Xu Rao then returned to continue harvesting wheat. During the summer harvest season, it's like snatching food from the hands of the heavens. If a sudden rain comes, the entire year's harvest will be lost. Therefore, when he sent people from the county government to the fields a few days ago, Xu Rao repeatedly instructed them to hurry up and harvest, and not to procrastinate just because the sun was shining. The weather changes too quickly at this time of year; who knows if a cloud will bring a rain shower?
A large open space was built in front of the courtyard in the village, so that grain could be dried during the busy farming season. At other times, the space was spacious and children often came here to play.
The harvested wheat was spread out on the spacious threshing ground. Strong young men pulled stone rollers all over the threshing ground, threshing, winnowing, and drying the wheat. Every day, the threshing ground was bustling with activity.
The sun is very strong during the day, but after the sun goes down, the night breeze is very cool.
After a busy day, Xu Di moved a small bamboo chair and sat by the threshing ground, gazing at the starry sky. The village head, who had come from the village, looked at this twelve-year-old boy and felt that he was truly admirable. He worked hard during the day, neither doing nothing because he was the son of the county magistrate, nor doing less because he was young. The young men in the village admired him greatly.
Upon seeing the village head arrive, Xu Di quickly went to the courtyard to bring him a chair, and then instructed Zhao Zhuangtou to bring over a small wooden table and brew a pot of tea.
The village headman quickly thanked him and, without beating around the bush, said directly, "Young master, I came here to tell you that our village is thinking of planting wheat with you this autumn."
Zhangjia Village has been renting land in the village for many years, and Xu Di didn't want to make any changes. He said, "Uncle Village Head, I would naturally welcome your village to plant here. Look at the corn in the field. In the fall, we can harvest another crop. After harvesting the corn, we can tidy up the land and plant wheat. This cycle means we can harvest two crops a year."
The village head nodded repeatedly and said, "The adults in our village have watched your family farm for the past two years. We all know how the harvest is. We ordinary people have no other hope than to harvest more crops, fill our stomachs, save some money, and let our children get married in a decent manner."
Xu Di listened to the village headman talking to him with a smile. After talking for a while, the village headman looked at the young boy and laughed first, saying, "I'm getting old, don't mind my nagging."
Xu Di shook his head and said, "Uncle Village Head, don't mind, don't mind at all. Look at these irrigation ditches in my fields, I've been thinking about planning these plots and digging some irrigation ditches. That would make irrigating much easier. Go back and discuss it with the villagers. If they're willing, we can dig these ditches when we plant wheat. It will make planting much easier afterward."
The village head nodded repeatedly. In the past year or so, he had watched as the young master, at such a young age, had managed to manage the large estate so well. The village head was also a knowledgeable man and knew that the young master had planted many crops and vegetables that he had never seen before. He was quite interested in this and had been thinking about when he could get some seeds from the young master to plant. When he saw that Xu Di had hired people to take over those few acres of land and even fenced them off with vines, he knew that what he was growing was extraordinary. Fortunately, there weren't many people on the estate, so when there was a lot of work to be done in the fields, they would hire people from the village. The village head began to have his own ideas.
Xu Di naturally understood what the village head meant. Now, the only problem was that you didn't have any ideas. As long as you had ideas, you could do as Xu Di said. With so many different kinds of vegetables in the field, a lot of people would be needed to manage them. So, Xu Di was thinking of hiring people from Zhangjiazhuang.
Xu Zhi was very happy every day after arriving at the manor. Tonight, she ate wheat porridge. Fresh wheat kernels were crushed several times with a stone mill and then cooked with mung beans until they were thick and sticky. She ate a big bowl of this with some pickled vegetables and didn't even need to eat rice.
After helping her mother with some chores, Xu Zhi went to the gate of the courtyard and saw Xu Di sitting there. She came over, sat down next to him, and asked, "Brother, what are you doing?"
It was a May evening. Only a sliver of dark red remained in the western sky, while a crescent moon hung in the eastern sky, and countless stars could be faintly seen across the heavens.
In an environment free from industrial pollution, the stars in the night sky looked exceptionally bright. Xu Di felt that doing nothing else but sitting under the night sky and looking at the countless stars made him incredibly happy.
Xu Di let out a long sigh of relief and said, "I was thinking, the stars in the sky are really beautiful."
Xu Zhi looked up at the stars in the sky and said with some doubt, "What's so interesting about the stars? I've seen them since I was a child, and they've always looked the same."
Xu Di smiled. His younger sister hadn't experienced what he had gone through, so naturally she wouldn't know. Children who grow up in the city can only see colorful neon lights at night; they've never seen such a magnificent starry sky.
Seeing that her brother didn't respond, Xu Zhi thought for a moment and said, "Brother, farming is such a joyful thing. You plant seeds in the ground and watch them slowly sprout, grow, bloom, and bear fruit, eventually becoming food for the family so that we don't go hungry. Brother, can I learn to farm with you from now on?"
Xu Di was very surprised to hear his sister's words. If this were the era he had lived in, his sister would have liked agronomy, and he could have let her study agronomy. In the future, she could either do scientific research or planting, and she could have achieved something in her own field. But now, industry is underdeveloped, not to mention agricultural machinery. Agriculture relies on labor, and the harvest depends on the weather. Wanting to farm is really a very difficult thing.
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