On the day of picking watermelons in the village, all the men, women and children in the village went out to work. The watermelons were picked by the centimeters, and the young people worked hard and seriously. The back of their necks and broad backs were tanned a deep wheat color. When they took off their vests to take a bath at night, the marks were clearly visible.
The green-skinned, black-striped watermelons were as big as piglets. They pinched the stems of the watermelons, picked them up with both hands and handed them to the people around them, passing them one by one to the shade of the trees on the river bank. The ground was covered with grass, and the watermelons were piled up like a hill. They were separated by size and quality and weighed one by one.
The scorching heat could not stop the farmers' enthusiasm. The watermelons ripened early this year, so they were transported to the city first using the village tractors. This way, there would be no famine in the second half of the year! Xie Zhao worked tirelessly until noon, when the team leader blew the whistle and called on everyone to take a break, have lunch and rest.
The villagers were eager to leave the watermelons on the ground and scatter. Xie Zhao stood up and breathed a sigh of relief. Sweat rolled down his forehead, soaking his lower back and clothes. Someone called him, "Xie San, let's go eat?"
Xie Zhao now drives a tractor and is no longer the bastard that everyone avoided. From time to time, people greet him and chat with him for a few words. It's not warm, but it's better than a setback.
"Okay, wait a moment." Xie Zhao responded casually and moved a few watermelons at his feet under the tree.
The villagers sat down in groups of three or four and took out some dry food to eat. A young wife came with a water chestnut-shaped basket and a bowl of sour soup noodles, which attracted teasing and envious looks from the people around.
Xie Zhao looked over and pursed his lips. When could he marry Cheng Yaoyao and let her bring him meals?
Since he had been working hard recently, Cheng Yaoyao also made sour soup noodles for him. The sour soup was fermented from rice soup, pork and tomatoes were cut into thin pieces, and a handful of tender water celery was sprinkled on it. It was sour and spicy and appetizing. But in case he got tired of it, he made sour fish, cold shrimp and cold noodles in different ways. Xie Zhao, who worked hard, became healthier and healthier, but Cheng Yaoyao's face became smaller.
Thinking of this, a faint smile appeared on Xie Zhao's lips, as if he had already seen Cheng Yaoyao wearing that lovely pink blouse, carrying a basket, and walking towards him gracefully.
No, that's true!
Xie Zhao's pupils suddenly contracted, and he stood up abruptly. The men who were eating and laughing on the ridge of the field also fell silent, staring at the woman walking towards them with fiery eyes.
Cheng Yaoyao was carrying a deep-mouthed basket, which she was holding with both hands with some difficulty. The small hat on her head was tilted and she couldn't use her hands to hold it. Xie Zhao was looking down at her and could only see her delicate small jaw and her rosy red lips that were particularly eye-catching.
The field seemed to be silent in an instant, with only the piercing cicadas' noisy chirping. The heat was rolling, mixed with the curious and inquiring eyes of many people, looking back and forth between Cheng Yaoyao and Xie Zhao.
Cheng Yaoyao panted and walked to Xie Zhao. Before he opened his mouth, he put the basket down heavily. Xie Zhao held it up. There was a sound of porcelain bowls knocking against each other in the basket. If he put it down like this, it would definitely break.
Cheng Yaoyao was unaware, she lifted her hat and looked up at him, her face flushed with heat, like a kitten asking for credit: "I brought you food."
Xie Zhao's throat was dry. He wanted to ask Cheng Yaoyao how he could come here by himself, whether he was hot or the basket was heavy, but everyone was looking at him like a torch, so all he could say could only be reduced to a dry, "Hmm."
Cheng Yaoyao blinked her peach blossom eyes, looking a little confused. Xie Zhao interrupted her before she could start to act coquettishly: "Why did I ask you to deliver it? Where's Xiao Fei?"
