The villagers were hoping for sunny days so they could harvest the rice in peace, dry it, and store it in the rice cellar. The harvest had already been affected, and no one wanted to harvest a few days early.
But the weather did not go as planned, and it started to drizzle again when the time came.
The village chief sat under the eaves, looked up at the sky and sighed. In just half a month, he felt that his back had hunched over.
The village chief's wife had been worried about her family's food hoarding for nothing the other day, and she'd gotten so angry that she had developed several large blisters in her mouth. Now that it was raining, her anger only intensified, and her face turned black.
For a moment, I didn't know whether to hope for a disaster or not.
She sat against the wall, head down, picking out rotten vegetable leaves from the basket and feeding them to the rabbits and chickens.
Suddenly, I heard my husband say, "Let's harvest the crops in the fields today."
She was startled and looked up. She broke the vegetable stalk in her hand and whispered, "But, but it's raining, it will get moldy! Besides, how can we dry it after we harvest it?"
The village chief's eyes were filled with worry, and his voice was filled with helplessness. "How long do you think this rain will last?"
Who can really tell? A heavy rain might last two or three days and then stop, but a light rain might not, and it could drizzle for the next two weeks.
He then asked, "Do you know if there will be another heavy rain in two days?"
The village head's wife was speechless, her face pale. If this was true, then they would have no harvest at all. They would have lost half a year's harvest, and they couldn't even afford to pay for the seeds.
If we harvest now, at least we can have some food left to fill our stomachs, and we can eat it before it gets moldy.
It should be okay for people to eat food that is slightly moldy, right?
The village chief called out several families and announced that the third daughter-in-law would stay at home with the children to cook and boil water, and everyone else, including Pingya, would go to the fields to harvest rice.
Several families looked unhappy. They were also worried about having no place to dry the grain after harvesting and that the grain would not dry out after drying. However, the village chief was the head of the family, so they had to listen to him.
So, amid the uproar of the whole village, the village chief and his family put on straw raincoats, took sickles, and went out to cut rice in the rain.
"Village chief, why are your family so fierce? Why are you harvesting rice in the rain? Aren't you afraid of getting moldy?"
"Yeah, I think we should not be in a hurry. Let's wait and see for a few days!"
The village chief weighed the rice ears in his hand, then looked at the rice stalks. Many of the stalks had been gnawed hollow by insects. They had no way of curing this pest.
He said to the onlookers with a sullen face, "We don't know how long this rain will last. There are many people at home and many mouths to feed. The sooner we harvest, the better."
After that, he stopped talking and just buried his head in the harvest. Their family planted fifteen acres of rice and had no time for gossip.
The villagers who heard this thought it was a joke, as they had never seen anyone harvesting rice in the rain!
But some villagers were muttering in their hearts that the village chief's family was not stupid. When they looked up at the gray sky, they began to panic.
The village chief's family worked efficiently. The whole family harvested five acres of land in one day. On the third day, the rain continued and some people became anxious. More and more people went out to harvest rice in the rain. No one laughed at the village chief's family anymore.
Only the Jiang Dajin family was quiet.
Jiang Dagui was kicked hard by Jiang Nian, which was even heavier than the kick from Eugene Hua before. He took medicine but it didn't help, and now he has a cough.
Eugene had been bedridden for three days, begging Uncle Jiang to straighten her broken finger. Now she was in the kitchen, choking on wet firewood while boiling water.
She came into the house and asked the drowsy man lying on the bed, "Other families have started harvesting rice. When will we harvest?"
Jiang Dajin didn't even open his eyes, crossing his legs. "Where are we going to dry the harvest after we harvest it? Wouldn't it be crazy to harvest it now? Will it rain forever? If you want to harvest it, go harvest it yourself."
Eugene Hua was just talking, she didn't want to work in the fields on a rainy day. She hated Jiang Yue and his wife, who had beaten her twice, and now she has a backache that makes her feel terribly painful even when doing the slightest bit of work.
She didn't consider at all why she was busy taking care of her husband and children while she was still injured and hadn't recovered.
After the village chief's family finished harvesting the rice, they had to clear out the rooms, and separate the beds for the young and the old according to gender, and they made as much space as possible.
The vacant rooms were used to dry the rice. The rice was spread out on the ground, with the doors and windows open to dry. For a while, there was no place to stand.
Some families were shameless and had previously gossiped about the village chief's family. Now they were complaining that they had few adults and that the rice was about to soak and could not be harvested. They asked the village chief's sons to help.
After saying this, a few cat tears fell.
The village chief's wife smiled and said, "My husband is the village chief, and he has to help the villagers when they need help. But he is old, and after working hard for a few days, his waist can't bear it anymore, so he is still lying down. As for my sons, they have caught colds after being caught in the rain for a few days."
Jiangshan coughed a few times in the room at the right time.
The man had an ugly expression on his face, moved his mouth a few times but said nothing, then turned and left.
The village head's wife closed the gate and said, "Pooh!" If he dared to ask one of her women to help, she would scold him.
Mrs. Li came out of the house carrying a large basin. "Mother, the brown sugar water is ready. Come and have a bowl."
"Hey! Okay."
Jiangshan saw the little tiger licking his lips happily and saying that the brown sugar water was sweet, so he wanted to give him another sip.
Although the children did not go to the fields, they helped with housework at home.
Li patted him gently, "Drink yours, don't get sick. The children all have it."
The village chief's wife licked her lips after drinking it. The brown sugar sent by Jiang Yue was much more fragrant and sweeter than the brown sugar in the town. It was really good.
She looked towards the foot of the mountain behind. It was raining and they couldn't go hunting. What were the couple doing?
The villagers were harvesting in the rain, while Jiang Yue and Jiang Nian went to the neighboring villages to harvest in the rain, and the harvest was in full swing.
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