Chapter 217 Harvesting Rice
Su Yichen thought that they helped Gu Huangan's family harvest corn last time, and everyone was familiar with it, so why not they help Gu Huangan's family this time as well.
Chen Shuyan looked at my friend's back, opened his mouth, but still couldn't say anything to criticize him.
He felt that Huang An might not agree to their help.
Sure enough, when Gu Huangan, who was packing his books, saw them, his face turned cold.
But who is Su Yichen? He is a very thick-skinned person.
He enthusiastically stepped forward to help Gu Huangan pack his textbooks. "Brother Huangan, I heard the village is going to start harvesting rice tomorrow. You and Grandpa Gu are so busy, you're definitely too busy. Why don't we help you?"
Gu Huangan snatched the book from his hand. "No need. My family only has two acres of paddy fields for rice. Grandpa and I can finish it in three days."
Su Yichen was not angry after being rejected. "Oh, Huang An, there's no need to be polite with us. It's settled. We'll go help early tomorrow morning."
After saying that, he patted Gu Huangan's shoulder.
Gu Huangan's handsome brows knitted together. "I didn't agree to your help. I don't need your help."
Besides, is that what you call helping? That's called looking for trouble!
A job that could have been done in three days may take five days with you here.
Su Yichen was a little angry after being rejected again and again.
If it wasn't a task assigned by the teacher, do you think he would be willing to do farm work?
Is it that the hot pot in Juzhou is not tasty or that the books in the library are not good? Why does he have to endure such a scorching sun?
Seeing Su Yichen's face was not very good, Shen Shuyan hurried forward. "Brother Huang An, please be flexible. This is the homework assigned by the teacher, and we need to complete it."
"I have a copy of the annotated 'Xianguang Xianwen' here that I can give to you, little brother."
As he spoke, Chen Shuyan took out a yellowed book from his arms.
Gu Huangan, who originally wanted to refuse, opened his mouth, but closed it decisively after seeing the book.
Although the school has a library, the books in it can be read freely.
But those books weren't his either.
He took the book and asked again, somewhat uncertainly, "Are you really going to give it to me?"
Chen Shuyan nodded. "Of course, I copied this in the library and annotated it with some thoughts and comments. I hope it can help you, little brother."
Gu Huangan didn't want these two people, especially Su Yichen, to make things worse.
But he also liked this annotated version of "The Augmented Collection of Wise Sayings" very much.
There is also a library for the "Enlarged Collection of Wise Sayings" and you can read it anytime you want. But it has annotations by Chen Shuyan.
He had heard that Mr. Shen was one of the best students in the second class of the imperial examination, and that reading his annotations would be of great help to his studies.
"Then you have to listen to me when the time comes." Gu Huangan gritted his teeth and finally agreed.
Well, at most he will be busy for two more days.
At dawn the next day, Chen Shuyan knocked on Su Yichen's door and pulled him out of bed.
When the two arrived at Gu Huangan's house, many villagers had already started harvesting rice in the fields.
Under Gu Huangan's complaining eyes, the two of them lowered their heads and began to work.
Harvesting rice is completely different from breaking corn.
You don't need to bend down to break corn, you can just stand and do the work.
Although there are no caterpillars when harvesting rice, you have to bend over for a long time and put the harvested rice together for others to take.
However, after only quarter of an hour, Su Yichen felt that his waist was no longer his own.
He stood up with difficulty, and the pain instantly spread throughout his body.
He opened his mouth to complain, but then he saw Gu Huangan, who was much younger than him, mowing down the field with his knife. In a moment, he had already mowed down a large area of land.
Even Chen Shuyan is better than him.
He gritted his teeth, swallowed the complaint that was about to come out of his mouth, and continued to work hard.
While things were going on in full swing here, the atmosphere on Gu Jiayue's side was a bit awkward.
Because Zheng Qinghe came as promised.
Today he was wearing a short suit, with his sleeves and trouser legs wrapped with cloth strips, looking like he was going to help with the work.
The village chief was terrified. "Oh, the county magistrate has come from afar. I hope you will forgive me for not being able to greet you."
Zheng Qinghe glanced at Gu Jiayue, who was not far away. He put away the melancholy on his face and helped the village chief, who was about to kneel, to his feet. "You're welcome, old man. I heard that the planting methods in Taohua Village are different, so I came here today to check it out."
No matter how gentle Zheng Qinghe was, the village chief was still frightened and broke out in cold sweats.
