Xiao Qiao enters the farm gate

This year was considered to be extremely lively, but Qiao Mo felt that it was meaningless, instead, it was not as happy as last year with Lin Zheng.

Years ago, I felt that time was very slow. During the first month, I would go out to visit relatives, and the time was very easy to pass.Lin Zheng's relatives are all in the village, and Qiao Mo's side is only the Qi family in the capital, and Shang Jinnian is barely counted. He and Song Han are personal friends, so it would be abrupt to go to the Song family in a grand manner.

Busy and busy, the family also entertained several guests, and the Lantern Festival is over in a blink of an eye.

The shop in the city opened on the eighth day of the lunar new year, and Shen Feng was still in charge of it.Qiao Mo wrapped a big red envelope for each of them years ago, and now it is the new year, and on the eighth day of the eighth day, each of them sealed a red envelope. Although the money is not much, it is a joy.

Originally, Shen Feng didn't need to work part-time in the shop. The writing agreement he signed with Song Han was five years long. Although he only wrote it for two short months, the story was extremely popular, and his pen name was also highly respected.During the Chinese New Year these days, all the teahouses and bookstores are talking about the stories he wrote, and the venues are almost full. There are other followers who have written similar stories. .

Now Shen Feng has two jobs with a good income, which not only makes life easier for the family, but also takes time to revisit the old courses, and plans to retake the exam after graduation.

After so many things, Shen Feng no longer has any desire for an official career, he just wants to gain fame and gain some convenience.

Shen Feng and Song Han both went to Shanglin Village to pay New Year's greetings in the first month. Although Qiao Mo was inconvenient to visit, he returned the gift.

Song Han used to be a leisurely person. He read books every day or occasionally went out with Ah Mo to socialize. The only thing he likes is to go out with his elder brother when it is convenient for him to watch college students talk about poetry and painting, and start a club to win the championship.Now it is different, he has his own things to do.Although it is a business, it is regarded as an elegant thing because of the fragrance of pen, ink and paper. The family not only does not stop it, but also strongly supports it, which makes him more and more interested in doing it, and he is busy every day full of energy.

During the first lunar month, when Song Han came to pay New Year's greetings, Song Han didn't stop talking. He told Qiao Mo about the current situation of the newspaper and his plans for the future, and asked Qiao Mo for some suggestions.

How could Qiao Mo give any advice.The Song Han now is different from two months ago. At that time, Song Han was a complete layman who didn't understand anything, his eyes were darkened, but now he can speak clearly and clearly in everything, Qiao Mo is incomparable.

The weather is getting warmer and the earth is thawing.

The villagers began to prepare for spring plowing, but this year Qiao Mo is not busy with such things. Except for the sandy land, all other paddy fields and dry land have been rented out, including the half-acre land he bought later.Originally, he wanted to buy fertile and good land, but he could not buy such a good land because he had no power or power. Even the half hectare of land was entrusted to the Song family's relationship to buy it.First-class fertile land, plus a small Zhuangzi, a total of 420 taels.This is still a friendly price. You must know that it costs 400 taels to buy [-] mu of land. No matter how small the Zhuangzi is, it is a neat and tidy small yard with six or seven rooms in it.

The little Zhuangzi is a little far away, Qiao Mo doesn't plan to find another Zhuangzi, and let Uncle Liu take care of the Zhuangzi when the time comes, there are enough people in the family.

Qiao Mo only kept the sandy land for nothing else, but to grow watermelons.

The family's horse was ridden away by Lin Zheng, and he had to wait for Grandma Li's family to finish plowing the land before borrowing cattle. Anyway, there is no rush to grow watermelons, and the land can be plowed slowly.When plowing the land, I applied a special basal fertilizer, and then let the land be empty first, and then raised it well. The transplanting of seedlings was almost after Qingming.

After calculating the things to be busy in the spring, he paid Uncle Liu to buy farm tools for Zhuangzi's use.

It rained just after entering February. The spring rain is as expensive as oil. It has been raining for two days, and the temperature has dropped a bit. It feels cold during the day.As time progressed, Qiao Mo became more and more irritable, even with a trace of fear, because the delivery date was getting closer.

The day had just cleared up, and he was lazily sitting in the yard basking in the sun, squinting his eyes as if sleeping.

"My lord, here's a visitor." Zhang Xia whispered in his ear, his voice was full of joy.

"Who's here?" Qiao Mo opened his eyes and guessed that the guest who could make Zhang Xia happy was definitely not Situ Xuan, nor Fang Jinnian, Song Han and others... He was puzzled because he had never seen Zhang Xia before. Such an attitude towards customers.

Before Zhang Xia could answer, a handsome and unfamiliar figure appeared in the yard, that immature face seemed somewhat familiar.

"Qi Cong met my cousin." The person who came was a young man, about fifteen or sixteen years old, with a smile on his face, as if the sun was shining brightly.

