When the pears are green

Chapter 248 Cocoon

Silkworms gnaw on mulberry leaves day and night. As their age increases, their demand for mulberry leaves increases.

Jiang Qingzhou had to pick mulberry leaves twice a day, sometimes he went alone, and sometimes he went with Song Li and Jiang Huan.

In addition to picking mulberry leaves, they also have to dig grass for chickens and rabbits, so they are busy all day long.

After coming back from picking mulberry leaves, Song Li held Jiang Huan and followed Jiang Qingzhou into the mulberry house. The two, one big and one small, stood in front of the baskets, watching the little silkworms eating mulberry leaves.

Song Li looked at the scene in front of her and felt in a concrete way what it meant to be devoured.

While Song Li was distracted, Jiang Huan stretched out his hand to catch the silkworms in the basket. However, the little guy's arms were a little short, and he could only barely touch the edge of the basket. Jiang Huan pouted and slapped the basket with his fingers, trying to overturn it.

Perhaps because he had tried many times without success or because he had hurt his fingers, Jiang Huan hugged Song Li’s neck and cried.

"My dear baby, what's wrong?" Song Li hurriedly patted Jiang Huan's back to comfort him.

Jiang Qingzhou, who had been paying attention to Jiang Huan's movements, smiled and told Song Li: "Xiao Li, Huan was patting the basket just now. He must have hurt his hand. Can you see if his right hand is red?"

Song Li quickly pulled Jiang Huan's right hand over to check, and sure enough, the pads of his index finger, middle finger, and ring finger were all red.

Song Li lowered her head and blew on Jiang Huan's little hand, and said softly to Jiang Huan, whose eyes were filled with tears: "Huan'er, be good, mother will blow on you, and it will stop hurting. Let's not stay here, let's go and watch Dad cut mulberry leaves."

Jiang Huan turned around and lay on Song Li's shoulder and yawned. Song Li kept walking back and forth to coax Jiang Huan to sleep.

"Xiao Li, are you still planting watermelons this year? If so, you can start raising the seedlings in the next few days." Jiang Qingzhou asked Song Li who was shaking his shoulders.

Song Li glanced at the baskets on the wooden rack and replied, "No more. Raising silkworms takes too much energy. I'll give some of the melon seeds I saved last year to my eldest uncle and cousins. They raise few silkworms and have many family members, so they can handle it. I'll give the rest to my parents in a few days and give some to Uncle Changsong and Uncle Changming. They have many children in their families, so they can grow some for themselves."

Jiang Qingzhou thought for a moment, then smiled and suggested to Song Li: "Okay, let's plant sesame seeds after we harvest the wheat. Since you like sesame paste and sesame salt, plant two acres of sesame seeds and save them for later consumption."

Song Li turned and looked at Jiang Qingzhou. The young man's hearty smile made people feel like spring breeze.

"Do you know how much sesame seeds can be harvested from two acres of land? How can we eat them all?" Song Li stared at Jiang Qingzhou and asked, her eyes unconsciously filled with smiles.

Jiang Qingzhou's smile deepened, and he whispered to Song Li: "Although I don't know how much sesame seeds we can harvest, I know Huan'er is asleep. Hurry up and take Huan'er back to the room. If we can't finish eating all the sesame seeds, we can make oil from them."

Song Li hurriedly held Jiang Huan horizontally in her arms. Jiang Huan twisted his body, reached out to grab Song Li's outer clothes and continued to fall into a deep sleep.

"Then let's plant sesame seeds as you said. After feeding the silkworms, you can go back and have a rest." Song Li walked to Jiang Qingzhou and whispered.

Jiang Qingzhou lowered his head and whispered in Song Li's ear: "Well, I'll be back in a while."

A swallow chirped and flew into the silkworm house, interrupting the couple's whispering.

Song Li walked back and forth in the silkworm house holding the sleeping Jiang Huan in her arms to prevent swallows from landing on the wooden racks and eating the silkworms.

Jiang Qingzhou quickly ran into the main room and took out the bamboo pole standing in the corner. He held the bamboo pole in the silkworm house to drive away the swallows.

After some effort, we finally drove out the swallow that had strayed in.

