"Ning Zhiqing, you will soon use up your strength if you swing like that. Don't swing too hard. Just use force for the moment you hit the mixing barrel." Normally it wouldn't have much impact if the educated youths did less, but now is a critical time. One more person will save a little loss. Whether we can have a good New Year and fill our stomachs in the first half of next year depends on the harvest in the second half of this year.
The rice stalks were too wet and splashed with water when they were hit. "Uncle Chunxi, it's cloudy today. If there's no sun in the next few days, and the rice can't be dried, is there any other way?"
The wind was blowing coldly, and Wang Shuning felt that the weather would not clear up in the next few days.
He Chunxi answered with a bitter face while hitting the rice: "If there is no sun, we can only put it on a large dustpan and dry it with fire. If we are not careful, the rice will be cooked. It requires very high temperature and technology, and the efficiency is very low, and it also wastes firewood."
Wang Shuning frowned. How long would it take to dry so much rice with fire? "Isn't there a grain dryer in the town or county?"
He Chunxi looked up at her in confusion. "I seem to have heard of this thing. The city's grain factory seems to have it. But it would take a lot of manpower to transport so much grain to the city. What's more, they would definitely charge money. The income would be much less after all the work. It's not cost-effective."
Wang Shuning quickened his movements. The grain dryer from the 1970s seemed to be imported from abroad and was quite expensive.
It takes less than two hours to get from the village to the county by ox cart, and one and a half hours to get from the county to the city by bus. There are only ox carts in Dafeng Village, and there are no tractors or trucks to be seen, so it is very difficult to transport grain to the city.
Looking around at the villagers who were working hard with serious faces, Wang Shuning held the rice stalks in both hands, raised his chin to look at the sky, and prayed that the sun would come out.
They were busy until midnight. The group of people who went back to rest in the afternoon came back to take over. The village chief He Haiming told everyone that in order to harvest the grain and dry it quickly, everyone had to work overtime, taking turns working day and night. The processing was divided into parts, and normal working hours would be resumed when the work was completed.
When Wang Shuning heard this, he felt dizzy. This meant that his day and night were reversed, which was more tiring than working overtime.
At nine o'clock in the evening, Wang Shuning walked back with his arms hanging and heavy steps. According to the progress, it would take another day and night to harvest all the rice grains.
"Sister Shuning, what's wrong with you?" He Guoyue was standing at the door waiting for He Zhuzhu to come home, and saw Wang Shuning with her head down, looking dejected.
Wang Shuning took He Guoyue's hand and led her into the yard. "It's pitch black at night. Children should stay at home and don't go out. What if they are kidnapped by human traffickers?"
Goudan had fallen asleep. As her elder sister, He Guoyue was feeling uneasy as she hadn't waited for He Zhuzhu to come back. There was a bowl of corn porridge hot in the pot in the kitchen, which was leftover from lunch.
Candles were lit in the hall, and a little light could be seen at the gate. "Human traffickers dare not come to the village. Two years ago, Li Zi was almost kidnapped, and the villagers almost beat the kidnapper to death."
Li Zi is the nickname of He Lili. He is the grandson of He Daniu, the captain of the first production team.
Wang Shuning took out two candies from her pocket and put them in He Guoyue's hand. She had not eaten well because she worked overtime late at night, so she brought them with her for fear that she would be hungry at work. She still had two candies left. "The timid traffickers dare not come. What if we meet the brave ones? You and Goudan are only six years old. When adults are not at home, you must lock the door and do not open the door to strangers easily. If you encounter danger, shout for help and the neighbors around will help."
Wang Shuning felt a little pity for the two children. He himself felt lonely when he was six years old in an orphanage, but that era was different. At least he didn’t have to worry about being abducted in the orphanage.
He Guoyue clenched the candy in her hand tightly. Sister Shuning was so nice and often gave them food. Unfortunately, it was night time and she and her brother had already brushed their teeth.
"I'm a little scared that my mother isn't at home, so I can't sleep. I'm going to bed now."
Wang Shuning closed the door of the hall, turned right and went to her kitchen, where she first boiled water for a bath. She didn't want to go to work in the space for the next two days as her day and night were reversed.
A crucian carp that is half the size of your palm is gutted, cleaned, and fried in a pot until dry, then made into soup. After it boils, add white radish and two handfuls of red grass to the stove.
Only after taking a shower did Wang Shuning feel clean. He kept hitting the rice stalks. The wet rice hairs stuck to his skin and he couldn't see clearly. He just felt his neck itchy.
The biggest advantage of cooking rice on an earthen stove is that you can get a pot of rice crust with a rich rice flavor by just simmering it for a few minutes after the rice is cooked. After serving the rice, simmer it on low heat for a while and the rice crust will become very crispy. Put it in a plastic bottle and when you are hungry, it tastes especially good whether you soak it in water with some snow vegetable or eat it directly with red pepper sauce.
After eating the fish meat, the fish soup is used directly to soak the rice. If the fish soup is left until tomorrow, it will not only be stale, but also have a strong fishy smell. If it is not braised, Wang Shuning would rather eat less staple food and finish it in one meal.
I don’t know if God heard Wang Shuning’s prayers, but the weather really cleared up the next morning, and faint rays of sunlight came through the gaps in the clouds. Although very weak, it made the villagers of Dafeng Village very excited.
The villagers quickly cleaned up the remaining space in the messy square and used it to dry the rice. Wang Shuning looked down at the pusher in his hand, which was a tool for spreading rice and wheat flat for drying. Every three hours, he would step on the rice grains and push them all the way to turn the rice over to ensure that they were dried evenly.
The accumulated water in the fields had sunk into the ground and the soil was still a little muddy. The remaining rice stalks after threshing the rice were thrown directly into the fields and burned when they were dry.
After harvesting cotton and rapeseed, the useless dead branches will be dragged home by the villagers and tied up to be burned as firewood, but rice stalks and wheat stalks cannot be burned well, so no one will drag them away. It is better to burn them and use them as fertilizer for the fields.
The sun was even brighter the next day, and all the squares, big and small, in the village were used to dry rice. There were people watching over it to prevent sparrows from flying down and stealing food.
Wang Shuning got off work on time at 11 o'clock in the morning, ending two and a half days of unexpected busyness and finally returning to her normal routine. She greeted He Zhuzhu in the morning and asked her to buy a rooster from her house to make a chicken pot.
Killing and plucking a chicken is more laborious than burning it. You need to cut the chicken's throat with a knife to drain the blood, then roll the chicken's feet in hot water for ten minutes. After plucking the feathers, some dark blue blood vessels are still buried in the chicken skin, which need to be removed with tweezers.
The roosters raised in the village are particularly large, weighing four or five kilograms each, and Wang Shuning can eat them for several meals by himself.
In the afternoon, the first production team was assigned to pick rice in the fields. Wang Shuning and Zhang Meili carried backpacks, held sickles in their hands, and wore clumsy long rubber shoes on their feet.
Wang Shuning picked up the rice ears that had fallen out of the mud. The outer shell was black, and after peeling it off, the color of the rice was a little dark. The corners of his mouth drooped, and he threw the rice ears away and stepped on them in the mud. "It's a little moldy."
Zhang Meili bent down to pick up the rice stalks that had fallen to the ground, cut off the rice ears with a sickle, and made sure they were not moldy before putting them into the bamboo basket. "Captain Niu said that we should keep the ones that are not moldy. Even if the rice has been flooded for two days, its quality will deteriorate even if it is dried."
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