Bianshanhan [farming]

Li Qing cast a casual glance, and noticed that Li Qingzhuo's hands were red and swollen, so he quickly took the cloth bag over, "Second brother, what's wrong with your hands?"

Li Qingzhuo wanted to cover it with his sleeve, but his younger brother grabbed his arm, and hurriedly said: "It's okay, I accidentally got stabbed by a medicinal material, the master has already checked it, it's nothing serious."

Li Maoxian looked at the wound, frowned and said, "When was it pierced?"

"some days ago."

Li Maoxian's face turned pale, "Yesterday I asked someone to deliver the medicine, that is to say, I just finished copying the book yesterday and got paid for it. You are still thinking about copying the book with your hand hurt. You don't care about your body like this!"

Not daring to lie to his father, Li Qingzhuo immediately bowed his head and admitted his mistake, "Father, I was wrong."

After all, the son did this for the sake of his mother. Li Maoxian felt more guilty than angry, and said: "Father knows you are filial, so don't do this in the future, or if your mother finds out, she will be so distressed that she won't be able to sleep well. Now the family is better. You don't have to worry about it any more, just take care of yourself."

Knowing that the second brother loves to be clean, Li Qingwen told him not to wash the clothes by himself, or let him take his dirty clothes back, or save them.

Li Qingzhuo didn't want to be troublesome at first, but seeing that his father's face hadn't recovered, he ran back to the small yard behind the shop and took out the clothes that were supposed to be soaked.

Without saying a word, Li Maoxian urged Li Qingzhuo to go back when he saw a customer entering the pharmacy.

After leaving Huichuntang, the three of them went to the shop mentioned by the salesman Qiu, and found that the candies and panda candies were sold out.

This shop is not big, and the location is a bit off. Ordinary candies are packed in boxes. The shopkeeper here is ingenious. He puts word candies and panda candies on thin ropes. A row of blessing characters looks exquisite and lovely. The heads of the pandas are squeezed next to each other, attracting YouQi's attention.

These two strings of candies are placed in the most conspicuous place as a signboard to attract customers.

"Children like these two candies very much. They were sold out in two days, and the shop is out of stock now. Why don't you look at other candies..."

They came here just to see how the sugar was selling, they didn't intend to buy anything, so they could only live up to the shopkeeper's enthusiasm first.

Seeing that Zitang was selling so well, the Li family father and son were very happy, turned around and went to the rice shop to buy wheat, black sesame and glutinous rice.

The last time I made sugar for one night, I got more than 70 catties of maltose and more than ten catties of Zitang panda candy. In exchange for maltose, I got more than 200 catties of sorghum rice and millet, and Zitang and panda candy sold for more than 300 yuan.

Word candy and panda candy are more profitable than maltose, so I plan to make more this time.

More than 300 wen is not a small amount for farmers, but after the rice shop, there are only a few dozen wen left.

In the first few years due to floods in the south, the price of rice grains has risen a lot. In the past, a bucket of rice was only more than ten or twenty yuan, but now it has doubled, which is staggeringly expensive.

However, no matter how expensive or cheap the food is, it has nothing to do with the farmers. In good years, the rice is cheap and hurts the people. In disaster years, the food in the field is not enough for the family to eat, so how can it be sold for money.

After buying the food, the three of them were ready to go back. There was a long basket on the side of the road, filled with pears and hawthorns. They were not big, and they didn't know they belonged to their own family on the mountain.

Li Qingwen stopped suddenly, staring at the glowing red hawthorn, Li Qinghong asked: "Boy, do you want to eat?"

Li Maoxian and Mrs. Chen are very frugal people, they live their lives carefully and carefully, and rarely buy food for their children, except for Li Qingwen.

Li Maoxian stopped and asked the woman standing next to him how to sell the fruit. Even if the younger son didn't think of a way to sell sugar to make money, he was willing to buy two fruits to satisfy his son.

Hearing the woman say that these fruits are not expensive, Li Qingwen immediately said: "Father, buy all these hawthorns."

Li Qinghong, who couldn't help but want to cover his cheeks when he saw the hawthorn, was stunned, and quickly grabbed Li Qingwen, "Boy, this thing looks good, but it's too sour, and your teeth will soften after eating a few times!"

Li Qingwen couldn't control the secretion of saliva, swallowed twice, and said, "I don't want to eat, I just want to make something else."

These wild hawthorns are small in size and very sour. Except for the strange ones, few people eat them, so the price is also very cheap, only ten copper coins for a few dozen catties.

Li Maoxian bought all the hawthorns, and the woman was very happy to conceive. These were picked by her son on the mountain. She thought they could not be sold, but it was a surprise to be able to exchange some money.

Yesterday, carrying back a bag of food, the whole family finally didn't have to drink the northwest wind. Li Qingmu came over early this morning, chasing Mrs. Chen and asking what he could do.

The wheat hasn't come back yet, and the malt hasn't even grown yet, so it's impossible to make sugar, but Li Qingmu doesn't seem to be able to feel at ease if he doesn't do something, so Chen has to ask him to go to the mountain to get some firewood. Get ready. That's right.

Li Qingmu went to the back mountain for a long time and came back with firewood on his back. Li Maoxian, his father and his son happened to be home too.

After putting down the firewood, Li Qingmu and Li Maoxian went to grind the grain with their backs.

There are several mills in the village, and the most lively one is Li Benqiang's house in Qianjie. There is a spacious place there, with two mills, the big one for milling sorghum and the small one for milling millet.There are usually many children playing here. When someone is milling rice, people in the front, back, left, and left will unconsciously come over, chatting and helping.

