126 Green Seedling and Leeks
The Shi family was welcoming Grandpa Gu and Grandma Gu. Second Aunt had made a large table of good dishes. In order to take care of Grandma Gu and Grandpa Gu’s tastes, the dishes on the table were not too spicy.
Grandpa Gu and Grandma Gu did not like spicy food.
The dishes comprised braised eggplant, garlic minced cabbage heart, minced meat noodles, old chicken soup, and other family vegetables.
Grandpa Gu picked up a piece of braised eggplant and immediately praised, “Mmm, it’s delicious! It’s soft, fresh, and delicious. It’s even better than my chef’s cooking! Come, old woman, try it too. It’s really not bad!”
With that, Grandpa Gu picked up a piece for Grandma Gu and placed it in her bowl.
Grandma Gu was already used to it. She picked up the braised eggplant in the bowl and put it into her mouth. She nodded and said, “Yes, this eggplant is really delicious! Second Aunt’s culinary skills are getting better and better!”
When Second Aunt was a girl, her culinary skills were good.
After she got married, her culinary skills improved a lot.
Ten years ago, when Grandpa and Grandma Gu came here, it was also Second Aunt who cooked for them for a few days and received their praise.
Second Aunt smiled and said, “Grandpa, Grandma, I just know how to cook a few home-cooked dishes.”
“Yes, Second Aunt, don’t be modest,” Grandpa Gu praised straightforwardly. “What most people like to eat is home-cooked food.”
Grandma Gu smiled and said, “Second Aunt, with your culinary skills, you can open a restaurant. It’s definitely a specialty restaurant. I’ll be waiting in line.”
“Grandma, don’t praise me. With my culinary skills, I won’t embarrass myself,” Second Aunt said humbly.
However, she was a little tempted! Everyone who had eaten the food she cooked praised it for being delicious. If she used this culinary skill to open a restaurant…
She would have a good discussion with her husband tonight to see if it would work.
Grandpa Gu and Grandma Gu ate happily and contentedly.
After dinner, the two elders were indeed a little tired from the long journey, so they went to rest early.
The two elders’ rooms had been tidied up long ago when it was confirmed that they would come.
The next day, Gu Qingming woke up early. However, those who worked in the countryside woke up earlier. Now that the weather was hot, many people went to work when the weather was not hot. After finishing their work, they came back for breakfast. Some would bring some leftovers from the night before to fill their stomachs when they went to work.
The Shi family also woke up early in the morning to work. The watermelons had just been sold. There were also some watermelons that had been picked two days ago.
The watermelons in the late season were not sweet enough. In addition, the quantity was not high, so Gao Wenwen did not come over.
Although there were not many watermelons, there were at least 5,000 catties of watermelons on more than ten acres of land.
There were many people at home, and the weather was hot, so they consumed a lot of watermelons. Therefore, there were about 1,000 catties left at home.
Then, 1,000 would be sent to some relatives and friends.
Eldest Uncle and the rest used three-wheeled cars to transport the rest of the watermelons to the county city to sell.
Even if these were late-season watermelons, they were still very sweet compared to ordinary watermelons. In addition, they were not very big. Such watermelons were the most popular. Therefore, 2,000 catties of watermelons were sold out in just two days.
After the watermelons were sold out, everyone was completely relieved and focused on the 20 acres of melon fields.
After removing the weeds and melon seedlings, they were all gathered in a corner of the field and piled together to ferment and make fertilizer.
They then plowed the land again.
Of course, plowing the land was done with a plowing machine.
The plowing machine could plow an acre of land in an hour. More than ten acres of land could be plowed in a day and a half.
After the ground was turned over, fertilizer was added.
When planting watermelons, the three brothers had never used fertilizer or pesticides.
But when they did use fertilizer when planting rice.
Later on, after hearing Gao Wenwen’s explanation, they understood the concept of green food. They immediately decided not to use fertilizers and pesticides with rice. They would first test if they could succeed.
Gu Qingming agreed. However, in order to help them with their work, she specially asked Gao Wenwen to invite an expert in this area to guide them.
As that expert had something on these two days and could not come at present, he had sent the technical guidebook over in advance.
They followed the method in the book and began to slowly explore.
Other than Second Aunt who woke up early in the morning to make breakfast and stayed behind with her daughter-in-law, to serve the two elders, everyone else went out to work.
For the past two days, Grandpa had been very excited about planting rice. He had insisted on going to the fields despite everyone’s objections.
“It’s not like I can’t do work and farm anymore. Can’t I do it? People who are 80 years old are still farming,” Grandpa said with a dark expression. “I’m only 70 years old.”
“Grandpa, you’re already 72!” Shi Yaoqing said.
“Bullsh*t, I’m only 70 years old!”
Everyone was speechless. Did the difference matter?
Seeing that they couldn’t stop Grandpa, they let him do it. As long as everyone watched, it was fine.
Gu Qingming was doing some exercises in the courtyard when she saw her grandmother walk out of the woodshed with a basket in her hand.
Gu Qingming asked, “Grandma, are you going to pick vegetables?”
Grandmother smiled and said, “I’m going to cut some chives. Your grandparents like to eat chives. Coincidentally, we planted them ourselves. I’ll cut some and make dumplings for lunch!”
Gu Qingming’s eyes lit up and she said with a smile, “Grandma, I like to eat chives too.”
Grandma smiled and said, “Hehe, I knew you would like it! Your mother likes to eat chives too.”
Gu Qingming smiled until her eyes curved into half moons. She went up and held her grandmother’s arm. “Grandma, I’ll go with you. I want to see what our family’s favorite chives look like.”
“Hehe…” Grandma laughed. “Alright, let’s go together!”
Gu Qingming followed her grandmother to a plot.
Gu Qingming thought that they had arrived. She looked around and asked in surprise and excitement, “Grandma, are these chives? Is this large area filled with our family’s chives? Did our family plant so many chives?”
Grandma’s expression changed and the corners of her mouth twitched. Then, she shook her head and said with a smile, “Darling, these are not chives. These are rice seedlings.”
Gu Qingming was speechless.
It was a little awkward.
“Hehe…” Gu Qingming blushed slightly and said in embarrassment, “I saw in the book that chives look very similar to this.”
Grandma smiled and said, “The chives and rice seedlings are just a little similar. If you know them, you won’t think that they look alike. Let’s go, Grandma will take you to see the real chives!”
Gu Qingming followed her grandmother and stepped on the field ridge. After passing through the rice seedling field, she saw a vegetable field.
Grandma pointed and said, “Darling, these are chives!”