Ding~ Ding~ Ding~

A few more bell chimes rang out, signaling lunchtime.

Fang Yuan straightened up: "It's time for lunch, let's go back."

She forgot to check the time as soon as she got out of bed.

"Can I rest now? I'm exhausted, I've finished all my water."

Zhou Jiahui, covered in sweat, shook her arms.

Harvesting rice is tiring, working in the fields is tiring.

"This kind of land is indeed not a simple matter. Fortunately, I listened to Comrade Fang Yuan's advice and bought gloves."

Luo Jin, also covered in sweat, took off his gloves and looked at his hands.

Even with gloves on, my hands are a bit red, and it's hard to even grip things.

"Let's go home, we'll come back this afternoon!"

Fang Yuan glanced at the rice that was still half unharvested.

It was worth it for her to slow down; she finished harvesting the field in the afternoon.

The group worked from morning till night that day. Fang Yuan was fine, but Zhou He and Luo Jin managed to hold on.

Zhou Jiahui went back and lay down on the kang (a heated brick bed), barely eating anything that night.

The next day, he simply lay on the kang (a heated brick bed) and refused to get up, saying, "I need to rest, I need to ask for leave, I can't get up."

According to her, she woke up with aches and pains all over her body, from her hands and feet to her back.

"Alright, then you should rest well at home."

Zhou He felt sorry for his sister and didn't care at all whether she went to work or not.

Fang Yuan found her exaggerated movements somewhat amusing.

But since the other person didn't need those work points, she didn't say anything, regardless of whether she was faking it or not.

Luo Jin looked at Zhou Jiahui with envy, but in the end he gritted his teeth and followed.

If he, a grown man, were to act like Zhou Jiahui, what would the other two think of him?

Zhou Jiahui's fake team leader was approved casually, since their work hours were calculated and then converted into work points at the end of the year.

If you don't come, you don't have work time, so you don't get work points. If you want to get grain, you have to buy it with money.

He actually hoped that more people would buy grain with money, so that everyone could get more money.

However, it is clear that Zhou Jiahui is the only special case here.

Fang Yuan was far ahead of everyone else in the field, leaving Zhou He and Luo Jin behind, and even surpassing the other men in the team, which amazed Chen Wenbing.

Especially after seeing Fang Yuan easily lift a bundle of rice onto the carriage with one hand, he immediately said he would calculate her work points as if she were a strong laborer.

Fang Yuan didn't object. Although this little bit of work was nothing to her, she earned her living through her own abilities, and she deserved the work points.

After several busy days, the rice harvest was completed by the end of August.

"Can we rest now? Is there a holiday after the autumn harvest? Can we go up the mountain now?"

Having stayed at home for several days, Zhou Jiahui asked with some restlessness.

They hadn't eaten meat for three days, but they've been eating it very quickly during the autumn harvest.

"Rest? You think this is like working in a factory? Farmers work year-round, except for those of us here who hibernate due to the weather!" Fang Yuan chuckled and replied.

She only realized after she started working in the fields that there were no days off and that she could only ask for leave if something happened.

"Huh? How come? The rice has already been harvested, what do we need to do?" Zhou Jiahui asked, puzzled.

"After the rice harvest, there's corn, soybeans, and sorghum. We still have to weed, fertilize, or water them. There's always more to do than less. If you want the brigade to give you a holiday, you might as well dream about it."

In the countryside, there's no time to rest except when it rains heavily; rainy days are probably considered a day of rest for everyone.

At other times, even if they were just dawdling, they still had to stay in the fields, as they kept track of the time and calculated work points accordingly.

Work points were linked to the distribution of grain at the end of the year, and all the members of the team were waiting for their work points to be distributed as grain!

"How about... I ask for leave later, and you come up the mountain with me tomorrow?" Zhou He asked Fang Yuan.

Working in the fields is incredibly taxing. If you're eating only rice and no meat, the amount you need is double what you'd get if you were eating meat, and you get hungry very quickly.

They had run out of meat a few days ago, and he had gone to the back mountain several times after work these past two nights, even trying to dig a few traps.

Unfortunately, without the special bait made by Fang Yuan, and because he wasn't very familiar with the area, he didn't catch any pheasants or rabbits.

So he hoped Fang Yuan would go and try it with him.

"Alright, let's go up the mountain tomorrow and find some good food!"

Fang Yuan thought about it and agreed. It wasn't that she was thinking about the meat on the mountain; she was thinking about the medicinal herbs on the mountain.

Especially the wild ginseng that she hasn't been able to plant in her space yet.

"I'll go too. I'm a man, so I can at least help," Luo Jin said upon seeing this.

He also wanted to go up the mountain; he missed the feeling of catching rabbits and eating them.

Zhou He shook his head: "Although we're not busy right now, we've already started working, so we can't all take leave, can we?"

They had only been working for a little over a week when they all took leave again, which made it difficult to explain to the team leader.

Moreover, they went up the mountain to poach, and it would be easy to be discovered if so many people went up there.

After all, they almost got discovered last time.

Fang Yuan also looked at Zhou Jiahui: "This time, Zhou He and I will go and try it out. Jiahui, you and Luo Jin go to work. The farm work is easy now and not so tiring."

She was actually thinking of Zhou Jiahui's best interests, hoping that getting more work points would make things look better when the grain was distributed later.

"Oh well!"

Seeing that both her older brother and Fang Yuan said so, Zhou Jiahui had no choice but to agree to go to work.

But he didn't forget to remind the two of them: "You absolutely must bring back some meat!"

She missed the days when she could eat meat every day.

The next morning, Zhou Jiahui went to work with Luo Jin and asked for leave for Fang Yuan and the other person.

Fang Yuan then went up the back mountain with Zhou He.

Arriving at the area they had previously explored, Fang Yuan looked around and said, "We've been around this area before, how about we go a little further in this time?"

Along the way, she discovered several rabbit holes and saw rabbits inside.

But she wanted to dig up ginseng, so she pretended not to see it.

She planted many other medicinal herbs that she dug up from the surrounding forests in her medicinal field, but now she was short of ginseng.

"Alright!"

Zhou He didn't have Fang Yuan's abilities, so he assumed that Fang Yuan hadn't discovered anything either. He glanced around briefly and then agreed.

Not long after they walked in, Fang Yuan was pleasantly surprised to find a ginseng.

But looking at Zhou He beside her, she could only remember his position for now and deal with it later.