Chapter 56055. Pretty Little Rival
July is the rice harvest time.
The golden rice is hung with heavy grains, and the prickly shells contain white rice, which can fill your stomach and be exchanged for money.
It makes people feel better.
The Lei family has two acres of paddy fields.
Lei Li, Zhou Yi and Lei Dashan worked together to harvest rice and finished it in less than a day.
First, drain the water from the field. Since there were only two sickles, Lei Li used a grass knife. The grass knife was much larger than the sickle, but he was strong and used to using the grass knife, so it didn't have much impact.
The summer sun is very strong.
I feel the burning heat on my head at around eight or nine in the morning, and it feels like a big oven near noon. If I don’t wear a straw hat to block the sun, I will get sunburned in no time.
Lei Dashan suggested that they should rest under the shade of a tree for a while and wait for Liu Ye'er to bring them food. After eating and drinking a few sips of water, they could continue cutting. Otherwise, they would get heatstroke, which would not be worth it.
But Liu Ye'er didn't come.
A pretty young man came first.
He looks like he is about sixteen or seventeen years old. When he smiles, a small canine tooth appears on his lip, which makes him look very youthful. Wearing a white and blue school uniform, he can directly play the second male lead in a campus idol drama.
Lei Li keenly noticed that Zhou Yi's eyes lit up when he saw him.
The boy held a bag of plums in his coat and said in a crisp voice, "Brother Lei, Uncle Lei, I went up the mountain to pick some plums. They are so crisp and sweet. My mother asked me to bring some to you to eat and cool you down in the summer heat."
The sound is as crisp and sweet as a plum.
A pair of black eyes were smart and beautiful, and the fingers were slender and beautiful. She grabbed a handful of green and red plums and stuffed them into Lei Li's hand, with a drop of water dripping from her fingertips.
“…”
Lei Li glanced at the plum in his hand, his eyes sliding across his rough, muddy hands, and then looked at the young man who was not interested in drinking.
"Thank your mother for me. The plum tree is deep in the mountains. There are wild boars and wolves in the mountains. You ran so far away, aren't you afraid of dying there?"
"Thank you for your concern, Brother Lei."
The boy stuck out his tongue and said playfully, "But I often take that road. There are no wild boars there. If I see a wild boar next time, I will run back and tell Brother Lei and let him kill it!"
As he spoke, the boy grabbed another handful and gave it to Lei Dashan, leaving the biggest and reddest plum for Zhou Yi, smiling sweetly at him.
"Brother Zhou Yi, you eat plums too."
"Thanks."
Zhou Yi took it politely, but didn't eat it at first. He subconsciously glanced at Lei Li.
There are eight Lei Li and one of them.
There are eight dads and only one of them.
Is he being ostracized?
Zhou Yi took a bite of the plum, it was sour, but the one in Lei Li's arms was so red, it was definitely not sour.
After delivering the plums, the boy ran away. His black hair was braided into small braids and decorated with several blue flowers, which made him look smart and beautiful.
"Brother Lei, Uncle Lei, if you want to eat plums, just call me. I'll pick some this afternoon! The same goes for Brother Zhou Yi. If you want to eat some, just call me!"
“…”
Zhou Yi opened his mouth and closed it again, finished the plum in two bites, and sighed in his heart.
He also wanted to pick plums.
Lei Li definitely knows where the plum tree is, but he has to harvest rice today, dry it tomorrow, and thresh and husk the rice. He definitely doesn't have time to go there these days.
“…”
Lei Li's eyes were always on Zhou Yi. Seeing that he was reluctant to put down the plum after eating it, he felt a little angry and stuffed the plum into Zhou Yi's hand.
"Eat it if you don't mind the sourness."
"Thanks."
Zhou Yi took it without hesitation and ate it crunchily. He thought Lei Li was being nice today and gave him all the plums since he knew Lei Li liked plums.
Don't say.
The one in Lei Li's hand is indeed sweeter.
...But why did Dad suddenly glare at him?
—
Lei Li and the other two are all very quick.
Before the sun set, the two acres of paddy fields had been harvested and piled on the ridges. The remaining rice ears were also picked up by Lei Dashan.
Lei Li went home to pull an ox cart and used it to pull the rice back home.
Lei Li had just left when the young man from noon came again.
He was also holding a bag of plums with the hem of his clothes. The plums were bigger and redder than the ones at noon. He held them high in the bag, and people around him could see his little belly if they lowered their eyes. It was white and a little fleshy, and it looked good to rub.
But Zhou Yi was tall and only had eyes for plums, so he couldn't even see the boy's belly. He came twice, but Zhou Yi couldn't even see his face clearly.
——He is not a police officer or criminal investigator, why does he need to see it so clearly?
"Where's Brother Lei?"
The boy looked around in confusion, "Why isn't he here? I just picked some sweet and crisp plums and wanted to give them to him."
"He went home to pull the ox cart."
Zhou Yi's face was serious and he spoke righteously, "Give me the plums and I'll pass them on to you." Then he helped Lei Li pass them on to eat.
"no."
The young man shook his head. "I'm going to give it to Brother Lei myself. I'll wait here for him to come back. If you want to eat it, wait until I give it to Brother Lei, then you can ask him for it. But whether I give the Lei Li to you or not is not my business!"
