Chapter 11 Chapter 11 The Watery Little Man
Xu Yunfan left after he finished speaking, leaving everyone looking at each other. "Is this the man Run brought back? If I didn't know him, I would have thought he was a boy from somewhere. Look at his white and tender face. I'm afraid even the girls don't have his beauty."
As soon as the young man finished speaking, the uncle beside him slapped him on the back. He turned around and saw Xu Yunfan walked away before he felt relieved. "What nonsense are you talking about? What if someone hears you?"
Another young man at the side said, "Uncle, what my cousin said is right. This guy is really good-looking. When my mother told me about it before, I didn't believe it. But now I believe it."
"Yeah, Run'er... I don't know if this person is..."
"What's going on?" The uncle saw his wife starting to worry about herself, "Hurry up and get back to work. The sun is so strong, it's going to burn you to death."
Xu Yunfan was busy looking for Qin Run and had no time to listen to what others said about him. After walking for a while, he saw Qin Run's busy back.
"Qin Run!"
Xu Yunfan called out. At first, Qin Run thought he had misheard and didn't pay much attention until Xu Yunfan called out again, "Qin Run, are you deaf? I've called you several times."
Qin Run was sure that he had not heard wrongly. This was indeed Xu Yunfan's voice. He was halfway through peeling the corn husk in his hand and Qin Run could no longer care about it. He turned around and saw that it was indeed Xu Yunfan.
"You...why are you here? It's hot out in the fields. Go back quickly."
Xu Yunfan was not very happy. He came to help, but when Qin Run saw him, not only was he unhappy, but he also asked him to go back.
He's not here to walk the red carpet, just go through the motions.
"I'm here to harvest corn. I'm not going back."
Qin Run walked up to Xu Yunfan and said, "But the ground is hot and dusty, it will itch."
Xu Yunfan said stubbornly: "I won't go back. If you can do it, I can do it too. Don't look down on me."
Qin Run saw that he was determined, so he asked, "Do you know how to do it?"
Xu Yunfan opened his mouth and replied, "I don't know."
Qin Run: “…”
No? No, you still talk so arrogantly.
"I don't know how to do it, but I see it's very simple what you do. If you show me once, I'll be able to do it. It's not difficult at all."
It's not very difficult, he just takes a look and still can't do it, isn't he dumber than a pig?
Qin Run demonstrated it once, and after watching it, Xu Yunfan burst into laughter. He puffed out his chest, raised his face, and said proudly, "Sou Yixi, watch me."
Seeing Xu Yunfan acting like he was the smartest, Qin Run turned his face away and felt like laughing. It was obviously such a simple matter, but looking at his expression, if someone didn't know him, they would think that he had learned some extraordinary, high-tech skill that others couldn't easily learn.
It’s just the simplest thing, and any three or four-year-old child can learn it easily: cracking corn.
Xu Yunfan moved quickly. Perhaps because it was his first time, he actually found it somewhat interesting. He pinched the top of the corn husk where the silk grew with both hands, tore it in half from the middle, pulled it downwards to both sides, and then folded the bottom of the corn. Isn't the corn peeled clean?
Xu Yunfan is a very brave man, but he is afraid of insects and ghosts.
At this moment, a bug curled up and fell directly on the back of his hand. Seeing the soft, wriggling body, Xu Yunfan's pupils shocked, his heartbeat accelerated, his breathing became heavier, and his eyes almost turned over.
The sudden fear made him forget to react. After his brain froze for a moment, Xu Yunfan swung his hand and threw the insect away.
Unexpectedly, when he turned around, he found that Qin Run was holding a bug in his hand, and then he threw it away and stepped on it.
Throughout the entire process, the movements were smooth and efficient, as if they had been practiced thousands of times.
Xu Yunfan: "..." The scream was stuck in his throat and was swallowed down by him.
Compared with the two of them, he looks particularly unmanly.
Xu Yunfan turned his hands over and rubbed the backs of his hands on the outside of his thighs on his pants, trying to rub away the disgusting feeling. He suddenly looked up and saw Qin Run with his back to him.
Xu Yunfan subconsciously looked him up and down.
Qin Run was wearing a gray coarse cloth. The sun in mid-July was scorching hot, and a large patch of wet cloth was stained on his back, faintly outlining the curve of his muscles.
Qin Run's body shape doesn't look like that of a muscular man, but it is very tight, the kind that looks thin when dressed and has muscles when undressed, a very lean body.
His fingers, perhaps because he worked too much, were a little thick, and they were very long. I heard that men like this are generally "very good".
But Xu Yunfan knew that this was totally wrong.
It’s because Qin Run can’t be “very good” that he doesn’t have that opportunity.
As Xu Yunfan thought about this, he forgot his fear. As he continued to work, that nauseous feeling came back.
He changed his position, as if this way he would no longer encounter disgusting bugs.
It was a small piece of cornfield, and the two of them finished harvesting all the corn in a short time.
I collected eight bags in total, plus a full large backpack.
Xu Yunfan was not satisfied with this result.
It's true that he is the prince, but he has a cousin who entered politics. Although his family has connections, they don't get involved in that kind of thing. At the beginning, his cousin went to the countryside and started from the grassroots level.
