Go back to the past to plant trees

Zhao Jinquan returned five days later, bringing Zheng Erqiang and Zhao Jinshui with him.

"They said they were bored at home and wanted to come here to have some fun, so I brought them here."

Zhao Jinquan was a little embarrassed when he said this. He had brought people here without Feng Cheng's permission, but his home was too far away. He couldn't just go back and ask first, and then run back to bring people over!

So after both of them said they wanted to come over and have some fun, and after his older brother persuaded him against it, he had no choice but to reluctantly bring them back.

Zheng Erqiang was also a little embarrassed, "Brother Feng, I'm really sorry to bother you."

Feng Cheng laughed and said, "It's alright. It'll be more lively for you to come here. But the weather could snow at any time, so you should be careful. If it snows, you'll have to go back, otherwise the roads will be difficult to walk on due to the heavy snow."

Feng Cheng didn't mind the two of them coming over for a visit, nor was he worried about them eating the camp's food. What Feng Cheng was worried about was that the two of them would be trapped here by the heavy snow. If the two of them were really trapped here for almost half a year, then this winter would probably be troublesome.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Jinshui replied nonchalantly, "It's alright. According to previous years, there are still half a month before the heavy snowfall. It's still early."

Unlike Zhao Jinshui, Zheng Erqiang was not carefree. He nodded to Feng Cheng with a serious expression and said, "I know that. We're just here for a couple of days. We won't stay too long."

When Zhao Jinsheng came last time, he told Zheng Erqiang to come over and have some fun when he had time, and to help out with any work so he could get to know Feng Cheng better. Zheng Erqiang understood what he meant, so he had been looking for an opportunity. However, there was always work to be done at the team, and he couldn't refuse. After the autumn harvest, he also needed to prepare for the winter, so he postponed it until now.

Zhao Jinquan went back this time because Zhao Jinsheng asked him to come along. He said that it would snow in a few days and once winter came, if he wanted to come back, he would have to wait until next year. But next spring, he would be busy with spring planting, which would take another month or two. If he kept delaying, people would forget about him.

So even though he knew that showing up so abruptly would upset people, Zheng Erqiang had no choice but to bite the bullet and come over.

Feng Cheng noticed that Zheng Erqiang and Zhao Jinshui were carrying two bags, and he only realized that they were grain and cotton quilts after they entered the dugout.

Bringing your own quilt and dry food when visiting someone's home is unimaginable in later generations, but it's quite common in this era. If the two didn't bring their own, Feng Cheng didn't have any extra for them. Dry food was fine, but quilts were really out of the question. Feng Cheng even wanted to get another one, as the current quilt had become a bit hard after sleeping on it for a while.

In those days, cotton was also subject to state purchase and sales control, and you needed coupons to buy it. Feng Cheng did have a pound of cotton coupons, but that wasn't even enough to make a piece of clothing, let alone a quilt.

Everything requires tickets, which can be really infuriating at times. Feng Cheng even considered growing some cotton himself, but that was just a thought. He couldn't just grow whatever he needed, could he? Putting aside whether he could manage it all, this place wasn't even suitable for growing cotton.

Feng Cheng also regretted not looking for those ticket scalpers on his later trips down to the dam. He couldn't get grain coupons, but he should still be able to buy some cloth coupons, cotton coupons, and industrial product coupons.

For the next ten or twenty years, tickets will be needed. Having some on hand will never go to waste. With this in mind, Feng Cheng decided to go find those ticket scalpers after his next trip to the dam and stock up on some tickets. That way, he wouldn't have to go looking for tickets when he wanted to buy something in the future.

Zhao Jinquan helped Zheng Erqiang and Feng Cheng make their bed, while Feng Cheng leaned against the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed) lost in thought.

"Brother Feng, didn't you say you were going to compost the new nursery? When are you going to do that?"

After a while, Zhao Jinquan's voice suddenly rang in Feng Cheng's ear.

"what…"

Feng Cheng was stunned for a moment before he realized what he meant. "It's fine as long as it's done before it snows. There's no rush."

Zhao Jinquan chuckled and said, "I'm just saying this because I see the two of them here. Four people working together will be faster than two! Besides, who knows when it will snow? It might snow heavily tonight, and then the work will be harder. It's better to get it done now, since we have people and time."

Feng Cheng glanced at Zheng Erqiang and Zhao Jinshui, and seeing that they were also looking at him, he said, "I don't mind if you don't find it tiring."

Zheng Erqiang said, "It's not tiring. It's just turning over the soil and composting. It's not heavy work. Four people can finish it in no time."

"Okay, then we'll get it done this afternoon after we finish eating."

After lunch, the four of them rested for a while and then carried fertilizer to the fields. Since the horses at the camp were no longer there, these tasks had to be done by hand.

It took five or six trips to finally get the fertilizer into the field.

Feng Cheng spread fertilizer, and Zhao Jinquan, Zheng Erqiang, and the other two turned the soil over to spread the fertilizer.

The temperature is now close to zero, and the cold wind is howling. Although my body gets warm while working, my hands, face, and other parts of my body are still a bit stiff from the wind.

Feng Cheng heard that in Northeast China, people work even when the temperature is tens of degrees below zero, and the forest farm has a tree-felling task every winter. He didn't know how these people managed to persevere.

It's only around zero degrees Celsius, and he can barely stand it while working. How do those people who work in temperatures tens of degrees below zero manage to keep going? If they work for two days, their hands will be frostbitten and cracked.

"Jin Quan, does your team not do any work at all in the winter?"

The fertilizer was spread quickly, and Feng Cheng had already spread more than half of it. Seeing that Zhao Jinquan and the other two still had a lot left to do, he came back with a shovel to help.

"It's not like you do nothing. You can feed the livestock, chop firewood, or if you're diligent, go to the county town to look for odd jobs."

"However, the roads in Bashang are difficult to travel, so most people have to stay put. It's not that they don't want to work, but they simply can't walk anymore. Even if they wanted to work, they couldn't find any jobs."

Zheng Erqiang also said, "Brother Feng, you'll understand when winter comes. It's all white, stretching as far as the eye can see. You can walk for half an hour and then you won't see anyone. It's all just snow. We don't know the way, so we don't dare to go out at all, because once we go out, it's easy to disappear."

"That is indeed quite difficult."

When Feng Cheng was working in his previous life, he envied the winter life in Northeast China. They worked half the year and rested for the other half. It sounded so enviable. Unlike his own place, where he had to go to work 365 days a year, no matter the weather, whether it was windy, rainy, or hail.

But after arriving in this era, Feng Cheng realized that sometimes being too idle is not a good thing, because if you are idle for too long, you will not be able to earn money. You can only grow one crop a year. If you don't have much land, you will go hungry if things get a little difficult. Unlike in the south, where you can grow two or three crops a year, no matter how difficult things are, you will not go hungry. At the very least, you can eat wild food and wild fruits from the mountains 365 days a year.

But that's for other people. For Feng Cheng, a civil servant, he had a national salary and a national food ration. Taking half a year off was the most comfortable thing. He didn't have to do anything, just sleep and play.