It was Lin Guoqing's turn to sell vegetables tonight. He put two big white steamed buns in his pocket. Chen Chunhua had made a lot of steamed buns recently, and these were the last two. Thinking that he didn't have any cigarette coupons yet, he decided to put some steamed buns in his pocket to fill Lao Shi's stomach and ask him about the snake yesterday.
As a result, Lin Guoqing arrived at Guanqian Lane, but did not see Lao Shi.
He was always the first to arrive because he had the least stuff and could run faster with a box in his pocket, so he was kind of helping everyone else to be the pioneer.
As a result, today a group of people waited in fear until the stalls closed in Guanqian Lane, but they still didn't see Lao Shiren. They were all discussing whether something had happened to his family, or if he would come tomorrow?
As a result, they didn't see Lao Shi again the next day, the day after... for a whole week.
They were all in the same business as each other in the black market, but they only knew each other's surnames, not even their names. It was impossible to find out if there was any trouble. Old Wu, the pancake seller, squatted there and looked at Lin Guoqing.
"Xiao Lin, did your wife give Lao Shi a snake yesterday and ask him to help sell it?"
Lin Guoqing was stunned for a moment, "Ah, yes..."
"It can't be that your snake was too precious and sold for a high price?" The implication was that Lao Shi might have run away with the money.
Lin Guoqing rolled his eyes. "Uncle Wu, what are you talking about? It's just an ordinary water snake. It's not even venomous and isn't very big. How can it be sold for a fortune? Besides, Brother Shi isn't that kind of person!"
As a ticket scalper, what Lao Shi did might be illegal, but his character is absolutely guaranteed. Lin Guoqing and his wife have been selling vegetables in Guanqian Lane for more than half a year, and the most unanimous opinion is praise for Lao Shi.
On the other hand, if Lao Shi really ran away with the money from selling the snake, they wouldn't have suffered any loss. The snake had gotten into the eel cage on its own, without even having to put in any effort. So, the best thing to do was to keep the people safe.
Everyone was troubled for a few days about Lao Shi's absence, but they didn't have the energy to think too much about it because in the next few days, Chen Chunhua and his wife also stopped their vegetable selling business in the middle of the night because the vigorous autumn harvest had begun in Sihe Village. They were too tired and had to sleep at night.
As soon as the sky brightened, the village radio began to sound from the electric poles in all directions, calling on everyone to gather in the fields quickly.
Young men and women lined up in a row, waving sickles, and moved forward in an orderly manner. If you look down from a high altitude, you can see that the golden rice fields are collapsing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The sickles are sharpened in advance. If the sickle is not sharp, you can only pull it with your arms. After a day, your hands will be disabled.
You can't be lazy or slack off. Autumn harvest is a big deal. No matter how easy-going the team leader is, he will not allow you to be much slower than others. If you are slower, your work points will be deducted.
The rice had to be threshed the same day it was harvested. Bundling rice, carrying it, threshing it, winnowing it, and stacking it into haystacks—the entire village was busy in the fields, with a clear division of labor and a streamlined operation.
The women who were not there to harvest the rice were gathering the harvested rice behind them. After tidying it up, they tied it into bundles with rice stalks and piled them at the edge of the field, waiting for people to come and carry it to the threshing ground.
Whether it is harvesting rice or bundling rice, you have to bend over and keep your head down. At the end of the day, your waist will hurt so much that you can't stand up straight.
The older men carried loads on their shoulders and went back and forth from the threshing ground to the fields. The freshly harvested rice stalks were heavy, and they walked barefoot on the wet and muddy field banks, making them slippery; walking on the dry and hard channels, their feet were burned and painful.
Old women and children who normally don't work in the fields would come to help out now, as part-time workers. Adults could be credited with three points, and children with two. However, they had to be eight years old or older; younger ones weren't accepted. Stacking haystacks and picking up rice ears and grains was their job.
But the younger ones would still follow, even if they couldn't do the hard work, they would carry baskets and follow behind to pick up the fallen rice grains, although these grains had to be taken to the threshing ground together and no one was allowed to keep them for themselves.
But if you pick up an extra half pound of millet, there will always be one grain that you can take home, right?
When the children get out of school, or when they don’t have classes on weekends, they all rush to the fields, picking up grains while reciting ancient poems taught by their teachers in school.
"In spring, plant a grain of millet, and in autumn, harvest ten thousand grains..."
"The fragrance of rice flowers speaks of a good harvest, and the croaking of frogs is heard..."
"When the sun is at its highest, I hoe the field, and my sweat drips down to the earth..."
…
Shuchao and Shumei are still young and can't do it, but they can mix with their older brothers and sisters, babbling and shaking their heads. Shumei is really babbling, and the youngest one can actually say a few words by the end.
Many of the adults busy in the fields had no idea what the children were reciting or what they meant. However, this did not stop them from feeling that their tuition was worthwhile and that they would all have great futures.
The team members who were assigned to thresh the grain in the threshing yard were all covered tightly, with big straw hats and large cotton cloths that almost covered their eyes.
Sometimes, if you accidentally feed the machine too many rice ears, it will stop working. Not only do you have to reach in and pick out the rice ears, but you also have to empty the rice straw out of its belly. It will take at least an hour to get it working again.
Listen to the rumbling sound of the thresher resounding through the sky, accompanied by the children's not very orderly but powerful voices reciting poems.
Those who are harvesting rice, collecting rice, carrying rice, picking rice, even those who are far away in the threshing ground, all feel inexplicably motivated. This year is a bumper year. Next year, the children will be able to eat more and study hard. Aren’t the days getting more and more promising?
The autumn harvest lasts for nearly half a month, and it is really hard to earn work points during this half month. We have to cut rice and thresh it during the day, and then stack straw at night.
The harvested millet had to be dried in the sun. The women had to carry rakes and turn the millet over and dry it before dawn. If the weather was bad, they had to rush to store the millet in the warehouse, as it would get moldy if it got wet in the rain.
Fortunately, God has been kind this year and it hasn't rained in the past few days. The autumn sun is good, so the grain can be dried in three or four days, and then it will be the weighing that everyone is looking forward to.
After a year of waiting, the huge baskets of millet were finally packed into bags and weighed. The counters on the side held the weight and after the weight of all the harvests was calculated, they would pile the part that had to be paid as public grain into the corner.
Tomorrow, the men will drive ox carts and carry shoulder poles to the grain station in town to deliver grain, and the rest will belong to their production team and all the villagers in Sihe Village.
"Captain, when can we distribute the food?"
Some people couldn't wait any longer and squatted beside the warehouse, looking at the mountain of grain bags, just wanting to carry them home and steam a bowl of new rice to eat.
"Tsk! What's the rush?" Lin Fuqiang was writing and drawing in a notebook. "We have to calculate the amount that can be distributed later. We also have to deduct the amount for seeds, feed, and stored grain! It's your rice, it won't run away on its own!"
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