Cutting wheat

  Although Yang Tao has always been a city girl, she still loves rural life at heart.

  Every time she goes to her grandmother's house, she is particularly excited. She likes to watch her grandmother and aunt feed the chickens and ducks, use a sewing machine to make clothes, and run wildly in her grandmother's vegetable garden. She also likes to follow her cousin, humming a song while walking on the small paths in the countryside. At that time, she felt that the sunset in the countryside was more beautiful than in the city.

  She had never done farm work before, which made her enthusiasm look like a legendary "Yè Gōng Hǎo Lóng" type.

  After embroidering with the village women for three days and telling stories to the little companions for three days, she welcomed her first busy farming season in this small mountain village.

  Yang Tao used to see wheat harvesting scenes at her grandma's house, where large combine harvesters would command the wind and clouds in the endless golden wheat waves, with a cart following behind to hold the grains. In just a short while, a large area of wheat field would be harvested, and the scene was quite spectacular.

  But this space and time obviously won't have a combine harvester, not even a small one.

  Yang Tao and her grandmother got up early with Pei Yifan, had a little something to eat, and prepared some dry rations and water for later use. For today's wheat harvest, Grandma got up very early and baked many large pancakes. Yang Tao knew that this was the last of their white flour at home, but fortunately they would be harvesting soon and there would be more white flour to come, everything would be fine.

  After walking for a long time on the mountain road, Yang Tao arrived at his own home and knew that even with a small harvester, it would not be usable here. The fields on this hillside are all very small, each one smaller than Grandma's small vegetable garden that only supplies her own family.

  All the way, Grandma told Yang Tao and Pei Yifan that every household in this village has its own land, which was opened up by itself. When Grandma brought Pei Yifan to the village, it was already very late, and basically all the places near home had been opened up by people. Fortunately, at that time, Grandma's body was still strong and hardy, so she went to a place relatively far from home and opened up more than ten pieces of land. Although they were small, they didn't scatter, and almost all the surrounding lands belonged to their family.

  Yang Tao looked around and saw that only three pieces of land were planted with wheat, which was slightly larger. The others were separately planted with potatoes, sweet potatoes, and spring corn. However, they were all very small plots, and even if added together, there wasn't much. It's likely that it would take a good year, with favorable weather, to have enough to eat.

  Moreover, this land is all on the slope of a mountain, and it's hard to irrigate in normal times, completely relying on heaven. Even if Yang Tao doesn't understand, he can guess that the yield of wheat must not be very high.

  Yangtao accompanied her grandmother to sit on a large stone and rest for a while before getting up and walking around. Although Grandma said that their own land was relatively dense and didn't need to run around to harvest, it was actually only in comparison to other people's homes.

  The soil on this mountain is yellow earth, with many wild trees and stones, not every place is suitable for planting crops. The land is also uneven, separated by large and small stones, from a distance, it looks like the "terraced fields" she saw in her language textbook when she was young, beautiful indeed, but if you really work here, it should be very tiring.

  No wonder Grandma never brought her and Pei Yifan here. It seems that before this, Grandma herself rarely came to visit. At least for the few of them, carrying water and food, as well as corn seeds, they rested two or three times along the way before arriving here.

  Yang Tao had just looked up and down when Road Dama and Liu Shu came, apparently Feng Shu was pregnant and didn't dare to travel long distances to this mountain.

  Those three men with them had dark skin, obviously often working under the scorching sun.

  "Mr. Lu, Uncle Liu, Uncle Feng." Pei Yifan spoke in a soft voice as always, but was very polite.

  Yang Tao immediately followed suit, shouting along with the others. Although it was her first time meeting these uncles, everyone seemed familiar with her and wore warm smiles on their faces. This was truly genuine kindness and sincerity, far more real than any grand or showy display.

  The big black actually came, making Yang Tao slightly surprised, but then let it go. The wind kite, even if it wanted to teach the big black martial arts again, would not want the villagers to know. During the busy farming season, of course, they would be very close to people and give the big black a holiday.

  Although it's not a long distance, everyone got up very early because of the long road. I guess when Road Big Niang and them left, Er Ya Tou and them were still sleeping!

  "Mrs. Pei, you're still lucky to have your children and grandchildren helping out." Lu Danni and Liu Aunt saw Yang Tao was also there, but they weren't surprised at all. For the past two days, Yang Tao had been asking questions while embroidering flowers, so they already knew that this child would definitely come along.

  Anyway, everyone didn't expect her to be of much help, she's willing to come along and take a look, so let her take a look too.

  Lu Bo cut some green wheat and handed it to Lu Dahei, who took two small handfuls of the green wheat, with the ears facing each other, and quickly twisted the straw.

  "What's this for?" Yang Tao asked curiously.

  "Stupid, bundling wheat!" Lu Dahei curled his lip at Yang Tao, it seems this little girl really isn't all-powerful after all, there's still a lot she doesn't understand!

  "Really? I'll give it a try too."

  Yang Tao was too lazy to argue with Lu Dahei, and immediately learned from Lu Dahei's example, wanting to beat Mai Yaizi. She thought she wasn't very stupid, but no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't get it right! However, Yang Tao was not like Lu Dahei, who would rather be stubborn than admit defeat. A good child should be willing to learn from others when they don't know something.

  "Big Black Brother, how am I supposed to do this? Why can't I twist it well?" Yang Tao leaned in front of Lu Dahei, her little mouth sweet again.

  Lu Dahei was obviously familiar with Yang Tao's act of behaving well in front of adults, so he glared at Yang Tao and, in order not to make everyone think he was "bullying" his sister again, pretended to patiently instruct her.

  "Look, like this, one twist, another twist, and it's done." Lu Dahei slowed down his speed so that Yang Tao could see more clearly.

  Pei Yifan also came forward, clumsily following Lu Dahei's example. Yang Tao took one look at Pei Yifan and knew that this brother of hers had never done farm work before she arrived, and was truly a spoiled rich kid.

  With the help of Lu Dahei, Yang Tao finally managed to twist a Mai Yaozi, but no matter how he looked at it, it was not as good as Lu Dahei's, it seemed that this was indeed a technical job, looking simple but not easy to do.

  "Don't twist too much, or it will be useless when it dries." Lu Dahei said, seeing the adults had already cut down several bundles of wheat, he quickly walked over to tie them up and carried them to the edge of the field, placing the wheat ears facing upwards.

  This is a laborious task, Yang Tao didn't even dare to try it, and estimated that the wheat hadn't been moved, and was going to be laughed at by Lu Dahei again. Seeing that Grandma wasn't harvesting wheat either, but was following behind picking up fallen wheat ears, Yang Tao also joined in picking up wheat ears.

  Pei Yifan took a look and seemed to have found another sickle, picked it up, imitated the adults' movements, and started cutting wheat.

  For Yang Tao, picking wheat ears was a very fun thing, being so close to the land also made her feel a different kind of solidity in her heart. But Pei Yifan was miserable, after just a short while, he was sweating profusely and his arm was scratched until it hurt, all he could do was sit down on the spot and pant heavily.

  The days are getting hotter and hotter, and Yang Tao's little face is also starting to sweat. Looking at the adults who are still bent over working hard, they occasionally use their sickles to wipe the sweat from their backs, but refuse to stop. She had heard her grandmother and Lu Danni say that the wheat would be ripe in a few days, and if it rained, there might not be enough food for the whole year.

  It seems that rural life is not as poetic and romantic as she imagined.