newbobooks Chapter 188 Plant Ash
Chapter 188 Plant Ash
Zhou Guo laughed, "Mom, our house doesn't even have a door, and now there's not even a roof. Do you think there will be fewer mosquitoes?"
That’s right, Li even laughed, “Okay then, who among you still wants to sleep in the shed?”
Zhou Gu said, "Don't think about it. The master has already gone to bed. He must be very tired today. After everyone left, he drank a little wine and felt that the moonlight in the room was too bright, so he went to sleep in the shed."
Hearing that the old man was sleeping inside, Zhou Dacang had to go back to the room. He couldn't wake him up. He was old, and it would be difficult for him to fall asleep again if he woke up.
Zhou Guo lay on the kang, which was very hard. He did not dare to move, for fear that it would collapse. After the house was repaired, he would have to find someone to rebuild the kang, as it was no longer solid after so many years.
She turned over and buried her head under the moon. She could see it if she tilted her head. It was as bright as the sun and the light was really dazzling!
This feeling was exactly like when we were fleeing. At that time, we usually traveled under such a moon, and sometimes slept under the moonlight, but there was a roof made of branches above our heads, so it was not glaring. At that time, Xiao Su slept next to her...
As I was thinking, I fell asleep without realizing it.
When Zhou Guo got up the next day, Zhou Xing in the other room also got up. Facing the gazes of the three people, he stood aside and did a horse stance in a somewhat embarrassed manner.
Zhou Dacang looked at her in surprise, and after a while he nudged Zhou Guo and whispered, "Why did your sister think of doing horse stance? She has never done it before. What did you tell her?"
Zhou Guo pulled him to the other side, "She said she envied my strength, so I said she could get up every day and do horse stance, and after doing it for a year or two, her leg and foot skills would be improved, and ordinary people wouldn't be able to do anything to her. Oh, uncle, don't watch, let her practice on her own. It's already very good that she can do this on the first day, and we can correct her movements later."
As they were talking, Zhou Mai also got up. When he saw that there was one more person in the yard, he looked carefully and was surprised to see that it was Zhou Xing. They walked forward and started to do horse stance together. Both of them were novices, and it was good for them to have a companion.
……
Because of the old man's promise yesterday, everyone came very early today. They came as soon as the sun rose, carrying ladders, which were obviously borrowed from the village. The ladders were used more often today to erect the beams.
At this time, the Zhou family's breakfast was still cooking in the pot.
"You're here so early. Come on, eat first, and then work after dinner." Zhou Dacang greeted.
"No, no, we all came here to eat. You guys eat, and we'll do our work."
Everyone set up the ladders with ease, moved the wood and straw, and started working in a hurry.
Zhou Guo couldn't help but say to the old man beside him: "Master, your kindness is really great. Look, everyone is almost treating this as their own, and they are more concerned about it than working for their own family."
The old man twisted his beard and said, "If it's beneficial, they will work harder. They know that the harder they work, the better the work will be, and we will definitely not treat them unfairly."
Zhou Guo nodded, gulped down her porridge, and stood up to help. She had to help with Liang.
Others took two people to carry one beam up, but she carried one beam by herself easily, as if she was carrying a pumpkin. After all the beams were erected against the wall, she climbed up the ladder and lifted the beam up with both hands, then held it up and let it go to the opposite side.
The person on the other side didn't dare to take it. How could he dare to take it? What if he didn't take it well and got hit to death?
We can only wait for Zhou Guo to put the beam on the wall before we can move.
The beam that normally takes a whole morning to erect was completed in half an hour.
Everyone was itching to do this, and whispered to Zhou Dacang, "Sanlang, can you tell Zhou Guo that I don't want any prey anymore, just ask her to help me when the time comes."
Zhou Dacang smiled and said, "Brother, have you thought it through? You know, even without Guoguo, we can still repair your house. It's just a matter of time. But if you don't want the prey, you will really lose it."
“…Yeah, that’s right. Well, let me think about it.”
Zhou Guo helped to put up the beam, and she did not participate in the rest. She was not required to dig wild vegetables. Zhou Xing and Li Lai cleaned up the dishes and went out, holding a large sack, saying that they were going to pick up a sack and bring it back.
Li took Zhou rice and Zhou wheat to the market. There was no salt left at home, and there were no winnowing baskets or mats. It seemed that there was nothing to add, so she had to buy some.
The old man went into the mountains again, and she was the only one left at home.
She took a small hoe and came to the field she had cleared last night. She squatted down and began to dig up tree roots and stones. The land was not as thin as she had imagined, but it was not fertile either. If she wanted to grow vegetables well, she needed fertilizer.
There has been a large pile of cow and horse manure at home recently, but it has not been fermented yet and cannot be used.
She planned to gather the grass that had been cut from the front and back of the house and from this field and burn them together. The ashes could be spread on the field to fertilize it.
Last night the whole family worked together and almost everything in the field was picked up. Now there were only some small gravel left. As they were digging with the hoe, they heard a ding sound, and the miscellaneous roots buried in the field were dug out. They shook off the soil on top and threw it away.
It took about another hour before the land was finally almost cleaned up.
She didn't rest either. She drank some water and gathered the grass she had cut earlier and burned it.
Thick smoke slowly floated out from the haystack and rose up. The haystack made crackling sounds and the smell of smoke spread everywhere. A breeze blew by, and large chunks of black ash floated everywhere.
The scene is not really beautiful.
But Zhou Guo felt it was particularly familiar. When he was a child at his grandmother's house, every spring when the land was being tilled, this kind of thick smoke would float over the hills. The weeds that had grown around the fields for a year were cut cleanly at this time and burned, and the ashes were left in the fields as fertilizer.
At that time, the whole village was filled with the smell of fireworks. I found it choking when I was a child, but I miss it so much many years later.
After the grass was burned, she spread the remaining ash evenly on the ground, divided the land into pieces, and waited for the afternoon to sow seeds.
Lunch was ready by this time. She washed her hands and went back to have lunch. After lunch, she went back to the house and took out all the seeds. She picked out the ones that could be planted now and planted some. She asked Aunt Chen for radishes and sunflowers, and she gave her a lot.
She divided the land into seven or eight small plots and scattered radishes, sunflowers, coriander, cabbage, carrots, spinach, long beans, and leeks on each plot. She used all the seeds available at home, casting a wide net.
Take advantage of the good weather and see what vegetables can grow. Eat whatever grows. Anyway, this land is big enough. If other vegetables don’t grow, you can transplant them into that land when the time comes.