My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 20 Fertile Land
"Oh, right, Susu, here, take this and keep it safe."

Seeing that Wang Susu's head was drooping shyly to her chest, Chen Ling stopped teasing her.

Then he took out a wad of cash from his pocket and handed it to her.

"what?"

"This money..."

When Wang Susu suddenly saw so much money, her beautiful eyes widened in shock.

It wasn't the amount of money that shocked her, but rather Chen Ling's gesture of handing her the money.

It's a bit hard to believe.

In the past, Chen Ling would only ask her for money, and if she didn't give him any, he would get angry at her. She had never seen a single penny from him.

"This money is the compensation that Erzhu gave us in the land exchange. It's 200 yuan per mu, and we have 10 mu of land, so it's exactly 2,000 yuan here."

Chen Ling explained where the money came from and then handed it to Wang Susu.

"Here, you can keep it."

"what?"

Wang Susu was still stunned when she realized what was happening and asked, "You gave it all to me, A-Ling, aren't you going to spend it? Aren't you going to the county town tomorrow...?"

Chen Ling smiled and waved his hand: "I still have a little bit on me, so you don't need to worry about me."

Half of the two thousand yuan came from Chen Ling selling peanuts, and the other half came from the money left over after exchanging farmland.

However, there's only a little over a thousand yuan left.

In other words, he had squandered half of the two thousand yuan Chen Erzhu gave him in less than half a month.

Keep in mind that this was in 1995, when an ordinary mountain dweller could easily make a thousand yuan last a year.

For ordinary contracted land, the annual rent is only sixty or seventy yuan per mu.

People call him a spendthrift, and they're absolutely right.

If he hadn't been lucky enough to go to a parallel universe and gain life experiences from it...

Who knows what will happen to this family in the future?

"Please put the money away quickly, I'm going to cook."

Chen Ling said something to his wife and went into the yard to start a fire and cook.

Holding a thick wad of cash, Wang Susu looked at Chen Ling's retreating figure and felt much more at ease.

For some reason, Wang Susu suddenly remembered the scene where Chen Ling pinched her nose and called her a little busybody. She couldn't help but smile, took the money, and went into the house to put it down.

The young wife's heart finally settled down.

……

At dawn, the red sun rises.

Chen Ling got up, washed up, pushed open the door and went outside. A breath of fresh air immediately greeted him.

In the mountains, the temperature is much colder in the morning than outside.

Suddenly, the icy air rushed into Chen Ling's lungs, and he couldn't help but shiver.

After my respiratory system adjusted, I felt refreshed all over.

This cool and pure air is something that is extremely difficult for people in later generations to experience.

Chen Ling took deep, greedy breaths while stretching his limbs as he walked out of the courtyard.

Two or three magpies flew into the Chinese toon tree outside the courtyard and chattered incessantly.

The crisp birdsong, the clear blue sky at dawn, and the warm, red sun in the east all lift one's spirits.

Chen Ling walked out of the village, intending to take advantage of the morning light to go for a stroll in the fields.

Today I don't need to rush to the farmers' market early; I can just deliver the peanuts to the oil mill.

Therefore, he seemed quite relaxed.

"Hey? Fugui, what are you doing?"

"Going to the fields so early in the morning?"

As we approached the edge of the village, a man in his thirties, dressed in a police uniform and wearing a peaked cap, rode a bicycle with a large crossbar from a distance.

Upon seeing Chen Ling, he greeted her with surprise.

"Yes, let's go for a walk in the fields."

"Just got back, Jusheng-ge..."

Chen Ling nodded and brushed past Wang Jusheng.

This is Wang Laishun's eldest son.

He is a police officer at the local police station. He works several night shifts each month, and you often see him riding his bicycle back early in the morning.

The villagers of Chenwangzhuang all know this and have long been accustomed to it.

Chen Ling strolled leisurely along the country path, looking around and enjoying the morning scenery of the fields at the foot of the mountain.

Wang Jusheng, on the other hand, turned back to look at Chen Ling several times after riding his bicycle past, muttering something under his breath, with a rather strange expression.

After a while, Chen Ling arrived at the wasteland at the foot of the mountain.

Looking around, he suddenly noticed that the five acres of land where he had planted peanuts with water from the Dongtian Stream the day before yesterday were now sprouting tender grass shoots.

It's a tender green, just sprouting, and very young.

If Chen Ling's health hadn't improved and his eyesight hadn't increased significantly, he definitely wouldn't have noticed it immediately.

"Thank goodness I was cautious enough!"

