My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 270 Future Development?
The corn cobs in the field are just beginning to sprout tender kernels, and most of the cobs still have pink and transparent air bubbles on them.

But at this time, corn might be considered by some wild animals to be at its most tender, fragrant, and sweetest.

For example, badgers especially like to come to the fields to steal corn at this time of year.

Don't let its small size and short legs fool you into thinking it can't reach the corn cob.

Badgers are actually extremely cunning.

When it finds a delicious ear of corn, it will use its two front paws to hold the corn stalk, and then use its chubby body to ride on it. In this way, it can gradually bend the corn stalk down and eat the sweet corn.

That's exactly what the badger Chen Ling is currently encountering is doing.

I had just finished peeing when I met its pair of big, black eyes. Its wet nose, like a pig's nose, was still covered in corn kernels.

"Good guy..."

Having just encountered a badger scattering its nest, Chen Ling was momentarily stunned to see another badger.

He was in a daze when Heiwa and the little yellow dog rushed up without saying a word. They were already furious after being attacked by a large group of badgers, and now they had encountered this thing. Wasn't this just like enemies meeting each other with extra hatred?

Just as the two of them rushed over, three little creatures scurried out from behind the badger—three little badgers that were not much bigger than house cats.

Upon seeing the two ferocious-looking dogs, one big and one small, charging towards them, the little guy was immediately terrified and howled in fear. The old badger also revealed its ferocious face, baring its teeth and standing in front of the little guy, ready to fight Heiwa and the others to the death.

Seeing this, Chen Ling quickly stopped him, "Alright, Heiwa, come back."

The rule among the mountain people is: take only what is needed, and kill only what is truly evil.

Wild animals with cubs should be released whenever possible.

Ultimately, badgers aren't that much of a threat to crops like wheat and corn. If Chen Ling saw a wild boar burrow into a cornfield, he would have rushed in with his dogs without hesitation.

Heiwa knew that badgers with cubs were usually let go, but he still stared at the badger with some reluctance, shook his big head, sneezed, and then returned with the little yellow dog.

Looking back at the mother badger, she was still bristling and on high alert, while the baby badgers huddled together, trembling with fear.

"Alright, stop scaring them. Let's go home. I'll get you something nice to eat later."

There are still three sows in the cave. Although they are not very big, they are enough to feed the family's dogs for a while.

The meat of these female wild boars that have given birth is of poor quality, difficult to eat, and troublesome to process.

Chen Ling was too lazy to clean it up or go to the slaughterhouse to sell it, so he decided to just feed it to the dogs.

Not to mention Heiwa and Xiaojin, even the little yellow dog is dutifully guarding the farm, so they should be rewarded with a meal from time to time.

In the afternoon, the sky was overcast, and it looked like it was going to rain.

The father-in-law thought Chen Ling made a lot of money selling wine, enough for him to support his family and become wealthy, so he told him that if the weather was good tomorrow, he could go up the mountain to pick persimmons.

The persimmons in the mountains are not ripe yet; they are still green.

These green persimmons are inedible, but they can be used to make wine. If we pick a couple more baskets, my father-in-law will say he wants to help me make some persimmon wine to add some variety to the farm's fruit wine selection.

At the same time, they urged Chen Ling to buy a wine still, or to find someone to make one.

In this way, after brewing the wine, it is placed in a still and distilled once, making the wine clearer and better for sale.

"There are more and more types of wine. I think I can no longer call this a farm, but a winery."

Chen Ling muttered to himself as he strolled slowly through the orchard, with a white calf and a flock of sheep behind him. On the calf's horns stood Er Tu Zi, leisurely preening his feathers.

"In a while, the wild grapes and kiwis will be ready to be picked, and the farm's storage room will probably be filled with wine jars. We might even have to build a wine cellar. What do you say, Xiaobai?"

When the little white calf saw him looking over, it immediately beamed with joy, twitched its ears, and playfully stuck out its tongue to lick his hand, just like a gentle big dog.

Seeing this, Chen Ling patted its big head, flipped over and rode on the cow's back, "Come on, I'll take you home early today."

He planned to go back to the village to find Chen Sangui and ask him to make a wine still for him to use first. If it didn't work out, he would think of another way.

They rode the ox slowly and leisurely back to the village, while Er Tuzi stood steadily on the tip of the ox's horn the whole way.

This attracted many people from other places to stop and watch him, and they marveled at his performance.

Chen Ling ignored them and continued on his own.

Since he spoke to Garlic, they generally won't come out so often unless absolutely necessary.

Recently, even though many people have bought chickens, ducks, and fish from the village to feed the reservoir, there has been no movement in the water.

This only increased their reverence for the "Turtle King" and added a layer of mystery to the widely circulated story of the giant turtle in the reservoir.

But gradually, many people stopped staying here. In the last two days, large numbers of people have left, and the vendors no longer come every day like they did before. The village has become much quieter.

