My 1995 Small Farm.

"No, definitely not. I dare say, if this is fake, if it's mixed with lime, I'll die a horrible death, carried off by wolves to the mountains, and gored to death by wild boars!"

The stall owner was so angry that his body started trembling.

“Brother, this is Chen Fugui. You didn’t recognize him, did you? He’s not short of two hundred yuan, but it’s not fair to treat him like a fool.”

Someone nearby reminded him.

Because Chen Ling had people harvest wild fruits in his village after autumn arrived, many local villages that guarded the mountains and forests also benefited from it.

Many people owe him a debt of gratitude when his name is mentioned.

"Huh? It's Chen Fugui? He's so young!"

The stall owner was dumbfounded to see Chen Ling carrying a boy and a girl on his shoulders, smiling as he looked at the stones on his stall.

He quickly said, "Then you can take it and play with it, it's just a broken stone."

After speaking, he nervously rubbed his hands together, as if afraid that Chen Ling might have some opinion about him.

"No, not at all. I quite like this stone. If it's real, then without a doubt, I'll give you two hundred!"

Chen Ling couldn't possibly take things for free; the more people recognized him, the less he could accept them for nothing.

Otherwise, who knows what rumors would spread about him outside.

“I guarantee they’re genuine. I picked them up from the riverbank in Wangbacheng. It was almost Chinese New Year, and I was selling leather goods. I spent several days picking them up before I finally collected this many stones.”

The stall owner got excited when he started talking about this: "Finding a good stone depends on luck. You can't just pick it up randomly and take it home whenever you see it."

Chen Ling had heard his father talk about similar things when he was a child.

But the stone-picking didn't involve money. It meant that the stones weren't for sale. They were just stones that people found while delivering messages, perhaps at a temple or on a mountain, and that they encountered some strange things.

They would take it home, believing it to be a blessing from the mountain gods or something similar.

These unusual stones would be taken home and buried somewhere to be used as feng shui stones.

"Okay, I'll take this one."

Chen Ling took out two hundred yuan and bought the stone with the hole.

He did it himself so that he could add a landscape feature to the fish tank later.

He himself had picked up a lot of stones when he went hunting in the mountains, but he forgot about them after throwing them into the cave.

And there aren't many good-looking ones either.

If I see something I like, I'll just buy it.

"I'll pick out a few pieces too."

Liang Yuemin also got interested. When you're out having fun, if the kids are happy, you should spend money to please yourself too.

He likes smaller stones, the kind that he likes to hold and play with in his hand.

The two were engrossed in choosing.

Suddenly, Qin Qiumei cried out in surprise.

"Fugui, your little duck is gone!"

Chen Ling turned his head and saw that his little duck drumming toy was gone, leaving only the rope.

"Which son of a bitch stole it from me?!"

At these large markets, the festive atmosphere of the Lunar New Year is strong, but there are also many petty thieves.

Some of them weren't even thieves; they just took advantage of the opportunity to steal.

"It must have been taken by someone while everyone was having fun with the monkey show earlier."

Wang Susu spoke up at this moment.

Everyone nodded.

Just then, a dog barked in the crowded market, and soon a large yellow dog squeezed through the gaps in the crowd.

It was holding that little wooden duck in its mouth.

"Oh, I forgot that Xiao Jin and the other two are with you. Even if they get lost, we can find them."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Chen Ling patted Xiao Jin's head, knowing that there were still too many people. Even if Xiao Jin and Xiao Jin were watching, they wouldn't be able to react quickly enough to rush over.

"Judging from Xiao Jin's appearance, it must have been taken by a little kid. It didn't bark at all just now. If an adult had deliberately stolen it, it would have been furious and wanted to bite someone."

Wang Susu glanced at her dog, Xiao Jin, and seeing its gentle and calm expression, she guessed part of the reason behind it all.

"Well, even so, everyone should keep an eye on their own things. There are too many people today; it's busiest around noon."

Chen Ling said.

The busiest time at the year-end market is midday, when the weather is warm and there are many more stalls.

After 3 p.m., the mountain climate turned cool, and the event basically ended.

Shopping for New Year's goods relies entirely on the midday period.

"Yeah, everyone should keep an eye on their stuff, otherwise with so many people, the dogs will be squeezed out."

Grandma Liang Hongyu smiled helplessly, "Heiwa, that big guy, hasn't squeezed over yet."

As soon as she finished speaking, anxious barking of dogs could be heard from afar.

Heiwa jumped onto a millstone by the roadside, surrounded by several other children, but with the surging crowd, his calf-like size couldn't get through.

In an instant, everyone burst into laughter.

Only Rui Rui anxiously called out from Chen Ling's shoulder: "Hei Hei, come here, Hei Hei, come here."

He's worried about his dog, who's with him every day.

This made Xiao Lizi and the other children start to worry: "Heiwa, come on, keep up!"

"It's okay. After this time, there will be fewer people in about twenty minutes. Let's keep going."

Chen Ling spoke.

"Let's take this opportunity to buy some couplets and 'Fu' characters. Now that it's warm, we can put them up in several courtyards in the county town. We won't go out tomorrow, New Year's Eve. We'll stay home and tidy up for the New Year."

“Fugui is right, we’ll be at home and in the village tomorrow, on New Year’s Eve.”

"But where shall we eat lunch?"

