My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 327 Martial Arts Practice Leads to Demonic Assault
We brought back these adorable little cubs from the wolf den, and the whole family loves them.

Originally, my father-in-law and mother-in-law were supposed to return to Fenglei Town the next day, but they insisted on staying an extra day. They would either take Rui Rui to feed the puppies milk or take the puppies to the warm, sunny spot, where the whole family would play with them in the sun.

These past two days, Wang Zhenzhen has been going to the doghouse as soon as she gets out of school to take the puppy out and play with it.

If her parents hadn't forbade it, she would have even wanted to bring the puppy into her bed and sleep with it.

We had a great time for two days.

Chen Ling then took the elderly couple home.

Now Rui Rui is older, almost six months old. After the old couple passed away, Chen Ling and Wang Susu can take turns caring for him.

At this time, the wheat was also planted, and it was truly the off-season for farming.

In the village, every household was either carding cotton, making cotton-padded clothes, or basking in the warm sunshine, weaving mats, making baskets, binding brooms, and also making some farm tools.

Farmers' daily necessities and farm tools are slowly made and accumulated day by day during the off-season.

Outside the brigade, in front of Cui the Cripple's house, everyone was basking in the sun, not in a hurry.

While chatting casually about gossip and everyday matters, one can also slowly and meticulously produce fine work.

Things made this way are often more durable.

Chen Ling's family has also been making farm tools these past few days.

His father-in-law and mother-in-law have gone home, and he has to clean the village yard every day.

Whenever the wind blows this season, the yard is filled with fallen leaves.

This is especially true for farms that are located next to orchards.

Every morning, the chicken coops, duck sheds, sheep pens, and the like are covered with a thick layer of fallen leaves.

The irrigation ditches inside and outside the farm are also included.

In many places, large brooms cannot be used; bamboo rakes are required instead.

Chen Ling enjoyed doing this kind of work; he mainly liked the feeling of gathering fallen leaves and lighting them on fire.

It was really fun.

The bamboo rake isn't very durable.

Within two days, the old bamboo rake at home was ruined.

There's no other way, I'll just have to make a new one myself.

Bamboo rakes are good farm tools for gathering firewood and drying grain.

It's also easy to make.

The process is just a little complicated.

Choose a bamboo of moderate thickness and trim off the thin branches and ends.

Then split the bamboo section into strips about the width of a finger, and spread these twenty or thirty thin bamboo strips out like fan ribs.

Then, a fire is lit, and the ends of these thin bamboo strips are heated until they are bent, like hooks on a back scratcher. After they cool, the bamboo strips are fixed in place with straw ropes and wooden boards.

A bamboo rake is now complete.

After making the bamboo rakes, they made wooden shovels. After making the wooden shovels, they nailed together several wooden incense burners from pine wood.

He wasn't a skilled craftsman, nor did he know how to do carpentry.

But I can still do these simple things.

"Fugui, you're quite skillful. This incense burner is quite beautiful."

The afternoon sun was shining brightly. Chen Ling was squatting in the village courtyard painting the incense burner red when Qin Qiumei and Zhong Xiaoyun pushed their bicycles in.

Wang Susu followed behind, holding the child.

"That's right. Look how skilled we are. We can even do carpentry when pushed to the limit."

"You're just bragging. Since you're so capable, why don't you replace Xiaoyun's car spokes? Susu said your family still has spokes."

Seeing his smug look, Qin Qiumei rolled her eyes at him and snorted.

Wang Susu and Zhong Xiaoyun burst out laughing when they heard this.

"Hehe, you're bringing up my shortcomings again, aren't you? I didn't fix it for you last time, why are you making fun of me now?"

Chen Ling rolled his eyes, placed the red-lacquered incense burner aside, stood up, and slowly stretched.

The spokes on this bicycle may look ordinary, but if you really want to replace them, most people wouldn't be able to do it.

This is a very meticulous job.

Someone who hasn't repaired bicycles much, only patched tires and changed chains, really can't replace spokes.

Spokes, in particular, must not be disordered. Once the spokes are disordered, they must be reassembled, which is troublesome, tedious, and time-consuming.

Qin Qiumei's bicycle spokes broke last winter. Chen Ling thought it was a minor issue and he could replace them himself, but after disassembling them, he couldn't put them back together.

This gave the woman plenty of a laugh.

"Why do your bicycles always break down? What happened this time?"

Chen Ling glanced at Zhong Xiaoyun's bicycle; two spokes on the rear wheel were broken off and were now stuck to the other spokes.