At this time, Zhang Xia introduced in a low voice: "This is the second young master of my uncle's family. He is fifteen this year."

Only then did Qiao Mo understand why the other person looked familiar, and looked behind him, and many people came in after him, but except for him, they were all servants.

"You came alone?"

"Yes." Qi Cong said with a smile: "Father said that I am old, and let me come here to study at Luming Academy, and meet my cousin by the way. When I came, the third child was arguing to follow, and he kept talking about it." To see Brother Lin Zheng, he was mischievous and fell into the frozen pond, if Brother Lin Zheng hadn't picked him up, I'm afraid he would have died long ago."

"There will always be a chance to see you again in the future." Qiao Mo saw that he was busy and tired, and knew that he must have traveled all the way here, so he asked Zhang Xia to clean up the house.My cousin must be treated well when he comes over, but... his eyes glanced at the huge team of servants he brought, and he was in trouble.

This young master is quite grand enough to take so many people to serve him when he travels far away.

Seeing that his eyes were wrong, Qi Cong immediately knew that he had misunderstood, and hurriedly said, "I only brought two people with me, one as a regular follower and one as a book boy. The rest were sent by my father to my cousin."

"Give it to me?" Qiao Mo sliced ​​apart the three of Qi Cong and counted roughly, there were six people left. "Uncle has already given it to someone else. My house is limited here, and the number of employees is also very limited. I don't need to send so many people."

Qi Cong hurriedly said: "They are all old people from the Qi family, and they are all old people who used to serve in the uncle's courtyard. They brought the deeds together. Cousin just accepts them, even if they are allowed to farm. I think The open space next to my cousin’s house is quite large, so why not expand the yard and build two more houses, my cousin will add a little nephew in the future, if there are fewer houses, how can it be enough to live in.”

Everyone has been brought, and it is not realistic to return to the capital.

Qiao Mo took a closer look. Among the six people, apart from the two elderly people, the other four were all in their 20s and [-]s, and two of them were elder brothers.Qiao Mo left the problem of their accommodation to Zhang Xia to arrange. They are all from the Qi family, so they must know each other, no wonder they were so happy before.

It seems that building a new house is imminent, but the farming is busy now, where can I find someone?

When it comes to building houses, it was freezing cold years ago, and Situxuan's villas and factories were all selected places, bricks, tiles and wood were shipped in, but construction was not started.I saw someone going there two days ago, and I guessed that work was about to start. The villagers must not be able to spare time, and I don't know where to find someone.small town?in town?

Although it is more expensive to find people from other places, it is not easy for so many people to be crowded together.

Now that Uncle Liu is not here, the few who just came are not familiar with the situation, and Qiao Mo can't go out by himself, so he asked Mrs. Liu to find Uncle Li from the Li family and ask him to ask.Because of the busy farming season, each family has limited manpower, so they have to raise wages, and they have to take care of their meals, and they can't live too far away, otherwise they won't be able to go back and have no place to live after finishing the work.All of these have to be told in advance to avoid trouble in time.

In addition, we have to find Lizheng to measure the land.

Originally, the layout of the house would be better if it was built upside down, but there was a vegetable field at the back, and Qiao Mo didn't want to move it for the time being, so he added a yard next to it on the east side and built a few more rooms.

To say that Qiao Mo kept these people is not entirely due to affection or some elders should not resign, but because he considers that his family has a lot of land, and now only Liu Bo can take care of it, but in the future there will be more. He still plans to add more money, there must be someone to use it, not to mention that the family business is getting bigger, he will have to choose two more people to help.The people sent by the Qi family were trained by the aristocratic family since they were young, and they are far better than the newcomers who bought them. Besides, they don't have the money to buy them, and they don't have to suffer the psychological torture of human trafficking.

The matter of measuring the land was done very quickly, he knew the way, and didn't have much money.

It is more difficult to entrust Uncle Li.Uncle Li is also dedicated, but every household is busy with the work in the field. After all, it is related to the harvest for a year, and no one dares to delay.The weaving work in the west courtyard has stopped, and it will be done after the busy farming season. Qiu Geer went to the field together, Li Liang and Li Xiyu Wen asked for leave like last year, and Shen Feng was in charge of the shop. Every time Liu Shi delivered the goods, he would help there.

Qiao Mo's wages are twenty Wen per day, which is really not low in the countryside. How many people are greedy but have no time to spend.

Finally found five people, except for two from this village, the rest are from other surrounding villages.These are families with wealthy families and relatively few laborers. Qiao Mo's recruitment conditions are like a drop in the sky for them, and they come here as soon as they get the letter.

Qiao Mo didn't delay and asked them to start work immediately. The early stage was laying the foundation, which was the hardest and most tiring work.

