Chapter 17 Chapter Sixteen

After the Spring Festival, the ground of Guanzhong Road changes color like a trick.First, the white is getting lighter and lighter, and the snow is melting, and gradually more and more brown, and the land has taken off its snow robe and revealed its true colors.It was probably embarrassing to be naked like this, and soon the green jacket covered him.At first it was light green, then light green, then dark green.Green alone is too monotonous. The winter jasmine, peach, and pear blossoms are blooming. Yellow, red, and white flowers are dotted on the front, back, trousers, legs, and sleeves of the green coat, making the spring fields gaudy.

The colors are mixed, and the sound is noisy.The Weihe River is freezing, and the water that has been silent all winter can no longer hold back, they are rolling and shouting.Butterflies and bees hummed songs to the flowers, trying hard to collect pollen from others. Birds returned to the village one after another, chirping and greeting each other.The wild geese returning from the north are calling for their sons and daughters at high altitude, and the whole family flies over people's heads. Spring is the slack season, whether it is wheat or smog, they are just getting up now, and they stretch out their fluffy shoots, densely covering the field, like a green blanket beyond the horizon.Such delicate sprouts don't need to be tended to. In winter, people give them enough fertilizer, and God feeds them enough snow water, so they will take care of their joints for a while.In this season, besides leaning against the wall of the village to bask in the warmth and spread the word, the villagers just squatted on the ridge of the field, accompanied their crops, talked to them, encouraged them, and watched them feed themselves one by one day by day. grow up.

Zhou Kewen is busy when others are free.At the end of last autumn, he only planted a dozen mu of wheat for rations, and the rest of the 100 mu of land were all stubbled, and he planned to plant cotton this year.It's February now, and it's the season for planting cotton. The cotton seeds were brought back from Xi'an by Zhou Ligong, and Zhou Kewen liked them very much when he saw them.This new variety is different from the old seeds at first glance. The seeds are full and thick, as if they are full of energy inside, just waiting to stretch their arms and legs in the soil. Such good seeds must of course be matched with good land.What Zhou Kewen left behind is good land, which is the drought-flood guaranteed harvest field under the plateau.Zhou Kewen didn't dare to be careless about such a good land. From the moment the stubble was resting here, he carefully tended them without stopping to prepare for cotton sowing.

Zhou Kewen is an old hand at tending the land.Zhou Kewen had already fertilized the open space at the end of last autumn when others were planting opium. Others looked at it as a pity and said, isn't it a waste to put manure on the stubble land?The scholar is really rich!Zhou Kewen laughed at those people with shallow eye sockets. What he did was to nourish the earth and let the earth accumulate energy.The fertilizer applied at the end of autumn just caught up with the heavy snow in winter. The thick snow covered the fertilizer, allowing it to fully ferment, and then seeped into the soil with the melted snow water, making the land fat and strong.Now that spring has begun, the ground becomes crisp as soon as it freezes, which is a good time for plowing.

On the day of plowing, Zhou Kewen and the long-term workers all went to the field.When we came to the field, everyone waited for the first plow to be opened first.This first plow is exquisite and is called Zhapanzi.He wants to draw a boundary line between his own family and other people's land, so that he will neither hurt others nor break himself.In addition to drawing clear boundaries, it is also necessary to determine the depth, whether it is a deep plow or a shallow plow, and those behind must follow the front.Usually, the first plow has to be done by the hand, and those who are not hardworking dare not make mistakes. Today, Zhou Kewen is the one who does his part.What Zhou Kewen plowed was a deep plow. He wanted to turn up the fertile soil and cultivate a good foundation for the cotton bed.

