Chapter 4 4. I will grow corn to feed you
The yard of my hometown is quite big, and the cement floor has cracks. In the middle of winter, there was still a small purple-flowered plant that emerged from the crack, blooming a small purple flower trembling in the cold wind.
Song Tan stared at the flower and felt that the environment had changed and even this little wild flower became more beautiful.
Song Sancheng put his luggage in the main room and called his daughter quickly:
“Tantan, it’s cold outside, hurry inside and warm yourself by the fire.”
He also rubbed his hands and feet as he spoke: “It’s so cold while riding a motorcycle!”
Song Tan was slow to realize that it was indeed very cold when riding a bicycle in winter.
But she didn't feel much.
Hands spread out, only to see that the palms are as white as jade. It seems that he worked hard to repair his body in the car accident, hoping to avoid the fate of death. Therefore, his body has been tempered to a certain extent.
However, it is very limited.
For example, at this moment, a gust of cold wind blew by, and Song Tan's body shivered uncontrollably. She was stunned for a moment, and then quickly rushed into the house.
This is a heated hut.
The area is not large. There is a tin stove in the corner next to the window, with a square iron plate on top. The flue is long, bent at the ceiling, and spreads towards the hole in the other wall.
In this way, the flames in the furnace are blazing, and the hot and sultry smoke is discharged from the house through the flue. As long as the fire is lit, the whole house will be warm, comparable to the heating room in the Northeast.
Song Sancheng hasn’t seen his daughter for a long time—that’s not the best thing about working in a big city. There are few holidays and it’s hard to buy tickets during rush hour.
The last time I saw you was during the Chinese New Year.
It was only three days off, and I worked overtime on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, which was very hard.
His first child was such a girl, and she did whatever the girl said every day. Even if a son was born later, it was still the same habit.
At this moment, I thought about it and didn’t know what to say, so I stretched out my ruthless iron hand and took down the roasted sweet potatoes from the stove:
“Are you hungry? Eat a sweet potato cushion!”
He was not afraid of being burned, and Song Tan was not afraid now either. He reached out and took it: "Dad, you can eat it too."
"I won't eat it!" Song Sancheng quickly waved his hand: "When I was a child, you used to make sweet potatoes for us to eat every day. If we eat too much of this food, we will get heartburn and injuries."
Song Tan was silent for a moment.
Song Sancheng finally found the topic: "How long will you stay at home when you come back this time?"
Song Tan opened her mouth. Obviously in the world of cultivating immortals, she had always been a straightforward person who would do whatever she didn't accept, but at this moment, the words she spoke were as heavy as a thousand pounds.
“Dad, I quit my job and want to go home and farm.”
Song Sancheng fell silent for a moment, and then he sighed: "Tantan, you don't know the hard work of farming."
“I’m not afraid of being laughed at when a college student comes back to farm, but you really can’t bear the hardship.”
The implication is that I disagree.
Song Tan was not in a hurry: "Dad, when I was a child, I pulled peanuts, broke corn, picked tea leaves and watered the vegetable garden. I also did farm work."
“How much work can you do?”
Song Sancheng pointed at the spray bucket placed in the utility room opposite: "You can't even carry that bucket!"
It is an old-fashioned blue plastic spray bucket. It weighs thirty kilograms when filled with water. You have to carry it around when spraying.
But compared to digging tea hills, cutting rice and transplanting rice seedlings, this is already an extremely light and economical job.
Don't think that people in rural areas don't use pesticides. Cordyceps is very resistant to pesticides these days. Everyone else is using it. If you don't use it, then just wait until the grain and tea leaves are eaten up!
As he spoke, Wu Lan entered the house with a basin of milky white fish soup. The lingering fragrance filled the air. Even though there was still a slight smell of impurities in it, it was much better than what he tasted during the day.
“Tan Tan, drink more soup tonight. Your dad caught the crucian carp from the wild pond. It is very nutritious. Please take more.”
Ulan placed the basin on the iron table of the stove to heat it, and then he saw the sweet potato in Song Tan's hand:
"Tantan, don't eat the sweet potatoes yet. These are our local sweet potatoes with white hearts. They are doughy and choking. Save them for the night. Don't worry about not being able to eat later." After saying this, he hurried back to the kitchen without waiting for a reply.
Song Tan put the sweet potatoes aside and looked at Song Sancheng's complicated expression. Then he picked up the heavy blue medicine bucket, opened the faucet on the side, and filled it with water.
“Tan Tan!”
Song Sancheng also came out - looking at his daughter's effortless movements, he felt sad for some reason.
My daughter has been obedient and sensible since she was a child. She is frugal and is not willing to spend money while working outside, just for this family.
Now the child has a head injury and said he resigned when he came back. He must have been wronged in Ningcheng... Yes, he works overtime every time he calls and lives in such a small house. How can he not endure hardship?
At this moment, Song Sancheng was already shaken.
Children can farm if they want to come back. If they really can't bear the hardship, they may find a job in their urban area. It's close to home at least.
Just when Song Sancheng was about to speak, he saw that the medicine bucket was full, and his daughter, who "cannot endure hardship", was carrying it like a toy bear.
At this moment, Song Sancheng, a fifty-eight-year-old authentic farmer, looked at his rough hands and felt confused:
Why do I think that bucket is heavy?
Am I getting old?
…
At this moment, a cheerful shout suddenly came from the distance:
"elder sister!"
Song Tan subconsciously turned his head and saw a young boy wearing a black cotton vest running from the road. He had long legs and was about 1.8 meters tall, but he was on the thin side. But he has fair skin and a small dimple on his cheek. At this moment, he ran over with a smile, and his whole body was filled with joy:
"sister!"
This is her younger brother Song Qiao. His physical age is eighteen years old and his mental age is...six years old.
Ulan gave birth to him when he was forty years old. There was no custom of prenatal check-ups in the countryside. As a result, he was born like this, always retaining the mentality of a six or seven-year-old.
But he is very well-behaved and sensible. He was brought up by Song Tan when he was a child.
Until she left home to go to school and then stayed in Ningcheng…
Song Qiao stood in front of Song Tan, with bright eyes, looking at her obediently, like a puppy.
Song Tan stretched out her hand, and the boy lowered his head obediently, touching his cold face for her: "Qiao Qiao."
"Um!"
“I’ll come back and stay with you, okay?”
“Okay!” Very loud.
Then he looked at Song Sancheng hesitantly: "But dad said, you have to make money, you are very tired, and I can't pester you."
Song Tan laughed and went to check his hands again to see if the nails were clean - he was very good and didn't pick at the mud in the winter.
“It’s too tiring to make money. My sister doesn’t want to make any more. Come back and stay with Qiaoqiao and my parents. Let’s go together. Can we?”
Song Qiao didn’t know what it meant for a rare college student in the village to come back to farm. He just cheered:
“Yeah!”
“Don’t be afraid, sister! I can grow corn and I’ll feed you!”
At this time, even Song Sancheng, who had been grimacing, laughed:
“You know how to put corn kernels into the pit and break them off from the pole. You know how to grow corn!”
Thank you Qianqiu for the reward, and thank you all for your support! This article is still slow to gain steam.
Prices, countryside, farming, environment, climate, each place has different living habits, I promise I am not writing blindly. So don’t be anxious when you see different opinions, just treat it as a trip to a distant rural area.
(End of this chapter)