Just after the Lantern Festival, Ziqing asked Zifu and Zilu to help and moved the big saplings in the yard to the back mountain, but fortunately, the tree pit had been dug a long time ago, and it was not difficult for the three of them to do it. All kinds of saplings are added together, and there are almost a hundred, plus Ziqing goes to the bazaar when he has nothing to do, and occasionally he can meet those who sell saplings, although there are not many, Ziqing generally buys them, and when they accumulate together, there are dozens of them.

Because there are more than 30 sheep, Ziqing is afraid that the sheep will gnaw the saplings, find some baskets with charcoal to put on the circle, busy with this, and raise watermelon seedlings, this year there are ten acres of sandy land in the new courtyard has been renovated, the fence has also been done, and watermelons are also planted, so the need for melon seedlings is much more than in previous years, Ziqing is very busy for a few days.

Because Shen was pregnant again, Zeng Ruixiang took He over before leaving. He said that Shen had lost his body when he had a child before, so he took this opportunity to make up for it. The physical work in the yard is basically done by someone, either Zeng Ruiyu or the Shen family, the transplanting of melon seedlings on the fifteen acres of land this time was completed by the Shen family, of course, the excess melon seedlings, Ziqing let them take away.

On this day, He asked Ziqing to go to the hillside outside the village to find some fresh wormwood, saying that he wanted to make some wormwood rice cake. Ziqing's hometown in her previous life would make that kind of dark green wormwood rice cake to eat in the spring, Ziqing likes to eat it very much, there is a fragrance of wormwood, and since then, I haven't eaten it. Ziqing went out with a basket, and saw that there were villagers pinching wormwood on the hillside, Ziqing also learned to pinch a basket of tender tips and went home, and when she got home, she saw He soaking glutinous rice.

There was no man in the family, so Shen called Ziqing to ask Zeng Ruiyu to fight. Ziqing didn't understand what it meant, and she didn't dare to ask. He Shi held the soaked glutinous rice, Ziqing took the sieve, and followed Zeng Ruiyu to a house at the head of the village, which had three stone mortars, and someone needed to step on the end of the wooden mill. As soon as the foot is released, the wooden mill just smashes into the mortar, which is what it means.

There are two families who are licking rice, and the women squatting next to the stone mortar are quickly scooping out the broken rice from the stone mortar to sift it, and then pour the broken rice back in the sieve and then pound it. What can I do if I smash my hand?

"Grandma. Can you? Be careful not to hurt your hands. ”

Zeng Ruiyu and He Shi both laughed when they heard this, and He Shi touched Ziqing's head lovingly.

With the help of Uncle Santang, it took more than half an hour for He to return home with the glutinous rice flour, and Shen had already boiled the wormwood, leaving only dark green juice. He Shi poured this juice into the glutinous rice flour and began to knead it, Ziqing, Zishou and Zixi watched from the side.

It turns out that February 19 every year is the birthday of Guanyin Bodhisattva. On this day, if conditions permit, mugwort rice cake should be offered to Guanyin Bodhisattva to enjoy.

"Then why didn't we do it in the old year?" Ziqing asked.

"Didn't the two days of the old year blow a strong wind that blew your aunt away? Where else can I go out and find wormwood? I just moved in the year before last, and I don't have anything at home. Didn't bother with that. Shen rubbed as he spoke.

"Mother, it looks like cow, can this be eaten?" Zishou asked.

"Cow, don't eat it, Xiaosi doesn't eat cow." Zixi also said on the side.

Shen, He, and Ziqing laughed. Shen patted Zishou's back with his hand and said: "This child, I don't remember if I haven't eaten for two years, when you were three years old, my mother took one for you, you didn't say it was made of cow, and you didn't eat it, and then I saw that everyone ate it, and you were hungry again, so my mother took one for you, took a bite, and said it was delicious, and if you want your grandma to do it, I won't give it, and I didn't make a few in total, she sent it to your aunt's house." Speaking of which, Shen sighed later.

"What else do you want to do with those? How much better life is now, let's eat hard, isn't it, junior? Ho persuaded.

What Ziqing doesn't understand is why he has to use wormwood, and Shen can't say it, only that it has been inherited from generation to generation, not only this, but also a kind of cake, which is made of ordinary rice flour, with a wooden mold, kneaded a round cake, and then buckled it on the mold, and there was an image when it was removed, as if it was a child offering a peach, it was a little blurry, and Ziqing couldn't see it clearly.

