Tan Yajun shook her head and sighed.

"Wow, some people can actually eat strawberries all they want, and others are drooling with envy."

Li Yan looked around strangely, from all sides.

"Who is it? Who is it?"

Tanya Jun looked resentful.

“Look at me, look at me, I’m drooling, it’s already three feet long.”

Chen Jianguo and Lin Zhaodi had already set up the table, but seeing the two of them still acting silly, he was speechless.

Are you going to eat or not?

The two spoke in unison.

"eat!"

The next morning, she opened her eyes to the alarm clock. Jian Dan was already adept at getting dressed and folding the blankets with her eyes closed. She washed her face with cold water before she was fully awake.

First, let a few of them out to frolic and give them water.

When I'm too lazy to do anything, I just have simple noodles. Today was a lazy day.

A simple cold noodle dish, mixed with meat sauce dug out from the farm, makes for a rather hearty breakfast.

As for the puppies, that's even easier to manage. They can eat ready-made dog food occasionally, which not only seems novel to the puppies but also to Dahei.

That's the downside of hot weather. If you wear a headscarf, it's too hot; if you don't, you get scorched by the sun and your skin gets cut by corn leaves.

Therefore, during this season, people work as long as they can during the cooler mornings and evenings, leaving the hot midday hours for everyone to rest at home.

I put on gloves, locked the door, and headed towards the village office.

The location of JianDan is a bit out of the way, so it takes at least ten minutes longer to get to and from work compared to other places, but JianDan doesn't mind, since there are many advantages to it.

Once you enter the village, you'll encounter groups of villagers heading in the same direction. You'll greet them casually until you reunite with your friends.

The new educated youth walked on one side, and the old educated youth walked on the other side, clearly separated.

Tang Cui and the others were stunned by Jian Dan and hadn't recovered yet. These past few days, they've been avoiding her as much as possible, and if they can't avoid her, they just keep quiet. Actually, if they can maintain this attitude, Jian Dan won't have much to say. As long as people don't provoke her, she'll be fine.

Today's task was still weeding. Today, I was assigned to work with Li Yan and a few others. Of course, it's possible that Liu Weimin did it on purpose, but we were all still very happy.

Li Yan chattered non-stop the whole way.

"I'm thinking of making two small baskets after work. Jian Zhiqing, do you want to come?"

He was momentarily stunned.

"For holding strawberries?"

Li Yan nodded with shining eyes.

"Yes, we can put strawberries in it now. When we run out of strawberries, we can put other things in it. It won't be a waste."

Lin Zhaodi was speechless.

"I've been thinking about this little basket ever since I got back last night. If I can't get it today, I don't think I'll even want to eat dinner."

Li Yan chuckled.

"It's not that bad. I was just thinking about it, so I made it sooner rather than later. It'll still be usable once I have it."

Besides, what if we're free after work tonight and can go up the mountain?

That makes a lot of sense.

Lin Zhaodi and Tan Yajun exchanged a glance, smiled helplessly, and lowered their heads to remove the weeds.

Simplicity is optional.

"Okay, I'll go with you after work. If there are any you like, I'll keep one or two."

When people are in a good mood, their work efficiency increases significantly. Li Yan, in particular, is incredibly efficient; in no time, the others have fallen more than ten meters behind.

"Did she take some kind of super-powerful drug?"

Chen Jianguo glanced at it and smiled.

"Are you eager to finish this quickly, but still thinking about going up the mountain?"

Anyway, that's really how it is in the countryside. Children are happy as long as they can have enough to eat, let alone snacks.

So one reason why children like to go up the mountain is that, in addition to mountain produce such as chestnuts and hazelnuts, there are also various wild fruits.

Parents would carefully store away mountain produce, saving it to exchange for money or other goods, or as food.

But wild berries are different; they are their snacks, and they rely on these things to sweeten their mouths all year round.

Although Li Yan is not young and has never suffered much hardship before, her life here has indeed been tasteless and dull.

The food was not only bland and oily, but it also lacked any solid ingredients. They were thrilled to have finally found something good.

"Maybe. Let's hurry up. Can't we leave early once we've finished our assigned area?"

"Yeah, let's go. Anyway, it's just this little bit of work. Once we're done, we're done. Don't just linger here."

Weeding is not difficult for them and does not require much skill. As long as they can overcome the ubiquitous corn leaves and are not afraid of getting scratched, it is not difficult at all. It is similar to mechanical repetition.

Several veteran educated youths didn't have a moment's rest this spring. When they weren't working, they basically went up the mountain. Not to mention, they dried a lot of wild vegetables and mushrooms. They could also mix them into porridge and dishes. Although there was no oil or fat, they were still able to eat more than the new educated youths. When they were full, they naturally had the strength.

"OK."

The female educated youths didn't say a word, just kept their heads down and worked hard, and the results became apparent.

They only managed to finish one row in the middle of the morning, but once they got going, their speed picked up, and it really wasn't as difficult as they had imagined. They actually finished ahead of schedule.

Several people caught up with Li Yan and walked side by side to the edge of the field. They looked at each other and burst into laughter. None of them looked very presentable. They were covered in sweat, their hair was disheveled and stuck to their faces, and their faces were red from being cut by corn husks. Their bare arms were also covered in sweat, and the feeling of being soaked in sweat was indescribable.

As soon as she took off her headscarf, Jian Dan's hair started to stand on end. She could feel that the outermost layer of short hair was sticking up and about to run away from home. Helpless, Jian Dan could only press it down one clump at a time.

Their childish behavior made the group laugh. They realized that Jian Dan was indeed just a teenage girl, but she was much better than them.

"Should I go tell the scorekeeper and then go back?"

This phenomenon is common, and the scorekeepers were not surprised. Several people used headscarves as fans, gently waving them in the hopes of creating a cool breeze.

"Are we going up the mountain again later?"

Li Yan was indeed thinking about the remaining fruit on the mountain, and she simply and decisively refused.

"No, it's too hot. I'm afraid I'll get heatstroke."

"Heatstroke?"

Li Yan glanced suspiciously towards the mountain, still very reluctant to leave.

Is it possible?

"Yes," came the simple and decisive reply.

"The temperature on the sunny side of the mountain is higher than that on the ground. Moreover, there aren't many tall trees in the areas we can go, so there isn't much shade. It's mostly low-lying weeds."

There weren't many wormwood plants, and they weren't clustered together, so they couldn't block out the sunlight.

Besides, there's nothing of value there. It's not worth making a special trip in this scorching sun. Going up there now would just be pure sunburn.

If you get heatstroke, you won't be able to work, you won't get work points, and you won't be able to eat anything good either.

This is the most important thing for Li Yan.

"Can't you eat good food if you have heatstroke?"