1980: I have a spiritual spring

Chapter 34 The Progress of the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Brothers

Qiao Erhe sent 10 guokui (a type of flatbread) to his second uncle's family. Although these guokui are quite thin, they are relatively large. One of them would be enough to fill a person's stomach in later generations. He took into account that people in this era generally have a larger appetite than people in later generations, so he brought a few more.

As for Third Uncle's family, Qiao Erhe only sent 5 guokui (a type of flatbread).

It wasn't that Qiao Erhe favored his second uncle's family; it was just that the bicycle was borrowed from his second uncle's family, so giving them more guokui (a type of flatbread) was normal.

After refusing the money offered by his second and third uncles, Qiao Erhe returned home.

By this time, Huang Hongmei and the Qiao siblings were already eating until their mouths were greasy.

Qiao Erhe took one, unwrapped the oil paper, and took a bite. It was really fragrant and crispy. The chili sauce brushed on it made the flavor of the guokui even better. It was still the familiar taste from his memory.

At this moment, Qiao Sihai was already eating his second one. As he ate, he praised, "This guokui tastes so good! If only I could have this guokui for breakfast every day!"

Qiao Erhe sneered, "Look at your lack of ambition. Once the hens at home start laying eggs, if you work hard to sell the eggs, you can eat guokui for every meal, not just every morning."

Qiao Sihai's eyes lit up upon hearing this: "Second brother, you said it yourself, so if I eat guokui every day, you can't scold me for wasting money."

Qiao Erhe chuckled and said, "Why would I scold you? This guokui is only worth a few dollars. I'm just afraid you'll get tired of it and won't want to eat it anymore."

Qiao Sihai took a bite of the guokui (a type of flatbread), chewing as he said, "How could I possibly get tired of something this delicious!"

Qiao Erhe laughed and said, "You're still too young. Even dragon meat (which is probably a delicacy that Chinese mothers talk about all the time ^_^) would get boring if you ate it every meal, let alone guokui (a type of flatbread).

Qiao Sihai shook his head and said, "I don't believe it. I'm sure I'll never get tired of this."

Qiao Erhe smiled without saying a word. Having experienced the future, he knew all too well what it felt like to eat the same food for a long time. Unless you could eat it in intervals, most people would get tired of eating the same food every meal.

……

Before we knew it, November had arrived.

After the start of winter, the temperature begins to drop, and the cold winter is coming.

That morning, after having breakfast, the Qiao siblings gathered at the "chicken farm" and began to trim the feathers of the laying hens.

The laying hens are now two months old. Putting aside their time at the poultry farm, they have been with the Qiao family for forty or fifty days.

Under Qiao Sanduo's careful feeding, and with Qiao Erhe feeding them diluted spiritual spring water every now and then, these laying hens grew much faster than normal 2-month-old laying hens, and could even be compared with normal 3-month-old laying hens.

At this rate of growth, these laying hens should start laying eggs in about ten days.

When the laying hen grew up, it started flapping its wings everywhere.

Although Qiao Erhe and his sister had dug a trench more than a meter wide as a barrier, and even built an earthen wall more than 1.5 meters high around the trench, it still couldn't stop the chickens that were flapping around aimlessly.

So Qiao Erhe made the decision to start trimming the feathers of these laying hens from today onwards, so that they could never fly away again.

Of course, there's a technique to trimming feathers. You don't cut off all the wings on both sides of the hen. Instead, you selectively trim a few large feathers from the wings, and you can also trim some of the smaller feathers. This reduces the density of the feathers, decreasing air resistance, so the hen can't fly. Moreover, this doesn't affect the hen's appearance.

Although trimming feathers may seem simple, it took the Qiao siblings two whole days to trim the feathers of all 1000 laying hens.

Today is Saturday, and Qiao Wuhu is back.

During dinner, Qiao Erhe asked, "Fifth brother, your midterm exam results should be out by now, right? How did you do? Did you improve?"

Qiao Wuhu had been waiting for his second brother to ask the question, and immediately replied with a smile, "Second brother, the midterm exam results are out. I ranked seventeenth in the class, which is a big improvement compared to thirty-sixth in the final exam last semester. The teacher even praised me!"

Qiao Erhe nodded and said, "That's right, you've made great progress, but that's not enough. If you want to get into a vocational high school, you need to improve your grades to be in the top three in your class. After all, the admission scores for vocational high schools are much higher than those for regular high schools."

"You don't have much time left to study. Half the semester is already over, and you only have one and a half more before you take the high school entrance exam."

The progress he had made recently had given Qiao Wuhu some enjoyment in learning. He took a deep breath and said, "Second brother, I will definitely work hard to get into a vocational school."

Qiao Erhe also noticed the changes in Lao Wu during this period. Fearing that he was putting too much pressure on himself, he comforted him, saying, "Just do your best. If you really can't pass the exam, you can always repeat a year. Anyway, the family will definitely have enough money to support your studies."

Qiao Wuhu nodded and said, "I will try my best to do so."

Qiao Erhe looked at Lao Liu and Lao Qi and asked, "What about you two? How did your midterm exams go?"

Qiao Liuduo said, "Second brother, my grades have also improved, and I'm now ranked 21st in the class."

Qiao Qitan said, "I'm better than Sixth Sister. I'm ranked 18th in the class."

Qiao Erhe said, "With your grades, you definitely won't be able to get into a vocational school. I've already told you what I need to say before. If you want to have an enviable job after graduation instead of going back to the village to do manual labor, you need to work twice as hard now."

The sixth and seventh brothers exchanged a glance and replied, "Understood, Second Brother."

When the topic of reading came up, Qiao Dajiang, Qiao Sanduo, and Qiao Sihai all kept their heads down and ate in silence. This was mainly because none of the three of them had studied for many years and were not as eloquent as Qiao Erhe, so they simply kept quiet.

After the second brother finished talking to the fifth, sixth, and seventh brothers about their studies, Qiao Dajiang finally spoke up: "Second brother, now that the laying hens have grown up, shouldn't we go to the paper mill and order some egg trays?"

The paper mill in Cenhe Commune was originally the paper-making workshop of Cenhe Glass Instrument Factory.

In December 1975, the papermaking workshop was separated from the glass factory and established as "Cenhe Paper Mill". With the strength of the paper mill, it was no problem to produce some simple pulp egg trays.

Qiao Erhe nodded and said, "We should definitely order some egg cartons. If we want to transport the eggs to the commune or the city to sell, we won't be able to do it without egg cartons for packaging."

Qiao Dajiang asked, "How many egg trays do we need to order?"

Qiao Erhe thought for a moment and said, "Let's ask about the price of these egg trays first. If they're expensive, we'll order fewer; if they're cheap, we'll order more."

Qiao Dajiang said, "Okay, then I'll go to the paper mill and ask tomorrow."

(End of this chapter)