But the summer grain harvest is due soon, what will we use to pay it? They say the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and if we don't make a fuss, the higher-ups might not even know we're in trouble.

The people of Liujiatun don't know what others think; right now, they're just working from dawn till dusk to grow grain.

Zhang Hongmei and Er Ya's job was simply to put the pipes into the water; there was nothing else to do. It was uncomfortable to just sit and wait.

"Hongmei, how about we take over for Brother Zhuzi?"

“Okay, I’ll take care of the route from here to the radish field, you take care of the route from the radish field to the sweet potato field, and the rest is up to Brother Zhu.”

"Okay, then I'll go first."

"I'll go with you, we can take a walk together."

The two women, each carrying a machete, encountered Zhu Zi before even reaching the radish field. After discussing it, the three of them agreed with what Zhang Hongmei had said.

This greatly reduces the burden on the pillars.

Zhang Hongmei made three trips that morning, constantly marveling at how reliable things were these days; even with such high water pressure, not a single joint broke.

Before we even reached the pond, we could see water gushing from the pipes, which looked like animals were stepping on them.

I took off running towards the pool, and as soon as I got there, I saw a wild boar rooting at the pipe. It looked like it was about to bite me. This was unacceptable! I immediately grabbed my stun gun and rushed over. The wild boar was also excited to see something alive, and seeing that I was charging at it regardless of my life, it was clearly provoking me. I immediately charged back.

The stun gun I bought was an extended version, and with the length of my arm, I was able to stab the wild boar in the nose from a meter away.

I knocked the wild boar down, gave it a few electric shocks on the neck, and then tried putting it in my ring. The boar died. (Words fail me; I simply can't describe the scene of fighting the wild boar for three hundred rounds.)

I quickly ran to check the spot where the wild boar had been rooting around, and was relieved to find that the pipe was undamaged.

But it's hard to explain how this was translated. Let's be honest, bringing up a wild boar won't work either. How do you explain a little girl killing a wild boar? This isn't something that can be covered up with a trap.

This is really worrying. I took out a small hoe from the basket and filled the soil in, saying I didn't see what animal was causing the trouble.

Er Ya and Zhu Zi also ran over at this time, both panting. They were relieved to see Zhang Hongmei squatting on the ground.

What happened to Hongmei just now?

"I don't know either. I saw water pipes running in this direction, but I didn't find anything. It must be some animal rooting around in the soil, turning it upside down."

"That must have been a wild boar. Luckily, it didn't damage the pipe, and luckily we didn't run into it."

"Brother Zhu, you're really something. It's lucky we didn't run into them up ahead. Nothing is more important than people." Er Ya immediately backed down.

Zhu Zi thought it made sense and realized he had said the wrong thing. Seeing the way the two were looking at him, he said, "I was wrong. There won't be a next time. I'll watch over Hongmei here; it's too dangerous."

"No need, just take care of your own part. I'm fine, you two go ahead."

"I'm stronger than you, and I can run faster."

"You're not as smart as me." Those words immediately silenced Zhu Zi. It was true he wasn't as smart. But then he thought, something didn't make sense; running away and fighting desperately didn't really have much to do with intelligence, right? Before he could say anything more, Er Ya dragged him away.

Er Ya wasn't biased towards Zhu Zi. Rather, in her heart, Zhang Hongmei was a lucky person, and she believed that nothing would happen to Zhang Hongmei.

Er Ya carried lunch up. "It was Da Shan's for Zhu Zi, he kept his own, so I carried both of ours up."

The two sat on the floor eating. Zhang Hongmei really didn't want to eat the cornbread, so she crushed the kernels along with it. But seeing Er Ya eating it so happily made her feel like she was being too fussy. She really couldn't swallow it.

"Hongmei, why aren't you eating? You must be starving after walking all this time."

"Sister Er Ya, I can't swallow this." Zhang Hongmei said with a bitter face, looking utterly hopeless.

"It's pretty good, much better than the school food."

"I'll give it all to you since you like it, but it gives me heartburn."

Aren't you hungry?

"I'm hungry but I won't eat. It's too uncomfortable."

Er Ya stopped paying attention to her. She knew that Hong Mei usually ate very well, so she could understand why Hong Mei couldn't eat this meal.

"Hongmei, I've finished eating. You can leave this food here and eat it when you're really starving. I'm leaving now."

"Okay, go ahead." Zhang Hongmei sat on the ground, not wanting to get up. She rubbed her sore legs and flexed her big toes to relieve the pain in her feet.

He drank a cup of spiritual spring water from the spatial dimension before stretching comfortably. This was the consequence of his overconfidence.

The path you choose, you have to walk it to the end, even if you have to crawl on your knees.

When it was almost 4:30, Er Ya hadn't come over, so Zhang Hongmei slowly pulled the pipe up by herself using the rope.

Er Ya ran over, covered in sweat. "Hong Mei, why didn't you wait for me? It's dangerous for you to be alone."

"It's not dangerous, I'm standing far away. Let's go back."

When the three of them came down the mountain and returned to the canteen, everyone else had already arrived.

Today, we planted more than 40 mu of sweet potatoes in one day. A few days ago, while we were setting up the pipes, the other villagers and the three old oxen were making sweet potato ridges, and the canteen staff were busy pulling up sweet potato vines. Anyway, there was no one idle.

Everyone saw hope, and it was time to plant sorghum, but in the end, it was decided to focus on sweet potatoes. All the sweet potatoes were planted before the sorghum was planted. No corn or anything else was planted.

Zhang Hongmei returned home, picked up a large hoe, and went to her private plot. She needed to hurry up and make a ridge for the sweet potatoes, and plant them while there was still water after the collective sweet potatoes were all planted.

Every household shared this sentiment. Despite their exhaustion, they worked on their own tasks at night. Zhang Hongmei's family only had one mu of land, while some families had more members, with the largest having five or six mu of land. However, with more people, there was more work to be done.

It was already past seven o'clock when Zhang Hongmei finally came back, having completely disappeared from sight. Because of her neglect, the chickens at home weren't laying an egg a day anymore.

I'm completely exhausted today. I went online, took a shower, and went straight to sleep. I slept incredibly soundly.

The next day was the same routine: planting fifty acres of sweet potatoes. The experienced farmers never slacked off. Nothing particularly dangerous happened; the day passed peacefully.

After working for half a month, all the sweet potato vines were planted. It was a bit late to plant sorghum now, but the old folks said that the drought wouldn't prevent the sorghum from ripening. So they threw themselves into the busy work of planting sorghum.

This time, the oxen were the main force, and those carrying water still made up the majority of the labor force. The sorghum seeds left this year were all provided by Zhang Hongmei last year. This type of sorghum is more drought-resistant, has shorter stalks, larger ears, and the sorghum grains are also more translucent.

Now that there's water, everyone discussed planting sorghum on 500 acres of land. If it gets too dry, they'll fetch more water to irrigate it. In any case, they can't just let everyone eat sweet potatoes.