Zhong Xiaoyun shook her head: "I don't know either, but it's definitely different from what happened to Amei. Hers was in winter and the road was difficult to walk on. She accidentally fell and deformed the spokes. Mine broke while I was riding on the road. I had no choice but to attach it to the spokes on the side and barely managed to ride over."

"Okay, so you're attaching it to the spokes on the side of the bike and riding it without a chain?"

"If you don't hang it up, you'll always get tripped on the metal bar below, and it'll make a loud clanging noise when you ride it on the road."

Zhong Xiaoyun pointed to the connecting rod on the opposite side of the chain and asked Chen Ling, "Do you know how to fix it now? If you do, can you fix it for me?"

"You're just dreaming. Even if I knew how, I wouldn't fix it for you."

"Okay, then I've brought you books for free. So many books, all good stuff collected from students..."

"..."

"Well, I don't care about books or anything like that. Actually, I just like fixing bicycles. It's just replacing a spoke, right? A piece of cake."

Chen Ling patted his chest, looking like he had it all covered, which made the three women laugh so hard they almost fell over.

"Susu, look at him. He must have been a troublemaker in school, always reading these kinds of messy books."

"What do you mean by 'messy books'? Those are extracurricular books for learning knowledge. Your slander against me is useless. My wife knows me, right?" Chen Ling nodded at Wang Susu. Wang Susu, holding her son, blushed slightly and spat at him. She then put her son in his arms and led Qin Qiumei into the house to talk.

Chen Lingchong and the others chuckled, then took their son to the pigeon coop to feed the pigeons.

Then I looked through the books Zhong Xiaoyun brought, and I have to say, these students really know how to get their hands on good stuff.

Some of the books he had never even heard of, but the content was fascinating.

For example, a ventriloquist might say that someone skilled in ventriloquism can communicate with mountain birds and make white birds pay homage to them, which is very magical.

He was so engrossed in looking at it that he became completely absorbed.

He only put the book down and took Rui Rui out for a stroll after Rui Rui started whining and whining impatiently in his arms.

After winter sets in, as soon as the weather warms up, you can see lazy and clumsy birds such as sparrows and doves gathering dry grass and twigs to build their nests and spend the winter.

Some sparrows, just like in previous years, either raid villagers' homes to steal swallow nests left by the swallows after they've left, or they go to the reservoir dam to steal swallow caves left by native swallows.

Sparrows often fight each other to claim a warm and comfortable nest.

It's a warm afternoon today.

Chen Ling and his son wandered around the village. Birds chirped and busied themselves in the trees, and sparrows could be seen carrying dry grass leaves and disappearing into the cracks in the walls of villagers' houses.

Many magpies also took advantage of the warm sunshine to land on the corn hanging to dry in the farmhouses and peck at the corn kernels.

When Chen Ling carried his son to the outside of Wang Jusheng's house, he saw a flock of magpies landing. He immediately stomped his feet and shouted, which startled the birds, causing them to chirp and fly away.

Rui Rui, who was in his arms, saw his father stomp his feet and shout, which startled the birds into flying. He giggled for a while and made muffled "go, go" sounds, kicking his little legs and imitating Chen Ling in chasing away the birds.

Chen Ling was both amused and exasperated. She wiped the drool from her son's mouth and said irritably, "You little rascal, you wouldn't say 'Dad' or 'Mom' when I told you to, but you're quick to learn this."

As she spoke, she entered Wang Jusheng's yard. "Brother Jusheng, are you home? Come out and take a look. The magpies have almost eaten all your corn."

As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Jusheng didn't come out. Instead, Da Tou lifted the curtain, called out "Uncle" in surprise, and came running over, wearing open-crotch cotton pants and swaying.

The child, still holding a candy in his hand, tiptoed to offer it to Rui Rui, saying, "Uncle, give it to my little brother."

"Oh, our Big Head is such a good boy. You eat it yourself. Your little brother can't eat candy yet."

Chen Ling patted the little boy's head and praised him a couple of times, but as soon as he finished speaking, his son slapped him in the face, actually reaching out his little hand to take the candy from Da Tou's hand and clutching it tightly in his hand.

Chen Ling was speechless with anger. "You're really finished. I'm giving it to you, and you just take it?"

However, Rui Rui holding the candy made Da Tou very happy. The little boy, who is just over two years old, is very sensible, thanks to the good upbringing of Wang Jusheng and his wife.

“It’s wealth and honor. No wonder I heard people talking in the courtyard.”

Wang Jusheng rubbed his sleepy eyes and came out. Without saying a word, he reached out to the little guy in Chen Ling's arms and said, "Rui Rui, come and let Uncle hold you."

Rui Rui did try to hold him, but he only let her hold him for a short while before getting uncomfortable and refusing to be held anymore.

