Old Zhou's eyes darted around, and he continued, unwilling to give up, "Sister-in-law, if you won't make medicine for us, then you have to help us harvest the rice. Your family can wait. Anyway, my wife and I were injured by Erfu. If you don't help,..."
"I'll go around the village and tell everyone that your Erfu, at such a young age, is like a bandit, breaking his aunt's head and beating his uncle so badly he can't get out of bed. If outsiders find out, Erfu's reputation will be ruined."
“Zhou Laosan, you’re a stinking, annoying troublemaker. If you insist on doing this, no one will stop you. In short, don’t expect me to help the Zhou family harvest rice. If Erfu’s reputation is ruined by you, I’ll make him beat you every time he sees you. Since his reputation is already bad, I might as well make it official.”
Hmph, since he's courting death, let's grant his wish.
Zhou Laosan: "?" This woman doesn't follow the rules, it's infuriating.
Autumn was drawing to a close and winter was approaching. The water in the paddy fields had been drained, making it easier to harvest the rice. Although Zhou Laoda still walked with a slight limp, he was fine now and would definitely come to help with the harvesting.
The five boys also wanted to help, but there were only three sickles in the house. Zhao Guihua and Zhou Dafu each had a sickle, while Zhou Sanfu used a wood-chopping knife. The wood-chopping knife was heavier and definitely not as good as the sickle, but there was no other way but to make do with it.
Because Zhou Erfu had an injured arm, he, Zhou Sifu, Zhou Wufu, and Xingxing were threshing rice on a bamboo mat.
Now, while others are harvesting rice, they are threshing rice on the open ground next to them. By noon or evening, they will carry the rice back home, and take the unthreshed rice home to work on in the evening.
Although winter is approaching, it is still very sunny under the sun. Xingxing, wearing a small straw hat, sat on the edge of the field and worked hard. Sweat quickly soaked her back, and her fair face was rosy from the sun.
"Little sister, if you're tired, just sit down and rest. Leave these to your second brother and the others." The little girl was too honest and didn't know how to slack off when she was working. Zhou Erfu was worried that she wouldn't be able to lift her arms in a while.
"Second brother, Xingxing can hold on for a while longer. I'll rest when I'm really tired." Everyone was working, and Xingxing didn't want to rest alone; she was a diligent child.
"Sweetie, don't argue with me. I'm four or five years older than you, stronger, eat more, and definitely do more work. You're young, so take a rest. I've made some honey water, go drink it." Zhou Erfu coaxed patiently.
Upon hearing that there was honey water to drink, the little girl couldn't help but swallow and stop what she was doing. Only then did she realize that her tummy was rumbling and her throat was extremely dry.
"Then I'll go drink some honey water. Sigh, farm work is so hard, I'm hungry so quickly." Xingxing raised her arm to wipe the sweat with her sleeve, sighing in her childish voice.
"There are dried fruit and dried meat in the oil paper package. Have some to tide you over." Zhou Erfu was strong and worked the hardest, but he also had a sweet tooth. It was different when the family didn't have any food stored up, but ever since they had dried fruit and dried meat stored up, he would secretly take food out with him.
When Zhou Sifu and Zhou Wufu heard that there was food, they cried out excitedly, wanting to go and have some snacks right away.
Zhou Erfu stopped the two of them, "You two sit still and work on the rice mat. Stop thinking about food all day long. Xingxing is young and is our only girl, so we have to spoil her. How can we men be as pampered as a little girl? Get to work."
“Second Brother, we’re only nine years old, we haven’t even grown our hair yet, how can we be grown men? I’m still little, I’m hungry.” Zhou Wufu wailed. He was still a child, not a grown man. Grown men wouldn’t be happy if they didn’t have anything to eat.
"I said no means no, keep going." Zhou Erfu's fighting skills were off the charts, and Zhou Wufu couldn't beat him. Despite his reluctance, he had no choice but to give in.
Xingxing squatted under a tree not far from the field ridge, opened the cloth bag on the stone, took out the oil paper package inside, opened it and saw the dried fruit and dried meat inside, and her heart was filled with joy.
She didn't rush to eat. Instead, she drank half a tube of honey water from the bamboo tube, then sat down and ate the dried fruit with satisfaction, identifying it by its taste as she ate.
"This is myrtle, this is chestnut, this is bayberry... and now this dried meat, wow, this must be wild boar meat with a good mix of fat and lean meat, so delicious." Xingxing took another bite, her big eyes narrowing into crescent moons as she ate.
After filling her stomach about 30% full, she took the oil paper package and walked over to Zhou Erfu and the others. She first fed Zhou Erfu a piece of dried meat, saying, "Second Brother, eat quickly, the dried meat smells so good."
"Sister, I want some too! Fifth Brother is starving! Fifth Brother wants some jerky too!" Zhou Wufu shouted dramatically, but he didn't dare stop what he was doing, as his second brother was glaring at him menacingly.
"Fifth Brother, don't worry, Xingxing is coming right away." Xingxing walked over to Zhou Wufu with her short legs and fed him a loach.
"Xingxing, hurry, over here! Fourth Brother wants to eat too, ah!" Zhou Sifu had already opened his mouth wide, waiting to be fed.
Xingxing walked over and fed Fourth Brother a dried eel. Then she fed each of them, starting with Second Brother. Finally, she handed them a bamboo tube and said, "Drink some water, don't choke."
"Now that you've eaten your fill, you'd better work hard!" Xingxing encouraged her three older brothers in a cute and endearing way.
"Little sister, two pieces of jerky aren't enough, you want more," Zhou Wufu coaxed, winking at her.
Xingxing waved her pink little hand, looking helpless. "Xingxing doesn't have time to feed you jerky. Daddy, Mommy, and Big Brother haven't eaten yet. I have to go and feed them jerky and dried fruit."
As she spoke, she glanced at her three brothers and, feeling reluctant to disappoint them, placed some dried fruit on the pile of straw. "Here's some dried fruit, you can take it and eat it yourselves. Xingxing has to go and get busy."
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