It's over. Pei Xu was stewed with bamboo sticks.
The fallen tricycle was rescued, and Jiang Lin's wrist was accidentally cut. Blood slowly seeped out and he made a soft "hiss" sound.
Pei Xu nervously held his fingers and said, "Go home and deal with it."
Jiang Lin pulled his hand back and said without any pretense, "No need." After that, he wiped the blood with his hand and said, "This is a small matter. Look how nervous you are. I'm not useless."
Pei Xu was totally unaware of the worry she was showing, and said stubbornly, "Who's nervous? I'm not worried that you'll get a scar and it'll affect your chances of being an idol."
Jiang Lin pointed at his face and said leisurely: "My face is here as long as Jiangshan is here. Get busy."
From dusk till nightfall, the villagers return home under the stars.
Pei Xu shouted, "Brothers, we still have two fields to work on, otherwise the dew from the night will solidify into lumps."
"Enyue, why don't you go home and cook first?" Jiang Lin said.
Cheng Enyue stood on the ridge of the field, looking at them against the light, and said, "Okay, I'll untie the bags for you first, pack enough for one field, and then I'll go back."
The moth lingered around the headlights of the production team, put down the water bottle to Chuzhe, and suggested: "Let's have a competition. Two people will do the packaging, and the rest will work in pairs to see who finishes first."
Cheng Enyue stood aside and watched them flip their palms and backs. After three rounds of competition, Xiang Chuzhe stood proudly behind Pei Xu and said fiercely: "Brother Xu and I are in the same group. We will definitely save some food for you."
Li Xuran looked at him proudly: "Brother Lin and I will definitely show you guys how fast a tough guy is!"
Song Yifan shouted: "The game begins!"
Jiang Lin and Xiang Chuzhe had been carrying the materials for a whole day, but they still hadn't figured out how to spread the slaked lime, so they were a little behind at the start.
"You guys are so fast? Did you scatter them all over the place?"
Pei Xu picked up a bucket and said, "We have some skills, you can learn from them."
Jiang Lin learned their doggy-paddle method and became more and more proficient at it. There was no human touch, no deliberate attempt to create a show effect, only the burning desire of men to win.
It was almost nine o'clock in the evening when Cheng Enyue shouted on the side of the road: "Brothers, go home for dinner."
The young men in the field all looked at him and smiled and said, "Okay."
The young men pounded their waists at the same time. Jiang Lin said, "Enyue, why don't you take us back? We don't want to leave anymore." He gestured with his eyes to the tricycle parked nearby.
"Get in the car, the starting price is 8 yuan." Cheng Enyue shouted with a smile.
The tricycle slowly drove towards home. Li Xuran joked, "We squatted in the tricycle, and we looked like piglets being sold."
Song Yifan said with a smile: "It has a bit of that flavor."
Xiang Chuzhe pointed at their faces and clothes and joked, "I think even our loyal fans would be shocked when they see us like this, hahahahaha."
Jiang Lin said: "Just make do with it, don't stop being a fan!"
Cheng Enyue's cooking skills were better than Jiang Lin's, and he took control of the kitchen in one fell swoop.
The repetitive labor day after day was boring. After five days of spreading slaked lime, the teenagers felt hollowed out. Jiang Lin sat on the side of the road drinking water and asked, "Auntie, are you tired?"
The aunties kept moving their hands and responded to him: "It's not tiring. We started doing farm work when we were young. When we were younger, we helped to cut grass for pigs and feed chickens and ducks. When we were older, we worked in the fields, pulling peanuts, digging sweet potatoes and breaking corn. Sometimes we would scrape cassava until we cried."
Another aunt shared the same sentiment and said, "We have a saying here, 'getting tired of scraping cassava', which means getting tired of scraping cassava. It comes from scraping cassava, which is an endless supply of cassava."
Jiang Lin stood up and loaded the car with Li Xuran, teasing him, "Brother, I just learned a saying. If you want to express your love for someone in the future, you can say that you are tired of scraping cassava."
Li Xuran said: "Brother Lin, Auntie's voice was quite loud. I heard it when I came over."
The slaked lime that was still piled up into a small mountain made the boys on the verge of collapse. They looked towards Chuzhe facing the sunlight and said, "My arm became an upper and lower arm at the beginning, but now both are balanced, but when will it stop spreading?"
Song Yifan patted his shoulder and reminded him quietly: "The camera is filming."
Xiang Chuzhe felt a little aggrieved. He avoided the camera and went behind a pile of slaked lime to silently digest his emotions.
Jiang Lin unloaded the slaked lime and said to Pei Xu, "Pei Xu, let's have a meeting tonight to review the work progress and cheer up the brothers. It seems that everyone's mood is a little low."
Pei Xu stared at him and asked, "What about you?"
Jiang Lin teased him, "Don't worry, I'm very stable. If I lose my temper, I'll be the first one to run to your house and take revenge on you."
The boys ate in silence, unlike the bickering and jokes they used to have, and the atmosphere became depressed.
Pei Xu was about to speak when an uninvited guest broke the tranquility of the night.
"Pei Xu, get out here!" Pei Zongli shouted angrily. The cameraman standing at the door picked up the camera and walked inside.
Pei Xu whispered, "Barbie Q is back, the emperor is back."
