Crossing the Qinghe Landlord gl

At the beginning of the fifth watch, the sky in Qinghe Village was blue with day and night alternating, and stars could be seen faintly in the dense mist.

The roosters of an unknown family started to crow, and then all the roosters in the whole village started to crow one after another.The scattered cottages in the darkness began to light up candlelight, and there were rustling voices.

In a mansion with two courtyards beside the Qinghe River, the lights were also lit up.Zhang He wore a big cloak and opened the door and walked out. The early morning cold made her shiver. She put on the big cloak and walked to the front hall.

"It's still not dawn, it's terrible!" she muttered.

After lighting a white paper lantern, she first took a look at the cowshed and chicken coop. The old cows and the poultry in the hen coop were there.Then he took the wooden stick, loosened the bolt of the door, opened the door and went out.

Because of Zhang Xian's incident, Zhang He didn't take care of the farmland much for two days.Now that Zhang Xian is fine, she will naturally have to get up at the usual time to do farm work.

Opposite the mansion is a small bamboo forest. When the wind blows, there will be the rustling of bamboo leaves and the sound of tiny insects.Zhang He was walking on this quiet road, the sound of insects stopped suddenly, only the sound of wind blowing bamboo leaves and her footsteps remained.

Suddenly, someone called her in the darkness: "Brother Donkey."

She turned her head and saw that it was Aunt Li, and next to Aunt Li was Xia Jiniang.The two of them didn't light up lanterns, but they got used to the darkness after getting up and working under such circumstances all year round.

"Brother Lu is better?" Aunt Li asked.

"It's ready." Zhang He smiled, suddenly remembered something, and quickly thanked, "By the way, I haven't thanked my aunt for helping me look at the melon seedlings in the field!"

During the two days when she had no time to take care of the farmland, Aunt Li wanted to help her, but Aunt Li was too busy with her own farming work, so she could only help her pay attention not to let Shuang damage the melon seedlings in her spare time. .

"I didn't help much, you're welcome." Aunt Li said.

Tens of mu of Zhang He's paddy fields are on the side of the road and continue to the winding Qinghe River, so they can be regarded as one of the best fields in the village.The few families living in the middle of Qinghe Village almost always passed by Zhang He's fields when they went to the fields.

Aunt Li walked on the ridge of the field with ease, and Xia Jiniang followed behind her, but she walked cautiously.Suddenly, her foot slipped, and her whole body tilted down, and she let out an exclamation: "Ah——"

It's nothing to fall in the field and get your clothes dirty with mud, but if you hurt your waist, it's a big deal.Zhang He, who was behind her, subconsciously reached out to support her hands and waist: "Be careful."

With a "snap", the lantern fell to the ground and was quickly burned by the candle flame. The moment of daylight magnified the two overlapping figures.

The lantern at the foot had already been soaked in water and went out, and the surroundings suddenly fell into darkness again.Xia Jiniang's heart was beating "plop", "plop", but she felt that other hearts were beating besides her own.After calming down a little, she felt that it was the heartbeat of the person behind her...

Realizing that she was leaning against the person behind her, with someone hugging her waist and her left arm being supported, her face flushed suddenly.

Aunt Li seemed to have walked a long way before she realized that Xia Jiniang hadn't followed her. When she turned her head, she saw a vague shadow a few feet away.She called out: "Ji Niang, donkey brother?"

Xia Jiniang broke free as if she had been stung, stabilized her body again, and hurriedly replied: "I'm here." Her mind was in a mess, she simply didn't think about anything, and walked quickly towards Aunt Li as if fleeing.

The touch left by the soft body gradually disappeared after Xia Jiniang left, Zhang He also came back to his senses, and smiled guiltyly.The reason why she felt guilty was because when Xia Jiniang fell on her body, the word "soft jade and warm fragrance" instantly came to her mind. After Xia Jiniang left, she actually felt a little regretful.

"What's the matter, I seem to have heard a cry just now?" Aunt Li asked again.

"It's okay, I just slipped and stepped into the field." Xia Jiniang said half-truthfully.She did slip just now, but almost stepped into a ditch and fell.

"Oh, it's fine." Aunt Li asked Zhang He again, "Brother Donkey, why don't you light up the lantern?"

"Oh, the wind was too strong, and it blew it out. I have adapted now, and it will be fine without lighting the lantern." Zhang He replied.Little did she know that without the lantern, she couldn't do anything.She is a little short-sighted, and she can see things a bit blurry with a lantern, let alone without the lantern.

Aunt Li didn't think much about it, she saw Xia Jiniang following her and continued walking, Zhang He's field was there in no time, her field was far away, so naturally there was no delay.

The battle between day and night was fierce and silent, and the blue sky gradually faded to gray blue, and the sky became gray and bright.

On the vast field, the figures gradually increased.But after a careful calculation, there are more women.

