It took more than twenty days to plant these 500 mu of sorghum. There was no other way; laborers had to fetch water, and the only option was to rely on old oxen to pull the plow.
Er Ya and Zhu Zi are about to start school, and the two of them are so anxious that they wish they could help with the housework at night. There are still 100 mu of land left to be planted in the village. After each household finished planting their own plots, they had extra sweet potato seedlings, so they gathered them together and planted another 20 mu of land.
May arrived, and the summer grain harvest was about to begin, but what would they use to pay it?
Wang Hongxi didn't attend the township meetings for the past two months because he was sick. He knew that if he went, he would just argue with a bunch of people and the relief grain wouldn't come down. Some places were much worse off than here. Even a fool would think that the focus should be on the hardest-hit areas.
The fields are now planted with crops, the sweet potatoes in the mountains have been watered, and the 16,500-meter-long pipe has been carefully stored away. It's a great help; we'll need it again when the sweet potatoes are ripening and the sorghum is heading.
Each household has planted various vegetable seedlings in their private plots and gardens, and they have to figure out how to water them themselves. These pipes cost a lot of money, and their lifespan will be greatly reduced if they are exposed to the sun for a long time.
Zhang Hongmei planted squash vines all over Zhang Xingguo's yard, and nothing else. This year was even drier than last year, and dried squash would at least keep them from starving.
Zhang Hongmei didn't go to school when it started, so she asked Er Ya to ask the teacher for leave for her. She needed to be a good shepherd. It was almost time to breed the ewes again, and considering that she was a girl, the task was given to Wang Qingshan, who was in charge of raising cattle.
Because there was no rain, there weren't many wild vegetables and grasses in the mountains. Sometimes when Zhang Hongmei took the sheep out to the mountains, she would secretly feed them bean stalks and corn stalks from her space. As a result, these sixteen sheep were fatter and stronger than cattle.
Wang Qingshan was unconvinced, but there's an old saying that a man can't get rich without unexpected wealth and a horse can't get fat without night grazing. No matter how meticulously he served her, he couldn't compare to Zhang Hongmei.
That day, the old man stopped Zhang Hongmei, who was going up the mountain, and said, "Girl, I'll go herding cattle with you."
"Okay, let's go together."
But after a day, the old man discovered that the place the girl had been to only had a little more grass, and nothing else.
"Grandpa, I think Old Niu is quite honest. How about I go herd the sheep with you tomorrow? You always help me herd the sheep when I go out. Now that I'm free, let's herd them together."
"How can I let a junior do my work? No way, no way."
"It's alright. You can help with other chores around the house now, otherwise I'll be too embarrassed to ask you to feed the sheep when I leave home."
Wang Qingshan thought about it and felt that it was no big deal. The animals were all in the deep mountains, and Zhang Hongmei couldn't possibly drive so many animals in.
"Well then, thank you very much, sir."
Actually, Zhang Hongmei wanted to nourish the old oxen. They were too thin now, and she would need them to work in the future. There were plenty of soybeans in her space, so she secretly fed them to them for a while to help them recover.
Zhang Hongmei would drive the cattle and sheep into the mountains every day to secretly give them extra food. Wang Qingshan was in charge of keeping the cattle and sheep pens clean; he felt embarrassed to take advantage of a child, so the two now had a clear division of labor.
That day, before she went to the livestock shed, Liu Aimin's son, Liu Jingze, returned. He was attending high school in the city and had always lived there. This time, he came back to visit the old lady.
Liu Aimin came to Zhang Hongmei's house and said, "Hongmei, your great-grandmother wants you to come over."
"Okay, Uncle, I'll go right away."
"Grandma, you were looking for me?"
"Yes, here's the money for the pipes from last time. We were short of money at home a while ago, so I had you cover it first. Your third uncle asked your brother Jingze to bring the money back, so you can take it."
"Grandma, I don't lack money." Zhang Hongmei really didn't lack money, not because she had money, but because she had nowhere to spend it.
“We’ll give it to you even if we don’t need it. We can’t let a child pay for everyone else’s money.”
Seeing that the old lady insisted, Zhang Hongmei accepted the money.
"Grandma, I'm leaving now, or the cattle and sheep will rebel."
"Wait a minute, here are some biscuits your third uncle brought for you. Take them back and eat them; they can help you stave off hunger while herding sheep."
"This is really good stuff, I've been craving it."
Liu Jingze watched his great-grandmother being so affectionate with the little girl and felt quite puzzled. He knew his great-grandmother well; she had never been particularly close to the younger generation. Was it because he was a boy? But he wasn't close to his own sisters either, especially his second uncle's wife, whom she disliked even more. His third uncle's wife would even go weak in the knees in front of his great-grandmother. This little girl was quite something.
"Hongmei, you've never met Brother Ze before, have you?"
"Brother Jingze, I've never actually met him before, Grandma. I need to get back to work now, you stay with Grandma."
Zhang Hongmei quickly left. Goodness, this Liu Jingze is quite something. He's handsome and still a high school student, but he seems a bit immature. He even gets jealous when I'm being affectionate with the old lady.
Liu Jingze: Nonsense, why would I be jealous? You have something wrong with your eyes, you're clearly just curious about you.
Zhang Hongmei went home again, took a water bottle, a basket, and a sickle, and went to the livestock shed.
They ran into Shi Tou San Ya on the way. "What are you two doing?"
“We’re going to cut grass at the foot of the mountain. The pigs at home have run out of food.”
"Wait a minute, these are cookies. Try some."
"Sister Hongmei, aren't you going to eat?"
“I don’t like to eat these. You guys eat them. Don’t go deep into the mountains. Just cut as much as you can.”
"Okay, we won't go any further."
When I returned from herding sheep in the afternoon, I ran into Wang Hongxi. "Uncle Village Chief, what's wrong?"
"It's nothing, I'm just tired."
Tired? When planting sweet potatoes and sorghum, you didn't complain about carrying water, so what work is tiring now? But I didn't ask any more questions; I'll pretend not to know what I shouldn't know.
I had just gotten home and fed the chickens when I heard a knock on the door. "Coming."
Zhang Hongmei opened the door and was stunned to see Liu Jingze standing outside.
"Brother Jingze, please have a seat inside."
"No, I just came to invite you to my house for dinner. We're making dumplings tonight."
"Making dumplings? I haven't had dumplings in ages. I'll just wash my face and head over."
"Okay, then I'll be going now."
Zhang Hongmei returned home, took a shower in her spatial dimension, and washed her clothes. Only then did she take a basket of wild vegetables to the old lady's house.
"Grandma, you really know me! How did you know I was craving dumplings?"
"You, you get cravings as long as it tastes good."
Zhang Hongmei sat down next to the old lady and took her arm. "I'm a grown woman now, how can you belittle me like this? It's true that I'm greedy, but you shouldn't say it out loud. It's not cute at all."
"You're cute, that's all that matters. If I were cute at my age, I'd be a monster."
Liu Jingze was shocked again. Was this really his great-grandmother? The great-grandmother who was always so serious? This was unbelievable.
"Grandma, I'm going to help my aunt make dumplings. I'm good with my hands, and they look really nice."
"Go ahead, I didn't think the dumplings you brought before were particularly good-looking."
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