Although the mellow soil dug out was already crisp, Zhou Kewen was still not satisfied. He called all the people into the field, each with a wooden mallet, lined up, and beat the clods in the ground, even if they were finger-sized. Big dirt bumps are not spared.After such tidying up of the land, it is as flat and soft as a big kang covered with ten layers of mattresses. Zhou Kewen was just laying a kang for cotton.He wants his cotton to bear children on such a soft and greasy kang. The night before sowing, Zhou Kewen left all the long-term workers at his own house, and no one could go back. He also lived in another house and did not sleep with his wife.When he got up in the morning, he rarely took out cyanine and asked everyone to wash their hands and faces carefully, and then told the long-term workers that no one should scold the animals in the field, don't say a word of swearing, and avoid it for a day!

Zhou Ligong wanted to laugh. He felt that his father was a godlike man who just grew cotton. Is it necessary to be so solemn?Seeing that his son couldn't hold back, Zhou Kewen said that if you want to laugh, you can laugh, we are not afraid of laughing. A long-term worker asked, is it okay to sing?Zhou Kewen said, it’s okay to sing, this cotton is passed from Hebei, and I’m used to Hebei Bangzi. If you give it a Qin opera and tell it to taste our great Qin music, it must feel that it has a high throat and a loud voice. The tune is enjoyable, and I will immediately accept the water and soil here.

The planting that day was full of joy and laughter. Zhou Kewen drove the plow and hummed. The plow gently scratched the ground. The seeds were sprinkled on the oil residue, and the long-term workers put on the rakes behind them, and the seeds of hope fell to the ground like this. Planting cotton is like planting Zhou Kewen's heart in the ground.He wandered around the field all day, sometimes muttering to himself, not knowing who to talk to, sometimes he would just sit on the ridge of the field without saying a word, eating bag after bag of stuffy cigarettes.He didn't go home after dinner, Zhou Liang had no choice but to assign Zhou Ligong to call his father again and again.Zhou Ligong got annoyed when he yelled too much, he stomped his feet when he saw his father and was about to count, but his father gouged him out and spoke first.Zhou Kewen said, take it easy and ram it, the steps are so heavy, it scares the seeds!Zhou Ligong couldn't bear it any longer, talking about his father, he was really trying to spare his energy, the crops have to grow by themselves, what can people do with it?I didn't expect his father to be more tempered than him, why are you so heartless?Seeds are the most uncomfortable when they are stuck in the soil. Anyway, I have to accompany them. People have feelings for crops, and crops are righteous to people!

Zhou Ligong curled his lips and said, do you really treat crops as human beings?Zhou Kewen said in surprise, what do you think of the crops?The master said that the old age is cold, and then the pines and cypresses will wither. As the saying goes, the grass and trees in one's life and one autumn, don't you treat the grass and trees as people?Even if the vegetation is like this, wouldn’t the crops planted by humans for humans be more humane!You have never planted crops, and you do not know the spirituality of crops. Zhou Ligong stopped arguing with his father.He admits that he has no experience in growing crops, but he believes in science. Science classifies growing crops as botany and horticulture. He has more or less been in touch with those knowledges, and there is nothing in them that is supernatural like his father's.He couldn't explain the science clearly to his father, even if he explained it clearly, his father would not believe it, just like he argued with his father about the pros and cons of Chinese medicine and Western medicine, and in the end no one could convince the other.

What made Zhou Ligong feel that it was too much was what happened later. The cotton hadn't germinated on the fifth day after it was planted, which made Zhou Kewen very anxious. He didn't know what happened.Zhou Kewen first suspected that there was not enough moisture, but he went to the field and grabbed a handful of soil and kneaded it into a ball, so he knew that the water was sufficient. If it was watered again at this time, the seeds might be damaged.Is that infertility?Zhou Kewen's land has been fertilized with oil residue twice, and it is really so fat that it will burn the seeds to death if it is fertilized again.It’s not right to say that the temperature is too low. People have already taken off their cotton-padded jackets and replaced them with jackets in Yangchun.

