Late at night, seeking a pink hue.
***...*****
"Yes, Father, I am also worried about this matter," Lian Shouxin said, as Old Master Lian’s words struck a chord in his heart.
When the family divided their property, they received six mu of land, and later, with the money from Lian Manman’s recipe for selling garlic and peanuts, they bought another twenty-five mu of land. In total, they now had thirty-one mu of land.
"Zhao Jin’s family has also saved up a pile of manure, which they promised to give when we bought the land," Lian Shouxin told Old Master Lian. Zhao Jin was the original owner of the twenty-five mu of land. "His family has been planning to move to the city for a long ti and hasn’t really saved up much manure. Just that small pile of yours might be enough for a few mu of land at most."
Lian Shouxin was sowhat concerned as the sufficiency of the manure would directly affect the crop yield. It had only been half a year since their family had split and started living separately, and they had not accumulated any manure of their own.
"We’ve only saved up this much; at most, it could cover those six mu of land at the foot of Nanshan for you, but for the rest, we will have to think of other solutions," Old Master Lian said.
"Father, you should keep the manure for your own land. I’ll think of another way for mine," Lian Shouxin said.
"The manure for those six mu is still enough. Our manure pile was saved for the original thirty mu of land," Old Master Lian said.
This was the truth, and so Lian Shouxin had nothing more to say. He went into the courtyard, took the iron hoe and the rake, and ca out to help Old Master Lian with the manure. The Lian Family’s strong laborers, Lian Shouli and Lian Shouyi, the brothers Erlang and Sanlang, were still working in the mountains and had not returned, Lian Jizu had not yet finished school, and Lian Shouren was at ho, but Old Master Lian did not ask him to help with the work.
"You go and rest," Old Master Lian told Lian Shouxin. "Getting up early and going to bed late every day – I know you’re not idle. I can handle this bit of work slowly, in ti."
"Father, it’s okay, I need to move around a bit," Lian Shouxin insisted on helping Old Master Lian with the work nonetheless.
Lian Shouxin took the iron hoe and began to break up the manure pile. Although it was in the thawing season, there were still so frozen chunks inside that needed to be broken up and left under the sun to thaw more quickly. The rest that had already thawed also needed to be broken into smaller pieces. But even that wasn’t enough; finally, the manure had to be combed with the rake into fine granules, similar to the planting soil in the fields. Only then could the beneficial substances in the manure quickly integrate into the soil and add fertility to the crops.
What is called ticulous farming is just one step of the process.
Of course, not every farr does this. So people just roughly smash the manure and throw it into the fields. Old Master Lian, an adherent of old-school farming, disapproved of such coarse thods. He didn’t just talk about growing crops, he spoke of tending to crops, which clearly shows the ticulousness involved in careful farming.
After dinner, Lian Shouxin went for a walk outside and ca back sighing.
"Father, what are you sighing about?" Wu Lang asked.
"Our fields don’t have enough manure," Lian Shouxin said, "I just went around the village to see if any family had excess manure they could spare for us, but it turns out no family had any to spare." Of course, the term ’spare’ naturally did not imply getting it for free; it would involve paying money or trading sothing in exchange.
The result was obvious: no household would consider their manure to be excessive; there was only ever less than needed.
"Next year we’ll also raise pigs and chickens to start our own manure pile..." Lady Zhang said.
"That will be enough for next year, but what about this year?" Lian Shouxin said. Starting to save now would not resolve their imdiate need.
"Sister, what are you thinking about?" Xiao Qi asked, seeing Lian Manman deep in thought, silent.
"I’m also thinking about the manure issue," replied Lian Manman, who had been pondering the problem ever since Old Master Lian and Lian Shouxin first discussed it at the front gate.
"Right, Manman, have you co up with any good ideas?" Lian Shouxin asked.
Whenever there was a problem, Lian Manman often could co up with surprising and effective solutions, and the family had grown accustod to this.
"Brother, Xiao Qi, do you two rember when we went to the county town before the New Year? About using the toilet there," Manman said to Wu Lang and Xiao Qi.
"I rember," Xiao Qi said with a smile to everyone, "I couldn’t hold it in, and Sister even specifically asked soone where the toilet was to take there."
"Do you also rember seeing people carrying manure out from that toilet?" Manman asked.
"There was such a thing," Wu Lang recalled first, "That’s right, Manman even asked soone about it at that ti. The person said he bought that load of manure for one Wen Money per load."
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