Chapter 99 The Girls Who Came to Help
The whole family knows that Fang Xianfeng is going to plant the seedlings today.
Just after seven in the morning, two familiar figures appeared at the farm.
"Grandpa! Grandma! Why are you here?"
"Dad, Mom, why are you two here?"
This place is some distance away from Donghua Village. After finishing the chores at home, Old Man Fang rode his 28-bar bicycle and brought Old Lady Fang here.
"Aren't you planting seeds today? I came over to see if there's anything I can help with."
"Dad, I can handle it here. I've even asked my two sisters-in-law to come over and help. You two should stop struggling and go home and rest."
Old Man Fang glared and said, "Your father is not too old to work! How can your mother and I be idle when we have things to do at home?"
When he heard that Fang Xianfeng had also invited two fishermen's wives to help, Old Man Fang didn't say anything but still felt a little painful. After all, they were all from the countryside, and everyone would ask their own family members to help out when there was work to do. Wouldn't it be a waste of money to hire people from outside?
Fang Xianfeng could see the dissatisfaction in his old man's eyes. He felt aggrieved too. He was just thinking that you two elders are old, so he wanted to spare you the trouble!
Fang Wei also found it funny. In front of his grandfather, his dad was like his grandson.
But his grandfather dotes on him, his real grandson, very much.
"You still let Awei come to help, won't this affect his studies?"
Fang Xianfeng: “…”
"It's okay, Grandpa. It's vacation time. I have nothing to do, so I will definitely come over to help."
"Ah, have you had breakfast yet? Grandma brought some buns."
"Grandma, I ate it."
"How did you do this?"
This is also the first time for my grandparents to engage in this kind of breeding. I didn’t expect that even at their old age, they could still learn something new.
Old Man Fang stood on the shore, looking at the sea ranch in front of him. He didn't know whether A Feng's transformation into mussel farming would be successful. After all, the boy had already started a family, and the old man naturally couldn't make the decision for him. Anyway, he could do whatever he wanted, as long as he didn't end up losing everything and starving his precious grandson...
Seeing that the two elders had started to help with the shelling, Fang Xianfeng didn't say anything more. He was touched and couldn't help but sigh.
Although my grandparents are old, they are not slow at all in wrapping the seedlings. After all, they have been doing this work for a lifetime and they really can't sit idle. While they can still work, they always want to help the younger generations in the family.
Perhaps only when you reach Mr. Li’s age can you truly relax and enjoy your old age by lying under the lychee tree every day...
……
The arrival of grandparents was just the beginning. At eight o'clock, Fang Yuansheng also came over on his bicycle.
"Asheng, why are you here?"
"Grandpa, grandma, you are here too!"
"Where are your dad and his family?"
"My dad and his friends are collecting fish! They asked me to come over first to see if there's anything I can help with. They can come over when they're free! Uncle, find me some work quickly! Otherwise, my dad will beat me up when he finds out I didn't help at all!"
"You kid..."
Fang Xianfeng shook his head and smiled: "Then you can follow Awei to pack the seedlings. You two can come over and help Second Uncle plant the seedlings. Learn well. When your father is ready to raise mussels someday, you can come and teach him!"
"I'll teach my dad?"
Ah Sheng's eyes lit up when he heard this. Isn't that the anti-Tian Gang? Just listening to it makes me excited!
Fang Xianfeng and Fang Xianmin are brothers, but they have different personalities. As the eldest brother, Fang Xianmin is more conservative and has not yet made up his mind to transform. After all, his grandfather's generation has been fishmongers, and it is always difficult to change the inherent concepts.
As the second brother, Fang Xianfeng is more radical. Whether it was his decision to go to the city to make a living when he was young, or his decision to cultivate mussels now, it seems like he is the "big brother" who is paving the way for him.
……
Ah Sheng ran to Fang Wei and learned from him how to wrap the seedlings.
They are all teenagers who grew up in the village. They may not be good at studying, but they are all good at work.
Suddenly, more people came to work, and the speed of wrapping mussel seedlings increased. Gradually, a large number of long seedling ropes wrapped with mussel seedlings were piled around several people.
