Go back to the past to plant trees

"Let's drink from this jar first today."

Feng Cheng brought out the jar of wine he had gotten from his uncle's house.

“My Uncle Liu got me some sorghum liquor a couple of days ago. It’s a bit strong, so it’s better to keep it for when I’m hibernating. This loose liquor isn’t as strong, so it’s perfect for drinking now.”

Feng Cheng poured a full bowl of wine into Zhao Jinquan's bowl, and then poured one for himself.

"Brother Feng, how's your alcohol tolerance?" Zhao Jinquan asked after picking up his bowl.

Feng Cheng shook his head. "Generally speaking, I don't drink much. If I do drink, it's mostly beer, and I rarely drink baijiu (Chinese liquor)."

In his previous life, Feng Cheng drank beer, and in the cold winter he would drink foreign liquor and wine. He rarely drank baijiu (Chinese white liquor), not because he didn't like it, but because the baijiu sold outside would give him a headache the next day.

Others said that those liquors were all mixed with alcohol and not made from pure grains. Feng Cheng had also seen several alcoholics get sick from drinking baijiu, so he basically avoided drinking baijiu whenever possible.

The original owner did drink some alcohol when she was in Beijing, but not much. After coming to Bashang, she only drank a little during the winter, but how much could a person drink alone? Two or three ounces would make her drunk.

"Then drink less. But as for alcohol tolerance, it just gets better with more drinking. I was also very bad at drinking when I first started, but after drinking with my dad a few times, my alcohol tolerance improved."

Feng Cheng smiled. He had no intention of improving his alcohol tolerance; he was just bored and wanted to have a couple of drinks. Besides, drinking has some benefits, such as relaxing the body and improving blood circulation.

In addition, since modern baijiu is made from pure grains, there is no need to worry about it causing harm to the body, so Feng Cheng no longer objected.

Did your family mention introducing you to anyone when you went back home this time?

After clinking glasses with Zhao Jinquan and taking a sip of wine, Feng Cheng began to chat.

This wine doesn't taste very good; it's far inferior to the wines Feng Cheng drank in his previous life. Although industrial products in his previous life were bad for his health, they were still very good in terms of taste.

Zhao Jinquan said, "Why wouldn't I say it? They were practically dragging me over to meet the girl, but I didn't want to go. I refused no matter what they said. After two days of my mother's insistence, she got angry and said she didn't want to get involved in this anymore."

"Brother Feng, are you thinking about finding a partner? At your age, you should be looking for one! Or I can ask my mom to find one for you."

"cough…"

Upon hearing this, Feng Cheng almost coughed up the cured meat in his mouth.

"I'm talking about you! Why are you dragging me into this?"

Zhao Jinquan chuckled and said, "I just thought you were looking for a wife because you've been so concerned about this."

“I don’t have that idea,” Feng Cheng said, then warned him, “Don’t cause me any trouble! If I find out you’ve messed things up for me, I won’t let you off the hook.”

Upon hearing this, Zhao Jinquan quickly shook his head, "How could I dare? Besides, with all the matchmakers my mother knows, do you think they can introduce me to any good girls? I don't even like those people, let alone you, Brother Feng. You're a college graduate and a cadre. If you're not going to find another college graduate to marry, you should at least find someone from the city. How can you find someone from the village? They won't even be able to afford food."

"Whether I look down on the girls from the village or not is another matter, but you already look down on them now. However, if you don't want to marry one of them, you'll have to work harder. City girls don't look down on country boys!"

Zhao Jinquan said nonchalantly, "I'm not in a hurry. I'm still young. Besides, even if I'm going to find someone from the village, I should at least find someone good-looking. She's my wife, someone I'll be sleeping with for the rest of my life."

Upon hearing this, Feng Cheng thought of how, after the establishment of the Mechanical Forestry Farm, hundreds of students and employees from all over the country had been sent there. If Zhao Jinquan had become a forestry farm employee back then, he would have had a very high chance of finding a beautiful wife.

"Let's drink and not talk about this."

Feng Cheng picked up his wine glass, intending to end the conversation.

