Chapter 45 Spring Ploughing

After Mo'an started school, the brigade also had to plow the fields. The brigade had less than ten oxen of all sizes. The oxen plowed part of the land, and the team members hoeed the rest. It was a very hard job.

Some teenagers and elderly people were responsible for weeding and tidying up the field ridges.

Molly joined the hoeing team. She was assigned a plot of land worth five cents, and that was her task for the day. After hoeing the land, she would earn eight work points.

Molly was surrounded by people, some with plots of land each, others with several people sharing a plot. Mohe was to Molly's left. Since it was Molly's first day working in the fields, she was worried and specifically asked the team leader to arrange for her to work with Molly.

"Take your time. I'll come and help you when I'm done with my work," Mo He comforted Mo Li.

Molly shook her head. "I have things to do at home, so I can't be slow."

Molly didn't mention helping Mohe; she was going back today to loosen the soil and fertilize the corn. The fertilizer was pig manure, chicken manure, and wood ash, which had fermented for a while and was now ready to use.

The corn had grown above her knees, and it was her sister who reminded her to fertilize it.

After seeing that she had successfully grown corn, her sister was shocked and then taught her some things to pay attention to when growing corn.

Besides the corn, the kudzu, yams, and various gourds also need fertilizer; Molly plans to treat them all equally. The pumpkins, winter melons, loofahs, and water gourds are growing well, their vines have grown quite long, probably because they didn't flower during the recent cold weather. Molly has a feeling that in another ten days or so, once the weather warms up a bit, they should flower and bear fruit.

Molly gripped the hoe in both hands, and those around her secretly glanced at her, their eyes intentionally or unintentionally sweeping over her left hand. Usually, her left hand was hidden in her sleeve, rarely seen by anyone. Now that it was exposed, everyone noticed that apart from being missing three fingers, her left arm and left palm were almost identical to her right arm and right palm.

Moreover, her skin was fair and delicate with a faint pink hue, and even though she was missing three fingers, her left palm was still beautiful and not at all frightening.

Some couldn't help but regret that they had acted on rumors without actually seeing the person in person. If they had acted sooner than Ji Hefeng, such a beautiful and capable daughter-in-law would be theirs now.

Molly pretended not to see the stares. She kept her eyes straight ahead, hoeing away relentlessly, her back bent the entire time, without taking a break. Before anyone could react, she had already hoeed half of the land she was responsible for.

She went to the edge of the field to drink some water, then continued hoeing the remaining half.

When Mohe looked up, she realized that her sister had almost finished hoeing her field, while she, despite her best efforts, had not even finished halfway.

"........"

Mo He wiped the sweat from her face, her feelings mixed. She thought back to when she was in the Mo family brigade, she was known for her competence, but now compared to her younger sister, she was just a nobody.

But with her younger sister being so capable, she felt relieved.

After a while, Molly finished hoeing her field and went to ask the team leader to come and check. The team leader had already noticed Molly, and you could even say that the team leader's attention was entirely on Molly. She was fast and dug deep, perfectly meeting the team's requirements.

"Want some more? Hoe more, and I'll give you extra points," the team leader said.

Molly shook her head. "I have to tend to the vegetable garden and do housework these days. I can't manage it all by myself."

The team leader expressed understanding, explaining that other families have many members and children, so each person doing one thing can reduce the workload. However, Molly's family is different; it's just her and her younger brother, who is away at school, so she has a lot to do all by herself.

But Molly is so capable that even if she didn't raise pigs, she could easily earn ten work points.

In fact, Molly finished all the work in the vegetable garden in just one afternoon.

"I'm going into the mountains tomorrow afternoon. I'll come back from work in the morning, eat something at home, and then set off," Molly told Mo An. She planned to pick mushrooms for a few days, dry them, send some to the farm, and keep some for her own family so they could eat them whenever they wanted.

Mo An has a two-and-a-half-hour break at noon. A round trip between home and school takes an hour, so he can spend an hour and a half at home. This hour and a half is enough for him to eat, feed the pigs and chickens, and clean the pigsty, chicken coop, and rabbit cage.

Mo An nodded, "Don't worry, sister, I will take good care of the family."

"If I come home late at night, those four pigs are too noisy and I don't have time to heat up their feed. When you get home, throw them some sweet potatoes to nibble on for a while." The four pigs have grown a bit more, so it's fine for them to eat some raw food.

"We don't have many sweet potatoes left at home." Mo An estimated that they would last until the end of the month.

"It's alright, the newly planted sweet potatoes have already sprouted vines, and the vines should be ready to eat next month." Once the sweet potato vines have grown a bit longer, she will intercrop them in the cornfield.

"In addition, the pig feed in the mountains has sprouted. After a while, after I finish work, I will go to the mountains in the afternoon to cut some pig feed and cook it with the sweet potatoes, radishes and dried vegetables at home."

