TELD Chapter 16: Duck

They have arrived at the vegetable plot.

Jing Lin took out the sunshade in the basket and spread it out to Lele, letting him sit in a cool place with the umbrella, while Zhou Yu and himself picked cowpeas one by one.

In the future, when Grandpa was alive, these hands did not do less work, so they picked the dishes very quickly. When the two finished picking all the mature cowpeas, their baskets were half full. Then I went to another vegetable field, picked some balsam pear, cucumber, pepper and picked a small white gourd.

When I returned, Yan Fei's family was no longer there. On the way, I happened to meet a family of children in the village laying geese in the ditch beside the field. Lele saw it, pointed to it with a little excitement and turned to look eagerly at Jing Lin: "Uncle, duck!"

Lele likes ducks very much. The schoolbag should be in the shape of a duckling, and the toys should also be ducklings. Even the clothes are the same as ducklings, with more yellow. At the moment, he saw a goose cub with a big face and velvet and yellow fur. He could not distinguish it from others. He thought it was a duck. Even if he stood there and did not walk, he stared at the gosling.

Jing Lin corrected him: "That is goose, not duck."

Lele paid no attention to this and shook Jing Lin's clothes. He said again, "Uncle, duck."

Jing Lin bowed his head and looked longingly at Lele. Then he understood, "Uncle, will you buy one?"

Lele immediately became happy, even scampering twice in situ, "buy! Duck!"

Jing Lin seldom saw Lele so happy, so did Zhou Yu. She always thought Lele was too quiet and not as naughty and active as other children in the village. When she heard Lele say she wanted to buy a duckling, Jing Lin could not wait to say, "Grandma bought it for Lele!"

Her family keeps a few laying hens, pigs and geese everyday, which are not kept. She used to discuss with the child, "Wen Jie, can grandma Zhou buy a goose for your family?"

Wen Jie's surname is Wang. He is in the sixth grade this year. His parents have not come back from working outside. He has lived with his grandmother since he was born. Her grandmother lives frugally. Now she is in her sixties and she will take some manual work to earn a little money. Wang Wenjie basically keeps all the geese and fowls she buys every time.

Sell geese to Zhou Yu. This Wang Wenjie can't be the master. He has to ask his grandmother.

Zhou Yu said, "Grandma Zhou used five dollars to buy a goose cub in your family. You go back and tell your grandma that if your grandma agrees, you will bring one to Grandma Zhou and then give you the money, okay?"

The normal price of a goose cub is three or four dollars each. As Wang Wenjie goose Zhou Yu also knows, he bought it just before the blackout. If he bought it for five dollars, he wouldn't lose.

Although Wang Wenjie is young, he is very sensible. After listening to Zhou Yu's remarks, he nodded and promised to ask his grandmother when he returned from the goose farm. after lunch, he would come and tell Zhou Yu whether to sell or not.

Promised to buy Lele goose cubs, Lele stopped staring at him. Jing Lin repeatedly corrected on the road that he was a goose or not a duck. Lele looked like he didn't understand anything. Jing Lin knew that Lele still didn't distinguish between the two. He thought it was all right. When he bought it back and raised him himself, he could find the difference between the two.

At home, Zhou Yu began to cook lunch, while Jing Lin sat on the edge of the well and pressed the water to wash the picked cowpeas, picking out all those with wormholes and those too old to keep seeds.

The well was just outside the kitchen. Zhou Yu was chatting with Jing Lin while washing rice. "I haven't seen anyone selling meat for several days and Wu tofu hasn't come either," he said.

Although Jing Lin is more remote than other villages here, as long as it is not raining heavily, meat dealers and vegetable dealers who ride electric tricycles through streets and alleys come to them every day. People in the village can buy fresh meat and vegetables without leaving their homes. Zhou Yu said that Wu tofu is a bean curd dealer who comes here every day.

Now there are no meat sellers. It takes too long to walk to the town to buy meat, so I eat vegetable fried with rapeseed oil. After several days of continuous eating, my mouth is very pale.

Summer is hot every day. Without a refrigerator, you can only buy and eat as much meat as you want. You cannot save it. Seeing goose cub Jing Lin today, he thought that he might be able to exchange food for some chicken cubs and come back to raise them. he asked Zhou Yu.

Zhou Yu said: "aren't there two families in Yuming village running chicken farms? we saw the car pulling the chickens back before. in such a hot day, there is no electricity and we don't know how many of his chickens are still alive. we can go there and ask."

Jing Lin said yes.

Lunch is ready, Zhao cannot father son hasn't come back. Zhou Yu washed the pan and boiled the water. After the water was boiled, he put the cowpea washed by Jing Lin into the pan and boiled it. In the middle of cooking, Zhou Yu cleaned up the clothesline in the yard, fished it up after cowpea was cooked, hung it on the clothesline, and put it away in the sun for a few days, then took it out to soak in water and cut the fried pork chops.

Cowpea half dry, Jing Lin heard a voice from the outside, go out and have a look, is Zhao Zhiwen cannot father son came back, but the two are not very good. The sleeve of Zhao Chenghuai's shirt was torn, Zhao Zhiwen's mouth was swollen, and there was a wound on the back of his hand.

