Qiu Xiaochan waters the soil in the wooden pot every day. Under normal circumstances, the mushrooms will grow within ten to fifteen days. She is not in a hurry and waits patiently for the results.
A week later, the team organized the collection of corn, and the team leader fulfilled his promise and arranged for Gu Wenqian to deliver the corn.
After harvesting the corn stalks, the commune members piled them into piles, and the members of the other team broke the sticks together. All Gu Wenqian had to do was to use a cart to send the corn stalks to the wheat field to dry.
Since the cornfields are far away from the wheat field, in previous years all the young and strong youngsters on the team were arranged. This year, Gu Wenqian was added.
"Captain, he's not on our team, so it's not easy to do this."
"That's right, he was delegated, can he earn ten work points a day like us?"
The reason why they are not happy is because work points are linked to food. A normal labor force in the commune has a fixed grain of 300 catties, more pay for more work, adult men count as ten jobs for a full day, and women, old and weak, are given corresponding work points according to their labor ability. Only three work points are counted. Zhang Daying was in poor health and could not work for more than a year and a half, so her work points were not counted.
Originally, Gu Wenqian was transferred to the cowshed, and although the food relationship was transferred to the brigade, due to the nature of "re-education through labor", he was only counted as five work points. If he was counted as a member of the team, his work points would be doubled, and the Grain increases accordingly, one ebbs and another, which invisibly infringes on the interests of others, so it is human nature to have opinions.
The captain took a sip of the cigarette holder, and white smoke came out of his mouth and nose. He said calmly, "Xiao Gu is the son-in-law of our team now. You all went to eat the wedding wine for marrying Xiao Chan a while ago? Why, eat Don’t recognize people? We live in a team, we have to talk about affection.”
After all, the captain is the captain, and a few words left these people speechless. Although the Qiu family is not looking for a son-in-law and Gu Wenqian is not a member of the team, as the captain said, they are all acquaintances, the mother and daughter of the Qiu family Life has never been easy, and even those who are more kind can't force people into corners.
Besides, in the 30 years in Hedong and 30 years in Hexi, Gu Wenqian's identity as a cultural person is different in everyone's mind.
Now that everyone is no longer meaningful, this matter is settled, and the job in the cowshed will be assigned to the old man on the team who used to raise cattle for the landlord's family.
The work in the field took three days to finish. Every night when Gu Wenqian came back, Qiu Xiaochan would help him soothe the muscles on his back and arms. Today, she still brought hot water and used a towel to compress Gu Wenqian. While compressing, she said distressedly, "It's finally over. You can see that the back of your neck is frayed by the rope."
Gu Wenqian smiled and pulled her hand down, comforting, "It's just a small injury, I'm inexperienced, next time I'll know to cover it with a towel."
Two days ago, it was just rubbed red. Today, I doubled the amount of scooter I drove. When I went uphill, I took off the handle, and the nylon rope hanging around my neck was pulled down suddenly, because the friction force scratched the skin. .
Qiu Xiaochan also blamed herself a little. As a wife, she should have thought about these things, but she has no experience in doing farm work. It seems that she can't just focus on family affairs in the future, but also has to learn basic farm work to become a qualified farmer. peasant woman.
In the early morning of the tenth day, when Qiu Xiaochan was watering, she found small white dots protruding from the brown soil. She was pleasantly surprised and called her family to come and see.
Zhang Daying's eyesight was not good, and the backlight became more and more difficult to see clearly. He bent down and looked at it for a long time. After confirming that he was on the top, he was full of joy. Gu Wenqian's performance was more reserved. Compared with the cultivation results, he cared more about wife's mood.
The successful wife is happy, and the unsuccessful wife is sad. In this way, he naturally looks forward to success.
He held his wife's shoulders and said, "This proves that your thinking is correct. After a few days of observation, if the growth is good, it can continue to increase."
"Well, the first step is the most important. A good start is half the battle. This is the result of our joint efforts."
"Mom, you must not tell others about the mushrooms, and the mushrooms are not safe to put here, you need to add a door to block it. If anyone accidentally enters, it will be troublesome for us to explain."
Gu Wenqian nodded, "Leave it to me. There is still some wood left from the last time the furniture was knocked down. It is enough to install a door."
In the next few days, Qiu Xiaochan carefully observed the growth of the mushrooms and recorded them. Finally, on the fifteenth day, the mushrooms were fully grown and could be cut from the roots to eat. More conveniently, the roots continued to grow, similar to leeks. , one crop after another, until all the nutrients in the soil are consumed.
What needs to be noticed now is that different strains of bacteria have different requirements for temperature and humidity. Qiu Xiaochan has to experiment a few more times to try to cultivate more varieties of mushrooms.
