Song Tan's Notes

Chapter 1224. The Beggar Is Coming [Two in One]

Xiangxiang is a unique yet easy-going pig.

It has been two days since it came to Old Song's house. We set up a separate area in the pigpen at the back of the mountain to allow it to adapt and to keep it under isolated observation.

Without its father Dabao and its grandparents, Xiangxiang no longer has fruits such as apples, bananas, and pears, nor does she have the carefully prepared pig meals every day.

All they got was the same mixed feed of wheat bran and rice bran as the other pigs.

The miscellaneous ingredients may be vegetable leaves, vegetable stems, or vegetable heads.

but……

  It has never eaten such delicious food in its life.

Xiangxiang, wearing her big red flowered jacket, instantly adapted to sleeping on a pile of straw.

If I have to say there is any disadvantage... it is probably that I can no longer be held by my grandparents and stroll around the fragrant market.

But this mountain is also quite fun. If you walk around, you may find some dry acorn kernels and the like next to the pigpen, which is also very fun.

Xiangxiang looked at her simple cement trough. What she was thinking about now was not the beautiful carved white porcelain basin at home, but——

  Why hasn’t the meal arrived yet? It hasn’t arrived yet!

……

Everyone was busy in the mountains. Uncle Seven was also doing the task of feeding the pigs. He put down the pig feed bucket and stared at Xiangxiang's red coat, which was already a little dirty. He couldn't help but mutter:

"Should I take off this dress?"

This foreign pig looks fancy and wears fancy clothes too.

After taking it over, there was a pigsty between them. In the past two days, the big white pigs at home didn't even look at it. It was obvious that they despised its bloodline. The wild boars also ignored it.

Will it be possible if this continues?

If we don't give birth to ten or eight piglets next year, we will still have to worry about meat at home. Our life will be so miserable.

Just as I was thinking about it, I saw Zhang Yanping riding an electric bike down the mountain.

The seventh cousin asked, "Yan Ping, why don't we take off this pig's coat? It's always been worn in the pigsty, digging in the mud and the ground, and also digging up dead branches and rotten leaves. It's so dirty."

Zhang Yanping thought about it and agreed, but his seventh cousin was old, and he was not confident in letting an old man take off the clothes for the pigs, so he stepped into the pigsty himself:

"Let me do it. I heard Xiangxiang is in good health and isn't afraid of the cold, so she probably won't catch a cold."

"No." Uncle Seven nodded confidently: "Didn't Yanran and the others check and say everything is fine? He has been isolated for two or three days, and he is still a domestic pet. How could there be any danger?"

"If you ask me, we can put them in a circle once their clothes are taken off."

Hurry up and give birth to piglets!

Zhang Yanping thought about it and agreed.

"Okay, we need to get used to it."

As he spoke, he opened the door and entered the pigsty, carefully coaxing Xiangxiang to take off her clothes.

When the seventh cousin looked at Xiangxiang, the 600-pound big girl, he couldn't help but shake his head.

"Nowadays, people have so much free time that they dare to raise anything!"

The 600-pound pig was lucky enough to be moved around in their yard.

Looking at the time again, it was almost time to prepare lunch, so I said goodbye and went back.

……

At this moment, his annoying apprentice, Chef Bai Yanbai, also got off the car at the entrance of the village and was looking at the driver in confusion.

"It only takes more than an hour to drive from the high-speed rail station to here, and you're asking me for 400. Aren't you ripping me off?"

The driver was not happy either.

  It’s one thing to overcharge people, but what taxi driver doesn’t overcharge people?

Can you blame me if you don't bargain?

He then said loudly:

"Why do you say that? If you didn't agree, you should have bargained with me at the beginning! When you agreed, you were pretending to be generous, and I thought you had plenty of money. Now that we're here, you want to cheat again, right?"

  "Ouch!" The driver deals with different passengers every day, and he can handle all kinds of them. Now he just opens his mouth to say something sarcastic:

"You look old, but you can't even take out 400 yuan? It's Chinese New Year... OK, OK, OK, I accept it. I'll give you five yuan less."

Chef Bai was instantly furious: "Is it the five dollars I'm short of?"

The driver also stared at him with wide eyes: "If you have 395 left, that's even worse! You look quite old, how come you can't even afford the toll?"

"You're not...what are you doing in this village? Looking for relatives or friends? Fine, just give them a call and ask them to pay the money. I can wait."