"Of course it's at the market. There are mutton noodles and beef soup up ahead. Just rush over and grab a couple of bowls to tide us over."

"Yes, we rarely eat at the market, to experience the atmosphere."

In normal years, fewer people eat this kind of food at the market.

Because I thought it was too expensive, I figured I might as well buy the meat and cook it at home myself. But this year, there were so many people at the market that I ended up having to pay for food.

So the food stalls were still quite crowded.

Chen Ling and his large group are too many to fit in a table at a restaurant right now.

"Why don't you come to our house? We've already prepared a meal."

Qin Qiumei and Zhong Xiaoyun spoke up one after the other, saying, "We can't let the kids go hungry at noon while we're taking care of them."

"Auntie, we're not hungry, we want to eat at the market..."

Little Chestnut sat on Chen Ling's shoulders, her braids swinging wildly, determined to eat at the market.

The chubby boy and Ya Ya chimed in, "Auntie, we're not hungry. We like the food here. I even want to eat dog meat!"

Zhong Xiaoyun and her husband were both amused and exasperated. The children were playful and, after listening to Chen Ling's suggestion, were unwilling to come to their house for dinner.

"Let's go, it's alright, they won't go hungry. They had a big breakfast with eggs and meat, and they haven't stopped eating since they arrived at the market, munching on dog meat and snacks one after another."

I wasn't hungry at all when it was mealtime.

As Wang Susu spoke, she even held a piece of rice crust and fed it to Xiao Lizi.

"Auntie, sugar figurines! There are sugar figurines over there!"

Little Chestnut was eating crispy rice crusts when her eyes were already drawn to the sugar figurine stall in front of her.

"Uncle, let's go over there quickly."

"it is good."

Chen Ling glanced at it and laughed as well.

I'm not hungry right now, and there are lots of people at the food stalls, so I might as well go find something to have some fun.

Squeezing through the crowd, I walked to the stall.

Chen Ling asked, "Make us four sugar figurines."

"No, four aren't enough. I want ten too! Sister Yinhuan, Sister Yueru, we want them all!"

Wang Susu grinned and moved closer to him, grabbing his arm and pinching him.

"Okay, okay, then give us one each."

"Do you really want this much?"

The sugar figurine maker was an old man in his fifties, wearing a melon-shaped hat, thick cotton trousers, and a sheepskin vest. His glasses had black-rimmed round lenses, making him look like an old man from the old society.

"If you really want to, then do it."

Chen Ling took out ten yuan and handed it over first: "If it's not enough, just say so."

"That's enough. You want a lot, so I'll give you a discount."

The old man had a smile on his face; he looked like someone from the old society, but his stall was very clean.

As he spoke, he smiled and asked Chen Ling's shoulder and the children beside him, "Kids, what kind do you want?"

"I want Sun Wukong! Sun Wukong!"

Xiaoming's love for monkeys goes without saying.

Little Chestnut said, "I want a butterfly, Grandpa, please make it beautiful."

Ya Ya tiptoed and looked around at the sugar figurines on the stall. When she didn't like any of them, she said, "I want... a big tiger."

"What about Rui Rui? Rui Rui, say something too!"

Qin Yueru was very tall, and she reached out to touch the baby's face.

Rui Rui didn't really understand what was going on, but he roughly knew what his friends were saying, so he went along with it and said, "Little elephant, Rui Rui is a little elephant."

"Okay, make us another little elephant."

"Goodness, this is what you ordered..."

The old man shook his head upon hearing this. He could accept the story of Sun Wukong and the tiger, but he had never really done anything with the butterfly and the little elephant.

Country kids wouldn't go for that.

However, his skills are alright; they're all small animals, so it's not difficult.

They took the thick sugar syrup and started making it on the counter.

Everything Wang Susu and the others wanted was readily available.

They picked out the prepared rabbits, goats, and the like and held them in their hands.

These little kids were having a rare good time today, and they were having a lot of fun playing with these toys.

The children were even happier.

Especially Rui Rui, who just made a request in a daze, saying she wanted a baby elephant.

Unexpectedly, a sugar elephant figurine actually ended up in my hands.

They loved these sugar figurines so much that they couldn't bear to eat them.

After making the sugar figurines, everyone was satisfied, mainly because they were almost too full to carry any more.

So they went straight to the place that sold couplets and the character "福" (fortune).

There are quite a few places in the county that need to be covered: Chen Ling's small courtyard in the south of the city, Liang Hongyu's two courtyards, and the deer farm that Chen Ling just built.

All of these are needed; at least twenty or so couplets and "Fu" characters will be required.

Wang Susu was very careful in her selection, not only in terms of the size of the couplets, but also in terms of what was written on them.

She doesn't want someone with too much wealth; she wants someone with good fortune.

Her family is not short of money now; what she wants is for her family to be happy, peaceful, and blessed.

Chen Ling didn't know the difference between them, but he knew that he should just let his wife be happy.

She knows what kind of good fortune she's looking for.

But Wang Susu was overwhelmed by the choices in the end.

He even took out two couplets and asked Chen Ling with a troubled expression, "Take a look, which of these two is better?"

"Uh……"

Chen Ling quickly pretended to be thinking, rubbing his chin. His mind wasn't on this at all, so he couldn't possibly pick one out.

He just thought to himself, "Having a child really changes things; even my little wife is causing me trouble." (End of Chapter)