his clothes and tasted it himself.

It's dry and woody, and the texture is indeed not good, but when you chew it, you can taste the faint sweetness of sweet potatoes, which is not bad.

"Goo!"

Doraemon immediately started making trouble again.

The chubby body jumped out of Miss Su's arms, and an eagle flew and kicked Nance's face with its talons. Nance pressed it on his thigh with his backhand, and forced it to say "Gu Gu (you are eating my saliva)"

"Pervert)" while pulling the hair on its belly and playing with it.

Miss Su moved her chair away in disgust, not wanting to be next to this pair of weirdos who had a fetish for owls.

Li Ting watched silently, carefully dipped in the right amount of salt, and chewed the dried sweet potatoes in a low voice, looking like a polite cricket.

After chewing enough, he drank the tea in one gulp, put the cup back on the table, took out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the corners of his mouth. The handkerchief was as old as the clothes on his body, but he took good care of it and was clean.

"You guys should stay here for a few days before leaving." He sat upright, chin tucked in, "Give me some time, I'll sort out some seeds and information, and let you take them away when the time comes. There are also seedlings for livestock, too.

It takes time to identify the blood kinship and distinguish it well before giving it to you, otherwise it will not be possible to cultivate it on a large scale..."

Nance listened quietly.

There is a feeling of giving last words in these words.

"By the way, Mr. Adel, how are your cooking skills?"

"not bad."

"That's good. Qinglian and Qingxian are two children who are very picky. Especially Qingxian..." When he said this, Li Ting, who had always kept a straight face, finally smiled a little, "She never

You love to eat the food cooked by your mother. This has a lot to do with the fact that my mother was a noble lady and didn't know how to cook. If you have good cooking skills, I can safely and boldly entrust them to you."

There seemed to be some movement outside the house, and Nance looked outside.

It was dark outside, a coal stove was burning inside, and the window glass was as bright as a mirror.

Due to the high temperature inside the room, the glass was covered with a layer of water vapor. He wiped away the mist with his fingers and saw a pair of eyes emerging from the window.

The moment when the firelight of the coal stove overlaps with the girl's eyes, a transparent illusory beauty is formed, which is almost heart-stopping. The girl is like a sensitive and restless cub. The next second she is discovered, her eyes

Just disappeared from the illusion.

"Is there anything?" Li Ting asked.

Just as Nance was about to speak, Susha jumped in and said, "I saw an owl flying by."

After that, she secretly kicked Nance's calf and asked him with her eyes not to mess with the rebellious girl's thoughts.

Nance thought for a while and felt that he should talk to Li Qingxian first, so he did not point out the problem and changed the topic and asked: "Mr. Li stays here and plans to coexist with the experimental field?"

"That's all."

"There's actually not much difference between you dying and you leaving. Those three to five hundred people can't live either."

"You have to give it a try."

"Why bother trying for that little miracle that is almost impossible to happen? Isn't it better to save your life and make a comeback?"

"Mr. Adel, it's getting dark." Li Ting stood up immediately and said to them, "I'm going to stay to repair the fence tonight, so I can just sleep here. You guys should go back and rest early."

"Okay, let's come back tomorrow." Nance stopped giving unnecessary persuasion.

Li Ting gave them a lantern, sent them out, and stood in the corridor for a long time.

In the quiet snowy night, the little daughter ran out of nowhere, merged into the small light, and was carried away by Nance.

That little back figure, like a suppressed dream, filled with a wonderful unrealistic atmosphere, disappeared from the field of vision.

O God...

Li Ting prayed in his heart.

Although praying to the gods might be useless, he still closed his eyes and prayed for blessings.

For the eldest daughter who suffered so much, for the younger daughter who hated him, and for his shameless heart...

※※※※※

Coming out of the house, the cold air rushed from his nose to his forehead. Nance sneezed and his nose kept flowing.

This is the northernmost part of California, with a high altitude and much colder than New Yokohama. As soon as he stepped out of the heated area, his nose stung with cold, and the cold air seemed to penetrate deep into his head.

He walked down the dilapidated stairs, and every step he took made the wooden boards creak slightly.

Under the cover of the plastic greenhouse in front, a girl with long pink hair stood tall and graceful. She lowered her head and sobbed softly. Her cry gave people a cold feeling.

Nance went over with a lantern.

A cold wind blew over, causing her long pink hair to flutter.

The girl raised her head and blew her nose.

In the sight, an old man with a scarf wrapped around his nose and a hat pulled over his ears was walking slowly through the snow with an oil lamp in his hand. The small bungalow behind him had been swallowed up by darkness, giving people a feeling of desolation.

"What are you doing hiding here alone?" Nance asked.

"Hate……"

Li Qingxian muttered, and then rushed forward.

Nance felt a warmth approaching him gently. The girl raised her hands and her sleeves fell down, revealing the color of her shirt.

The color penetrated through the cold air and penetrated into his frozen eyelids.

"Carry me back." Li Qingxian sniffed and said.

"Gu?"

Doraemon tilted his little head in confusion.

The bad guy is holding the eagle. Girl, what are you doing, robbing a man?

Nance handed the confused fat chicken and the oil lamp to Susha, bent down with his back to the girl, and said: "For the sake of you crying like a little cat, I will carry you this time, and I won't do it next time."

Li Qingxian hummed weakly and lay on his back.

The girl who usually pricks her hands like a little hedgehog has a rare docile and well-behaved side.

Susha held an owl with aggrieved face, held an oil lamp, and walked side by side with Nance with a sad face. Along the way, she said something like "Oh, I have changed my mind. I don't like my sister anymore, I like my sister."

Ah, Section Chief Adel" and "You only start in three years" to mock Nance.

Nance didn't bother to pay attention to her nonsense.

The night is getting darker and darker, and the whole world is cold and quiet.

Under the cover of snowy night, the roofs of every household in the town appear lower than during the day. It seems as if the entire town is quietly sinking into the bottomless abyss under the cover of night.

"Everything my hands touch feels very cold." When Susha spoke, her lips turned white from the cold.

Li Qingxian, who was lying on Nance's back, looked at her with red eyes: "The coldest weather in the past was more than 20 degrees below zero."

"Where's the snow?"

"The snow usually covers my calves, but if it rains heavily, it may bury most of me in it."

When they said this, they had already reached the town wall.

The road that had just been plowed during the day was now covered with a thick layer of snow. When I stepped on it, my feet sank directly to my knees, and the soles of my feet and toes were already frozen.

However, the girl's weak warm breath kept blowing behind Nance's ears, which made him feel that the pain on his legs and feet was worth it.

The small town surrounded by mountains was dyed blue by the night.

Except for the barking of dogs from time to time, there was no movement, and no one knew where the humans had fled.

In the yard of the Li family, some vegetables and a tall jujube tree were planted. The branches were covered with thick white snow, and the lower part of the trunk was tightly wrapped in snow. In order to keep out the snow, the eaves of the house stretched out very long.

As soon as Nance and the others walked under the eaves, the dog next door started barking.

In the quiet courtyard, the living room door was open, and bright light was revealed from inside.

Li Qingxian jumped down from behind Nance and ran towards the house with long steps, his long pink hair swaying.

"Mom, Mom, I'm hungry..."

This sound sounds very pleasant.

I don't know what she was thinking, or maybe she was just really hungry, after all, she hadn't eaten all day.

Steam was coming out of the iron kettle in the house. Mrs. Li bent over and took out the burned coals with a spatula. When she heard the shouting outside, she got up and ran away barefoot without even putting on her shoes.

Got out.

I had a great time eating this night's meal.

(End of chapter)