Return to the small mountain village in 1983

Chapter 92 Counting the harvest, a wealthy home

"What can I do?" Xiulan looked at Lin Heng.

"My suggestion is to cut off all the lean meat and make it into canned meat tomorrow, keep some of the fat meat for consumption, and boil the rest into lard."

Lin Heng looked at Xiulan and said.

Canned meat is a method of cooking lean meat and soaking it in lard. When the lard solidifies, the lean meat is sealed inside, isolating air and bacteria, and can be stored for one or two years without any problems.

This is also a method that the ancients came up with to preserve pork.

"You think like me, lean meat can only be made into canned meat, but do you really have to boil so much fat meat into lard?" Xiulan looked at so much fat meat, and she felt that it should be boiled into lard. It's still a pity.

Unlike modern people who like to eat lean meat, most people in the [-]s, especially rural people, prefer fatty meat because it has more energy, is easy to preserve, and gives them strength to work.

Therefore, many people will find that they have difficulty swallowing fat, but their parents only have one mouthful. This is directly linked to the poverty of their childhood.

"I don't like to eat fat meat, so just keep a little for eating. I think it's better to turn it into lard and use it for cooking. I can also keep some of it to make soap and sell it in the town to make money."

Lin Heng looked at his wife and said that he had already thought about this when he came back with the wild boar.

Xiulan nodded and said: "You have decided, then do as you say. Let's hang the meat first and get up early tomorrow morning to refine the oil."

Then the two made a rack to dry the pork in the middle of the main room, keeping it ventilated to prevent it from spoiling.

After everything was done, the two simply washed up and went back to the house to rest.

Before going to bed, Lin Heng threw some vegetable leaves for the pig badger cub and some wild boar meat for the wild cat cub.

Lin Heng hadn't slept well in two days and was not in the mood to worry. He just wanted to hold his wife and rest quietly.

Compared with passionate love, this kind of plain and quiet feeling of each other's heartbeat can make people feel freer.

The next morning, both of them got up after six o'clock. Xiulan wanted to get up early, but she was held like a child and refused to get up, so she had to rest with him for a while.

"I've had enough bed, it's time to get up." Xiulan took away Lin Heng's hand from her waist and said softly.

"Okay, get up." Lin Heng nodded, sat up and got dressed.

Beside the bed, Xiaoxia in the cot was also awake, looking at the two of them with a pair of big eyes, without speaking, with a smile on her face.

She seemed to be imitating Lin Heng.

After getting dressed and washing her face, Xiulan went to take out the plum blossoms from the well. Under the protection of low-temperature cold water, the fish was still fresh and had not deteriorated.

"Steam one for Xiaoxia, and let's eat the other together. What kind of flavor do you want?" Xiulan asked, holding the fish.

"I brought it back to you, you make the decision." Lin Heng said while wiping his daughter's face.

"Then let's make spicy fish with chopped pepper." Xiulan thought for a while and said.

"Okay, you make breakfast, I'll take Xiaoxia to feed the chickens, and take the sheep to the door to graze."

Lin Heng nodded and said with a smile.

"The chickens you chose are really good. Two chickens in my eldest brother's house died the day before yesterday, but nothing happened to any of our chickens."

Xiulan praised Lin Heng.

"Of course. Under normal circumstances, nothing will go wrong."

Lin Heng grinned and took his daughter to feed the chickens.

This is now a "game" that she plays every day, and she will get angry if she is not allowed to feed the chickens.

After feeding the grass carp fry first, then the chickens and ducks, and taking the sheep to graze, Lin Heng and his daughter played objects and talking games in front of the door.

"This is dogtail grass, this is leek, this is oxtongue grass~"

Xiaoxia grabbed the grass leaves. She had memorized many of them.

"Awesome, you were right."

Lin Heng kissed his daughter and encouraged her.

"My real daddy! Daddy eats grass!"

Xiaoxia tilted her head and wanted to kiss her father's face. After the kiss, she stuffed a piece of dogtail grass into Lin Heng's mouth.

"Dad doesn't want to eat, so you eat." Lin Heng smiled and was about to stuff the grass into her mouth.

"If you don't want to eat, I'll eat sweets~"

Xiaoxia put her hands behind her back and shook her little head.

Lin Heng couldn't help but laugh and pinched her little face: "If you don't want to eat, just feed me, right? You are really my good baby."

While taking Xiaoxia to identify the grass on the roadside, Lin Heng shot some pigweed, mainly hemp leaves and goosegrass.

