Yu Yuehui quickly put Xie Yan's straw hat on his head, her tone slightly reproachful: "In such heavy rain, why aren't you even wearing a straw hat?"
Xie Yan wiped the rain off his face again, making sure it wouldn't get into his eyes, before explaining, "Wearing it is cumbersome. It's inconvenient when I'm holding wheat, and it slows me down."
The key is to gather up the scattered wheat in the field before the heavy rain completely soaks it; speed is crucial.
Moreover, the wind was howling at the time, and the straw hat was swaying on his head, which really affected his work efficiency, so Xie Yan took off his hat early on.
Yu Yuehui was still a little annoyed. Wearing a hat could cause so much trouble. Besides, she was helping out there too.
Look at me now, I'm soaked to the bone! What if I catch a cold?
Xie Yan lowered his eyes slightly, looking through the pouring rain at his wife's slightly cold and stern expression. He thought to himself, "Oh no, my wife is angry."
He quickly lowered his head, his downcast eyes making him look rather pitiful, and muttered softly, "Wife, it's quite cold with this wind blowing, let's go back quickly."
Upon hearing Xie Yan say he was cold, Yu Yuehui's words of reproach instantly caught in her throat. Without another word, she grabbed Xie Yan's hand and hurried towards home.
The rain poured down, and in no time the road was completely soaked.
The soft ground in the fields quickly turned into mud. When you stepped in, your shoes sank deep into the mud, and when you pulled them out, they brought up a lot of soil.
Xie Yan's cloth shoes, which were originally fine, were soon covered in mud, as if they had been forcibly turned into high-top shoes, and the mud on the heels kept piling up.
This was also the first time in his life that he experienced walking on muddy ground in high heels.
As soon as the two stepped out of the wheat field, their mud-caked shoes became a huge obstacle to their progress.
The country path has been trodden by many people and has become extremely hard. It becomes very slippery when it rains, and the thick mud on the soles of shoes makes every step difficult, with the risk of slipping if one is not careful.
Yu Yuehui, quick-witted and agile, broke off a branch from a nearby tree and handed it to Xie Yan, saying urgently, "Quickly scrape off the mud on your feet, otherwise you won't be able to walk at all."
Xie Yan took the branch, stuck the sharp end into the joint between the shoe and the soil, and with a little force, a large amount of soil fell off with a "whoosh".
Before long, as large swaths of soil fell, the shoes buried in the mud gradually revealed their original appearance.
Without the heavy soil weighing him down, Xie Yan felt much lighter on his feet, as if he were a swallow, and every step he took was exceptionally pleasant.
This feeling of ease was something he hadn't felt in a long time, after being overwhelmed by heavy farm work.
Since the onset of the sweltering heat, the anxious farm work and the suffocatingly hot weather have weighed him down like two heavy mountains, making it almost impossible for him to breathe.
At this moment, amidst the wind and rain, it felt like the first time since the beginning of summer that I had experienced such comfort and ease.
The rain intensified, and the roads were filled with soaked travelers.
However, no one felt any urgency. They strolled leisurely in the heavy rain, chatting casually as they went, which was quite pleasant.
Gone is the tense atmosphere of racing against time during wheat harvest; a rare sense of leisure permeates the air.
Most of the elderly people in the village are somewhat superstitious. At this moment, several elderly people walked slowly with their hands behind their backs, their faces full of emotion.
One of the old men tilted his head slightly, looked up at the gloomy sky, and slowly said, "This year, God has really been kind to us, holding back his efforts until we finish harvesting the wheat."
"Yes, if this rain had started an hour earlier, how much grain would have been lost?" another old man chimed in.
“Who says otherwise!” The elderly people around nodded in agreement.
"This year has been relatively smooth overall. It snowed when it was supposed to snow and rained when it was supposed to rain. I'm just hoping this rain will stop soon," an elderly man said hopefully.
"Yes! It would be best if it were next day, so everyone could get a good rest and have the strength to harvest the wheat, dry it in the sun, and then we could thresh it the next day!"
"If that were really the case, it would be perfect." The group chatted amongst themselves as they slowly made their way towards the village.
As we approached the village, we could hear the sounds of children being called out from within.
Those cries sounded especially anxious in the wind and rain, filled with the worries of parents for their children. Just by listening to them, one could truly feel the urgency in the hearts of those who were calling out.
Not to mention the distant thunder that was also present.
Xie Yan couldn't help but laugh as he listened to these sounds. These kids were truly fearless; they didn't even know to run home when it rained.
He turned to look at Yu Yuehui and asked with a smile, "Wife, were you like this when you were little?"
Yu Yue smiled as she recalled her childhood. "Yes! I was very playful back then. When it rained, I would find a big tree to hide under and continue playing. I never thought about going home."
“Every time, my mother has to yell at me.”
“Sometimes when they hear their mother calling, they pretend not to hear and will never go back obediently.”
Xie Yan was particularly interested in his wife's mischievous childhood antics, his eyes sparkling as he pressed, "And then?"
Yu Yuehui was clearly reluctant to recall this "dark history," but under Xie Yan's repeated urging, she had no choice but to continue: "Then, I don't know where my mother suddenly appeared, holding a tree branch, and started hitting me all over the head."
"If I get hit, I definitely have to run!"
"I cried and ran as fast as I could, and my mother chased after me. It wasn't until we got home that I hid behind my father and managed to escape a severe beating."
The image involuntarily surfaced in Xie Yan's mind; it was indeed full of life, suggesting that his wife's childhood was also rich, colorful, and quite complete.
Before Yue could even ask Xie Yan about his childhood, she heard Qian Hong calling out for Mao Dan.
Xie Yan looked at Yu Yuehui uncertainly, "Wife, is Mother calling Maodan?"
Yu Yue stopped and listened carefully to the shouts mixed with the rain. It was indeed her mother calling Mao Dan, so she said to Xie Yan with certainty, "Yes!"
Xie Yantian's acupoints throbbed. Thinking of Chaochao, who had been inseparable from Maodan lately, he thought, "Oh no, Chaochao must be with them!"
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