My 1995 Small Farm.

After several sunny days, it finally rained a little.

Although it wasn't snow, the light rain after the onset of winter was still cold.

Early in the morning, Chen Ling and his wife found thick sweaters and changed into them, while the two elderly people changed into cotton trousers. The winter rain was damp and cold, and they needed to be careful as they got older.

Rui Rui was also wrapped up very warmly.

The brat, dressed in his raincoat early in the morning, brought along Heiwa and Xiaojin, along with a small whip specially made for him by Wang Cunye. He waved it around and shouted fiercely, blocking Yu Qi'an from entering the house.

That old rascal Yu Qi'an is always teasing him on purpose.

More importantly, the turtles happened to go into hibernation after Yu Qi'an arrived.

Before that, he had used those turtles and Wang Zhenzhen to train crows together.

Rui Rui assumed that this bad uncle must have ruined his precious turtles.

They all stopped moving.

Rui Rui is very affectionate towards the turtle. Of course, a child as young as him doesn't know how to take care of a turtle; he just plays with it and then feeds it when he feels like it.

However, the local wheat field turtles are the yellow-margined box turtles that can become affectionate and interact with people.

As Rui Rui played for a long time, the big and small turtles naturally became more willing to come closer to him.

Like little puppies, as soon as the brat yelled, they crawled out of the turtle pond and came to him.

Ever since Yu Qi'an took his turtles, the little turtles have become less lively.

Need I say more?

Even the most naive child can tell that it was Yu Qi'an, that wicked uncle, who was behind this.

So starting yesterday, Rui Rui stopped letting Yu Qi'an into the house.

Having no other choice, Yu Qi'an and his wife decided to stay in the village courtyard.

It just so happens that my parents are moving there soon, so it's good to let the young couple stay for a while and let them have some life around.

"Uncle came to fetch the horse, so he doesn't need to eat, is that alright?"

"No!"

Rui Rui's little face puffed up like a bun as she waved her little whip and shouted, "Blackie, bite!"

Upon hearing its little master's command, Heiwa immediately barked loudly and made a move to pounce on Yu Qi'an.

Of course, it definitely wasn't a real bite.

Heiwa recognizes his own people.

But Yu Qi'an's cooperation is also required.

Otherwise, if the little one is not satisfied, he won't be let off easily.

So Yu Qi'an looked terrified, threw down the umbrella in his hand, and ran around the orchard yelling as Heiwa chased him, causing all the livestock in the pens to crane their necks and look out.

Ah Fu and Ah Shou were both craning their necks upstairs to look down.

The geese were also honking incessantly.

"Rui Rui, good Rui Rui, Uncle will never do it again. Uncle will catch you a whole basinful of little turtles next year, okay?"

Yu Qi'an ran through the rain while trying his best to coax Rui Rui; he just loved teasing children.

He can usually calm people down quickly if they tease him too much. For example, the kids in the village really enjoy playing with him.

But it didn't work on Rui Rui.

"No!"

The little boy frowned indignantly and shouted, "Jinjin wants to go too!"

Xiao Jin glanced helplessly at its young master and had no choice but to run into the rain to chase after Yu Qi'an.

There's no way around it; in Rui Rui's mind, these turtles are second only to his little white elephant toy.

Yu Qi'an broke his precious turtle; how could he not be upset?

She already cried and made a fuss once the night before last.

It took Chen Ling a lot of effort to coax him back to peace.

So these past two days, Yu Qi'an has been being chased and teased by Rui Rui, but Chen Ling hasn't paid any attention to it.

But we need to teach this unreliable old man a lesson.

Bai Huining was already at home having breakfast with hot porridge and salted duck eggs. Hearing the commotion outside, she said, "Never mind him. Who told him to be so irresponsible? He's so young, yet he still tries to tease him."

That's good, the youngest one is the hardest to bully.

There are plenty of people who can support a little kid.

However, Yu Qi'an did have something important to discuss today.

First, the packhorses need to be transported away.

There are empty scooters available now. Once the weather clears up and the roads are a little drier, they can continue to run.

Livestock transportation is different from other things.

Especially if the journey is long, you need to take good care of water and food, and prepare medicines to prevent illness.

Although packhorses are known for their sturdiness, it's always good to be prepared.

Yu Qi'an was planning to use these packhorses to make a big deal back in Beijing.

Besides packhorses.

On the other hand, Chen Ling also received a series of urgent calls from the zoo, wanting the tiger to go back as soon as possible.

The farm-themed animated series has been very popular recently.

The animated film featuring a little tiger became very popular with children.

The tiger from Chenwangzhuang has also made the news.

This is related to a news program we filmed previously that featured a legendary story about tigers, which led to many locals calling the zoo.