"Almost done. Let's put the scallops into the sea while wrapping them. They can't stay out of the water for too long. Ah Wei, Ah Sheng, you two brothers come and help me!"
"okay!"
The two brothers put down their work and carried the heavy ropes of saplings to the small fishing boat together.
The small fishing boat was rented. We didn't have enough funds before, so we had no choice but to rent it.
Now that he has the funds, Fang Xianfeng has decided to buy a small fishing boat in a while. As he usually has to work at sea, it is more convenient to have his own boat.
Three people were carrying the seedling rope onto the boat, and two more pretty figures appeared on the farm.
"Cai Ling? Zhiyi? Why are you two here too?" Fang Wei was stunned.
"Zhiyi said she had never seen what mussel farming was like, so I brought her here to take a look!" Xu Cailing said with a giggle.
"what?"
Hearing Xu Cailing's words, Liu Zhiyi had a big question mark in his head. Didn't you say you wanted to come and see it, Cailing? I'm still reading at home... Of course, she was also very curious, otherwise she wouldn't have come to join in the fun.
"Oh! What are you two little girls doing here? You don't even have a straw hat and are basking in the sun!" Fang Xianfeng said with a smile.
"Is there anything we can help you with, Uncle?"
Xu Cailing and Liu Zhiyi parked their bicycles and walked to the shore.
"It's okay! I don't need your help, little girls. Just find a shady place to play!"
"Awei and Asheng can help, so can we!" said Xu Cailing.
"Yeah." Liu Zhiyi also nodded.
Fang Xianfeng was naturally embarrassed to let someone else's precious daughter come to work in his house, but Fang Wei didn't mind and said with a smile:
"Then you two can help carry the wrapped seedling ropes onto the boat, and we will go to the sea field to plant the seedlings together."
"it is good!"
"Straw hats! They have to wear straw hats. Alan, get two straw hats for them!" Fang Xianfeng shouted.
……
After putting on the big straw hats on their heads, the two pretty girls finally looked like they were working. The wind was strong at the seaside, so the rope of the straw hat needed to be tied to the chin to prevent it from being blown away.
Although Cailing is a girl, she grew up in the village after all and helped with various chores. So she can help out with ease.
Usually when she helps with housework at home, her parents never praise her. But when she works at Fang Wei's house, Fang Xianfeng and Tian Xilan both praise her for being efficient, sensible and well-behaved. This makes Cailing very happy and she is more enthusiastic than doing her own housework.
Liu Zhiyi was not as skilled as Cai Ling. Faced with these shellfish seedlings, ropes and nets, she had no idea what to do. Even if she just needed to wrap them up and tie them up with ropes, she seemed quite clumsy and her speed was surprisingly slow.
Of course, after all, the little girl came here specifically to help, and she was not hired to work. The elders could all see Liu Zhiyi's seriousness and thoughtfulness.
I wonder if there is any fair and tender girl from a big city who would be willing to do such rough work under the sun?
Fang Xianfeng and Tian Xilan felt really embarrassed, and after Xu Cailing and Liu Zhiyi had helped for a short while, they let the two little girls wash their hands and go take a rest.
"Do you want to come on the boat together? We are going to plant the seedlings." Fang Wei shouted.
"Go! Let's go, Zhiyi, let's go."
Upon hearing this, the two girls wearing straw hats ran over together.
The small fishing boat was not big, and the cabin was already piled with long ropes wrapped with shellfish fry.
The raised bow of the boat is a certain distance away from the shore.
Fang Wei extended his hand toward them.
"Hey!"
Xu Cailing jumped easily, holding Fang Wei's hand, and jumped steadily onto the boat.
Liu Zhiyi doesn't have such strong jumping ability, but fortunately the thigh pain from running has disappeared. The exercise in the past half month has improved her physical strength a lot.
She took a step back and jumped forward!
After all, it was a small boat on the water, and it was shaky and a little unstable. Fortunately, Fang Wei grabbed her hand in time, and they stood on the boat together.
Fang Wei looked at his 'classmate' and 'deskmate' in front of him and said with a smile: "Look at you two running over to join in the fun, your clothes are all dirty."
"Just wash it when you get home!" Xu Cailing said indifferently.