The five men let go of their arms and were unambiguous in their work. The food that Qiao Mo asked the kitchen to cook was also unambiguous, which was definitely better than their family's New Year's food.On the second day after Qi Cong came, he went to the city, saying that he was visiting a friend of his father's, and arranged for school admission by the way, but he came back within two days.Qi Cong said that he would take care of his cousin Qiao Mo, but he was really playful and curious about the novelty of building a house. He also specially acted as a supervisor, wandering around there every day.

After half a month, some people in the village gradually became busy with the field work, and it became much more convenient to recruit people to work.It's just that they are all short-term workers, usually one or two days, because they also have to take care of the work in the field, and come again every two days. Anyway, the wages here are settled on the same day.Of course, later these workers could not get twenty Wen.

In mid-February, everything is back on track.

Qi Cong was watching over the building of the house, Mrs. Liu was leading the later Grandma Wu in the kitchen, and two elder brothers were helping. Zhang Xia was still by his side, leading all kinds of chores in the house.The west courtyard has also resumed work, and the shops in the city are also running well. He just sent Liu Shi to deliver the goods, and the rest of the people were not idle, and they all went to help build the house.

Seeing that they took the initiative to find something to do, Qiao Mo felt very satisfied, and finally kept the wrong person, so not only the food supply was good, but the members of his family also added a month's reward to each of them.This was the first time, except for New Year's Day, Qiao Mo didn't have the habit of rewarding money casually.

It was the end of the month in such a blink of an eye, Qiao Mo was in a panic every day, and he didn't dare to look at his big belly. At the same time, he didn't know if it was an illusion, but he always felt that there was something wrong with the eyes of the servants of the family.At first I thought it was superfluous, but Qi Cong gradually became strange, and twice he still sighed behind his back with a sad face.

First, I observed it secretly for another two days, and it was really not my own suspicion, so I couldn't help but feel even more panicked.

This day Qi Cong came to greet him as usual, Qiao Mo stopped him, and without going around in circles, he asked directly, "Did something happen to Lin Zheng?"

"Ah?" After all, Qi Cong was still young, and nothing had happened. When he was asked the first time, he couldn't hide the surprise and panic on his face for a while.

"What happened to him?" Qiao Mo knew that his guess was right when he saw his expression, and his heart sank even more.

"No, it's nothing. Cousin, why did you suddenly ask these things? Didn't father write a letter a few days ago saying that everything is fine." Qi Cong laughed dryly, still trying to brush off the topic.

Qiao Mo just looked at him quietly, and he couldn't pretend anymore, so he said: "Don't hide it from me, everyone's expression is wrong these days, everyone has sympathy in their eyes when they see me, secretly He sighed again. They said that I was going to have a baby. Didn’t they all say happy and auspicious words in their mouths, but now they behave completely the opposite? Can I not be suspicious? Thinking about it now, you will have problems when you come back to Fengcheng. But I left the capital to study here instead of going to the academy to study, make friends and talk about poetry. I spent most of my time here, obviously looking at me. The same goes for so many people you brought, they always pay attention to my whereabouts, words and deeds , I used to think it was a habit of everyone, but now it seems that it is all a problem. To be honest, what happened to Lin Zheng?"

Qi Cong saw that he couldn't hide it, so he could only plead in a low voice: "Cousin, I told you, but you must not let father know, or father will blame me for not being able to do things."

Qiao Mo didn't have the heart to joke with him right now, so he nodded and said, "I know, tell me."

Qi Cong sighed, and then he said: "I don't know the details, I only know that Zhao Lang came back at the end of the year, and within a few days my father told me that when the road is easier to walk in the first month, he will arrange for me. I came to Fengcheng. I was curious, so I pestered my eldest brother to ask about Lin Zheng's affairs. My eldest brother couldn't help it, so he revealed a little bit. At the beginning, there were 20 people who went to the north, and most of them were able-bodied. The people recruited privately. Half of them stayed in Jincheng to support them. Only ten people entered the Northland under the cover of a caravan, but then they got separated due to some accident. Four of them came back from Zhao Lang's side. Father Zhao Chang was the best, and he was the most injured, and he stayed in Jincheng to recuperate, except for the others who died of various reasons."

"That Lin Zheng..."

"Brother Lin Zheng is actually missing. When he was separated unexpectedly, two people followed Brother Lin Zheng. Later, Zhao Lang saw the body of one of them. He was wounded by a knife and bitten by a wild animal. He guessed that Lin Zheng I'm afraid the situation of the eldest brother is not good. Later, things did not go well, and martial law was imposed everywhere in the Northland, and the trade was closed to expel the caravans. They had no choice but to come back."

Qiao Mo didn't feel relieved when he heard that Lin Zheng was missing. The situation must be much more serious than what Qi Cong said. It's too difficult to be optimistic when a person is missing there.

What's more, it has been almost three months since the Chinese New Year, but there has been no news from Lin Zheng.

Qiao Mo suddenly felt a sharp pain in his stomach, and his face turned pale instantly.