"I met Li Zheng on the way, and I gave him a basket of horseshoes. We can't finish the basket ourselves. Ji Kang will pass by in a while, so you can let him take some."
Cui Jikang is cutting firewood in the mountains at this time every day. Sometimes he picks wild fruits and leaves a handful of them at her house when he passes by.
As they came and went, Xu Yin often asked him to take something back.
Comrade Xiaojin's brothers and sisters in this life, after a year of dealing with each other, only his brother-in-law Cui Jikang can move around frequently.
The sister-in-law is the heroine, and Xu Yin is worried that she, the cannon fodder, will easily be pulled back into the plot if she gets close to the heroine, so it is better to have less contact with her.
Cui Er was clever, but he was also really stingy. In order to marry the daughter of the shop owner of the paper shop, he heard from his brother-in-law that he had to count the wages he had saved every time he came home, for fear that his mother would use them.
He treats his own mother like this, let alone his brothers and sisters. In his heart, he is no match for the little lady from the paper shop he wants to marry.
However, when Comrade Xiao Jin had a leg injury, he did come to visit him with something. Even though it was only half a catty of mung bean cake, Xu Yin accepted the favor and packed two catties of duck eggs for him as a regular gift to her husband's family years ago.
"Has your second brother's marriage been decided? How many gifts will our family receive then?"
Xu Yin washed the horseshoes and sat under the eaves to peel them.
The first crop of water chestnuts is tender and sweet. I plan to have a water chestnut feast at noon today: fried water chestnuts with black fungus, steamed meat cakes with water chestnut mushrooms, and radish, water chestnuts and keel soup.
The meat and bones were bought by the men from the town early in the morning.
In the past six months, when he saw that she was getting thinner day by day, he thought she had some disease, so he took her to the hospital to see a doctor. The doctor said that she was in good health, which made him relieved, but he still tried every means to nourish her.
It has meat, vegetables and soup, perfect!
The staple food is the water chestnut multigrain pancake, and after the meal, I have a bowl of sweet white fungus, red dates and water chestnut soup, which is both greasy and nourishing.
Cui Mengjin finished sawing the last piece of bamboo, arranged the bamboo strips and tied them together, so that he could build a fence in the afternoon.
After cleaning up the yard, he washed his hands and came over to help peel the horseshoe skin.
"You can make up your mind on this matter. I heard from the third child that the shopkeeper of the paper shop wants to marry his daughter, but my mother does not agree with the second brother's marriage. I'm afraid there will be further trouble."
"Mom agreed!"
The person who answered was Cui Jikang.
He came back from the mountain with a bundle on his shoulder and a bamboo basket in his hand. When he saw Xu Yin, he excitedly raised the bamboo basket and said in an excited tone:
"Sister-in-law, I found the little thorn ball you wanted! Is it this one?"
He heard from Goudan that his sister-in-law had been looking for a kind of little thorny balls that were covered with thorns and could easily get on clothes and hair.
Little prickly ball?
Xu Yin didn't think about it for a while.
Until I saw clearly what was in the bamboo basket, ah! castor bean!
Her eyes instantly lit up: "Where did you find it?"
"There is a big bush next to the mountain stream ditch. It's just that there are thorns growing outside. You can't see it at first glance. I found it after I chased a hare." When he said this, Cui Jikang lowered his face, "It's a pity that the hare wandered too far." Hurry, we didn’t catch him.”
"Hahaha! It's okay, it's okay. I'll make it up to you next time I catch a hare!"
Xu Yin praised him and wanted to keep him for dinner, but he insisted on going back so she didn't force him to stay.
I poured out the castor beans from the bamboo basket and put three or four kilograms of water chestnuts in for him. Six salted duck eggs were placed on top of the horse feet, as well as a paper bag of chopped ribs.
"Sister-in-law, are these little thorn balls enough? I will go up the mountain to pick them tomorrow."
