My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 241 Pen Pals and Seedlings

"Chuangzi, are you home?"

The morning after selling the wine, Chen Ling drove his tractor with Wang Zhenzhen to Huangni Town to find Han Chuang.

"I'm home, I'm home, Brother Ling is here, come in quickly."

Hearing the shouts outside, Jiang Xiaoqing jogged out, opened the large iron gate of the yard, and let him drive the tractor into the yard.

"Zhenzhen is here too! Come down quickly, the watermelon is chilled for you."

"Thank you, Sister-in-law Xiaoqing."

Wang Zhenzhen jumped off the tractor and walked over to Jiang Xiaoqing with a grin. The two watched as Chen Ling drove the tractor into the house.

After Han Chuang got married, he was allocated a rather large new house. It was built outside the town and there were not many neighbors. There were a few orchards around it, and beyond that was the famous Tubao Ridge outside Huangni Town. There were hardly any people around, so the yard was built to be extremely spacious. Parking a tractor was not a problem at all.

"Where's Chuangzi? She's been like a young girl, nowhere to be seen for ages."

Chen Ling parked the tractor under a tree on the south side of the yard, but when he got out, he couldn't see Han Chuang anywhere.

He said he would come to see Han Chuang today and pick up the sunflower planter.

The so-called sunflower planter is nothing new; it's just a modified version of the local grain-planting seed drill, adapted to grow sunflowers.

Sunflowers are a rare crop in this area, and sowing can only be done manually.

You can't plant with a seed drill.

After explaining the situation to him at his house last time, Han Chuang told him not to worry, saying that his older brother Han Chao would handle it.

Moreover, Han Chuang is quite talented in this area. He learned a few tricks from his brother when he was young and knows how this thing works. He went back and told his older brother Han Chao, and gave Chen Ling a definite answer, telling him to come and pick it up in ten days.

Chen Ling said he would come over if it didn't rain today, so the date was set.

“He went to buy donkey meat. There’s a factory owner in the south of the town who’s having a wedding. He slaughtered a donkey yesterday morning. Chuangzi said you’d definitely be coming over in the next couple of days, so he went to buy some donkey meat to make a snack with his drinks.”

Jiang Xiaoqing smiled and then asked Wang Zhenzhen, "Zhenzhen, have you ever eaten donkey meat?"

Wang Zhenzhen shook her head: "I've never eaten it. We can't afford it where we're from, and we're reluctant to eat it."

In Fenglei Town, people rely entirely on packhorses and donkeys to travel the mountain roads. Donkeys are very precious, and no one would be willing to slaughter them for meat. Even if they were to kill them, they would only kill old donkeys or sick donkeys that couldn't be cured, and they would sell them for a particularly high price.

As they were talking, Han Chuang returned, pushing a small cart with a large donkey head and various kinds of donkey meat on it. Behind him followed a half-grown blue dog with its tongue lolling out. When it saw Chen Ling and Wang Zhenzhen, two strangers, come to the house, it pricked up its ears and rushed forward, barking.

Seeing this, Han Chuang kicked it, scolded it, and then walked over with a laugh to talk to Chen Ling.

The two men talked as they unloaded the donkey meat.

"I didn't buy any good meat, and I couldn't get any donkey penis either. I just bought some head, hooves, offal, and some neck meat."

Han Chuang said with considerable regret.

"Alright, that's enough. Just this donkey head, even though it looks like there's not much meat, would take you two or three days to finish."

Chen Ling said, "Let's invite Uncle, Aunt, and Brother Han Chao over at noon. We can't finish the food if there are too few people, and it's too hot to keep it for long."

Han Chuang bought a large donkey head, a donkey tail with a large tailbone, a string of donkey intestines, and donkey neck meat with bones. It didn't look like much, but it actually couldn't be stewed in two pots.

Then he clicked his tongue and exclaimed, "You said there wasn't much good meat, but this donkey tongue is here, and there are intestines too. The key is that you got all the meat from the neck. That's pretty good."

"Hehe, I don't know as much as you do, but if you think it's good, that's fine with me." Han Chuang chuckled. "So, shall we start packing now?"

"What's there to pack up? Brother Ling and Zhenzhen just arrived, they haven't even had a chance to sit down yet, and you're already yelling at people to do the work."

Jiang Xiaoqing then brought over two watermelons with Wang Zhenzhen, scolding Han Chuang and telling Chen Ling to sit down and eat the watermelons.

