Chapter 138 Mother, You Are So Kind
The flail clanged.
The night grew deeper and deeper.
Some people who have a lot of land at home are still busy.
Cheng Wanwan told the children to wash up and go to bed to rest. They still had to harvest tomorrow, and it would be easy to get sick after staying up all night and then being tired all day.
When she walked into the house, the master and servant were tossing and turning on the floor in the main room. It was obvious that they were not used to it and couldn't sleep.
She saw that Shen Zheng had several cuts on his face, and Ah Fu also had injuries on his body. Shen Zheng was only sixteen, and Ah Fu looked about fourteen. These two children left home and were tired, frightened and injured here. If they had nightmares again at night, they might get nightmare fever.
She went into the inner room, bought some anti-inflammatory medicine and tranquilizers from the mall, and then went into the main room.
She said calmly, "Afu, treat your young master's injuries. These pills are for calming the nerves; give each of them one."
Ah Fu smelled the anti-inflammatory potion and felt that it was different from what he had used before, but he could understand it. Their young master was using precious ointment. This was Dahe Village, and the potion should be made from wild herbs in the mountains. It was normal that he had never seen it before. Something useful was better than nothing.
Ah Fu carefully applied anti-inflammatory medicine to Shen Zheng and helped Shen Zheng swallow the pill.
Shen Zheng wanted to reject all of this with courage, but he was really too tired and in too much pain, so he had to accept everything silently.
After taking the medicine, the master and servant quickly fell into a deep sleep.
Cheng Zhao spread some hay half a meter away from them, lay down and fell asleep.
Shen Zheng woke up before dawn.
He sat there for a long time before he realized where he was. He was wearing patched clothes and sitting on straw. The house was gray and gloomy, and there were sounds of chickens and ducks outside, as well as the barking of dogs.
Ah Fu wasn't around, and I don't know what he was doing.
He stood up, put on his shoes, and stepped over the threshold.
It was dawn, but the entire Dahe Village had already awakened.
Voices could be heard coming from the courtyard.
"Sidan, what's wrong with your hair? Why is it so dirty? I was wondering why there was mud all over the bed, and it turns out your hair is the one that got it there." Cheng Wanwan said unhappily, "Didn't you take a shower last night? Come over here and lie down. I'll give you a quick wash..."
Zhao Sidan refused: "Mom, I'll be all sweaty again when I get busy later. I'll wash up tonight."
Cheng Wanwan scolded him: "You ate something last night, can you not eat it today? If it's dirty, you have to wash it clean. How can you save it for tonight? Come here."
Zhao Sidan had no choice but to say, "I'll do it myself."
"Alright, I told you to lie down, so just lie down and don't say another word."
Cheng Wanwan pressed him down onto the bench. There were no cleaning supplies in the house, and no matter how many times she rinsed him with water, he couldn't get him clean.
When she comes to wash, she can secretly add some shampoo.
Sidan's hair was quite long. When the cloth band was untied, it was about thirty or forty centimeters long. His hair was a little oily, and there was mud and grass on it. It was extremely dirty.
She wet her hair, applied non-foaming shampoo, rinsed it with water, and combed out the tangles...
When Shen Zheng walked out of the house, he saw this scene.
In the thin morning light, in a corner of the yard, a woman was combing her child's hair with a gentle look. There were chickens, ducks, and puppies in the yard, and the ground around was covered with rice stalks and grains. The morning light was reflected by the rice in a slightly yellowish color, making the scene particularly warm.
"Mom, you're so good..."
Zhao Sidan stared longingly at Cheng Wanwan and couldn't help but sigh.
Shen Zheng looked away. He didn't have a mother in his memory, but many people wanted to be his mother. He always felt that he was grown up and didn't need another mother to discipline him. But now, looking at this scene in the courtyard, he began to envy Zhao Sidan. He even wanted this woman to comb his hair.
"Young master, the water for washing your face is ready."
Afu walked over, interrupting Shen Zheng's thoughts.
His young master needed to wash with warm water in the morning, so he specially boiled water and added hot water to make sure the temperature was just right, neither too cold nor too hot.