Chef Bai was so angry that he almost fainted.

Can you wait?!

Do you know how much I used to earn in a month and how much I got in bonuses? Is 400 yuan a big deal here? If he hadn't mortgaged his house to invest in the Youran Ecological Base and had all the burdens at home on his mind, would he have bothered with 400 yuan now? !

What's more, my main goal today is to leave a good impression on Master Song, because haggling over 400 yuan is nothing.

He thought about it, and finally took out his phone angrily: "Okay, okay, 400 is 400. I don't care if you give up the yuan."

The driver raised his cell phone over and muttered to himself as he looked at him, thinking, five dollars is not a lot of money! This old man really knows how to show off!

Just looking at it...it doesn't look like a return home in glory.

But no matter what, as long as the money is received.

  So he closed the car door, his expression changed instantly, and he said to Chef Bai enthusiastically:

"I just gave you my cell phone number on the way here. If you need a car on your way back, just call me and I'll come. Don't worry, I'll give you a discount this time."

Chef Bai was so angry that he said, "No need, just go away."

Seeing the taxi go far away, he slowly reacted.

That...the former Master Song, where does he live now?

Why has this village changed so much?

  And it’s really strange. Why is there no one on the road in broad daylight?

Chef Bai began to feel uneasy.

……

At this moment, all the people in the village were gathered on the hillside.

The strong laborers who stayed in the village today are going to plant orange trees.

Compared to the amazingly large apple trees, the orange trees were much smaller after being pruned. As they were planting them in the holes they had dug, everyone was chatting:

"We grow oranges here, and we only get those with thick skins, right? The others with thin skins are not frost-resistant and probably won't survive."

“Are those thick-skinned oranges selling well?”

"It should be OK, right? Isn't it 1 yuan per pound in Shitoupo this year? Pick it yourself. If it's delivered to your door, it'll be 2 yuan per pound."

"But the Song family's radishes and cabbages can be sold at sky-high prices, so these oranges must be more than that."

Everyone talked about it at once, and suddenly they regretted: "If I had known earlier, I would have planted one or two trees in front of my door."

Indeed, Song Sancheng's family invited experts to take care of the farming, and they were particularly famous old experts.

This seedling is definitely a good choice.

or……

"Let's go back and ask who in the village wants to grow some. See if they can buy some for us, too?"

The most important thing is that this tree does not occupy land. Nowadays, the open space in front of and behind every household is carefully cultivated, and the Song family's vegetable seedlings will be planted when they are ready.

It would be too troublesome to plant other fruit trees, but this orange seedling is not big, so it should be okay, right?

Everyone discussed in groups of three or four, and then pondered:

"It is said that this year's farming will require a lot of people to pick vegetables, and we also need manpower... Looking at how their whole family is going up the mountain to pack vegetables, I guess there is a shortage of people this year... Otherwise, I won't go out to work?"

Someone nearby agreed: "I don't want to go out either. I'm old, and I'll be in the way if there's an inspection. I won't get a chance to work in a good place. I changed three or five factories in the past year, and I've been on the road all the time."

"Hey, you said the Song family grows orchards and vegetables. Will they organize fruit picking activities like those in the city?"

"If there really is one, I wonder if we can open a farmhouse here."

"That's probably not going to work. Isn't the food at Old Song's house tastier than what we cook?"

"That's not necessarily true," the person who was speaking began to think, "We can't take everyone home, right? There are only two people working in the canteen on the mountain right now, and if there are too many people, they won't be able to handle it."

"I think there's a way. Look at Song Tan's boyfriend. I heard he can earn tens of millions a year. And her cousin is planning to open a homestay in the village, isn't he?"

"If they don't make money, why are they doing this?"

"I can't just do it randomly. I can't run a farm stay with my skills, so I just do some work and earn some money."

Everyone was talking at once, chattering, each with their own excitement.

  Until someone checked the time:

"Oh! It's 12 o'clock. We have to pack up and go eat."

"Row."

After working hard for a whole morning, everyone was a little hungry, so they quickly took their farm tools and went to the canteen.

At the same time, he asked, "We won't need these hoes and shovels in the afternoon, right?"

"No, I heard that they will plow the empty spinach field again and spread fertilizer in the afternoon..."

"Okay then, after dinner, take these things back, clean up and have a good sleep."

