jdhmnovel Chapter 223 Rain from the sky
Chapter 223 Rain from the sky
This farce shattered the hopes of the villagers of Shanglin Village.
Everyone was immersed in extreme loss and panic and couldn't extricate themselves.
After everyone had left, Li Taohua walked into the house with her head down.
Lin Dajiang closed the gate, said to his children, "Qingzhe, Xiaoman, go to bed quickly," and hurried into the house.
Lin Jingzhe and Lin Xiaoman looked at each other.
The latter shrugged, "Brother, can you sleep?"
Lin Jingzhe shook his head, "What do you think?"
The two walked to the main room, sat down face to face, put their hands on their cheeks, and sighed at the same time.
Lin Jingzhe looked up, "Why can't you sleep?"
"Me?" Lin Xiaoman pointed at himself and laughed, "Of course I'm worried about when the drought will end! Without rain, my family has lost so many opportunities to make money! There's no hope for a cold winter this year. The prefectural and county schools are closed, and not many people buy Lin'an tabloids. Preserved eggs and Chinese sausages can't be affected, otherwise we'll be spending money all year long without making any money."
Lin Xiaoman rubbed his head, feeling worried.
"Also, my soap business was going strong, but... oh, there were five or six hundred bars of soap piled up in the workshop. Fortunately, soaps are very profitable and I have already made back my investment. Otherwise, I would probably be praying to God for rain every day."
Lin Jingzhe also had a headache, "Don't even mention your soap, it's already August 15th and 16th, and the rabbits haven't gotten pregnant this year, so they've been eating hay for half a year in vain."
"It's all tears if I talk too much!"
Lin Xiaoman has been idle for several months. She has the pollen for the beauty soap, but it is useless if she can't buy lard.
Originally, he wanted to change the poverty situation in Shanglin Village and several nearby villages by making soap workshops.
In the end, everything was ready but the weather was not good, which was the most fatal thing.
There is nothing I can do but wait.
The two of them sat until dawn. Lin Xiaoman couldn't hold on any longer and went back to sleep yawning.
On the next day, the villagers of Xialin Village heard that someone was stealing water, and immediately found Lin Dazhu to discuss countermeasures.
The two people, whose combined age was over a hundred years old, closed the door and pondered for more than an hour.
From that day on, the number of people on night duty was changed from five to fifteen.
But even so, there are still villagers from other villages coming to steal water.
He was knowingly committing a crime and came to Shanglin Village blatantly to steal drinking water.
Fortunately, there were many people on night duty, and everyone had learned from the previous lesson and remained vigilant. They kept their eyes open and reminded each other, and in just five days, they caught four groups of people who came to steal water.
They are all from nearby villages. When the water runs out, they come out to steal and rob openly.
Lin Dajiang felt fortunate more than once that they had listened to Xiaoman and made the decision to contribute the water. Now the villagers of the two villages could work together to preserve the well.
-
Although it was bleak outside, the backyard of Lin Xiaoman's space villa was full of greenery, with cultivated magnolia seedlings and various vegetables, and the front yard was colorful and bright.
After being pruned, the roses bloomed again in all their splendor.
Lin Xiaoman had no time to appreciate the flowers. He cut all the flowers with a "click" and "click" sound, and dried them. He then trimmed the branches with flowers and continued to plant them.
After the picked petals are dried, they are ground into petal powder in the same way as the previous steps. In order to ensure that the soap materials are fine, the petal powder is sifted twice to make sure there are no large particles of powder before being stored in a jar to provide raw materials for making beauty soap later.
No matter when or where, Lin Xiaoman is always busy.
-
Late at night on the first day of September, Lin Xiaoman got up as usual and prepared to go to the well to drain water.
After opening the door, before the person stepped out of the room, a flash of lightning split the night in half, followed by a thunder that came from far away.
The thunder was not loud, but it was enough to make Lin Xiaoman excited.
It is going to rain!
Before Lin Xiaoman could cheer and call for help, flashes of lightning streaked across the sky and thunder roared deafeningly, as if the sky was being torn apart.
Lin Xiaoman heard the villagers on night duty beating gongs and shouting excitedly, "It's going to rain, it's going to rain!"
"Dong dong dong."
"Everybody get up, it's going to rain, it's finally going to rain!"
Lin Xiaoman knocked on the door of his parents and Lin Jingzhe's room, and everyone got up.
Thunder kept exploding in my ears, and soon, rain as big as beans poured down, hitting the ground with a "da da da da" sound.
The sound is really beautiful.
"A shower of blessings from heaven, a shower of blessings from heaven!"
"Oh my god, it's finally raining."
Lin Xiaoman opened the gate and heard all kinds of calls and shouts. Many villagers were running wildly in the rain and knocking on doors from house to house.
