Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 248: The filial Qiangqiang is not loved in vain

Li Long actually originally planned to return to the compound tonight, stay overnight and then go to the mountains tomorrow morning.

I just have to help Gu Boyuan deal with the meat and bones, otherwise they might stink tomorrow, so this time has been delayed.

Then let’s go tomorrow.

When I got home, the aroma of meat was still wafting through the yard and the bones in the pot were still cooking, but the fire had been turned off.

The four adults, Li Qingxia, Du Chunfang, Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei, were sitting in the yard chatting. Li Juan and Li Qiang were not there, they must have gone to sleep.

The radio was placed on the windowsill and was playing music at the moment.

"The electricity should be back in a few days," Li Jianguo said, "and then the nights will be better."

"Well, when the electricity comes, we'll buy a TV." Li Long took over the conversation, "Then we'll have a better night."

"Where can I buy a TV?" Li Chunxia waved her hands hastily, "It's too expensive!"

"When the end of the year comes, I can sell the pigs and buy one!" Li Jianguo also agreed with Li Long, "It will be so much fun to watch TV at night!"

Du Chunfang and Liang Yuemei didn't say anything, just listened to the three men arguing about whether to buy a TV.

"Then if you buy a TV, won't the whole yard be filled with people watching TV?" Li Qingxia came up with another excuse, "What kind of mess will the yard be in then?"

Li Jianguo thought this was a good reason. Although he liked the hustle and bustle, it was annoying to think that there were a group of people watching TV in his yard every day.

"Brother, how much wheat have been harvested in the field?" Li Long changed the subject. Since it is not easy to buy here, let's buy it in the big yard first. It won't affect watching TV there, and no one will go to the yard to watch.

"Our team has harvested half of the wheat," said Li Jianguo. "Most of the wheat has been harvested on the field. After two more days of harvesting, I will lead the horses to thresh the field, and the work of harvesting wheat will be handed over to others."

"I watched Daqiang today. He was stung by a wasp while harvesting wheat..." Li Long said with a smile, "He asked me if I could catch fish again. I said it would take some time. If he wants to come and get the net tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, let him do it."

"Then I'll go fishing with him." Li Qingxia became interested as soon as he heard it, "Then I'll sell the fish in the morning... I have a bicycle at home, it's just sitting there anyway..."

"Only you can do it!" Du Chunfang habitually said, "This place is different from my hometown. Can you sell the fish?"

"How do you know if you don't try?" Li Qingxia didn't get angry, but responded with a smile. He has a good temper and has seen a lot of things. He won't get angry for no reason unless it touches his bottom line.

After chatting for a while, Liang Yuemei said the bones were cooked. Everyone tasted a small piece, and the rest were taken to the kitchen.

The bone soup was also made, and Liang Yuemei planned to use it to cook noodles tomorrow.

Li Long went back to Lao Ma Hao and brought some cooked meat to Uncle Luo.

"Xiaolong, I heard you were back this afternoon, and I was wondering if you would come to the stable." Uncle Luo was very happy looking at the meat. In fact, there was bacon in the kitchen, and he ate it sparingly, after all, the meat was brought by Li Long, and he couldn't eat it all by himself.

But Li Long was away for a long time, so he couldn't eat too much.

"I've been busy with some things at home." Li Long said with a smile, "Uncle Luo, are the animals in the pen all right?"

"It's all good." Old Uncle Luo said with a smile, "With the sugar residue you brought, I will cut some grass every day, they love to eat. The deer and roe deer run in circles outside every day, and they are very active, but it takes some effort to drive them into the inner circle."

"You'll get used to it." That was all Li Long could say. "How are the vegetables growing? I'm going to pick some and bring them to the county tomorrow."

"Okay, okay, I was just worrying about what to do with all these vegetables. I can't dry so many vegetables..." Uncle Luo was happy to hear this, "Pick more. Is Xiaoxia working in the county? Then bring more. You have to buy all the vegetables over there, which is very expensive. We have them here, just take them!"

They are all warm-hearted people, and Li Long felt warm listening to them.

Li Long got up early the next day and originally wanted to make breakfast, but Uncle Luo had already cooked cornmeal porridge, cut a plate of the cooked meat that Li Long brought back yesterday, and made a plate of cold green peppers and some pancakes.

Li Long had breakfast with Uncle Luo before going to Li's house. Uncle Luo told him not to worry and just come over when he left, and he would pick the vegetables for him.

Li Long went to the Li family wanting to say goodbye to his family, and then he saw Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei had already gone to work, but Li Qingxia was there, fiddling with the tires.

