At ho, they could only have this kind of al once a month, so they felt that life in the hotown was much better than Mom said.
Qu Xiaoli didn’t believe in begrudging her children, so she made another batch of batter, deciding to go all out today. The three children at ho could satisfy their cravings too.
Chaoyang prepared hot water for his dad to soak his feet; although it was the middle of sumr, soaking feet helped relieve fatigue.
"Brother Chaoyang, I’ll co back next year to learn how to drive a tractor."
"Sure, I’ll teach you."
Girls were a bit more reserved than boys. Li Xue, having had enough to eat, just stopped and didn’t eat more, choosing instead to sit beside Qu Xiaoli and chat with her. Qu Xiaoli liked her nieces and nephews; they weren’t as snobbish as her sister-in-law.
"Second Aunt, the egg pancakes you made are really delicious."
"Then why didn’t you eat more?"
"I’m full, and Second Uncle is very tired; let him eat more."
"It’s okay, your Second Uncle just needs to see you all eat; he doesn’t need to eat himself." Qu Xiaoli said with a smile.
"Wait, Second Aunt will pick so lons for you to eat."
"Second Aunt, I’ll go with you."
Qu Xiaoli took Lanzi with her to the private plot; they had planted over ten lon plants along the field’s edge to satisfy the children’s cravings. The sweet lons weren’t ripe yet, but the lons could be eaten. In the end, they picked only three; the rest weren’t ready.
Since it was late at night, they couldn’t see what was planted in the private plot, but it seed quite lush.
"Second Aunt, we must have a good harvest this year, right?"
"Yes, when you all co ho during winter break, your Second Aunt secretly planted so grains in the private plot, so there will be food for you too."
It’s different now than before; everyone earns work points, and the distribution of food is fixed. Wanting to entertain guests ant not having enough food.
But this year, Qu Xiaoli was confident; it’s just a month or so for the nieces and nephews to stay and have als here, which is manageable.
"Second Aunt, I’ll definitely co. It’s much better in the hotown than in the city. Right now, everything feels unstable; actually, I want to co over now, help with so work for Second Aunt, and then I can have als without feeling guilty. But Mom won’t agree to it."
"Xue, is your school still in session?"
"The teachers don’t care about the students anymore; they let them cause trouble. I don’t want to go to school; it’s a ss every day."
"We have teachers here too, but in winter, they give high school lectures to their two relatives. Even if you co here, you wouldn’t understand."
"Really, then I’ll talk to my dad about it."
"Sure, go ahead. This teacher is a college graduate; in winter, she gives lectures to the village’s children and even young people, including Brother Chaoyang and Brother Dongxiang."
Li Xue was happy, though she didn’t know if her parents would agree. Her sister-in-law was pregnant, and the whole family was living together, which added to her mom’s workload and was particularly uncomfortable. If she could co over, that would be for the best.
The mother and daughter returned ho, and Qu Xiaoli divided the three lons among her three nieces and nephews. The three children were well-taught and shared with the three younger ones, also letting Chaoyang take a bite each.
Li Yungui was very pleased to see the kids getting along so well. After eating, the children washed up and went to sleep.
Qu Xiaoli massaged her husband’s legs. "Getting old really catches up; I can’t handle a bike ride anymore—back then, I could walk and make a round trip in a day."
"Why push yourself at this age? You should take it easy."
Qu Xiaoli nagged at her husband, but hearing his snores, she sighed with a smile, feeling both annoyed and sorry for him.
Li Yunqiao listened to his wife’s complaints and ignored her. It was always like this; she thought she was superior just because she worked in the city.
"Yunqiao, why did Second Uncle take the three kids away?
They’re at the age to study—how could they just play?"
"Shut up, stop yamring. Back then I mainly worked in the fields, but didn’t I still study well? Let the kids see the hard life in the village; they might cherish what they have more." Li Yunqiao shouted at his wife before turning over to sleep.
Such ignorance and arrogance; thank goodness the kids were self-disciplined and didn’t turn out like her, or his whole life would be ruined.
The next morning, Li Yungui asked Chaoyang to drive the tractor directly to Wei Kaiyun’s waterlon field.
He pushed his bicycle and went to Wei Kaiyun’s ho. "Xiao Wei, all the paperwork is completed; today we’ll deliver the waterlons."
"Great, let’s go pick them."
Picking waterlons wasn’t a task for just anyone; experienced elders did it, while the young ones were responsible for loading them onto the truck.
Chaoyang and Xiang Dong had already lined the truck bed with straw mats; waterlons bruise easily.
Li Xue and her two younger brothers ca to help too; the villagers recognized the siblings as their family was the most successful in the village.
Shang Zhenkun also brought his three kids to watch the excitent. They didn’t actually participate in the work, just watched as each big waterlon was picked and loaded onto the truck, making Shi Jing a bit reluctant.
"Shi Jing, the waterlons will rot if we don’t sell them."
"Master Shang, I know, it’s just that my dad took such good care of them that it’s hard to part with them."
"Co on, I’ll take you to see if the lons are ripe yet."
"Master Shang, those are ours, right?"
"Yes, those are ours."
Wei Kaiyun, with a straw hat on, was picking waterlons and waved to the kids with a smile as they approached.
"Dad, we’ll probably have to pick half of them, right?"
"Yeah, about half. You three can go eat the lons; they’re ripe now."
Li Xue noticed the three children who were clearly different from the village kids, thinking they looked even more like city kids.
"Brother Chaoyang, who are those three?"
"They’re our Teacher Jiang and Master Wei’s kids."
"They really look nice, don’t they?"
"Yeah, especially Feifei; she’s really pretty.
Xue’er, if there are any questions you can’t solve, you can ask my mom to take you to Teacher Jiang.
Teacher Jiang is a college graduate and is very knowledgeable."
"Okay, I’ll have Second Aunt take to ask Teacher Jiang for advice this afternoon."
Since they still needed to take a few people along this ti, they stopped after picking 300 waterlons because there wouldn’t be enough room for people.
This ti, Li Yunqiang was leading the team, using the sa crew that sold the bok choy since they had experience.
Li Yungui led the villagers to pull out the waterlon vines.
"Xiao Wei, once this field is cleared, let’s try planting wheat here with the seeder."
"Sure." Wei Kaiyun understood; he hadn’t tried the new seeder’s results either, so experinting with this two-acre field was alright.
"But it’s inconvenient to water here; I’m worried the wheat yield might be low." Wei Kaiyun expressed his concern.
"We’re just checking how the seeder plants the wheat’s germination; besides, it’s only two acres. If it doesn’t work, we’ll manually water it. With so many of us, it won’t be a problem."
Since Li Yungui had thought it through, Wei Kaiyun didn’t comnt further.
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