Speaking of which, the rice in their village is growing really well this year. He is not sure whether it is because of the seedlings or because of the fish raised in the paddy fields.
"Village chief, can you take me to see the rice in your village?"
The village chief came to his senses and realized that he could not escape today. He made up his mind and led the people to Gu Jiayue's fields.
"Your Excellency, County Magistrate, you may not know that our village was hit by hailstorms, and the newly transplanted rice seedlings were damaged. We thought we would have no harvest this year, but it was only when a young member of our clan asked a familiar landlord for help that we were able to gather enough rice seedlings."
As they walked, the village chief recounted everything that had happened to the rice seedlings that year.
Before they could finish their conversation, the two of them arrived at the Gu family's paddy fields.
The village chief pointed at Gu Jiayue, who was counting data on the ridge of a field, and said loudly, "Sir County Magistrate, this is the most promising descendant of our Gu family."
Hearing the sound, Gu Jiayue turned around and looked.
Seeing Zheng Qinghe standing next to the village chief, Gu Jiayue was stunned at first, but when she saw that his expression was not the same as before, she felt relieved.
The village chief waved at her. She had no choice but to hand the notebook to Gu Zhigeng and let her continue with the counting.
"Jiayue, this is the new county magistrate of Annan County. He's very interested in our village's rice. Would you mind introducing him to us?"
This wasn't the village chief being lazy; there was a lot of knowledge involved that he himself only had a limited understanding of. Anyway, he just did what Jiayue told him to do.
As for why he did this, he was not very clear.
Gu Jiayue wanted to refuse, but she was afraid that if she said a few more words to Zheng Qinghe, he would think that she still had feelings for him.
By then, there will be more involvement.
But Zheng Qinghe seemed to be very different this time. The most obvious thing was the look in his eyes when he looked at her; there was no love in them anymore.
He smiled at Gu Jiayue and bowed. "Miss Gu, I'm here only to learn about rice cultivation techniques. I hope you will be willing to teach me so that we can bring benefits to the people of Annan County."
Zheng Qinghe mentioned the people of Annan County, and Gu Jiayue couldn't say no.
Gu Jiayue dodged Zheng Qinghe's greeting and said, "Okay, if County Magistrate Zheng wants to know anything, I will tell you everything I know."
Annan County is too poor, and her strength alone is indeed weak. If Zheng Qinghe is willing to cooperate, it is not impossible to complete the ultimate task assigned by the system to benefit 100,000 people.
When Gu Jiayue turned around, Zheng Qinghe showed a bitter smile, but then quickly concealed it.
In fact, he did not lie, although his initial purpose of going to Annan County to serve as the county magistrate was to get close to Gu Jiayue.
But he also wanted to achieve something on his own.
He didn't want to be like those young masters in Kyoto, who just lived off the achievements of their ancestors and waited for death. He also didn't want to be controlled by his family.
Before breaking off the engagement, he felt that as the eldest son of the family and the most promising young generation, he had some say in the family.
But later he found out that those were all his illusions and he couldn't even control his own marriage.
In fact, when Gu Jiayue rejected him, besides being sad, he was also happy in his heart.
Afterwards, he calmed down and thought about it again and again. If Gu Jiayue agreed to his love confession, could he convince his parents to let him marry Gu Jiayue?
He was not sure.
At this moment, he felt a sense of relief in his heart, for Gu Jiayue and for his parents.
He wanted to achieve something, to show them that he was capable. He wanted to be the master of his own life.
So after learning that the planting method in Taohua Village was somewhat different, he rushed over without stopping.
However, what he didn't expect was that this unique planting technique was actually proposed by Gu Jiayue.
She is really like a treasure trove, always giving people different surprises.
The emotions that he had suppressed with great difficulty were about to erupt again.
The two walked forward for a while, and Gu Jiayue brought Zheng Qinghe to the Gu family's field, then bent down and picked up the sickle on the ground.
Looking at the sickle handed to him, Zheng Qinghe instantly understood what Gu Jiayue meant.
Is this to let him participate in labor?
That's what Gu Jiayue meant. "Your Excellency, County Magistrate, have you never harvested rice before? If you want to understand agriculture, you can't just talk about it; you have to do it."
"If you do it more often, you'll naturally develop a pattern."
Zheng Qinghe did not comment, shook the sickle in his hand, tied the cuffs of his coat with a shawl, and followed Gu Jiayue down to the ground.
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