Li Qiang was also there, so Li Long asked:
"Qiangqiang, where is your sister?"

"I went to school." Li Qiang was watching Li Qingxia blowing up the tire. When he heard Li Long's question, he said, "My sister said that they will have a holiday in two days. There will be a parent-teacher meeting tomorrow. It depends on whether my dad or my mom will go."

Li Long knew that Li Juan's grades had improved a lot this semester, and Li Jianguo or Liang Yuemei would definitely be happy to attend her parent-teacher meeting.

Seeing that there was nothing to do in the yard, Li Long simply walked to the wheat field.

There were already several large piles of wheat bundles piled up around the threshing floor, and a layer of wheat bundles with their backs cut off were drying in the middle of the threshing floor. The eldest sister-in-law of the Lu family and two other women were flattening the wheat ears on the threshing floor to facilitate threshing later.

Before the popularization of combine harvesters, harvesting wheat was a very tedious process. The wheat had to be spread out before threshing, and then horses would pull rollers to press the wheat ears in circles, the main function of which was to press the wheat grains off the ears.

Because the wheat was spread so thickly, it often took two or three hours for the horse to pull the rollers to thresh the wheat. Even in later times when four-wheel tractors became popular, it still took more than an hour to thresh the wheat with a tractor.

The roller will completely flatten the wheat stalks and knock as many grains off the wheat ears as possible. Next, the straw will be picked out and the remaining grains will be swept into piles along with the broken straw and wheat tails.

This process is repeated over and over again until all the wheat bundles are threshed. The next step is to winnow and thresh the wheat.

You have to wait for the wind to winnow, so the threshing floor must be built in an open area with few buildings around to prevent the wind from getting in. The wind cannot be strong either, because if it is too strong, the wheat grains will be blown away, which will be a waste and troublesome.

Winnowing is to use a wooden shovel to throw the previously swept together wheat grain mixture into the air, and use the wind to blow away the broken wheat straw and wheat tails. The wheat grains are relatively heavy and fall back to the spot.

Winnowing usually requires two people to work together, because what falls down is not only wheat grains, but also some impurities such as wheat ears that have not been pressed well, soil, and stones. This is the job of the winnower. When the winnower is throwing the first shovel, the winnower is watching, and when the things he has thrown fall down, the winnower has to be quick and sweep the impurities on the wheat grains aside. At this time, the winnower is ready to throw the second shovel.

The people who cooperated well with each other rose and fell rhythmically.

Li Long was watching and thinking. There was no wind in the threshing field at this time and it was very hot. Although he was not close to the wheat pile, the wheat awns seemed likely to pierce his body at any time. So Li Long turned and left.

It’s better not to get involved in this job.

After walking a few steps back, I saw someone riding a bicycle coming towards this side.

Behind the bicycle was a white wooden box covered with a quilt, which made Li Long happy.

Isn't this a place selling popsicles?

The man saw Li Long and the wheat field and shouted loudly:
"Popsicles! Selling popsicles! Popsicles! Selling popsicles!"

"How much are the popsicles?" Li Long stopped the man and asked.

"Popsicles are three cents, cream popsicles are five cents." The man said. It's quite cheap. Although there is no doll head, there are cream popsicles, and Li Qiang will definitely like to eat them.

"First, take three and give one to each of them." Li Long took out a dollar and waved it, "I'll wait for you here. When you come back, come back to my house with me. I'll buy some more there."

"Great!" The middle-aged man selling popsicles was immediately happy to have met a big customer. He got on his bike and went to the wheat field.

The reason why Li Long bought popsicles for Lu's eldest sister-in-law and the others was that they had actually seen him going there just now, but turned back halfway, and Li Long felt a little embarrassed.

It doesn't matter if you make a few cents anyway.

The man selling popsicles kept looking back while riding his bike, as if he was afraid that Li Long would run away.

Li Long just stood there and waited for the popsicle seller to take out three popsicles and give them to the eldest sister-in-law of the Lu family. Then he saw the eldest sister-in-law of the Lu family waved at him, and he responded. After the popsicle seller came back, they went to the Li family together.

"Take ten cream popsicles." Li Long said, "You give me the change first." This was to reassure him.

The man happily gave away 41 cents, opened the lid and started taking popsicles out.

"Qiangqiang, go get a basin." Li Long ordered Li Qiang to do the work. Li Qiang was very happy. He ran to the kitchen, got a clean enamel basin and ran over.

Ten cream popsicles were put in and the popsicle seller left with a smile.

"How to divide it?" Li Long teased Li Qiang.

