Chapter 87
In previous years, each family dried their own rice. After threshing, each family would assign someone to go to the threshing ground to turn over the rice and drive away birds that might steal the rice.
This year, several families who were familiar with Shu Wanxiu entrusted their rice to her without hesitation.
It wasn't that they completely abandoned their responsibilities; they simply spread the rice out to dry after sunrise each day, and then Shu Wanxiu would help turn it over a few times every two or three hours.
The host family would come to relieve Shu Wanxiu once at noon, so that she could go home for lunch. In the afternoon, Shu Wanxiu would also help look after the rice. In the evening, everyone would help harvest the rice, including the Shu family's rice.
Over the course of a day or two, the families cooperated quite well.
While washing his feet at night, Pang Zhishan privately discussed this matter with Chen Sanhe in his room: "Today, Pang Qi, Pang Mu, Wang Jincai, and our family all handed over the grain to Shu Yatou to dry, right?"
"Yes, wasn't it the same yesterday?"
Pang Zhishan reached into the foot basin and carefully scrubbed the dead skin between her toes. "Doing it this way is convenient for us, but Shu is at a disadvantage!"
Chen Sanhe stopped mending clothes and listened attentively as Pang Zhishan continued.
“She could have just dried her own rice, but she helped all four of us dry it. In previous years, you and Chen Lian would stay home to cook and dry the rice, but this year you have some free time and can go to the fields to help with the harvest.”
“Shu girl guarded the grain of four families, which saved each of us at least one person’s manpower. I know that she did this to repay the villagers for helping her settle down. But think about it, since she settled down, we haven’t helped her much.”
Chen Sanhe held the needle to the side and rubbed it on the hair on the top of his head, staring at the lamp wick and thinking carefully.
Last year, Shu Wanxiu helped everyone dry and harvest their grain, and in the first half of this year, she helped everyone harvest their wheat. On the contrary, the villagers didn't prioritize lending her their farm tools, and they didn't help her much with transplanting rice seedlings or harvesting rice.
“Even if there is some kindness, after a few times like this, the debt of gratitude will be cleared. I think we can’t continue like this.”
Chen Sanhe nodded. "I'll talk to her next time and tell her to think of herself more in the future."
By the light of the lamp, she continued embroidering the stitches she had just worked on.
Pang Zhishan had another idea. He took his feet out of the basin and leaned over to discuss it with Chen Sanhe for a quarter of an hour or two.
Shu Wanxiu gave Pang Zhishan an idea: In previous years, each family in Wupai Village left one person to dry the grain in the threshing ground, which wasted a lot of manpower. There are ways to save this manpower.
Why not make drying grain a shared responsibility, just like guarding the water, so that all the farming households in the village can share the burden?
The following evening, after everyone had finished the day's harvest, Pang Zhishan summoned the heads of each household and held a meeting in the fields.
He expressed all his thoughts from the previous night and then asked everyone to vote by raising their hands.
Those companies that have partnered with Shu Wanxiu have benefited from the collaboration and have no objection to it.
The others were not so quick to raise their hands.
When the grain is in the field, everyone takes turns guarding the water, so there's no conflict of interest – the rice ears that haven't fully grown aren't afraid of being stolen.
Once the grains have been threshed and dried, they are considered ripe.
It's just lying there drying, and there's no way to carve names or make a mark on it. What if someone takes some of it while it's drying?
However, as everyone has seen in the past two days, the families that Shu Wanxiu helped with their laundry have indeed saved on labor.
This time of rushing to harvest and plant happens every year, and every year the able-bodied men in each family are exhausted.
With such an opportunity to save labor right in front of us, it would be foolish to stubbornly refuse.
Many families looked at each other, completely at a loss.
Pang Zhishan stood before the crowd, observing the entanglements and hesitations of each family.
He boldly voiced everyone's concerns: "Are you afraid that someone will embezzle the grain?"
Although everyone thought the same thing, no one directly responded to Pang Zhishan's words.
“Every year, people work hard in the fields to harvest just a little bit of grain. I know that every family’s grain is hard-earned. Now that I have come up with this idea, I have already thought of a way to restrict it.”
The grain of more than 20 households was dried by four people every day. In addition to the people responsible for drying the grain supervising each other, each family could also send their children to watch over it.
In the village, children are usually allowed to work in the fields when they are seven or eight years old, and learn to do farm work. Children between the ages of three and six are considered too young to be sent to the mountainside to cut pig feed. They can only follow behind the adults every day, or pick wild vegetables, or play house with other children of the same age.
Although they are young, they can still speak clearly. Asking them to help check on their own grain in the threshing ground should not be a problem.
this……
If you buy a bag of peanuts and leave it to your children to guard, you might worry they'll steal some. But what about unhulled rice grains...? Why be afraid?
Pang Zhishan was in a hurry to get home for dinner. Seeing that those who hadn't raised their hands before seemed to have figured it out, he immediately repeated, "We'll dry the sun this year and then dry it again next year. If we don't think of a way, we'll waste a lot of time every year! If you think this method is feasible, raise your hand now."
This time it passed unanimously.
"Okay! From now on, I will arrange manpower every day, with each family taking turns. Tomorrow, I will go to the threshing ground to arrange the manpower responsible for drying the grain at the end of the morning."
As everyone seemed to be about to disperse, Pang Zhishan asked Pang Qi, Pang Mu, and Wang Jincai to stay behind.
“Shu Yatou has been helping us dry our rice these past few days. The Shu family’s grain will be dry in another day or two. Tomorrow and the day after, we will send people from our families to take turns watching over the drying of the grain, so Shu Yatou won’t need to help the rest of the village with drying anymore. What do you think?”
"I have no objection."
I agree.
The next morning, after Shu Wanxiu spread out the rice she had collected the day before to dry, Chen Sanhe told her that she could go home.
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