"The twelfth month is tight, the first month is slow, and the winter moon is neither too fast nor too slow."
In the twelfth lunar month, it is the end of the new year, and I am busy getting rid of the old ones and preparing new year's goods. The first month is the new year, and I have to visit relatives and friends. During the winter months, Dongyue is the most leisurely.
The food has already been put into the warehouse, and there is no busy farming, so Xiao can only take care of the livestock at home and simply dig the ground.
But it can't be said to be idle, after all, it is a farmer, and there is always something to be busy, unlike the people in the county, who can really chat and have fun with their feet up.
After Qin Xiaoman ate breakfast, he chopped pig grass and cooked pig food, while Du Heng was frying chestnuts beside him.
"There are a lot of chestnuts, how about sending some to my second uncle after frying?"
Seeing that the shell of the chestnuts was already brittle, Du Heng scooped them up one by one.
"Okay." Qin Xiaoman felt that Du Heng was quite understanding of the world: "Then you can send it to the second uncle later, I want to go up the mountain."
Du Heng looked down at the person under the stove: "Going to the mountain again today?"
"Well, yesterday I saw that there is a lot of firewood on the mountain of our family. The trees that were cut by thunder in summer have already dried up. I will get them back while the weather is fine, or it will be a pity that others will pick them up."
Everyone loves to collect firewood when Dongyue is idle, Gongshan is so big, everyone is collecting firewood, but it is not enough to collect firewood, but there is a lot of firewood in winter, and they point to the charcoal fire to spend the winter. It hit someone else's private mountain.
In the past, Qin Xiaoman thought that the private mountain belonged to his family, and no one would move it, and he didn't pick up the firewood even if he had it. As a result, people stole the firewood many times. These people are also smart. When he was in Gongshan during the day, he stopped by to see who had goods in the private mountain, and then went up the mountain to pick them up at night.
Du Heng has only heard of stealing people's food and vegetables, but he has never heard of stealing people's firewood.
"You used to be the young master, so you don't know these things."
Qin Xiaoman said: "Although firewood is not a rare thing, it can be seen everywhere, but the mountains and the land as far as the eye can see, they all have their own owners, and you can't just bring them home when you see them. Boiling water is inseparable from firewood every day, and charcoal can be burned to keep warm in winter, and a bundle of firewood can be sold for more than ten yuan in the city."
"Who doesn't pay attention to valuable things. Our Qin family is a big surname in the village, so we have our own private mountain. Otherwise, things from the public mountain may not be enough for cooking."
"Not every household in the village has a private mountain. Those who moved later or those who stayed in the village as refugees do not have their own mountain. If it is not enough, we can only buy it, but it costs money to buy it. The poor Where can people afford such expenses, there is no choice but to steal other people's at night."
Du Heng listened carefully, but he had also heard that at this time, the poor did not even have a piece of land buried in the soil after death, and the mountains and rivers were all other people's property, so he had to lament that the poor had no way out.
"I have a lot of firewood at home. I'll go and take back the firewood from our mountains. Then I can sell it to people in the village who are short of firewood at a cheaper price. If no one buys it, I'll take some effort to take it to the county."
Qin Xiaoman said: "When the time comes, I will earn money to buy you two fish to make soup. I don't think there is much salt at home, so I will also buy some when the time comes."
Du Heng thought about how hard it would be, but at least there is a way to make money, which is better than no way to make money.
In fact, he also wants to make money. One is to see a doctor for the treatment of his feet, and the other is that he is too embarrassed to spend Qin Xiaoman's money all the time, but there is no other way at present.
"I originally said that I asked you to take me to see the land today, and I can pick it myself when there is no food at home."
Qin Xiaoman frowned: "Let's do this. I'll go out later and you come with me. I'll take you around and I'll go up the mountain. The land on the left and right is in that direction, and there's no detour."
"good."
Du Heng filled Qin Xiaoman with half a bag of chestnuts, and took away two big sweet potatoes that Xiaoman himself buried in the stove, wrapped them up in a basket, and ate them on the mountain at noon.
The two of them took the chestnuts to Qin Xiong's house first. Qin Xiaoman was used to his swiftness and walked briskly. It was the first time for Du Heng to go out, and he walked slowly with a limp. The distance to arrive is a quarter of an hour.
There are people in Tianqing's family, and the courtyard door is usually left open. Qin Xiong's family has a large population, and there are three males who can work outside. Li Wanju and Qin Xiaozhu are much more leisurely than other husbands, and almost rarely go out. Go to work, and spend most of the time at home walking around those houses.
"Second Uncle, I'm here."
Qin Xiaoman went straight into the courtyard, and the people in the room came out when they heard the sound.
"Your second uncle is not at home."
Qin Xiaoman saw that the person who came out was his second aunt, so he shut up and didn't want to talk to her. If he said a few more words, he would delay his work if he quarreled, but his aunt didn't do anything.
"Yo, the cripple is here too."
Li Wanju saw the young man following Qin Xiaoman, and saw that he really had a handicap, so he couldn't help laughing.
She has wanted to see Du Heng for a long time, but she has never condescended to go to Qin Xiaoman's house when she has nothing to do, this is the first time she has seen it.
But looking at Du Heng's figure and face, he pursed his mouth again. He only heard his man said that he looked upright, but he didn't expect that he was much more handsome than the scholar in their village.
