So Chen Shuning and his group simply harvested and loaded the wheat and left it to their own devices. The remaining compaction was done by tractors, while dust control was a technical task that even ordinary villagers, let alone the educated youth, couldn't do well.
Besides, although this job was relatively easy, it was very dirty, and none of the educated youth wanted to do it.
So when the wheat was being threshed and dust was being blown up, these educated youths, like the able-bodied men in the village, were assigned to harvest corn.
Because corn stalks are hard, it is difficult for women to cut them, so when harvesting corn, men and women usually work together.
The men were responsible for cutting down the corn stalks with sickles and arranging them neatly in one direction, while the women were responsible for breaking the corn off the stalks and throwing it into a designated place to pile it up.
This job doesn't require much skill, but it's really tiring. If you encounter an easy corn cob, you can break it off in one go, but if you encounter a hard one, you can hold the corn cob and twist it several times and still not be able to twist it off.
In the morning, the corn leaves are covered with dew, making them wet, tough, and difficult to break. After the sun rises, the leaves dry, but they can easily scratch the skin.
Even though Chen Shuning was fully armed, he still had many cuts and slashes on his face, neck, and wrists.
After a day of picking corn cobs, even with gloves on, Chen Shuning felt her hands burning with pain.
This was only because Liu Xiangyang, who was assigned to the same group as Chen Shuning, took care of her and would stop to help her break the pieces after cutting a section. Otherwise, Chen Shuning might not have finished breaking the pieces by the time everyone else had finished work in the evening.
Liu Xiangyang had a crush on Chen Shuning, a cheerful girl, on the train. He was even secretly happy that they were assigned to the same production brigade. However, he buried his feelings deep in his heart after Chen Shuning built her house.
Liu Xiangyang's family was of modest means, so he felt somewhat inferior to Chen Shuning, who had built her own house from the very beginning.
Later, after seeing He Chaoyang, this feeling of inferiority became even stronger, to the point that although she liked him, she didn't dare to express it.
However, since she was someone he liked, when the two were assigned to the same group during the corn harvest, Liu Xiangyang was happy but also unconsciously wanted to help Chen Shuning.
Despite Liu Xiangyang's help, Chen Shuning was still exhausted after several days of corn harvesting.
When harvesting wheat, Chen Shuning and the other two would cook something nice to treat themselves when they returned to the educated youth compound. But after harvesting corn these past few days, not to mention Chen Shuning, even the veteran educated youth who had been in the countryside for several years were finding it hard to keep up.
Every day, the meals were just something to get by. The diet of Chen Shuning and the other two changed from rice and stir-fried dishes at the beginning to steamed buns, porridge and pickled vegetables later on.
These past few days, the group has stopped making porridge and soup altogether. They steam a pot of buns that will last them for several days, and their three meals consist of buns dipped in sauce and served with cold boiled water.
After finally managing to harvest the corn, the group thought they could finally rest, but were then told that they would have to continue harvesting soybeans.
Moreover, along with this notice came bad news: according to the experience of the village elders, it was likely to rain in the next few days.
So they had to harvest all the crops in the fields before it rained.
In other words, in addition to soybeans, radishes and cabbages from the fields also need to be harvested, which makes the time tight.
Under the old Party Secretary's encouragement, the elderly and children in the village all went to the fields to harvest radishes and cabbages.
Chen Shuning and the other educated youths naturally went to harvest soybeans with the able-bodied laborers.
With the autumn harvest almost over, these past few days have been even busier. Every day, I go to work in the fields as soon as it gets a little light in the morning, and I don't stop until it's too dark to see at night.
Even so, they still couldn't harvest and store all the crops before the rain started.
That day, Chen Shuning, who had been working from early morning to late at night for four consecutive days, was still woken up by the alarm clock. When she got up to get dressed, she could clearly feel that the temperature had dropped sharply.
She hurriedly found a set of retro-style thermal underwear in her online space and put it on. Then she put on the sweater and long johns that Chen Ma had sent her, and finally put on the old clothes she usually wore to work.
Feeling less cold, she then walked towards the small storage room where Wang Chunni and the others lived, holding a flashlight.
Today it's Wang Chunni's turn to cook, so Chen Shuning only needs to deliver his own food rations the night before.
The sky was even darker than usual, giving Chen Shuning the illusion that she had set the wrong alarm clock.
I shone a flashlight on my wrist and glanced at the watch; it was indeed my usual wake-up time.
When I looked up at the sky again, good heavens, there wasn't a single moon or star in the sky.
I quickened my pace and arrived at the front yard. People were already cooking at the old house. Today, it just so happened that Liu Shumei and Wang Meixiang were cooking.
So Chen Shuning took a detour and went to the old house first.
"Good morning, Sister Shumei and Sister Meixiang."
"Shuning, why are you up so early? Isn't it Chunni's turn to cook today?"
As Liu Shumei put the shaped cornbread into the pot, she turned around and asked, but Wang Meixiang, knowing that Chen Shuning often brought things to Liu Shumei alone and was somewhat dissatisfied, only nodded lightly and did not intend to speak to Chen Shuning.
Chen Shuning didn't care about any of that. Wang Meixiang was impulsive, and usually, if someone just stirred things up in front of her, she would be willing to be used as a pawn. So, Chen Shuning's attitude towards such a person was to neither get close to her nor offend her, and just keep up appearances.
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