As the days passed, the weather gradually cooled, and the scenery around Liang Village also changed a lot.

After nearly three months of flowering, the two osmanthus trees in the courtyard of the Liu family finally withered away and returned to their roots. But in addition, the flowers and fruit trees inside and outside the yard have not changed much, and they are still verdant, after all, there is the moisture of spring water.

Standing on the dam and looking down, the rice paddies that used to look like a green carpet are gradually dyed with golden colors, and this proportion is getting bigger and bigger as time goes by. When the whole field turns golden, it heralds the arrival of the autumn harvest season.

A flock of sparrows chirped and swooped down the fields from the hills, and after a feast, they flew back to their nests. The peasants hated these old thieves the most, and they ate and spoiled them, and they could harm the crops the most.

The villagers erected scarecrows in the fields, and dressed and wore straw hats in a decent manner, making them look like real people. However, such a scarecrow can at best scare the villagers who walk at night, and it is really not easy to scare the sparrows away. The sparrows in this year have already learned well, and the scarecrows are not afraid at all, and they have begun to learn to fight guerrilla warfare with people, which is the most headache.

In the early years, when it was still a commune, there was a special job to drive sparrows in the brigade, and every autumn harvest season, they would carry gongs and knock them all over the world to scare them away.

Later, sparrows, along with flies, mosquitoes and rats, were included in the list of the four pests, and were rounded up in an organized and disciplined manner, and their numbers dropped dramatically. Even in a place like Liangcun, which is close to the mountains and rivers, Liu Rui has rarely seen sparrows in the past few years, but other birds are not uncommon.

In recent years, with the change of various conditions, sparrows are no longer one of the four pests, and no one has to round them up, and their numbers have gradually increased. In addition, in the division of fields to households, each doing its own thing, for the public nuisance of sparrows, everyone has already let it go.

"Brother, the chestnuts are cooked!" Just when Liu Rui was standing on the courtyard dam in a daze, the crisp voice of the little girl came from the yard.

"Girl, peel two for my brother to taste!" Liu Rui walked into the yard and found that the little girl was carrying a steaming small bamboo basket, which was filled with chestnuts that had just come out of the pot.

Today Saturday, the little girl and Liu Zhi naturally want to go home, Liu Rui went to help others collect chestnuts yesterday, and got a small bag of chestnuts, which happened to be cooked to relieve their hunger.

In addition to planting some mountain crops, the villagers also grow cash crops such as chestnut, star anise and camellia trees.

Yesterday, Liu Rui went to help Wang Shaojun and his family collect chestnuts, and when he came back, Wang Shaojun threw a small bag of chestnuts for him to take home.

Wang Shaojun's chestnut forest was planted by his grandfather more than 20 years ago, and he just wanted to avoid the family's mountainous land being abandoned, but he didn't expect that now these chestnut trees have become their family's cash cow. In recent years, the price of chestnuts has continued to rise, and the Wang family has an income of tens of thousands of yuan a year on chestnuts alone, which has attracted the envy of many villagers.

However, harvesting chestnuts is not an easy task, after all, the chestnuts are wrapped in a thick layer of spiked bracts, and it is not so easy to break. In addition, the chestnut tree is a tall tree, and you have to use a bamboo pole to knock down the fruit first, and then bend down to pick it up one by one, which seems to be easy, but in fact it is very tiring.

Yesterday, when Liu Rui stood in the courtyard dam in the morning to look at the scenery, he happened to see Wang Shaozhang and his two brothers going into the mountains to harvest chestnuts, and they also experienced a hard harvest labor. The three of them worked hard for a day, and their palms were punctured by spikes several times, and they only managed to get back 300 catties of chestnuts. According to Wang Shaojun, it is estimated that it will take more than a month for their chestnuts to be harvested alone.

Liu Rui thought about it in his heart, and found that it was still convenient for his own longan and other fruit trees, although it was more troublesome to manage, but when it was sold, it was done in half a day, so it didn't have to be so nerve-wracking.

"Well, this one is delicious!" The little guy threw the chestnut into his mouth despite the fact that it was still a little hot, and admired it while jumping to his feet.

"Eat slowly, don't choke on the heat!" Looking at the little girl's performance, Liu Rui smiled.

"Brother, when will our family harvest rice?" While eating chestnuts, the little girl asked about the arrangements for the family's farming.

"You don't care about this, the family will arrange it." Liu Rui patted her little brain melon and said, "It's now the third year of junior high school, be serious in school, don't think about it." ”

"Don't always touch people's heads, they have already joined the group, and they are not three-year-olds!" Shaking her head to escape from Liu Rui's big hand, the little girl was very dissatisfied that Liu Rui still treated her as a child.