Some people wanted to bring their children to see the tigers, while others were adults who wanted to go on their own. Chen Ling was going to send the tigers back home, and Yu Qi'an wanted to help out with the household chores, such as releasing geese and raising pigeons.

He enjoys doing this kind of thing.

But now, if he can't appease Rui Rui, then this matter is probably over.

There has been little rain since the beginning of autumn this year, and even in winter, there has been very little heavy rain.

This time, it might be because there wasn't much rain throughout the autumn, or it might be because it was a truly mild winter.

The rain gradually intensified.

It certainly can't compare to a summer downpour; it's more like moderate rain, but it keeps falling.

The temperature also dropped as a result.

If the temperature really drops, freezing rain wouldn't be so bad.

But the temperature is low, though not below zero.

The rainwater doesn't freeze when it hits the ground.

Upon arriving at the wheat field, we let the wheat seedlings drink their fill.

The wheat seedlings, which had turned from green to dark green after the first frost, were miraculously irrigated and turned green again after this rain.

Cultural figures like Zhao Yubao, Wu Fei, and He Jiawen are still immersed in joy.

They thought this was a wonderful and positive phenomenon.

A mild winter won't be a time of desolation and bleakness. Isn't that a good thing?
The villagers, however, began to feel a growing sense of unease.

Chen Ling knew what Zhao Yubao and the others were thinking, and could only say that zoologists and botanists were not true agronomists after all.

It's not that a warm winter is always a good thing.

For example, in their area, it snows on the mountain every year, so they grow winter wheat.

If the winter temperature is high, the weather is warm and there is no snow, and there is plenty of rain, then the wheat will grow like crazy.

At that time, quickly extend the section and lift the pole.

In that case, let's not even talk about the impact of being out of season.

A sudden cold snap next spring could wipe out all of this year's wheat, resulting in a complete crop failure.

the reason is simple.

Winter wheat that doesn't joint is still quite good at resisting cold and freezing.

People can trample on and tread on the wheat fields, walk around freely, and even graze their livestock without any problem.

But once the winter wheat has jointed and started to stalk, it will grow taller.

If it had snowed back then, it would have been a disaster.

For farmers, half a year's harvest is gone.

"Everything else is good this year, and we've even made some money. But now that winter has arrived, why is it so hard to get snow? And then this strange rain came instead. If this continues, I think this year's wheat harvest will be in trouble."

"What should we do? Should we ask Professor Zhao and the others? They bought a large agricultural machine for them..."

"I don't think asking Professor Zhao and the others will help. We should ask Fugui, he knows a lot of people, or we can ask Uncle Gan Nian."

"Alright, let's go. We won't eat yet. Let's go to Fugui's house first."

So on this day, as darkness fell, many people wearing raincoats and holding umbrellas filled the courtyard of Chen Ling's house.

He wouldn't come into the living room, afraid of making it dirty, so we set up a table under the eaves, brewed a pot of tea, and talked about the matter.

I didn't expect this winter to be so warm.

Some say that perhaps the Turtle King has really left and is no longer here, which is why such strange things happened.

Some people say that the county may have been making a mess of things and angered the turtle king.

To put it bluntly, it's the same old story from Fengxian County in Journey to the West, and the villagers really believe it.

I'm worried about this.

At the same time, they hoped that Chen Ling could find a solution.

It's important to have a plan beforehand so you won't panic when the worst happens.

They really have no way of predicting whether the temperature will drop or whether it will snow.

Chen Ling thought for a moment and said, "I'm going to send the tiger back to the zoo in a while. I'll go to the provincial capital and ask around. Tomorrow I'll ask the people who photographed the red-crowned cranes if they recognize anyone. I'll make a call and ask..."

“Okay, the village is counting on you to come up with a solution. Otherwise, this winter is like spring, which is different from the mild winters of previous years. I’m afraid those old methods won’t work.”

Chen Dazhi sighed and said.

The so-called old methods refer to some methods used to suppress the rapid growth of winter wheat in the event of a warm winter.

It's nothing more than cutting it manually, letting livestock eat it, or using stone rollers and other things to damage the wheat seedlings.

They used various methods to suppress their rapid growth.

To prevent them from exhibiting the phenomenon of jointing and lifting.

"Look at what Brother Dazhi is saying. If the old methods don't work, then we have to think of new ones... According to you, there are still fewer geese coming this year. Even if they don't come to eat the wheat seedlings, we still have to hope they come to eat them every day, right..."

Chen Ling's words were simply a reflection on the damage to the wheat seedlings and the fact that the geese came to steal the wheat seedlings every day.

But no sooner had he finished speaking than...

A sudden inspiration struck him.

Holy crap! Geese are eating wheat seedlings!

'How could I have forgotten about this...'

'Why ask someone else? The solution is right here!'

Then, one thought and a whole host of wicked ideas started popping up uncontrollably. (End of Chapter)