My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 204 Lice
On the last day of the tenth lunar month, the city's construction team arrived.

Because Chen Ling required that many parts of the construction be based on bamboo and wood structures, several experienced craftsmen from the construction team also came along; they were all experts in this field.

After Chen Ling made arrangements for them, he went to the county town and made a phone call to Zhao Dahai.

We've known each other for so long and are good friends, so saying thank you would be too formal. I just wanted to briefly explain the situation, catch up, and tell him to come over whenever he's less busy.

Zhao Dahai happily agreed.

During this time, when Chen Ling told him about encountering the lynx, he became even more envious.

This fat guy has a dream of running in the mountains.

All I ever think about is shouldering a gun and leading a few hunting dogs through the mountains.

Unfortunately, he was too fat, and his weight didn't allow it, so he was never able to achieve it.

Therefore, I became even more concerned about this matter.

After finishing his phone call with Zhao Dahai, Chen Ling went to the flour mill and brought back several bags of flour. He also went to his small courtyard in the south of the city and planted some sweet potatoes and potatoes, forced them to grow, and brought them all home.

Because construction is about to begin, the construction team of about forty people will need to be provided with meals.

These things need to be prepared in advance.

Meals will be provided, and accommodation will be arranged at the village primary school nearby.

The primary school in Chenwangzhuang used to have a fifth grade, and there are quite a few houses there.

Although the room was recently renovated after the flood and is still a bit damp, it's not bad to light a fire at night, set up a bed, and sleep in the communal room.

……

"Fugui, is it time to start work?"

"Yes, we officially started work today."

On the first day of November, right after breakfast, Liang Hongyu and her family arrived.

Liang Yuemin and his wife were also there, waving and smiling at him.

Then ask him to assign some work for you.

Actually, when it comes to assigning tasks, there's really not much to do for them.

They don't even have to worry about cooking.

There was someone in the construction team who took care of the meals. Chen Ling bought rice, flour and vegetables, and they could cook for themselves.

However, since they came to help out of kindness, even though there wasn't much work to do, I still needed to find some odd jobs to do.

He then led Qin Rongxian and his son out of the village.

Liang Hongyu and her daughter-in-law were left at home to keep Wang Susu company.

Didn't Xiaoming come back with you?

"He's back. I took him to his grandma's yesterday afternoon. That kid is too naughty; he always causes trouble when he comes over."

"You're going to be busy again, so you won't have time to take care of him. I'll bring him over to play when I'm not busy."

Liang Yuemin said.

Then, looking around at the fields, she exclaimed in surprise, "Huh? We grow winter wheat here too?"

"Yes."

Chen Ling nodded, "Don't be fooled by how cold it is here in winter. It's only cold in December and January. You can still plant winter wheat without any problem during those two cold months."

Liang Yuemin suddenly realized, "Oh, I know that. South of the Qinling Mountains, although the winters are cold, they're not as cold as other places, right?"

"That's not true."

Chen Ling smiled and said, "It gets very cold here in winter too. If you don't go back this year, you can try it after December."

"Ah? Why is this?"

Liang Yuemin looked at Chen Ling, then at his father, and saw Qin Rongxian nodding in agreement, which struck him as odd.

"Because of its high elevation."

Chen Ling glanced at him. This guy has earned so many US dollars in foreign exchange, he's even been to Africa. Surely he knows something like this.

"Oh right, I forgot about that."

Liang Yuemin slapped his forehead and chuckled.

Then he asked Chen Ling about his plans after building the farm, but his questions were different from the villagers' gossip; he offered some good suggestions, which Chen Ling didn't find annoying.

The three of them talked as they hurried to the foot of the mountain.

By this time, Wang Lixian had already arrived at the orchard. He was there to supervise the work; he had been there yesterday.

Parked beside the dirt road outside the orchard were three dirty old Liberation trucks, with messy tire tracks and various debris on the ground around them.

As expected of a city-level construction team, they had everything they needed.

The open space was already filled with rammers, mixers, generators, chainsaws, power switches, and electrical wires.

The mixer is an old-fashioned three-in-one concrete mixer, a drum type, and it can also be disassembled.

It can be used by connecting it to the tractor engine with a V-belt.

