After resting enough, Baoyu hurriedly ran into the mountains again to carry down the remaining bamboo poles. Originally, it would have only taken one trip, but because he also needed to make an extra reclining chair, he made two more trips.
As the sun gradually moved above the eaves, Li Xiuju grabbed a handful each of the pickled cowpeas and pickled radishes from the jar, added chili and minced garlic, and stir-fried them together. The dish was sour, spicy, and crunchy, and when paired with a pot of refreshing white porridge, there was no worry about not being able to finish the food.
After lunch, the group sat under the trees in front of the courtyard gate to cool off.
Hongmei was drying grain in front of her yard. At noon, the sun was blazing, and their yard was bare with no shade. It was cool and breezy under the trees, so she took off her hat and brought Grandma Wang and the children over to play.
Grandma Wang sat on a stool and put the child in the mud. Huangdou saw a cute little person and hopped over to run around the child. The two of them played together perfectly, and no one needed to watch over them.
When Grandma Wang had a spare moment, she helped Li Xiuju make a few winnowing baskets. "These days are good. We can all stay together, chatting and laughing."
Seeing the smiles on everyone's faces, Li Xiuju nodded repeatedly, "Yes, it's good enough not to be rich and powerful."
Hongmei took off her hat, asked for a sip of tea, and looked at the strange bamboo tubes in front of Zhou Chenyu and Baoyu, asking, "What are you making?"
Zhou Chenyu looked up amidst her busy work, "Sister-in-law, we're making recliners."
"A deck chair?" Hongmei squatted down, looked at it carefully, and after a while smiled and said, "It's cool under this big tree. It would be nice to put a deck chair here and lie on it. It's so cool and refreshing! When our tree is green and we have some free time, I'll have him make a couple of them for me."
When Grandma Wang heard her grandson's name, she asked, "Hongmei, what are you talking about?"
Hongmei smiled. "Grandma, I saw Baoyu and the others making reclining chairs. I'd like Shuqing to make two for us too, one for you and one for me. Bamboo chairs are so cool to lie on!"
Listening to the conversation, Li Xiuju looked at the old lady and nodded with a smile: "Hongmei is such a filial child. She always thinks of you. Old lady, you are blessed."
Grandma Wang smiled shyly, saying nothing, but she grew to like her granddaughter-in-law even more.
The rice drying in the yard needs to be constantly raked to ensure that every grain is exposed to the sun. After resting enough, Hongmei put on her hat and returned to her front door.
After she left, a group of children ran to the dry field under the big tree and crawled on the ridge like dogs. One of them reached into a small dark hole in the ridge to scoop out mud, while another group blocked the other hole to guard it.
Seeing that they were covered in mud but didn't seem to find it dirty, Zhou Chenyu became curious and asked, "What are they doing?"
Looking at them, Baoyu seemed to see his former self, how could the word "foolish" possibly describe him?
"Sis, they're catching field mice."
The child immediately exclaimed, "Hey, there it is! I touched the tail!"
Zhou Chenyu had never seen anything like this before. He stopped what he was doing and watched as two children squatted on either side of the cave entrance. Another child picked a taro leaf, filled it with water from the ditch, and poured it into the cave entrance. He repeated this process twice more, and the muddy water flowed out from the other cave entrance.
Baoyu poked his head out and watched their reactions with a smile.
The child in charge of digging the hole didn't see any movement from the field mouse. He blinked one eye and peered into the hole, muttering, "Huh, why isn't the field mouse coming out? Did I touch the wrong one?"
“I definitely felt it just now, it can’t be missing.” Another child pushed him aside, took his place, and pressed his face and body against the hole entrance, stretching his arm in as far as he could. Sure enough, he felt the tail again. “I felt it, I felt it! It ran over there, who has longer arms, let’s force it to the other side of the hole!”
"I have long arms! I'll go!" A slender child with rolled-up sleeves rushed forward and without hesitation stuck his arm in to poke. The other children gathered around the other hole with focused attention, not daring to blink for a moment.
Baoyu quietly approached without anyone noticing, and the moment he saw the field mouse's head dart out, he shouted with a loud laugh, "My God! It's a snake! There's a snake!"
"Ah! A snake!" The children who had been gathered together screamed and scattered in all directions, instantly losing their courage. Only Baoyu stood there, watching their reactions, clutching his stomach and laughing wildly.
The children only realized what was happening when they heard the laughter. Zhou Chenyu, fearing that Baoyu would incur the wrath of the crowd, slapped him, saying, "You scared me to death. I'll beat him for you."
After Baoyu's disruption, the children dared not stay on the paddy field ridge in front of the village to dig for field mice. Instead, they spontaneously ran to the middle of the rice paddy to continue searching for the field mice's burrows.
After watching them for a while, Zhou Chenyu and Baoyu stopped playing and started working on the basic frame of the recliner. Li Xiuju was weaving her basket when a thick dark cloud drifted overhead. They heard someone running barefoot back from the rice paddy, not even caring about the mud on their legs, shouting, "It's going to rain heavily! It's going to rain heavily soon!"
After the man finished shouting, a strong wind suddenly arose, withered leaves and branches flying everywhere, and someone's clothes were even swept into the air.
Li Xiuju rubbed off the dust and hurriedly said, "The ducks are still outside. I'll go find them and bring them back. You guys bring these things inside."
"good!"
The mother and her two children split into two groups. Li Xiuju went to the fields to find free-range ducks, while Zhou Chenyu and Baoyu carried the finished baskets and the remaining bamboo poles into the storage room. They also brought in the clothes and the dried radishes and bamboo shoots that were drying.
After they finished doing all that, Li Xiuju still hadn't returned, so they quickly ran out the door and saw Li Xiuju carrying a cage of ducks back into the yard. "Shuqing's family has a lot of millet drying in the sun. Hongmei and Grandma Wang are too busy to handle it all. Let's go over and help them harvest the millet."
After speaking, Baoyu quickly grabbed a wooden rake and ran towards Zhou Shuqing's house. Li Xiuju followed closely behind. Zhou Chenyu, who had difficulty moving, locked the door and slowly followed with his cane.
When she arrived, two piles of rice had already been raked up in the yard. Old Mrs. Wang was holding a bag, and Hongmei was filling it with rice. Besides these, there were two other loads of rice drying in the yard.
Heavy rain is coming soon. If the rice isn't brought in in time, it will get soaked and cause problems. It's best to dry it as soon as the sun comes out the next day. If it rains for several days in a row, the rice will be ruined.
Baoyu quickly started raking, while Li Xiuju swept furiously with a broom, dust flying everywhere, and everyone was sweating profusely.
Hongmei's son was locked in the room alone, crying loudly. Hongmei felt sorry for the child but couldn't spare the time, so she could only leave him there. Zhou Chenyu sat down with the child in a spot where he could see Hongmei and comforted him, "Baby, look, isn't that your mother?"
The child saw people, stopped crying, and happily patted his hands.
Hongmei looked at the three people helping in the yard, wiped her sweat, and smiled with gratitude.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com