Return to the small mountain village in 1983

Chapter 78 Crack!
  I don’t know how long I sat in the rocking chair. The happy time is always so short.

"You take your daughter to play first, and I'll prepare the dishes for lunch."

After playing for a while, Xiulan got up from the chair.

"Okay, I'll help you later."

Lin Heng nodded.

I played with my daughter for a while, and then stopped when the sun became dazzling.

"Baba, shake!"

Xiaoxia didn't want to come down, so she grabbed Lin Heng's hand and shook it coquettishly.

"Hahaha, let's play for a while longer." Lin Heng couldn't bear to reject his precious daughter.

After playing for a while, he took Xiaoxia to feed the fish, and finally convinced her not to sit in the rocking chair for the time being.

Grab a handful of wheat bran and put it down. Fish swim forward in groups, making the little girl giggle.

"Baba, shake!"

Just after feeding Yu Xiaoxia, she thought about sitting in the rocking chair again.

Lin Heng was helpless. He pulled her away and she stayed there.

You let go of your hand and she wants to run to the Yao chair again.

"Let's go, let me find another place to shake you."

Lin Heng coaxed and picked up his daughter.

When he got to the main room, he took out the basket from that day and used a rope to pass through the pillows to make a temporary cradle.

Putting Xiaoxia inside, she burst into laughter again, and even made excited screams when she shook it.

The happiness of children is so simple.

With a creak, the courtyard door was pushed open, and then a cute head poked out from the edge of the screen: "Second brother, do you welcome me?"

Lin Heng smiled and glanced at Caiyun: "If I say you're not welcome, will you go out?"

"I originally wanted to help my second brother take care of the baby, but I didn't expect you to be so unkind. My sister can just leave."

Xiaoxia pretended to be angry and retracted her head.

She seemed to have become much more cheerful after discovering that she could continue studying.

Lin Heng ignored her and continued to help Xiulan pick vegetables, preparing to entertain guests at noon.

Not long after, Caiyun walked in from behind the screen again, looked at Xiulan and said, "Sister-in-law, although my second brother is unkind, you still welcome me and I'm here to help you."

"Of course, I'll welcome you and help you beat him." Xiulan smiled and patted Lin Heng.

Caiyun's smile became even brighter: "It's better to be a sister-in-law. She loves her sister more than a brother."

She came over and teased Xiaoxia first, then touched its little face and said, "Call me aunt."

"Gugu, shake!"

Caiyun taught her this vocabulary many times, and Xiaoxia also remembered it.

"Okay, let's shake." Caiyun smiled and pushed the basket to shake.

"Brother, have they finished drinking?" Lin Heng asked while picking vegetables.

"Not yet, they are rowing fists. It will probably take a while. I came out first after eating." Caiyun shook his head and said.

Lin Heng nodded, not surprised. Drinking and bragging was one of the few recreational activities in rural areas.

The vegetables they picked were mainly early-ripening tomatoes, cucumbers, and beans, as well as some bracken picked by Mother Lin in the morning, and a few bamboo shoots broken from their own bamboo forest.

By the time they finished all this, the wine next door had not yet been finished.

Xiulan scooped up some corn and went to the back mountain to feed the chickens, while Lin Heng led the sheep to the grassy area behind and tied them up.

After finishing it, they were busy making the bed, and Caiyun took Xiaoxia to play in the backyard.

Although the things were moved here in the morning, they were not packed away.

Lin Heng took out the straw used to make the bed and built a shelf in the backyard to dry it in the sun.

In this era, Simmons mattresses are not available in most places, let alone rural areas.

Their old-fashioned wooden bed has straw underneath, a piece of cloth on top, a quilt on top, and a sheet on it.

As long as you take out the straw and dry it in the sun from time to time, the whole bed will be very soft.

"Help lift this desk and move it to the window sill." Xiulan said.

"Okay." Lin Heng came over to help. His wife had the final say on how to arrange the furniture at home.

The desk was placed in front of the window, and Xiulan placed the dressing table next to the desk. Their bed was facing the window, with the bow leaning against the east wall. The wardrobe was inside the bed, facing the window.

"Husband, our family's money is all in this small box. Now we have a total of one hundred and three yuan in cash.

Seventy yuan of it is what I have saved over the past few years, and thirty yuan is what you sold me the turtles and eels before.

I didn't take the key to this box with me either, but I hid it under the desk. "

After moving the things, Xiulan showed a tin box that was ten centimeters long and five centimeters wide. It was filled with valuables. In addition to money, there was also a pair of silver bracelets that her mother had given her as a dowry.