When Xu Yunfan went to visit his cousin, he stayed in the countryside for a summer vacation. He saw his fellow villagers harvesting corn. The corn was big and long, with full and uniform grains, not shriveled.
While harvesting corn, he had seen several cobs without kernels.
Xu Yunfan looked at the corn in the basket on his back, feeling a sense of déjà vu.
There are corn cobs with "half faces", "bald heads", and "starry eyes".
The so-called "half-face" means that the corn cob has no seeds.
The "bald" ones have no seeds on part of the corn cob, or the seeds are shriveled. The "baby's breath" ones are even worse, with only a few sparse seeds on a corn cob, as if they were just growing for fun.
There are eight bags of corn cobs. If you peel off the corn kernels, you would be lucky if you could get three or four bags.
With such a harvest, it is no wonder that after paying taxes, the family’s more than ten acres of land cannot even maintain basic living.
Of course, not all corn fields produce the same output.
It mainly depends on the seeds left by each household.
Xu Yunfan asked, "Are you going to carry these bags back? Don't you have a horse?"
On the way here, Xu Yunfan didn't see a single horse. Could it be that in the rural areas of the Dayan Dynasty, horses are very valuable livestock?
Qin Run's next words confirmed his guess.
"Yes, in our village, only Grandpa Sun's family has an ox cart. He's also harvesting corn, so naturally we can't borrow an ox cart. As for the horses you mentioned, only wealthy families can afford them. When we harvest corn, we usually carry it back on a shoulder pole."
Xu Yunfan asked again, "I see that the land in your village is basically flat, and the roads are not too narrow. Why don't you use a cart? Wouldn't it be more convenient and less labor-intensive to use a cart?"
"A cart?" Qin Run paused for a moment, tying the sack. "What's that?"
Xu Yunfan choked for a moment and answered the question irrelevantly: "...Do we have many corn fields?"
"It's not much, just a dozen or so acres of land. My grandmother passed away suddenly, so I sold some of it. Now I only have this much left."
Xu Yunfan choked. More than ten acres is not a lot?
In modern times, it is much better than those families who only have one acre and three mu of land.
But compared to this, it is indeed too little.
Like other families, they must have at least 40 or 50 mu of land! After all, they have such a large family.
Xu Yunfan couldn't bear to think about it. If he had to carry more than ten acres of corn on his shoulders, would he still have enough strength?
"Don't you know what a cart is? Is there a carpenter in our village? I'll build one for you and you'll understand."
Qin Run: "Uncle Qin Mu from Grandma Qin's family is a carpenter. Do you want to work for him?"
Xu Yunfan asked in return, "How is Uncle Qin Mu's cooking?"
"It's OK. In the nearby villages, any family that wants to make furniture always asks Uncle Qin Mu for help. However, he doesn't do many complicated pieces, like those with carvings."
Carving furniture is time-consuming and laborious. Qin Mu is the only carpenter in several nearby villages. He has no shortage of work, so he is naturally unwilling to take on difficult or complicated work. Not only does this kind of work waste time, but the villagers are reluctant to spend money and will try to lower the price as much as possible. Even if the work is done, there is no profit.
"Then his family should have some wood or something. Qin Run, can you take me to borrow some?"
Xu Yunfan knew that Qin Run probably didn't have much money. He heard from Qin An that Grandma Qin's family were good people. If he could lend him the wood, he would definitely find a way to pay back the money needed for the wood as soon as possible in the future.
"Sure, I'll take you there at noon."
Qin Run tied up a few bags of corn and carried two of them on a shoulder pole. "We've finished harvesting this field. Let's go back. I'll come back later to pick up the rest."
Xu Yunfan pushed Qin Run away and said, "I'll choose."
Qin Run glanced at Xu Yunfan's tall and thin figure and blurted out, "Can you do it?"
Xu Yunfan almost couldn't catch his breath.
Men, how can you say no!
Who are you looking down upon?
Xu Yunfan held his breath and wanted to reply, "You'll know if it works if you try it." But when the words were on the tip of his tongue, he suddenly realized that Qin Run was a gangster. What was the difference between what he said and being a hooligan?
There seems to be no difference.
"I'm very capable," Xu Yunfan said, gritting his teeth and picking up the two bags of corn.
Xu Yunfan had never carried anything before, and suddenly he was carrying two bags of corn weighing more than 100 kilograms, with the shoulder pole pressing down on his shoulders. There was only one word to describe it: pain.
Moreover, when he was walking, the two bags of corn shook a little, and he was staggering and couldn't walk steadily at all.
Coupled with the obstruction of the corn stalks, Xu Yunfan's balance was unstable and he almost fell after taking a few steps.
Qin Run hurriedly said, "Yun Fan, put it down quickly, be careful not to fall."
Xu Yunfan didn't try to be brave. Thinking of the big talk he had just said, he couldn't help but blush, "I've never done it before. I'm not very good at it. I can't even walk steadily."
"It's always like this at the beginning. Let me do it." Qin Run noticed that Xu Yunfan's handsome face was flushed. It seemed that he held his breath to pick up the two bags of corn. If he really asked him to carry them home, he would probably fart out.
"Oh." Xu Yunfan set his sights on the backpack again. His eyes lit up, and he quickly squatted down to pick it up. He was so active, as if he would lose out if he didn't do anything. "I'll use this backpack, and you can put a bag of corn on it horizontally."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
