In April, the peony on the hillside is in full bloom, and the peony garden of more than 30 acres is unique in Huang County. Danyuan is different from other gardens in Huangxian County, the garden is natural but there are scenery every step, which makes people linger, so although there are only white peony flowers in the garden, the carriage visitors who come to enjoy the flowers are continuous every day. Not only peony flowers, but also wild flowers in the mountains and pear blossoms and begonias in the village are also in full bloom.

Because Qingshan Danyuan was only open for more than a month, Xia Shun did not hire long-term workers, but transferred people from the oil mill and other shops in Shangji to come over to work, and recruited a few idle and clever young men from the village, with a daily salary of 30 yuan, and the two sides naturally cooperated happily.

When the villagers have free time, they also sell some food specialties or fresh gadgets around the garden. Once when she went to the garden, Lan Yi saw someone selling small animals, kittens, dogs, chickens, ducks, rabbits, etc., and even other small animals that Lan Yi didn't know.

The people of the village, and even the villagers of the surrounding villages, simply use the vicinity of Qingshan Danyuan as a temporary trading market. The main buyers of this market are flower watchers from the city, so the goods are rare in the city on weekdays, and it is said that the big guys have good business. Yang told Lan Yi that Zhou Weipeng's younger brother Zhou Weilu dug up an orchid grass from the mountains and came out to set up a stall, but he was actually taken by a scholar and bought it for ten times. When everyone saw that an inconspicuous grass could be so valuable, they all ran into the mountains to dig grass and dig trees to sell it, until someone was seriously injured by a wild beast in the mountain and came to their senses. This silver is not easy to earn.

Zhou Weiji has also started to hunt beasts in the mountains in the past few days, and he told Lan Yi to be careful. But that's right! Once Lan Yi saw that his clothes were a little notched, and when she asked, she realized that he had caught two bears and sold them into the city, which made her not worried.

Zhou Weiji promised Lan Yi that he would not go into the mountains and only hunt in the periphery. Every time he hit the prey, he rode directly into the city and sold it, what he was afraid of was that Lan Yi was worried. After selling the money, he went to buy bricks, tiles, lime and other things, and the craftsmen who built the houses had already found them from the city and began to demolish and clean them up. These craftsmen needed to be in charge of a lunch, and Zhou Weiji asked his eldest sister, second aunt, and several younger siblings such as Yang to help cook at home. He also prepared the next part of the wood. Most of the people in the village have sun-dried wood to put around, and Zhou Weiji went into the mountain to cut a lot of wet wood and exchanged it with sun-dried wood. This kind of exchange is still very common in the village. Although there is a clear legal provision to stop people from cutting and punishing indiscriminately, everyone consciously abides by certain rules and will not cut more.

There is a saying here: "The mountains are bright, and the years are desolate". The meaning is clear: if you cut down all the trees on the mountain. When the soil is eroded, the streams will dry up and the fields will not be harvested. The people in the village are very protective of the Daqing Mountain Range, except for their own houses, they are not allowed to cut down big trees, otherwise Li Zheng will come forward, and the strict zhòng will also alarm the officials of the county. After each big tree that the villagers cut down, they planted small trees next to the stumps. And worship the god of the mountain. Otherwise, it will anger the mountain god, and the consequences will be terrible.

This time, Zhou Weiji cut down a lot of trees. Because there is a lot of wood used in the two houses, after the house is built, the furniture, doors and windows must also be made of wood. Every time he chatted with Lan Yi, he paid attention to what he said about the past, especially what the house was like, and he knew that her house was higher than here, the windows were twice as big, and every room had a door. He also knew that Lan Yi liked to take a bath, and basically washed it every day, so he planned to build a house for her to use in the bath, and the bath bucket should be made bigger so that she could soak comfortably. Every time he thinks of the days after the two got married, Zhou Weiji is full of strength and doesn't feel hard.

Lan Yi's hen in the nest finally came out of the nest. Each led thirteen or fourteen ducklings and chicks, and walked around the yard with great vigour, whether it was a chick or a duckling, they were protected by the same mother chickens, which looked very funny. Jia Shi and Wen Xuan were happy for these little ones for several days, because there were a lot of vegetables in the yard, so Lan Yi caught them all into the duck pen, raised them with millet and wheat bran, and vegetable leaves, and gave the other three hens who were holding the nest some duck eggs for them to hatch.

When Lan Yi's first nest of chicks came out of the shell, Zhou Weiji's house had been demolished, the foundation was cleared, and the work of building the house officially began. The number of people who came to help every day also increased, and on Tuesday and Thursday, they commanded everyone to pick up stones, transport soil and dig, and dig foundations, which were in an orderly manner.

When the second batch of ducklings of Lan Yi's family were hatched out of the shell by the hens, the main structure of Zhou Weiji's house had been built, and the firecrackers on the upper beam were lit to send buns, and in late April, the courtyard wall was encircled. Zhou Weiji's red-tiled house with a steeple roof is a cut higher than other people's houses, and even the courtyard walls are made of neat stones, blue bricks and lime, which looks much more neat and atmospheric than other people's houses with different shapes of earth walls, stone walls or fences surrounded by bitter bamboo. These two sets of large courtyards made the villagers praise and envy, and many people joked that Lan Yi would treat Zhou Weiji well after getting married. In order to marry her, Zhou Weiji spent a lot of effort to die, and the whole person lost weight.

After the main structure of the house is built, it will take some time to dry the doors and windows, as well as to paint the house. Zhou Weiji and Su Yongshen live in two undemolished east wings, and Lan Yi is not easy to see, but she just asks Yu'er and her two to send food, clothes, etc. every day. Lan Yi also asked Yu'er to bring Zhou Weiji's dirty clothes over and wash him at home, so that he would not work in dirty clothes.

After the house was built, the helpers and masons in the village stopped coming, and only two carpenters were left to open the doors and windows in the courtyard, and the Zhou family, which had been lively for a long time, finally quieted down. Zhou Weiji began to go to the yamen every day, and after returning home, he got up early and cleaned up the yard greedily. Lan Yi saw him pull a cart from the back of the house to carry soil to fill the big pit in the yard for billet and mud digging, and when the big pit was filled, he actually dug out a large piece of the hillside behind the house.

The hillside behind Zhou Weiji's house was buried by Zhou Weiji's father when he was alive, and he originally planned to open up the wasteland for farming, but after Zhou's father died, it has been barren, and now it is planted with vegetables by Lan Yi, and the living creatures in the family are often driven to the hillside by her to graze. Lan Yi originally wanted to start cleaning up the weeds and shrubs on the hillside and plowing and planting peonies in the autumn, but Zhou Wei didn't allow her to work hard to do this, so he just said that he would clean it up.

Fortunately, the marriage is in June, and it will be too late to pack up and plant peonies, Lan Yi has not yet passed the door, and it is indeed not suitable to be busy on the slopes of the Zhou family. (To be continued......)