The matter of Chen Dongge's martial arts training has been taken over. In the mornings, after the eldest brother and Nan Nanjie go to school, they will supervise the third brother to practice the horse stance. The third brother is five years old this year, so he can start now.

Every morning, Uncle Shen would carry my fourth brother behind him while my third brother ran ahead. When we got home, we'd do a horse stance, and my fourth brother and I would run around him. When my third brother was practicing his boxing, my fourth brother and I would follow behind and mimic his movements. My father and Uncle Shen would sit there chatting. Lately, Uncle Shen couldn't stay home and would come home every day. When he came to see my father, he would either play chess or practice pushing stones to create a battlefield. I overheard a bit of it; it was about the front lines, so I stopped listening.

Before I knew it, National Day 54 had passed. I'd be four years old in a few months. My dad went to school a few days ago, supposedly to train for leadership positions. Uncle Shen went with him. My fourth brother, Shen Bei, started learning martial arts last year and started school this year too. Except for the mornings when there were many people at home, there were no adults around. My mom was a little worried and discussed it with me, saying, "Mianmian, Dad's gone to school, and Mom has to go to work at the hospital. I'm worried about you staying home alone. Should I send you to Aunt Wu's house?"

Upon hearing this, I knew I couldn't accept it. For the past two years, my father had been taking care of me at home, never taking his eyes off me. I couldn't even take food out of the space, let alone enter it.

The fruit trees in the space were rotting on the ground. I was planning to take advantage of Mom's absence to quickly tidy up the space myself. This year is already 54, not far from 58. It's already October in the Gregorian calendar, and in September in the lunar calendar, we can still plant a crop of wheat. So I quickly said, "Mom, I can take care of myself. I don't want to go to Aunt Wu."

Why?

"For no reason, I just don't want to go."

"Can you tell Mommy?"

"Mom, I'm all grown up now, I can take care of myself."

"So what are you going to eat for lunch?"

"When you cook breakfast, just make a little extra and keep it warm in the pot."

"No, that won't do. Mom won't feel comfortable with that. How about this: if you don't want to go to Aunt Wu's house, Mom will have Aunt Wu come to our house instead?"

"But, but I heard that would be bad for you and Dad."

When Mom heard this, she asked seriously, "Mianmian, tell Mom, where did you hear that asking Aunt Wu to help take care of you at our house would have a bad influence on Dad and Mom?"

"My third and fourth brothers took me to play in the street. When we passed by a shop selling candied hawthorns, my third brother was buying candied hawthorns there, and there were two people standing next to him saying something about the need for full public-private partnerships, that we couldn't have nannies at home, and that we should hide things carefully."

Liu Linjuan didn't doubt whether her daughter's words were unfounded. Rather, her husband and she had discussed these matters before he went to school. Recently, someone from higher up had raised this issue, and they had even held a special meeting to discuss it. The specifics were not mentioned, but the conclusion of her and her husband's discussion was that it was something that had happened in the last two years.

I noticed my mother's pale face and thought to myself, "Could it be that they're discussing this at this point?" Of course, they would definitely discuss it before making a decision, and after the discussion, it would be implemented in two years at most.

Seeing that her mother's expression had softened, she quickly asked again:

"Mom, what's this 'public-private partnership'? Why can't we have a nanny at home? And why do they want to hide the Demon's things?"

After hearing my question, Mom patted my head and said, "Mianmian, a public-private partnership means that what is privately owned becomes government-owned. As for the nanny, like when Mom was at work, you had Aunt Wu to take care of you. When Dad came back, you had Dad to take care of you. When Dad went to school, you were taken care of by Mom. You can no longer have Aunt Wu to take care of you. As for hiding things, it means you should hide the New Year's money you received. No one else can find it, not even Mom."

"Oh, I see. I understand now."

"Mianmian, you must remember this: you can't tell anyone about this, understand?"

"Can't I tell my older brother and sister either?"

"I can't say."

Okay, I understand.

"From now on, you'll be home alone. Mom will go buy you some snacks later."

After Mom goes to work, I'll put the water and snacks on the table. If you're hungry, just grab something to eat and pour yourself some water, okay?

"I see"

"Around noon, if Mom isn't in surgery or on duty, she'll come back and cook for you. If she has surgery or is on duty, then I'll trouble your Aunt Zhou to come over, okay?"

"Sure, I like Aunt Zhou."

"Mischievous Girl"

Every day, after breakfast, my older siblings go to school and I am busy with my own things. At noon, either my mother or Aunt Zhou comes back to cook. Sometimes when they are busy, my older brother and my sister Nan Nan cook. After my afternoon nap, when no one is home, I am still busy with my own things. Also, except for when my mother and Aunt Zhou are resting or on Sundays, I am usually alone at home.

And so, I started living alone at home. As soon as my mother left for work, I would sneak into the space and see that the yard was full of rotten fruit and some small fruit tree seedlings. Resigned, I picked up a small shovel and started working, tidying up the yard little by little. I put the fruit tree seedlings next to the millstone to dry and burn for firewood. The reason was simple: there was nowhere else to put them, so I could only dry them and burn them for firewood. The rotten ones were thrown on the ground to be used as fertilizer.

And so, I toiled away for a month on that little over half an acre of land. Because I'm small and not strong enough to turn the soil, I could only scatter some wheat seeds in the field, then pick up the hose and suck water out with my mouth to irrigate the wheat.

After finishing, seeing that there were still a few fruit trees with fruit hanging on them, I picked up the fruit-picking pole and started picking. I picked the apples first and put them in the basket, then carried them to the millstone, poured them on the ground, and picked all the apples. I spread a mat on the open ground, found the cutting board and fruit knife, and started peeling and cutting the fruit into pieces, which I then laid out on the mat to dry.

When they're almost dry, put them in a pot to smoke, and then dry them again. Even though there are a hundred or so pounds of apples, they'll only weigh a little over twelve pounds after drying.

After the apples were harvested, the jujubes were dried, and finally the persimmons were dried. This was a huge undertaking. A single persimmon tree yielded 300 jin (150 kg), which could produce 75 jin (37.5 kg) of dried persimmons, after which the persimmons had to be peeled. This process took more than half a month.

When I'm home alone, I stay indoors and busy myself. After harvesting the wheat, I plant corn. Because I didn't cultivate the land deeply, the yield wasn't very high, but I didn't waste the land. When the peaches ripened, I dried them into peach preserves.

Worried that there wouldn't be enough space in the storage space after the harvest, they processed most of the fruit into dried fruit. First, they dried the 700 apples that were originally produced in the space.