Chapter 245: The Whole Family Plants Fruit Trees Together

“That’s fine. I never really thought about you paying me back anyway,” Lin Heng said with a smile. It was perfectly fine if his parents wanted him to take care of them in their old age. If they wanted to go with his brother, that was fine too.

Taking on the responsibility of caring for elderly parents naturally meant getting a larger share of land. That’s how things were in the countryside when families divided property—simple and straightforward.

“Well, we’ll go with you then. Life is clearly more comfortable with you,” Mother Lin said with a smile.

“No problem. I’ll build you a nice little western-style house to live in someday,” Lin Heng said, smiling.

“But there’s no need for that now. We can talk about it later. However, even though your old dad can’t give you money for the saplings, I’ll give you seventy percent of the money from selling the fruit later,” Father Lin said, waving his hand and turning to leave.

He and his wife had discussed who they would live with later, and they both leaned towards Lin Heng. After all, Lin Heng had money and supporting them would be easy for him. Lin Yue had three sons, and if they added the two old folks on top of that, life would probably be very difficult later on.

Also, their elder daughter-in-law didn’t like being around them much either.

“We’ll talk about it when the time comes,” Lin Heng said, waving his hand. He planted the fruit trees to reduce his parents’ farming burden and make their lives a little easier. He didn’t care much about the money.

“We’re heading back,” Mother Lin said, waving and getting up to leave.

“We’ll be off too, then,” Lin Yue said, taking his wife and leaving as well.

“Remember to have Lin Wei and the others come over for milk,” Lin Heng added.

Once everyone had left, Xiulan said, “You go wake Xiao Xia up for her milk. I’ll start cooking.”

“Wait a moment. Let’s plant these strawberries first,” Lin Heng said, pointing at the strawberries beside them. These seedlings needed to be put outside to get some sunlight.

“Are we planting them right here in the yard?” Xiulan asked, tilting her head.

“Yes. We’ll plant forty of them and leave ten for Elder Brother and his family. I’ll go get the hoe. You start taking the strawberry seedlings out,” Lin Heng said, then went to fetch the hoe.

There were four vegetable plots in the yard, totaling eighty square meters, planted with common vegetables for daily meals. The plot on the left, closest to the house, previously had radishes and spinach, but there wasn’t much left. Lin Heng pulled out all the remaining plants.

The black humus soil he had specially dug up from the woods earlier was very loose and easy to dig.

“So we just remove the bag, plant them in the soil, and cover them up, right?” Xiulan asked after moving them all.

“Yes, just space them about twenty centimeters apart,” Lin Heng nodded.

Xiulan took a small shovel and started planting in the soil Lin Heng had dug.

As he dug, Lin Heng said, “Wife, you’re not going to blame me for always thinking about getting saplings for Mom, Dad, and Elder Brother, and not taking care of our own home, are you?”

“Yes, yes, I am exactly that kind of woman,” Xiulan replied, looking at him with a sarcastic tone, clearly annoyed at Lin Heng for thinking such nonsense.

Lin Heng laughed heartily. “What we’re planting ourselves are medicinal herbs: ginseng, astragalus, turmeric, and forsythia. Their future harvest won’t be any worse than fruit trees.”

Then he added in a lower voice, “I know you’re not the kind of person who nitpicks over every little thing like my sister-in-law.”

“Don’t talk nonsense. I get it,” Xiulan said hurriedly. This guy really didn’t know how to avoid awkward topics.

She quickly changed the subject. “How many berries can these forty strawberry plants produce?”

“This plant sends out runners and can spread over a large area. Each plant can bear four or five berries, so that’s why I only bought this many,” Lin Heng explained.

Halfway through digging the plot, he also came over to help plant. Even planted sparsely, half the plot was about enough. After planting, he brought over bamboo sticks and plastic film, watered them, and covered them up.

“With this setup, we should be able to eat strawberries around May or June,” Lin Heng said with a smile.

Xiulan nodded, feeling a little anticipation.

“Do you think we should remove some of the paving stones in the front yard and plant a few fruit trees?” Lin Heng asked again.

