Yuanyuan wore a red double-breasted jacket, black cotton trousers, tiger-head shoes and a tiger-head hat. He was well taken care of by Xing Ge’er, and was chubby and fair, with his little hands clenched into fists, chubby and plump.

　　His father carried him into the main room. It was a strange place. Yuanyuan looked around curiously with his big eyes and babbled. Xing Geer raised his hand to take off his son’s hat, rubbed his hair with his hand, and said, “This is my great grandfather’s house.”

　　”Uncle Zhou Zhou, and Uncle Gu Zhao.”

　　Li Da is usually a quiet man, but he is kind to the child. He took out a red envelope from his pocket and stuffed it into Yuanyuan’s hand, saying, “Yuanyuan is healthy.”

　　”Aiya~” Yuanyuan clenched his fists and waved.

　　Xing Ge’er took it and called him “Uncle”, “Happy New Year”.

　　Sit down together in the main room.

　　Li Zhouzhou served melon seeds, peanuts, malt candy and a pot of tea. Everyone sat around the stove eating the food and chatting. There was nothing much to talk about. Xing Ge’er held his son in his lap and talked about what to eat at home on New Year’s Eve. He said whether the tiger-head hat on Yuanyuan’s head was made by him and whether it looked good. The shoes on his feet were made by his sister-in-law, so they happened to be a perfect pair.

　　”Beautiful, Yuanyuan is good-looking.” Li Zhouzhou praised.

　　Wang Shitou could only crack melon seeds. He had nothing much to say to Li Zhouzhou’s son-in-law Gu Zhao. He could not even read and write, so they could not communicate. He could only chat with Uncle Li about crops.

　　”Uncle, there is enough snow this year, but I am afraid the weather will be too cold and freeze the wheat in the field.”

　　Li Da went to his own field during the New Year holiday and said, “The wheat below looks fine. Don’t move it yet. Wait until the snow melts in the spring next year.”

　　”My father said the same thing. He said that no matter how thick the snow is, the wheat is huddled there for the winter and dares not move.”

　　Gu Zhao listened to the two talking about crops and could tell that Wang Shitou was just making small talk. However, he did have some questions. “Dad, Brother Wang, you said winter wheat is afraid of freezing, so why not plant it in spring?”

　　Winter wheat is sown in October, hibernates over the winter, and is harvested in June of the following year. Spring wheat is sown in March or April and sown in September or October.

　　The two seasons are almost the same in time. If you are afraid that the winter wheat will be frozen, you can plant spring wheat.

　　Wang Shitou laughed first. He knew Gu Shulang had never worked in the fields when he heard the question. He said, “We plant wheat in the spring, and we are afraid of drought in the summer. The fields are dry. If there is rain and snow in the winter, the fields will become more fertile.”

　　It’s like this with crops. If there’s enough rain or snow in the winter, we’re worried that the wheat will freeze. When we sow in the summer, we’re worried that it won’t rain and the crops will die of drought. In any case, it’s a worry every year.

　　”Besides, there are nine people in my family, 25 acres of paddy fields and 20 acres of dry fields. Now, only my eldest brother, my father and I can go to the fields to take care of the crops. With so many fields, if we plant wheat in spring and harvest it before rice, we would be so exhausted that we wouldn’t be able to handle the work in the fields.” Wang Shitou said with a smile.

　　Gu Zhao nodded. He understood this; Zhou Zhou had told him about it.

　　It might be because Gu Zhao had a good attitude and Wang Shitou was talkative, mainly because he couldn’t talk about crops with Uncle Li. He couldn’t just sit there and do nothing, and he couldn’t talk about raising children, as these were all topics for his wife.

　　”According to our ancestors’ experience, we can plant peanuts, millet and beans when the harvest is split. We cannot plant more crops in dry land, otherwise the land will not be fertile and we won’t be able to grow crops next year.”

　　Proper food is the most important thing, and everything else comes second.

　　”Don’t you use fertilizer? It’s just manure.” Gu Zhao asked. People who grow crops now should know this, right?

　　Wang Shitou first praised Gu Zhao for knowing how to use manure water, but then he said, “How much can we save at home? We can’t save enough in a year to cover the 20 mu of dry land. We can just mix manure with water to irrigate the vegetable fields.”

　　Even if the village chief raised cows, the cow dung and human dung combined would not be enough.

　　”Don’t use it directly, otherwise the vegetables will be burned.” Wang Shitou thought that Gu Shulang was learning how to grow crops, so he added that he was afraid that if he really used manure and burned the crops, he would be held accountable.

　　”Paddy fields are good. After the rice is harvested, if you don’t have time, you can catch frogs and loaches and raise them in the paddy fields. As for dry fields, you can only pray to God for enough rain and snow to keep them moist. Don’t plant too often.”

　　So after the wheat harvest on Wang Shitou’s 20 mu of dry land, they also take turns to plant a few mu of millet, peanuts, and beans, enough for their own consumption. Next year, they will plant another piece of land, and they can take a break from planting that one.

　　Repeat this process.