Jincheng flower hour

After the soybeans were harvested, the soil was turned and the radish seeds were sprinkled.Gouzi went to water and pull weeds every day and took good care of it. After a few days, emerald green seedlings grew and were densely packed together.Gouzi carried the bamboo basket, pulled out the poorly developed seedlings, and put them into the basket, leaving only the tall and vigorous radish seedlings.The picked radish seedlings are tender and delicious. Pinch off their heads, rinse them in clean water, chop them up and knead them into noodles, bake them into green vegetable cakes, and eat them with rice soup. They are delicious.

Liu's mother is a clever woman who puts her heart into eating and can always make delicious food with limited and crude ingredients.

Dogs, watering, weeding, and catching insects every day, take good care of this radish field.

As for the taro field, Gouzi only needs to weed and plant it by the river, where there is abundant water and no irrigation is needed.Taro grows slowly and can only be harvested in autumn.The food grown at home is naturally not enough to eat. Fortunately, the dog can fish and hunt, and also knows how to carry the burden to sell dry goods in the county. In addition, Liu's mother weaves to earn money. The life of the mother and son in Zhuli has really settled down. too hungry.

Recently, there are a lot of smoked dried bamboo shoots, which can be sold.As usual, Quanzi set off for the county seat before dawn.He carried a bamboo basket on one end of his shoulder pole and a dried salted fish on the other end.The dried bamboo shoots in the bamboo baskets are for sale, while the dried salted fish are for giving away.

It was already afternoon to sell the dried bamboo shoots in the county town.

Gouzi carried the empty bamboo basket to Laili, to Lao Duan's house.There was a girl at the door of the old Duan’s house who was feeding the chickens. It was Duan Si, the daughter of the old Duan. Seeing the dog, Duan Si said happily:

"Brother Ah Hong, Father just said yesterday when you will come over."

"Xiaosi, where is my master?"

"Father is chopping firewood behind the house."

Gouzi unloaded the burden, untied the dried fish tied to the shoulder pole, and handed it to Duan Si.Holding the dried fish, Duan Si went to the kitchen with brisk steps.The old Duan's family was poor, but Duan Si cherished everything he ate.

"Brother Ah Hong, you are thirsty, drink water."

Duan Si insisted on bringing out the water ladle and giving it to the dog to drink.

Gouzi worked hard all the way, full of wind and dust, and the sweat and dust on his face could rub out mud pellets.Gouzi walked to the creek in front of the old Duan's house. He washed his hands and feet, tidied up his messy hair, and tied it up again.Duan Si stood aside, handing Quan Zi a cloth to wipe his face.

Old Duan had heard the sound and knew it was Gouzi coming. He took out a pair of bows and arrows from the house and stood under the old peach tree to wait for Gouzi.

This old peach tree in Duan's courtyard has a target hanging on the trunk.Both the target and the trunk of the peach tree are scarred and battered by bows and arrows.The bitter peach tree grows quite lushly, and its branches are full of fruits.

Quanzi held the bow and stood far away from the target. As soon as he raised his bow, before he aimed, the old Duan patted his arm and said, "Stand back." Quanzi obeyed and stepped back ten steps. Back off."

It wasn't until Gouzi retreated to the edge of the stream that there was nowhere to retreat, that old Duan shouted, "Shoot."

Duan Si sat on the stone steps at the door, holding a pear in his hand, and a basket of pears beside him.She ate it happily, and she didn't think it was strange for the arrow feathers that kept flying in front of her.

"Whoosh" an arrow flew over and landed firmly on the target.

"Crack Ka", Duan Si took a bite of the pear, it was sweet and juicy.

Duan Si was wearing adult clothes, which were wide and big, and the clothes were old.Duan Si has delicate eyebrows and eyes, she is not as rude as the old Duan, she looks like Duan's mother.

"Whoosh", arrow feathers flew by from time to time, Duan Si stared at the target, counting in his heart.After Gouzi finished shooting the arrows in the quiver, he came over with Old Duan, Duan Si gnawed off Li's buttock, pointed out his finger and said, "Brother Ah Hong, two of them missed."