At the beginning of November, Gu Wenqian received a letter from his mother, knowing that he was going to take his wife back to the capital to visit relatives. The mother and uncle's family were very happy, and their words were full of expectations. In the letter, they wrote a special paragraph to Qiu Xiaochan, expressing She received her love and blessing as an elder.
After reading it, Gu Wenqian folded the letter and put it back in the envelope, then turned to ask Xiao Chan for advice, "We have to determine the departure date as soon as possible, which day do you think is suitable?"
Qiu Xiaochan flipped through the calendar on the table, and chose November 10th, which was written on the calendar as a good time to travel.
"Just today, we need a few days to prepare before we leave."
It's definitely not empty-handed to go back all the way, not to mention that Qiu Xiaochan is meeting her husband's family for the first time, so she has to try her best to leave a good impression on everyone.
Gu Wenqian calculated that there were still six days left, and he even had time to write a letter to inform his family of their arrival time.
"Okay, I'll mail the letter tomorrow, and then I'll go to the county seat to buy a train ticket. When I get the ticket, I'll come back and ask the team leader for leave."
Qiu Xiaochan was very satisfied with his arrangement, "Well, that's it, my task these days is to pack my luggage."
In addition to a change of clothes, the most important thing is all kinds of local products, as well as dry food on the way, and it takes more than 30 hours to take the train.
After a good night's dream, the young couple told Zhang Daying their plan to visit relatives the next day.
"That's good. The weather is neither too hot nor too cold for going out now. It will get colder and colder after December. It will be troublesome to go out then."
It is not easy to walk from home to the town when it snows, and if you are unlucky, you can't even leave the train.
"That's what we thought too. Today Wen Qian went to buy tickets first. It shouldn't be difficult to buy tickets now."
Zhang Daying asked his son-in-law with concern, "The bus from our town to the county runs every hour. How about I borrow a bicycle for you?"
It takes about half an hour from home to the town, and it takes fifty to sixty minutes to go to the county town by bus, and it takes at least three hours to come and go.
Gu Wenqian did not refuse, it was indeed faster to go by bicycle than to walk or wait for the bus.
"Okay, thank you Mom."
After Gu Wenqian set off, Qiu Xiaochan discussed with her mother what to bring to the capital, "I have walnuts, mountain mushrooms, chestnuts, hazelnuts and other mountain flavors at home. How about I ask someone to collect some pheasants and ducks?"
Shangyao Village is surrounded by mountains and rivers. There are no wild animals on the mountain. There are many pheasants, wild ducks and rabbits. On the surface, hunting in the mountains is not allowed, but there are always people sneaking there. Qiu Xiaochan has seen it several times when hunting pigweed.
"That's fine. Although we are from the countryside, we can't have everything in the city, but our etiquette must not be bad, and we must let people understand our hearts. Wen Qian will only treat you better if you are so sensible."
Qiu Xiaochan smiled sweetly, and sweet love naturally flowed from her eyes, "He is good enough to me, as long as he remains the same for a lifetime, I will be satisfied."
Zhang Daying also smiled gratifiedly and said, "That's right, who doesn't envy you now? Wen Qian is handsome, educated, good-natured, and carpenter. Anyway, I am very satisfied."
After finishing speaking, she carefully looked at her daughter's clothes, frowned and said, "This one on you was made last year. Although it is clean, it is shabby to wear when you go out. When you got married, your relatives gave you a few pieces of cloth. In a few days, hurry up and make two suits, and make a thick coat for Wen Qian."
"No, the clothes we made before we got married can still be worn. Besides, people know what our conditions are, so we don't need to slap our face to look fat."
What she thought was that if the clothes made by someone in the village were old-fashioned, it would be better to go to the capital to buy ready-made clothes and bring them back, and leave the cloth at home for Zhang Daying. Anyway, those colors are suitable for anyone to wear.
After Gu Wenqian's meal time, everyone, Qiu Xiaochan brought him warm meals.
"Is everything done?"
Gu Wenqian took a sip of the soup and nodded, took out the ticket from his pocket and handed it to his wife.
"Okay, I bought a ticket for one o'clock in the afternoon. I counted the time and arrived at the station at about ten o'clock in the evening. It's not too late."
They didn't have time to leave home for the tickets in the morning, and the problem they faced at any later time was that the train might arrive at the destination in the early morning, not to mention people getting tired easily, and the family members would definitely not be able to sleep and waited for them all the time. He took all these into consideration.
"I discussed it with my mother, and I want to find someone to buy some wild game to take back. What do you think?"
Gu Wenqian understood what his wife meant. In fact, it didn't matter what he prepared to take home. Although his uncle's family had suffered some setbacks, the quality of life was not bad. But as a husband, he should consider her from his wife's standpoint.
"Okay, listen to you, let's go and have a look together in the afternoon."