Hemp leaves are the leaves of plants used to make linen and linen cloth, while goosegrass is a harmful weed that can be found everywhere. It is said that people would eat it in times of food shortage, and now it is used to feed pigs.

After picking some pigweed, Lin Heng took his daughter to look for thornberries. After all, he agreed yesterday and couldn't break his promise today.

"It's delicious!" Xiaoxia ate the thornberries, her happy dimples showing.

She ate it, while Lin Heng picked it in a small bag and kept it for her to eat back.

After playing for more than half an hour, the father and daughter went home.

He put the picked thornberries on the table for Xiaoxia to eat slowly. Lin Heng threw the pigweed to the pig badger cub.

Badgers are omnivores, eating grass as well as lizards, frogs and other animals.

Fearing that it would run away, Lin Heng kept it tied up in the front yard. He simply made a two-square-meter pigpen with wooden boards and put it in to raise it.

Of course it is impossible to untie the rope, this is the last insurance.

After finishing it, Lin Heng returned to the main room, where Xiaoxia was squatting on the ground looking curiously at the cat cub in the bamboo cage.

The pork that was thrown away last night was gone, and it had obviously been eaten by it.

"Roar!"

When it sees Lin Heng, it will still open its mouth wide and let out a threatening roar.

"afraid!"

The threat from the wild cat cub failed to scare Lin Heng, but it frightened Xiaoxia so much that she ran behind Lin Heng.

"Don't get close, bite your hand." Lin Heng picked up Xiaoxia and reminded her.

"Afraid!" Xiaoxia shook her head and retracted her hands into her arms.

"It's time to eat, the food is ready."

Xiulan prepared the meal, two fish, one with chopped peppers and one steamed, rice mixed with soup and water boiled, it will be ready soon after boiling.

"Wife, you eat, and I'll feed Xiaoxia." Lin Heng sat down with Xiaoxia in his arms and fed her the steamed fish.

This steamed fish just adds salt, and uses some onions, ginger and garlic when steaming, but the taste is not bad at all.

"Is it tasty?"

Lin Heng looked at his daughter.

"Delicious, more!"

Xiaoxia nodded vigorously, her big eyes shining.

Lin Heng mainly fed her, and occasionally ate a piece for himself. Looking at the smiling faces of his wife and daughter, he couldn't help but smile.

A pound of fish was completely eaten by Xiaoxia, and she couldn't even eat the staple food mixed with soup.

"Don't leave it to me. I've baked several of them on the mountain."

Lin Heng put the remaining half of the fish into Xiulan's bowl, poured the chopped pepper into the bowl and ate it.

"There's really nothing I can do about you." Xiulan had no choice but to finish the remaining half of the fish.

"You're not fat. Eat more and you won't even weigh a hundred pounds. With your height, you won't be fat even if you weigh one hundred and thirty pounds."

Lin Heng said with a smile that he had no future and was very happy just watching Xiulan eating and being around Xiulan.

"You are only one hundred and two, so you should eat more." Xiulan said while eating.

Miraculously, it was a sunny day today. It was cloudy the night before. Lin Heng thought it would rain, but it turned out to be sunny again.

After finishing the meal, Xiulan began to refine the lard, cutting the lean meat into fist-sized pieces, and cutting the fat meat into slices two to three centimeters thick.

First pass the water through to remove blood foam and impurities, then add water to the pot, pour the lard fat and fat into it and simmer over medium heat.

"It's so much that it hurts my hands. I can't even hold it in one pot, and I have to have another pot."

Xiulan was in pain and happiness, looking at the big pot of meat she couldn't help but smile.

"Let's make white flour steamed buns or dumplings to eat from the oil residue."

Lin Heng said with a smile.

"Okay, if you want to eat, then make it. Anyway, the wheat harvest is good. If you don't have enough, you can buy some secretly. Our family is not short of this kind of noodles now."

Xiulan nodded fiercely, feeling suddenly moved.

The family no longer has to worry about food. What an incredible thing.

"I eat!"

Xiaoxia didn't know what her parents said, but she probably only understood the word "eat" and shouted for it.

Lin Heng sorted out his gains in the recent period to see how much money he had.

In terms of fur, there is one pig badger skin, one suede skin, three rabbit skins, and five squirrel skins.

According to the current lowest market price, pig badger skin costs [-] yuan, suede skin costs [-] yuan, rabbit skin costs [-] yuan, and squirrel skin costs [-] yuan.

The total amount is [-] yuan, which is equivalent to the annual income of a normal rural family.