Mortar and cement are no problem at all.

Building walls, repairing steps, paving roads, and laying the bottom of ponds are all very convenient.

"Brother Fugui, your bird net is pretty impressive. Birds are already hitting it early in the morning."

Seeing Chen Ling and the others approach, the foreman went up to them with his hands behind his back and a smile on his face.

Apart from a few experienced workers and their apprentices, most of the people on the construction team were acquaintances.

They were the same group of people who came to repair the dam before.

Of course, this is no coincidence.

Zhao Dahai specifically sought out Chen Ling after asking for his opinion.

After the initial flood, the drinking water for every household in the village was contaminated.

The construction team members often went to Chen Ling's house to fetch water.

Later, when Chen Ling's family built their house, they even sent them a rammer, lime, timber, and other supplies.

When they went up to the main beam, Chen Ling also sent them some wine and food.

So the two sides had dealt with each other quite a bit and were already quite familiar with each other.

"Hey, I just bought it to play around with."

Chen Ling smiled and offered cigarettes to the workers, then went online with Qin Rongxian and his son to learn about birds.

Heiwa and Xiaojin, being very observant, followed closely behind them, carrying the chicken coop in their hands, waiting for the birds to be taken off and put into the coop.

However, Chen Ling released most of the birds today, leaving behind only a few sparrows and tits that had become rampant.

"Is the net support in the way? If not, I'll remove it."

After taking the bird off its body, Chen Ling asked.

"It's alright, it's alright, it's far away and won't bother us."

The foreman quickly waved his hand.

Three bird-catching nets were tied to the site of the old grave.

Apart from some messy withered grass and trees, there's nothing else around, so it really doesn't hinder the construction.

"That's fine..."

"Brother Xian, you've brought the cannons, haven't you?"

Chen Ling nodded and looked at Wang Lixian.

Wang Lixian pointed to the basket in front of the woodshed, "I brought half a basket. When are you going to start releasing them? Have you set a time yet?"

This farm is no small project, and to bring good luck, they're setting off firecrackers on time.

Chen Ling glanced at his watch; it was almost time. He said, "Let's start now."

Then they took the firecrackers from the basket and set them off with Wang Lixian on the edge of the field.

After a burst of cannon fire.

The farm officially started construction.

Chen Ling had already shown the blueprints for the farm to the construction team yesterday.

The orchard covers 30 acres, and if you include the surrounding ditches and the slopes at the foot of the mountain, the area will only be larger, so the farm is embedded in it.

To put it simply, the goal is to build a farm nestled in an orchard.

The farmhouses are mainly occupied by wooden and bamboo houses.

The wooden and bamboo buildings are connected by a corridor.

Beside the corridor is a large lotus pond, with a bridge spanning it.

Two pavilions should be built on either side of the lotus pond.

Directly opposite the bridge, there is a long passageway that intersects with the orchard, where a wooden gatehouse will be built.

That is, you can enter through the gatehouse, walk along the road, walk to the bridge, cross the bridge, and then walk through the corridor to reach your residence.

Apart from this, many places are quite similar to the layout of the cave.

However, to save trouble, the bridge over the lotus pond was temporarily built with wood.

Otherwise, it would be quite difficult to build a bridge like the one in Dongtian at present.

The remaining structures, including the walls and areas for raising livestock and poultry, were primarily built with bricks and stones.

With the blueprints in hand, the general framework is clear.

What we need to do today is to select a location, clear away the debris on the ground, and then start laying the foundation.

Chen Ling had considered this point when he planted the fruit trees.

Several empty spaces were cleared out at that time.

Back then, I told Wang Susu that we wanted to build two small ponds, plant some lotus flowers, and raise some fish for fun. Later, besides planting vegetables, we only planted peanuts and soybeans, and never actually moved them.

After the location was chosen.

The main task in the past few days was to lay the foundation. After the foundation was laid, the pillars and beams were erected. In the construction of the wooden and bamboo houses, the most important thing was the central pillars. There were eight central pillars, and they all required high-quality wood.

These eight pieces of wood are no less important than the beams and pillars of a brick house.

