When Xu Shiyan went home, the sky was a little cloudy. When he was ready to eat, it started to rain outside.
Zhou Guilan looked at the weather outside the window and let out a sigh of relief.
"We are finally looking forward to the rain. There has been very little rain in the beginning of spring this year. There have been two rains in total.
After this rain, the ground should be a little wetter, so we can start planting in a few days, which will be good."
"Well, the ground has been so dry these days that it's almost smoky, so this rain is quite timely.
Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow I will go to our private land to tidy up, and in a few days I will take some time to plant some millet, millet and other things."
Old farmers depend on the weather for their livelihood, and what people in Zhuanghuyuan hope for most is good weather.
Xu Shiyan moved here, and the team gave him half an acre of private land. It wasn't much, but it was enough to grow some cereals and beans.
After all, the family has a small population, so they only have enough food to eat.
Spring and autumn are the busiest seasons for agricultural teams, and even busier for participating households.
Fortunately, these days, the work in the field is almost busy.
The ginseng fields that have been harvested for freezing and making goods have already been planted in the pond, and it will take a few days for the new plantings to come out. It is just a good time to plant the fields.
"It's not the right time for me to be in confinement, otherwise I could go farming with you."
Su Anying, who had already had dinner over there and was holding her baby to breastfeed, heard this and couldn't help but sigh.
When she was so busy with spring farming, she happened to be in confinement. She was tired of leaving all the work outside the house to her husband alone.
"You, take a good confinement period, and take good care of your body is more important than anything else.
Don’t always think about working. Women do all the work, so why do they need men?
Marrying a man, dressing and eating, farming and working are what they should do.
Just take care of your children at home and figure out the situation at home, and don't let the third child worry outside."
When Zhou Guilan heard this, she couldn't help but sigh.
Among the daughters-in-law in her family, the third daughter-in-law is the most capable and down-to-earth. Even though she is in confinement, she still wants to work.
"Our mother is right, you don't have to worry about anything, just leave the rest of the house to me, and you can rest assured during your confinement period.
If you take good care of yourself, it will be a great achievement." Xu Shiyan also advised.
No one knows his wife's temper better than Xu Shiyan.
Su Anying is so capable that she is always busy on weekdays. Even in the late stages of pregnancy, she did not miss work.
This sudden cold made her lie on the kang all day long, sleeping and eating, which made her feel uncomfortable.
But no matter how uncomfortable it is, the confinement period must be done properly without any discussion.
While he was talking, he suddenly saw someone hurriedly walking in from outside. Xu Shiyan quickly opened the door and saw that it was his neighbor from the east courtyard.
"Xiaofeng, why are you here because it's raining? Is there something going on at home?" Xu Shiyan stepped aside and asked the other party to come into the house.
"Brother Xu, if nothing happens at home, I just came to see you and asked if you would like to catch toads at night?
It hasn't rained much this spring, so the toads haven't come ashore yet. I guess tonight's rain will bring all the toads up.
Let's go catch toads with flashlights, and we can catch old noses in one night."
Sun Xiaofeng, Xu's neighbor to the east, is one year younger than Xu Shiyan.
The Sun family is also a member of the second brigade and the first brigade. They work together all day long and are neighbors. They get along very well with Xu Shiyan.
The toad Sun Xiaofeng mentioned is not a frog or a toad, but a Northeastern wood frog, a type of wood frog.
The dried fallopian tube product of the female Northeastern wood frog, also called wood frog oil, is an extremely valuable supplement and is known as "snow clam oil" in the south.
Therefore, Northeastern wood frog is also called snow clam.
Toads live in the woods in the summer and come down from the mountains in late autumn to spend the winter in the river.
Wait until the beginning of spring, then go ashore from the river and lay eggs in ponds, ditches, or stable river bends.
After laying eggs, they enter the mountain forest life again, and the cycle begins again.
Toads are the best river delicacies, especially those in spring. After spending a whole winter in the river, there is no dirt in their stomachs. The meat is delicious and nutritious. It is a favorite delicacy of the locals.
According to their habits, when it rains every spring, people use flashlights to go to the river to catch them.
"Oh, if you didn't mention it, I really forgot. Okay, then I'll finish the meal and we can go together."
Xu Shiyan has been preoccupied with his wife's giving birth these days and can't think of anything else.
When Sun Xiaofeng said this, he also realized that it rained late this year, so this was probably the only toad.
If we don’t catch it, we won’t be able to eat it this year.
"Okay, then I'll go home and prepare. Don't be in a hurry. Brother Xu, you can eat slowly."
When Sun Xiaofeng heard Xu Shiyan agreed, he was so happy that he didn't even enter the room, turned around and left again.
Xu Shiyan returned to the east room and explained to his mother and daughter-in-law.
"Mom, while it's raining, Xiaofeng and I will catch some toads and bring them back. We'll just stew them for Yingzi."
When he was in the big house, Xu Shiyan would catch toads twice every spring to satisfy everyone's cravings.
Now that I have arrived in Donggang, I cannot change this habit.
"Okay, since Xiaofeng is here to see you, then go ahead and don't go too far and don't come back too late." Zhou Guilan didn't stop him and only gave a few instructions.
Just like that, Xu Shiyan hurriedly took a few mouthfuls of food and finished it, then went to find his raincoat, flashlight, and woven bag.
After everything was ready, they went out to find Sun Xiaofeng. The two of them walked out and headed straight towards the Caozi River.
Caozi River is a branch of the upper reaches of Songjiang River, about twenty miles away from Donggang.
For Xu Shiyan and Sun Xiaofeng, twenty miles is just like playing.
The two of them walked forward with flashlights on, staring at both sides of the road. It had been raining for a while, and there were probably toads on the roadside.
Sure enough, not far ahead, a few black dots jumped up and down trying to cross the aisle.
As soon as the flashlight light shone on them, they immediately lay on the ground and stopped moving.
Xu Shiyan and Sun Xiaofeng immediately ran over and grabbed the toad on the ground.
The skin of amphibians is smooth and cold. People who have never caught a toad may be shocked.
For Xu Shiyan, there was no disturbance in his heart. On the contrary, he felt that the toad looked so fleshy and unusual.
Buying a big female baby will make you feel like you are weighing twice as much.
Xu Shiyan sighed in his heart, speaking of it, these are better times, unlike later generations where toads were caught in large numbers and there were not many big ones left in the wild.
The key is that in order to make money, those people later contracted river sections, and then used plastic sheets on the river banks to block toads.
The plastic sheet is high and slippery, and the toads cannot jump over it, so they are all blocked under the plastic sheet, so they can just grab it.
The toad trip is really a desperate plan. All the wild toads are caught within a few years. In the future, they will have to be cultivated artificially.
But how can artificially cultured toads taste as good as wild ones?
"Brother Xu, go forward. There must be more ahead. Let's go."
The job of catching toads is addictive. The more I catch them, the more I want to keep catching them.
Sun Xiaofeng had already caught several of them. Seeing Xu Shiyan standing there wondering what he was thinking, he shouted at him to move forward quickly.
Xu Shiyan put the toad into the woven bag hanging on his waist and walked forward quickly.
We didn't go far, and there were several toads in front of us. At this time, we couldn't think about anything anymore, so we just caught them.