The price of furs is good mainly because they are exported to earn foreign exchange.

In terms of fungi, the total amount of Ganoderma lucidum collected in total is almost three kilograms. Although a little bit here and a little bit there, the accumulation is still considerable.

The biggest harvest was in Baishigou. Being able to have so many heroes was the biggest achievement.

Even if the lowest price is 120 yuan per pound, Ganoderma lucidum alone can be sold for [-] yuan.

The rest include more than ten kilograms of chanterelles, more than eight kilograms of green-headed mushrooms, and more than one kilogram of deer fungus, which together can be sold for more than twenty yuan.

There are a lot of porcini mushrooms, and they weigh thirty to forty pounds when dried, but they won't be collected, so we can only eat them ourselves.

In terms of herbal medicine, the most valuable one is Dendrobium officinale. The two big suns have been dried, weighing two pounds and twenty taels. The minimum price can be sold for more than eighty yuan, and if it is good, it can be sold for more than one hundred yuan.

In addition to dendrobium, the dried herbs Xiulan collected weighed more than four kilograms and could be sold for 12 yuan.

In addition, there are some herbs such as cordyceps, mugwort, etc., which are not very valuable and can only be sold for four or five yuan.

All the items added up could be sold for more than [-] yuan at the lowest purchase price in town.

If he goes to the city, Lin Heng estimates that it won't be a problem to sell it for [-] yuan.

This does not include his thirty-year-old turtle, which is worth at least thirty yuan.

With so much money, one is considered a wealthy person. Not to mention those in the countryside, even in the city there are wealthy families. A typical household in the city only has a savings of over [-] yuan.

In this era, farmers could not go to cities to work, and their main source of income was selling herbs, mushrooms and other mountain products.

Foods like dendrobium and ginseng are too rare and have nothing to do with ordinary people. Matsutake mushrooms and Ganoderma lucidum are also very rare, and most people cannot collect them without encountering a nest or a dog like Xiongba.

The only valuable things that ordinary people can pick are honeysuckle and morels.

The rest is based on quantity.

At the end of the year, a good person can have an income of [-], while a bad person may have an income of [-] or [-].

The average annual income is one hundred and twenty-three.

Because herbs and fungi are seasonal, although the harvest seems good in summer, there is almost no income in other seasons.

Hunting has a very high technical threshold, and you have to spend money to buy shotguns, which is not relevant to most people.

With an annual income of more than [-] yuan, I still have to buy salt, some daily necessities, and see a doctor. I basically have no money to sell meat.

Lin Hengneng had six to seven hundred in cash, so he was naturally envied by the villagers.

If we buy all rice, it costs [-] cents per catty, which can be sold for [-] catties, and even sugar can buy more than [-] catties.

His family is now considered a wealthy family.

"It's still not enough."

Lin Heng shook his head. For him, this was still a bit too little.

Especially if he wants to acquire Sanghuang, the more capital the better, but this is still too little.

After drying the things, Lin Heng decided to go to the city recently and convert all these into money first.

If I stay at home and get bitten by a mouse or something, I really won’t have anywhere to cry.

After getting the things done, Lin Heng arranged the two bamboo fishing rods he had made before.

"Yes, I'll teach the fish a lesson in the next two days." Lin Heng nodded manly.

The small fishing rod previously made of bamboo has been modified to be straight and round, with strong waist strength. There will be absolutely no problem in fishing for grouper in the stream.

"You might as well catch it. It's easy to miss when fishing." Xiulan looked at him and said.

Lin Heng shook his head: "Last time it was just a tool that didn't work, it had nothing to do with me. It will definitely be no problem next time. I will take you fishing with me then."

He is full of confidence for his next fishing trip.

"I don't want to play." Xiulan felt that fishing had no future.

"It seems I have to show off my skills. Next time you come with me and watch me fish."

While straightening the purple bamboo, Lin Heng said that he must let Xiulan know his fishing skills.

He wants to make these three-meter-long purple bamboo poles into beautiful crucian carp rods so that he can go fishing for crucian carp and carp in the Huangtan River.

The oil is refining in the pot, you just need to look at it from time to time and add some firewood.

Xiulan took care of her daughter while chatting with Lin Heng. Her days were peaceful and warm.

On the other side, Tian Baishun got up in the morning and went to the Li family who weaved cotton in Murakami to buy a piece of cloth.

When he got home, he put the cloth, pig head, and a small suede skin on three wooden plates.

Then he went out to find two juniors to help carry things.