However, with a few experienced craftsmen to guide you, selecting a few central pillars is definitely not a problem.

……

In the blink of an eye, half a month has passed.

Most of the young and middle-aged people in the village have gone out to work, so the construction of Chen Ling's farm was far less popular than when the house was being built.

On the other hand, there are construction teams and experienced craftsmen who are familiar with building wooden houses. They are quite professional and handle everything in an orderly manner, so we don't need their help.

Wang Lixian, who was in charge of the project, couldn't find any fault with it either.

After the initial novelty wore off, Liang Yuemin and his son, finding themselves with little to do, spent their days wandering around with slingshots, shooting birds or chasing them into bird nets.

They only drive to the county town to buy things when they need to buy them temporarily.

At other times, just like Wang Lixian, he would chat with the villagers who came to watch the excitement while supervising the workers.

Chen Ling, as before, would stay here at night and during the day, if there was a shortage of sand and gravel, he would drive a tractor to load sand and gravel, and if there was a shortage of soil, he would load soil.

Because some places are uneven and have potholes, they need to be leveled, or some places are too low-lying and the soil is too soft, so they need to be compacted.

Besides these, the subsequent road paving also requires sand, gravel, and soil.

"Boss, we're out of diesel and gasoline. Could you go and get two barrels for us?"

That morning, the sun was shining brightly. Chen Ling, Liang Yuemin, and the other two had nothing to do, so they squatted not far from the bird-catching net, quietly waiting for the birds to take the bait. Just as they finally caught a few wild pigeons, a shout startled them so much that they flew away in all directions.

Fortunately, Heiwa and Xiaojin had already taken the opportunity to rush out. The wild pigeons were frightened and flew around in a panic. Driven by the two dogs, three pigeons crashed into the two bird-catching nets, making both nets shake violently.

Chen Ling was overjoyed upon seeing this, and stood up to wave to the foreman, "I understand, I'll go right away."

Actually, the big boss is called Liang Yuemin.

Liang Yuemin drives a car all day, but he does errands, which the workers tease him about.

He had a mild temper, and the workers, while joking around, also liked to boss him around.

Now that he had caught a wild pigeon, Chen Ling was very happy. He quickly agreed and got up to run towards the bird net.

Liang Yuemin and his son, along with Wang Lixian, also came over.

Over the past two weeks, many birds have become smarter and don't come to the net area as often. Even if Chen Ling throws out a lot of food, they only pick at the food on the outer edges.

Because Chen Ling had also set traps near the bird-catching nets, and some of his companions had fallen for them, they became very cautious, and even the notoriously naive spotted doves stopped coming around as often.

So today's wild pigeons were truly a pleasant surprise.

Unexpectedly, the wild pigeons, which hadn't shown up for half a month, finally couldn't resist coming over to eat today.

Perhaps food is hard to find this season, and they've gone hungry.

But he couldn't worry about that now. Chen Ling walked to the nearest net and carefully untied the wild pigeon.

This wild pigeon was quite temperamental; it puffed out its crop, cooed, struggled fiercely, and even pecked at Chen Ling's hand.

The mesh of the bird net is already small, and as the wild pigeon struggles, it gets tangled even tighter, with its wings, claws, and toenails all getting caught.

Chen Ling spent a lot of effort to untie it.

It took Wang Lixian and the other two quite a while to carefully untie the two wild pigeons.

"So, male or female?"

Liang Yuemin watched expectantly from the side and asked.

These days, he has also taken a liking to all kinds of birds, not only because they are beautiful and have pleasant songs, but also because they taste delicious.

Chen Ling had nothing to do and told him not to stay here, but he insisted on coming every day, just to hunt and net birds.

The addiction is getting stronger and stronger.

Hearing his question, Chen Ling grabbed the wild pigeon's two wings and stared at them. The pigeon's tail immediately drooped down.

He immediately beamed with joy and said, "Mine is male."

"Hey, mine is male too."

Qin Rongxian then figured it out and laughed, "Not bad today, how about I present you with yours?"

Wang Lixian shook his head: "My tail got tangled in the net just now and came off, so you can't tell from here."

"Yuemin, come and help me pinch its mouth."

Liang Yuemin did as he was told and pinched the beak of the wild pigeon in his hand to test it.