"Come on, Brother Ling, Zhenzhen, sit down and let's eat watermelon first."

Han Chuang chuckled and said that he didn't want Chen Ling to do the work, but rather that he wanted to get the food and drinks ready quickly so they could start drinking.

Chen Ling smiled and sat down upon hearing this. "These things are indeed quite difficult to tidy up. It's almost 9:30 now, let's boil some water first and start tidying up."

"Okay, I'll go boil some water right away. When Chuangzi and I visit your house, we always eat and drink a lot, keeping you and your wife busy. Today, we can't let you keep busy here, Brother Ling."

Jiang Xiaoqing said earnestly.

"Yes, that's right. I'll call my parents over right away. They can clean this up. Lingzi can cook lunch, and we'll take care of the rest."

Han Chuang clapped his hands, and surprisingly stopped stammering as he got on his motorcycle to call his parents.

Chen Ling couldn't stop him. Before long, Han Chuang brought an elderly couple into the courtyard. As soon as they arrived, he warmly invited Chen Ling to sit down and told him not to worry about anything. The two of them went into the kitchen to boil water and prepare the donkey meat.

Han Chuang's parents were similar to Jiang Xiaoqing's father; they were not good-looking and even looked somewhat fierce, but when they spoke and laughed, they were exceptionally warm and kind, making people feel comfortable around them.

“You haven’t come since the last temple fair. Look how well my yard is tidied up. Xiaoqing and I have been working on it for over ten days, mostly following your arrangement. Look at the fish pond, the grape trellis, the vegetable garden. Everything we planted is growing now. It’s much better than before when it was bare.”

The three adults and one child sat together eating watermelon and chatting. Han Chuang pointed to the yard and showed it to Chen Ling.

Chen Ling nodded as he looked around: "It's pretty good, but your yard is a bit too big. It looks empty without all the stuff. I'll bring you some flower and tree seeds in a while. You can choose what you want to plant. Planting more flowers in the yard will not only make it look nice, but it will also smell nice in the summer evenings."

"Okay, that's great."

Han Chuang said, "Actually, Xiaoqing's workplace gave us some tree seeds, which are the ones planted outside. I don't need any more tree seeds, I just need some flower seeds like the ones in your yard, the kind that grow into a huge patch once planted, enough to cover half the yard. The flowers don't grow very big, but they bloom a lot, and I think they look quite nice."

"Oh, right, I've seen that kind of flower at Brother Ling's house too, I think it's a spirea, right?" Jiang Xiaoqing said while munching on a watermelon.

"Yes, it's a spirea. This kind of chrysanthemum grows quickly and is easy to care for. Just stick it in the ground, water it a little, and it will grow. It smells wonderful at night. It's just that the flowers are too small. I'll bring you a few more varieties so you can plant them together," Chen Ling said.

The three chatted and quickly ate most of the watermelon.

At this moment, Wang Zhenzhen said she needed to go to her teacher's house and asked Chen Ling to take her there.

Actually, she came here today to play with her teacher's youngest daughter.

This wild girl wasn't idle at home either; she would even write letters to her teacher and her daughter from time to time. The teacher's daughter was two grades ahead of her and would be starting junior high school soon. No one knew how they became friends, but she wrote back to her even more frequently than Wang Zhenzhen, and their home was often filled with letters.

"Oh, that's really amazing! He can even write letters. Is he going to meet his pen pal?"

Jiang Xiaoqing laughed, finding it both surprising and amusing that such a young child was actually writing letters to people.

Not to mention her, even the two old people who came out of the kitchen and went to the well to wash the donkey's underbelly laughed loudly and said a few words when they heard this.

They say this little girl is extraordinary and will definitely amount to something in the future.

"Is Zhenzhen's teacher in town? Come on, I'll go with you, and we can buy a barrel of beer from the brewery on the way."

Han Chuang washed his face and wiped the sweat off his body before excitedly following Chen Ling and the other man outside.

When they took Wang Zhenzhen to her teacher's house, they discovered that Han Chuang's cannery was nearby. Han Chuang said, "My cannery is closer. Let me take you there first. You've never been there before."

Chen Ling naturally had no objections and followed him to the cannery.

As soon as you enter the factory gate, you can hear the sound of rushing water.

