CHAPTER 60: 60 HELP

The families in the village who had finished harvesting wheat had all moved to the threshing grounds. Everyone was in a hurry at this stage.

Nowadays, the weather can change to rain at any moment, so work must be done quickly, fearing the wheat gathered through so much toil might get soaked.

The few families who harvested early have already begun planting maize. Families with livestock have a noticeable advantage.

The Hu Chunhua family received three acres of wheat fields after the division of land. Early in the morning, Yang Minggang had already gone to the fields to set fire to the wheat straw.

Today, his wife went to her parents’ house to borrow money. He felt quite uncomfortable, not with his wife, but with his own family.

Actually, he knew how much money the family had, yet only twenty yuan was given to him.

He is the eldest and used to have a heart for taking care of his younger brothers. But this really made him feel disheartened.

Old Mrs. Yang did not actually give her two younger sons much more money this time, she herself kept a hundred yuan.

Now aged, with money on hand, she felt more confident, and those two who were out of order would be more cautious towards her.

The sweet potato vines had already sprawled. Su Yuanyuan ate the leaves of sweet potato vines stir-fried with minced garlic in her childhood. Today was a rest day, so she took a basket to the field to pick some leaves for lunch.

The little pig at home was chubby and growing well, but a lot of cornmeal had been consumed. She planned to go to the reservoir to fetch some water plants when it rained, so they wouldn’t need to be dried; just chop them up and put them directly into the pig feed.

More cornmeal needs to be ground, as there isn’t much left.

The next morning, she thought about fetching more water plants. The little pig loved eating them, with some small fish and a small amount of water plants mixed in.

After all, it’s a time of rapid growth, and if the grain is insufficient, the pig won’t grow as quickly, which would not be worth it.

Just as she was about to take things to the reservoir, Hu Chunhua came over.

"Aunt, what are you doing?"

"Yuanyuan. Aunt came to ask for your help. My family was allotted three acres of land, and I was wondering if you could help with the sowing."

"Sure, I’ll put these things back first."

Hu Chunhua really had no other choice. The other families had teamed up, and they wanted to plant today, but the livestock was divided among the three families. How could this work? They had a quarrel over it this morning.

They were only given one day to use the donkey to sow the three acres of land, which couldn’t possibly be finished.

After listening to Hu Chunhua, Su Yuanyuan said, "Aunt, how about I take the sheep to sow seeds? Would that work?"

Hu Chunhua nodded with difficulty, "Yuanyuan, then take the sheep."

Upon arriving at the field, Yang Minggang and his three sons had already started working. The youngest boy was leading the donkey at the front, while Yang Minggang guided the plow. The eldest son scattered fertilizer, and Yang Xue sowed the seeds.

Su Yuanyuan and Hu Chunhua began working from the other side of the field. Although the sheep could work, it wasn’t as fast as the donkey, but this worked out just fine.

Hu Chunhua was able to keep up with both scattering fertilizer and sowing seeds by herself.

It wasn’t until noon that Su Yuanyuan returned home; the sheep rested on the field. She felt a bit distressed.

Hu Chunhua invited her to stay for lunch, but she declined, saying she had pigs and chickens to feed at home.

It wasn’t until after seven in the evening that the three acres were finally planted.

Su Yuanyuan had gone home around five, and the Yang family spent another two hours covering the soil afterwards.

Once home, Su Yuanyuan gave the sheep some Spiritual Spring Water, gently patting its head with care. "Thank you for your hard work. Rest well."

Su Yuanyuan rested at home for a day, weeding the vegetable garden. Despite the tediousness, seeing the greenery filled her with joy, as it was the fruit of her labor.

Since the ground in front of the house was newly reclaimed, it was poorer and overrun with weeds. Although she plowed through it, much grass still grew.

There was no choice but to weed again. The weeds took away nutrients from the crops, and the sorghum had grown over a meter high. It was stuffy and prickly work weeding among them.

Using a big hoe was impossible, so she squatted and used a small hoe for the work. Reaching the other end, her back was soaked with sweat.

This year turned out well; it wasn’t until all the wheat was safely stored in homes that it began to rain.

Diligent families had already sown the wheat stubble, but the two lazy households of Hu Chunhua’s sisters-in-law weren’t bothered.

The donkey had been returned the day before yesterday, and yet they weren’t in a rush. One day one claimed a headache, the next a backache. After procrastinating for two days, when they finally reached the field and started arguing over who’d do the work, the sky suddenly darkened, so they went home again.

Seeing them return, Old Mrs. Yang sighed while feeding the chickens, consoling herself that each generation has its own fortune, and at her age, how many days can she worry?

Nonetheless, her mood was noticeably poor. No matter how she tried to reassure herself, she was still concerned about their future lives.

If the family hadn’t been divided, such a situation wouldn’t have occurred, and the wheat stubble would have been sown by now.

Old Mrs. Yang felt a bit of dislike towards the eldest daughter-in-law.

Moreover, the eldest son and his wife were no longer close to her.

In reality, Old Mrs. Yang was overthinking it; Yang Minggang and his wife hadn’t changed at all; they were still the same.

Seeing their mother not caring anymore, the second and third sons felt uneasy, naturally embracing the idea of not working if they could, wishing for heavier rain.

Indeed, their wish came true as it rained for two days straight.

During these two rainy days, Su Yuanyuan stayed home making clothes and ground a bag of cornmeal. She had two bags of soybeans in her space, which she used to plant soybeans she brought over, and even the bought soybean seeds were ground this time to be mixed into the cornmeal to boost livestock nutrition.

On the third night, the rain stopped. Su Yuanyuan originally wanted to pick up the ground cage but suddenly felt something was wrong. After two days of rain, the water level must have risen, so she decided to stay put and not take any risks.

Today was sunny, and around noon, Su Yuanyuan went to the riverside. Normally, it took only fifteen minutes, but it took twenty minutes today as it was too muddy, and she lost her shoes several times. Upon reaching the river, she witnessed a vast expanse, with the water level at least twenty centimeters higher.

Glancing from afar, she turned back home. As much as one might love wealth, one wouldn’t gamble their safety for it.

After two days of rain, it would take at least five days before fieldwork could be resumed.

Due to the heavy rain, the planted corn had already sprouted.

Hu Chunhua specifically came over. "Girl, it was great to have you. Otherwise, our corn might not have been planted."

"Aunt, I didn’t do much after all."

"I’ll start preparing to build a house in a few days."

Su Yuanyuan laughed, "That’s great. It’ll spare the trouble."

"Yes, even if it means owing outside debts, I’m willing. Without the money from selling fish last year, I wouldn’t dare to build the house."

"Things will gradually get better."

Hu Chunhua nodded with a smile, there were no lazy people in her family, even the youngest, at eight years old, could work. As long as they were willing to work hard together, a good life awaited them.