People in the mountains are busy every day, spring tea is off the market, some people have begun to prune and accumulate fertilizer, the family relies on women to raise silkworms, and young and strong laborers begin to go out to do odd jobs to earn money.

Liang Mancang is still in the village, in addition to herding horses, he went to the mountains to quarry, he has the strength, reluctant to use chasing clouds to carry stones, always on his own back, the stones in his house are increasing day by day, almost half of the yard is piled up.

Gu Qingshan has been completely healed, Sun is reluctant to follow Gu Shifu out of the mountain to find a job, only let him help at home, in order to thank Liang Mancang for his help to his family throughout the spring tea season, he will help Liang Mancang peel those elm bark when he is free, so that it is easier to dry in the shade, so that the eldest girl has more reason to follow, help cook a pot of porridge, steam a few baskets of steamed buns, and Liang Mancang will have a mouthful of hot rice to eat when he goes home.

One day, Liang Mancang, who was going to go up the mountain to quarry, met Gu Qingzhu with big scissors to repair the tea tree, he didn't say a word and stepped forward to help, this man's arms were strong and powerful, and the big scissors cut the branches in his hands, as if playing, he took care of the appearance of Qingzhu pruning, three times five divided by two, only half a day, two acres of tea trees were pruned, Gu Qingzhu only needed to collect the branches and leaves, and compost together with the charcoal ash of the tea before.

The women passing by were all envious, because they often took care of each other, and a secret rumor began to quietly circulate in the village, saying that Liang Mancang likes Gu Qingzhu, and the eldest girl likes Liang Mancang, and Gu Qingzhu and Gu Daya are still best friends.

However, they didn't dare to say it in front of the three of them, after all, the two dogs' faces full of wild rose thorns were not fake, and even if the women reached an old and ugly age, they still wanted a good face, so this secret secret was quietly fermented in addition to the three of them and their family and friends.

Gu Qingzhu, who was so busy all day that he couldn't regenerate a pair of hands, didn't know at all, the little silkworms at home grew fast, and their appetite became bigger and bigger, and they had to eat most of the mulberry leaves every day, and they had grown from black and ugly ant silkworms to a white insect, but they were still thinner.

Two or three days later, the silkworm began to stop eating dormant molting, and began to eat mulberry leaves again the next day, but obviously felt fat, and the original silkworm plaque seemed crowded.

Put a silkworm plaque woven with hemp rope, sprinkle fresh mulberry leaves on it, and after a cup of tea, those silkworms climbed from the gap in the net to the mulberry leaves on it to eat.

Gu Qingzhu saw that the number of silkworms was almost there, so he connected the net and poured the silkworms and mulberry leaves into another silkworm plaque covered with scorched chaff.

After repeating this several times, the silkworm was successfully divided into foils, and one plaque became three plaques.

Gu Qingzhu carefully collected the silkworm sand, the silkworm sand is the poop of the silkworm, dark green, with patterns, it looks good-looking, these silkworm sand cannot be directly used as fertilizer, and it must be fermented by covering the soil.

Every time the skin is peeled, the silkworm is quite a year old, the two-year-old silkworm can already eat the fourth tender green mulberry leaf on the mulberry, at this time the amount of cannibalization is increased again, Gu Qingzhu does not dare to be sloppy at all, and takes care of it carefully every day.

In order to ensure that the silkworms grow about the same size and can finally be loaded at the same time, it is necessary to start using bamboo sieves, which are made of bamboo strips half a finger wide, with grippers on both sides and sparse mesh intervals at the bottom.

When feeding, as long as the mulberry leaves cut into squares are placed on the net, pinching the grippers on both sides of the bamboo sieve, and swaying left and right at will, the mulberry leaves will automatically leak down from the mesh, uniform and labor-saving, and each plaque is fed two sieves at a time.

The weather is getting warmer and warmer, the remaining mulberry leaves stained with silkworm sand and scorched chaff become unclean, if the silkworm eats, the light will be sick, the heavy will die, so Gu Qingzhu increased the number of feeding, once in the morning, once at noon, and once when going to bed, in addition, every three to five window sills, the door should be sprinkled with lime powder to sanitize.

Gu Qingzhu was busy all day long, and before he knew it, he had arrived in Lixia, the broad beans planted in the corners were all full, picked a few peeled beans and rice, and then cut a handful of leeks, you can fry a plate of green and tender yellow fresh, the vegetable seedlings in the field have just emerged, cut a handful, burn a bowl of vegetable seedling egg soup, and serve it with white flour steamed buns, and eat a refreshing meal.

The women in the village began to be busy planting cucumbers, eggplants, and cowpeas, and those who had idle land would also grow pumpkins and winter melons.

At this time, it was early summer, and the wild peaches in the mountains gradually began to ripen, and Qingying followed Qingchuan and Tie Dan every day to run wildly, occasionally picking half a basket of fruits back, and feeding the chickens with many half-ripe ones.

The silkworm baby will be three years old after a dormant molt, but some silkworms are too naughty, how can they not sleep, they still have to eat mulberry leaves non-stop, Gu Qingzhu has been raising silkworms for three years, and it is the first time to see it, so he has to use the net to move these sleepless silkworms to another plaque to feed them intensively.

Since Gu Shiqiang's death, the Qin family has changed the tea garden to mulberry trees, and silkworm cocoons in spring, summer and autumn are the main source of income for her family, and she supports herself and her son by raising silkworms and embroidery.