Seeing the eggs and meat, the boy felt a little embarrassed.
After the spring plowing, there was relatively little work in the fields. He had time to go up the mountain every day, and at worst he could help his sister-in-law pick more thorn balls.
"No, I'll transplant the castor tree later, so I won't have to run back and forth."
"Then I'll take you there. That place is a bit remote."
"good."
Cui Jikang said hello to his elder brother and went home happily.
Cui Mengjin saw how happy she was surrounding a bunch of little thorn balls, and asked curiously: "What's the use of this thing?"
"It's very useful!"
Castor bean itself is a traditional Chinese medicine that can reduce swelling and remove toxins. Secondly, because of its high oil content, it is a good material for making base fertilizer.
However, before fertilizing, you need to fry the castor seeds with the thorn shells removed like melon seeds, grind them into powder after cooling, and spread them evenly in the soil like plant ash. Castor beans are used as base fertilizer, and the fertilizer effect is no worse than that of rapeseed cake residue.
After lunch, Cui Mengjin went to build fences at some of the more dangerous embankments of the lotus pond. Xu Yin spread the castor beans in the yard to dry them. The skin was dry and cracked, and the seeds inside could be taken out without peeling.
While he was busy, Li Zheng came over again.
He discussed it with the clan elders and decided to build a collective lotus pond.
"Daughter-in-law Meng Jin, I think what you said at noon is very reasonable. We have decided to follow what you said. Regarding work points and bonuses, can you elaborate more?"
Xu Yin: "..."
Is she the collective economic consultant of Chengdawa Village?
"You can sit down and chat." Xu Yin moved Comrade Xiaojin's recliner and sat down in it. She went to the kitchen to make a pot of dandelion tea, grabbed two handfuls of melon seeds and peanuts fried during the New Year, and After washing a plate of water chestnuts, peeling them and eating them as fruit, I sat down and chatted with Li Zheng while drinking tea.
Li Zheng couldn't help but sigh: There is probably no other person in the village who is as particular as Meng Jin's wife. She just said a few words, gave him tea and snacks, and even let him lean on the recliner to relax his muscles and bones. It was so comfortable. !
Now that Dawa Village really decided to build a collective lotus pond, Xu Yin listed all the projects related to lotus roots and ducks.
"But at the beginning, let's not roll out everything at once. Let's pick two safe ones first, such as the lotus root starch processing workshop and the salted duck egg pickling workshop. The rest can be added slowly later."
Li Zheng listened and nodded: "Yes, yes, it's more important to be safe."
"It's just that it's late spring now, so I'm afraid it's too late to plant lotus roots this year." Xu Yin said thoughtfully, "But we can raise ducks first. The duck seedlings will be bigger in time to deworm and weed the rice fields. Let's take a look at the harvest of my lotus pond this year. If it goes well, I will leave some for the village to plant seeds. Next spring, I will first pick a lake for trial planting, and I will go through how to sell the grown lotus roots and how to make lotus root powder. When it is ready, I can start it in earnest the next year!"
"It makes sense!"
"This is how I think about work points. I roughly divide the positions according to the type of work required. For example, in duck raising, there are tasks such as driving ducks, cleaning duck houses, feeding ducks, and later collecting eggs. These tasks can be divided among different people. , everyone does a little part, and full work points will be given if the work is completed well. If the work is completed but the effect will be discounted, then the work points will be determined according to the situation. If it is not completed, there will definitely be no work points. If the duck is damaged due to slow work, the work points will be deducted. At the end of the year, the work points will be deducted. Unified settlement.”
"Dividends are the money earned after selling ducks or duck eggs at the end of the year, and the money will be settled to the big guy according to the work points."
"besides……"
Li Zheng remembered everything Xu Yin said in his mind, but he was worried that he would remember it today and forget it tomorrow. When he got home, he took out the four treasures of his study and copied them while recalling them.
(End of chapter)
