Chapter 137: Farm Work
As she spoke, she put the food, pork and other things she had bought back into the house - even though she had taken some out from the space, the quantity was not much.
Afterwards, she quietly took out supplies from the space and went to the town to purchase them every once in a while, which was enough to avoid arousing suspicion.
Xia Shuangshan blushed, sighed, and went back to call Lin Yuru.
Xia Juanjuan put the bamboo shoots away, took a small bamboo basket, and went to her own vegetable garden to pick some fresh vegetables.
I just harvested some chives yesterday. It will take a few days for them to grow again.
The celery, lettuce, cauliflower, and garlic sprouts in the vegetable garden have all grown up and are ready to eat. The cucumbers, tomatoes, and green peppers have also bloomed and will soon bear fruit.
This is the last crop of baby spinach. Xia Juanjuan planned to come over tomorrow to clear the ground for baby spinach and plant pumpkin, winter melon, cowpea, green beans, etc. She would also plant a few watermelons to eat in the cool summer.
After picking some celery, garlic sprouts, and spinach, Xia Juanjuan went back.
Lin Yuru had already come over and brought a pair of small and cute rabbit fur shoes, which stunned Xia Juanjuan.
"Mom, you made this in just this morning?"
Xia Shuangshan smiled and said, "No matter how capable your mother is, she can't finish it in one morning. She started sewing the soles when she got home last night and didn't go to bed until midnight. She worked on it again this morning."
Lin Yuru rolled her eyes at him and said, "If you don't speak, no one will think you are dumb!"
Then he said sheepishly, "The soles of these shoes are made of cloth from old clothes, the bottom is padded with rabbit fur, and the uppers are also made of rabbit fur. When the child is born, it should be around October or November, and the weather will have cooled down, so they are just right for wearing. You keep them for now. In a couple of days, I'll go buy some cloth and make some small cotton-padded jackets and pants. One pair of boots is not enough, I need to make a few more pairs for rotation... All these need to be prepared early."
Xia Juanjuan was moved.
Even though the couple didn't feel very good about it at first, now it's really for her and the baby in her belly.
Xia Juanjuan smiled and said, "Mom, I have already bought the cloth and cotton from the town today, and I am going to start preparing them. You don't have to buy any more..."
Lin Yuru and Xia Juanjuan prepared lunch together.
I heated up steamed buns and cooked millet porridge. I skinned a freshly killed rabbit and stir-fried it with spring bamboo shoots. I cut the freshly cut pork belly into thin slices and stir-fried it with garlic sprouts. I also made some vinegar-fried celery and a spinach and egg drop soup.
After lunch, Xia Shuangshan heard that she was going to plant cowpeas, pumpkins, winter melons and watermelons, so without saying a word, he took the seeds to the small vegetable garden and started planting them.
Lin Yuru taught Xia Juanjuan how to cut cloth and make cotton-padded clothes and other children's clothes.
In the next few days, we will start to be busy transplanting sweet potatoes, cotton seedlings, peanuts and the like. Every household must still do a certain amount of work points.
Lin Yuru and Xia Shuangshan naturally also had tasks to do. Moreover, unlike Xia Juanjuan, they relied entirely on the work points they earned from the fields and the money they earned from working as bricklayers to exchange for food and tickets to survive. During the spring plowing season, the two of them had to work in the fields almost every day, and sometimes they didn't even have time to eat.
However, the two of them will still try their best to make time to do it for Xia Juanjuan.
Xia Juanjuan felt bad, so sometimes she would take the opportunity to do the work herself while Xia Shuangshan and Lin Yuru were working on their work points.
On this day, she was assigned the task of transplanting sweet potatoes. Not long after she started, a village cadre called her to the edge of the field.
Xia Juanjuan was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously looked at the sweet potatoes she had planted. They were not planted crookedly, so they were planted quite well, right?
Back at the farm, the village cadre pointed to three strong men beside him and introduced them, "Mrs. Lizhan, these three comrades are Lizhan's old comrades-in-arms. They have already retired from the army. They brought a letter of introduction and said that Lizhan asked them to come and help you with farm work."
Xia Juanjuan was stunned for a moment, then her face turned red.
This is too embarrassing...
One of the men subconsciously looked down at Xia Juanjuan's belly and said with a smile, "Sister-in-law! Our old leader sent a telegram saying that you are pregnant and was worried that you would be tired from doing farm work, so he asked us to come over and help out."
The village cadre smiled and said, "Your husband is very thoughtful. You can go back first. They can earn the work points you need to earn for the spring plowing in just a day..."