After showing it, she locked the box and put it in a drawer in the closet. She covered it with something, then wrapped the only key in plastic paper and pressed it under the desk.

Before, she was unwilling to tell Lin Heng where the money was hidden and where the key was because he was too unreliable. If something happened to the family and the money was taken away, there would be no emergency money at all.

But now, she believes in Lin Heng unconditionally.

"There's no need to tell me, just keep the money I gave you." Lin Heng shook his head.

"I must tell you, this is our common property." Xiulan blinked. She hoped that the two of them could run the family together instead of taking care of everything by themselves.

"Lin Heng, let's go to the river to shake fish and catch crabs."

At this time, my uncle's voice came from the front yard.

"I guess I've finished drinking." Lin Heng said and walked out quickly.

Seeing his uncle and third father walking in one after another, he smiled and said, "Okay, are you sure you don't want to take a rest before going?"

He didn't care, he was just a little worried that it would be dangerous for them to get drunk and go to the river.

"No problem. It's just a pound of wine per person. It's okay at all." The uncle waved his hand and said nonchalantly.

"Are my uncle and the others going too?" Lin Heng asked again.

"They can't go. They have already slept at your brother's house and are all drunk." Lin Heng's father said with a smile.

"Okay, wait while I get a tool." Lin Heng turned around and picked up a plastic bucket he just bought, said to his wife, and left with his third uncle.

They both have the big hammers in hand and can just set off.

"You two are trying to catch crabs." When we arrived at Shiban River, my uncle Li Baiquan said something and took the lead in getting into the river, with his pants and shoes soaked in the water.

"I'll give him a try first!"

Snapped!
  boom! !

With a low cry, Uncle Lin Heng rounded the hammer and smashed it down hard. First, water splashed everywhere, and then there was a muffled sound, and a stone the size of a washbasin in the water suddenly fell into pieces.

Immediately afterwards, five or six fish turned white and were shocked to death.

"The effect is not bad, I'll do it too!" Lin Heng's third father chuckled, found a stone and swung it down with a hammer.

clap clap clap! !

"It killed a yellow peppercorn. This is so good!" The third father picked up a more than ten centimeters long yellow peppercorn from the water and threw it to Lin Heng.

"It's indeed a good thing. If you shake the fish, I'll pick it up." Lin Heng said with a smile.

Playing with water in summer is so fun. With a muffled sound, Lin Heng happily picked it up from behind.

"I fished you out of good intentions that day, but I didn't know what was good or bad. Do you realize your mistake now?" Lin Heng looked at the fish in the basin, smiled, shook his head, and sighed.

While picking up fish, he also caught river crabs. When he turned over the small stones in the river, he could see small crabs with black shells. The small ones were only the size of sparrows, and the big ones were as big as fists.

The big ones are usually old crabs, the shells and claws are yellow, and they are not as delicious as the smaller ones.

Catching crabs is either fast or slow. If you are not fast or slow, you are most likely to get caught.

If you have fast hands, you can hold it down with the pliers before it is still running away and throw it into the bucket. If you are slow, you have to catch it from behind. It is not efficient and is suitable for beginners.

A veteran like Lin Heng naturally relies on his hand speed to make a living. Although he sometimes makes mistakes and gets caught, [-]% of the time.

He turned over the stone with one hand, and grabbed it with the other hand before the crab could react.

The fish and crabs in Shiban River have been destroyed one after another by people on both sides of the river. Fortunately, pesticides are very expensive in this era, and no one uses them, so they are available every year.

Around [-], many small rivers were cleaned up by electricians and fish poisoners, and they could not recover for several years.

"Is it enough?"

An hour later, my uncle Li Baiquan looked into the bucket.

"Enough is enough."

Lin Heng said that the total amount of fish and crabs was less than half a bucket, weighing three to four kilograms.

"No more." The uncle nodded.

Before they knew it, the three men were playing in the river for another two hours. Hunting was as addictive as fishing.

After saying that enough was enough, he always wanted to shake another stone. After shaking this stone, he felt that this fish dared to swim in front of him. It was so disrespectful and he had to shake it to death to teach him a lesson.     In short, I just can’t stop.

"Okay, it's almost done. The bucket is full. It adds up to about ten kilograms."

There were not only fish and crabs in the bucket, but also a lot of snails picked up by Lin Heng. These were also good things and tasted delicious.

"Okay, let's go back." The uncle grinned and was satisfied.