"One for grandpa, one for grandma, one for dad, one for mom, one for my uncle, one for me, and one for my sister..."

"How many are left?" Li Long asked again.

"There are still three left..." Li Qiang was good at mental arithmetic and had long passed the stage of counting with his fingers. He immediately said, "There are still three left."

"How do we divide the remaining three?"

"One for my sister...one for me...and the rest...are for my uncle!"

Li Long laughed and touched Li Qiang's head, thinking the pain was not in vain.

"I just don't like this..." Du Chunfang took the popsicle handed to her by Li Qiang. Although her face was full of joy, she still uttered the usual words.

"You are so troublesome, just eat!" Li Qingxia would not indulge her, "Your grandson will give you popsicles, can you imagine this in your hometown?"

It’s not that the children and grandchildren in my hometown are unfilial, it’s that they don’t have the financial means.

"Put the rest in the kitchen." Li Long ate the popsicle while instructing Li Qiang, "Cover it with a small quilt. When your parents come over with the wheat bundles, you take it to them..."

"Okay!" Li Qiang agreed readily while licking the popsicle.

There are already cold watermelons in the bucket next to the well, but watermelons have their own advantages, and popsicles have their own advantages.

Riding his bicycle, Li Long left Li's house and came to Lao Luo's place.

Uncle Luo has picked a lot of vegetables and put them in two large baskets.

"You can just tie the baskets on both sides of the bicycle. It's better to put the vegetables in the baskets than in bags. They won't spoil as easily." Uncle Luo said.

There were sword beans, cowpeas, eggplants, peppers, cucumbers, etc. in the basket, and there were also two or three tomatoes, but not many.

"The seedlings were planted late this year, so not many tomatoes are ripe yet." Uncle Luo explained, "In another month or so, we won't be able to eat them all."

"If you can't finish it, make sauce and dry it." Li Long replied, then picked up the two baskets with a wooden stick and tied them to both sides of the back seat of the bicycle.

"Uncle Luo, I'm leaving now. Do you need anything?" Li Long first took out twenty yuan and handed it to Uncle Luo, which was the promised salary, and then asked.

"No more." Uncle Luo said with a smile, "When you save enough money, just buy me a radio."

"Okay, I'll bring it to you next time." Li Long smiled.

Li Long took the vegetables and left the village and went to the county.

After passing the middle school, he looked over there, and now there was nothing to see.

Continuing forward, looking at the wheat fields on both sides, it seems that there are fewer wheat bundles than before. There are people picking wheat ears here and there in the wheat fields. It seems that Li Juan and her classmates will also have a work-study assignment to hand in wheat when school starts next semester?
At this time, students had to pay for work-study programs in kind or money when school started in autumn. For example, if the task was to pick wheat ears, then students had to pay wheat at the beginning of September, about five kilograms.

The tasks now are simple, but in the future they will be more varied, such as handing in hops, melon rinds (for medicinal purposes), safflower, and so on.

Because few safflowers are planted, few melons are planted, and no one plants hops, so in the end you can only pay the money - the converted money.

A few years later, work-study programs were unified into picking cotton. There was a period of time when schools throughout the county would organize students to pick cotton in September, and even the youngest grade was the third grade - the second graders really couldn't pick cotton, otherwise they would be pulled over.

Later, the parents reported it. This thing is really a bit "crazy". After all, so many people come from the mainland every year to pick flowers to make money, why must such a young student go?

Later, as cotton picking machines became popular and the army of cotton pickers declined, this work-study program became history.

He was thinking while riding forward, when suddenly a child jumped out from the roadside in front of him. Li Long hurriedly squeezed both handbrakes to the bottom, and the tires of the car kicked up many stones on the ground, but fortunately the car stopped before hitting the child.

The child was so frightened that he was stunned. The small bunch of wheat ears in his hands fell to the ground. After a few seconds, he cried out "wow".

It's a little girl.

Li Long braked so hard that a lot of vegetables in the basket behind him fell out. He sighed, pushed the car to the side of the road, parked it, walked up to the little girl and asked:
"Are you okay? Where are you from?"

The little girl saw Li Long approaching and was so scared that she backed away on the ground, shouting:

"Mother! Mother!"

It was as if Li Long had done something to her.

Li Long stepped back hastily. This misunderstanding must not happen!
When the girl saw Li Long retreating, she felt less scared. She got up, dropped the wheat ears, and ran to the east side of the road.

It was only then that Li Long saw that there was an abandoned cement culvert next to the main canal on the east side of the road, and a woman walked out of it.

The mother and daughter were both dressed in rags and looked quite pitiful.

(End of this chapter)