Everyone was exhausted, but as soon as they opened the door and saw the corn and sorghum drying in each yard, they felt much better.
The fatigue of the past two days vanished instantly.
Old Liu looked at the sorghum drying in the yard, his beard bristling with joy. "After drying for a few more days, we can thresh the sorghum."
Then it can be ground into powder, which will be used as food in the future.
As Liu Dayong carried the corn husks piled up by several families to the field, he nodded, "That's right. After the sorghum is threshed, the rice in the fields can be harvested in about half a month at most. That's great."
This was the first time he had ever harvested so much grain, and he didn't feel tired at all; on the contrary, he was very happy.
In the past, this time of year was the busiest time for the villagers. But after a year of hard work, they could not harvest much grain. In addition, there were taxes to pay, and the rest was barely enough to get through the winter.
But this year is different. He originally thought that everyone would starve to death sooner or later after eating the stored food, and never thought that they would grow crops, let alone have a harvest.
These corn and sorghum weigh over 300 jin, and the rice can yield several hundred jin more. If the harvest is good, those fields could yield 1,000 jin, but it's just a bit difficult.
In all these years, he has never seen a village where an acre of land could yield more than a thousand catties of grain; the most he's ever seen is only a little over eight hundred.
However, he was content with eight hundred bushels of grain. With this grain, they could get through the winter and wait until the new harvest next year.
Old Liu glanced at the blazing sun hanging in the sky, baking the ground, and then chuckled and said, "The sun has been shining brightly these past few days, so these sorghum stalks will dry quickly. Then we can just pile them up in the woodshed, thresh them, and dry them in the sun again."
That way, we can make room for the rice to dry earlier.
Liu Dayong responded and casually said, "I hope it will be sunny and dry for the next few days."
Old Liu nodded emphatically.
But what I feared most came to pass.
The next day, just as dawn was breaking, a light drizzle began to fall outside.
The families, still asleep, were awakened by the sound of rain hitting the roof. They hurriedly put on their clothes and got up to move the sorghum piled in the yard into the house.
Old Liu looked at the pouring rain outside, carrying sorghum stalks into the house while cursing, "Last night the sky was full of stars, there was no sign of rain at all, how come it started raining in the middle of the night, this damn weather."
There was plenty of grain, and every evening several families would gather it up and cover it with tarpaulins. However, for several days in a row, the weather was sunny and the evenings were filled with rosy clouds, so they didn't move the grain inside, thinking they could just dry it in the sun the next morning.
Who would have thought that it would start raining so quietly?
Liu Dayong didn't dare to say a word, and was busy with Zhao Xing'er covering up the neatly piled corn under the eaves.
It was his fault too. The weather had been sunny for several days, but his father was afraid of rain and wanted to call everyone to move the sorghum piled up in the yard into the woodshed.
But he looked at the sunset the previous day and confidently assured them that it would not rain, which is why the families didn't move their grain inside.
Now look what happened, good intentions gone wrong.
The more he thought about it, the more guilty he felt, afraid that his father would catch him and scold him. He lowered his head and almost buried it in his clothes.
Fortunately, Old Liu was preoccupied with the grain and had no time to pay attention to him.
The open space in front of the Jiang and Chen families' houses was small, so they couldn't dry much grain. After finishing their harvest, the two families hurried to help the Liu family.
After covering all the corn and piling the sorghum inside to dry, everyone was soaked to the bone, and the rain outside turned from a drizzle into a downpour.
Zhao Xing'er quickly brewed ginger tea and served it to everyone. She also brought clean clothes from home for them to change into before looking at the heavy rain outside and saying thankfully, "Luckily, the sorghum and corn have been dried for several days. Otherwise, if this rain had continued, the grain would have gone moldy."
She had just checked and found that only some oilcloth was wet. It had been covered up tightly yesterday, and the sorghum had only slightly dampened, so there wasn't much of a problem.
The corn on the high railing under the eaves was fine, except for some rainwater dripping from the outside.
It would be completely covered by tarpaulin, so it wouldn't get wet at all.
Wang Fengqin took a sip of ginger tea and felt the chill in her body dissipate considerably before smiling and saying, "Yes, but after so many sunny days, it's about time for it to rain."
This statement was met with agreement from everyone.
It had been sunny for more than half a month, so rain was normal, but I didn't expect it to rain before dawn, catching them completely off guard.
Fortunately, the response was quick this time, and there were no major losses.
Because of the continuous rain for several days, the people couldn't go out, so they stayed at home husking corn and threshing sorghum.
The group enjoyed a rare moment of leisure, and over the course of a few days, they managed to harvest all the sorghum and corn kernels.
The gloomy sky outside finally cleared up.
Jiang Yimian watched as the sun, which had been hiding for many days, finally peeked out from behind the clouds, and felt that the dampness in the air had dissipated.
The crowd quickly spread the oilcloth on the ground and began to dry the corn and sorghum.
After Jiang Yimian finished helping, she stretched and told Wang Fengqin before slinging her basket and sickle over her shoulder, intending to go out and have a look around, and maybe pick some mushrooms.
As soon as I reached the cave entrance, several little followers appeared behind me, each carrying a small basket.
Jiang Yimian looked at Gou Sheng, then at the few obedient little ones standing beside her, and said helplessly, "You guys want to go out too?"
The group nodded in unison, their eyes sparkling, looking longing for the outside world.
Gousheng would occasionally go out for a stroll in the nearby woods, but the other three, apart from the last time they went out to catch insects in the rice paddies, had never left the small depression.
Plus, with the rain these past few days, I'm sure everyone's been cooped up at home and getting really bored.
This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