"What's the point of getting rich?"

"Go find Uncle Sangui to make a sample. It's not busy today, Old Pig."

"No rush, no rush. The pigs at home were just taken away the day before yesterday. I only have one pig left, so I'm much more relaxed now."

"That's good."

Sun Yanhong and her group had already agreed to buy all the pigs in the village before the Mid-Autumn Festival. They had offered a good price for them while the turtles were in high demand.

Many villagers' pockets suddenly became bulging.

Especially Wang Lishan, a large-scale pig farmer, has been incredibly idle lately. He's either playing cards or chess everywhere, or taking his piglets out at night to hunt birds and steal their food. Afterwards, he'll have some snacks and a couple of ounces of wine. He's living a very comfortable life.

After Chen Ling went to Chen Sangui's house and told him he wanted to make a wine still, he led the ox back to his own yard. The grapes in his yard were ripe, so he picked two bunches, washed them, and ate them while squatting by the pond, teasing the pigeons.

As time passed, the little pigeon grew up and recently learned to fly, but it is still not very stable and cannot fly too high or too far.

When they saw Chen Ling approaching on his hawk, they were not afraid and swayed around his feet, walking back and forth.

The large pigeon flew directly onto his leg, pecked at his hand, and begged him for food.

"Get out of here, get out of here! You wouldn't even let me touch the little pigeons before, and now you have the nerve to ask for food..."

Chen Ling shoved the shameless big pigeons away, pondering whether he should pick a couple of baby pigeons to raise, or release them into the cave, or perhaps he could think of a way to have Er Tu Zi take care of the next brood of baby pigeons and raise them into homing pigeons.

"Well, this isn't urgent, we can look into it further."

As he pondered the matter, the large pigeons, unfazed by his initial push, quickly crowded around him again, cooing incessantly.

Chen Ling was too lazy to get food to feed them, so he pulled a lotus pod from the pond, scooped out the lotus seeds and threw them to them, then left them alone.

After throwing away the lotus pods, he saw that the dates on the jujube tree next to him were also edible, so he stood up, picked a handful of dates, stuffed them into his mouth, closed the door, and walked out humming a little tune.

I haven't been to the village much lately, but I had some free time today, so I went to Cui the Cripple's place to play chess.

"Uncle Fugui, what are you eating? Let me have a taste."

"Here's a date, but eat less of this stuff."

Before they even reached Cui the Cripple's house, two little children robbed them of a few dates.

When he arrived at Cui the Cripple's house, the chess players saw him and created a lively atmosphere, pulling him to sit down.

"Good heavens, it seems Fugui has been on a hawk all this time."

"Yeah, I was bored, so I trained a hawk." "This hawk is fierce; it's very effective in the mountains. Let's go into the mountains together this winter, wanna come?"

"We'll talk about going into the mountains later, depending on whether my child can be left alone by then."

"Tsk tsk, you've moved to a farm. It's not easy to see you now. You used to come out to walk the dog and chase rabbits, but now I can't even see your dog anymore. By the way, I heard you and Lixian raided a badger's den?"

"That's right, the boss's badger den has twenty or thirty badgers living together, and I don't know what kind of mess Xian's earthen shed has been dug up."

Chen Ling waved his hand, sending Er Tuzi flying. He then sat down next to the chessboard, watching them play and chatting with the villagers.

Incidentally, he would also occasionally offer a few tips to the chess players.

What nonsense about "a true gentleman observes chess without speaking"? That saying simply doesn't apply in rural areas.

In rural areas, playing chess is all about creating a lively atmosphere. Everyone's talking at once, and by the end, you can't even tell who's playing.

Chess is a simple game, and almost everyone in the village knows how to play it. Most of them just play it to kill time and have some fun when they have nothing else to do. There are very few people who are good at chess; most of them are terrible at it.

Chen Ling is better than a terrible chess player, but he's not exactly a master either.

"Wealth and honor, give me a plate, give me a plate."

The saying goes, "Good things come from afar, bad things come from nearby." He rarely returns to the village anymore, but everyone is very affectionate towards him and always tries to please him.

"I'm here, so I'll cut in line first."

Chen Ling rolled up his sleeves, sat down, and began setting up the chess pieces with a series of clattering sounds. Once both sides had their positions set up, they immediately began a fierce battle, exchanging blows and flashing swords.

But there's also a constant buzzing in my ears from all sorts of people offering advice.

"Let's get a taxi first, let's get a taxi first."

"Take a taxi? Why take a taxi? It's much better to shoot bubbles. After firing the cannon, kill his horse, take him back, and you can checkmate him directly."

"That's right, Lishan, you lousy chess player, you're greedy and want to capture the rook. If Fugui had listened to you, he would never have come out of there."

"..."

Chen Ling ignored everyone and quickly routed the old man opposite him, who soon surrendered.