In the spacious factory yard was a large pool, with two taps far apart sparsely discharging water into it. When the two people approached, the colorful fish on the surface of the water were startled and scattered.

Chen Ling leaned over and looked for a while, then laughed, "No wonder it can keep the red-lipped fish alive; this pond is big enough."

"It's quite big. Are you still catching fish? My brother put a lot more in there."

"I'm not going to fish anymore, I'm not going to fish anymore, there are plenty of fish at my farm."

As the two were talking, Han Chuang's older brother, Han Chao, came out. Chen Ling had met him once at the last temple fair. There were many relatives from his family attending the fair, and they had only exchanged a few words last time, so they could only be considered acquaintances.

"The seed drill has been fixed for you, come and take a look." Han Chao was nearly forty years old. Although he was not as tall and strong as Han Chuang, he was still tall and strong, with a mustache. He was much more steady than Han Chuang. After greeting him with a smile, he took Chen Ling to see the seed drill.

He improved the three-legged seed drill.

This is a relatively primitive sowing tool; it existed as early as the Han Dynasty.

This type of agricultural tool is mainly used to grow crops such as wheat, millet, soybeans, sorghum, and sesame.

If you were to grow corn, it wouldn't be quite right.

After all, corn was introduced to China relatively late, and traditional farm tools were not designed properly for corn.

However, it's not entirely impossible to grow them.

A three-legged seed drill can be used to plant crops even if the middle outlet is blocked, but it is very easy to get stuck during the planting process, and it always has to be stopped for repairs, which is very time-consuming and requires a lot of patience.

Of course, this refers to the mountainous areas here.

The use of farm tools depends on the region; if the plot is small, most of the work is done manually.

"Has this been changed to a single leg?"

As soon as Chen Ling walked in, he saw a single-legged seed drill.

"No, this is a single-legged corn planter I modified for my family last year, but the corn seedlings still aren't very good. Either some areas are missed and don't grow, or some areas are too dense and I have to thin them out. It's an old problem, and it's very laborious. It's really not as precise as when we go and 'plant the corn' ourselves."

Han Chao clicked his tongue and said helplessly.

Chen Ling touched it a couple of times, nodded and said, "This is actually very good. The seeders on the market now can't plant corn. If you try to plant it, the machine will break down very easily. It's not as good as our seed drill. It's very difficult to be lazy when farming. In most places, people still have to go to the fields to 'plant corn'."

"Planting corn," also known as "planting corn," sounds like a job that requires hard work and meticulous cultivation.

This method is the same as manual sowing in traditional farming.

When planting, people carry shovels and backpacks full of corn seeds around their necks. They shovel and push in the field, then push the wooden handle of the shovel with one hand, prying a hole in the ground in front of them. At this time, they pick up two or three seeds with their other hand and scatter them into the hole. They then remove the shovel and walk straight ahead, stepping on the hole in front of them as they walk.

A skilled farmer can be incredibly fast when sowing corn. With a shovel, a kick, a push, and a scattering motion, he can move so fast that it's dizzying. Before others can even react, he's already more than ten steps away.

However, this traditional method is ultimately labor-intensive and arduous, unlike the less strenuous method of seeding.

Unfortunately, there was no way to fix it. At that time, seed drills were not very effective, and the precision of seeders was far inferior to that of ten or twenty years later. As Han Chao said, it was common to miss some seedlings and have to go to the field to replant them, or to thin them out if they were too densely planted.

To put it bluntly, it saves effort when planting, but there's still a lot of effort to put in after planting.

In this sweltering heat, just thinking about it is such a hassle.

"You're right, take a look at this revised version for you."

“Your request is simple and easy to modify. It won’t waste the seed drill when you use it, unlike planting corn where it rots halfway through in the ground.”

As Han Chao spoke, he walked up to the modified three-legged seed drill and said, "My family's cannery has been doing quite well these past two years. We're busy most of the time. Otherwise, if I had the time to think things through, I could have modified it to be even better than this, whether it's for growing corn or anything else."

"It's a pity that tinkering with this stuff can't support a family. It's just something I do for fun, and it can't interfere with the family's regular business."

Chen Ling had seen quite a few people like this. Some were technically skilled and could be called folk scientists, but unfortunately, most of them did not receive recognition.

After inspecting the seed drill, Chen Ling gave him two packs of good cigarettes as a token of gratitude, saying he would come to pick it up after dinner. The two exchanged pleasantries.