"Anything is fine."
Zhou Yi nodded, not discouraged even though he couldn't eat it, and continued to sew the rice.
The harvested rice cannot be left lying on the roadside; it must be tied up into bundles so that it can be loaded onto the ox cart and taken back.
"Why do you want to tie it up?"
“Because it’s convenient.”
"Oh, you are so strong, you can carry so many grains of rice."
"It's okay, I can hold Lei Li up, it's just that you're too weak. Just practice more, and you'll be able to hold him up in the future."
“I can’t do that…”
"When you encounter something and you say you can't do it before you do it, you are just making excuses for not doing it."
Zhou Yi didn't like this kind of self-denial behavior when encountering problems, and he unconsciously frowned, just like training new recruits, which scared the young man.
“When doing anything, you must first take action. If you have tried and tried very hard but still failed, then it is truly not working. At this time, you need to change your thinking and take a different path.”
"If you say you can't do something as simple as exercising, then it's true..."
Zhou Yi paused, looking at the face that looked like a high school student, and was more tactful. "Anyway, if you don't practice, you can't blame others for saying you're not good. Also, please move aside. You're blocking my way."
"Oh ok."
The young man subconsciously gave way, but when he saw Zhou Yi bundling rice in a serious manner without even looking at him, he felt a little dissatisfied.
He is the most handsome guy in the village. How many men dream of marrying him?
If his mother hadn't said that Zhou Yi made a lot of money and knew many important people, and that after marrying him she would be able to eat meat and rice every day, he would not have been so eager to suffer!
The boy came closer and bent down to look at him. "Wow, your grains are so big, much bigger than mine, and they have more seeds. Brother Zhou Yi takes really good care of them."
"I didn't take care of it."
Zhou Yi said as he was tying the rice, "My father takes care of it. I've only come here a few times to pull weeds. He often comes to the fields to see how the rice is growing. Yours isn't growing well. Is it because your family doesn't take care of it enough?"
"During the autumn planting season, you can have your family come and see how my father farms. My father is a good man and will be happy to teach you. You can also learn from him."
"I?"
The boy pouted and said, "I can't do it. My mother said that my hands and face are tender and it's easy for me to get cut by grass leaves when I work. She also said that I don't know how my husband will dislike me after I get married, so she won't let me do it."
"But how can you not know anything?"
The little boy raised his little face with a little pride, "I cook all the meals at home. My parents and brother all say they are delicious. I also help brother and sister-in-law take care of the children and do housework."
"That's not too bad. If you don't know anything, you'll just have to rely on your parents for support. That's not good."
Zhou Yi nodded.
It's not bad to be a housekeeper if you can't fight. After all, someone has to cook for you. Isn't he fighting and doing housework at the same time?
As soon as Lei Li arrived at the field, he saw Zhou Yi and the little brother having fun.
The boy has a very beautiful smile.
Her eyes are curved, her face is rosy, and beads of sweat are oozing from the tip of her nose. She looks healthy and cute.
“…”
Lei Li felt depressed again.
He drove the ox cart up and loaded the bundles of rice onto the cart without saying a word. After loading the entire cart, he took it home without saying a word to Zhou Yi.
"Look."
Zhou Yi watched Lei Li walk away and said to the young man, "You can easily carry Lei Li. You are just a simple noob. You still don't need to practice."
"...How do I practice then?"
"Start tomorrow by running ten laps around the village. Once you're done with no effort, slowly add a hundred push-ups, a hundred sit-ups, a hundred frog jumps, and then some arm exercises..."
"ah?"
The young man felt his legs weaken just by hearing this, and he forced a smile, "Then when Brother Zhou Yi runs tomorrow, call me. I'm weak, and I might need Brother Zhou Yi's support."
"I'm not running."
“You’re not running???”
“……?”
Zhou Yi looked at him puzzledly and said, "Why should I run with you? I'm not as weak as you and I don't exercise that much."
“???”
The young man was confused, "Then what are you going to do tomorrow?"
"I'm working."
Zhou Yi looked at the fool with a subtle look and said, "I'm not as idle as you. I don't have time to pick plums." He even showed off in front of him.
Younger brother: “???”
No, is this person sick?
The young man left angrily, and Zhou Yi was still wondering, didn't he come to give Lei Li plums? Why did he leave before giving the plums to anyone?
If he doesn't give it to him, how can he ask Lei Li for it?
—
All the rice was transported back home.
The remaining grains of rice in the fields or the small rice ears that are difficult to pick up are not wasted. Ducks are released into the fields to eat the grains and snails.
The Lei family cleared a piece of land to dry the rice.
The sun is strong in summer, but the weather changes quickly and you never know when it will rain heavily, so you have to hurry to dry the rice.
A stone mill pulled by oxen is used to remove the dried grains from the rice, and then the husks are removed and ground again with stones to make white rice.
There is no shelling machine in Sanli Village, but there is a rice huller made of soil, bamboo, and wood. The basket made of bamboo strips or willow branches is filled with clay and inlaid with bamboo and wooden teeth, with a rice hulling groove in the middle.
Pour the grains from the holes on the upper fan and rotate the upper hulling disc to break the husk without damaging the rice.
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