Lin Mo looked at him becoming more lively and happy, and smiled with satisfaction. He rubbed his fat cheeks, which had become rounder, and said softly, "Rest if you're tired. I'll take Mu Mu to catch grasshoppers later. When we get back tonight, we'll fry them and eat them."
Tuanzi's face was also red. He looked at Lin Mo cautiously, seeming a little embarrassed. "Third Master, I, I can also thresh the grains..."
He spoke hesitantly. He had done some farm work before, although not much, but he knew how to use the fighting wheel.
Lin Mo patted his head and said, "Just follow Awen. There's no need for a child like you to thresh the grains."
Tuanzi nodded shyly, remembering what his father had told him, and couldn't help but speak: "Third Master, my father told me not to be lazy. Awen is busy catching grasshoppers right now, so I don't need to take care of him. I can help with the work."
After he came to the Lin family, although he was assigned the task of taking care of Lin Wen, he actually did basically nothing. Although Lin Wen was sometimes clumsy, he was very well-behaved and obedient.
At the beginning, when he didn't want to talk, Lin Wen would coax him to talk. Although most of the time Lin Wen was talking to himself, it didn't prevent him from gradually getting out of the haze of the past. He liked his days at the Lin family and also liked taking care of Lin Wen.
But apart from following Lin Wen for one day, he did not help with anything else, especially since the Third Master asked him to eat, live and study with Lin Wen and learn to read and write with the teacher.
Thinking of this, Tuanzi felt a little guilty. He always felt that he had done too little and gained too much. He was afraid that one day he would wake up and return to the dark life he had before.
He felt that every day he spent at the Lin family was as happy and joyful as the fairyland described in the storybooks, so he wanted to do more so that he would feel at ease.
Lin Sheng chuckled when he heard that. "Tuanzi, you're still young. Don't even think about helping thresh the grains. Just follow Awen and catch grasshoppers. Catch more so everyone can have some to eat tonight."
Lin Mo also nodded. "Your task is to follow Ah Wen. You, a child, don't have to do all the housework. You're a head taller than that threshing machine. Forget about threshing grains. I'm afraid that if you get close to the threshing machine, the grains will bounce out and your face will be covered in red marks."
Tuanzi's face flushed red, and he felt a little embarrassed. He did get beaten up often when he was working before, but he felt that he had grown taller and it shouldn't be worse than before.
"Let's go catch grasshoppers!" Su Mu called out, and without waiting for Tuanzi and Lin Wen to react, he chased out with a lively grasshopper in his hand.
Seeing this, Lin Wen and Tuanzi swept away their previous tiredness, followed Su Mu excitedly, and started catching grasshoppers with full energy. The three of them followed the village children and ran around the threshing ground.
They also bet with each other on who can catch the most, and even compare the size. The loser has to give the smaller one to the winner.
Later in the afternoon, Lin Wu and his team transported all the rice harvested in the afternoon to the threshing ground, and the whole family worked busily for the whole afternoon.
Reaping rice is not easy, and threshing the grains is not so easy either. Lin Mo and his companions were all covered in dust and dirt. The headscarves on their heads were stained with a lot of small things, and their necks were covered with sticky sweat.
The slightest movement made my whole body itchy and uncomfortable. Even through the headscarf and veil, a lot of flying dust still got into my eyes and nasal cavity, making them dry and itchy, making it uncomfortable to breathe.
At first everyone was chatting, but later they found that there was always something going into their mouths, so they stopped chatting and just buried their heads in work.
It was not until the sun set and the sunset glow gradually climbed over the horizon, with the orange glow covering the entire threshing ground, that all the rice harvested by the Lin family today was finally threshed.
Lin Mo's eyes fell on a few big men. He saw them pulling rolling stones and rolling back and forth on the threshed rice. After being rolled several times, the millet that was dried in the sun underneath slowly shed its shell, revealing the white rice grains inside.
Their shelling is not very thorough. After the husks are almost crushed, they start to remove the chaff little by little with a winnowing basket, and the separated chaff needs to be collected.
"Those are the families who harvested the millet a few days ago. Their millet has been dried and they came today to borrow the stone mill to husk it. They are probably the first people in our village to eat the new rice."
Lin Wu stroked the grains in his hand, explaining to Lin Mo while playing with the rice in the bag.
He held the still warm grains carefully in his hands, and watched them slip out from between his fingers, handfuls of grain. He smiled widely and kneaded the grains repeatedly, his eyes full of eagerness.
These rice plants were planted one by one by him and Lin Sheng. He was extremely happy every autumn harvest. As long as he thought that his family would have enough food to eat for a long time after the autumn harvest, he would feel satisfied from the bottom of his heart.
Although the family is now well-off, Lin Wu still wants to stock up more food. He is even thinking of persuading Lin Mo to buy a few more acres of paddy fields. Only when the family has enough surplus food can he truly relax.
"Xiao Wu, our family will definitely have a good New Year this winter and we will definitely not go hungry again." Lin Sheng patted Lin Wu's forehead with a look of relief on his face.
He understood Lin Wu's thoughts. In previous years, after the autumn harvest, Lin Wu would start to pay attention to the food at home, calculating how long the stored food at home could last and whether it could last through the winter.
Once he felt that he could not survive the winter, he would start looking for work everywhere. As long as he thought about his family going hungry and cold, he dared not stop. In addition to Lin Mo's medical expenses, Lin Wu was always worried about the family's food rations.
"Xiao Wu, we will definitely have a prosperous and bumper harvest this year." Lin Mo rubbed Lin Wu's head.
Lin Wu just nodded heavily and said "hmm" without saying much. His fingers were still touching the rice grains in the cloth bag with a grin on his face.
He has been busy running around purchasing things recently, and he has become a little tanned, but his eyes are exceptionally bright.
However, Lin Mo's eyes fell on the stone mills. It was time-consuming and laborious to manually husk the rice bit by bit. He vaguely remembered that he had collected some basic agricultural science books. He would go back and look through them tonight, maybe he could find suitable farm tools.
Before it got dark, the family began to move the rice home. In addition to the rice, they also tied up the straw after the grains were removed and brought it back home.
The straw is still fresh and tender. Even if the cows and horses can't finish it when we bring it back, we can leave it as firewood.
There was still a rich dinner in the evening. The grasshoppers caught by Su Mu and his friends were eaten up by everyone while they were being fried before they were even served on the table.
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