After these were done, Shen lit three sticks of incense on the long table in the hall, kowtowed three times to the Buddha statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva, and respectfully offered a plate of wormwood rice cake and a plate of fasting cakes.

Ziqing took a green wormwood rice cake, as if she could still smell the fragrance of wormwood, which was more fragrant than what she had eaten in her previous life, with soybean flour and brown sugar in it, Ziqing ate three in one go, and wanted to eat it. Looking back at Zixi, his face was covered with soybean flour and sugar stains, and Zishou was not much better.

At this moment, Zilu came home from school, and Ziqing pulled him and said, "Second brother, come and see, we have two little gluttonous cats." ”

Zilu also smiled at a glance: "Where did the little gluttonous cat come from, we don't have fish in our house." ”

"My sister is bad, my second brother is bad, I don't like my sister." Zixi looked at Ziqing's accusation with wet eyes, and Ziqing laughed and hurriedly found a wet hand towel to help them clean up.

A few days after Guanyin Bodhisattva's birthday, Ziqing's family had a lot of good things, at first the Chinese entrusted Zhou shopkeeper with a letter saying that there was a shop to be resold, Shen wanted to take Ziqing to see, He was not at ease, Shen had not experienced these after all. So the family hired a donkey cart to the city, picked up the Chinese to see the house together, the location of this shop is really good, in the most shops and the most prosperous Qianshui Street, the original owner because he plans to move out of this place, so to sell.

Ziqing's family went in to see, it turned out to be a silk shop, the shop was fifty square meters in size, the business was all high-end silk satin, etc., the shopkeeper was a local, surnamed Liu, upstairs was two warehouses and a guy's house, and there was a small backyard, there was a well in the courtyard, a few houses. Because the location is good, the shop and backyard are priced at a total of 500 taels of silver, but some of the original owner's inventory is also priced at 500 taels of silver.

Shen thought that there was not so much silver taels on hand, so it was better to find the shopkeeper Zhou to inquire clearly, but he didn't expect that the shopkeeper Zhou was familiar with the shopkeeper Liu of the silk village, and after a conversation between the two, they told Shen that the rent of this shop for a year was about fifty taels, and the shopkeeper Liu was willing to eat this batch of silk and continue to operate, but he did not have enough silver taels, and it took two days to borrow. In this way, Shen did not have to worry about the lack of silver, nor did he have to worry about the problem of renting out the shop, so he happily agreed to buy the shop and made an appointment to go through the formalities together in two days.

After arriving home, Shen asked someone to send a message to Zeng Ruixiang, and made an appointment to meet at the gate of the Yamen in Anzhou City two days later to handle various contract transfer procedures. When Shen and He came back from the city that day, they said that everything had been done, and they also took the rent of forty-two taels for the remaining ten months of this year.

A few days after the shop was bought, Li Zheng came to Shen's side, saying that the son of a family in the village had committed something in the field, and urgently needed to raise some silver to send to his son, and the family's silver was not enough, so he wanted to sell twenty acres of paddy fields, and his paddy fields were next to Ziqing's house, and most of them were planted with rape, Shen quickly said to buy it, since it was because his son had an accident and was in a hurry, of course, he couldn't bear to lower the price at this time, in addition to the paddy field of three hundred taels, and sealed ten taels of silver rape seed fee. The next day, I helped to complete the transfer procedures.

Now Shen's heart is really much more down-to-earth, he has been a farmer for so many years, and his enthusiasm for the land is unimaginable to ordinary people, and he always feels that if he grasps the land in his hands, he will not have that kind of panic of starvation.

Ziqing knew that this was her mother's first time buying a house, so she was inevitably excited, so she smiled and said, "Mother, our family's life will definitely get better and better, so you can wait for happiness with peace of mind." ”

After these busy past half a month, it's time to cut rapeseed, the twenty acres of paddy fields planted with eighteen acres of rapeseed, the remaining two acres of idle land, and so on other rape cut almost, Shen's Tuo Ruiyu from the village to find ten young and strong good offspring, a day forty penny no food, it took two days to dry the rape to his own yard. Then the Shen family gave up twenty acres of paddy fields, and like the Ruiyu family, three stones of millet and six buckets of rapeseed per mu a year.

"This money is still worth spent, this all points to a few of us, and this rape will not be harvested next year." Shen sighed, probably remembering the hard work she had with her two children in the first year. (To be continued)