Quan Zi nodded, took a big pear, wiped it with his clothes, and bit it down, Duan Si also gave Lao Duan a pear: "Father, I'll eat it for you."

Lao Duan took the pear and sat beside her, father and daughter side by side, eating the fruit.

Gouzi sat on the next stone step and quickly finished eating a pear.Gouzi walked up to the target and retrieved the arrow.A bunch of arrow feathers were tied on the target, about a dozen of them.Quanzi looked up at the westward sun.

"Master, I should go back."

"Don't worry, kid, I'll give you something."

Old Duan took out a huanshou knife from the house. The blade was blue in color and the handle was made of wood. It was so dirty that its original color could not be seen.

"I handed over an old knife from a gangster for my teacher, try it."

Lao Duan threw the knife to Quanzi, and Quanzi took it in surprise.

"Thank you sir"

Quan Zi held the ring head knife in his hand and swung it twice. It felt heavy. It was different from the wooden knife he used for practice before. Compared with it, the wooden knife was a child's toy.

Gouzi wielded the long knife and made chopping, stabbing and other movements. When he danced the knife, he looked like an old apprentice.The old Duan stood watching with his arms crossed, and kept nodding his head.

On the way back, Gouzi was carried by Lao Duan on a horse, and galloped all the way in the sunset. Looking at the generous back of Lao Duan, Gouzi had the illusion that his father took him to ride a horse.The setting sun in the sky is like blood, one big and one small ride together, heading for Zhuli.

Whenever Gouzi went to the county town to sell dried fish or bamboo shoots, he would go to Lao Duan to practice martial arts.If it was too late, Lao Duan would ride a horse to send the proud student to the intersection outside Zhuli.

Quanzi returned home with a ring-sword on his back. Mother Liu knew that he was practicing martial arts with Duan Youjia from Laili, and she didn't object to it, but just said not to waste the field.

"Understood, don't worry, mother."

"Today, the dealer Saburo came to see you, you go to the dealer and ask what's the matter."

"it is good."

Quanzi drank the porridge in a hurry and rushed to the dealer.

These days they still send fish to the banker, and they have a close relationship, but I don't know what Aping is looking for him today.

Going to the farmer's yard, as soon as she entered the gate, she saw Zhuang Lan chasing out of the house. In front of her was a running bamboo shoot. She shouted: "Stinky bamboo shoots, don't run, return the embroidery frame to me."

When Zhuang Lan ran, there was still the sound of crisp bells, and a pair of bells hung on her belt.

Quanzi happened to be in the way of the bamboo shoots. Quanzi picked up the bamboo shoots, pulled out the embroidery frame from its mouth, and handed it to Zhuang Lan.

"Brother Ah Hong, you're here!" Zhuang Lan was very happy to see Gouzi.

"Well, my mother said that Aping came to me today, so I'll come and have a look."

"Ah Ping doesn't have anything important. He must want to play chess with Brother Ah Hong."

Aping likes to play chess, but he can't beat the dog.

The bamboo shoot was struggling in Quanzi's hand, and Quanzi felt that it was much heavier, so Quanzi squatted down and put the bamboo shoot on the ground.

"Eating bamboo can also grow so round."

Intuitively, the bamboo shoots are more than twice as big as the first time I saw them, and they grow very fast, and they don't look small anymore.

"My brother said that when it comes to autumn, the bamboo shoots will grow up, and we will put them back into the forest."

Zhuang Lan felt that her brother would definitely be reluctant, even she felt reluctant too.

The dog touched the round head of the bamboo shoot, and the bamboo shoot thought it was going to play with it, so it immediately put up its front paws and hugged the dog's thigh.This tapir cub is the best at hugging the thigh, and the dog managed to get rid of it with great difficulty, and went up to the second floor to find Aping.

Quan Zi went upstairs to find A Ping, and saw that the light in Zhuang Yang's house was on. He walked over and saw that A Ping was in Zhuang Yang's house.

"Being virtuous and selfless, towering above the heavens and the earth. Thank you at the same age, and be with your long-term friends, Shuli..."