Xia Juanjuan was too embarrassed to do so. Just as she was about to refuse, the other person rolled up his sleeves and said with a smile:
"Sister-in-law, don't be embarrassed. After we were discharged from the army, it was our old leaders who helped us get the opportunity to work as workers in the county factory. Otherwise, we would have to go home and work on the land! We have been doing this kind of farm work since we were young, and we all know how to do it!"
As he spoke, the other two also echoed him and went into the field one after another. They picked up the sweet potato seedlings in the basket, dug a hole on the ridge of the ground with a small hoe, put the seedlings in, scooped water from the bucket beside them and poured it into the hole, and then covered it with soil.
One of them saw that there was no water in the bucket, so he took two buckets and went to the river to fetch water without saying a word...
Seeing that they were all busy, Xia Juanjuan had no choice but to go home and start preparing lunch.
It would be really unkind of her to just ignore the lunch when they were working so hard for her.
I made a stir-fried spring bamboo shoots with bacon, a stir-fried cauliflower with pork fat, and picked some big green peppers to make a stew of green peppers with meat. I also cooked millet porridge. The steamed buns at home were all gone, so I took out seven or eight big white buns from the space, put them in a bamboo basket, and sent them to the field.
During the busy farming season, in order to save time and rush to work, everyone would eat directly in the field. Usually, around noon, the women would go home to cook and then bring the food over. After eating, they would not take the bowls and chopsticks home, but would continue to work, and would not go back to cook dinner until it was dark in the evening.
Or you don’t cook, but just make a few steamed buns in the morning and eat them with water at noon.
The three people who came to help were all stunned when they saw the lunch prepared by Xia Juanjuan in the basket.
The food they eat is better than the commercial food they eat in the county town! One meal has two meat dishes and one vegetable dish that even has the aroma of pork fat! The steamed buns are also white flour steamed buns!
But the three of them immediately thought that maybe because they were guests, the sister-in-law spent the money on purpose.
One of them said apologetically: "Sister-in-law, we are all family, just eat the common vegetables, no need to be so polite..."
"That's right, sister-in-law. This meal of yours is worth more than the work points the three of us earn from a day's work. Isn't this... all our work in vain?"
Xia Juanjuan was stunned for a moment, then she realized that they had misunderstood her and thought that she had spent money to entertain them. She smiled and said:
"You eat what you like. We usually eat the same as this. Lizhan has been promoted to the head of the group now, and he has a lot of monthly allowances, most of which he sends back to me. In fact, I can live well without working and just buy food, but the commune requires everyone to work, so Lizhan is bothering you..."
When the three heard this, they couldn't help but sigh in their hearts again that their old leader really loved his wife.
The leader's monthly allowance is 65 yuan! Even if he sends back 60 yuan, that one month's allowance is enough to cover a year's expenses!
The three of them didn't hesitate any longer and finished their meal in a hurry. They couldn't help but wipe their mouths with a feeling of unsatisfied feeling and said enviously:
"Our old leader is so lucky. The sister-in-law he married cooks really delicious food!"
All three of them were still single, living in a factory dormitory and eating big pot meals in the cafeteria all day long. Where had they ever eaten such greasy meals with such large pieces of meat?
Xia Juanjuan couldn't help laughing and said, "Are you working in the county factory? If you think it tastes good, come over anytime and I'll make it for you."
The three of them smiled sheepishly and said, "Thank you, sister-in-law."
In the afternoon, the three of them worked even harder. By the time they settled their accounts in the evening, they had earned enough work points to not have to work during the summer and spring ploughing season.
After saying goodbye to Xia Juanjuan, the three of them rode their bicycles back to the county town.
Xia Juanjuan also walked back slowly with the basket. At this time, a police car drove into the village from a distance.
By evening, the news had spread throughout the village.
It turned out that Li Qiaoqiao was rescued from the hands of human traffickers by the police and sent back. In addition, the fact that the educated youth Wang Dajun colluded with human traffickers was also made public, and a group of human traffickers were arrested, but unfortunately the leader of the human traffickers escaped.
Wang Dajun and those traffickers will be sentenced in two months, and the sentence is estimated to be at least ten years.
It turned out that after Xia Juanjuan wrote the anonymous letter that night, the public security department at that time was in charge and immediately sent people to the place mentioned in the letter and arrested Wang Dajun on the spot.
Wang Dajun refused to speak for five or six days at first, but eventually he couldn't hold it in anymore and finally spoke.
The police immediately sent a telegram and communicated with their colleagues in other counties and cities to jointly enforce the law. They quickly busted a gang of human traffickers and then, based on the traffickers' instructions, rescued the abducted women and children.
Li Qiaoqiao had been transferred twice and was sold to an old bachelor in a mountain village in another county as a daughter-in-law. The baby in her belly was beaten to death.
When the person was sent back, he was already dull and a little stupid!