It was a hot summer day, and the sun was shining brightly in the sky. The villagers had been working under the scorching sun for the whole morning. When the team leader blew the whistle for a lunch break, the villagers breathed a sigh of relief and dragged their tired bodies to rest under the big locust tree beside the wheat field.
There was a row of large locust trees beside the wheat field, growing densely and thickly, and under the shade, there were many women sitting and resting.
It was time for lunch in the village. The young wives in the village ahead had all gone home early with their children to cook.
Jiang Chunzao also went home with Changshan's wife and took their children to their respective homes. After the two families had finished cooking, they went together to deliver meals to their families. Changshan's wife had a large family, including her parents-in-law, uncles, younger brothers-in-law, and a younger sister-in-law. In addition, there were a bunch of children at home. Changshan's wife had to cook for the whole family alone, which made Changshan's wife very tired.
Because it was the annual wheat harvest in the village, the young wives in every household in the village took out the white flour in their homes early, and then took out some money from their homes, went to the meat stall to cut a few pounds of good meat, and put a full meal of meat in each dish so that the family could enjoy a good meal with oil and water.
During the wheat harvest, a strong worker can earn ten work points a day. What’s that to eat something good?
Look, Jiang Chunzao saw Changshan's wife steaming a big pot of snow-white steamed buns for the family. She also took out the dozen eggs saved at home, added some chopped green onions, and fried them until they were fragrant. She added a pot of golden millet porridge and carried the food to the family in a carrying pole.
Although their family is not as large as Changshan's sister-in-law's family, Jiang Chunzao also feels sorry for Lu Lin working in the fields.
She thought that Lu Lin and the two kids all liked to eat white rice, so she went home, washed the rice, and stewed it in a pot. She picked small cucumbers from the vegetable garden, washed them, and cut them into small cubes. She added some mushrooms bought from the market and stewed them in the pot. She also washed and cut the pork at home, and made two simple home-cooked dishes, one was stir-fried pork with green peppers, and the other was smashed cucumber. She also packed the watermelon chilled in the well and the boiled mung bean soup, boiled a dozen eggs, and packed a bag of cakes, and sent them all to the wheat field.
At this moment, the wheat field was full of wheat stacks, a bright yellow color, and the children in the village were running around in the field happily.
In a field full of lush wheat, Lu Lin was harvesting wheat with the men in the village. He heard the team leader blowing the whistle and Lu Changshan calling him from the fieldside to have lunch. He straightened up, wiped his sweaty forehead, and walked towards the wheat field with Lu Changshan.
Lu Changshan is a cheerful man. His family and Old Man Lu's family are relatives. He is Lu Lin's third cousin. However, Lu Lin joined the army at the age of 18 and has been away from home for many years. He is unfamiliar with the villagers. Because Jiang Chunzao has a good relationship with Changshan's wife these days, Lu Changshan and Lu Lin have become closer.
As soon as Lu Lin walked onto the field embankment, he saw Jiang Chunzao standing in the wheat field and talking to Changshan's wife. He raised his head and looked at her intently.
Lu Changshan on the side spoke several words to Lu Lin, but heard no response. He looked up and immediately laughed out of anger.
"You little bastard, all you have in your eyes is your wife!
So, all the words I said before were in vain?"
Lu Lin didn't feel embarrassed. He smiled at him and looked up at Jiang Chunzao from time to time.
Lu Changshan suppressed his laughter and said:
"Okay, I'm sorry to have kept you from seeing your wife. Your wife is right there, go now!"
Having said that, Lu Changshan shook his head and went down to the big willow tree where his family rested, and Lu Lin strode over with his long legs.
Jiang Chunzao was chatting with Changshan's wife under the shade of a tree. When Changshan's wife saw Lu Lin coming, she knew that he loved his wife, so she smiled and left with her bag on her shoulder.
Jiang Chunzao, carrying a small basket and holding her two children, came over. The mother and her two children looked at Lu Lin with smiles on their faces, and his chest felt hot.
~
The Lu family was also enjoying the cool under the shade of a tree not far away. Because old lady Lu wanted her family to earn more work points, the young old lady was so busy threshing wheat in the field that she almost forgot to go home and cook for her family.
If Old Lady Lu hadn't seen all the young wives in the village rushing home, she would have remembered that the meal at home was not ready yet, and would have hurriedly called Liu Hongyan's house to come and cook.
Usually, the three meals a day of the Lu family were prepared by Mrs. Lu and her daughter Mianhua. Today, Mrs. Lu and Mianhua were harvesting wheat in the fields with the old men in the village.
No matter how thick-skinned Old Lady Lu was, she was too embarrassed to go to the fields and call Sister-in-law Lu to come home to cook in front of the whole village, young and old.
Since Old Lady Lu couldn't bring herself to do this, the meals for the entire Lu family could only be prepared by Old Lady Lu and the pregnant Liu Hongyan.
The lunch break was short, and Old Lady Lu was always stingy when it came to cooking. Even when the family was working hard during the wheat harvest, she would only scoop two small spoonfuls of flour from the flour jar and steam seven or eight steamed buns for the men in the family.
As for the women in the family, they ate dried sweet potatoes with mixed noodle dumplings and drank cold water with salted vegetables as usual.