As they were leaving, Han Chuang suggested that his brother go home for lunch, saying that their parents would be there too.

Han Chao didn't refuse, saying that since they were already there, they shouldn't leave in a hurry, and that he should take Chen Ling to see the canned food production area first.

Upon entering the production workshop, Chen Ling was amazed by the variety of canned fruits, meats, and other miscellaneous products.

"Lingzi, try this canned yellow peach. Take it back later and chill it with well water. It'll be more refreshing than an ice pop."

Han Chao opened a can of yellow peaches for him; it was a seasonal fruit can.

Chen Ling took the canned fruit, tasted a couple of sips of the juice, and then popped two pieces of yellow peach into her mouth. "Mmm, delicious. Fresh canned fruit just tastes different."

"If it's delicious, take a few more later." Han Chao said with a smile. There used to be several canneries in Huangni Town, but only his cannery is still in business now, so he must have some connections.

After chatting and laughing as the three toured the cannery's production area, and then Han Chuang took Chen Ling to the brewery to buy beer.

"Brother, you should go over early at noon."

"Okay, you guys go buy the bar first, I'll go back and call your sister-in-law and we'll head over right away."

……

Huangni Town truly lives up to its reputation as a place where factories are clustered together. Chen Ling followed Han Chuang around and saw that flour mills, instant noodle factories, breweries, biscuit factories, brick factories, and textile factories were all there.

"In a while, the biscuit factory will be the busiest place. Before the Mid-Autumn Festival, they will start making mooncakes day and night. It will be non-stop all night long, with people coming and going at dusk and dawn."

"Later on, when winter came, the brick factories were busy, as many houses were being built in winter."

"The instant noodle factory is not doing so well this year."

Han Chuang introduced it to him.

They chatted non-stop the whole way, and when they arrived at the brewery, they familiarly grabbed a keg of draft beer and headed home.

"When you come to our brewery to buy beer, especially in the hot summer, it's best to drink draft beer. Drink less bottled beer."

Even as he walked down the street, Han Chuang kept talking.

Chen Ling had heard about the benefits of draft beer; it's fresh beer or unpasteurized beer, and it has a higher nutritional value than regular beer.

He thought Han Chuang was going to say the same thing.

Unexpectedly, Han Chuang then said, "Because a lot of bottled beer here doesn't contain beer, it contains urine."

"What? Urine?" Chen Ling was startled.

"Yeah, I'm not kidding you. There are a lot of factories in our town, and it's hot now. Those damn young workers in the factories go to the brewery to wait after work in the evening and steal beer when it gets dark. Do you know how they steal it?" Han Chuang raised his eyebrows sneakily as he spoke.

"I don't know, how did they steal it?"

"Hehe, my brother told me this. He said that the brewery produces a lot of beer in the summer, so much that it's piled up against the wall. The young workers would stand outside the wall, tie a hook to a rope, and cast the hook over the wall like fishing. They would then hook the beer bottles up and drink them right outside the wall."

"After they finished drinking, they were afraid that the brewery would find out and stop putting beer on the wall, so they came up with an idea. Yes, they urinated into the beer bottles. After they were full of urine, the color was almost the same as beer, so they pretended it was beer, put the caps on, and then used a rope to put all the beer back."

"Holy crap, you can do that?"

Chen Ling was stunned. "If we do this, won't the brewery find out?"

"Yeah, most of the time you really can't tell, because these bastards are really clever. They use nails to open the bottle caps, prying them open bit by bit along the neck. That way, they can open the bottle, drink the beer, and then put the cap back on perfectly. They don't finish the beer either, they only drink a little less than half the bottle, and then they add urine to the rest."

When Han Chuang talked about this, his face was full of admiration.

"Goodness, after hearing what you said, I'm never going to drink bottled beer again."

Chen Ling thought about how half the beer bottle was filled with urine, and felt a wave of discomfort in his stomach.

Han Chuang patted him on the shoulder casually: "Hey, don't be nervous, Lingzi. You can still tell the difference by drinking it. Beer with urine in it tastes like it's spoiled, it smells awful."

-

Many thanks to "余晖Q" for the generous donation of 10,000 coins and 20 monthly tickets, "先昇" for the multiple donations, and "LG孤独yl" for the 5,000 coins. I will add more chapters around the weekend.

(End of this chapter)