"Xiao Fei's health hasn't recovered yet, but I'm on my way anyway." Cheng Yaoyao caught a glimpse of someone approaching from the corner of his eye and said belatedly.
Sister Jinhua came over with a bowl in her hand, peered into the basket, and said with a smile, "Hey, Xie San'er's life seems to be getting better. Someone brought him food! What do you eat?"
Cheng Yaoyao put on his hat and said to Xie Zhaoxiong, "Hurry up and eat the meal your sister made for you! I'll take it back after you finish eating!"
Having said that, he raised his chin and walked away.
Xie Zhao was speechless. Jinhua's wife stared at Cheng Yaoyao's back: "Tsk tsk, you have such a bad temper. You must have been annoyed when I lived in your house. City women are like this. They are not as good as us country girls, who are hardworking, honest, and can take care of the family!"
Under the shade of a distant tree, Cheng Yaoyao, Han Yin, and Zhang Xiaofeng sat together to eat. They ate the steamed buns they brought from home, and enjoyed the spicy lobster meat that Cheng Yaoyao brought with him.
Cheng Yaoyao broke off half of a piece of rice cake, held it for a long time without putting it into his mouth, and stared in one direction with a frown.
Han Yin followed Cheng Yaoyao's line of sight and gossiped, "Mrs. Jinhua wants to propose marriage to your landlord!"
"Marriage talk?!" Cheng Yaoyao's eyes widened. "What is Sister Jinhua doing? Isn't matchmaking prohibited now? Where did this feudal remnant come from?!"
Han Yin swallowed the shrimp in her mouth and became more energetic. Cheng Yaoyao had been in the village for such a long time, but he didn't know many villagers except Xie Zhao's family. Han Yin was the other extreme. She knew exactly how many eggs each hen laid every day in the village, and she introduced them right away.
"That Jinhua sister is a famous matchmaker in the surrounding villages! But her reputation is not very good. In order to thank the matchmaker for a rooster, she introduced you to all kinds of blind and lame men, and cheated several girls." Han Yin said vividly, "You must tell your landlord to be careful."
Cheng Yaoyao was furious when he heard this and snorted, "What does it have to do with me?"
Zhang Xiaofeng smiled and said, "That's right. How can a girl like me talk about this with a young man?"
Cheng Yaoyao couldn't help but ask again: "Xie Zhao's family is a landlord, how... how could they arrange a marriage for him?"
Han Yin said: "Do you know that there are rich peasants in other villages who have been rehabilitated? They are driving tractors now, which is a good job. Besides..."
Han Yin mentioned this with the shyness that only girls have, and Zhang Xiaofeng pointed it out: "Besides, she is the famous Yue Yun in the village!"
Zhang Xiaofeng and Han Yin giggled. Cheng Yaoyao crushed the wowotou in his hand, and the alarm bells rang!
Sister Jinhua chattered non-stop beside him. Xie Zhao's dark eyes turned to Sister Jinhua's face, and he sat down and silently opened the basket. A bowl full of red rice, with a few pickled cucumbers on top, without any fishy smell, Xie Zhao buried his head and ate the rice.
Jinhua's wife glanced at it and curled her lips secretly. It was the busy farming season, and the men had to work very hard. Even the poorest families would not be willing to eat fine grains. They would take out the bacon that had been stored for a year, steam it and eat a piece every day. Only when the men ate oil and water could they have strength. A strong young man like Xie Zhao only ate this? The Xie family was indeed poor. But Xie Zhao was driving a tractor now, and he was hardworking. After a few years, when that sick grandmother died, wouldn't they be able to live a better life? Besides... looking at Xie Zhao's muscular body and deep eyebrows, Jinhua's wife was secretly shocked. Just looking at this face, there were many girls willing to marry him.
Jinhua's mouth was dry after talking so much, and she didn't promote her cousin's daughter. She walked away angrily: "You think you are so popular? You come from a landlord family, and it's good enough for you to marry a wife! You still want to pick the moon in the sky?!"
