My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 409 A Hero Needs Three Helpers
After two busy days, we finished watering the wheat fields.

On the morning of the third day, after breakfast, Chen Ling and his family of three took two large baskets of apricots, drove an oxcart, and led their dog to the county town.

After arriving in the county town, half a basket was left for each of Qin Qiumei's and Zhong Xiaoyun's families.

I declined the invitations from both families to stay for lunch and continued my journey from the forest farm in the east of the city, taking a small path towards Huangni Town.

A section of road south of the county seat to Huangni Town is under construction.

The roads there have been full of potholes for many years and are extremely difficult to travel on.

The county has been talking about road construction for years, but there has been no progress.

Now that the road needs to be repaired, let's start from that side.

This will not affect the coming and going of aquatic product trucks in Chenwangzhuang, nor the holding of the Dragon Boat Festival.

According to Wang Laishun and Chen Ling, he didn't contact anyone or tell anyone about this matter. However, some people from the county came to the brigade to ask him if the village had any difficulties recently.

Without needing to be reminded, Chenwangzhuang was given the greatest convenience.

It can be said that they took great care of their village.

The weather was still a bit hot today. Chen Ling and Wang Susu changed into light summer clothes, while Rui Rui, the little baby, was dressed a bit thicker, still in long sleeves and wearing a little hat, climbing around on the oxcart.

Fortunately, the forest farm is a good place to pass through. The trees are tall and the grass is dense, and the road is shaded by trees everywhere, making it very cool.

Therefore, although Huangni Town is not close, the family of three had a very comfortable journey.

Rui Rui, being just a little kid, had no idea about visiting relatives and friends.

He treated it as a trip to the countryside with his parents.

They laughed and joked all the way, directing the little black boy, Xiao Jin, to run around chasing birds and small animals in the woods and by the river.

Often, with a flick of his finger, the two dogs would rush out together, scare away a large flock of birds, or frighten away small animals such as civets and rabbits, causing them to flee in panic.

He rolled back and forth on Chen Ling and Wang Susu's laps, giggling and making a ruckus.

The two dogs were full of energy and had inexhaustible strength.

Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to resist playing along with him like this.

“Ah Ling, have you noticed? There are more people raising yellow cattle in the county this year. I bet they learned it from our family.”

On the way, Wang Susu was also carefully observing.

Although Lingyun County is not large, there are still many small villages in the surrounding area.

For example, Liangjiaqiao Village, located south of the Nansha River, is named after a bridge over the Nansha River and the surnames of the local people. It has only about twenty or thirty households.

Although the population is small, there are some small plots of farmland outside the city, where most people make a living by farming and raising poultry and livestock.

Raising cattle is normal.

However, it's not normal for the number of households raising yellow cattle to increase so much all of a sudden.

Many of them were taken to the forest farm to graze cattle, making it quite lively.

When Wang Susu saw this scene, she knew that it was probably something she had learned from her family.

"Huh? How can someone so far away know about things in our village?"

Chen Ling held his son on his lap and played with the dog, casually replying to his wife.

Seeing his nonchalant attitude, Wang Susu pouted and pinched him lightly: "Have you forgotten how famous you are now? Everyone in the county knows you. Besides, quite a few families in our village have relatives near the county town. If you mention it, everyone will know about our family..."

Despite this, the young wife wasn't angry at all; on the contrary, she felt a sense of pride and honor.

After pinching Chen Ling, she leaned against him, swinging her legs, feeling very happy.

"If you put it that way, it's actually quite possible."

Chen Ling felt the warmth of his wife against his body, and his son rolling and playing happily on his lap. He thought to himself that this was an unexpected but wonderful outcome.

He was very happy to see local yellow cattle being raised on a large scale.

After all, in later generations, these yellow cattle were squeezed out of their living space by beef cattle and almost disappeared. Few people raise them anymore.

"That's great! Let me tell you about the benefits of the beef here."

Chen Ling told the story of the local sacred cow and how much better the beef from the yellow cattle was than that from other cattle.

As he spoke, Wang Susu leaned on his shoulder and listened quietly.

Soon after, she gently closed her eyes, held the tired Rui Rui in her arms, and took a comfortable nap.

The dirt road in the forest was winding and bumpy, but with the little white calf's intelligence, it would take into account the pregnant woman and baby in the car without being reminded.

So it deliberately moves very slowly, so that the oxcart will be much more stable.

However, it is also more time-consuming.

Normally, Chen Ling could reach Huangni Town by bicycle in about an hour and a half.

Today, however, it took me almost three hours to walk.

Fortunately, we left home early and didn't linger in the county town. When we arrived at Han Chuang's house outside Huangni Town, it was just past eleven o'clock.

Han Chuang was overjoyed to see Chen Ling arrive.