The reason for this is not only because it is not a busy season for farming, but also because it is the time when the imperial court recruits husbands every spring.Every family with a man in urban and rural areas, that is, a 20-year-old adult man, will have one person to serve as a servant for a period of more than a month.Those who do not serve in the official service are also allowed, but they have to pay "exemption money".

Xia Ji's natal family had no one to serve as a servant, and they paid a lot of exemption money.Thinking of this, she felt a little aggrieved again.

Xia Jiniang's second and third uncles were never willing to serve as servants. In the past, in order to save money and save her dowry, it was her father Xia Da who went to serve as servants.But with Old Man Xia's illness, not to mention that her dowry was in vain, Xia Da couldn't spare to serve as a servant in order to take care of Old Man Xia.Xia Er and Xia San sneered and said: "Brother, you can't go to serve as an official, so naturally you have to hand over the 'exemption money'!"

Under Xia Da's weakness and helplessness, he had no choice but to do so.It was precisely because of this that Xia Cui, Xia Jiniang's mother, became angry and asked Xia Jiniang to come to Aunt Li to help.Xia Da knew that his wife and daughter were wronged, so he didn't stop her from coming.

Xia Jiniang didn't dare to let Aunt Li know about this, otherwise, according to Aunt Li's temperament, she might come to scold Xia Er and Xia San.She calculated that in a few days, those who went to serve as servants should also come back.

Busy until dawn, the sky is completely bright at this time, the morning sun shines softly on the vast fields, the morning fog gradually dissipates, and the morning dew on the branches and leaves slowly evaporates.

When Xia Jiniang came back from Aunt Li's field and passed by Zhang He's field, she saw Zhang He's figure busy among the [-] acres of melon seedlings swaying in the wind, and thought to herself: "The seedlings seem to be growing well. Well, the seedlings from other families were either bitten by insects or withered, but these seedlings from the Zhang family are lush and green, and they are growing gratifyingly."

Zhang He seemed to have seen her, squinted his eyes, walked over again, and said, "Are you done?"

"Not yet, my aunt asked me to go back and prepare breakfast. You..." Xia Jiniang looked at the melon seedlings, "Others' homes are ready to plow the fields and start planting rice, why are you still planting these melons?"

When it comes to spring plowing, every household prepares to plow the land and release water for irrigation. After the land is cultivated, it will start raising seedlings and then transplanting rice seedlings.However, judging from the growth of Zhang He's melon seedlings, it has only just been planted for a short time, and it may not be until the end of March when they grow and produce melons.At the end of March, every household had already started planting rice seedlings, and it seemed that it was too late for Zhang He to plant rice again.

Zhang He scratched his cheek with his clean little finger, and said, "I don't plan to grow rice for now."

Xia Jiniang was surprised: "The summer tax will be collected in June, if you don't grow rice..."

"I still have the tax money for this year."

"But you grow all these, what will you eat then?"

Xia Jiniang has never seen anyone who doesn't grow rice. After planting rice, in addition to paying taxes, the remaining grains will be their rations for the next year.She didn't know Zhang He's family background, but she still felt that if things went on like this, the Zhang family would not be able to survive sooner or later.

"Well, it's really troublesome for me to explain. In addition to these [-] acres of land, I have more than [-] acres scattered in various places, but it's enough to take care of these [-] acres, and I really don't have the energy to take care of them. More fields. And I’m new here, and I don’t know anything. After nearly a year of tossing and wasting a lot of seeds, I can barely cultivate these melon seedlings. After all, I have to eat one bite at a time, so I’ll prepare it first , I will deal with the remaining [-] mu of land."

Xia Jiniang was silent for a while, and said regretfully, "If that's the case, why don't you rent out the land?" If Zhang He rented out the land, he could just collect the rent and his life would be better.Moreover, there are still many poor families with no land to grow in this world, but Zhang He left those fields idle because he was too busy, which is really a pity.

"It's not impossible to rent it out, but I still have use for those lands." Zhang He thought carefully, "And it won't be long before those fields will come in handy, and I won't leave them idle."

Xia Jiniang thought, that's right, our family hasn't taken care of ourselves yet, so what are we doing to meddle in other people's affairs?

Seeing that she was going back, Zhang He followed her.Xia Jiniang suddenly remembered the accident that happened to the two of them before dawn, and her face became hot.He stopped and turned sideways again: "You, you go first!"

"...Okay." Zhang He stared at her for a while, but couldn't see anything. Although he thought she was weird, he stopped paying attention.

Back on the road, the two parted ways.Xia Jiniang went back and took the clothes to the Qinghe River to wash, and just after drying the clothes to cook firewood for breakfast, Aunt Li came back, and she called Xia Jiniang over: "Don't make breakfast, let's go together Let’s ask Brother Donkey to borrow cattle and farm tools!” The things she borrowed from Zhang He couldn’t be delivered to her by Zhang He himself.

The author has something to say: Humph, the comments are multiplying..._(:з」∠)_