Normally, Li Qingfeng didn't like to grind rice, and the place where children gathered together caused a headache, but today he was very active, and even yelled at Li Qingwen.

The two brothers followed behind with empty cloth bags. Once they arrived, Li Qingfeng went to the sorghum field in front of the yard first. Seeing that the sorghum leaves were dry, he said that it would be harvested in a few days.

Still thinking about sweet sorghum... Li Qingwen felt that his little fourth brother was a little scary.

Not only Li Qingfeng, but other children in the village also chirped and asked Grandpa Six when they could eat.

Li Benqiang, also known as Li Qingwen's sixth grandfather, is a very kind old man.He was not bothered by being asked by a group of children, so he went to look at the sorghum tassels, picked a few that were almost ripe, chopped them down, broke the tassels and gave each child a piece of straw, and Li Qingwen also got one.

Li Qingfeng and a group of children skillfully plucked off the leaves, gnawed at one end, and chewed a mouthful of straw in their mouths. They all yelled sweetly, chewed all the sweetness in the straw, and then spit out the dregs.

Li Qingwen felt his teeth hurt when he looked at it. There used to be someone who planted corn next to their town, and the stalks were also sweet. At that time, out of curiosity, he and his friends in the yard secretly ate it, but the tooth was cut and the water flowed. His mouth was full of blood, and he was taught a lesson by his grandma for several days.

The others ate with gusto, and Li Qingwen couldn't help it anymore. He cleaned up the green straw and took a bite carefully. Unexpectedly, it was really sweet.

This sweet sorghum stalk is sweeter than the corn stalks he has eaten, no wonder so many people miss it.

Li Qinfeng ate quickly, and in a blink of an eye a straw was eaten up. Li Qingwen gave him his own, but Li Qingfeng was not polite.

After eating two sticks, Li Qingfeng's eyes were still on the sorghum in the field, Li Qingwen just felt it was funny, "Fourth brother, I will make candy again in a few days, I will leave you a few more."

"Sugar tastes different from sugar." Li Qingfeng said, "This sweet straw is really delicious when chewed."

The children around heard this and blew their noses at Li Qingfeng, "You're still greedy at such an age, shame on you!"

Li Qingfeng only twitched his eyebrows, "Whoever feels itchy, take a step forward."

All the children in the village knew that Li Qingfeng was not easy to mess with, and they all ran away when they heard this.

Li Qingwen felt that his fourth brother was right, the composition of maltose was indeed different from the sugar in sweet sorghum stalks...

"Sweet is sweet, but it's a bit difficult to eat." Li Qingwen said: "It would be fine if it is squeezed into juice and then boiled out of the sugar."

Li Qingfeng was grinning at the children, but when he heard this, he turned his head suddenly, "Boy, can sorghum stalks boil sugar?"

"Of course you can. Just like sugar cane, squeeze out the juice and boil it over a fire. It's easier than making maltose." Li Qingwen didn't know why the fourth brother was so excited.

No longer caring about those provocative children, Li Qingfeng stared, "Then let's use straw to make candy, and save food!"

His words were like a thunderbolt, splitting the thick cloud over Li Qingwen's head. Only then did Li Qingwen realize that he had neglected such a simple method of making sugar...

Obviously, he had read reports about making syrup from sorghum stalks before, but he forgot about it.

It's really dark under the lights!

Li Qingfeng really ran away like a gust of wind. He kept circling around the old man, desperately trying to get the old man to give him half an acre of sorghum stalks.

The old man grinned happily, "You can really eat half an acre of straw. If you really like it so much, Grandpa Six will keep it for you."

In that room, Li Maoxian and Li Qingmu were milling rice. The people next to them knew that the sugar was selling well when they saw so much grain, so they asked Li Maoxian where he learned how to make sugar.

Li Qingwen changed from stupid to normal, and the villagers inevitably had some unpleasant rumors. Li Maoxian didn't want his youngest son to be too conspicuous, so he told his family a long time ago, saying that his friend taught him the method.

Hearing what he said, the people around couldn't help showing envious expressions. They knew that when Li Maoxian was young, he didn't go out in vain and made some friends.A few years ago when there was a disaster, most people in the village went to beg for food. Li Maoxian's friend sent food all the way, which was even more surprising than what the storyteller said. Everyone in the village knew about it.

It was almost finished, but found that the bags in hand were not enough, shouted twice, Li Qingwen hurried over, holding his pockets, Li Qingmu swept down the grain on the milling plate.

As soon as Li Qingwen appeared, the big guy looked over, Li Maoxian said: "Zaier, where is your fourth brother?"

As soon as he finished asking, Li Qingfeng came over. In this weather, he was sweating from running, his brows and eyes were bright, and he said excitedly: "Father, Grandpa Six promised to give me all the sweet sorghum stalks, and I can collect them in a few days." gone."

"Nonsense!" Li Maoxian frowned, thinking that he was greedy, and taught him a lesson: "The straw must be kept for fire, if you eat it, your sixth grandfather will be frozen in winter."

"Father, I didn't eat it...I didn't eat it, it was, I ate it...Zai, Zier..." Li Qingfeng didn't know what to say for a moment, and finally stomped his feet: "Zaier said this can be made into candy!"

With his sound, not only Li Maoxian, but also the villagers beside the mill were stunned, what, the straw is indeed sweet, but how can it be made into sugar? !