These past few days, the weather has been getting colder and colder. Every morning, An Moxue would pass by the threshing ground on her way home from studying at the educated youth settlement. The huge threshing ground had been rolled over and over again, and a thin layer of ice had been laid on the solid ground. Every day, a little water was poured on it, and the ice became thicker and thicker. Now it was so thick that it could shine, and you could easily slip if you weren't careful. The village chief said that at this rate, they could start threshing the grain tomorrow.

Sure enough, as evening fell, the village loudspeaker blared: "Attention villagers! Attention villagers! Please be at the threshing ground at 7:00 AM tomorrow. We are about to begin threshing the grain. Please don't be late! Please don't be late!"

The next morning, An Moxue finished her breakfast early, dressed neatly, and went to the drying ground with her gloves.

When she arrived at the drying ground, many people were already there, and the scorekeeper was skillfully dividing people into groups.

This time, An Moxue and the other educated youths were not in the same group, but were scattered and assigned to different groups. An Moxue was assigned to a group with Aunt Guo.

The threshing ground was surrounded by people. Some experienced farmers stood by with their livestock and rollers, waiting. Some young and strong men were holding sorghum heads and forming large circles in an orderly manner. The entire threshing ground was divided into four large circles. In each circle, a horse, mule, or ox pulled a roller, walking back and forth, flattening and compacting the sorghum heads, so that the sorghum grains would fall off and settle down.

This was the first time An Moxue had ever seen anything like it, and she found it incredibly strange. She asked Aunt Guo next to her, "Auntie, have you already taken the sorghum grains off? What are you going to do next?"

Aunt Guo said, "After pressing it for a while, we'll turn it over with a fork, turning over all the sorghum heads, and then pressing it over a few more times with a roller. You'll see in a bit. Soon it will be our turn to work."

Just as Aunt Guo said, after a short while, the sorghum on the drying ground was flattened, compacted, and crushed.

Then, in each circle, there were two or three villagers, using pitchforks to turn over the sorghum heads, pressing them down with a roller as they turned them over.

When the sorghum stalks were almost turned over, some women went up and shook them to remove the sorghum grains. They then moved the sorghum stalks to an open space to the side. Women, the elderly, and children worked together, using a shovel to scrape off any remaining sorghum grains. An Moxue's job was scraping off the sorghum grains.

Aunt Guo said to An Moxue, "Moxue, just watch how I do it and learn by doing it. It's very easy. Come back this afternoon and sit on a small stool to do it. It will save you a lot of effort."

The sorghum on the drying ground is then gently tossed up with wooden shovels in the direction of the wind, constantly turning it over and gently tossing it up. The excess sorghum leaves and stalks will drift to one side with the wind, leaving only the clean and neat sorghum grains. Then, someone will put them into sacks, and then strong men will carry them to the warehouse.

At this moment, everyone in the drying yard sprang into action, busy but orderly.

People would chat and laugh occasionally while working, and revolutionary songs would play on the brigade's loudspeaker in turn, filling the entire threshing ground with a lively and joyful atmosphere.

Even the lunch break was a shift system. During the lunch break, An Moxue went home, ate a quick meal, took a small stool, and went to the drying ground. Sure enough, working on the small stool made it much easier, and her legs no longer ached or went numb.

After pressing the sorghum, they pressed the rice. When scraping the rice ears, the rice awns pricked their hands and caused a slight stinging pain. Sometimes small thorns would even get stuck in their hands, and even wearing gloves didn't help.

Finally, it was time to husk the corn. The corn cobs were packed into burlap sacks, each sack only half full. The sacks were then tied tightly with rope and placed on the drying ground. An experienced worker would lead his livestock and pull a roller over them.

After pressing the corn once and turning the sack over, repeating this process several times, some of the corn kernels will fall off the cob. Those that don't fall off are picked out and then others use their hands to pry them off one by one. After a long time of this, their hands become swollen and sore. Finally, the corn is put into sacks.

The entire grain threshing process, though seemingly simple, is actually quite difficult. Without machinery, everything from sowing to harvesting is done manually, which is complicated and lengthy. The saying "Every grain on the plate is the result of hard work" is not an exaggeration, but simply a factual account.

At noon that day, the village chief stood in the middle of the threshing ground and announced loudly: "Fellow villagers, in less than half a day, our threshing work will be completed. Everyone, put in extra effort and try to finish as soon as possible. Don't work until dark. After we hand over the grain to the town, we can distribute the grain!"

As soon as the village chief finished speaking, a round of applause erupted on the threshing ground, followed by cheers of "Ahhh!"

They worked for almost half a month, with the elderly and children all pitching in. They finished threshing all the grain early in the afternoon, and their joy spread throughout the village.

These days, An Moxue has also been infected by the villagers' enthusiasm and actively participates in labor every day.

Every day after work, the first thing she does when she gets home is to boil a pot of water from her space well, add a portion of Seven White Powder, and soak her hands in it for about twenty minutes when the water temperature becomes slightly hot. This achieves the dual effects of anti-inflammatory and whitening. However, the continuous high-intensity work of her hands these days has left her hands with a few scratches on the back and her palms are a bit rough. It will take a few days for them to become smooth and delicate again.

After soaking her hands, she cut a fruit platter and brought it into the bathroom. She then took a bath in rose essential oil, sprinkling some flower petals on top. An Moxue ate fruit while soaking in the bath. After getting out of the bath, she ate another piece of fruit and felt full. She felt like all the pores on her body were open, and she felt extremely comfortable.

She went into her study to continue learning. These days, her main focus was on traditional Chinese medicine, the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams, and feng shui. The more she learned, the more interesting it became. Moreover, these subjects had commonalities. She felt increasingly excited as she learned, and she couldn't stop. Every day after work, she would study until 11 or 12 o'clock at night.

She doesn't have to work tomorrow, so she plans to get a good rest tonight and go to bed at nine o'clock. Tomorrow morning she'll go to Uncle Li's place. Since she started working on threshing grain, she hasn't gone to practice her moves with Old Li for more than ten days, and she still hasn't broken through to the fourth level.

The next morning at four o'clock, An Moxue got up to wash her face, brush her teeth, eat breakfast, practice her boxing, and then took the two little ones to the back mountain, running towards Hongqi Village.

As they were nearing the bottom of the mountain, An Moxue squatted down and said to the two little ones, "My two little darlings, you stay here on the mountain. I'm going to the village to learn martial arts. We'll go home when I get back. If you see anyone, hide quickly so you don't get discovered, understand?"

The two little ones barked at her a few times, then turned and went into the woods.