After getting off work in the evening, the two took a small road to a family at the end of the village. Their surname was Zheng. There were only mother and son. The son had learned hunting skills from his father who was a hunter since he was a child.
Aunt Zheng hunched over, her face was sallow, she looked at them closely when she saw them coming and asked, "Is there something wrong with our house?"
The son heard his mother speak and came out of the house. He was of medium height, very thin, and his eyes were particularly sharp.
Qiu Xiaochan took a step forward and explained with a smile, "Ma'am, I'm the daughter of Qiu Changgen, a large team. I want to ask you something. Do you know anyone who has wild game?"
The reason why Qiu Xiaochan came to say this is because Gu Wenqian doesn't look like a local when he speaks. Judging from the expressions of the mother and son, they are very wary of outsiders.
Sure enough, Aunt Zheng frowned when she heard Qiu Xiaochan's words. At this time, her son came over.
He said, "I've seen you, why, is it what you want?"
Qiu Xiaochan nodded quickly, "Yes, we are going to visit relatives in other places and want to buy some wild game to take there."
She pointed to the bamboo basket on Gu Wenqian's back and said, "Don't worry, we won't publicize it everywhere, and put it in the basket so others can't see it."
The other party nodded and opened the fence to let them in, "Come in and say, you stand out from the outside."
The boy led them into the house, and Aunt Zheng wanted to pour water for them, but Qiu Xiaochan stopped them.
"Auntie, let's go as soon as we buy something, no need to trouble."
Aunt Zheng didn't force her, she sat down with her, looked at the young couple carefully and asked, "Are you from Chang Gen's family?"
Qiu Xiaochan nodded.
Aunt Zheng pointed to Gu Wenqian and asked, "Then who is he?"
Qiu Xiaochan replied with a smile, "He is my husband."
After finishing speaking, he turned his head and gave Gu Wenqian a smile, and Gu Wenqian also nodded with a smile.
Aunt Zheng's expression eased unconsciously, and she stopped talking after saying something very good.
About five or six minutes later, the guy came over with a bunch of wild game. According to visual inspection, there were chickens, ducks, rabbits, pigeons, etc., all of which had been processed and dried.
He put the things on the table, raised his chin and said, "It's all here, see how much you want."
The couple walked over together. Qiu Xiaochan saw that the quality of the meat was good, and the meat was handled very cleanly. There were only a dozen of them in total. She asked her husband, "Look, why don't we choose more meat? .”
The meat that has been air-dried will not go bad, whether it is stewed or soup, the taste is very delicious, even Qiu Xiaochan herself wants to eat it.
In the end they picked four pheasants, three ducks, and two pigeons.
"Okay, let's figure out how much it's worth here."
The young man was very forthright, "The chicken and duck cost five yuan a piece, and the pigeon will be given as a gift. It will be thirty-five yuan for you."
This price is reasonable, after all, pork costs seventy-two pounds, and the net weight of these birds can reach about three pounds, not to mention that the other party added two pigeons.
Qiu Xiaochan paid the money readily, "Thank you, we will come to you again if necessary."
Gu Wenqian put a few items selected by his wife into bamboo baskets, covered them with thatch, nodded to the young man and left.
On November 12th, the two set off with the luggage and dry food prepared in advance, took the team's ox cart to the town, and then took the bus from the town to the county seat, and arrived at the train station at 11:57 , if the train is not late, there is still one hour left.
The county railway station was only a small station, and there were no seats to rest in the waiting room. Gu Wenqian put the suitcase on the ground for Qiu Xiaochan to sit and rest.
"I'm not tired. It takes a long time to sit on the train. Let's move around first."
Sleeping berth tickets are definitely not available. Gu Wenqian is now just a "five blacks" sent to Shangyao Village, and even sitting tickets have been bought with great difficulty.
It doesn't matter how he goes back if it's only his own. He even bought a standing ticket to go home, but now he is married and doesn't want to make his wife so hard.
Qiu Xiaochan, who is about to go on a long journey, is in a good mood. She is a person who is tired of the same, always staying in one place is also very boring.
She smiled and asked Gu Wenqian, "Are you hungry? Let's eat first if we are hungry."
Gu Wenqian looked around and saw a few tree stumps in the open space not far away to sit on, and suggested, "Why don't we go there and wait, there is no wind today, and it's good to bask in the sun."
Qiu Xiaochan readily agreed, "Okay, let's go."
After she finished speaking, she wanted to carry a luggage over there, but Gu Wenqian didn't let her do it, and went over with both hands.
Qiu Xiaochan pursed her lips and smiled happily. Although she is not a delicate girl who "cannot carry on her shoulders or lift with her hands", it does feel good to have a man who is willing to pamper her like this. , please keep in mind:,.