As a result, the wild pigeon merely cooed and pecked at him with its beak open, without any other intense reaction.

This is the female.

"They're female, two males and one female."

"That's not bad. I'll take them back and lock them up first."

Chen Ling smiled, then tied the three wild pigeons to their legs and, lifting them by their wings, headed home.

"Hey, Fugui, wait a minute, I'll drive you home."

After walking a few steps, Liang Yuemin called him back, carrying two oil drums and putting them into the back of the pickup truck.

"Ah, right, we need to go to the county town to buy some oil. I'll go."

Chen Ling quickly went back and threw the wild pigeons into the car.

"Okay, go ahead and go. The keys are in the car."

Liang Yuemin didn't stand on ceremony with him.

So Chen Ling drove his car into the village, stopped in front of his house, and took the wild pigeons into the yard.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, Liang Hongyu and Wang Susu were sitting together in the courtyard, pulling on the younger sister-in-law's head, the two of them frowning and whispering to each other.

"Oh? What's wrong with Zhenzhen?"

Chen Ling was stunned for a moment, then quickly went over.

"Oh dear, I have lice in my hair."

Liang Hongyu sighed, "Look, this is what they did to the girl's scalp."

"My scalp is itchy, and the more I scratch, the itchier it gets."

The little girl pouted, her eyes brimming with tears; she was clearly very upset.

Seeing this, Wang Susu glared at her irritably, "I told you not to play with the village cats, but you didn't listen. Those cats catch mice all day long, and they're covered in fleas and lice. They're filthy."

"Sister, those are kittens, they can't catch mice yet."

Wang Zhenzhen felt very wronged.

“The kittens have it too, you can ask your brother-in-law if you don’t believe me.”

Wang Susu glared at her again.

"Brother-in-law, really...?"

The little girl immediately looked over with eager eyes.

Chen Ling suppressed a laugh and nodded, "Your sister is right, the kittens have it too."

Indeed, lice are ubiquitous; if an adult cat has lice, the kittens will soon follow suit.

"When did you start feeling itchy without telling your sister?"

"It started itching a few days ago, but it stopped after I washed my hair, so I didn't pay any attention to it."

Wang Zhenzhen has been washing her hair herself for a long time, but she is still a bit young and doesn't wash it very clean.

These days, toiletries aren't very good either.

Lice are difficult to get rid of even with hot water. They may seem clean for a few days, but they will reappear after a while.

"I've never suffered like this before. I learned my lesson after getting lice once."

Wang Susu sighed and got up to boil water.

She and Chen Ling's generation were almost all plagued by lice; it was something that men, women, young and old could not escape.

Lice infested every part of the body, in the seams of clothes, and in cotton-padded clothes and quilts, seemingly impossible to catch or kill.

Especially in winter, when you wear thick clothes to keep warm, lice start to come out and cause trouble.

It felt like countless tiny insects, the size of grains of rice, were crawling all over my body, making me restless. I reached into my cotton coat but couldn't find them anywhere. I just wanted to take off all my clothes to find them.

It's incredibly frustrating.

And once the itching starts, it's even more uncomfortable, often resulting in red marks and broken skin from scratching.

It's true that getting lice once can be a lifelong memory.

"Come on, turn your head around, let Auntie comb your hair a couple of times."

Liang Hongyu took a comb and had Wang Zhenzhen bend down to carefully comb the little girl's hair twice.

On the first pass, she combed out two lice, plump and full. Liang Hongyu squeezed them with her fingernail, and with two "crunch" sounds, the two lice were crushed to death. Their corpses stuck to the old woman's fingernail, and she squeezed out a bellyful of blood.

The second time, many shriveled lice and their eggs, which hadn't eaten their fill, were hidden in the gaps of the comb. When scraped out and pressed hard, they made a snapping sound.

"How about that? Feeling better now?"

"Mmm, that feels so much better, hehe."

Chen Ling couldn't care less about the wild pigeons at this point, so she went to Chen Guoping and got two packets of lice powder.

After they returned, Wang Susu and Liang Hongyu washed the little girl's hair with lice powder.

It was another busy period.

(End of this chapter)