The autumn harvest of the new year has begun. No one is sitting idle in every household, and children who do not go to school are taken to the fields to pick rice ears.
Lin Guoqing took three days off and helped harvest rice in the fields. The main reason was that these two days were not rest days and the children were still in class. With just the three of them, the sickles were swinging so hard that sparks were almost flying.
Fortunately, their family only had three and a half acres of land, and with three people, the three days of hard work were over, which happened to be Lin Guoqing's three-day holiday. After the harvest, she rushed to work, and the rest of the threshing, drying, and carrying the grain back home fell on Liang Shengdi and Shen Chunhua.
The Ma family's six and a half acres of land was too much for the two old men, the old woman, and Sanni to harvest. Lin Yulan could only manage half an hour at most, and after that, her face turned pale and she felt dizzy. She might as well have been picking up some rice ears and sorting the stalks in the back.
Ma Dexiang had no choice but to abandon his village duties and go to the fields. The harvest was paramount, and even if someone reported him for dereliction of duty, the township would be understanding. Wang Yong also came from next door to help his father-in-law with the work.
Dani had to go to work, and he had to carry the heavy bags, so it was up to him whether to go or not. From now on, their food problem would depend entirely on the fields owned by his father-in-law, so naturally they had to be careful.
Even with such a small workforce, Chen Chunhua and Liang Shengdi had already dried the millet and brought it home, but they hadn't finished yet. Chen Chunhua had just heard from an experienced old man that it might rain in the next two days, and if they didn't finish the harvest quickly, there would be no drying time even if it rained, and the millet would get moldy.
Seeing that her family was fine, she took her sickle and went to help the Ma family. In fact, they had been working for almost a week and only needed to finish the last half acre of land. Chen Chunhua's joining in accelerated the process.
I thought I would not be able to dry the grain in time, but I still managed to dry it for a whole day. I hurried to collect it before the rain came and waited until it stopped to dry it again.
Old Mrs. Ma started complaining again that she had no sons at home. People with sons would have daughters-in-law and grandchildren, and as the family grew larger and larger, there would be no shortage of people to work. But in her family, every child was raised with great difficulty, and then married off to work for other families.
But no one paid any attention to her words now. Even Lin Yulan ignored them. "You can't have a son anymore. The bloody lesson of Lin Fuqiang's family is there, and it hasn't even been half a year." Besides, even if you had a son, he wouldn't be able to help you now.
Old Mrs. Ma grumbled for a long time but no one paid any attention to her, so she started complaining about the large number of children going to school and the lack of work...
Sanni dropped a bag of grain on the ground with a bang, which scared her. But Sanni ignored her and turned to Shen Chunhua and said,
"I just saw Erlao. He was running over with rice on his back."
Chen Chunhua was stunned, "Erniu? Shouldn't he be in school? Could his family have not finished cleaning yet?" It was raining outside.
Lin Fuqiang's family only has two mu of land, which isn't much, but there aren't many people in his family who can work. It's said that Ma Fengjuan still can't lift a bucket of water. Lin Fuqiang's mother is almost eighty years old, and Lin Erniu has to go to school. So, Lin Fuqiang is the only one who can actually do the harvest.
If you calculate carefully, it is really possible that they have not been confiscated yet.
Chen Chunhua put the bag of grain in her hand aside, wiped the sweat off her face, said, "I'll go and take a look," and ran out. Ma Dexiang thought about it and followed her.
The fields were no longer the golden, wind-swept ripples of rice they once were. Only the uneven rice stubble stood in the pattering rain. Only in a small patch in the middle of the field was there still a patch of rice that hadn't been harvested, and two figures were busy there.
It was Lin Fuqiang and his mother. Lin Fuqiang was cutting the grass while his mother was sorting it. Chen Chunhua and Ma Dexiang both ran over with sickles and hurried to help cut the grass. Seeing that Lin Fuqiang stopped looking at them, Chen Chunhua kept shouting,
"Oh, stop looking. Hurry up and harvest the rice first. The rain is said to continue for two more days!"
Lin Fuqiang suppressed the soreness in his nose, said nothing, lowered his head and quickly swung the sickle.
Lin Erniu came back after carrying a round of rice. Seeing two more people in the field, he was stunned for a moment, then quickly put the rice he had bundled on his back and ran out again. The road was slippery due to the rain, so he took off his shoes and walked barefoot. A closer look showed that the soles of his feet were already red, but he didn't care.
Of course, three people are much more efficient than one person. After spending half a day in the rain, they finally finished harvesting the rice from Lin Fuqiang's house. Then everyone worked together to divide the rice, bundle it up, and help carry it back to Lin Fuqiang's house in batches.
As soon as Lin Fuqiang's mother came in, she hurried to the kitchen to boil ginger soup. Ma Fengjuan saw them coming back in the rain and quickly took a towel to wipe everyone.
Ma Dexiang stared at her head in a daze, "...Fengjuan...what are you doing..."
Ma Fengjuan lowered her head, her hands still clutching a string of Buddhist beads, tickling them constantly. The serenity of her smile made people feel a little uncomfortable. "Oh... I went to Xiaxi Mountain last month to have a master help me shave my head. From now on, I will confess my mistakes to the Buddha and pray for my family."
There is a nunnery on Xiaxi Mountain. It has a long history but is very low-key. It survived even during the most severe period of the campaign to eliminate feudal superstitions, let alone the past two years.
Chen Chunhua looked around the house and saw a very formal small Buddhist temple in the corner. The incense in front was only half burned, and the mat looked like someone often knelt there.
How to say it, for someone who has been arrogant for half her life, I don’t know whether Buddha will accept her regret. After all, if you look into it, she has directly or indirectly harmed people.
"Hurry up and drink something to warm yourself up. You can't get wet in the rain this season." Lin Fuqiang's mother hurried out with two bowls of ginger soup and stuffed them into Shen Chunhua and Ma Dexiang's hands. "If it weren't for your help today, we wouldn't have finished the work..."
After saying that, she went back and brought out two more bowls for Lin Fuqiang and Lin Erniu. Chen Chunhua looked at Erniu and asked, "You didn't go to school today?"
Speaking of this, Lin Fuqiang pretended to be angry and glared at his son, which made Lin Erniu lower his head guiltily.
"This child was fine two days ago, but since yesterday he refused to go to school, saying he wouldn't go until the rice in the fields was harvested."
"We don't have enough manpower at home. If I go to school again, I won't be able to finish the work today..." Lin Erniu said softly while drinking ginger soup. He just wanted to help share some of the burden at home. His father would be exhausted if he worked alone.
"Then you can't say you'll never go to school!"
"That's all right! My son is truly filial, and he loves you!" Lin Fuqiang's mother quickly tried to smooth things over. The eighty-year-old woman, hunched over, searched up and down for something to thank Chen Chunhua and Ma Dexiang. Of course, they refused, saying they were brothers and it was only natural.
Ma Fengjuan stood quietly by the side from beginning to end, counting the Buddhist beads and occasionally saying "Amitabha".
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Actually, I don’t really believe in this stuff. Apart from the God of Wealth Temple, which I definitely won’t miss, I think all other so-called causes and effects are self-inflicted.
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