"Haha, Lingzi, what brings you here? You didn't even tell me beforehand so I could prepare some good wine and food."

Jiang Xiaoqing became pregnant before the Lunar New Year and is now resting at home with a large belly.

The two of them rarely went out and mostly stayed at home.

After a while, he also felt that no one was playing with him and he was very bored.

When Chen Ling came over today, he was so happy he almost jumped for joy. He hurriedly called Jiang Xiaoqing out to greet Wang Susu and her daughter.

He pushed the motorcycle out himself, intending to take Chen Ling to town to buy some snacks to go with his drinks.

Seeing how happy he was, Chen Ling didn't refuse, and the two of them went to town in a hurry and bought a bunch of things.

On the way, I chatted with Chen Ling about the hardships of staying at home with my wife during her pregnancy. I was excited but also felt a lot of helplessness.

Chen Ling laughed and said, "You're only at the beginning. Once you have the baby, you'll know what real suffering is."

The two people, a new father and a soon-to-be new father, shared their feelings.

After riding their motorcycle home, Wang Susu and Jiang Xiaoqing washed some apricots and ate them while playing with Rui Rui. Hearing their conversation, they couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"Getting married and having kids really changes things. Before, when they sat together, they would talk about things like chasing rabbits with dogs. Now they can finally talk about something serious."

"Yeah, Ling-ge is alright. When you were pregnant with Rui-rui, he bought you sheep so you could drink sheep milk, and cooked all sorts of different dishes for you. He could play around, but he didn't neglect taking care of you or making money. My Chuang-zi is another story. He can't do anything. All he can do is cook some sheep milk. Don't even mention making money..."

Once a child is conceived, not only will men change, but women's thoughts will also be very different from before.

It is human nature for most people to consider their children's needs.

Who wouldn't want their children to have a good environment to grow up in and receive a good education?

The prerequisite is to accumulate more wealth.

Chen Ling, who was busy in the kitchen with Han Chuang, heard the two whispering and said to Han Chuang, "Chuangzi, have you heard about what happened in our village?"

"What's up? Are you a cattle farmer? I heard that raising cattle will make you rich this year!"

"Goodness, the news about cattle has even reached you guys? But it's not about raising cattle, it's about raising fish."

"Ever since that turtle king appeared in the reservoir outside the village, a lot of business people have come to our village. Now every household in our village has a pond where they raise ornamental fish. You know, ornamental fish, right? They're the kind you gave me the year before last. There are also some red and yellow goldfish, and all sorts of fancy koi..."

"That guy, he can earn several hundred or even a thousand yuan by raising fish in a small, inconspicuous pond for two months. Your yard is so big, and the land outside is your farmland, plus it's next to the Tubao Ridge forest farm. Such a good place, raising fish in a slightly larger pond would be so much easier and less stressful than farming or doing odd jobs." Han Chuang's mouth dropped open as he listened, almost cutting his hand while chopping meat, and he stammered, "Raising...raising...raising fish, is...is that really going to work?"

“Sure, why not? People from the provincial capital come here to buy them. Our village has already sold out a batch.”

Chen Ling lit a fire in front of the stove, looked up and smiled: "If you want to raise them, you can take some time to come to our village and take a look. When you have a pond and buy fish fry, I will prepare some medicine for you, mix it with the feed and sprinkle it in the pond twice. I guarantee you will raise the fish beautifully and sell them for a good price."

Han Chuang knew that he used to be ambitious and unwilling to spend his whole life farming in a remote mountain village. After learning that he couldn't get into the sand quarry, Han Chuang asked him to go to his family's cannery several times, saying that he would arrange a leisurely job for him to do first.

Chen Ling would naturally not forget this.

In addition, as the relationship between the two families has deepened, they know that both he and Jiang Xiaoqing are honest people without any ulterior motives.

So when there's a business opportunity that can make money, people are naturally willing to bring him along.

Furthermore, even a hero needs three helpers; Chen Ling trusted Han Chuang even more than he trusted Little Sheep.

Why let others make money when you can make money for your own people?

"This, this, this matter, you said it, Lingzi, I definitely believe it. It's just that my brother's factory also raises a pond of fish."

Han Chuang scratched his head and frowned: "Many fish only produce roe once a year. If you do the math, you can only sell two batches of fish a year. It's not like you said, selling one batch every two months."

"Haha, that's easy. After selling them all, just buy more fish fry."

Besides, good times don't come often this year. Is it possible to raise and sell fish all year round? That's why I told you to build a large pond from the start. Even if you only sell two or three batches a year, you'll still make a considerable amount of money.”

Many people in the village asked Chen Ling the same question, and Chen Ling said the same thing. However, the village had a much greater advantage than Han Chuang, as it was guarded by the reservoir and the magical giant turtle.