She is an expert in silkworm raising in the village, so Gu Qingzhu invited her to come and see: "Aunt Qin, what's wrong with these silkworms?" ”

Qin Shi looked at it and knew the crux of the problem: "This needs to be divided again, the weak silkworms can't grab food, the feeding is uneven, these are still moving, they haven't reached a dormant state, and they naturally have to continue to eat." ”

"So what now?" Gu Qingzhu asked with some concern.

"Let's feed it for another day, it's probably going to be dormant tomorrow." Qin Shi used silkworm chopsticks to pull down the silkworms that were eating fiercely, and said, "These picked out silkworms, after they are dormant, they must be fed more, otherwise they will not be able to catch up." ”

Gu Qingzhu had to do what he said, and when he got up the next day, he saw that those silkworms were indeed honestly dormant.

Qin's family has ten foil silkworms, about four or five thousand, the daily amount of food is amazing, she has to pick a large basket of mulberry leaves in the morning and evening, now the weather is hot, in the dense mulberry garden, every time is stuffy and sweaty, this evening, Qin boiled a pot of water in the kitchen, ready to bathe.

As soon as she took off her coat, she heard a crisp sound of branches breaking outside the window, as well as a faint male voice cursing in a low voice, the kitchen only has a door and a small window, in order to prevent those men with evil intentions from taking advantage of her, Qin has to build a few gravel piles outside the window and put some small branches before every bath, so that as long as someone approaches and accidentally steps on it, the gravel and branches will make a sound.

There are many rights and wrongs in front of the widow's door, the Qin family has been widowed for many years, and she has already practiced a pungent temperament, she heard the sound, and immediately put on her coat, while wearing it, she rushed out of the door, and shouted loudly: "There is a thief, catch a thief!" ”

The small Gu Jiaao was startled by this thunderous shout, and several dim lights lit up through the window lattice.

Qingying had already slept, Gu Qingzhu was sewing clothes under the lamp, and when she heard Qin's cracked silk-like shout, she dropped her needle and thread, drew her walking stick from behind the door, and ran out quickly.

In the makeshift stable, Liang Mancang, who was feeding the horses, also heard the sound, and he immediately carried a bow and arrows, carried a horse lamp, and picked up a wooden stick on the firewood pile, and chased straight after the sound.

When a sneaky black shadow heard Qin's call for help, he couldn't help but shudder, and turned his head and ran away in a panic.

Tonight, the moon was in the sky, half light and half dark, and the black shadow just wanted to flee for his life in the dark, and plunged headlong into the pine forest.

The Qin clan chased and shouted, Gu Qingzhu and Liang Mancang followed the sound, and more villagers rushed to the scene with torches and wooden sticks.

The surrounding light had already made the figure exist, but he still fled desperately, Liang Mancang took his bow and arrows, and a white feather swept past the man's ear with a whoosh with the sound of the wind, nailed to the pine tree in front of him, and the tail of the arrow was still swinging, making a small sound like a snake's hiss!

"Ahh The man did not know whether his ears had been scratched or whether he had been frightened by the arrow feathers that suddenly blocked his way, and he fell to the ground at once.

"Which bastard, dare to come to Gujiaao to spread wild!" Several villagers had already rushed up and punched and kicked the man indiscriminately.

"Spare your life!" The man could not hold back any longer and begged loudly for mercy.

"It turned out to be Yang Dafa from Yangjia Village!" The villagers heard his voice, and took a torch to shine it, and sure enough, it was the leper dog.

The villagers were disgusted with his reputation, and shouted and asked: "Dog, you are bold, you are fat, say, the black light is blind, what are you doing in Gujiaao!" ”

"I ...... I heard that there are people in your village who have a lot of chickens, and I wanted to ...... and hiss...... As a result, I touched the wrong door, but the sister-in-law ......" Yang Dafa, who had a blue nose and swollen face, touched the wounds on his body, and was still thinking about Qin's full chest, and said with a snort.

Liang Mancang didn't wait for him to finish, and kicked him over: "Bastard thing!" ”

"You...... You...... Ah......" Yang Dafa lay on the ground and looked up, looking at a god like a mountain, he immediately looked frightened, and he couldn't even speak properly.

He has been beaten by Liang Mancang last time, these days have just been raised, in the morning in the town heard that there are people in Gujiaao who raise chickens, he sneaked in the evening, no way, Yangjia Village and the surrounding villages in the chicken have been stolen by him, that is, there is no theft, in order to prevent him, it is simply a chicken as a golden chicken, and he has to sleep in a room with people at night.

He wandered around the village, but did not find the chicken, but found that the Qin family was about to take a bath, he was a pervert, and he wanted to peek at the brain, but he stepped on a broken branch, and the beauty bathed without seeing it, and he was beaten into a pig's head.

"If a dog can't change eating, get out! If you let me see you in Gujiaao again, don't blame me for having no eyes in my bow and arrow! Liang Mancang tugged hard, and the tip of the arrow that sank into the trunk of the tree was already pointed at Yang Dafa's eyes!

"Ah, don't dare, don't dare!" Yang Dafa was so frightened that he retreated again and again, and a smell of urine ~ overflowed.

"Phew! Don't get out of here! ”

"I'm going to die, it's just standing on our ground!"

"Hit out!"

Gu Jiaao angrily waved the stick in his hand and the hoe, as if he was about to rush up in the next moment, Yang Dafa didn't care about the pain on his body, turned around and ran, he ran while looking back, but unexpectedly there was a downhill in front of him, he couldn't stop for a while, and fell directly upside down.

The people of Gu Jiaao listened to him howling like killing pigs all the way, and laughed one after another, no one cared about him alive or dead, and went straight home.

"Aunt Qin, how are you?" Gu Qingzhu held Qin Shi and clearly felt her slightly trembling body and sweating all over her body.