Time passed in a flash, and in June the school began to issue notices to go to the countryside to harvest wheat.
Zhou Jiao had already anticipated participating in farm work.
After Qingming Festival, every time she went home, she saw a lot of vacant land along the way, and farmland was reclaimed inside and outside the walls. She knew that the task this summer would not be easy.
Regarding this activity, Zhou Jiao hid the truth from her father and just said that her task was not important, which fooled the busy Zhou Xiaozheng for a while.
Pulling out wheat - it sounds incredible, but for so many years, farmers have been reluctant to harvest it and have indeed been pulling out wheat.
Why? Besides the most important wheat ears, even the roots are valuable. After pulling out the roots, use a scythe to cut off the roots, dry them in the sun, and use them for cooking.
Wheat straw had many more uses, such as covering roofs with tiles, making curtains, and braiding hair. After the busy farming season, each production brigade would arrange for women to braid hair. The braids sold for a good price, and accumulated, they contributed to a considerable annual income for the brigade.
Zhou Jiao and her class were assigned to the nearby countryside along with Class 3. With the participation of farmers who had worked with the land all their lives, it seemed much easier than for some students in the school to go to remote farms.
Zhou Jiao secretly rejoiced in her heart that she soon received the news. This time, in addition to the students, cadres and soldiers would all go to the countryside to pull wheat, and the pressure suddenly increased.
When there are many people, there's competition. When there's competition, there are activists. When there are activists, no one dares to slack off. It's a vicious cycle, and you have to persevere even if you're exhausted.
About a hundred students went down the hill just after dawn.
No matter how much Zhang Guoqing protected his wife, Zhou Jiao received no special treatment. Today, all the girls were assigned to pull out three ridges, and the boys were assigned to pull out five ridges!
Even so, last night there was a psychopathic woman who was shouting about gender equality and an equal share of the 400 acres. If she hadn't been born at the wrong time, Zhou Jiao would have definitely slapped her.
Facing the endless wheat, Zhou Jiao closed her eyes fiercely. She was really living a miserable life. She had space, but what on earth was she doing all this trouble for?
No matter how many thoughts she had, she couldn't just run away now, especially with Zhang Guoqing, who looked worried, not far away.
Zhou Jiao stretched out her fist and protested to him, "No big deal!"
Zhang Guoqing said with a melancholy look in his eyes, "You are severely anemic. You can't force yourself to stay strong, or you will have to go to the hospital again."
The couple was operating the machine, and the students beside them were worried.
All this made Yi Jiefang, standing on the left, look up at the sky and roll his eyes several times. This couple, with their anemia, were they even admitted to the hospital? He felt sick at the sight.
The most hateful thing is that he has to go along with the crowd. Isn’t he anemic too?
"Alright, students who are not feeling well, please help each other as much as possible. Hurry up and work hard. Don't dawdle, shift three is ready to start."
Zhou Jiao smiled, followed everyone's example and took protective measures, then walked to her mission destination.
After a simple "training" by the uncles, Zhou Jiao knew that in order to shake off the dirt at the roots, every time she pulled a handful of wheat, she had to stand on her right leg, lift her left foot, hold the wheat tightly with both hands, and beat it hard on her feet until all the dirt was shaken off.
But reality told her that this was so tiring and painful.
There's a saying that goes, "backache, neck strain." If you want to understand its meaning, come and play Wheat Pulling. Zhou Jiao admires her ancestors' coining of words and expressions the most.
Now she squatted and dialed for a while, then hunched her waist. She wanted to take a break, but was worried that she would not be able to catch up with others, so she stood up and looked into the distance.
Her hands were burning with pain. Seeing Zhang Guoqing in the distance on her left, and even further away on her right, Zhou Jiao took out her thread gloves and put them on. She was worried that if she was too late, the water would come out and she would be unable to work.
