Harvesting the rice is not enough; the grains also need to be threshed and taken home to dry.

Grandpa took out a few planks and a roll from home and assembled them into a threshing machine in the field. Then he carried out a diesel engine, which was extremely heavy. Xu Lai felt his shoulders slump as soon as he took it.

Seeing this, Zhao Qingyun quickly lifted the lever, waited for Xu Lai to come out, and then placed it on his shoulder.

He was tall, and his grandfather couldn't reach him, so Zhao Qingyun could only walk forward with his back slightly bent.

Seeing his reaction, Xu Lai laughed so hard she bent over, and even took out her phone to record a short clip. He gritted his teeth and said, "Xu Lai, delete it."

She assured him, "Don't worry, I definitely won't send it out. If I do, I'm a dog."

Place the diesel engine on the right side of the threshing machine, then use a rubber band to secure one end of the drum and pull the other end to the diesel engine.

Grandma went home and got a basket, a snakeskin bag, and a rope, which she would need to take home after the rice was harvested.

Grandpa took a screwdriver-like object, turned it a few times on the diesel engine, and the engine roared to life, the drum started spinning.

Xu Lai was standing close by and her face was covered in fumes. She quickly put on her sun protection mask. Her grandfather called out, "We can start threshing the rice now."

Zhao Qingyun was far away, and the noise was loud, so he didn't hear clearly at all. Xu Lai leaned close to his ear and said, "It's time to thresh the rice, did you hear that?"

The two leaned their heads together, Zhao Qingyun's ears turned red, and he replied, "I heard you, let's begin."

The two men stood in front of the threshing machine, putting handfuls of rice into the drum. Once all the rice had been threshed off, they threw away the straw.

Just as they were busy, Xia Ning arrived on her electric scooter. She was fully protected from head to toe, took off her slippers, and went into the field. She said to Xu Lai, "Why didn't you call me when you were working?"

Xu Lai didn't hear her clearly and shouted, "What did you say? What are you doing here?"

Xia Ning leaned close to her ear and said, "I'll help!"

There are only two people standing in front of the threshing machine. Grandpa had already bagged the threshed grain and asked Grandma to carry it on his shoulder.

Seeing this, Zhao Qingyun told Xia Ning to stand in his place, ran over to take the bag from his grandfather's shoulder, and said, "Let me do it, let's carry it home, okay?"

Grandpa nodded: "Just put it in the yard, and then dry it in the sun when we get back."

The threshing machine roared, and Xu Lai felt like her eardrums were about to shatter. One pile had already been threshed, and her grandmother was spreading straw over there, while her grandfather pulled it from the front, and she and Xia Ning pushed it from behind, moving the threshing machine to the next pile.

The sun rose higher and higher, and they were all feeling unbearably hot. By the time they finished the second batch, it was already past ten o'clock.

Grandma went home early to cook, and they continued threshing the third batch, hoping to finish threshing the rice in this field by this morning.

Around 11 o'clock, the field was finally finished. Xu Lai was soaked to the bone, looking like he had been pulled out of the water.

After Zhao Qingyun finished carrying the last load of grain, he went to the stream to wash off the mud. Xia Ning lay in the water, and Xu Lai sat in the water with her hands on the rocks.

He woke the two of them up: "Come out after you're done washing. There are a lot of impurities in the water, and you'll easily get sick."

Xia Ning was pulled up by Xu Lai, who said, "Get up quickly, let's go home for dinner."

When I got home, Grandma was still cooking. There were many people at home today, so Grandma prepared a little extra.

Xu Lai took a shower first. Xia Ning was in the bathroom upstairs, so she took her clothes and went downstairs.

After taking a shower, she felt alive again. Too lazy to blow-dry her hair, she put it in a hair drying cap and went to the kitchen to serve the dishes.

After inviting Zhao Qingyun and Grandma Jiang, everyone started eating. Xu Lai only served herself a small bowl of rice, added some porridge, and stirred it well.

It was too hot, and she was tired from working, so she had no appetite. She picked up some vegetables and ate the bowl of porridge.

After finishing her meal, she put down her bowl and said, "Everyone, please enjoy your meal. I'm going upstairs now."

Judging by the time, everyone was almost finished eating, so she went downstairs to wash the dishes. When she entered the kitchen, she didn't see a pile of dishes and chopsticks, but instead saw Zhao Qingyun wiping the stove.

Xu Lai was taken aback and asked, "Why did you wash the dishes?"

As he rubbed the rag, he said, "I saw that everyone was too tired. Grandma wanted to wash the dishes, but I didn't let her. There weren't many dishes, so I washed them myself."

Xu Lai opened her mouth, not knowing what to say. She clearly only considered him a friend, but he was helping her with this and that at her home, and she didn't know how to handle their relationship.

Seeing her expression, Zhao Qingyun knew what she was thinking. He chuckled and said, "Harvesting rice is something I wanted to experience myself, just consider it training. As for washing dishes, it's just something I did on the side. I just like doing some housework."

Xu Lai nodded. "He's an oddball."

She pointed upstairs: "Then I'm going back to my room to sleep. You should rest for a while too. There's no rush to thresh the rice. We can start around four or five in the afternoon."

Zhao Qingyun nodded, "Go ahead, I'll be going back later too."

When Xu Lai returned to the room, Xia Ning was already lying on her bed, half asleep and half awake.

Xu Lai didn't disturb her. She pulled a corner of the blanket over her stomach, set an alarm, and fell into a deep sleep.

She was woken up by her phone ringing, and groggily answered, "Hello, who is this?"

Qin Huan's voice came through: "Xu Lai, the harvester is about to arrive. Which field are you going to harvest? Get ready quickly."

She hung up the phone, immediately got up, and nudged Xia Ning: "Ningning, get up, the harvester is here, it's time to work."

Xia Ning's eyelids were very heavy. "I'm not fully awake."

Xu Lai ignored her, changed her clothes first, applied sunscreen all over her body and covered up the parts that needed to be covered, and then went downstairs to call her grandparents.

The elderly couple were fast asleep, with the grandfather still snoring. Xu Lai knocked on the door and woke them up, saying, "The harvester is coming, hurry up and get the bags ready."

Many villagers were waiting. When they went out, a group of people were standing on the ridge of the field. Two large trucks drove up, carrying harvesters.

The harvester operator drove the machine onto the road, and then someone brought two iron plates, which the harvester used to go from the machine to the field.

Following the principle of proximity, the harvesters go from field to field, and when it's their turn, they prepare bags in advance. The harvester will come over to unload the grain when its bin is full.

Xu Lai counted, and his own field should be the fifth one. There was no rush, it would take about half an hour for it to be their turn.

The first field began to be harvested, and in an instant, the air was filled with the scent of fresh grass. It was truly a bountiful harvest season.

The second, third, and fourth plots were soon taken, and soon it was their own field's turn. While the machines were still distributing grain to other people's fields, Xu Lai quickly went over there to wait.

In less than ten minutes, the field was harvested. Xu Lai and Xia Ning pulled the bags, and Grandma tied them up from behind. Soon, more than a dozen bags of millet were packed.

Grandpa definitely couldn't carry all this millet by himself. Xu Lai gritted his teeth and just as he hoisted a bag of millet onto his shoulder, he felt a lightness on his body as a hand took the bag from him.