Shen Zheng went over to wash his face.
Cheng Wanwan was furious. She wanted to grab a pair of scissors and cut Zhao Sidan's hair all off. Why did a boy have to keep his hair long? Wasn't he just asking for trouble?
She suppressed her irritability and tried her best to comb the hair patiently. For the parts that were hard to comb, she secretly applied hair oil. Finally, Zhao Sidan's hair was finally tidied up.
When she looked up, she saw the eldest, second, and third brothers all looking at her with longing eyes. Cheng Zhao also looked over here. Even Shen Zheng and Ah Fu, who had just moved in yesterday, were staring at her...
One, two, three, four, five, six... She will go crazy washing so many children's hair.
Cheng Wanwan stood up decisively: "Hui Niang, is breakfast ready? Hurry up and set the table. After you eat, go get to work."
Breakfast was simple: one cornbread bun per person, plus a bowl of noodles. The whole table of people ate it all in no time, heads down and munching away.
Ah Fu squatted at the doorstep and ate heartily. He seriously doubted that he would not be able to finish his work today. This might be his only meal of the day.
After dinner, when Cheng Wanwan was about to assign tasks, Zhao Dashan said, "Mom, let us take care of the farm work. You stay home and rest."
He saw three blisters on his mother's palms, one of which was broken. It must be very painful to work with these hands.
Zhao Sanniu nodded: "I'm strong, it's okay for me to do more."
Cheng Zhao stood up and said, "Second aunt, stay at home. I'll go to the fields to help some of my cousins."
Cheng Wanwan felt very upset. Although she was tired, she never complained and did not show the blisters on her hands to the children. Unexpectedly, the children saw it clearly and offered to let her stay at home to rest.
"I'll just bundle the rice. It won't hurt my hands." Cheng Wanwan's eyes fell on Shen Zheng and Ah Fu. "Today's task is to thresh the rice. Yesterday you arrived at Dahe Village in the afternoon, so each of you had to thresh five kilograms. Today, for the whole day, each of you has to thresh ten kilograms."
Afu's expression froze.
Yesterday, he only managed to get five or six pounds, which nearly killed him. Today, he's supposed to get a total of twenty pounds; he might as well just die.
The magistrate clearly wanted the young master to suffer, so why did he end up being the one who suffered?
Ah Fu almost cried.
Cheng Wanwan didn't look at the master and servant. She took her sickle, carrying pole, and straw rope and went to the fields with her sons.
It was morning, and a gentle breeze was blowing. There was no need to wear a straw hat while working. The morning breeze was a little cool, and the farmers were busy harvesting before the sun came out.
Cheng Wanwan worked diligently with her head down; she had become a heartless work machine.
It can be said that she had never been so tired in her previous life of more than 30 years. She never knew that autumn harvest was so tiring.
Five mu of land at home may not seem like much, but harvesting each rice stalk takes a lot of time. One person can harvest about half a mu a day. Since there are two people in their family, it would take about five days to harvest five mu. This is only the third day. It's a long and arduous task ahead.
Cheng Wanwan sighed, rubbed his old waist, and continued to work.
The land of Old Zhao's family was not far from her home. When Old Mrs. Zhao came down to the field to serve tea, she couldn't help but mutter to Old Man Zhao: "During the autumn harvest in the past few years, the eldest daughter-in-law was even lazier than the third daughter-in-law, but this year she is so diligent..."
When Sun heard this, she immediately retorted, "Mother, I'm really not lazy. Look, I'm pregnant and still working in the fields to harvest rice. I'm very hardworking."
Grandma Zhao twitched the corners of her mouth, wondering who had been lying in bed pretending to be sick and refusing to get up a couple of days ago.
Today, she divided the rice in the field into three equal parts. All the children and Old Man Zhao were responsible for one-third, and the second and third wives were each responsible for one-third. Sun was afraid that Zhao Youcai couldn't finish the work by himself, so she took the initiative to go to the field. The only good thing about her as the third daughter-in-law was that she cared about her husband, which was also the fundamental reason why Old Madam Zhao tolerated Sun's occasional troubles.
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