Zhuang Yang was writing something in front of the case, and from time to time he would use his chips.A Ping put his hands on a wooden tablet, and recited poems beside the case. He chanted the word "Shuli", stopped for a long time, and forgot the poems.

"Shuli is not promiscuous."

Zhuang Yang took it, and he looked up, just in time to see Quanzi standing at the door.

"Ah Hong, don't stand at the door, come in."

Only then did Quan Zi enter the house and sat beside Zhuang Yang. He always liked to read Zhuang Yang's writing, even though he didn't know a single word.

"Brother Hong, do you want to learn to write?"

A Ping could tell that Quanzi was interested in writing.

"Erlang, can I learn to write?"

Quanzi asked Zhuang Yang, he naturally wanted to read and write, but he had never learned.He is quite envious of scholars, because Zhuang Yang is very knowledgeable.

"Yes, it's like a child learning, starting from the mountains, rivers and fields."

Zhuang Yang nodded. He felt that Gouzi was very smart and would definitely be able to learn it.

"Erlang, I want to learn my name first."

"Okay, Hiro, I'll teach you how to write first."

Zhuang Yang held the brush, demonstrated it to Quan Zi, and then handed the brush to Quan Zi.Gouzi took it, and his five fingers were at a loss as to how to squeeze it. Zhuang Yang leaned over and corrected his movements.Quan Zi smelled the fragrance of Zhuang Yang's clothes, he withdrew his mind and listened carefully to Zhuang Yang's teaching.

The days passed unknowingly, and the livestock of Quanzi's family grew up and multiplied.Rabbits were the first to be born, and before autumn, a litter of bare pink bunnies was born.Mother Liu took the cub away, and Gouzi made a nest for the cub with rags, and then Mother Liu took care of the cub.Liu's mother brings the cubs to the mother rabbit to nurse every day, and brings them back when they are full, so as to prevent the cubs from being accidentally crushed to death by the mother rabbit, and even the horrible phenomenon of cannibalism by the mother rabbit.Since giving birth, the female rabbit has been eating very well, eating soybeans every now and then, so that she can produce milk to feed the cubs.

In autumn, the sheep of Quanzi's family gave birth to two lambs, one pure white and the other pure black, because the mating ram was black.Beside the white ewe, there are black and white lambs, which is really interesting. Zhuang Lan comes to see it from time to time, and feeds the lambs to graze.Zhuang Lan even wanted to buy a white lamb from Gouzi. A Ping said to her, "If you keep it for two days, you must be too lazy to take it out to graze. You're not going to starve it to death." Zhuang Lan then dismissed the idea.

The pig gave birth to six piglets. Because it was free-range, it took a long time for the dogs to find out.As for the heroic appearance of the boar, no one has ever seen it before, and no one knows which witty boar it is in the deep forest.Wild boars in Zhuli are very rare, and they must have come from deep mountains and old forests.

The sows took the piglets around for food, digging the soil around the back of the house, and the dogs felt that they couldn't afford it.Quanzi sold one piglet to Father Chun, kept one piglet for himself, and borrowed the rest on Father Chun's cart to be sold at Wu's shop.

It can be called a windfall.

Bai Bai, who is already a mother, is lying on the ground in the pit and gnawing on the roots of plants. Next to it is a little piglet, lazily patting its big ears and humming. It is quite the style of Bai Bai back then.

In late autumn, the young dog, wearing Zhuang Yang's old autumn clothes, was busy in front of and behind the house.Feeding pigs and rabbits, farming and weeding, weaving nets and cutting fish.Occasionally he would stop and look towards the dealer's yard, and sometimes he could see Zhuang Yang's figure.

Every day before dawn, Zhuang Yang was awakened by the crowing of roosters. He put on his clothes and went out of the house. Standing on the wooden porch, he could see the figure of the dog wielding a knife in the yard.

From the fallen leaves in autumn, to the snow in the cold winter, to the singing of birds and the fragrance of flowers in spring.

Zhuang Yang just stood on the wooden porch and watched for two years.Watching Quanzi grow from a thin child to a strong and tall young man.

Volume Two