Seeing that Jiang Qingzhou was sweating profusely, Song Li handed Jiang Huan to Jiang Qingzhou and asked Jiang Qingzhou to carry Jiang Huan back to the room to rest.

"Go quickly, I'll feed the silkworms." Song Li smiled and pushed Jiang Qingzhou out of the door.

Jiang Qingzhou looked back at Song Li who was carrying the bamboo basket. Song Li smiled and waved at Jiang Qingzhou, then walked to the basket and scattered mulberry leaves.

When Song Li returned to the east room after feeding the silkworms, Jiang Qingzhou and his son were lying on the bed and sleeping soundly.

The silkworm grows up slowly and begins to molt for the third time on the eighteenth day.

After spreading the quicklime, Song Li found Jiang Qingzhou who was playing with Jiang Huan in the east room and said, "Qingzhou, according to the book, the silkworms will sleep for twelve hours this time. Let's take this opportunity to go see Sister Wu, Jing'er and Ruyi. I haven't visited them since I heard the good news about them!"

"Okay, it's a little late today. I will take you there after I come back from the restaurant tomorrow. Let's take some things with us so I can buy them back tomorrow." Jiang Qingzhou turned his head and looked at Song Li and asked.

Song Li frowned and sat beside Jiang Qingzhou, thinking. In her mind, there appeared three little figures, meat, cloth, and cakes, fighting with each other, and in the end, the cakes won.

After making up her mind, Song Li smiled and leaned on Jiang Qingzhou's shoulder and said, "Let's buy mung bean cakes and crabapple cakes, three portions of each. Wang Ji in the north of the market has delicious ones."

Jiang Qingzhou patted Song Li's hand on his shoulder and responded: "Okay."

The next day, when the sun rose above the treetops, Jiang Qingzhou drove a donkey cart to take Song Li and Jiang Huan to the town.

This was Jiang Huan’s first time going to the town. He stared at the wheat fields on both sides of the road and laughed “ahaha” continuously.

Jiang Qingzhou took Song Li to Li's house first, and then to Yang's house. Wu Mingshu dug up some cockscomb and impatiens seedlings for Song Li and asked Song Li to plant them in the yard.

Song Li, Jiang Qingzhou and Jiang Huan left Chen Yuan's house after eating and feeding. Before leaving, Song Li promised Ruyi that she would make a silk quilt for the unborn baby.

Not long after, the library closed for the summer vacation, and Jiang Qingzhou took Song Li, Jiang Huan, and Song Xing to Wuzhuang Village, leaving the silkworms in the family to be taken care of by Jiang Qingye.

Song Li heard from Zhang that Song Yue followed Wu Mingde to the city, and the two rented a small courtyard in the city. On weekdays, Wu Mingde went to the county school to study, while Song Yue stayed in the courtyard to embroider handkerchiefs and tie knots, and sometimes she would go to see Wu Minghui.

Song Li gave the watermelon seeds to Zhang, and Zhang took Jiang Huan to the homes of Song Ershun, Song Sanshun and Song Changsong to deliver the seeds.

Song Changsong asked Song Hui to give Song Li two straw hats woven with wheat straw so that the two could use them when harvesting wheat in a few days.

The south wind blew for several days, the wheat in the fields began to mature, and the silkworms entered their fourth molting.

The three brothers Jiang Chen, Jiang Ming and Jiang He helped Jiang Qingzhou and Jiang Qingye harvest the wheat. It only took two days from harvesting to threshing the two acres of wheat.

After the wheat was harvested, it rained heavily. Jiang Qingzhou and Jiang Qingye took advantage of the soil moisture to plant sesame seeds in the fields.

After the busy farming season, the silkworms at home began to bend their bodies upwards and became translucent. According to the "Silkworm Farming Notes", the silkworms were about to start spinning silk.

Jiang Qingzhou and Jiang Qingye first made silkworm cocoons with rape stalks, then placed the mature silkworms on the cocoons one by one, and finally hung the cocoons full of silkworms on hemp ropes tied between wooden frames.

It took the two of them two days to put nearly 20,000 silkworms onto the cocoons.

Jiang Qingzhou shook his stiff arms and placed the iron stove burning wood in front of the silkworm cocoon.

Three days later, the silkworm is wrapped in an oval white cocoon.