Now, Tian Hongli and Sun Yanhong have set their sights on other aquatic products.

Even if you don't keep ornamental fish, it's fine to keep other kinds of fish.

It still belongs to Chenwangzhuang.

It's even easier than keeping ornamental fish.

While ornamental fish are valued for their appearance, other aquatic products don't have such strict requirements.

"Okay, I'll listen to you, Lingzi. Let's dig a pond and raise some fish. Anyway, my brother raises fish, just for show."

Han Chuang felt like he and Chen Ling were going to do something big together, so he was very excited and kept stammering.

Then he excitedly ran out to tell Jiang Xiaoqing the news.

Jiang Xiaoqing was pleasantly surprised.

She was most willing to see Han Chuang learn from Chen Ling and do something.

Both couples were young, so they naturally didn't hide anything when talking about their affairs.

During the meal, she told Han Chuang that if his parents-in-law didn't agree, she would take money from her own family to support him.

Han Chuang just kept grinning foolishly, only saying that he would ride his motorcycle to find Chen Ling to see the fish tomorrow.

……

As luck would have it, Tian Hongli and Sun Yanhong arrived at the same time the next day.

Sun Yanhong came to catch crayfish. As soon as she arrived at the village entrance, she started shouting. Regardless of whether it was an adult or a child, anyone who filled a large bamboo basket would be given five yuan.

If a truckload of crayfish is taken away, the brigade will receive 200 yuan. This is the village's collective money. Wang Laishun had agreed in advance that the money would be distributed to the villagers at the end of the year. Now, with only 200 yuan in hand, how much money will they actually receive?

We couldn't even get a few cents; it was too shabby.

The villagers had no objections, since Sun Yanhong paid cash for catching shrimp, and everyone was eager to go down to the reservoir to catch shrimp. The money was just sitting there in the village office, with so many people watching, no one dared to touch it.

Men, women, and children were all enthusiastically catching crayfish, and no one paid any attention to Tian Hongli, leaving this shrewd, round-headed man speechless.

He's here to transport seafood; a truckload of it is worth much more than crayfish.

We can't do things like Sun Yanhong.

They could only stand by and watch helplessly, anxiously pacing back and forth.

He was in a hurry.

Bring them back sooner, and we'll make money sooner.

In the past few days, he visited several high-end restaurants and successfully disposed of Chen Ling's fish.

While receiving unanimous praise, they were also very clear about how much profit there was.

They wanted to take advantage of the fact that the restaurants hadn't yet sold out Chen Ling's seafood.

Take these second-rate fish back and sell them to ordinary people and ordinary restaurants.

They were calculating and planning, but when they got to this situation, they could only stare helplessly.

Actually, many hands make light work, and Sun Yanhong's seafood truck was quickly filled with crayfish.

The wait wasn't long.

The problem is that with so many people making such a ruckus, all the fish in the water escaped.

It would take him a long time to fill his car completely.

Seeing Sun Yanhong drive away triumphantly, Tian Hongli cursed inwardly, thinking, "That woman is utterly wicked."

He quickly called for help, instructing everyone to push the boat into the water and set up nets to catch fish.

They then unloaded the 500-pound scale from the vehicle.

The money was calculated for the brigade based on the weight.

In a short time, more than a dozen boats on the reservoir set off.

On each boat, experienced elders led the young and strong, chanting slogans as they fished energetically in the reservoir.

Once the two baskets were full, they rowed the boat to the shore and lifted them onto a large scale.

Two or three baskets were placed on top of each other, and the weighing process began.

After weighing, report the weight in kilograms.

There were people from the brigade nearby taking notes, and someone was also taking notes over Tian Hongli's side.

As villagers carried baskets of fish ashore.

Fishing, carrying fish, weighing fish, counting fish... the scene at the village entrance dam was bustling with activity.

This is the scene that Han Chuang saw when he arrived in the village.

It hadn't been long since he last visited Chenwangzhuang, and the village seemed to have changed so much that he hardly recognized it.

Chen Ling also talked to him about aquatic products yesterday.

He knew it was thanks to the big turtle at the reservoir; he couldn't have learned that from elsewhere.

Didn't pay much attention to it.

But when he arrived today, he found that it was very different from what he had imagined.

Look how lively this reservoir is! It's even more bustling than when the factory in Huangni Town first opened.

When they arrived at Chen Ling's house, Chen Ling showed him the ornamental fish in the pond outside the farm. He was still thinking about the reservoir and couldn't forget it.

Chen Ling had no choice but to take him to join in the fun again.

When they returned at noon, Han Chuang, for some reason, kept his head down and remained silent for a long time. Halfway there, he suddenly shouted, "Lingzi, you, you, do you think we can make money by taking advantage of the Turtle King's fame and getting some canned fish or something?"

(End of this chapter)