The rain was accompanied by strong winds, almost blowing people down.
It seemed as if God wanted to make up for the four months of rainfall that was owed to the earth all at once, and the rain curtain had been falling for three hours and had not stopped yet.
The rain was still falling until dawn, and the entire Shanglin Village was hidden in the rain.
As early as when the work was done, every household took out jars, basins, and bowls to collect water. As long as the container could hold water, they took it outside and collected basin after basin of rain water.
Everyone was very scared, afraid that after the rain, there would still be drought.
Lin Jingzhe came back from outside and took off his raincoat. "Xiaoman, the river is more than half full, and our small pond has also been filled with a lot of water. It won't be long before your soap workshop can open again."
"Great, let the rain continue for a while." Lin Xiaoman looked outside the door.
The black hair was scattered all over the sky. Looking up, the sky and the earth were all hazy and indistinguishable. Not far away, the sounds of chickens crowing and dogs barking could be heard.
The rain continued for three days and then stopped.
Lin Dajiang went to the fields and saw that they were full of water, and the dry rice seedlings looked particularly conspicuous.
These dead poles need to be burned when the weather clears up.
Lin Xiaoman went straight to the workshop and looked through her soap.
After standing for about three months, the soap has been completely saponified and can be used immediately.
She swept the floor and walls and wiped the table.
After finishing the cleaning, Lin Xiaoman went to the backyard to see the magnolia tree that she had taken good care of.
The magnolia trees are growing well with daily watering with space water and will bear fruit next year.
Lin Xiaoman asked Lin Jingzhe to run errands and inform Lin Erniu to go to work tomorrow. After hearing this, Lin Erniu turned around excitedly on the spot, patted his chest and told Lin Jingzhe that he would do the errands and that all the twelve people working in the workshop would be there tomorrow.
Lin Jingzhe was happy to be lazy, so he went back and took the book to Xie Ci'an's study.
"Xiao Man's soap workshop will open tomorrow. She is so happy that her eyes are narrowed into slits and she smiles at everyone she sees."
Xie Ci'an listened and asked, "Will it open tomorrow?"
Lin Jingzhe nodded, "Yes, my father went to the town to order pork fat this morning, and it will be delivered tomorrow morning. However, after four months of drought, there shouldn't be much pork fat."
Xie Ci'an said: "After the drought, the people need at least a year and a half to recuperate, or even several years."
"Yes, Dad came back from Dayi Town and found that several shops were closed. I'm afraid..."
Lin Jingzhe couldn't continue speaking, and said, "I won't say any more. There's no point in saying more."
-
Early the next morning.
Lin Xiaoman went to the workshop to open the door, and Lin Erniu and the other twelve people had been standing at the door waiting for a long time.
"It's useless for you to come earlier. We still have to make lard."
As soon as Lin Xiaoman finished speaking, four aunts hurried over.
Li Shan's wife said, "Xiao Man, it has rained, the road is slippery and muddy, we are late."
"Not too late, not too late, they just came early."
Lin Dajiang filled the workshop's large water tank with water from the river yesterday.
Lin Erniu took one look and pointed at the water tanks, "Xiaoman, I'll take care of these water tanks from now on."
"How can I let you come alone? Count me in." Wang Xiaogou was unhappy. How could he be left out of this opportunity to show loyalty in front of Xiaoman!
Others expressed their desire to join in. Lin Erniu became unhappy when he saw so many people competing with him for work.
The tall man stood next to the water tank and said, "With your small bodies, I can only carry four buckets of water at a time. Can you do that?"
"We can't, but we can carry water more times." Wang Xiaogou said, "Do we need to compete to see who can carry water faster?"
Lin Xiaoman smiled and said, "If you really want to fetch water, you can take turns like guarding the well~"
With their help in fetching water, dad can save some energy.
Wait until the Chinese New Year, and then I will give everyone more New Year gifts to express my gratitude.
Wang Xiaogou nodded quickly, "Okay, let's do as Xiaoman said."
Lin Xiaoman nodded, smiled and clapped his hands, "Let's get to work!"
Everyone found their own work and started working.
Six people started grinding the powder. Mugwort, Lithospermum officinale and Polygonum multiflorum were all used up last time and needed to be ground and sieved again.
Lin Xiaoman took out two cans of ground rose pollen from the space and said, "This is the new pollen I have been thinking of. I will try it when the lard is ready."
Lin Chunhua opened the lids of the jars. One jar contained dark red powder, while the powder in the other jar was lighter in color.
The four people who were responsible for stirring in the second process washed their tools and had nothing to do for the time being, so they helped to process the lard. In less than an hour, the first pot of lard was ready.
Zhou Quan came in carrying two buckets of lye water, "Boss, here's the water you requested."