"It doesn't matter." Liu Zhiyi also shook his head.
"Didn't you go to the drying yard to dry the salted fish today?" Fang Wei asked Xu Cailing.
"I went there and came back after drying the sun."
Xu Cailing giggled and said, "The fried chicken and French fries are so delicious! You treated us to a delicious meal, and since we have nothing else to do, we came over to take a look."
"Zhiyi, what about you? Did you go jogging this morning?" Fang Wei asked Liu Zhiyi.
"I didn't run today..."
The day before yesterday I went to the city early in the morning and didn't run, and this morning I went out to work early in the morning and didn't run either.
Since the Mid-Autumn Festival, the two of them have made an appointment to jog together every morning. Seeing that Fang Wei didn't run, Liu Zhiyi didn't run either.
Perhaps this is a rather undesirable lazy behavior for physical exercise! Liu Zhiyi thought so too, so she went running by herself the day before yesterday, but Fang Wei was not there, and she couldn't run anymore after running to the pier. She didn't know how she managed to run to Xiaobaisha with him on weekdays...
Seeing that Fang Wei didn't run today, she decided not to run either.
……
The ten-acre sea field has been equipped with floating rafts and suspension ropes.
Fang Xianfeng drove the boat, slowly moving between rows of ropes.
"How many lines are there in total?" Xu Cailing asked curiously.
"Ten acres, fourteen rows, right? There will be one hundred and twenty strings of seedling ropes hung under each row of hanging ropes. See those four long stakes? Use the long stakes and floating rafts to fix it, and the sea field will be enclosed." Fang Wei told her.
"So, do you need to feed me regularly?"
"No, just leave it there and let the mussels grow naturally."
Liu Zhiyi, who was listening nearby, also asked curiously, "Won't they run away?"
Many adults don’t know much about mussel farming, let alone two young girls.
Fang Wei was like an encyclopedia. No matter what they asked, he would satisfy their curiosity.
"They won't run away, they are covered with a net. Mussels are different from scallops. Scallops can run away, but mussels can grow very tough byssus threads that can wrap around the rope tightly. Once they are stable, we can remove the net and they will grow on the rope. When it's time to harvest, we can pull up the rope and they will be a big bunch!"
After Liu Zhiyi asked, Xu Cailing asked again: "What if there is a typhoon?"
"The raft frame is very strong. It is fine for small winds and waves. If there is a bigger typhoon, you can see these floats. We can reduce the buoyancy or use stones to sink the raft to about one meter below the water layer, so we don't have to worry about the wind and waves on the sea."
Of course, if we really encounter a typhoon that causes a major disaster, just pretend he didn’t say anything.
After all, when we really encounter such natural disasters, it is beyond human control and we can only do our best and leave the rest to fate. This is also an unavoidable problem in all breeding projects, but we cannot give up our breeding plans because of these.
Compared with other areas, the weather conditions on Pineapple Island are quite suitable.
After hearing what Fang Wei said, Xu Cailing's eyes lit up, and she suddenly had an idea and said, "Why not just sink all the ropes into the sea? Then we won't be afraid of wind and waves at all!"
"…We are not afraid of wind and waves, but the natural enemies of mussels, such as starfish, octopus, snapper, red snail and crab, are very happy. It's a free lunch from the sky!!"
"Ha ha……"
Liu Zhiyi also chuckled when she heard this. She never thought that the cultivation of the common mussels actually involves so much knowledge. She has broadened her horizons today.
……
Fang Xianfeng stopped the boat, but was not in a hurry to lower the rope.
He took out the incense sticks that he had prepared long ago from the cabin, lit them with a lighter, and worshiped Mazu sincerely.
"May Mazu bless you, and may everything go smoothly..."
After he finished muttering, he inserted the incense stick into the bow of the boat.
The brothers Fang Wei and A Sheng each held a string of firecrackers, lit them and threw them into the sky on both sides.
Xu Cailing and Liu Zhiyi covered their ears.
[Crackling sound——]
After the sound of firecrackers, the white smoke in the air was blown away by the sea breeze, and red confetti fell in a circle on the sea.
"Plant the seedlings!"
(End of this chapter)
