Ran'er originally thought that Ge Zhuang would definitely come back in a few days, but unexpectedly, a month passed, two months passed, and there was no trace of Ge Zhuang, so she slowly let go of the matter. As for the father who has never met, Ran'er rarely thinks about it, and he doesn't know whether to hate or love.

On the night of Ge Zhuang's arrival, Ran'er dreamed that her mother smiled comfortingly at herself. After waking up, Ran'er thought alone, and her mother was praising her for not recognizing her relatives. Therefore, I have strengthened my intentions.

After two successive bumper crops, grain prices returned to the price at which they were when they bought rice. The sisters have food, and they have income from sour bamboo shoots, grass mushrooms, and eggs every year, and they are very down-to-earth. When the small flower arrives at the beginning of winter, it is already one hundred and thirty or forty catties, and it is estimated that it will be raised for another two months, and it will not be a problem to grow to more than two hundred catties in the wax moon. More than 200 catties is more than four hangs, not counting the fertilizer money that is usually saved. If you don't raise pigs, you have to spend money to buy fertilizer for Ran'er's two acres of paddy fields. One in and one out, there is a gap of nearly two dollars.

After giving her mother a fourth anniversary sacrifice, Ran'er discussed with Qinglian:

"Lian'er, how many more **** will we raise after the beginning of spring?"

"Okay, please ask Uncle Zhou to help you buy it, Uncle Zhou has great eyes, and the chicks he bought are all hens."

"My sister wants two old hens to hold the nest, so she won't buy it."

"Will it work?"

"It's okay, my sister saw my mother do it."

Ran Er thought to herself, there is a rooster among the nine chickens, the eggs have been settled, and the old hens will make a nest every spring, as long as there are eggs, feed the old hens on time, and in less than a month, the chicks can hatch. My mother remembered what she did back then. There is a creek in the south of the fence courtyard, a bamboo forest in the north, overgrown with weeds, insects to eat in spring and summer, grass seeds in autumn and winter, and there will be no problem with raising 100 chickens in the free-range. The only thing to worry about is not to be spoiled by weasels and foxes. Train Rhubarb and Blackie well and let them take care of them, and it won't be a big problem.

Time flies like a white horse, and in a blink of an eye, it comes to the wax moon. As expected, Xiaohua grew to two hundred and twenty catties and sold for four hangings and four hundred copper coins. immediately took out a hang of 200 wen and caught a little piglet. Feed well, and you will be ready to slaughter by next August.

On Chinese New Year's Eve, the two sisters wrapped a lot of dumplings, and those who couldn't finish eating were frozen in the grass pavilion, and buckled with bamboo baskets to prevent them from being eaten by mice.

Like last year, I still set up my mother's tablet at home and invited my mother to come to the house to accompany my sisters for the New Year.

Aunt Shun gave birth to a boy on the night of February 12, and was named Li Jiyao by Grandpa Li. After Ran'er and Qinglian heard about it, on the day of washing, they picked up thirty eggs and carried them in a basket to participate in Xiao Jiyao's baptism. Grandpa Li's family is very prosperous, and Grandpa Li and Grandma Li have three sons and three daughters. The three daughters are all married in Waizhuang, Li Cheng's family has two sons and a daughter, Li Wu's family has two sons, and now Li Shun's first child is a son.

"Grandpa, grandma, Uncle Shun, Ran'er and Lian'er are here."

Ran Er carried the basket and led Qinglian, and when she entered the door and saw the three of them, she said loudly.

"Ran'er, Lian'er, go to the house and take a look, Xiao Jiyao Kejun."

Grandma Li said happily to the Ran'er sisters.

"Whether you look like a little aunt or an uncle, you can't be ugly."

"When did Ran'er become so talkative?"

Li Shun quipped.

"Ran'er, why do you take so many eggs, you two are young, it's not easy to take care of yourself, don't spend so much money in the future."

Seeing this, Grandpa Li took out the eggs in the basket one by one and put them in the yard to hold them in a large basket that came to visit the mother. There are 30 of them, most of them are ten, 20 are relatively close, and only between sisters and sisters do they send more than 30 eggs.

"Grandpa, it's not worth anything, it's all eggs laid by your own chickens, and it's not bought with money."

"Look at what Ran'er said, your own eggs are not money?"

Grandma Li saw that twice in a row, Ran'er gave heavy gifts, and she was a little unbearable.

According to custom, the Li family will hold a banquet to entertain relatives and friends who come. Because they were mainly female guests, Ran Er and Qinglian did not refrain this time, and readily agreed to stay and finish their meals before leaving. I took the time to go to the house and looked at Aunt Shun and the child. Although in the past three days, Aunt Shun is still very weak, but her face is very good, she has both the happiness of being a mother and the pride of giving birth to a fat boy in her first child. The countrymen attach great importance to the inheritance of the ancestors, the passing of incense, and the people who do not have boys are called "extinct", which is very ugly. Xiao Jiyao was wrapped in layers of small quilts, his little cheeks were wrinkled, and Qinglian saw where Grandma Li was saying that she was very handsome, and asked Ran'er in private:

"Sister, grandma said it's very handsome, where is it very handsome, why does it get uglier the more you look at it?"

"Don't talk nonsense, children are like this when they are born, and the old man says that because he is happy in his heart."

"Sister is saying that you and I were like this when we were born?"

"yes, what does Lian'er think?"

Qinglian stuck out her tongue, grimaced, and whispered:

"It's ugly, it's not handsome at all."

On February 17 there was a spring rain, and although it was not large, it continued to rain for three days. After the morning of February 20, Qinglian saw that the swallows had returned, still living in the nest they had built last year. Two days later, another pair of swallows came, and began to build a new nest next to last year's nest, the earliest old nest has been empty there, and under the background of the new nest, it is more and more gray.

"Sister, why don't we tear down the old nest?"

"Don't, that will scare the new swallows."

"Lian'er, the two old hens are going to make a nest."

"Why didn't I see that?"

"Lian'er didn't pay attention, in the past, the old hen would always cluck and leave the egg nest after laying eggs, but now the old hen is lying on the egg and does not leave, just want to make a nest."

"Oh. Sister, how many chicks do we hatch this year? ”

"There are seventeen or eighteen hens at most per old hen, and if they are too warm, the eggs will be ruined. To be on the safe side, fifteen eggs per old hen. ”

Since the old hen began to hatch chicks in her nest and feed on time once a day, Qinglian took the initiative to take on the task. Twenty-one days later, all fifteen eggs of an old hen hatched, and the other one had fourteen, and one was blind.

When the two old hens started, they took very careful care of their hatched chicks, except for Qinglian and Ran'er who could get close, that is, Rhubarb and Xiaohei, once they got close, they would cooin angrily, and the feathers on the chicken's head seemed to stand up.

When Qinglian is idle, she always likes to follow the old hen and help find insects from time to time.

Ran Er saw that Qinglian had become more and more lively and lovely in the past year or so, and her body had grown, and she couldn't help but feel relieved to know that Qinglian had completely come out of the past.