Since entering May, Xi Yongfu's family has been busy.

This year, the youngest son's family contracted a mountain forest under the jurisdiction of the cottage to harvest mountain goods, and the family is also preparing to plant more than ten acres of mountain flue-cured tobacco, two acres of rice, and seven or eight acres of corn. With so much farm work, he and his youngest son and his wife have a tight schedule, including two grandsons and a granddaughter who are still in school, and they also have to help the family in their spare time.

Lao Xi is old, and his legs and feet are a little inflexible. This year, instead of working in the fields with his youngest son's family, he went to manage the mountains and forests contracted by his youngest son's family to harvest mountain goods. His daily task is to carry a basket, take a small hoe, and wander around the area of the mountain contracted by his youngest son, harvesting the wild mushrooms and wild vegetables that grow on that mountain.

Xi Yongfu, 62, is a Yi villager from Qingshan Village, Yunmei Village Committee, Chahe Township, Exian County, Yunnan City, and has two sons and three daughters. After his three daughters got married, he and his wife were raised by two sons who had separated from each other. He lives with his youngest son's family, and his wife lives with his eldest son's family.

In other words, the two old husbands and wives need to live with the two sons' families, and the two old husbands and wives also need to help the two sons' families with housework. In his later years, he was also responsible for the two sons' families.

It is fair and reasonable to have two sons, one son raising an old man. The two of them have actually lived separately, and their old husband and wife have been artificially separated.

This phenomenon is not an isolated phenomenon in rural areas. In many places, in families with many children, elderly parents either live alone or take turns eating at the homes of several sons. In families with two sons, raising one of the parents is a normal part of life, not an isolated phenomenon.

After the Spring Festival this year, Qingshan Village began to subcontract the mountains and forests to which the village belongs, and his eldest son and youngest son contracted to collect mushrooms on both sides of the same mountain. The old and frail old Xi couple can help their two sons' families to guard this big mountain, and by the way, they can harvest the wild vegetables with economic value on the mountain and sell them for money.

The area of mountains and forests under the jurisdiction of their Qingshan village is quite large, and 50 or 60 households are divided into subcontracts, and the area of mountains and forests that each household can contract is more than 2 to 300 mu. Although they can't cut down trees in the mountain forest, they can only harvest ancillary products such as mountain grass and wild vegetables that are produced in the mountain forest, and the family can manage such a large area of mountain forest enough for them to keep them busy.

Especially from March to October every year, there are many things produced in the mountains and forests. There are all kinds of wild vegetables that can be collected, such as mountain lilies, bitter thorn flowers, wild mushrooms, wild yams, and bracken. Lao Xi, who knows some Chinese herbal medicines, can also collect a certain amount of Chinese herbal medicines, and after drying and finishing them at home, it is also a lot of income to sell them to medicinal material buyers. The mountains are generous, as long as you have the time and mind to wander around the mountains, every time you go home, the basket can be filled.

The mountains and forests contracted by their family are not far from the village where they live, and Lao Xi and his wife are too lazy to go home for dinner and accommodation. From March to October, when the weather in central Yunnan was also warm, the old couple simply sorted out a flat land in the middle of the mountain, built a simple thatched house, and lived on the mountain to live a mountain dwelling life like idle clouds and wild cranes.

In the past, when Lao Xi was fine, he also went up the mountain to harvest wild vegetables and Chinese herbs. Lao Xi has no fixed range of motion. Wherever there is good things, they will be harvested and free to do so.

Not only the forests in Qingshan Village have been contracted by zoning, but also the forests of several nearby villages have also been contracted to specific mountain families. He can only wander around the mountain forest area contracted by his youngest son's family and harvest the mountain goods in this range.

Lao Xi felt breathless at first, this kind of day when the range of activities was artificially limited was really uncomfortable. However, as he wandered around the mountains and forests contracted by his family when he had nothing to do, he found that there were so many things he could do in this mountain forest where only his family could harvest wild vegetables freely. Due to the limitation of the scope of his activities, he is no longer wandering around, he can search carefully, and he can pick more wild vegetables and Chinese herbal medicines.

Because this mountain forest belongs to him, and everything produced in the mountain forest belongs to him to harvest freely, except for the fact that trees cannot be cut down and vegetation cannot be destroyed at will. No one came to compete with him, there was nothing good in the mountains and forests, and there was no need to worry about being harvested in time by others first. It should be his, it is his, and he can patrol the mountains and harvest the output of the mountains and forests in a planned way.

"Old woman, do we talk to the eldest and second family, and simply manage this mountain in a unified manner. Lao Xi smoked a hookah and talked to his wife who was making dinner.

"What do you mean?" asked my wife calmly as she cut the vegetables.

"The hill contracted by our family has more than 800 acres, from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain, shrubs, pear trees, miscellaneous trees, and pine trees are relatively dense. I have estimated that when the rain penetrates, there will be no less than one or two hundred catties of fungi growing every day, and we can harvest at least forty or fifty kilograms. If you harvest them all, you can buy them for four or five hundred yuan on the mountain. The contract fee for this mountain, the eldest and the second family is a total of 5,000 yuan a year, and the two of us can help them recover it in more than ten days. Lao Xi smoked a hookah comfortably, telling his wife about his discoveries and plans.

The wife responded happily: "In this way, the contracting fee of the eldest and second family is not expensive. From May to October, you can harvest the mushrooms for five or six months. ”

"It's not that there are so many mushrooms every day, and you have to collect them to buy them. The harvest was not in time, and those who did not find it were all rotten in the mountains. Lao Xi said pragmatically.

"With such a big mountain, the two of us, plus the eldest and the second, and the two of them have time to come over to harvest, and they may not be able to turn around. , there are not a few rotten in the mountains. Today, the dozens of dried mushrooms in the thatched bushes of the back valley can't be eaten, and they are all rotten. You say, where did I pass by the other day, why didn't I turn around to take a look?" said the wife regretfully, as she went up the mountain to harvest mushrooms.

"Hehehe, if it's rotten, it's rotten, what is produced on this mountain, it's yours when you encounter it, and you don't have to regret it if you don't meet it. Didn't you find the nest this time? Later, you will know that there will be valuable dried mushrooms there. Old woman, there is a pattern of mushrooms on the mountain, and the time of rainy days and sunny days is different, and the mushrooms are different. The two of us are almost ripe in this mountain, and we have a good idea of when there will be any fungus there. Lao Xi smiled open-mindedly and comforted his wife, he had discovered the financial password of this mountain, and he was not in a hurry.

"Hehe, I don't regret it, I just feel sorry for it. If those dried mushrooms are recovered, they are worth more than 100 yuan. Old man, didn't those people who came to collect the mushrooms say that after contracting the mountain forest, each family can investigate the production in their own mountain forest and have a planned harvest?"

My wife has been in charge of housework for many years, and she has not separated her family for those years, and she is taking care of the firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea at home, and she is very concerned about the big and small affairs that happen in the village.

You must know that Lao Xi's harvest has become the wealth of the family through her hands, and she is not ambiguous!