Looking at the sweet potato field, Zhang Hongmei said, "Sister Erya, do you think we could plant cabbage here? Even if it doesn't grow a core, we can pickle it or dry it."

“I’ve got my eye on it. Let’s come and plant it together at the same time tomorrow. I’ll find two more people to carry the water.”

"There are bok choy in the radish patch, but we don't have a water bucket today. We'll talk about it tomorrow, or if that doesn't work, we'll come an hour earlier."

“Okay, I agree. I have extra bok choy at home, I’ll pick some tomorrow morning,” Zhu Zi agreed first.

“I have one at home too. Hongmei, I’ll come to see you earlier tomorrow.”

Er Lengzi scratched his head. "My family isn't well-off. We've eaten everything. I'll go back and ask around. It would be great if there were more people coming to work."

The four men went down the mountain, put their tools at home, and then went to the village's threshing ground. Lots of sweet potato slices were already drying there.

Last night, Liu Maocai and several others took turns on night duty, fearing that something might be lost or damaged by animals.

It was a bit late for the four of them, so Er Lengzi went over to explain to Liu Maocai and then delivered the rabbit to the old man who was cooking.

After discussing it, Liu Maocai and Wang Hongxi agreed that it was a good idea. So, during lunch, they told everyone about their decision: each family in the village would send one of their children to plant cabbages on the mountain the next day. Er Lengzi would also come along, since he was strong and wouldn't scare the children if they encountered any large wild animals.

We finally finished cutting all the sweet potatoes today, working overtime. The mats woven from sorghum stalks on the threshing floor are all drying there.

Tonight, Wang Hongxi and his team are on night duty. Liu Maocai can finally go home and get a good night's sleep.

The next day, Zhang Hongmei also picked half a basket of bok choy, carried it on a shoulder pole, and took a small pickaxe to go up the mountain with everyone else.

The boys were in charge of watering the plants, led by Er Lengzi. The girls were responsible for digging holes, planting the plants, and watering them.

After half a day, they were all exhausted and collapsed on the ground. Liu Maocai and a few others came to bring them food.

Looking at the children's hard work, I praised them highly.

“Although you are children, you have done the work of adults, so today we will count it as adult work points.”

The children were very happy and even more motivated.

When they ran out of bok choy, Zhang Hongmei and Er Ya went to the radish patch and picked two more baskets, but it still wasn't enough. That was all they could do.

The children suddenly had a brilliant idea: "Why don't we go home and find some spinach seeds?"

"Okay, this one works. Spinach is cold-resistant. What other vegetables can we grow?" Er Lengzi was clearly the leader of this group of kids.

"Can I use garlic?"

"That works too."

Looking at these enthusiastic children, Hongmei felt compelled to remind them.

"These can all be planted, but not too many. As it gets colder, the green wild vegetables will wither and turn yellow, and then animals might come down and cause damage. So we should know when to stop."

Everyone thought that made sense, but spinach really can be grown, just don't have too high hopes.

The next day, the children brought even more diverse vegetable seeds: spinach seeds, garlic, scallions, ginger, and water spinach seeds.

The boys used large pickaxes to turn over the soil and carry water. The girls sowed seeds and planted them.

It was all done in half a day. Afterwards, they deepened the traps, including those in the radish patch, and dug two more. Now it's almost like a sweet potato patch, with traps surrounding the vegetable garden.

I got home, and I was so tired that I collapsed into a chair and didn't want to get up.

The sheep haven't been herded out for several days, and they're all bleating at me.

I don't know if I'll have time to herd the sheep tomorrow. I fed them bean stalks, gave the rabbits hay, and mixed feed for the chickens. I only went to sleep in my online space after I had answered all the questions correctly.

There are too many mosquitoes in the house. I'll ask what mosquito-repellent plants look like and transplant a few to plant in the yard.

The next day, I emerged refreshed and full of energy.

Today's task is to flip the sweet potato slices. They're half-dry now; once they're completely dry, they can be bagged. When we run out of them, we can grind them into flour.

Liu Maocai's idea was to wait until the sweet potatoes were dried before removing them from the village, but seeing that there were too many idle people, he assigned strong laborers to cut the sweet potato vines.

This way, we can get the work done quickly. Everyone has their own tasks, and there's no slacking off.

The children were assigned the task of packing sweet potato vines into baskets, which wasn't easy. None of them tried to slack off.

Now the villagers of Liujiatun feel superior; other villages can't even do such strenuous work anymore.

At noon, everyone ate lunch at the brigade headquarters as usual. No one made things difficult for the village's elderly living alone; it was just a matter of how much work they did. Even the most mean-spirited people couldn't be bothered with jealousy anymore; nothing was more important than food.

Even when they were so tired after a busy day that they could barely walk, no one complained.

When Zhang Hongmei returned home and fed the rabbits, she noticed that one of them had a swollen belly. She touched it and found it was hard. Was it pregnant or just bloated? She wasn't sure, but seeing how happily it was eating, she figured it was probably fine.

Am I just lucky? Am I getting some unexpected benefits?

The second batch of green beans at home is already on the trellis, and they'll probably be ready to grow long soon. Should we remove the potatoes? I'll ask tomorrow; they can probably grow for a while longer.

The bugs on the vegetable leaves are the most annoying thing. I didn't bring any pesticides. If I had known I could come back here, I would have brought back plenty of herbicides, insecticides, and all sorts of pesticides. I still have to catch bugs tomorrow morning. Honestly, I'm not a beneficial insect that's only there to catch pests.

I didn't eat much for dinner, but I ate a bowl of wontons online before going to bed.

Another busy day has begun. Today, only five adults and ten children went to cut sweet potato vines, while the rest of the able-bodied people were harvesting sweet potatoes.

Looking at the clusters of sweet potatoes dug up with a pickaxe, although they weren't as big as those in the mountains, they were about the same size as in previous years.

The women happily carried the goods to the warehouse, while the elderly kept chanting Buddhist prayers as they sorted them. They were truly grateful for such a great harvest this year.

The next day, more than ten people were left to wash, cut, and dry the food.

There are so many idle people in the village now, even pregnant women are taking part in the work.

After half a month, they had barely finished harvesting the sweet potatoes from 700 mu of land. By then, everyone was so exhausted they could barely lift their heads. They were really grateful to the old ox; without it pulling the plow and turning the sweet potatoes, they probably wouldn't have finished harvesting in a month.

The warehouse is now full of good-quality sweet potatoes; those damaged by hoes and insects have been dried, and the smaller ones have been put into the cellar.

At breakfast, Liu Maocai told everyone the data: this year's total sweet potato harvest was 79,000 jin. Everyone kept their heads down and worked. Although they knew this year's harvest was good, they were still not as shocked by the data.

"We all have some things to say. Everyone knows what's going on this year. We all know the situation in your families, your in-laws' families, and your relatives' families, right? It's not that we're being selfish, but if you want to eat your fill, you'd better keep your mouth shut."