She felt a little unhappy in her heart, thinking that Qin Xiaoman's temperament should find a lame and ugly one, but then she thought about it, even if he took advantage of it and found a good-looking one, so what, the village is not the city, And look at your face leisurely, the villagers still pay attention to living a good life.
"What a cripple, it's just an injured foot!"
Qin Xiaoman got angry when he heard his aunt's harsh and mean words, and seeing him looking Du Heng up and down, he felt even more upset. He snatched the chestnuts in Du Heng's hand and stuffed them into Li Wanju's arms: "My husband fried the chestnuts." Chestnuts for my second uncle, do you want them?"
Li Wanqiu glanced at the things stuffed in, and heard Qin Xiaoman's fierce tone, but ordinary people are not willing to accept them, but she couldn't bear to take the things that were given away for nothing, so she immediately took them into her arms: "Here you are." Second Uncle is okay with drinking."
Seeing that his second uncle wasn't at home, Qin Xiaoman didn't stay long, pulled Du Heng and said, "Let's go."
During the whole process, Du Heng didn't have time to say a word, he was a little surprised, Qin Xiaoman and Qin Xiong were very close, but he didn't expect to be so hostile with his second aunt.
"Xiaoman is here?"
Qin Xiaozhu slept for a long time, and only slowly got up when he heard the sound outside. He didn't want to get up at first, but he heard that Qin Xiaoman's man had also come over, so he wanted to come out to see the excitement, but ended up in the yard I saw that the two had gone out.
He hurried to the fence to take a look, only to see Qin Xiaoman walking in front, followed by a lame man who was limping along. He was quite tall, but his figure was quite upright, but his lameness was greatly reduced.
Just as he was about to say that he was really lame, the angry Qin Xiaoman slipped, and the man grabbed him with quick eyesight and hurriedly turned his face, Qin Xiaozhu immediately felt a beat in his heart.
He had never seen such a handsome man.
"Come and eat these chestnuts, they are still hot and sticky."
Li Wanju looked at her elder brother stretched his neck in front of the fence and couldn't recover for a long time, and walked over a few steps: "What's the matter?"
Qin Xiaozhu didn't hide from his old mother, and said: "That man Xiaoman is really good-looking."
"You young children can only look at the surface of the idea. You are so good that you can eat it. You can expect to do something even if you walk with a limp. Don't be stupid." Li Wanju knocked Brother's head: "You have to find someone who has the ability to make you live comfortably, like your father."
"What's so good about beating people like daddy every day." Qin Xiaozhu regained his composure: "No wonder Xiaoman is willing to ask for it even if he is a cripple. There is still some advantage in co-authoring."
Li Wanqiu hummed: "It's not good for that man to face Xinhua. It's fine if he's lame. If he's cured, he'll throw Qin Xiaoman away immediately."
Qin Xiaoman and Du Heng didn't hear the mother and son's discussion, they went out along the dirt road all the way, but they often met villagers, and they had to look around Du Heng and have fun.
"Hey, Xiaoman, is this your family's son-in-law?"
"Oh, I didn't believe it when I heard it from everyone, but I didn't expect it to be true."
"When are you going to do something? You must call me uncle when you buy wine."
"...."
When he met someone, he had to say a few words. Qin Xiaoman was upset, and delaying work was the same thing. He was afraid that Du Heng would be unhappy, so he dismissed the folks with a few words, knowing that Qin Xiaoman had a poisonous and domineering temper. Say more unpleasant things.
"Look, you're coming out."
Du Heng heard the complaints and knew that it was about meeting the villagers. He said: "Sooner or later you will meet when you live in the village. It's good for them to get used to it. You can't stay at home all the time just to avoid seeing people. .”
Qin Xiaoman saw that Du Hengyuan was not only a little reserved in his life habits, but also very transparent in his dealings with others, so he said: "They are just good things, but they are not so bad in their hearts. Wait for a long time and you will become a own people."
Du Heng nodded.
"Look, the few pieces of land in front belong to our family."
Qin Xiaoman's family has 30 mu of land, and another 20 mu of land, which means that the total land can reach 50 mu, which is the largest number of households in the village.
Du Heng heard from him that the Qin family is the big surname in the village, that is to say, the surname that has taken root in the village and the land for the longest time, has a wide network and a small and powerful surname, and it is not uncommon to have so many fields.
An ordinary family's land in the village may be between 10 and 30 mu, and those with more than 30 mu are considered to have a lot of land. After paying the grain production tax, there is no problem in eating enough without natural disasters.
But families with a lot of land can be divided into high-quality and better-quality fields, and the fields are divided into Susukida and fertile fields. One mu of fertile land can equal the grain output of two or three mu of Susukida. Not all, if the fields are not plowed and well-maintained, they can easily become barren.
Of the fifty acres of land, forty acres are thin fields, and only ten acres is not bad. Qin Xiaoman's harvest mainly depends on these ten acres of fields.
Du Heng followed Qin Xiaoman around, not all of the Qin family's fields are in one place, but just like other people's land in the village, there are two lands in the east and three lands in the west, and only a few lands below are planted with some winter vegetables , and the rest are still there after the autumn harvest.
"After the mountain has been prepared, I will slowly plow the land. This year, I will plant two acres of grain."
Qin Xiaoman said to Du Heng: "I will definitely not starve you."
Du Heng laughed: "Yes."
Qin Xiaoman laughed: "Then remember the way, go back by yourself, I'm going up the mountain."
"good."
Du Heng watched Qin Xiaoman leave, and then looked at the winter vegetables in the field, and now he found a job again.