"Brother Feng, my mom said she wants you to come over to my house sometime so she can thank you."

"Okay, I'll go when I have time, but I guess I'll be able to go in the winter, when I'll have some free time."

"By the way, besides your parents, you also have an older brother, right?"

"Yes, he's three years older than me. He got married the year before last and has a child, but he moved out and doesn't live with my parents anymore."

"Oh."

"Brother Feng, do you live alone?"

"Yes, my father died during the War of Resistance Against Japan. I wasn't even born when he passed away. My mother also passed away from illness a couple of years ago! As for relatives, I only have one uncle here, but he left Saihanba a couple of years ago to go find his wife."

"Looking for a wife? Did your wife run away?"

“That’s how it is,” Feng Cheng told her about his uncle and aunt Wu Gaihua.

Zhao Jinquan didn't seem surprised after hearing this: "This is common in Bashang. Many women who marry into Bashang can't stand the hardship. Some endure it, but some run away, going directly to Inner Mongolia or Northeast China."

Feng Cheng drank two bowls of wine, probably about seven or eight ounces, and got so drunk that he lay down on the bed. In the end, Zhao Jinquan had to clean up the table.

The two chatted a lot over the dinner table, covering a wide range of topics. Zhao Jinquan kept asking Feng Cheng about his life in Beijing, what Beijing was like, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, and the affairs of national leaders, and so on.

Feng Cheng also told him about things from his memory. Many things that seemed ordinary to Feng Cheng were listened to with great interest by Zhao Jinquan, who even longed for them.

The next day, Feng Cheng felt a little unwell, but he did not experience a headache.

Zhao Jinquan was no longer in the room. Feng Cheng went out to take a look and saw that the sun had already climbed to mid-sky. Judging from the time, it was probably around ten o'clock.

Feng Cheng squinted at the outside, then went back inside to get his toiletries to wash his face and brush his teeth.

After finishing, Feng Cheng went to the kitchen. Zhao Jinquan had left him some food: millet porridge, some leftover vegetables from yesterday, and half a plate of peanuts.

Feng Cheng quickly drank two bowls of porridge, then packed his things and went to the nursery.

Upon arriving at the nursery, we indeed saw Zhao Jinquan busy at work.

"Why didn't you wake me up this morning?"

"I saw that you were sleeping soundly, and since you had been drinking, the longer you slept, the faster you would recover, so I didn't wake you."

Feng Cheng said, "Remember to wake me up next time. You can't let this happen every time. Drinking shouldn't interfere with important matters!"

Zhao Jinquan nodded: "Okay, I'll listen to you. But I don't think there's much work to do at this nursery. It's okay to get up a little later. I just arrived here myself."

Feng Cheng didn't say anything more. He went over to take a look at the nursery. He checked it every day, and each time he looked very carefully, because he was afraid of problems with the seedlings, but he couldn't find anything wrong.

When they went back for lunch, Zhao Jinquan asked Feng Cheng what the spices were for. Zhao Jinquan had previously thought they were for cooking and stewing meat, but he hadn't seen Feng Cheng put them in when stewing chicken yesterday. He was busy cooking at the time and had forgotten about it. It wasn't until he saw the spices this morning that Zhao Jinquan remembered them.

"Oh, that's where they make Coca-Cola."

"Cola? What is cola?"

Feng Cheng replied, "It's also soda, but a different flavor. The one I made last time didn't work, so I wanted to try another method, which is to use some spices."

"Since you mentioned it, let's try making this cola!"

Having just returned from the fields, Feng Cheng was also a little thirsty. He thought of the sweltering summers of his past life, and how refreshing it was to drink a bottle of Coca-Cola.

"Come on, start a fire."

Feng Cheng asked Zhao Jinquan to light the fire in the stove, while he took out the pile of spices and separated them one by one.

Making homemade cola mainly involves caramelizing sugar. Feng Cheng followed the tutorial in a short video and added a lot of sugar. The final cola turned out pretty good, very sweet, but it was still quite different from real cola, lacking the bubbles. Of course, for Zhao Jinquan, it was already a rare treat.