My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 137, Part 136: The Little Piglet?

Chen Ling watched as the kids winked and made faces at him, while also shushing him repeatedly.

They wondered what strange things they were up to again, since the group of kids were very young. The oldest was Xiao Sen from Yu Qiang's family, who was only four or five years old, while Chou Dan and the others were still wearing open-crotch pants.

What secret could they possibly have?

He didn't take it too seriously and laughed, "Secret? What secret? You little rascals didn't happen to ruin someone else's cornfield and steal some sweet stalks because you were greedy, did you?"

"We don't have any, Uncle, you'll see when you come over, but you can't tell anyone else."

Xiao Sen still looked furtive. After glancing around and finding no one around, he waved to Chen Ling, and then the group tiptoed into the cornfield.

Now that the corn stalks had mostly grown, Chen Ling glanced inside but couldn't make out what was inside, so he had no choice but to follow.

As they ventured deeper into the cornfield, they found themselves not far from the local temple. Wild trees and shrubs began to grow in abundance. The terrain here was somewhat elevated, forming a slope where no corn was planted. Sparse bushes dotted the landscape with several low graves, marking the burial grounds of several families outside the Chen and Wang clans in Chenwangzhuang.

At the prompting of several children, Chen Ling entered the cemetery and quietly watched them rummage around for a while. They moved aside a pile of broken bricks and tiles, lifted up an old straw mat, revealing a pit more than a meter deep, and then pointed to the things in the pit for him to see.

Now Chen Ling finally understood what the secret they were talking about was, and he was immediately stunned.

How did you manage to catch these things?

"Aren't you afraid that if you arrest the young ones, you'll anger the older ones, and then who will save you?"

The pit contained nothing but wild boar piglets, about seven or eight in number, not much bigger than small mutts, with dark brown stripes running from their necks to their rumps. When they saw people, they huddled together, grunting and squealing incessantly.

"Hehe, don't be afraid, Uncle. We're all far away now. If we lock the piglets up here, the old wild boar definitely won't be able to find them."

Xiao Sen smiled, his eyebrows dancing with pride; he seemed quite pleased with himself.

"What? It's so far away? Where did you catch it?"

Chen Ling asked.

Xiao Sen glanced at Chou Dan, then at the other children, and whispered, "Grandpa, this is a secret. We're telling you, but don't tell Uncle Li Xian. We caught this in a trap he set at the foot of the mountain a couple of days ago..."

"Good heavens, you guys are really bold, daring to snatch prey from your Uncle Li Xian's trap. Aren't you afraid Liu Ni'er will beat you up if she finds out?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Ling couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"Why should we be afraid? This is what Liu Nier brought us here."

Komori pouted and pointed at the pit, saying, "This is the secret tunnel he led us to dig!"

"What? A secret tunnel?"

Chen Ling frowned, unable to react for a moment.

"Yes, we dug two tunnels in this pit. They're really long and can hide several people. Liu Ni often brings us here to play, and we've never been discovered. If we lock the piglets in here, they can't get out and have no chance of escaping."

Following the direction Komori pointed, Chen Ling glanced at it and was immediately astonished.

He discovered that there were indeed two openings at the bottom of the pit. These openings were actually quite large, but they were covered with branches and reeds, so they were not noticeable unless you looked closely.

After the initial surprise, he was a bit dumbfounded and reached out to pat the back of the little heads: "You guys are really something, aren't you? It's one thing to carry your Uncle Lixian's piglets into the pit, but to dig a tunnel in someone's graveyard? What if you dug up someone's grave?"

These guys must have watched too much guerrilla warfare.

"Don't worry, Uncle, there aren't many graves here, so you definitely won't find any."

While talking to Chen Ling, Xiao Sen led a group of kids, huffing and puffing, to cover the pit again with bricks and stones.

After they finished rummaging around, they clapped their little hands, wiped their snot, and grinned foolishly at Chen Ling.

"Uncle Fugui, let's go."

"Huh? You're leaving already? You're just going to leave the little pig here and not care about it?"

"No, I didn't care. I fed them before lunch. The food bowls are still there, in the tunnel. We just came to check on them... Uncle Fugui, you absolutely mustn't tell anyone."

"That's right, Uncle is going to keep it a secret for us."

The little children all had serious expressions on their faces and spoke with unusual earnestness.

"Alright, alright, I'll keep it a secret for you. I'll pretend I didn't see those wild boar cubs today. Is that alright?"

Chen Ling suppressed a laugh and replied.

"Hehehe, no, we just want our great-uncle to know. If anyone else finds out, they'll definitely tell our parents."

A group of kids surrounded Chen Ling, beaming with joy.

They had always been close to Chen Ling, and would tell him things they didn't want to tell their parents.

Chen Ling naturally knew this as well, so he asked them, "Did your aunt go with you when you captured Uncle Lixian's wild boar cub?"

"No."

The children shook their heads: "After lunch that day, my aunt didn't come out to play. She said she was going to stay home and cover her books."

"Oh……"

Now Chen Ling knew which day they had caught the wild boar.

No wonder, when he went to cut reeds that day, he saw Liu Nier leading the way, searching for things all over the village.

It turns out they caught wild boar piglets.

This mischievous monkey is such a pain!

They even dared to lead people to grab the things from Wang Lixian's trap and secretly hide them away.

I have no idea what's going on in this kid's head.

"You caught a wild boar, why didn't you ask your family to help sell it for money?"

Chen Ling asked again. "We can't sell them! Liu Ni'er said these piglets are too small to sell for much money. She plans to learn from you, Uncle, and raise them like your rabbits, letting them breed until they're big enough to have piglets, and then have more piglets when they're fully grown. That way, we can sell them for lots and lots of money..."