Seeing that Molly seemed to understand, Mo An felt much more at ease. "Sister, you can go ahead and do your work. I'll take care of things at home."

Molly gets up in the morning to cook pig feed, do housework, and then go to work. She only goes to the mountains at noon, spending only half a day there. Her harvest has increased from several sacks to a basket and a sack each day.

Molly wasn't greedy; she would return each day as long as she filled a basket and a sack. She didn't wash the dried mushrooms; she just cleaned off the mud and grass, and washed them thoroughly when she wanted to eat them.

A month later, all the land in the brigade had been turned over, and the team members were given a three-day break. During these three days, the team members and their families went into the mountains again.

Mo An also went into the mountains with Zhao Xiaoyong and the others.

Molly didn't go; she went to deliver rabbits to the families who had ordered them from her. The weather was getting warmer, and three of her female rabbits were pregnant. She needed to clear out the cages to make room for the mother rabbits to give birth.

Molly raised the rabbits exceptionally well; even the smallest rabbit she gave away weighed two pounds. But she didn't give them away for free; she exchanged each rabbit for four pounds of grain, settling the accounts at the autumn harvest.

This exchange wasn't exactly considered speculation, and the brigade leader turned a blind eye, since his family also raised rabbits; his wife and Molly had ordered two. In his wife's words, even if the rabbits died, four pounds of grain for two pounds of rabbit meat was still a good deal.

At first, only a few families ordered rabbits from Molly. Later, when the other members of the team saw that the rabbits Molly brought out were really good-looking and quite big, they also got the idea of ​​raising rabbits.

But Molly told them there weren't any left; she had ordered thirteen rabbits, leaving only four at home. Actually, there were six: four females and two males. Two of them were pregnant, and the other two were almost pregnant as well.

Molly plans to go to the mountains to catch a few more and raise them together.

The team members were disappointed to hear that Molly's family didn't have any rabbits and kept asking her to reserve some for them. Molly agreed, took out a piece of paper and wrote down everyone's names, and promised that once the mother rabbit gave birth, they would give them to those who registered first, based on the order they did.

"Molly, will the next batch of rabbits be this big too?" an auntie asked.

Molly nodded. "It should be about the same."

Those nearby breathed a sigh of relief, saying, "It's easier to raise a big one; a small one won't do."

"Molly's rabbits are more spirited and bigger than the rabbits sold at the commune. We won't lose out by trading with her."

"Molly, raise more next batch, otherwise there won't be enough to go around."

“I wasn’t planning on getting one, but my kids insisted on getting one, saying they’d cut the grass to feed the rabbits. Now the grass has grown out and is very tender, perfect for feeding the rabbits.”

"Rabbits need to eat dry grass, remember not to feed them wet grass."

"Raising rabbits is good; they grow quickly, are easy to feed, and don't require much effort."

"Rabbits are prone to illness, so the risk is not small."

"......."

The team members exchanged their experiences in raising rabbits.

After that day, the team members all knew that Molly was not only good at raising pigs, but also at raising rabbits.

After the three-day holiday, the production team needed to fertilize the land by adding cow dung, wood ash, and black soil from under the trees. The team leader arranged for people to burn dry grass and leaves overnight, and the wood ash was then transported to the fields the next day.

Another busy week has passed, and a light drizzle has begun to fall.

Spring rain is as precious as oil; after this spring rain, spring plowing will begin.

It had been raining for a week, and everything was damp, with a musty smell in the air.

As soon as the rain stopped, Molly went outside and found that the earth was even greener, with grass sprouting and growing taller than her shoes.

Because of spring planting, primary schools are also on holiday for a week.

Mo An's household registration was not in Xiaonan Village Brigade, so he did not receive any grain or work in the fields. His daily duties included cooking, taking care of the household, and feeding the poultry and livestock.

Molly left early and returned late every day, with only an hour's rest at noon. After a spring planting season, even though she was in good health, a hint of weariness appeared on her face.

Because she was so capable, she did the most tiring work every day, and naturally earned the most work points, twelve in total. She was the only person in the entire brigade to earn twelve work points.

At first, some people objected to Molly receiving twelve work points. The brigade leader directly told those people, "If you have any objections, you can go and compete with Molly. Do whatever she does, and do as much as she does."

As it turned out, some people who were not convinced actually challenged Molly to a competition. However, in just half a day, they were all defeated. They could do the same amount of work as Molly, but they couldn't match Molly in terms of quantity and speed. One Molly could do the work of two of them. They lost with complete acceptance.

What's even more bizarre is that, despite Molly doing the most work and not even wearing a straw hat, her skin remained as white as snow and as delicate as the finest white porcelain by the end of the spring planting season. Her hands were still slender and beautiful, with only thin calluses on her palms, a testament to her hard work over the past month.

However, this thin cocoon will gradually fade away until it disappears.