Xiulan thought for a moment and shook her head. “That’s not necessary. Planting them in the backyard and on the back hill is enough. It’s nice having the front yard open and bright.”

“Alright then. You go cook. I’ll go wake Xiao Xia up and have her help with the planting,” Lin Heng said, picking up the hoe and heading inside.

Xiulan nodded and went to get a basket to gather the vegetables and radishes.

Lin Heng went inside and woke Xiao Xia. The little one woke up drowsy-eyed, rubbing her eyes as she asked, “Daddy, is my little frog awake yet?”

“He’s awake and waiting for you to play,” Lin Heng said while dressing her.

As soon as he finished dressing her, Xiao Xia picked up her little frog to play.

After getting up, Lin Heng took her to use the bathroom first. Passing by the backyard, she ignored the little dog’s whining cries. With her new favorite, the little frog, she no longer loved the Qinglang Dog, Lai Fu.

After washing up, Lin Heng untied the dog leash. The puppy immediately ran excitedly towards the main hall, bumping into Xiao Xia’s legs along the way, wanting to play with her.

“Stop playing with your little frog, come over and drink some milk,” Lin Heng said as he poured milk for her.

“Okay.” Hearing there was something tasty, Xiao Xia quickly came over, her little tummy already hungry.

Seeing her take a couple of sips, Lin Heng asked, “Is it good?”

“Good~” Xiao Xia nodded, holding the small bowl and drinking with a slurping sound.

“Second Uncle, we’re here for milk.”

Not long after, Lin Wei pushed the door open and barged in with his two younger brothers.

“Come over quickly.” Lin Heng beckoned to them and gave each a large bowl when they approached.

Xiao Xia drank a small bowl and then stopped, playing with her little frog to the side. Lin Heng didn’t feed her too much either; drinking a little morning and night each day was enough. Too much could easily cause indigestion, as most Chinese people have some degree of lactose intolerance.

The three nephews finished their milk and watched Xiao Xia’s frog. Such wind-up toys were quite a novelty in the countryside.

Lin Wei even chased after Lin Heng, asking where he bought it, how much it cost, and similar questions. However, before long, his mother’s voice rang out next door, so he had to quickly take his two brothers back.

Lin Heng checked the remaining milk; there was probably still over three jin left. He fetched a glass bottle, but it could only hold a little more than half of it.

“Lucky you.”

Lin Heng poured the remainder into a dog bowl and gave it to the two puppies to drink.

“Woof woof~”

Xiong Ba in the yard strained against his iron chain, tongue lolling, really wanting a drink.

“I’ll get you some next time.” Lin Heng said this but didn’t untie his chain. With that big mouth of his, he’d probably drain it in one gulp.

“Meow~”

Meanwhile, Jinbao, who had been sitting on the stool with her paws tucked, shamelessly ran over to drink together, bullying the two little milk-fed puppies.

Lin Heng glanced at them, then turned around and placed the glass bottle containing the milk into a pot for a water bath to heat it. Sterilizing it this way meant it could be stored there for a day without any problem. He could just heat it up again in the evening to drink.

“Xiao Xia, let’s go plant trees.” After dealing with the milk, Lin Heng took a few saplings and walked towards the backyard.

Seeing Xiao Xia playing with her frog on the ground as if she hadn’t heard him, he had no choice but to tell Xiulan and went to the backyard by himself.

The backyard couldn’t hold too many trees either. Lin Heng planted a ‘Hutai No. 8’ grapevine sapling next to the wild grapevine. He planned to graft a Red Globe grape onto this wild vine around the time of the Awakening of Insects.

Having grapevines would provide shade in the summer, and they could enjoy grapes in the autumn, which was a very pleasant thing.

Besides the grapes, Lin Heng also planted a Shatangju Tangerine tree in a corner of the backyard. He planned to keep its shape relatively small later on; it would stay green all year round and could also be enjoyed for its appearance.

As for what fruit trees to plant on the back hill, they could decide that in the afternoon.

