The road was very muddy, and stepping on the mud was particularly uncomfortable.
She arrived at Yang Minggang’s house. She saw the main gate closed and knocked on the door.
"Girl, why are you here?"
"Uncle, haven’t my aunt and the others returned yet?"
"No, they must have been caught in the rain. I’ll go pick them up in a while."
Frowning, she headed ho; there was really nothing to do in this weather.
Returning ho, she was still a bit worried about Hu Chunhua and the rest.
Going back to yesterday, Hu Chunhua was pushing a cart and leading the sheep, chasing after the kids. She was quite hungry too, but due to her urgency, she had no ti to eat.
Because it was just the next village over, when she arrived at the field, she saw that the children were not there.
"Chunhua? Is this the sheep that can pull the gutter?"
"Yes. Brother, how many acres of land haven’t been planted yet at ho?"
"Almost done, five acres left." Hu Chunhua started from the other side, making things much faster.
They worked until they could barely see, then they went ho.
The children helped at Grandma’s ho in the wheat threshing field, and finally, before it got dark, all the wheat grains were brought back, and the wheat straw was stacked.
The whole family sat together for dinner. Hu Chunhua intended to go ho imdiately after eating, but before they could finish, it started raining heavily. They couldn’t go back.
At night, lying with her mother, she said, "This year’s wheat harvest at ho is ten percent worse than last year." The old lady was a bit worried.
"Ours too."
"This rain ca at the wrong ti; if it weren’t for the many family mbers, who knows what would have happened. But hopefully, it’s not a continuous rain, or else the wheat will sprout."
"My younger brother-in-law’s two families haven’t finished harvesting. My mother-in-law went to the fields this morning, causing a scene, wanting Minggang to help them cut the wheat, even though our fields weren’t finished planting then."
"Don’t mind her, old age has clouded her judgnt."
"Hmph, she hasn’t thought straight for years.
Her son wouldn’t go over, just sat on the ground crying and wailing, I wasn’t going to spoil her, told her we won’t serve her anymore."
"You, your temper hasn’t changed. I heard this sheep can dig gutters?"
"Yes, the sheep from the family of the little girl born on La Ba in our village. She’s small, just herself, this was her own idea."
"Ah, a woman’s life is indeed tough, a man being born under a certain sign is like riding a big horse."
Yang Minggang didn’t sit down to catch his breath until past ten o’clock. Looking at the two families, he really didn’t know what to say.
"Big brother, where’s my sister-in-law and them?"
"They went to my wife’s family’s place to help."
"Hmph, doesn’t help his own uncle’s family, runs off to another village." Old Mrs. Yang snorted.
Yang Minggang couldn’t be bothered to deal with them. Over the years, he was clear about how they treated the children and how Grandma’s ho treated them.
"Big brother, we still have half of it unharvested."
"You always eat faster than you work, if you can’t gather them in, you deserve it. Well, I’m leaving." Watching them frustrates him, over half of this wheat hasn’t been brought in, and it was already a reduced yield, now this year they have no choice but to starve.
"Elder brother, with this heavy rain. Would you sleep in Mom’s room for a night?" Old Mrs. Yang said, hoping to have a good talk with her eldest son.
Yang Minggang stood up, "No, the pigs at ho haven’t been fed yet."
After a whole day’s work, still hadn’t eaten, and the two lazy won were still sitting in the main room, not even thinking of doing anything.
He felt infinitely grateful to have found a capable, sensible wife. Returning ho, he saw the main gate locked, indicating she wouldn’t be back today. Cold pot and cold stove. No other way but to cook porridge himself.
Yang Minggang watched Su Yuanyuan leave, didn’t go back inside, locked the door and headed to his mother-in-law’s house.
Before he arrived, he saw his wife and children walking back.
"How’s it going? Is the land at ho fully planted?"
Hu Chunhua shook her head. "Not yet. Three acres are left, we just have to wait."
Last night and this morning’s rain didn’t stop, no work could be done in the fields for three days, and even if you wanted, where would you put the cut wheat?
"Good thing we’re done planting."
Yang Minggang knew his wife was particularly averse to the two brothers’ families, so he didn’t ntion their situation.
"How’s the wheat yield?"
"Mom says it’s down over ten percent, about the sa as ours."
The road was hard to navigate, so the boys simply took off their shoes and walked barefoot, saving so effort that way.
The three kids went ho, and the two of them headed to Su Yuanyuan’s house.
The ewe was already very anxious, pulling Hu Chunhua along.
"This sheep knows ho."
"That girl ca looking for it again this morning."
After sending the couple off, Su Yuanyuan quickly got so food for the ewe. It’s genuinely not easy, but she felt awkward refusing. At a ti like this, everyone was tired, never mind the animals.
She now had nothing to worry about. In the afternoon, she stayed inside to grind flour. Even though it was flour from new wheat, Su Yuanyuan didn’t eat it; there was too much bran, it didn’t taste good.
For three consecutive days, she stayed ho grinding flour, not going out.
Once the road wasn’t muddy anymore, she went around the uncultivated land, finding the crops in good spirits. But the weeds were growing as well.
No sweet potatoes or sorghum were planted this year, only corn. Weeding was relatively simple.
Because she could thin out the greens, aning she had the leisure, if she were lazy, she might not weed at all.
However, the fields couldn’t be worked on yet, judging by the situation, it might take another week or so.
She carried two buckets to the reservoir bank. The ground cages hadn’t been raised in several days, surely a lot would have gone bad.
Her life was leisurely, but so families in the village were still harvesting wheat, left with no choice. If they waited any longer, they wouldn’t get to plant the corn. The wheat was already a reduced yield; if they didn’t plant corn, they would certainly starve. After a week, the wheat kernels were all ground into flour, thankfully purchased plenty of coarse cloth, made fifty bags, otherwise wouldn’t have had space to store them. Now they were neatly stacked in the space.
Previously stored grain was plentiful, and with these, Su Yuanyuan felt she could do nothing and still have enough to eat for a lifeti.
Now she had an egg for breakfast and a goose egg for dinner, living blissfully content. Next would be weeding, soon the corn sprouts would need weeding too, anyway, within a month, work in the fields would be necessary.
The daily routine remained unchanged, so she didn’t feel tired. Keeping busy every day, she felt quite fulfilled.
The chickens, ducks, and geese had started laying, reaping bountifully every day.
Now, every household was like this, weeding in the fields daily.
"Yuanyuan, your corn seedlings are half as large again as mine."
The two little girls ran into each again, both squatting to weed among the sprouts.
"We planted ours early." That was the truth.
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