“Every time a peanut plant is planted, the stream only pours out a tiny bit of water…” “Otherwise, these wouldn’t be grass sprouts now; they would probably be grass half a person tall.”

Chen Ling plucked a small grass sprout, pinched it, and a fresh, grassy scent wafted out.

Although the grass sprouts are very tender, the fact that they can grow at the foot of the mountain where the temperature is low clearly indicates that they contain considerable vitality.

Chen Ling couldn't help but feel secretly relieved.

Fortunately, we were cautious enough at the time.

I imagined that half a bowl of stream water would make the morning glory seeds in the yard grow into a small tree.

When planting peanuts, the stream water was not used much.

Otherwise, the ground would really be covered with grass as tall as a person...

If no one sees it, it's fine; if someone does, it's a big problem.

"We have underestimated the effects of the Dongtian Creek water."

"It seems that in the future, when using the water from the Cave Heaven Stream to irrigate things, we will have to dilute it with ordinary water."

Chen Ling thought to himself.

The Sun and Moon Grotto is a great bounty; to preserve it, we must develop it discreetly.

He doesn't yet have the means to act recklessly.

Actually, his plan was to start making trouble here after the flood.

It doesn't matter if the wasteland turns into fertile land in the future.

Just blame it on the flood; who knows what the flood brought?

He was just a farmer with little education; if others didn't understand, he naturally didn't either.

"Hey, let's take it one step at a time."

Afterwards, Chen Ling calmed himself down, took out a stone hoe from the cave, and dug a deep pit in the ground.

"The hardened soil underneath has softened, so now we can plow the land."

"I believe that by plowing the land twice, turning the soil over, and planting crops several times with the stream water, this thirty acres of wasteland can be turned into fertile land."

Chen Ling estimated in his mind that if things went smoothly, it could be completed this month.

"Let's get started!"

He gritted his teeth, spat on his hands, and rubbed them vigorously.

Chen Ling walked to the land where peanuts had never been planted before, picked up a hoe, and started digging one hole after another.

He took out a bucket of stream water from the cave, reducing the amount by two or three centimeters compared to last time, and began planting peanuts in the pit.

Two hours later, about half an acre of flowers had grown to maturity and been harvested.

After working in the fields for several days, he has become familiar with the rhythm of farm work and enjoys it.

They have plenty of energy and don't feel tired when doing farm work.

While others would spend a whole morning planting half an acre, he could complete the entire process in just two hours, skipping unnecessary steps like weeding, plowing, and furrowing.

Working in the fields like this is fun and gives you a great sense of accomplishment, so why would you be afraid of doing chores?

"Let's try planting some more vegetables."

Chen Ling became more and more enthusiastic as he worked, and prepared to plant some vegetables to test the planting conditions in the outside world, so that he would have a better understanding of the situation.

The few vegetables grown in the cave, planted haphazardly, have already exceeded the permitted number of offspring.

Green beans, eggplant, cucumber, spinach, tomatoes...

The plants are growing so well that most of them were bought from seeds in the county town, and they are all laden with fruit, bending the vines and branches under their weight.

The spinach had grown to a large extent, and it was all old, flowering and producing spinach seeds, making it inedible.

They entered the cave and took out cucumber and eggplant seeds, preparing to plant them.

We also harvested spinach seeds to use as seed stock, while the eggplant seeds were purchased from the county town.

Then, take it outside and plant the eggplant in a hole.

No need for spinach. After turning the soil, just scatter the seeds directly onto the ground, but make sure to spread them evenly.

Otherwise, if it's too dense, it will clump together and grow into a lump.

After working for more than half an hour, we planted spinach, eggplant, and cucumber—three kinds of vegetables—covering a small half-row.

One mu is ten parts of land, and in their local area, one qing is about two fen of land.

It took about half an hour to plant one-tenth of an acre.

Chen Ling mainly observed and experimented. Before it matured, he hurriedly dug it up by the roots and put it into the cave.

So it was a bit slow.

"That's the good thing about the water in the cave. The cucumbers don't need trellises. Just stick a couple of branches in and they'll climb up and grow in large patches."

Chen Ling picked a thick, long cucumber, smoothed out the prickles, and took a crunchy bite.

It's crisp and refreshing when you eat it, and your mouth is full of fragrance.

"It tastes good, although it's far inferior to the ones grown directly in the cave."

Chen Ling chewed it carefully and tasted it. "It's not bad. It's much better than ordinary greenhouse cucumbers."

"That's a wrap, time to go home and have breakfast!"

Chen Ling put the stone hoe back into the cave, stretched, and headed home.

(End of this chapter)