The ground was moist in the early morning, so it was relatively easier to pull the weeds. As it got closer to noon and the sun got hotter, it became increasingly difficult. In addition, the wheat awns irritated her skin, and she kept sweating... This sour and refreshing feeling made Zhou Jiao unforgettable for the rest of her life.
Zhang Guoqing would work quickly for half an hour each time, then sneak up to his young wife, cover her, let her drink some water and eat a popsicle, and he would happily take a few bites himself, while not forgetting to help with the work.
The young couple worked furtively and amused themselves, and quickly moved away when they saw someone approaching. This added a lot of fun to the boring and hard farm work.
At around noon, we finally heard the loudspeaker calling for a break and lunch.
After eating two vegetable dumplings, Zhou Jiao handed the rest to Zhang Guoqing, leaned softly under the shade of the tree, looked at the tree trunk that was destroyed and had few leaves left, and touched her knees.
Seeing this, Zhang Guoqing asked her in a low voice, "Does it hurt?"
Zhou Jiao smiled and shook her head. She didn't intend to tell him that this idiot had done the work of two people all morning. If she was in pain again, with the last ridge exposed, would she still need help?
"I now understand why you insisted on making us classmates."
Zhang Guoqing shook his head and smiled bitterly. Could he say he had some regrets? He should have let Zhou Jiao go straight to work, thinking university life would make her life easier, but the reality was not optimistic.
Zhou Jiao smiled at him reassuringly. The couple's feelings were clear at a glance. Compared to work, campus life didn't seem that tiring to her.
The current situation is such that even if they work, they still have to go to the countryside to support agriculture, unless they leave their homeland, the land that gave birth to them.
But Zhou Jiao had never thought of this before, let alone now that her father was around. She didn't want to leave her family until she was desperate.
They worked for more than ten days in a row. They were pulling out the wheat while the team on the other side used a blindfolded donkey to circle and press it. When they were done, the wheat piled up like a small mountain.
After finally finishing the work, I watched the experienced old men in the drying yard winnowing the crops with wooden shovels.
The stalks of wheat flew into the air like rain, the chaff was blown away by the wind, and the wheat grains piled aside, forming a golden mountain of wheat.
Looking at the harvest and the smiles around me, all of this is thanks to them. No matter how hard it is, it is all worth it.
"Radish in the first dog days, vegetables in the second dog days."
Without a day's rest, the next task was to sow cabbage in the wheat field that had just been harvested.
In order to catch up with the growth of cabbages and put them on the market in early November, everyone worked hard from dawn to dusk for a long time.
The busy farming season lasted for nearly a month. Even though the coarse grains prepared were enough for everyone to eat, the hard work still made everyone darker and thinner.
Fortunately, the couple has a physique that does not get tanned, especially Zhou Jiao, who has recovered from the summer heat and is in good spirits. Otherwise, Zhang Guoqing would not dare to go to see his father-in-law.
As soon as they finished their farm work and the school announced a one-day holiday, the couple, who missed their son so much, were eager to go home. They ignored their sleepiness and hurriedly took the bus back home.
Since Ping An was born, the couple had never been away from a child for so long. As soon as they returned to the compound, before going home, they first took Ping An, who was screaming.
Listening to her son's baby voice describing his daily life during this period, Zhou Jiao knew that she was doomed. This time, even Xiao Wang, who drove over to visit her, might be implicated.
As soon as she got home, Zhou Jiao didn't even have time to drink a sip of water. She quickly ran to the bedroom to take care of herself, while not forgetting to ask Xiao Ping'an to wait and see her grandfather to help plead for mercy.
With the arrival of the hot summer, and the upcoming shift to the seaside office, Zhou Xiaozheng was busy with meetings and work arrangements. By the time he saw his daughter's face peeling from the sun, it was too late.
What could Zhou Xiaozheng do? Apart from feeling heartbroken and immediately having a health care provider treat the scars on his two children's hands, he could only sigh, but also feel a sense of pride – his children stood fearlessly in the face of all difficulties.
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