She struggled to get back into Chen Ling's arms.

Wang Jusheng didn't mind at all, and kept praising with a smile: "This child is getting more and more beautiful. Big eyes, long eyelashes, chubby, just like a porcelain doll."

Chen Ling smiled and found a place to sit down in the yard. "Don't you have any nets in your yard? There are always thieving birds coming to steal corn. I haven't even entered the house yet, and a whole bunch of magpies have already flown in to steal some."

"Hey, go ahead and eat. Those birds don't have big bellies, they can't eat much."

Wang Jusheng didn't care at all. He wiped Da Tou's snot and said, "Didn't your mother buy you candy? Go back inside and get some candy for your brother."

Big Head grunted in response, nodded, and then turned and ran into the house.

"Hey, I gave it to him, Big Head just gave it to him."

Chen Ling hurriedly waved his hand: "Rui Rui is so young, he can't eat it all. He's just playing with it, don't take it from him."

Wang Jusheng chuckled: "It's alright, Rui Rui won't eat, you eat, Da Tou can give it to his uncle."

Chen Ling didn't say anything more, "Is your sister-in-law not home?"

“She wasn’t home. I had some free time, so I went to my parents’ house to pick up Dandan. When we’re busy, we can never take care of our eldest daughter.”

"Okay, I was thinking of taking you over to help me fix the spokes."

Chen Ling can now change the spokes on his bicycle, but it's still faster and easier to have someone help him.

"That's easy. I'll lock the door and take Big Head with me. It's not like I can't go out just because your sister-in-law isn't here."

Upon hearing this, Wang Jusheng grabbed Da Tou's arm without saying a word and wanted to go back with him.

Chen Ling didn't stand on ceremony with him, "That's fine too. We're not at the farm today, just in the village, which is close by. Let's have a drink tonight."

But as soon as the two of them stepped out of their house with their sons, a loud, alarming cry came from not far away.

The two looked over there and saw that it was none other than Chen Baoshuan carrying his cousin's nephew as he came out of Chen Guoping's house.

Chen Guoping and Xiufen, who were following behind and seeing them off, had their eyes light up when they saw Chen Ling. "Isn't that Fugui? You should quickly ask him if he has any more wound medicine. If not, his wife can get some. His family's wound medicine is very effective and would be perfect for treating the child's injury."

Chen Baoshuan had lost a lot of weight this year, his purplish-red face looked a little haggard, and he looked somewhat sickly. He was still a little embarrassed to come over and talk to Chen Ling, but he had finally figured things out about Xizi after overhearing a conversation between Chen Ling and his wife.

Thinking back to what his father Chen Sangui had said about Chen Ling, he felt secretly grateful to Chen Ling, but he just couldn't bring himself to admit it.

Seeing Chen Ling and Wang Jusheng looking over, he smiled sheepishly and said, "Fu, Fugui, Jusheng, you two brought the kids out to play."

Seeing his appearance and the baby boy on his back still crying, Chen Ling frowned slightly and asked, "How did Gou Dan'er get hurt?"

Gou Dan'er isn't young anymore; he often plays with Liu Ni'er and is the grandson of Lao Fan's family.

Upon seeing Chen Ling, she burst into even louder sobs, crying, "Waaah, Uncle Fugui, please save me..."

Chen Baoshuan immediately looked embarrassed and said, "This kid was dressed up as Sun Wukong for Xizi at my house, and he was playing with an iron fork like a golden cudgel. In the end, he didn't do it well and hurt his foot..."

As for how he got hurt, it's because Gou Dan'er was playing too fancy. After brandishing the iron fork, he tried to step on it while shading his eyes with his hand. But the iron fork wasn't the Golden Cudgel, and he wasn't Sun Wukong. His foot went straight into the iron teeth of the fork, and it went right through his foot from the sole to the back.

"Alright, another one who went mad from practicing martial arts. Come on, come with me to my house, and I'll have your aunt prepare some medicine for you."

Chen Ling was both amused and exasperated. A couple of days ago, Liu Ni'er had done something similar. She had watched too much TV at Chen Ling's house and then went back to practice martial arts. While practicing leg techniques in class, she accidentally stuck her foot in the chair and it took her a lot of effort to get it out.

At least he wasn't hurt, which is much better than Gou Dan'er.

Chen Ling led them home, not noticing Chen Baoshuan following behind him with a complicated expression.

Thinking to myself: Susu just said she was going to open a pharmacy because she had nothing to do lately, but I didn't expect that before she even opened it, patients would rush to bring her here.

Unfortunately, the medicine cabinet wasn't ready yet, and not all the medicines were prepared.

(End of this chapter)