The Little Life of a Big Landlord

Chapter 59 Silkworm Raising

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In the early morning, the weather is crisp and clear. Thick, white steam rises from the hot spring pool, making you feel as if you are walking on clouds.

Hidden in the steam, a couple could be vaguely seen embracing each other. Soaking in the hot spring early in the morning would give them plenty of energy for the whole day.

A voice came from the steam: "Qingqing, are you really not going to take wedding photos?"

"No, I'm allergic to photography and get motion sickness."

"Your face is all better, why are you still feeling dizzy in the mirror?"

"It's a mental illness, it's lasted for over ten years... Anyway, I won't film it... I get dizzy just looking at the camera..."

As the sun rose higher, the temperature gradually increased, and the steam rising from the hot spring pool thinned out.

"If we don't want to take them, then we don't," Yang Ming nodded. "It's fine without wedding photos..."

"I didn't expect a grown man like you to be so sentimental. How about this, Aunt Liu makes Hanfu for us, right? If Aunt Liu's skills are good, let's take a picture wearing Hanfu, what do you say?" Wei Qingqing made a concession.

"Okay!" Yang Ming nodded repeatedly.

"The silkworms are all taken care of by Bao'er, but what about the loom? Let me tell you! I can neither spin nor weave..."

"Tch! If I relied on a lazy woman like you, wouldn't I be living a life of poverty and hardship? I bought a spinning machine last night, a fully automatic one. Just put the silkworm cocoons on it, and you'll get silk fabric." As Yang Ming spoke, his hands became restless, secretly climbing onto Wei Qingqing's thigh.

In fact, silkworm raising and cloth weaving can be considered agricultural sideline businesses.

"I'm just being lazy, so don't touch me..." Wei Qingqing brushed Yang Ming's naughty hand away, pulled a long face, moved to the side, and pouted.

"You lazy woman, you're lazy, fine, but you still dare to throw a tantrum? Don't you know who's the head of our family?" Yang Ming grinned and pounced on her, playing around in the pool with her.

After laughing and joking around for a while, the two lay down at the bottom of the pool, the water just reaching their necks.

"Today is the seventeenth, where is the market? Let's go to the market..." Wei Qingqing's little face was flushed from the steam of the hot spring water.

"Niujiawopeng, Lijiazhuang, Hujiabao, tomorrow is Saturday, there's a market in Majiagou, Fangfang and Zhang Yang might come too, let's go tomorrow and see if we can run into Grandpa Niu, he left us a couple of ideas..."

"When you mentioned pigeons, I remembered. How are our meat pigeons doing? Bring out a pair for me to see..." Wei Qingqing said.

"Okay..." Yang Ming immediately took out a pair of hybrid pigeons from the farm space. These pigeons were the second generation and fourth brood, and they were already able to hatch chicks. They were extremely plump, with a body length of a foot, a shoulder width of half a foot, thick legs, a large head, and a tail that was curled upwards. Their multicolored feathers shimmered with light. Their crops were especially large, and they walked with a trembling gait, like ripples on a calm lake.

As soon as the two pigeons came out, the male started purring, his voice deep and loud, his crop bulging out. He circled around the female pigeon. When the male started purring, his feathers fluffed up, making him look even bigger.

"Is this a pigeon or a chicken?" Wei Qingqing stared in disbelief.

"If we're talking about free-range chickens, this is about the size they're going to grow. But if we're talking about broiler chickens, these pigeons are far inferior." Yang Ming said, then took out four half-grown pigs and scattered them by the pond. "I told Grandpa Huang and the others yesterday that we've released all our pigs into the mountains. Today, we're really going to release them into the mountains. These are second-generation pigs. I don't know how fast they grow, but the meat will definitely be good."

The four half-grown pigs, as soon as they came out, ran around happily, burrowed into the flowers and plants, and began to gnaw on them.

"Oh dear, they're eating my flowers! Quick, quick, chase them away!" Wei Qingqing immediately protested, pinching Yang Ming's arm so hard that he winced in pain.

In the end, it was Xiao Hei and Xiao Hua who came in handy. The two puppies, seeing that their owner was in a hurry, immediately pounced out and bit the four half-grown pigs' butts. Of course, the two puppies didn't really bite; they were just trying to scare them. In no time, they drove the four half-grown pigs into a corner, leaving the four half-grown pigs in a slightly tense standoff with them.

"Great! My Little Black and Little Flower are still the most effective..." Wei Qingqing saw the two puppies watching over the pigs to prevent them from ruining her flowers and plants, so she immediately clapped and cheered, and even gave Yang Ming a provocative glance, as if to say, you are not as good as Little Black and Little Flower.

Yang Ming came out of the hot spring pool and drove the four half-grown pigs out of the valley, letting them find food on their own.

"Is this a good idea? If we let them run all over the mountain, won't they poop and pee at the hot springs?" Wei Qingqing was worried again as she watched the piglets being driven out of the valley.

"Probably not?" Yang Ming was also a little unsure.