In the morning, Xiulam made rice, a stir-fried spinach dish, and a dish of sour cowpea stir-fried with cured pork. After finishing the meal, it was almost nine o’clock. Father Lin and the others had also arrived, waiting to take the saplings up the slope.

“With just the seven of us, it’s still a bit too few. Caiyun, go call Father’s family over to help,” Lin Heng said after thinking for a moment.

“Okay.” Caiyun nodded and went out.

Father Lin looked at Lin Heng and said, “Do you think we should plow the land once more before planting the fruit trees?”

“For planting fruit trees, it’s not necessary to go to such trouble. Weeding promptly in the future will be enough,” Lin Heng shook his head.

Then he added, “After I finish breeding the Chinese medicinal herb seeds I bought, I plan to plant them in the fields too. We can dig them up together then. In a few years, when the fruit trees have grown, my medicinal herbs will be ready for harvest as well, so it won’t interfere at all.”

“That could work too.” Father Lin nodded in agreement.

After discussing it, they decided to go to the slope land today and plant the apple tree saplings first.

Once Caiyun brought Third Uncle’s family over, everyone carried all one thousand apple tree saplings up the slope in one go.

The spacing between apple trees was three meters, with row spacing of three and a half or four meters. About sixty to seventy trees could be planted per mu of land. They were planting on slope land, which was terraced fields, so they could plant them a bit more densely because vehicles wouldn’t be able to get in there anyway.

But slope land also had its advantages. By stringing a steel wire, the fruit could slide directly down along it.

After discussion, they decided to plant all the apple trees on Father Lin’s land. They would plant eight to nine hundred trees on the ten mu of land. The remaining ones would be densely planted together first, to be used for filling in gaps later.

Leaving the house and walking down along the road for a stretch, there was a hollow inside the road. They called it Huangliu Slope. This place, from the mountaintop to the foot of the mountain, was all terraced fields. The lower two-thirds belonged to the Lin family, roughly eight mu of land. The upper part belonged to other families.

The apple trees were to be planted right here. After going up the mountain, Lin Heng gave a general explanation, and everyone got to work. Planting trees wasn’t a difficult task for country folk.

“Lin Hai, come on, let’s go saw down the trees along the edges of the land,” Lin Heng said, holding the Diesel Chainsaw.

“Alright.” Lin Hai was very interested in this job and ran over with a smile.

The two of them sawed a distance of three meters along both sides of the land. Using the Chainsaw to cut the trees didn’t require much effort; instead, the real struggle was in moving the felled trees.

Lin Heng sighed inwardly that there was no small excavator now. Otherwise, digging out these tree roots would free up several more acres on both sides for planting fruit trees. Moreover, a small excavator was also a real expert at planting trees.

For the entire morning, Lin Heng and Lin Hai just helped with sawing trees. Father Lin and the others planted four acres of land, which added up to only three hundred saplings.

The men dug the holes, and the women planted the trees. It wasn’t too tiring, much easier than planting crops.

After returning home for lunch, with Lin Heng and Lin Hai joining in the afternoon, the planting went even faster. In just over two hours, they finished planting the remaining five acres of land.

“There are still three hundred and fifty saplings left. That’s quite a bit more than we expected to plant.”

While taking stock of the saplings, Lin Heng noticed something was off, but they had clearly been planted according to the specifications, with each tree having roughly ten square meters of land.

His Third Uncle, Lin Xutao, answered with a smile, “That’s not strange. When the land was measured, it wasn’t actually this big. Over the past ten-plus years, we’ve constantly cut down trees on both sides to expand, so it’s actually far more than eight acres now.”

In rural areas, farmland bordering forests always gets raided by animals for food and shaded by trees. Every year during planting season, they’d clear a ring around the field edges and even set controlled fires.

Over the years, the land had expanded quite a bit.

Father Lin also said, “Yes, and you planted fruit trees right up to the very edges of the land. Half of these trees are occupying forested mountain area.”

Lin Heng nodded and asked further, “Are there still two acres of land in the mountain gully?”

