My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 132 Taking a Break
The Mid-Autumn Festival is here, and families are busy preparing for the holiday.

Chen Ling's home, however, was unusually quiet.

For the past two months, I've been busy with other people's projects and then with my own, so I haven't had a moment's rest.

After the house was built, there were celebrations for students' graduation and for babies' full moon celebrations. I was rushing from one banquet to another for several days in a row.

Only today can I finally have some free time.

Although Wang Laishun had announced yesterday through the loudspeaker that he would find people to patrol the village at night to prevent wolves from entering, it was definitely not going to be his turn anytime soon.

With nothing to do, Chen Ling felt much more relaxed. After getting up in the morning, he took his two dogs and a slingshot and went out.

After a while, once we've driven the wolves away, we'll go hunting in the mountains.

But the hunting rifle application hasn't been approved yet.

When Chen Ling felt itchy to use his hands, he first satisfied himself with a slingshot.

The villagers have been quite busy lately, and with no one around to manage the birds, their numbers have increased again.

There was a lot of chattering everywhere early in the morning.

Chen Ling had pebbles in his pockets, and whenever he saw a lot of birds, he would stop and fire two slingshots.

The villagers shook their heads when they saw him: "This kid, he'd only been behaving himself for a few days, and now he's started again..."

An old saying goes: catching fish and shrimp will ruin your crops; walking your dog and hawk will leave you penniless.

That's something only people who don't do proper work would do.

What a fine kid, young and strong, why doesn't he do something worthwhile?

The villagers shook their heads and sighed inwardly.

Chen Ling didn't care what these people thought. He greeted them when he saw them and joked around as he walked out of the village.

He didn't go to his own fields today either; he went south as soon as he left the village.

There were indeed quite a lot of birds.

The sun had just risen, and the dew on the grass blades hadn't completely dried yet, but they were already out looking for food.

Not much grain was planted in the south. These were the farmlands that Chen Erzhu had contracted to build greenhouses. After Erzhu was arrested, they were left idle. However, some of the villagers' grain was washed away during the recent flood. Wheat, rice, sorghum, and soybeans were growing, but they were affected by weeds and grew sparsely and not very tall.

As soon as Chen Ling approached, a large flock of birds took flight with a whoosh, mostly magpies, wild tits, and grey herrings, often in groups of twenty or thirty.

Of all those birds, he only fired two shots with his slingshot and managed to catch one.

Although it was only a scratch on its wing, it was still affected. Heiwa easily pinned it to the ground, cleaned off its feathers, and ate them.

Little Jin followed beside Chen Ling, gazing at the trees not far away, wagging its tail restlessly and humming softly.

Chen Ling glanced at it and knew it was that hawk again. That silly bird always secretly followed him. Although it liked to stay near him, it rarely showed itself and was always elusive. He didn't want to pay too much attention to it.

Anyway, he doesn't need to feed them or take care of them, so let them follow if they want.

Then he took his two dogs and wandered around, shooting birds as he went.

After a while, his accuracy improved, and he became more and more adept at shooting, though he didn't shoot down many birds. However, he was just doing it for fun and didn't care about the catch; the birds he shot down were all eaten by his two dogs.

Only things that interest them will be taken into the cave, such as birds, saplings, and fish, shrimp, and crabs in puddles.

Gradually, we got closer and closer to Nanshan.

Chen Ling hadn't been up the mountain for a while, so he called his two dogs and went up the rugged mountain path, bypassing the old river bend.

There have been fewer people coming to the mountain lately, and the surrounding weeds and shrubs have become increasingly dense, completely blocking the mountain path.

It's not that it's impossible to move an inch, but walking is extremely difficult.

It gave Chen Ling a feeling of returning to the future. Back then, rural life was better; there was internet and television, and most villagers preferred to stay at home in their spare time rather than go up the mountain. At most, they would go into the mountains in the autumn to gather wild fruits to make dried persimmons and candied fruit, or to gather wild grapes to make wine.

Back then, we didn't go into the mountains much, and the mountain paths were covered with flowers, trees, shrubs, and wild vines, much worse than they are now.

Chen Ling pulled out a wood-chopping knife from the cave and cleared a path as he walked uphill. After crossing a small hill, there were more small animals in the grass. Birds would occasionally be startled from the side of the road and flutter overhead. He could also see some mushrooms, lichens, and wild fruits such as snake berries.

Even with Xiao Jin's reminder, Chen Ling spotted a badger's burrow next to the bushes. He dug out a mound of dirt, and right next to the mound was a deep hole.

The cave must have been recently dug out; the soil is all new.

Xiao Jin hadn't found this thing last time, and he was still thinking about it. When he sensed the familiar scent, he circled around the badger's burrow, sniffing back and forth. Perhaps knowing that the burrow was quite deep, after a while he even tugged at Chen Ling's trouser leg towards the burrow entrance, wanting him to help him catch it.