"I know that our family has grown up!" Liu Rui smiled and withdrew his hand.

Hearing what the little girl said, Liu Rui realized that he didn't seem to have gone to the field to see the situation of the rice for several days, and he didn't know how ripe it was now?

After the late rice was planted in the second half of this year, Liu Rui got a mysterious space, and all of a sudden, the important surnames of those acres of rice fields plummeted, and Liu Rui had completely left it behind.

Longan, fruit farm, small tomatoes, vegetable garden and wine shop, each job occupies a lot of Liu Rui's energy and time, so that he has no time to separate himself. In addition, the rice fields that produce rice are not the most economically profitable projects, so it is inevitable that Liu Rui will be forgotten by his surname.

In Liu Rui's plan, after the rice harvest season, he will lease all the rice fields to others, and collect some land rent every year as rations. More of the time saved can be used for more cost-effective projects, such as winemaking, pig farming, etc.

Liu Rui quickly left the matter of the rice field behind and concentrated on dealing with the chestnut in front of him.

The chestnuts in Wang Shaojun's house are not the common hybrid varieties of cuttings on the market, but the native chestnuts of Qingshan. Although these chestnuts are small in single fruit and unsightly in appearance, they taste really good, and the more you eat them, the more you want to eat them.

When cooked, the chestnuts emit an enticing fragrance, as if the essence of the mountains is concentrated in them. When you peel back the yellow-brown crust and go out to the soft wrapper, you can see the golden flesh, just like a delicate little cake.

Stuffed into the mouth, a bite, soft and sweet, melt in the mouth, that feeling is really incomparable.

Everyone gathered under the osmanthus tree to eat chestnuts, and several pets led by yellow-throated marten also whined under the table, wanting to get a piece of the soup.

Liu Rui saw that a few of them were scratching their ears and cheeks in a hurry, so he peeled off two and threw them to them, but their reactions were very different, not at all. Xiao Hei is an omnivorous animal, eats everything, and as soon as he takes a chestnut in his mouth, he squats there and eats it; Xiaohua carefully stretched out her tongue and licked it gently, which was quite gentle; It was the most funny yellow-throated marten, so I took a bite, shook it off, and never touched it again.

The reaction of the three pets also filled the yard with laughter, no wonder those lonely old people in the city like to have pets, after all, pets can bring more joy to people.

Although Paris is good, you can't eat too much, after all, it contains a lot of starch, and if you eat too much flatulence, it is not easy to digest. Liu Rui cooked a little, everyone in the family ate a little meaning, and the highlight of the evening was the main meal.

Liu Zhi and Tongtong went home, and the family usually had a whole table of good dishes, so that the two little guys were full of oil.

After dinner in the evening, Liu Rui did not stay at home and chat, but walked to the field to see the situation in the rice field and arrange the next step.

In autumn, the fields are golden, and even many trees are showing fatigue and yellow leaves are beginning to fall. The afterglow of the setting sun fell on the fields like a layer of golden light, making the golden rice sparkle with golden light.

From time to time, one or two voles can be seen scurrying out of the fields, and now is the happiest time for them, busy storing food for the winter. Although the winter in the south is not as frozen for thousands of miles as in the north, sufficient food reserves are still necessary.

However, the voles still have to be cautious when moving, because there are several goshawks suspended in the sky, and their sharp eyes can clearly see the prey at a height of thousands of meters, and launch a lightning attack. Often those voles that have been honed by life for a year or two are very clever, and only those small voles seem to be a bit dull and easy to become prey.

However, this is also a very normal thing, after coming to the field and looking at a few rice fields, Liu Rui roughly estimated the time when it could be harvested, and he knew it in his heart.

In the fields, villagers have begun to wield snowy sickles to harvest some early-maturing varieties of rice, and although their faces are soaked with sweat, their faces are still smiling. For farmers, autumn is the happiest season every year, tired is a little tired, but the heart is always sweet.

In Liang Village, the villagers do not grow all hybrid rice, but also grow glutinous rice and conventional rice varieties to enrich their family's rice jars. Glutinous rice can be used to wrap zongzi, glutinous rice cakes or make rice cakes, and although the early-maturing conventional varieties are a bit hard to cook, they are used to cook porridge as a first-class material.

This season, the Liu family planted hybrid rice, and the growth was relatively neat, and it was quite easy to harvest all the rice in one day.

Stepping on the afterglow of the sunset and listening to the singing of birds, Liu Rui gradually felt that the footsteps of autumn were approaching. In the spring, he took over the burden of the family in a panic, and in the blink of an eye, more than half a year has passed. Hard work will eventually pay off, and now it's time to start harvesting yourself.

Life is always getting better and better!

(To be continued)