By the time they got home, the clothes of Lin Heng and the others were all dry, and the Jiefang shoes on their feet were almost done.

His three uncles were all sober and were chatting in the yard.

Seeing the three people coming back with buckets, his second uncle first praised: "You three have done a great job, you have got so many things."

"Hey, the fish in the river have been very strong these past two days." My uncle immediately started blowing.

"Let's have some drinks later." Lin Heng said with a smile, went into the house and got a wooden basin, and poured the fish into it.

"Get a knife and let us help." The uncle shouted.

"Okay." Lin Heng brought two knives and they handled the crabs and fish.

He picked out the snails and put them in another basin, then picked up some coarse sand with more pebbles and poured it in and shook it vigorously.

This is much faster than using a brush, and is the same as sandblasting.

After shaking for a few minutes, all the moss on the snail shell disappeared and became clean.

"Lin Heng, your method is smart." His second uncle praised, saying that they used to wash by themselves little by little with a brush, but they never thought it could be done like this.

"Hehe, I also suddenly thought of it."

Lin Heng smiled, took out the snail, cleaned it, and went into the house to get pliers.

"Carpenter Liang just asked someone to give a bamboo basket to my family and my eldest brother's family."

Lin Heng entered the room and Xiulan pointed to the bamboo basket placed on the cabinet in the main room.

This is made of three millimeter thin bamboo filaments, which takes a lot of effort and can last for more than ten years without breaking. It takes a day to compile one, and it costs two or three yuan to sell it.

"This man is really serious. I thought he was just being polite." Lin Heng was a little surprised, but it was not a big deal. If you need carpentry work again, just ask him.

When he got to the yard, Lin Heng used pliers to handle the snail and cut off its tip. The internal organs were pulled out and the meat came out easily when eating.

Lin Heng quickly processed the snails while basking in the sun, soaked them in salt water and put them there, waiting for his wife to do them.

"Here, the fish and crabs are also taken care of." The uncle smiled and brought the fish and crabs in and handed them to Lin Heng.

"There's something delicious today." Lin Heng smiled and took the fish. It was a perfect dish to go with wine.

Both grouper and crab can be fried directly, or wrapped in flour and eggs and fried. After frying, the crab shells will be crispy, so you can eat them all.

"Then I'll start cooking." Xiulan also put away the dishes.

"You go ahead, I'll call brother and mom." Lin Heng nodded, turned around and went out to call someone.

Not far after walking out of the door, Lin Heng saw Li Caifeng walking towards him. Just when he was about to say hello, she handed over the two bundles of spinach she was carrying and spoke first: "Lin Heng, I'm so happy to move. My spinach grows. There are a lot of them, so I pulled some out for you."

"Ah, no, no, thank you, I have it at home." Lin Heng waved his hands quickly and said, he felt that the sun was coming out in the west, and Li Caifeng would actually deliver food to his home.

"Oh, it's not a good thing. There are plenty of them in the field, so just take it." Li Caifeng forced it into Lin Heng's hand.

Just when Lin Heng was about to speak, she added: "What the hell, you don't look down on me, do you?"

"No no."

"Then just keep it, I'll go uphill to see the cows first."

"Come in and sit for a while."

"No, no, we will live close together later." Li Caifeng waved her hand and left.

Lin Heng was still a little stunned when he looked at the spinach in his hand, so he turned around and put the spinach down.

Xiulan watched Lin Heng bring back two bundles of spinach and asked curiously: "Where did you get the spinach? I remember we don't grow spinach at home."

"This is a gift from Li Caifeng. You think it's strange? No, no, the dead piston is here." Lin Heng looked at his hands, not knowing what to say.

"Needless to say, it must be because of you." Xiulan looked very understanding.

"Me?" Lin Heng was confused.

"Of course, these days when my mother and I are walking on the road, others greet us much more enthusiastically."

Xiulan glanced at him and continued: "The reason is too obvious. Because you punished Wang Cuilian, the villagers think you are a capable and educated person, and they respect you and fear you."

Lin Heng was stunned for a moment, then laughed again: "Well, I didn't even notice that."

There seem to be more people saying hello lately.

If you think about it carefully, it seems to be the same no matter where you are. If you are weak and kind, everyone will sit on your head and shit on you. You are tough and arrogant, but you gain respect and fear from others.

Turning around, he returned to the old house to find Mother Lin.

"Mom, where is my dad?" Lin Heng asked, looking at his mother who was chopping pigweed.

"Your dad and your brother went to the fields to weed and fertilize Bao Gu. They will probably be back soon." Mother Lin raised her head and said.