Jiang Lin reacted immediately, and said to the filming staff with a cold face: "Teachers, please leave the yard first. This is not part of the guests' filming content."
The staff hesitated, and Jiang Lin called several other teenagers and walked out of the yard together, and the staff had to follow.
"Pei Xu!" Pei Zongli passed by them with a long and thin bamboo whip in his hand.
The young men trembled in their hearts when they saw this.
Pei Xu said with a smile: "Dad, when did you come back? Why didn't you tell me?"
Pei Xu stood there, a few meters apart. He put his hands on his waist and said angrily, "Don't be so playful with me. If I don't come back, you will poke a hole in the sky."
Pei Xu scratched his neck and said weakly, "I don't have that ability."
"I heard about it all. You borrowed money to start a business growing roses. Get the hell back to Beijing right now."
"I won't go back." Pei Xu said firmly, "I hesitated before, but now I have no regrets. Even if this is a single-plank bridge, I have to grit my teeth and walk on it."
Pei Zongli stepped forward and whipped him hard. Pei Xu was caught off guard. Jiang Lin wanted to go back to the yard, but the villagers' flashlights shone on his face, so he and the teenagers stepped forward to stop them.
The villagers outside the courtyard shouted, "Lao Li, if you have something to say, please talk nicely and don't hit the child."
Pei Zongli said to the outside of the courtyard: "This matter has nothing to do with you. If I don't teach this bastard a lesson, he will make me angry to death!"
In order to cover up the noise in the yard, Jiang Lin took out his mobile phone and played Phoenix Legend's "The Most Dazzling National Style" and shouted loudly: "Fellow villagers, let us sing some classic songs for you."
Pei Xu looked at him stubbornly.
"Kneel down!" Pei Zongli shouted seriously.
Pei Xu knelt straight on the ground with his head held high and his chest puffed out.
Pei Zongli asked loudly: "Where did you borrow the money? How much did you borrow?"
Pei Xu looked ahead steadily and said loudly, "I borrowed 3.5 million from the bank."
Pei Zongli staggered back a few steps with his eyes wide open, and yelled in anger: "3.5 million! What will you use to pay it back if you lose it? Your life will be ruined!"
Pei Xu looked at him calmly and said, "Even if I lose money, I won't let my family bear the debt for me."
"Snap!" A whip hit Pei Xu's down jacket, "Is this a question of whether we should pay it back? A newly graduated student, even if he has a student loan of tens of thousands of yuan, will be under great pressure in the first two or three years after graduation!" Pei Zongli's face turned red with anger, and he tightly grasped the bamboo whip, "And you! You have a loan of 3.5 million! How many years will it take to pay it back? You have no career and debt, what girl would be willing to marry you?"
The playlist outside the hospital had switched to "The Red Sairan". Jiang Lin moved among the crowd, singing and raising their hands to shake along.
Pei Xu asked: "I don't understand why you don't support me to go home and develop? Do you think I'm embarrassing you?"
Pei Zongli roared in response: "What's going on at home? We support you in your studies in the hope that you can go further, and it's best if you never come back!"
"But this is where I was born and raised. I'm going back to where I came from. What's the problem?"
"Yes!" The veins on Pei Zongli's forehead were clearly visible. "Do you want to be a useless farmer like us, living in the mountains all your life, living a cowardly life?" He pointed outside the courtyard. "How many people outside have ever traveled far? They have only seen airplanes and high-speed trains on TV, and they don't know how to take buses or subways. Even when they go out to sell vegetables and fruits in town, the payment codes they use are all given by their children. This is because they can't keep up with the changes of the times! The mountains block their steps and vision!"
Pei Xu said: "So I would like to be the one who moves the mountains or brings back new things."
"What are you going to do?" Pei Zongli questioned him, "You will only destroy yourself! A farmer's son will only be a farmer when he returns home. We don't have the ability to support you."
Pei Xu said slowly: "Dad, the times are different now. The Internet and self-media are very developed. You older generations can't handle it, but young people can use it to help rural development. You can go to the short video platform to see the new farmers who are farming now. Most of them are young people."
"That's someone else! With so many people working in the same industry, can everyone succeed?"
Pei Xu retorted: "You are just arguing!"
Pei Zongli said harshly: "You must go to the bank tomorrow to return the money, and then pack your bags and go to Beijing, otherwise." His eyes were like torches, and he said word by word: "I don't have a son like you, get out of here!"
After saying that, Pei Zongli threw down the bamboo whip heavily, put his hands behind his back and walked out of the yard quickly.
Jiang Lin dismissed the crowd, and Pei Xu came out of the yard, walked up to him and said, "Please go to my house and help me pack my luggage."
The night was cool. Jiang Lin returned to the yard with two suitcases. The boys sat on the bench without saying a word.
Pei Xu carried back two boxes of beer and a few bags of peanuts from the grocery store in the next village.
The bottle cap tapped the corner of the table and dense white bubbles appeared. Pei Xu raised the bottle and said, "I'm sorry to have made a fool of myself tonight. I hope it didn't affect your mood."
The wine went down their throats and everyone took a deep breath.
Jiang Lin livened up the atmosphere and said, "Have you heard that beating children is illegal in Hong Kong? Some parents take their children to Shenzhen on weekends and have a meal of bamboo-braised meat as soon as they pass the border. Is this true?"
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