"What's the matter?" Jing Lin hurried over and turned to Zhou Yu who was still in the kitchen.

"I almost couldn't come back today." Zhao Chenghuai said that he took off his torn shirt and Jing Lin saw several green marks on his back.

Zhou Yu looked at the situation of the father and was not worried. He asked about the situation while looking for the family's medicinal liquor to wipe them.

Jing Lin also rubbed Zhao Zhiwen with medicated wine. When Zhao Zhiwen took off his clothes, he found that his back had been scratched with a long incision. The wound was bleeding, not much, and the wound was not deep.

When alcohol touched the wound, it was very painful. Zhao Zhiwen hissed and gasped. "Today the county seat is completely different from yesterday. There are no shops open. We saw many shops along the street have been pried through the door, everything has been robbed, the middle of the road is full of glass debris, is a mess. At that time, we had just come out of a food processing factory in Nanqing Town. There were a lot of things in the car bucket, which might have been targeted by people along the way. When we got off the bridge, we suddenly rushed out of a group of mature people, some of whom still had knives in their hands. They told us to unload the things before we let us go."

Zhao Zhiwen of course they don't agree, although the other party has a knife, but Zhao Zhiwen they are not unprepared. A few days ago, after seeing someone start robbing things, Zhao Zhiwen would put two steel pipes in the car bucket every time he went out. The other villagers who went out together were reminded by him to do the same. The two parties had an argument and finally fought. Although the other party is very big, but Zhao Zhiwen here is not a vegetarian, is all the year round in the fields of man, hand strength naturally not small, who also don't take advantage of the fight.

Zhao Zhiwen helped to block Zhao Chenghuai when the other side took a knife and cut his back. At that time, Zhao Zhiwen's eyes were red and he hit the other side on the back with a malicious backhand. The other side screamed for half a day and didn't get up on the ground.

Finally, the other party counseled first and ran away with the man who had been beaten down despondently. Zhao Zhiwen and others were furious in the past. Only then did they feel scared. They rode on the bus and ran away. They trampled on the wheels one by one like they were desperately trying to catch up with each other again.

Zhou Yu's eyes were red and her hands were shaking when she rubbed Zhao Chenghuai with medicated wine. She also looked scared and said assiduously, "Fortunately, it's okay. Fortunately, it's okay."

Jing Lin was not at ease. "Let's go to Grandpa Zhao's and have a look." After all, it is a knife wound. The incision is not deep but quite long. The other party is a doctor. It is better to listen to the other party's advice than to deal with it blindly.

Zhou Yu reacted and said hastily, "Jing Lin is right. uncle Zhao has not been to the health clinic since yesterday. he must be at home now." Zhao Chenghuai is older and not as healthy as a young man. It is still reassuring to have a good look.

At last Zhou Yu accompanied Zhao Zhiwen and his father to Zhao's house. Jing Lin stayed at home to look after the house and continued to deal with cowpeas by the way. He looked at the cute Lele who was sitting beside him with a small stool. He was worried that since Lele was so small, how could he protect him?

Wait for a while, Zhou Yu they haven't come back, but Wang Wenjie came, carrying a small basket, containing a few goose cubs. The sun was very big, and the child's forehead was sweating. when he saw Jing Lin, he smiled shyly. he put the basket on the ground and said, "grandma agreed to sell it. these grandmothers said they were relatively strong, so let uncle Lin choose what you like."

Jing Lin twisted the wet towel to let the child wipe her face and Lele picked it herself. The little fellow squatted at the edge of the basket and chose a good half-day, feeling like this one and that one, but grandma Zhou said she would only buy one. finally, he reluctantly chose a "duck" that was particularly active in the basket, and carefully grabbed it and held it in his chest, with a happy face.

Jing Lin had no money left, so he let Wang Wenjie sit for a while and wait for Zhou Yu to come back. By the way, Lele asked Wang Wenjie how to raise ducks.

Lele is also close to several people in Jing Lin. Apart from the kindergarten and nursery, he has no playmates of the same age. This is not good for him. Although Wang Wenjie is several years older than Lele, he is gentle. Even if Wang Wenjie cannot play with Lele, it is good for Lele to talk to others more.

Lele attaches great importance to "duck". He looks like everyone else at the moment. Although he is a little timid, he still plucks up courage and quietly asks Wang Wenjie what to eat for duck, whether to comb his hair everyday, and whether to teach "duck" swimming and other issues.

During this period, Wang Wenjie also told Lele that it was a goose, but when he saw Lele still eating one duck at a time, he didn't struggle any more. He patiently told him some matters needing attention and Jing Lin also listened nearby. He had to say that although Wang Wenjie was young, he probably knew more about poultry and other experiences than many adults.

When Zhou Yu and his family came back and took the money, Wang Wenjie went back with a small basket. He touched Lele's head like a big brother and said he would come back to Lele when he had time.

Zhao Chenghuai's body is fine. Zhao Zhiwen's wound is no big problem as long as he doesn't touch water. Zhou Yu and Jing Lin set the meal. The family said the outside form while eating. Zhou Yu also said that he wanted to get some food to exchange for chickens. Zhao Chenghuai and Zhao Zhiwen both said it was feasible.