Chapter 218 Everyone Comes to Borrow Grain 2

Two more days passed, and the rice in the entire commune was finally harvested.

During this harvest season, every household mobilized all available manpower, and no one dared to rest. At lunchtime, they would hurriedly stuff a piece of bread into their mouths and then pick up their sickles to get back to work.

Working seventeen or eighteen hours a day left everyone exhausted; they could fall asleep the moment their heads hit the pillow.

But the result of this frantic harvest was that all the rice was harvested in just six days, twice as fast as before.

Even so, no one dared to relax.

We still need to dry the millet completely before we can finish!

If there were no insect infestations in previous years, they could take a couple of days off before resuming work, but now they are afraid that the locusts will come again.

Even though Zhao Mancang had arranged for many people to guard the threshing ground, everyone was still uneasy and would go to check on the threshing ground whenever they had a chance.

The harvest was finished, and the meals returned to the old standard, but no one complained.

"If the locusts hadn't all suddenly died this year, we probably wouldn't even have brown rice to eat for the next year."

Zhou Zhaodi said with a sigh, "I heard that this time only our commune and the two neighboring communes had a decent harvest, while the other communes suffered some losses."

Ma Xiulian nodded: "The two communes in the neighboring town are said to have only half the harvest of last year. They'll probably have to tighten their belts this year."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhaodi said with lingering fear, "Thank goodness God protected us and prevented the locusts from ruining our commune's grain!"

Zhao Mei, however, had a worried expression on her face, and it was unclear what she was thinking.

Upon seeing this, Ma Xiulian put on a stern face and said, "There's something I need to tell you in advance. Our family's grain reserves are only enough for this large family to live on, so no matter who comes to borrow grain, I definitely won't lend it to them. Don't just agree to lend grain to anyone without a word, lest you end up making a scene later."

The families of the daughters-in-law all suffered losses of grain to varying degrees. If she borrows from one family, the other families will have to borrow from her too!

When other relatives found out, they all came to borrow grain.

However, neither Zhao Mei nor Zhou Zhaodi's family communes suffered too serious losses this time, and both were honest and law-abiding citizens.

The main problem is that Li Chunhua's family is shameless, and they live in a town that suffered heavy losses. She can guess with her toes that they will shamelessly come to her door to ask for grain.

Unfortunately, Chen Jianye was easily swayed, and the old woman's crying and fussing would surely make her agree to lend the grain.

Thinking of this, she gave her third son a warning look and emphasized again: "No matter who the other party is, whether they throw a tantrum, yell and curse, or cry and beg, we must not lend them the money!"

Chen Jianye was so embarrassed by the gaze that he quickly lowered his head.

Who told him to have such a shrewish and shameless mother-in-law!

After Chen Jianye returned to his room, he told Li Chunhua about it. She sat on the bed with a long face and said, "I don't want to lend it either, but you know what kind of person my mother is. She will definitely come to us to borrow grain."

She has two sons now, how could she possibly be willing to lend food to her family!

"What should we do then?"

Chen Jianye was also extremely worried. After all, if his parents-in-law really asked him for help, he couldn't keep refusing.

Li Chunhua thought for a moment and said, "When my mother comes to borrow grain, we'll just stay in the house and pretend we don't know she's here. We'll never get involved in this."

That way, her mother wouldn't blame her for not speaking up for her if she couldn't borrow food.

Chen Jianye hesitated for a moment: "That works too."

(End of this chapter)