"Old man Tian, ​​what are you doing?"

Wang Cheng, who came to help, asked in surprise.

"That's right, it makes me wonder if it's worth the money."

Another person named Tian Jin also looked curious.

"Of course I'm going to thank Lin Heng for the gift. He saved my life twice this time on the mountain. I can't help but express my gratitude."

Tian Baishun explained, and then said: "You two, just help me carry the things. Don't talk nonsense about the rest. I'll give you a dime when I come back."

With that said, he carried the pig's head and walked in front, while the other two followed behind carrying cloth and suede leather.

"Tian Baishun, what are you doing?"

Old Man Tian's movement immediately attracted people in the village, and many people asked.

"Go repay Lin Heng for saving his life." Tian Baishun said seriously.

"Life-saving grace?" someone was curious.

"I fell into a mire while hunting. Lin Heng found out and rescued me."

He explained that through constant publicity along the way, word spread about Lin Heng saving his life.

And his performance of knowing how to repay kindness suddenly made many people like him. They thought he was a pretty good person and knew how to repay kindness.

"Dong Dong!!"

Lin Hengzheng was talking to Xiulan when there was a knock on the door outside the yard.

"I gonna go see."

Lin Heng put down the purple bamboo and walked past.

"Who?"

Lin Heng asked as he opened the door.

As soon as the door opened, he was stunned. There were about ten people standing outside, and there were some people watching from a distance.

"Tian Baishun, what are you doing?" Lin Heng asked looking at Tian Baishun in front of him.

"Old man, I'm here to repay your life-saving grace." Tian Baishun said with a smile.

Lin Heng: "..."

"Take it back quickly. The pork you left last night is enough to repay you."

Lin Heng waved his hand and was about to close the door.

Tian Baishun collapsed in one step, looked at Lin Heng and said, "If you don't accept it, do you want me to kneel down to you in public to repay you?"

As he was about to kneel down, Lin Heng stopped him and said speechlessly: "That pork is really enough, there is no need for this, I did it casually not for your reward."

"If you don't let me in, I will kneel down and thank you." Tian Baishun shook his head.

Lin Heng really wanted to turn around and close the door and ignore him, but with so many people watching, if he really did this, he might not be able to live in the village in the future.

"Okay, okay, if you want to spend money, just spend it." Lin Heng spread his hands and opened the door.

Tian Baishun led the two people behind him into the house and put the things on the large cabinet in the main room.

"Don't be surprised by this. Compared with the old man and my life, it's nothing."

Tian Baishun said with a smile.

Lin Heng didn't know what to say. He shook his head and said, "I really didn't save you for your repayment. I can't accept this thing under any circumstances."

……

In the most tiring way of speaking, he expressed that his original intention to save people was not to repay his kindness with money.

Instead, he simply did what he could, and did not want Tian Baishun to die in front of him.

There is no way not to accept this kind of gift, but you must be polite, otherwise others will say that you are greedy for repayment. This is called being human.

In the end, Tian Baishun stayed for lunch while the other villagers left.

The news about Lin Heng rescuing people and Tian Baishun repaying the favor spread all of a sudden.

Lin Heng's reputation has become better, and everyone's impression of Tian Baishun has also changed.

After having lunch at Lin Heng's house, Tian Baishun went back empty-handed, so it was naturally impossible to take the things back.

His attitude has also changed when meeting people. He used to be venomous, but would slander everyone and look down upon them.

Now his attitude has become amiable and approachable, which has directly restored his image in the village.

I don’t know if he did it intentionally, or if he experienced life and death, understood life, and completely changed it.

But at least in the eyes of the villagers, they all felt that he had changed through life and death.

"What about these things?"

Tian Baishun left, Xiulan pointed to the things on the cabinet and asked.

"Just take it and use it."

Lin Heng spread his hands and said that once this thing is given out, it will be impossible to take it back.

However, one thing is that his impression of Tian Baishun has indeed changed. After all, no one dislikes someone who repays kindness.

As for whether he did it deliberately, Lin Heng didn't know. They had never met each other in his previous life.

But I remember that the old man lived a long time, and he did not die until he was over seventy years old.

Of the three items on the cabinet, the suede leather is the most valuable. Although it is not big, it can still be sold for thirty or forty dollars.

Including the other two items and yesterday's pork, the total value is one hundred yuan.

"Okay." Xiulan nodded.

She felt that there was nothing wrong with accepting it. In rural areas, people had to visit the door to express their gratitude for life-saving help.

(End of this chapter)