Some time ago, the temperature dropped sharply, and it was said that it was going to snow.

After Xu Ling returned to the village, it was cloudy, and when he woke up in the morning, he found that the withered yellow grass outside was covered with silver frost, but the snow could not fall for a while and a half.

The people Gu Litian helped to find and build a house were all acquaintances in the village, and Xu Ling gave them a salary of 90 yuan a day, two meals, and a constant supply of hot water.

This kind of work close to home and not bad for money is willing to be done by everyone in the village. The hands of the people are short, and the building of the house is also attentive, and the strength of the number of people is great, and the foundation of the kung fu is raised in less than a day. The bricks and tiles that Sun Baoyao helped buy are still slowly being transported to the village.

Xu Ling's board car was also requisitioned.

The Xu family built a house, and the Gu family was also busy, the woman helped cook and boil water, and the man supervised the work to buy vegetables and fish, Xu Ling didn't know anything, except to pay for it was to rest.

Early in the morning of this day, the eldest girl was eating, and Li Dayuan broke into Xu's house with a few children.

happily asked Xu Lingdao, "Brother Ling, do you have something to do today?" Let's go to autumn! ”

They went to the lotus pond yesterday to see, many people were digging lotus roots, and some people were catching loaches and fishing, so it was not lively!

Anyway, Xu Ling is idle, and these children are happy to play with him.

Xu Ling hasn't said anything yet, Xu Ping and Xu An can't sit still, they are the same age as Li Dayuan, they used to have a bad reputation at home, and few children were willing to play with them, but now they are in the light of Xu Ling, running around with these children, Fan Shiqing wants to teach them to read, and he can't even catch people.

Xu Ling persuaded Fan Shiqing to rest for a while first, and when the house was built and the hardware came up, he would let the two monkeys calm down and study.

Fan Shiqing snorted twice, and didn't say that he was unhappy. He was a little reluctant to teach Xu An before, it stands to reason that if a girl wants to study, she must invite a female master.

But with this condition in Xu Ling's family, it is much more difficult to invite a female master than a male master.

Looking at Xu An again, she is more playful and active than her brother Xu Ping, she can't see the appearance of a girl, and she is a little smart, so Fan Shiqing also acquiesced to teaching the two children together.

At this time, when he heard that Xu Ping and Xu An were going out to play again, the old man put down the porridge bowl, wiped his mouth, and said, "You two are not allowed to go out today, learn three words from me before you can go out to play." ”

Xu Ping's eyes widened: "Why! ”

Xu An smiled and said, "Master, don't you want to eat lotus root?" My sister-in-law's lotus root is fragrant and crispy, but it's delicious! My eldest brother can also touch fish, maybe I will be lucky to touch a king and come back and replenish your body! ”

Fan Shiqing, the old man, has not eaten anything good for more than ten years, and he is closer to food than anything else.

After hesitating for a moment, Xu Ling smiled and said: "Reading and literacy are not bad for these two days, the weather is good today, I will take you to dig lotus roots together, if someone in the village kills pigs, buy some ribs and come back to stew soup to eat!" ”

When Old Man Fan heard this, he no longer stopped him.

Li Dayuan's children were waiting on the side, and when they finished eating, more than a dozen people came out of the Xu family's courtyard, and the saws and hammers next door were all in battle, clanging.

Xu Ling said hello to his family and told them that they were going to dig lotus root in autumn, and Gu Yu went back to the firewood house to find two back baskets and told them to be careful on the road.

"Big girl, let's take it with me, I can work with her on my back."

"Don't get in the way, with Xu Ping and Xu An watching, you're tired enough to cook."

Xu Ling hugged her daughter and refused to let go, she has been in a relationship with the eldest girl in the past few days, and she is no longer afraid of him.

Holding Xu Ling's neck, he shouted: "Daddy, meat!" ”

The eldest girl is two years old, every time the adults chat, she always looks at this and that, Xu Ling teases her, what he says, she learns.

Xu Ling smiled: "Don't worry, you must take care of the child." ”

Gu Zhen told the eldest girl to be obedient, and then went to the kitchen to Zhang Luo.

Xu Ling took the children from the village and walked for half an hour before they reached the vicinity of the lotus pond.

As soon as I got closer, I heard the voices of people coming from the lotus pond, and some people stood on the shore looking and pointing, and the laughter was so lively.

However, digging lotus root this season is not an easy job.

The river water is cold and biting, the lotus leaves are withered and fallen on the turbid water, and there are at least thirty or forty people digging lotus roots in the huge lotus pond, scattered everywhere and not showing that there are many people.

Li Dayuan's children also carried baskets.

Xu Ling's side, he must be going down to the river, and the eldest girl was handed over to Xu Ping and Xu An to take with him, and they were not allowed to go down.

He was afraid that it would be too cold, and the two unlucky children would fall ill with frost.

Not to mention Old Man Fan, if it weren't for the sake of eating stewed pork ribs with lotus root, he wouldn't want to go out of this door, wouldn't it be fragrant to squat at home and wait for the meal to open?

But Li Dayuan pulled up his trouser leg and wanted to go down to the river.

Xu Ling saw that he was wearing thin clothes and his lips were blue, so he hurriedly stopped: "You want to go down too?" ”

Li Dayuan wiped his nose and said with a smile: "Brother Ling, I went down to dig lotus roots, can I borrow your car to pull it elsewhere and sell it?" I want to make money too! ”

This kid! It's really a brain, it turned out to be the idea of fighting!

Xu Ling also said that this kid came to him every day.

Li Dayuan has four children in his family, his father and mother are not separated, a large family of nearly 20 people, there are seven or eight children, usually adults work, raise chickens, ducks and pigs, chop wood and mow grass are very busy, and there is no time to watch the children.

Li Dayuan would take his younger brothers out to run around, beat dates and touch snails, and pick up stones to find Xu Ling to exchange sugar for food.

Xu Ling admired his temperament and immediately agreed.

"But be careful, the river is cold!"

"It's okay, I'm not afraid of the cold!"

Li Dayuan's chest snapped, pulled up his pants to reveal two small thin legs, and followed behind Xu Ling.

There was no one Xu Ling looking for, he grabbed the grass on the shore and went down to the lotus pond, felt the biting water, and grinned and walked to the middle.

The mud under the soles of his feet is very soft, stepping on and sinking, Xu Ling is not good at digging lotus roots, but Li Dayuan is one of the experts.

His family comes to fight autumn every year, and sometimes his grandfather and uncle in his family are free, and they will also come to dig lotus roots, even if they don't sell for money, they can keep them for winter as vegetables.

He taught Xu Ling how to dig the lotus root, judge the position and growth of the lotus root from the lotus stem, and then dig up the silt on it by hand, touch the position of the lotus root, and go out a little bit, it is best not to break, if the lotus root hole is in the silt, it is not easy to wash and not to eat.

Xu Ling originally thought it was very interesting to dig lotus roots, but when he really stood below and excavated, he began to regret it in his heart.

The water in the lotus pond had not dried up completely, and it was inevitable that he would touch the water when he bent down to touch the lotus root.

He is noble and so, and for Li Dayuan, it is inevitable that his whole face will be buried in the water.

Digging the mud, touching the lotus root, and then slowly pulling the lotus root out of the mud is time-consuming and laborious.

Xu Ling did it for a while, he had a sore back, and then looked at the ten-mile lotus pond, and said in his heart, no wonder the villagers had to wait until the leisure time of not farming in winter to dig lotus roots, the weather was not so cold during the autumn harvest, but digging lotus roots was a waste of time!