Wei Qingqing pouted and whined, "What do you mean 'shouldn't'? I mean 'definitely won't'! Otherwise..." Thinking about the hot spring pool she was in, the water was actually soaked in pig manure and urine. How could anyone relax like that?

"Okay, okay, let's put a cement ring around the spring and make it into a pool, shall we?" Yang Ming said.

"What are you waiting for? Hurry up and go!" Wei Qingqing said anxiously.

"Okay, okay, I'll be right there. By the way, do you know the construction team's contact number?" Yang Ming asked.

"You're so stupid. Isn't Grandpa Huang still living in the village? Let him call his son over. We can't use him for nothing this time; we have to give him some money for the project," Wei Qingqing said.

Yang Ming hurriedly went to find Grandpa Huang and asked him to contact his son's construction team.

The old man personally took charge, and the fat foreman arrived very quickly. Although they were currently on contract, building a pool wasn't a big project. With three people, they could basically handle it.

After a whole day of work, it's finally all done, and even more securely. The pool is half a meter high, and the top is completely sealed with cement, leaving only a one-meter diameter circular vent, which is covered with an iron lid. The iron lid has two small holes, about the size of a palm, which can release the pressure in the pool normally. If the pressure in the pool is too high, the water vapor inside will lift the iron lid and release the air, and the water temperature will rise slightly, almost to boiling. However, the water temperature in the hot spring pool itself hasn't changed much, after all, the pipes are hundreds of meters long, so a slight increase in temperature won't be too noticeable.

"Bring a steamer basket, you can steam buns right away," Wei Qingqing said with a sigh, looking at the vent.

"What you said makes sense. If we need to steam anything in the future, we can just bring it here to steam. That will save so much firewood!" Yang Ming's eyes lit up.

"Praise me, this is my idea..." Wei Qingqing said smugly.

"Stop praising me, you lazy woman! Hurry up and go home to cook for the head of the household, or you'll face the family rules..."

"Ugh, nobody cares about you..."

The small mountain village was shrouded in twilight at dusk, with wisps of smoke rising from chimneys and the sounds of dogs barking.

"Can we pick these persimmons now?" Yang Ming asked Wei Qingqing, who was cooking inside the house, as he stood under his persimmon tree.

"It's still green..." Wei Qingqing said while pulling the bellows.

"I heard that this thing needs to be covered up. If you take it off now and cover it up for ten days or half a month, it will turn red."

"Then let's pick them. Where are the chestnuts? Quite a few have cracked open," Wei Qingqing said. "By the way, how much did you pay the construction team?"

"Five thousand. Our pond isn't small. The materials alone will cost two or three thousand..." Yang Ming said, walking to the chestnut tree and carefully looking for the cracked chestnuts. To his surprise, more than half of the large chestnuts on the tree were cracked. So Yang Ming picked a few.

"They even provided lunch. And you know what? These workers have huge appetites, especially Foreman Huang..." Wei Qingqing said.

"It's not that they have big appetites, it's just that our food is delicious. Didn't you see how full they are?..." Yang Ming opened the chestnuts and took out the chestnuts inside. "Let's make sugar-roasted chestnuts tonight..." There were only a few chestnuts, not worth roasting, so Yang Ming went to the tree and picked a few more, about 4 or 5 pounds, before stopping.

"I don't have that skill, all I can do is cook..." Wei Qingqing said.

"Let's just cook it then. What can we do when we end up with such a clumsy wife..." Yang Ming said with a regretful and helpless expression.

"I'm finding you increasingly annoying..." Wei Qingqing rolled her eyes at Yang Ming.

"Brother Yang, Sister Qingqing, what are you having for dinner tonight?" A pleasant voice came from the doorway, and Liu Nannan appeared.

"We want to make roasted chestnuts, but your sister Qingqing doesn't know how..." Yang Ming said, "How's the greenhouse going?"

"They're all pretty good-looking. Aren't you making roasted chestnuts? I'll make some for you. My aunt's family even has roasting stones..." Liu Nannan said.

"Sure! But no overtime pay..." Wei Qingqing teased, clearly liking the clever young girl.

"Stingy... Exploiting class..." Liu Nannan rolled her eyes at Wei Qingqing, found a basin in the house, started washing chestnuts, and then used a knife to cut a small opening on the bottom of the chestnuts.

"Haven't seen the little girl all day, have you? I wonder where she went?" Yang Ming felt something was missing. After thinking about it carefully, he realized that Xiao Bao'er was nowhere to be seen.

"She went to school... Wait a minute? She should have been out of school a long time ago. She should be coming to our house to watch TV, right?" Wei Qingqing said, feeling a little uneasy. Could it be that her grandmother took her away again?

"She went to her maternal grandmother's house after school in the afternoon," Liu Nannan interjected while washing chestnuts.

"Oh! This little guy said yesterday that he was going to get us some silkworms. I hope he actually went today..." Yang Ming suddenly realized.