"Alright, Xiao Jin, they can't escape. We can just come back in a couple of days to block them. Be good, we need to listen to you."

Chen Ling patted Xiao Jin's head to comfort him.

Heiwa just squatted there, drooling, glancing at the entrance of the badger's den and then at Xiao Jin, as if waiting for the badger to come out on its own.

The meat of this thing is delicious. Last time I stewed it, although there wasn't much left for them, the bones all ended up in their bellies. They remember the taste.

"All you do is drool and watch. Can't you learn any skills other than thinking about food?"

Chen Ling got angry when he saw Heiwa's greedy look, kicked it, and led Xiao Jin forward.

Heiwa was used to being scolded and didn't care at all. He shook his fur, peed next to the badger's den without a care in the world, and followed after it with his little steps.

After a while, there were more and more wild fruits in front of them.

Here Chen Ling stood beside a patch of wild grapevines, digging up two vines with a stone hoe.

These grapes are purely wild, and the fruit is much smaller than cultivated grapes, mostly about the size of an adult's little finger. They have thick skin, little flesh, and many seeds, and taste sour and astringent.

These days, even the little kids in the village don't bother to look at this thing.

People like Chen Ling, who had limited snacks as children, would eagerly pick and eat the snacks, considering them a rare delicacy.

It's autumn now, the time for making wine. Every family goes into the mountains to pick some, and I must say, the wine they make tastes really good and has a good kick.

Chen Ling was also eyeing this plant, so he dug up two of them and threw them into the cave to grow.

After digging up two wild grapevines, Chen Ling set his sights on the wild hawthorns not far away...

This is also a wild fruit I often ate when I was a child.

It's just too sour.

If they're taken inside and raised in a grotto, their flavor will probably improve considerably.

Soon, he dug up two more kiwi trees and brought them into the cave. These wild kiwis were also very small, and when they were freshly picked, they were very hard and needed to be wrapped in wheat bran for half a month before they could be eaten.

After digging up kiwifruit, he dug up pomegranates, and finally even harvested a few goji berry plants.

Feeling that it was about time, we headed down the mountain and happened to come across another bamboo forest.

It's not a large bamboo, but a local native bamboo, which I don't know the scientific name of.

This type of bamboo grows slowly and isn't very tall; it's just relatively uniform in size, about the thickness of three fingers. It can't be used as building material, and the bamboo shoots aren't tasty. It's mainly used by farmers to weave bamboo utensils, such as bamboo baskets, bamboo sieves, and bamboo rakes.

The bamboo ware made is durable, but the ones made by ordinary people are too rough and not very beautiful. They can't be sold for a good price at the market unless you have the skills of Chen Dazhi.

Chen Ling cut bamboo mainly because Wang Susu needed it to make bamboo sieves. Naturally, he couldn't let his wife do this kind of thing, so he just cut down a couple of bamboo stalks on the way.

After cutting down the bamboo, Chen Ling stopped and called his two dogs to head down the mountain.

……

"Little Cangwa, I'm leaving, Dengfeng, this little county~"

As soon as Chen Ling arrived at the village entrance, a rooster's voice rang out from the opposite dam, startling a flock of water birds on the riverbank, which flapped their wings and flew away from the reeds.

Then they saw a middle-aged man wearing a blue vest, military green pants, and messy hair riding a bicycle, singing. When he saw Chen Ling carrying bamboo and leading two dogs over, he immediately squeezed the brakes and let out a soft "Eh."

She stared blankly at Chen Ling for several moments before asking uncertainly, "Is it wealth and honor?"

"Who else could it be but me? What's wrong, Brother Chunsheng? It's been half a year, don't you recognize me?"

Chen Ling stopped, propped the bamboo stick against the ground at an angle, and smiled at the man.

This man is Wang Chunyuan's elder brother, Wang Chunsheng.

He lived in the county town with his parents year-round and never came back, running a small timber factory as their daily livelihood.

Back in the 1970s and 80s, for a few years, the village's leadership was controlled by Wang Chunyuan's father, Chen Erzhu's father, and Wang Ershen's husband. These three were notorious for their tyranny and had a very bad reputation in the village.

Of the three families, only Wang Chunyuan and Chen Erzhu's families prospered, having taken advantage of loopholes during the years when business was encouraged.

At that time, Chen Ling's father also wanted to start a business. Because he often delivered mail, he had a broad perspective and planned to borrow some money to buy a large truck to run freight in the city. However, his good idea was thwarted by his good-for-nothing son, so he gave up on the idea.

After that, only Chen Erzhu's father saw that no lime was being produced here, so he set up a lime factory.

Wang Chunsheng's father was a spendthrift who squandered his wealth on eating, drinking, gambling, and whoring. He spent money like water until his two sons reached marriageable age before finally stopping.