"Only two barrels?"
Zhou Quan shook his head, "There's more at the back. I'll start preparing it when the rain stops. I'll go get it later."
Lin Xiaoman finally got the lard he had been longing for.
She couldn't wait to see what the beauty soap made from rose pollen would look like.
Lin Xiaoman asked Lin Erniu to come and help, and he and Lin Chunhua mixed the alkaline water and lard according to the proportion.
Lin Erniu was in charge of stirring for a quarter of an hour. Lin Xiaoman added dark red rose pollen twice, and Lin Erniu continued stirring.
Lin Erniu is very strong, has good arm strength, and keeps stirring.
Lin Xiaoman was amazed when she saw this. If it were her, she would definitely alternate between her left and right hands and take breaks in between.
After stirring for about another half an hour, Lin Erniu poured the stirred soap liquid into a bamboo tube.
Cover the bamboo tube with gauze and tie the opening with a straw rope.
"We'll see if it works tomorrow." Lin Xiaoman carefully took the third brother's bamboo tube to the corner and placed it there.
The workshop on one end was operating in an orderly manner, while in the fields on the other end, the young and old of Shanglin Village went out to pull out the dead stalks in the fields and pile them up.
When the ground is completely dry, burn the hay into ashes.
Then comes the hoeing of the ground and mixing the wood ash into the soil.
There are already more than eighty rose seedlings grafted from cuttings in Lin Xiaoman's space. She planted rose seedlings on two rows of land not far from the backyard where magnolia seedlings were originally planted.
The Lin family is no longer surprised. Xiaoman just likes to tinker with weird things.
Just like magnolia fruit, they originally didn't know that this inedible fruit could be used to make jelly.
In short, don’t waste money and let Xiaoman do what she wants.
Lin Dajiang was afraid that there would not be enough crops to plant during Xiaoman, so he helped her open up three more ridges of land.
"If it's not enough, tell Dad and he'll help you open up two more fields."
"Thank you, Dad. Don't worry, it's enough for now. If it's not enough, I will definitely ask Dad for help.
"Okay." Seeing that Xiaoman had nothing to do here, Lin Dajiang went to loosen the soil and prepare compost.
Li Taohua was hoeing the ground in the backyard and sowing various vegetable seeds.
Lin Jingzhe worked in the fields in the morning and studied with Xie Ci'an in the afternoon.
Even Guyu brought Xiao Lidong to help Li Taohua.
In short, the Lin family seems to have endless work to do.
-
After a few days of sunny weather, the hay on the ground dried up, and Lin Dajiang burned it all with a fire.
After another night, Lin Dajiang, Lin Jingzhe and Zhou Quan took their cows to plow the land.
It was not enough to just turn the soil over. They also carried all the previously stored rotten soil into the field and turned the soil over again with the help of oxen.
It’s a pity that there is not enough decomposed soil, and it is only barely enough to add two more plots of land.
When the villagers saw this, they followed Lin Dajiang and piled the hay on the field together and burned it.
"Brother Dajiang, what did you pick up from home? It doesn't look like manure, it looks a bit like soil."
"It's just soil..." Lin Dajiang said with a smile, not giving others a chance to ask more questions, "What else could it be! Have you finished tilling your land?"
"Not yet! We don't have cows like you do. We have to take turns pulling the plow, but it's slow!"
"You have many brothers, and now is not the busy farming season. You will be able to finish the harvest in two days." Lin Dajiang interrupted cheerfully, and then went to the field by himself.
The villagers who saw it always felt that things were not that simple.
Do you specifically pick up soil from your home and bring it to the field and mix it with the soil from the field?
Aren't they all dirt? What's the point of mixing with them? Are you just wasting your energy doing nothing?
Even a fool wouldn't do this, right?
The villagers remembered this incident and told their brothers about it when they got home.
His brothers asked, "You saw it, didn't you? Why can't you recognize what it is?"
"It looks like dirt, black."
"That's it. The Lin family raises rabbits, so it's either soil or rabbit poop, or soil mixed with rabbit poop. What do you have to doubt?"
"Is that so? No, I remember rabbit poop was really smelly, but the soil Lin Dajiang picked is not smelly at all."
The brothers didn't care and joked, "Why don't you dig up the soil tomorrow when Lin Dajiang isn't paying attention and see what's been added inside?"
"What? I can't do this."
"That's it. We should hurry up and turn the land over. Then we can plant cabbage, radish and winter wheat. Then we can have a harvest next year. Otherwise, what will our family eat when there is a shortage of food?"
"That's right, don't keep your eyes on Lin Dajiang. The Lin family is good at doing business, but when it comes to farming, our family is one of the best in Shanglin Village. Lin Dajiang didn't look like a good farmer when he was working so sneakily."