When the pears are green

After Wu Mingshu's matter was resolved, Song Li and Jiang Qingzhou returned to their previous peaceful life, picking up cicada shells, feeding the animals at home, and visiting the mulberry fields and corn fields every now and then.

"Qingzhou, look, is this rabbit sick? It is pulling out its own hair." Song Li hurriedly called out to Jiang Qingzhou.

Jiang Qingzhou hurried to the rabbit nest. He looked carefully at the rabbit that was pulling out its own hair. The rabbit's belly looked a little big and it was very resistant to another rabbit's approach.

"This rabbit should have little rabbits. There are some blue bricks at home. I will first put the male rabbit in a separate pen." After Jiang Qingzhou said this, he started to move the blue bricks in the southeast corner of the kitchen.

Song Li quickly went to the main room and took out the shovel to mix the mud. She neatly put the mixed mud into a wooden basin and handed it to Jiang Qingzhou. Then she handed Jiang Qingzhou a brick and said with a smile: "I have never raised a rabbit before. I thought it was sick."

"Xiao Li has never raised rabbits before, so it's normal for her to have such thoughts. Dad and mom have raised rabbits before, but they didn't do a good job. The mother rabbit almost killed all the baby rabbits she gave birth to, so Dad sold all the rabbits, big and small." Jiang Qingzhou remembered what happened when he was ten years old. He still remembers the scene when Jiang Wan went to sell rabbits and he and Jiang Qingye hugged Jiang Rong and cried.

After hearing this, Song Li couldn't help but exclaimed: "Why do rabbits look so cute?"

"No matter how cute they are, they are still animals. Sometimes people are like this, let alone these animals. Later, I heard from the villagers that if the rabbits are just born, the male rabbit must be penned aside. If the male rabbit scares the female rabbit that has just given birth, the female rabbit may ignore the rabbits or bite them to death." Jiang Qingzhou used bricks to divide the rabbit nest into two parts. He quickly built the wall, and then put the male rabbit that was eyeing the female rabbit covetously into the smaller part of the rabbit nest.

From that day on, Song Li began to take better care of the rabbit. As the rabbit's belly grew bigger, Song Li began to increase the supply of grass to the rabbit, sometimes even feeding it half a cucumber.

Twenty days later, the mother rabbit gave birth to a litter of baby rabbits in the early morning. Song Li excitedly called Jiang Qingzhou who was cooking. The two of them gathered in front of the rabbit nest and counted carefully. There were six baby rabbits in total.

Song Li happily lay on Jiang Qingzhou's back, and she began to imagine in her mind the scene of owning a nest of rabbits before winter.

Jiang Qingzhou looked back at Song Li. Seeing that Song Li's eyes were almost narrowed due to her smile, he asked with a smile, "Xiao Li, what are you so happy about?"

"I was thinking about how many rabbits I could have in the winter. I could sell some of them and keep some to slaughter and eat." The smile on Song Li's face deepened and his eyes narrowed.

Jiang Qingzhou stood up, carrying Song Li on his back as he walked, saying, "I don't know how many rabbits we'll have by winter. But I know our corn is ready to eat. Didn't we say we'd send some to Mr. Hu? Today is a cloudy day, so we can just break off some and send them to Mr. Hu."

"Okay, let's go after dinner." Song Li patted Jiang Qingzhou's shoulder, signaling him to put her down quickly.

Jiang Qingzhou put Song Li down at the kitchen door and told her, "Let's go first and send some to Master Li, and Master Yang. Then we'll go to the restaurant. Do you want the Li family to send some as well?"

"Of course we should give them some, but not too much. Give a few to Lingling so she can have a taste. If we don't, and Mr. Hu gives the corn to the Li family, Lingling and the others will think we are heartless. It won't be easy to sell at the market, and almost no one will be willing to spend a penny to buy it. Besides, in six or seven days, everyone's corn will be edible." Song Li analyzed the situation to Jiang Qingzhou. She intended to make friends with the Li family, so naturally she was willing to give them a few corn cobs.

Jiang Qingzhou looked at Song Li's serious expression, and he couldn't hold back his inner excitement. He pulled Song Li's right hand, which was gesturing, and then stared at Song Li with a pair of affectionate eyes and said, "Let's have dinner at the party later!"

Song Li lowered her head under Jiang Qingzhou's burning gaze. She gently raised her right foot and stepped on Jiang Qingzhou's left foot. Then she broke free from Jiang Qingzhou's hands and ran to the door of the main room and said with a smile, "What are you thinking about? Go cook. We have to go out to do some work later!"

Jiang Qingzhou bent down and gently wiped off the shoe print on his left foot, then smiled and said to Song Li who was leaning against the door frame: "Okay, I'll go cook. When I'm done, I won't let you off easily."