Xiao Sen kept shaking his head and talking, and the other children chimed in.

"Yes, Uncle Fugui, if we bring it home, my father and mother will definitely make us sell it to buy grain."

"Sixth Sister thinks so too, and Uncle Lixian will definitely not let him raise it."

Hearing their naive words, Chen Ling almost burst out laughing.

Judging from their hopeful expressions, these kids are probably already dreaming of raising hundreds of wild boars in a couple of years.

……

However, it's true that if you bring wild boar piglets home, your family won't allow you to keep them.

Although wild boars are very prolific and hardy, making them easy to raise, villagers generally don't raise them.

Because they are very wild and difficult to tame, and when they are in heat, they are even more unruly than rams. While rams in heat often jump around in circles, wild boars in heat are even more dangerous and can easily injure people.

Even if you castrate him, it won't make a difference.

Wild boars eat a lot, but they gain fat slowly, so it's not cost-effective for them.

Raising pigs is far less troublesome than raising ordinary pigs, and they also bring in more money.

However, it's definitely not possible for these little kids to raise wild boar cubs in that cemetery.

It's not about whether they can raise the animals well or whether they can persevere.

But this matter certainly couldn't be kept from the adults.

Liu Ni'er is alright, but this kid is very resilient and cunning. He doesn't even blush when he lies to adults.

He might actually manage to fool them for a while.

However, the older children like Liu Nier are now studying in the county town every day, leaving only Xiao Sen and a few others who are too young.

Young children are unpredictable; if something is interesting, they can't help but look at it. It would be strange if they could keep it from people.

As they left the cornfield, Chen Ling told them to play, but not to come over after dark. He then let them skip and hop into the village, while he rode home on an ox.

……

On August 19th, after Chen Ling dropped Wang Zhenzhen off, Wang Susu had already washed the millstone with boiling water again and put it out to dry. The next step was to prepare for the work of grinding flour.

Grinding wheat is not something you can do immediately after preparing the wheat. Especially when using a stone mill, you not only have to clean the wheat, but also wash and moisten it before grinding it into flour.

After the flour is ground, it needs to be sieved. Since the stone mill is pulled by animals or pushed by people, the rotation speed is relatively slow, so the water cannot be completely drained. Finally, it needs to be dried.

Otherwise, why would Wang Laishun complain that he was just wasting his time and energy, making things unnecessary? Such complicated steps are not only time-consuming and laborious, but also inefficient, and going back and forth is just too troublesome. To someone accustomed to the convenience of machines, what is this if not just pointless tinkering?
But Chen Ling didn't care what others thought.

He enjoyed it and found pleasure in it.

He was already tired of the fast-paced life of later generations. Now that he had no worries about food or clothing and no need to worry about making a living, he just wanted to do what he wanted to do, live a simple life of self-reliance and enjoy the simple pleasures of life.

Besides, flour ground this way, although not as white as flour ground by machine, is chewier and more fragrant.

"Susu, you don't need to do it yet. Just teach me how to do it. I'm a little unsure how."

When Chen Ling was a child, he found grinding flour fun and would even forget to eat while watching it. It's impossible for him to say that he didn't know anything about it.

But as time has passed, he now only remembers the steps, while the specific methods have long since become a blur.

"No need to rush, Ah Ling, we still need to wash the wheat clean first."

Wang Susu filled a peck of wheat for him and a peck for herself. She poured them into wooden basins and stirred them with a strainer. Once the chaff floated to the surface, she scooped it out and poured it away. She then used the strainer to drain the remaining water from the wheat in a sieve and spread it out on a mat to dry.

She was demonstrating for Chen Ling.

Chen Ling's memories gradually became clearer.

……

Washing wheat isn't hard work, even little kids can do it, but it can't be rushed.

After rinsing one bucket, the sand and soil at the bottom of the basin must be thoroughly cleaned before rinsing the next bucket, until a whole set is finished, which is about ten buckets, weighing about a hundred catties, enough to eat for a while.

After spending half a day washing the wheat, it was all laid out to dry on a mat. The young couple then gathered around, each occupying a section, and together they picked out the small pebbles from the wheat on the mat.

One bad apple spoils the whole bunch. If you don't pick up all the pebbles, the resulting noodles will be gritty and won't do you any good.

Therefore, you must be careful and not impatient.

As they chatted, they carefully cleaned the wheat. There wasn't much to do at home lately, so after meals, they would sit together reading books and newspapers. In front of others, their conversations were no longer limited to everyday matters; they would talk about strange tales and interesting stories. These past few days had been increasingly pleasant.

After we finished harvesting the wheat, it was almost noon.

Wang Susu went to the kitchen to steam rice, and Chen Ling moved a bamboo stool to sit next to the mat, flipping through the newspaper and guarding the wheat to prevent the chickens, ducks, and birds from making a fuss. The chickens, in particular, were very troublesome. Even though there was plenty of grain, they would act as if they were digging for insects in the soil, scratching at it with their claws and making a mess everywhere. Then they would have to clean it up again, which was a waste of effort.

"Susu, why don't you stay here and keep watch? I'm going to catch a couple of fish."

"Huh? Have we finished eating all the fish in our tank?"

"We didn't finish it. It was too small; not enough to cook a dish."

"Okay, then go ahead."

While talking to his wife, Chen Ling took out the net bag and was walking outside when he heard a horn honking outside the door.

At the same time, a female voice called out, "Fugui, Susu, come out and move your things..."

(End of this chapter)