“Yes, you have to take the mountain path,” Father Lin nodded.

Everyone crossed over a mountain and arrived at the edge of a gully. Both sides of the gully were terraced fields. His family still had two acres of land here, right in the middle of the gully.

This place was far from the main road, and things like zip lines weren’t really usable here.

Lin Heng looked at the place and said, “Maybe we shouldn’t plant here. Carrying the fruit down when the trees mature would be absolutely exhausting.”

There was no possibility of building a road here.

Xiulan looked at him and said, “Let’s plant it. Just plant them sparsely. Wouldn’t it be even more troublesome if we didn’t plant fruit trees and instead planted crops here?”

Lin Heng thought about it and realized she was right. If they didn’t plant trees, his father would have to come up here to farm the land, which would tire the old man out even more.

“Then let’s get to work,” Lin Heng nodded.

This time, they didn’t bring the Diesel Chainsaw. The trees along the land edges had to be cut by hand, so the task was left to his father.

Even planting sparsely here, they still planted 253 saplings in one afternoon, ultimately leaving 211 saplings remaining.

They took them back, planted two in their own backyard mountain, gave ten to his Third Uncle’s family, and densely planted all the rest in the fields, to be used for later replanting to fill gaps.

The next day was the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the Lantern Festival. Traditionally, the festival wasn’t truly over until this day was passed.

However, Lin Heng’s family wasn’t idle today either; they were planting grapes. Because he felt the pace wasn’t fast enough, Lin Heng had sent word yesterday for his younger uncle-in-law and Li Shiwei to come help.

When they left, giving them a few good fruit tree saplings would make them very happy.

Early in the morning, his eldest maternal uncle actually came down as well, which made Lin Heng and the others quite curious.

Lu Honghai looked at everyone and laughed, “What’s the matter? I heard from the cowherd that you’re planting fruit trees. Is it not okay for me to come down and help so I can take a few saplings back?”

“Of course it’s okay, absolutely okay, Eldest Uncle. You can take whatever fruit tree saplings you want directly,” Lin Heng nodded repeatedly.

“Let’s talk about it after we finish planting,” Lu Honghai said with a smile.

“Let’s drink some milk, eat, and then head up the slope,” Lin Heng said with a laugh.

He let everyone taste their family’s milk, had a bit to eat, and then they went up the slope.

Lin Heng’s family’s land on both sides of the river was very scattered, but there was no other option; they just had to plant it.

Grape planting was different from apples. They were planted in rows, with row spacing needing to be over two meters. Two vines were planted per row, and the spacing between plants only needed to be one meter.

Later, when setting up the grape trellises, building them row by row would be both aesthetically pleasing and convenient for applying pesticides and picking fruit.

With three more grown men added, the pace became even faster. In just the morning, they worked six acres of land. One acre of land could hold three hundred grapevines, so six acres meant they planted a total of one thousand eight hundred grapevines.

In the end, Father Lin still decided to keep a few acres of land for planting crops. Lin Heng said they could still plant rice paddies every year, but he still wanted to keep some land for other crops.

In some fields where wheat and rapeseed were still growing, they directly destroyed a portion to plant grapevines. After all, it was just digging a hole and wouldn’t ruin too much.

After finishing the planting in the morning, Father Lin’s land was all done.

In the afternoon, it was time to plant for his Elder Brother. One mu of land could accommodate one hundred Red Heart Kiwi Fruit plants. In just one afternoon, they planted ten mu of land, exactly one thousand plants.

“Little Brother, if I plant all Kiwi Fruit, by this calculation, I owe you six hundred yuan just for the seedlings, plus the gun makes it seven hundred in total.”

On the way back after finishing the planting, Lin Yue said with a smile.

Because Red Heart Kiwi Fruit was very valuable, a three-year-old grafted seedling cost thirty cents.

“No problem, it’s all about the same. Just remember it,” Lin Heng said with a laugh.

“Let’s go, back home to eat glutinous rice balls,” Lin Hai ran over, grabbing both of their shoulders and shouting loudly.

(End of Chapter)