Song Li made a face at Jiang Qingzhou, and Jiang Qingzhou smiled and went back to the kitchen to continue cooking.

The two of them ate breakfast while playing around, but by the time the food entered their stomachs, it had all gone cold.

"Xiao Li, go find the basket and backpack. I'll go wash the pots and dishes." Jiang Qingzhou happily took the dishes on the eight-immortals table into the kitchen, leaving Song Li, with a blushing face, wiping her neck back and forth with her sleeves.

Song Li reached out from under the round table and took out the basket and backpack. She stood at the kitchen door with the things in her hand, waiting for Jiang Qingzhou to clean up the kitchen.

"Okay, let's go." Jiang Qingzhou took the backpack from Song Li after finishing his work. He reached out and pinched Song Li's still slightly hot cheeks, then he walked out of the yard with Song Li contentedly.

Since fresh corn cannot be stored for long, Song Li and Jiang Qingzhou first calculated the number and then broke the corn to fill the backpack.

As planned, Song Li and Jiang Qingzhou went to Rongxing Bookstore first. Jiang Qingzhou took out eleven corns from his backpack and put them in a basket and handed it to Master Li who opened the door. Then he smiled and said to Master Li, "Master Li, these corns are grown by us. You keep eight and give the remaining three to Master Yang, so that he can take them home to taste them."

Master Li couldn't refuse, so he smiled and asked Song Li and Jiang Qingzhou to wait a moment. He hurriedly put the corn in the basket into the kitchen in the backyard, and then sent the basket out.

After leaving the bookstore, Song Li and Jiang Qingzhou went to Li's shop. They both knew that Hu Zhimin often stayed in Li's shop. In order to avoid embarrassment, when they were almost at Li's shop, Song Li took six corns from the backpack and put them in the basket.

When Song Li and Jiang Qingzhou stepped into the Li's shop, they saw Hu Zhimin standing aside and watching Lingling sitting at the counter using an abacus. The sound of "clacking" filled the entire shop.

When Lingling and Hu Zhimin heard the footsteps, they both looked up at the same time. When Lingling saw Song Li and Jiang Qingzhou, her index finger, which was about to move the beads, stopped on the abacus. She was stunned for a moment and hurriedly ran out of the counter.

"Sister Song, why are you here?" Lingling asked Song Li hurriedly.

"Lingling, Qingzhou and I planted some corn in the spring. Now it's ready to eat, so I came to give you some." Song Li smiled and handed the corn in the basket to Lingling.

Lingling wanted to refuse, but Song Li smiled and asked her to accept it. Just as Lingling was holding the corn in her arms embarrassedly, Hu Zhimin, who had been looking at this side, came over.

When Jiang Qingzhou saw Hu Zhimin coming over, he quickly took off his backpack and said to Hu Zhimin with a smile, "I also brought some for Mr. Hu. I got some mulberry seeds from Mr. Hu in the summer, and I've been thinking about thanking him. Farmers can't give us anything good, so I thought about planting corn early, so I brought some for Mr. Hu to try."

"Brother Jiang, you are too polite. You also paid for the mulberry seeds. Why should you be so polite?" Hu Zhimin said, and then he looked at the corns in the backpack with a smile. There were about twenty corns.

Jiang Qingzhou quickly explained with a smile: "I also went to the grain store in town to inquire about the price of mulberry seeds. Mr. Hu gave them to us almost for free. Naturally, we can't forget this kindness."

Hu Zhimin said nothing more. He took out a basket from behind the counter and put the corn in Lingling's arms and the basket on her back into it.

After Song Li and Jiang Qingzhou came out of the shop, they looked at the big sun above their heads and lost the desire to stroll around Heihe Town, so they went straight home.

The two men returned home and cut down the corn stalks in the corn field, preparing to take them home and chop them up to feed the pigs.

Jiang Qingzhou handed a piece of tender green straw to Song Li and asked her to taste it. Song Li took a bite like eating sugar cane, and it was indeed very sweet!

The days passed slowly, and the south wind turned into the west wind unknowingly.

Song Li stood in her yard and looked at a group of chirping swallows perched on the wall. She smiled and said to Jiang Qingzhou beside her: "Qingzhou, the swallows are about to fly south. Autumn is coming."

Before Jiang Qingzhou could say anything, he heard a knock on the door. He and Song Li opened the door and saw that it was Jiang Gou Wa and Jiang Xiao Mei, the brother and sister they hadn't seen for a long time.

Although the brother and sister were a little fatter than before, they still looked malnourished. Song Li asked with concern: "Gou Wa, Xiao Mei, is there anything wrong with you?"

Jiang Gou Wa and Jiang Xiao Mei looked at each other, and they grabbed their clothes nervously. Jiang Gou Wa swallowed his saliva, and then whispered, "Brother Da Hu, sister-in-law, do you want a child bride?"