Zhou Kewen would have known what to do if he had planted old cotton, but now that he is planting new cotton, he has no idea.Send Zhou Ligong to Xi'an to ask others for advice. It took more than ten days to go back and forth on the road, and the cottonseed would have been smothered to death!In desperation, Zhou Kewen had no choice but to adopt an evil prescription. Zhou Kewen called Zhou Liangshi over, and murmured something in her ear.Zhou Liang looked at Zhou Kewen suspiciously and said, can this work?Zhou Kewen said he had to try.Mrs. Zhou Liang went there for a while, and came back and said, I asked, and I also touched it with my hands. The little guy is naughty, kicking and punching in his mother's stomach. Zhou Kewen said happily, that's right, tie the sedan chair! Under Zhou Kewen's command, the guys tied two wooden rafters on both sides of a Taishi chair to make a simple sedan chair. Mrs. Zhou Liang carefully helped Chun'e out and helped her sit on the sedan chair.Chun'e's body was already very heavy, and she covered her stomach with both hands in fear.Mrs. Zhou Liang comforted her and said, don't be afraid, don't worry, there is a mother following her. Seeing this situation, Zhou Ligong didn't know what to do. He asked his father, and his father said that he gave birth to cotton.Zhou Ligong became angry, saying that this is simply nonsense, so you are not afraid of shocking the pregnant woman's fetal gas? Both Chun'e and Zhou Liang looked at Zhou Kewen. They were actually not at ease in their hearts, but they didn't dare to say it out of their mouths.Zhou Kewen said, you are not so delicate, your mother was still pushing the rollers in the mill when she gave birth to you.I'll carry it, walk slowly and steady, it's all right! You have no scientific basis for doing this!Zhou Ligong said angrily.Science your fucking feet!Zhou Kewen scolded, do you have a way to scientifically produce cotton seedlings for me?If there is no way, you just get out of the way and try my way. Zhou Kewen pushed aside Zhou Ligong, bent down to lift the sedan chair, and the long-time worker rushed to grab it. Zhou Kewen said, I will lift the front, and you lift the rear, just follow my footsteps. On that day, the people of Zhoujiazhai were as happy as a holiday.They followed Zhou Kewen's sedan chair like watching monkeys, watching the old man carrying his daughter-in-law around.People think that this scholar is not at the age of ignorance, why is he acting more and more perverted?The price of opium is so high, others can't wait to free up the yard to grow opium. He is a rich landowner, but he doesn't grow opium and grows cotton!Cotton is not sprouting, and everyone is watching his jokes, but he is carrying his daughter-in-law on a cruise, intending to add entertainment to everyone. Zhou Liang's face was flushed with embarrassment, and he didn't dare to lift his head.Chun'e simply wrapped herself in a scarf, both to protect herself from the wind and to hide her shame.Only Zhou Kewen didn't change his face and acted in a panic. He led the sedan chair around all the cotton fields in his house, and walked for a whole morning before returning home. Strange to say, on the third day after Zhou Kewen used his pregnant daughter-in-law to give birth to cotton, the sprouts all over the ground suddenly emerged from the ground overnight!Zhou Kewen was the first to discover this miracle that morning, and he laughed out loud with joy.Unexpectedly, this smile caused trouble: he peed his pants!It turned out that Zhou Kewen had a habit of urinating in his own field every morning with his stomach full. This saved him the trouble of emptying the urinal, and secondly, he directly fertilized the field.Today, as soon as I arrived at the field, I saw the cotton seedlings all over the ground. He was so happy that he forgot to pee. People forgot to pee, but his bladder was not forgotten. Holding his dirty trousers, Zhou Kewen rushed home and told everyone the good news in a loud voice. The good news came again.At sunrise on the morning of March 15th, with a majestic cry, Chun'e gave birth to a fat boy, and Mingdetang had a successor. I don't know whether it was the pregnant woman who gave birth to the cotton seedlings or the cotton seedlings gave birth to the grandson, anyway, both of these things met Zhou Kewen's wishes.Zhou Kewen was proud of his wise decision. He told the whole family, "Look at it, look at it!"Others have nothing to say, and feel that this old man has some supernatural powers. Zhou Ligong was not convinced, saying it was just a coincidence. Zhou Kewen said, do you do a coincidence and show me? Zhou Ligong had nothing to say.