However, because he had gone too far in his actions when he was in the brigade and had a bad relationship with the villagers, he and Chen Erzhu's father moved to the county town.

Now, when the villagers of Chenwangzhuang go to the county town and see these two old men, they don't say a word. The two old men are even more ashamed; when they see acquaintances, they turn their backs and face away, not daring to show their faces. They are almost at the end of their lives and can't return to the village; they can't even return to their roots. How can they have the face to see anyone?

Only Wang Chunsheng would come back to visit during holidays and festivals, sometimes staying for a couple of days to help Wang Chunyuan with farm work.

"Haha, you've changed a lot. From a distance, I thought you were some college student doing manual labor in the countryside."

Wang Chunsheng smiled憨厚ly and then said, "I just got back and ran into you. Aunt Junying asked me to pass on a message to you, saying that she can't come to visit Uncle Juncai's grave this year."

"Well, my aunt lives far away, so it's fine if she can't come."

Chen Ling nodded, thinking to himself that it was better that she didn't come, so that neither he nor Wang Susu would feel uncomfortable.

Then he looked up at Wang Chunsheng and asked, "Brother Chunsheng, did you go to Tongshi?"

His aunt was from Tongshi County, which was quite far from Lingyun. The area was poor, and people rarely went there unless absolutely necessary.

"No, I didn't go. It was your sister-in-law's eldest nephew who married the girl from that side of the family. I went with him to the wedding a few days ago and ran into Aunt Junying."

As Wang Chunsheng spoke, he took out a crumpled cigarette and handed it over.

Compared to Tongshi County, their area is considered wealthy, so when daughters from Tongshi County marry off their sons, they either marry into Kuliu County or Lingyun County.

Chen Ling took the cigarette, and the two walked and talked.

Only then did he realize that Wang Chunsheng had come back for the Mid-Autumn Festival to check on the old house.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival, his parents wanted to go back but were too ashamed to, so they came back on their own.

Walking through the village, Wang Chunsheng felt both dazed and a little sad as he looked at his drastically changed hometown. He exchanged a few hurried words with Chen Ling and then returned to his parents' old house. He was just coming back to visit, just like every year during the Spring Festival, to stay for half a day and catch up with a few acquaintances.

Now that his parents can't go back to the village, there's no need to rebuild the old house.

When Chen Ling returned to his own home, he couldn't help but glance across the street, thinking to himself that this family was quite noisy.

Of their entire family, only Wang Chunsheng and his wife were honest and straightforward; otherwise, no one would pay any attention to him when they returned to the village.

Shaking his head, Chen Ling walked into the courtyard and saw his sister-in-law sitting on the east wall with Liu Ni'er and several other children. Each child was munching on a meat bun, causing a pack of stray dogs to look up at them longingly from the ground, wagging their tails. The girl was also leading the way, occasionally plucking a couple of leaves from the nearby pear tree, crumpling them into a ball, and throwing them down. This amused the dogs, who barked and scrambled for the leaves, thinking they were being dropped with delicious meat buns. She, however, just giggled incessantly on the wall.

"You can't even eat in peace. If I throw you down, you won't be so brave anymore."

Chen Ling propped the two bamboo poles together, walked over, and waved to the children on the wall: "Come on, line up and come down one by one, I'll catch you."

The top of the wall was less than two meters high, and judging from the few shoe prints on the wall, you could tell how those mischievous monkeys got up there.

Wang Zhenzhen immediately straightened her face, shook her head, and her two little braids swung back and forth: "I'm not going down. You go and eat, your sister has prepared the food and is waiting for you, we'll eat here."

"Alright, let them eat there. We'll send them to school on Monday. Let them play around for the next couple of days."

Wang Susu came out of the house and smiled gently at Chen Ling: "Wash your hands, I'll go take the pot away."

The little girl looked at the two of them, and her face immediately turned into a bitter expression: "Why do I have to go to school? School hasn't started at home yet. I'm only staying for a while and then I'll leave. Why do I have to go to school here?"

Chen Ling laughed upon hearing this, "What do you mean you'll just stay for a while and then leave? This year has a leap month in August, so you'll be staying for almost half a year."

"Besides, your pencil case is so pretty, it would be such a waste to buy it and just leave it unused."

"But I didn't bring my books, how am I supposed to go to class?"

The little girl's eyes darted around, and she said stiffly.

"It's okay if you didn't bring the book. After we eat, I'll have your brother-in-law go to the village to borrow one for you."

Wang Susu brought the pot out of the kitchen, filled with porridge, without even looking up.

"If you can't borrow it, tomorrow is Sunday, so you still have a day. Just have your brother-in-law go to the county town to buy it for you."

"what?"

Wang Zhenzhen was at her wit's end. She pouted, looked miserable, and even the meat bun in her hand didn't taste good anymore.

(End of this chapter)