You need to get some sleep.

They haven't cleared much of their spinach field yet, so they specifically asked us to come later.

Everyone came in groups of three or four, carrying shovels, hoes and rakes, and walked towards the canteen on the mountain in a lively manner.

……

Nowadays, even the old men and women in the village have to work, so naturally no one can answer Chef Bai’s question.

He held his phone and kept watching the replay, trying to find the landmark building in the group.

  Finally! I saw the Song family’s white villa!

After walking for a while, I saw a small shop and went in to ask:

"Boss, how do I get to this restaurant?"

The man in the store was playing vibrato, he took the phone and looked at it and said nonchalantly:

"Just go straight along this road, and when you see the bamboo forest, turn around and go there."

After thinking for a while, she looked up at him curiously: "Are you delivering saplings or packing vegetables?"

Chef Bai felt suffocated and shook his expensive coat. "No, I just want to discuss cooperation."

"Oh."

The other party looked at him and thought that this man's attitude was much worse than the previous ones who came to discuss cooperation.

"Then you're in a bad mood. Their family is busy right now, so they probably don't have time to talk."

How rare! More than 5 kilograms of spinach were sold in one day, and all the young and old in the village came to buy it.

I am probably the only unemployed person in the village now.

Alas, I didn’t make much money running this small shop, but I actually missed a lot of job opportunities.

Chef Bai became even more depressed when he heard this.

Do you know how much the vegetable prices in Changleju have risen to now?

The spinach here is obviously good stuff, but it's sold for 20 yuan per pound, and shipping is free?!

This boss really has no business sense at all.

But that's true. After all, he was able to get involved with his former master, so his ideas were very old-fashioned before.

Learning to cook requires you to pay attention to this and that. This material is particular, that material is particular too...

Well, in this fast-food age, who cares about that? Just cook the dish, right?

  After thinking for a while, he perked up again:

He had to go and taste the vegetables before they were sold out. If they were of good quality, he could buy them all at 20 yuan per pound, saving the postage.

  At the very least, I still have a little face left. I can put the dishes in front of people and I don't believe that I can't make a profit from the difference!

Thinking of this, he asked again: "Is there another Chef Song in the village?"

  Chef Song?

The boss thought for a long time before finally reacting: "Oh, you mean Song Tan's uncle? Yes, isn't he at his house? What are you doing here? You ask all kinds of questions and you don't even want to buy a pack of cigarettes. Really..."

  Chef Bai didn't feel the other person's impatience, and just smiled confidently:

"His son hasn't been back for so many years, right? It's not easy for the old couple in the village!"

The owner of the convenience store glanced at him, rolled his eyes silently, and stopped talking.

——Isn’t keeping silent a sign of agreement?

Chef Bai also smiled confidently and walked out the door again.

……

But the other person was pointing to the right direction. He just kept walking along the road... It was winter, and he was wearing leather shoes, but his feet were still sore from walking so much.

Only then did I see the bamboo forest and the small villa with white walls and gray tiles vaguely visible behind the forest.

Chef Bai is really tired and a little embarrassed now.

He had lived a life of luxury for many years and always had a car to drive when he went out. But now, he hasn't been back for decades. He didn't expect the village to have changed so much that he couldn't find the way.

Secondly, I didn't expect that the village that seemed very small in my original memory now seems so big when I walk there.

  But it's good this way, let me show my vicissitudes and haggardness. I'll cry a little later, Master. Even if you don't think you are good, you still have to give me some face. As long as people are soft-hearted, won't the relationship gradually become closer?

Chef Bai pulled it. He shook it again and now he was full of energy and started forward.

However, my seventh cousin was sitting there smashing garlic with a knife when he suddenly felt his eyelids twitching and was stunned.

Aunt Lianhua was just carrying some dishes. Seeing this, she asked curiously, "Uncle, what's wrong with you? Is your eye stained?"

"A little bit... Oh, this garlic is really strong! Tantan must plant more onions and garlic this year, as they are indispensable in daily life."

As he spoke, he slapped the knife with the knife board. The sound of "pa" happened to coincide with a loud howl outside.

"Master, Master! You have suffered so much over the years."

The three people in the kitchen looked at each other.

  Even Grandma Qi was curious:

"The beggars are coming?"

　Here I come! So sleepy...

(End of this chapter)