"Then I'll wait for my dad, and you can call my sister-in-law to help cook for Xiulan." Lin Heng said.

"I know, I'll chop up this bit of pigweed and go." Mother Lin pointed at the gooseberry leaves in the basket and said.

"Okay." Lin Heng nodded and went to wait for his father outside the cattle pen.

In this era, chemical fertilizers were not yet popular. In rural areas, farmyard manure was used. Pig manure or cow manure was used to fertilize corn, and plant ash was used to fertilize sweet potatoes.

This is also one of the reasons why the Lin family's [-] acres of land can only feed and clothe their [-] people every year. The yield is too low.

"Lin Heng, why are you standing here?" Yang Zhaotao walked past him and talked to him with a smile.

"Wait for my dad, he went to apply fertilizer." Lin Heng said casually, and he felt that Yang Zhaotao's tone became much more friendly.

After chatting for a few words, I also wanted to give him a cigarette.

Lin Heng took the cigarette and asked with a smile: "By the way, do you have Phellinus mulberry at home?"

Yang Zhaotao didn't know why Lin Heng asked this, so he nodded and said, "Yes, I was lucky enough to pick up more than a pound a few days ago. I plan to save more before selling."

Lin Heng smiled: "That's right, you can sell it to me. The Liu family in town charges [-] cents per catty, and I will charge the same price."

"Why do you accept this? Take it to the city to sell it?" Yang Zhaotao doesn't understand. You and the town have the same price. Unless you go to the city to sell it, you won't make any money at all.

But it's not worthwhile to collect a little and run into the city.

"You don't have to worry about this. You just need to promote it for me. You can sell them all to me for whatever amount you want. I'll give you cash and you won't be in arrears." Lin Heng said with a smile.

"Okay, I understand. I'll promote it to you when I meet someone later." Yang Zhaotao nodded. He didn't know what was wrong with Lin Heng for doing such a thankless job.

He couldn't understand the way rich people did things.

Not long after Yang Zhaotao left, Lin's father and his eldest brother Lin Yue came back carrying dung baskets.

"Dad, brother, please stop doing this and go over to eat. The meal has already been cooked." Lin Heng said.

"It doesn't matter, let's pick two more times before we go." Father Lin shook his head and said.

"Yes, it will take a while to eat. Don't be in a hurry." Lin Yue also said.

"Hey, I'll call you later." Lin Heng was helpless.

Another half an hour later, the meal was ready and a table of dishes was served. Father Lin and his eldest brother Lin Yue were also called over.

At the dinner table, Lin Heng held up his glass of wine and solemnly thanked everyone. His relatives had helped a lot in building the house, and they came to give gifts today. It was indeed very enthusiastic.

As everyone drank a glass of wine, the banquet immediately became lively.

"This crab is so delicious, so crunchy and crunchy," said my uncle.

"This snail is more fragrant, spicy and delicious, and it's so delicious after one bite." His second uncle preferred the snail.

Lin Heng also likes this snail. Despite the lack of meat, it tastes really good. It’s absolutely delicious when eaten with this wine.

"Uncle, let me toast you." After eating for a while, Lin Heng picked it up again and said.

They served it together. Lin Heng still had to clear the customs. Today was at his house and he had to entertain him well. Fortunately, the alcohol content was not high.

"Here." His uncle ate a crab and picked up the cup with a smile.

After a lap, Lin Heng was already dizzy. Lin's father took over the job of entertaining and continued drinking. Everyone saw that he was dying, and no one forced him to drink.

Lin Heng sat down, ate crabs and snails, watched everyone brag and fart, and occasionally took a sip for fun.

The wine lasted from five o'clock in the afternoon until seven thirty, and then the party ended.

Except for his uncle, who had no family and stayed behind to go hunting with Lin Heng in the mountains, everyone else went home.

Mother Lin took Uncle Lin Heng and his father to the old house to rest. The sister-in-law also helped the elder brother away. Caiyun stayed to take care of Xiaoxia and clear the table with Xiulan.

"I'm going to get the straw for making the bed, otherwise the moisture will return." Lin Heng stood up and said.

"You're drunk, I'll get it done later." Xiulan said.

"I'm not drunk. I walked straight to show you. I just started drinking a little." Lin Heng said with a smile. He was very sure of his drinking capacity and would never drink himself unconscious.

　Right or wrong, success or failure is gone, but the green mountains are still there.

　　Please give me a vote, any vote will do.

　　
  　
  (End of this chapter)