Xie Zhao turned a deaf ear to him. The red rice tasted soft and sweet. When he turned it over with his chopsticks, he found a few slices of tender pork with preserved vegetables and a half-cooked poached egg underneath. He opened it with his chopsticks, and the orange-red yolk of the local egg flowed out. He shoveled it into his mouth with the rice, swallowed it without savoring it, and his stomach was satisfied, and the tip of his tongue gradually became sweet.
The basket of eggs that my sister had been collecting for a long time is empty again.
After finishing his meal, Xie Zhao put his empty bowl and chopsticks back into the basket, took out the kettle and drank a few sips of honeysuckle tea. Since the beginning of summer, Cheng Yaoyao liked to make barberry soup, but Xie Zhao didn't like to drink this sweet water, so Cheng Yaoyao made this for him. After drinking it, he felt refreshed and full of energy, but the heat was too strong, so Xie Zhao had nosebleeds several times.
After taking a break in the field, Xie Zhao got up to work again when the whistle blew. The pink figure was still under the shade of the tree. Xie Zhao frowned and said a few words to Lin Daguan, who was in charge of weighing the melons, and the two exchanged tasks.
Cheng Yaoyao was recording the weight of the watermelons. His face was cold as he pointed at the scale and the pile of watermelons on the ground. "Pick out the ones weighing 20 kilograms and put them in a pile. Report the number after you're done weighing them."
The melons on the ground were particularly large, the best of the best, or "the best" in Tianshui Village parlance. Xie Zhao picked up the large watermelon and put it on the scale. His muscles bulged as he exerted force, sweat rolled down his cheeks, and an abundant and attractive yang energy rushed over him.
Cheng Yaoyao held her breath and tried to focus on the notebook, but her strokes still turned out wavy lines. She tore a page of paper in frustration, crumpled it into a ball and threw it away, then wrote a new page. The accountant saw it and smiled and praised Cheng Yaoyao for her seriousness and meticulousness.
Cheng Yaoyao gave him a cold look, his eyes clearly showing "Is there anything I can do for you?" But even this look made the accountant's soul fly away halfway, and he talked more and more about this and that, sticking to Cheng Yaoyao and refusing to leave.
Xie Zhao sweated profusely while moving hundreds of large watermelons, and the accountant was finally called away reluctantly. Xie Zhao then spoke to Cheng Yaoyao: "Yaoyao, why don't you go home?"
Cheng Yaoyao said seriously: "I have to work."
Picking melons is a big event in the village. Men, women, young and old have to work, and Cheng Yaoyao is no exception.
Xie Zhao hesitated to speak. His expression was fleeting, but Cheng Yaoyao caught it. Cheng Yaoyao was embarrassed and angry: "What? Is my job weird? I've been taking care of these melons for a month, and I have a lot of feelings for them!"
Xie Zhao wisely chose to remain silent.
When has this spoiled brat ever been to work? These days, Xie Zhao has been doing double duty, and Cheng Yaoyao didn't even show up for the roll call - anyway, the person who registered was Han Yin, and the supervisor was Lin Jiajun.
Lin Jiajun naturally said nothing, and he hated that he was assigned the job of supervisor and could not help Cheng Yaoyao with work. Han Yin just thought that Xie Zhao was doing work for Cheng Yaoyao, and she would earn more, so she would not object. The three of them had the same destination, and Cheng Yaoyao was recorded in the registration book as being fully diligent every day, but she was the only one who didn't know it.
A voice broke the silence between the two: "Yaoyao."
Shen Yan came over. He was tanned and thinner due to the sun, with a light scar on his cheek. His trousers were rolled up, and he looked more energetic than before. He glanced at Xie Zhao, and their eyes met in the air, and the atmosphere suddenly became tense.
Cheng Yaoyao put down his pen and asked coldly, "What are you doing?"
