No pain no gain

……

After the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Da Zhuang led Er Zhuang, took two hundred copper coins, dozens of eggs, two pieces of homemade bacon and some dried vegetables, and went to the old master in a nearby village. As soon as Er Zhuang was able to go to school, he accepted the student.The next day, Er Zhuang happily went to school with the cloth bag that Da Zhuang specially asked Widow Wang to make. Since he was in another village, it would be a bit hard for him to come back to eat at noon. Da Zhuang made it for Er Zhuang. Pickles, kimchi, etc., put some in small jars, and bring two steamed buns to Er Zhuang, let Er Zhuang deal with it at noon, and when the weather is warmer, prepare meals for Er Zhuang to take over...

After the Chinese New Year, the spring sowing began soon, and after that, the fool almost lived in Da Zhuang's house, only going home once in a while.

Da Zhuang helped the idiot to take a closer look at the two acres of medium-sized dry land. In fact, the soil is not bad. The plants I collected while I was free and the vegetable leaves I had saved for the whole winter were retting into manure. Except for the pond that I had just dug out, all the others were pulled by donkey carts to the fool’s field. I took a few little guys to pick up a lot of leaves and so on and threw them on the ground. After a few autumn rains, they slowly rotted and turned into fertilizer.

In addition to helping the fool clean up the few acres of land, Da Zhuang also has the most important thing to do, which is to find lotus roots. Fortunately, there are some wild lotus roots growing in the valleys around the village. Da Zhuang drove the donkey away. Car, take the fool over to dig carefully.

These wild lotus roots are very thin, much worse than the white and fat lotus roots sold in the town. People in the village only pick a few for snacks when they see lotus pods occasionally in summer. There are no villagers I am willing to spend time digging up the thick mud to get the lotus root out to eat, so although the valley is not very suitable for the growth of lotus root, there is still a lot of lotus root growing.

Lotus root is suitable for growing in hot and rainy seasons. According to the weather here, March is the most suitable time to plant, but that is also the busiest time in the field, and the lotus root also begins to grow small lotus leaves in March. If the tip of the lotus leaf was broken when digging, the section of lotus root would not be able to grow after planting, so Da Zhuang would rather dig and plant now. The survival rate may be lower, but the labor load is much lighter.

The lotus seeds need to be dug, selected, and planted, so Da Zhuang and the idiot can only get up early and go into the mountains to find wild lotus roots, go home at noon to pick out the right ones, and plant them in the afternoon. , large lotus root body, small lotus joints, bright color female lotus root or fully mature child lotus root, and many of them were dug up when digging, even if Da Zhuang lowered the selection standard, after one day, he could only get There are six or seven good lotus root seeds, and the rest can only be eaten by myself. Fortunately, the lotus root boiled from the bones, the little ones like to eat.

Da Zhuang carefully placed the lotus root at the bottom of the pit that had been fertilized several times, and then got some soil from around the pond and sprinkled it on the lotus root... It took more than a month of busy work from morning to night, and then he barely planted it.

After Er Zhuang went to school, Da Zhuang entrusted him with the task of teaching Da Niuer, Er Niuer, San Niuer and the twins. Er Zhuang took time to teach the younger ones every night after he came back. The old master is here Several small villages have taught for many years, and they also know the situation of the farmers. As long as the fields are busy, they will have a holiday, and Er Zhuang will go home to help. Even so, Da Zhuang is still very busy.

There are sowing, weeding, catching insects in the field, topdressing and watering in the lotus pond, etc. The study at Doctor Niu had to be suspended, and Da Zhuang still felt his body protesting again...

"Brother, eat more!" Da Nier snatched Da Zhuang's bowl and helped Da Zhuang add another half bowl of rice.

"Hey, ah, I've had enough, big girl!" Da Zhuang shouted, stretching out his hand.

Da Niuer stubbornly put the bowl in front of Da Zhuang, looking at Da Zhuang, who had become dark and thin after two months of busy work, her eye circles were slightly red.

"Okay, okay, there's nothing else to do!" Da Zhuang took his rice bowl helplessly, and tried his best to eat.

After Da Zhuang taught Da Niuer how to make a fire for half a month, Da Niuer almost took over the food at home, cooking and cooking by jumping up and down on the small bench every day.

The idiot picked out the few pieces of meat left in the vegetable bowl and put them in the big strong bowl.

"Hey, that's enough, I really can't eat any more!" Da Zhuang shouted while protecting the mouth of his bowl.

"I'm thinner, my complexion is not good!" the fool said heavily.

"Okay, you guys..." Da Zhuang swallowed a mouthful of rice forcefully, and after a few big mouthfuls, he filled another half bowl of egg soup and poured it down.

"Brother, why don't I go to Mr.'s place..." Er Zhuang said fidgeting.

"It's nothing to do with you, you study hard, you will be successful in the future, and the elder brother will be able to enjoy the blessings too!" Da Zhuang said as he put down his bowl and chopsticks.

"Well, don't worry, big brother!" Er Zhuang reassured vigorously.

"You don't have to worry. If you are too busy during the autumn harvest, please ask two people to help you." Da Zhuang also knew that his body might not be able to do any heavy work for the time being, so he said his plan.

Only a few older children showed some smiles on their faces.

……

The lotus root should be kept in shallow water in the early stage of growth to promote germination and leaf extraction, deep water in the middle stage of growth, and shallow water in the later stage to facilitate the formation of lotus roots. Da Zhuang did not expect that there will be more rain this year, so he dug out a one-meter-deep pond At least half of the water had accumulated in it, and Da Zhuang had to spend several days with the fool to dig a deep ditch to allow some water to flow out.

"Huh, it will be better next year!" Da Zhuang sighed softly after rubbing his sore lower back from bending for too long.

Seeing this, the fool put down the small shovel in his hand, wiped his hands on his clothes, and stepped forward to help Da Zhuang rub his back.

Da Zhuang let the fool rub it randomly, no matter how he rubbed it, he felt much more comfortable.

"After you went back last time, what did your mother say?" Da Zhuang asked with narrowed eyes.

"Mother doesn't believe it, I'm not willing to pinch off the cotton buds..." the fool said with his head down.

"Well, I knew it, it's fine if they don't believe it!" Da Zhuang shook his head, and he didn't intend to hide it from the people in the village at the beginning. As expected, even if he told them, few people would believe it...

Anyway, the lotus root is still growing slowly, because Da Zhuang is more diligent in fertilizing, just looking at the lotus leaves, he knows that the lotus root is growing much better than the lotus root in the ravine, which attracts people from the village to come to see it. Take a look at it in general, but Da Zhuang thought, whether there will be production this year is still a problem...