Liu Hongyan followed behind Old Lady Lu with her bulging belly. Thinking that she would have to eat the same tasteless and disgusting mixed noodle dumplings for lunch again, her mouth turned upside down and she no longer had the pride she had before.
Old man Lu had been harvesting wheat in the fields like an old ox for the whole morning, waiting for his wife and the second son's breakfast to bring him lunch to fill his stomach. He waited and waited, and finally Old Lady Lu and Liu Hongyan brought him the meal.
Old Man Lu was waiting for Old Lady Lu to take out the steamed buns and pickled vegetables from the basket. He was already feeling upset. While he was eating the steamed buns and pickled vegetables, he felt thirsty. He drank bowl after bowl of cold water, and his old face turned completely black:
"Old woman, what kind of lunch did you make? The family worked so hard to make it, and you only give them this lunch. The water they drink is still cold water!"
Old Lady Lu said indifferently:
"You stinky old man, what's wrong? You're not happy about eating white flour steamed buns. Don't you see that we women eat dried sweet potatoes? Even white flour steamed buns can't stop you from eating!"
Old man Lu was tongue-tied and couldn't win over old lady Lu, so he simply turned away and ate his steamed bun with a gloomy face.
Liu Hongyan sat on the straw mat eating the dry mixed noodles in her hand, cursing her mother-in-law in her heart for being a miser. Mrs. Lu, on the other hand, was eating the dried sweet potatoes in her hand silently as usual. Next to her was the eldest daughter Mianhua. She often helped the Lu family with housework and sometimes she didn't have enough to eat. Mrs. Lu and her family went to the fields while Mianhua went to school. On days when she was not in school, she would chop wood, fetch water and wash clothes at home. She also had to carry a large basket to the mountain to cut pig grass for the piglets.
When Jiang Chunzao was walking towards the wheat field with Shitou Moli, they ran into Mianhua in the village, who was crying beside a wheat pile because he was hungry.
When Mianhua saw her third aunt and two cousins, she hurriedly wiped away her tears and tried to hide, but was stopped by Jiang Chunzao.
Jiang Chunzao glanced at Mianhua, whose eyes were red from crying, and sighed in his heart. In his previous life, Mianhua would hide away and cry alone when she was hungry. This child might be crying because he didn't have enough to eat again.
Mianhua was just hanging her head when she suddenly saw her third aunt stuff three cooked eggs and a few pieces of cake into her hands. She raised her head in surprise and met Jiang Chunzao's beautiful smiling eyes.
"Third aunt?"
Cotton spoke softly, holding the cake and cooked eggs in his rough little hands, his face looking a little at a loss.
Jiang Chunzao whispered:
"This is given to you by your uncle and aunt. People need to be well fed to have the strength to work. Do you, Mianhua, also want to help your parents work more and earn work points?"
Mianhua is not very old, but she has been well educated by Mrs. Lu since she was a child. She knows that her third uncle's family is a little better off, but these cooked eggs and cakes are good things, so she cannot accept them.
"Aunt, I can't have your cake and eggs. These are good things. Please save them for your younger brothers and sisters."
Cotton shook her head and walked forward with the cake in her little hands.
Although she thought so, Cotton was still a child. Not only had she just spent the whole morning harvesting wheat in the field, she was also hungry. She couldn't help swallowing her saliva at the egg cake in her hand.
Jiang Chunzao felt sorry for Mianhua, who was so young but had such rough hands. He said softly:
"It's okay. We have these stones and Jasmine. Be good, Jasmine. Eat the cake and hard-boiled eggs and study hard. When you grow up, everything will be fine."
Little Jasmine looked at Sister Cotton and said in a baby voice:
"Sister Mianhua, Jasmine just had a bowl of egg custard this morning, and her stomach is still full."
Little Stone also joked:
"Yes, your little belly is just like Huahua's belly. It will lay eggs soon."
Little Jasmine was so angry that her eyes widened and she hummed with her hands in her pockets:
"Brother is a bad pig. Jasmine doesn't want to be with you anymore."
After saying that, the little dumpling buried his little head in his mother's sweet embrace, and was as angry as the little ostrich.
The cute look of little Tuanzi when he was angry made Jiang Chunzao and Xiao Shitou laugh.
Cotton pursed her lips and smiled too.
~
Cotton was reluctant to eat all the three cooked eggs and two egg cakes given by her third aunt, so she only ate one egg cake to fill her stomach.
Mianhua wrapped the remaining cake and cooked eggs in a clean handkerchief and hid them in her clothes pocket. She wanted to wait until she got home in the evening to give the delicious food given by her third aunt to her parents.
At this moment, Mianhua was sitting next to Mrs. Lu, holding a dry mixed dough bun in her little hand. Thinking about the sweet and delicious egg cake she had eaten in the morning, the glutton in the little girl's stomach was aroused.
Cotton quietly took out the egg cake from his pocket, wanting to eat the egg cake in his hand after taking a look at it. However, as soon as the girl took out the egg cake, a pair of hands snatched it away and ran away.
Then a strange voice rang in my ears:
"Hey! Where did Cotton get this cake? Did you steal it?"
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