"Goodness, Fugui, your chess skills have improved! Did you secretly learn a few tricks from your father-in-law?"

"Come on, even Cunye's few tricks aren't good enough. They're not presentable. I bet Fugui learned them from outsiders."

"Haha, what are you guys saying? Can't I teach myself?"

Chen Ling smiled, then won three games in a row, having had his fill. He felt there was no point in playing any more, so he threw the chess pieces onto the board, went to the cripple's shop to buy some melon seeds, and watched from the sidelines.

And so, as dusk fell, everyone started their fires and cooked, before finally dispersing.

In the countryside, people eat dinner early; they're usually full and have nothing else to do by around 6 p.m.

Chen Ling's family also ate dinner very early. After dinner, it got dark, and he went for a walk around the reservoir.

Riding on the giant turtle, I headed to the depths of the reservoir to harass the strange fish at our usual spot. Unfortunately, after a while, I was unable to lure it out as I had hoped.

He had no choice but to give up and instead let Garlic carry him, sitting on the back of the giant turtle, taking advantage of the cover of night to travel around and enjoy the scenery.

They even secretly went for a trip to the Jinshui River.

However, I didn't play for very long.

Although the Jinshui River is wide and swift, groups of people can still be seen passing by the bridges between Jinmen Village and Taoshugou at night. Besides passersby, some are carrying lanterns and flashlights, some are catching fish, and others are going into the mountains to find wild animals and mountain products.

In short, it's not as clean or reassuring as the reservoir in Chenwangzhuang.

Chen Ling was having a great time and wanted to ride the turtle to Nansha River again, but two people heard the noise and shone their flashlights over. Fearing that they would be discovered and cause trouble, he had no choice but to send Garlic Head back.

On his way home, worried that Wang Susu would ask questions, he pulled two fish out of the cave, tied them together with some grass, and carried them back.

When they returned to the farm, Wang Susu asked Chen Ling, and he said he had gone fishing.

"With so many fish at home, why do we need to go outside to catch them? And they've been catching them for so long without coming back," Wang Susu complained softly.

"Oh, it's just for fun. Let's go together tomorrow night and catch a few more. There are so many fish at night lately, they're easy to catch."

Chen Ling said casually, then took off his clothes and went out to take a shower.

After Wang Zhenzhen started school, the farm was once again home to the family of three, and they became very relaxed.

After taking a bath, Wang Susu said, "Don't make Dad work so hard in the future. Dad and Mom have come here to help us, and it's not good for them to worry about everything. Today, while you were playing chess in the village, Dad went to the county town to pick up Zhenzhen."

"Okay, I understand. I'll take care of things like this from now on. Just let Dad rest at home more often."

Chen Ling nodded and said that he was also quite mindful of this, since they were not his own parents, but his father-in-law and mother-in-law, so he couldn't expect them to do everything for him.

So he always made sure his parents ate and drank well, and even the money from his father-in-law's brewing and selling of wine, which neither the old man nor the old woman wanted, he made Wang Susu keep for herself.

Actually, by now, the two elders have long since stopped caring about this and have come to regard Chen Ling as half a son.

But he always strives to do his best in everything he should do as a son-in-law.

As for whether the two elders will be too tired from the work...

There's not much to do at the farm, and it's not too tiring.

In addition, his father-in-law and mother-in-law have similar personalities and temperaments to Wang Susu; they are both restless and can't sit still. If you ask them to retire on the farm and not do anything, he definitely won't be happy.

Wang Cunye had always wanted to pick up and drop off Wang Zhenzhen himself, even for small things like that.

After all, it was his own youngest daughter's transportation, so why would he be unwilling or afraid of the trouble?

Wang Susu always complained that he had bad legs, and since autumn had arrived, the days were getting shorter and it got dark earlier, so she didn't want him to walk on the mountain paths.

In fact, the old man was very happy to be able to pick up his youngest daughter.

……

Sure enough, the old man came over happily early the next morning and told Chen Ling that he would take Wang Zhenzhen home today.

Chen Ling glanced at his wife and said with a smile that he was going to the county town to mail a letter later, so he should deliver it.

After dinner, Chen Ling didn't go; it was Sun Yanhong, that woman, who showed up again.

Damn it, I wonder if he's gotten into the habit of giving gifts to some leader?
The wine at the farm is so expensive, much more expensive than Moutai, yet you came to buy it so early in the morning?
Really...

It seems the gift worked well.

Then, without even leaving the house in the morning, another two thousand yuan was in hand. The whole family has almost gotten used to it by now.

However, after Sun Yanhong left, his father-in-law couldn't help but grin smugly at him: "See? What did I tell you? In the future, we'll still have to rely on selling bars for the big money. This guy makes money so easily."

"You should go up the mountain to pick green persimmons earlier. I'll pick up Zhenzhen today."

After the old man finished speaking, he pushed his cart and left, and even Wang Susu couldn't stop him.

(End of this chapter)