"Maybe you should go pick her up..." Wei Qingqing said.

"I'll go now..." It's so late at night, and the little one is going out by herself. If her grandma takes her, she can get her back, but if she runs into a wild animal or something, that would be terrible.

Just as I reached the village entrance, I saw a little girl with a schoolbag on her back skipping and hopping along the mountain path towards me, with two stumbling puppies following at her feet.

"Daddy..." The little girl had sharp eyes and recognized Yang Ming from afar. She immediately called out happily and ran over quickly. The two puppies also quickened their pace. One of the puppies was running so fast that it tumbled and fell twice.

"You're all sweaty from running, be careful not to catch a cold..." Yang Ming bent down and picked up the little guy. The puppy pounced on him, stood up, and clung to Yang Ming's trouser leg, howling loudly.

"Hehe, Daddy, Grandma gave me 10 silkworms and a whole bag of mulberry leaves..." the little girl proudly boasted.

"Hmph, you think you're so great? Going out so late at night without an adult accompanying you. If this happens again, you'll get a spanking..."

"When they went to Grandma's house, it was still daylight..." the little girl said indignantly.

"Alright, alright, you're right now. Tomorrow's Saturday, is it school?" Yang Ming picked up the little guy and headed home.

"No..." the little girl said.

"Tomorrow your godmother and I are going to the market in Majiagou. Do you want to come?" Yang Ming asked.

"Of course we'll go! How can we go to the market without Bao'er?" the little girl said excitedly.

As soon as they arrived at the door, before even entering the yard, they smelled a sweet aroma wafting out of the house. Little Bao immediately cheered, "It's roasted chestnuts! Great! I love them the most..." The little guy struggled a couple of times, slid off Yang Ming, and dashed into the house.

"It really smells delicious..." Yang Ming sniffed and praised sincerely.

After dinner, the light in the east room was on. Yang Ming, Wei Qingqing, Xiao Bao'er, and Liu Nannan were gathered around a large shoebox, staring intently at it. Inside the shoebox was a layer of tender mulberry leaves, and ten silkworms were crawling on the leaves, eating voraciously. Every two or three bites, they would eat a hole the size of a fingernail in the mulberry leaf.

Not only were the silkworms eating, but everyone else was also busy, especially the little one. He was eating oily, reddish roasted chestnuts. With a few crunches, only the shells were left. The sweet, soft meat all went into the little guy's belly. His little mouth and hands were covered in red sugar syrup.

"Too fast, these silkworms can really eat..." After a long while, Wei Qingqing shook her head and sighed. She reached into the large tea tray on the edge of the kang and pulled out a roasted chestnut. With a gentle squeeze, the hard shell cracked open, revealing the golden meat inside.

"These silkworms are almost adults. They'll be spinning silk in three or four days. But you don't have mulberry leaves here, so you can't raise them. By the way, you're not thinking of starting with silkworm farming, are you?..." Liu Nannan said.

The young girl remembered that Yang Ming said yesterday that he would provide the raw materials. Did they want to start by raising silkworms? How long would it take him to raise enough silkworms to make one garment? The young girl suddenly felt that the clothing company they talked about last night was particularly unreliable.

"Of course, silk production started with silkworm rearing, didn't it?" Yang Ming nodded with a smile.

"Huh???..." Liu Nannan felt that Yang Ming was a complete novice who knew nothing about the subject.

"Don't listen to his nonsense. There's plenty of silk fabric in the textile factory, but the quality isn't guaranteed. If you encounter someone who doesn't know the ropes, they might be fooled by chemical products without even realizing it. Let's get some samples to compare, so we don't get fooled..." Wei Qingqing rolled her eyes at Yang Ming and said.

Wei Qingqing knew, of course, that Yang Ming was telling the truth, but she still had to cover for him.

"Oh, is that how it is? But we can ask someone who knows about this to come, right? My aunt knows..." The little girl breathed a sigh of relief, but rolled her eyes at Yang Ming. This guy was unreliable; she wouldn't talk to him anymore.

As night deepened, after Liu Nannan and Xiao Bao'er returned home, only Yang Ming and Wei Qingqing remained in the house. The two snuggled into bed, and Yang Ming nudged Wei Qingqing, saying, "Hey, let's call Fangfang and the others and ask if they're coming. If they are, tell them to come early so we can go to the market together."

"I already asked, they're not coming tomorrow..." Wei Qingqing rested her head on Yang Ming's chest, her cloud-like black hair cascading down to Yang Ming's chest and abdomen like a waterfall.

"If you don't want to come, then don't come. We'll take Xiaobao tomorrow..." Yang Ming said.

"Hmm! I'm tired after a long day, I'm going to turn off the light and go to sleep..." Wei Qingqing said drowsily.

"Hehe, let's go to sleep..." Yang Ming pulled the light cord, plunging the room into darkness. He then pulled the blanket over both of them.

"Ugh, I'm tired of talking..."

A rustling sound arose...

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(End of this chapter)