Cheng Yaoyao's aloof demeanor did not scare Shen Yan away. He put a paper bag on the table and said, "This is Fuling Cake. Let you try it."
"I don't want it." Cheng Yaoyao didn't even think about it.
"It was sent from my family. My mother specifically sent it to you." Shen Yan raised his hand and pressed it down, revealing a good-tempered and doting smile, "It's a gift from my mother, you can't refuse it, right?"
Shen Yan's mother? Cheng Yaoyao touched his chin and searched for information about Shen Yan's mother from the original owner's memory.
When she thinks, she tilts her head, and her expression is extremely cute. The sunlight shines through the leaves onto her face, making her skin even clearer, and her pupils are a lighter amber. In the summer when everyone is sweating and getting a sallow complexion, Cheng Yaoyao is still transparent and white, with a subtle fragrance.
Shen Yan's eyes were filled with jealousy. He leaned over to her across the table and said, "Do you remember when you were little, you often came to my house to play, and you loved eating this Fuling Cake the most... Hey!"
The right ribs were hit hard, and Shen Yan's screams were muffled in his throat, and his handsome face was distorted immediately. The sturdy body of the wheat-colored man knocked him to the side. Xie Zhao's black stubble was dripping with sweat, and he said in a rough voice: "Weighing is finished, a total of 110!"
Cheng Yaoyao hid back, covered his nose and said, "I know."
"Barbarians..." Shen Yan covered his ribs, grimacing in pain, "You did it on purpose!"
Xie Zhao turned a deaf ear to him, made a mark on the notebook that Cheng Yaoyao handed to him, looked at Cheng Yaoyao with sharp eyebrows, threw his wet jacket over his shoulders, turned around and left, showing a rare ruffian look.
Shen Yan finally caught his breath and said to Cheng Yaoyao, "Yaoyao, did you see that? This barbarian dared to be rude to you in front of me. You should move out immediately and cannot live in his house anymore!"
The hook was so strong that it penetrated the back of the paper and tore through the thin page. Cheng Yaoyao closed the book and raised his eyebrows to look at Shen Yanshi with confusion: "What else? If I don't live in his house, where should I live?"
Her peach blossom eyes were full of water, reflecting a little tear mole, and she was naturally sentimental. Shen Yan couldn't help but say: "The village party secretary's family, the team leader's family, there must be a better one than his family!"
Cheng Yaoyao shook his head: "There is no better house than his in the village."
Shen Yan's mind suddenly became hot: "Then leave this village!"
Cheng Yaoyao's eyes flashed with surprise, and he asked, "Leave this village?"
This shouldn't have been said. Shen Yan regretted his hasty words and shut up.
Cheng Yaoyao's eyes turned, revealing three parts of surprise, three parts of expectation, and four parts of disbelief: "We are educated youth, how can we leave the village?"
These eyes always chased him eagerly before, and now they finally fell on him again. Shen Yan's heart was boiling, and he couldn't help but say: "Yaoyao, if you can leave the village, will you...will you come with me?"
Cheng Yaoyao asked tentatively: "What news did you get?"
Shen Yan didn't care about anything else and grabbed Cheng Yaoyao's hand on the table: "Yaoyao, this matter cannot be revealed to others. My family wrote to me and they are helping me to smooth over the relationship. My mother also mentioned you specifically in the letter..."
As Shen Yan spoke, he stared closely at Cheng Yaoyao's expression and revealed little by little: "My mother has always liked you very much. Do you remember when you were sixteen, my mother took me to celebrate your birthday..."
"Of course I remember." Cheng Yaoyao sorted out the information about Shen Yan's family from the original owner's memory.
Shen Yan's mother was a very kind woman who liked the original owner very much. On the original owner's sixteenth birthday, Shen Yan's parents half-jokingly told the original owner's father that they would arrange an engagement for them.
It was on that day that Shen Yan "happened" to run into Cheng Nuonuo who was hiding in the corridor and crying.
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