You are unlucky and I am tough

Chapter 106 Autumn Harvest

In the following days, the family went to the homes of villagers who still had mustard greens, bought the vegetables from their fields at the price of eight cents per pound, and took them home to pickle.

Cheng Shuang also gave the seeds to Chen and Xu Sanpo, asking them to plant them as soon as possible. Both families had less than an acre of vegetable land to plant, but they also told Cheng Shuang that there were not enough vegetable lands, and they would go find some extra vegetable lands in the village and rent them for some money to plant.

They all believed that Cheng Shuang would not lie to them and that if she said she could make money, she would definitely be able to.

After a few busy days, the autumn harvest in the village began.

As the dawn breaks, every household starts to get busy. The whole family goes out, men and women work together, and even the young children are not idle. They are responsible for picking up the missed rice ears in the rice fields.

Cheng Shuang and Wei Qinglang finally slept in. They had been collecting, washing and making sauerkraut vegetables these days, and had also gotten up early to watch the people at Taibai Tower loading and settling accounts. They were really tired.

The day before yesterday, Cheng Shuang reminded them that watermelon can be kept for seven or eight days if it is not cut, and other ingredients can be stored for two days without any problem, so the transportation team doubled its size yesterday, transporting more than 3,000 kilograms of watermelon and double the amount of ingredients back, so they didn't have to get up early this morning.

While the two were sleeping soundly, the villagers were already busy. Wei Nanxing went to help Cheng Zhengyi deliver the goods early in the morning. He had followed Cheng Zhengyi on a delivery trip yesterday and learned how to do it in advance.

The academies in the town and the county are also on holiday. Agriculture is the foundation of the country, and the exam questions also involve people's livelihood and farming. This is also one of the students' homework, so the academies will give students a holiday every year to let them participate in the autumn harvest, hoping that they can experience it firsthand and gain some insights.

It's just that some people go home to help, while others go home to be the boss. Cheng Lao Da and Cheng Lao Er's families together have more than ten people who can work. When they go out to work, they are always dawdling, so don't expect Cheng Caijun to work.

Not only did he not work, but before Hu Chunhua went out to harvest rice, she would also make him a pot of tea so that he could drink it when he was thirsty while reading.

The busiest person in the morning was Cheng Lizheng, who patrolled the village with a cane. He also had to drive out the lazy people in the village and supervise them in working, such as Cheng Dafu's and Wei Changgui's families. If he didn't go to their homes and scold them, they would not be able to have a good autumn harvest.

It was already noon when Wei Changgui was still sleeping, and his two sons were unwilling to move and just lay at home. Finally, the village head beat Wei Changgui off the bed with a cane, and only then did the family start to work.

Cheng Shuang's family didn't farm, so naturally they didn't need to harvest in autumn. However, when she got up, she found that Cheng Chen and Cheng Xu, who had just returned from the academy, were each carrying a small backpack and helping the hunter Zhao and the third wife Xu next door to pick up rice ears.

The rice fields of both families were not far from the bamboo house. Zhao Xiuwen also helped to harvest rice in the fields. As a scholar, he did not do much work on weekdays, and soon blisters appeared on his hands. His mother felt sorry for her son's hands that were holding a pen and stopped him from continuing to harvest. He then helped to carry the rice home, and other villagers praised him for being sensible.

At noon, Cheng Chen ran home and said that Zhao Xiuwen's shoulders were rubbed raw from carrying rice. He asked Cheng Shuang if she had any medicine, as he wanted to send some to Zhao Xiuwen.

Ever since the two children started studying in the county town and knew that it was Zhao Xiuwen who recommended them to Mingde Academy, they have been particularly fond of Zhao Xiuwen.

Cheng Shuang gave him a bottle of ointment, and the little guy ran out happily with it.

At noon, the sun was high in the sky and the air was filled with heat, but the joy of the harvest made the villagers ignore the heat and continue to work tirelessly in the fields.

Wei Nanxing also returned from delivering the goods, everything went smoothly, and he also helped buy the meat needed for the next day.

Cheng Shuang prepared the meal and called the two children back to eat. She also made some honeysuckle tea for each of them to drink a bowl to cool down.

After dinner, the two of them had to continue helping out, so she filled a pot of cooling tea and asked Wei Nanxing to help carry it to Zhao Xiuwen's family and Xu Sanpo's family to drink.

After Cheng Pan and Wei Xinyi washed the dishes and cleaned the kitchen, and fed the chickens and ducks, they found that there was nothing to do at home and felt a little restless, so they suggested going out to see if anyone needed help.

Cheng Pan was especially uncomfortable. She used to live with the first and second wives, and there was endless work to do every day. Every autumn harvest, she was so tired from helping to harvest rice that she couldn't even straighten her back. However, her aunt-in-law would still scold her for eating for free and working slowly.

This year we suddenly don’t have to do the autumn harvest, and the few chores we have at home are all done by the whole family together. It feels like a dream.

Cheng Shuang told the two to be careful not to catch a heat stroke, and then left them alone. She and Wei Qinglang prepared to go up the mountain and bring back sweet potatoes and potatoes.

Of course they didn't go to the old forest to dig. It would be dark by the time they came back and they were too lazy to run. They planned to go up the mountain for a walk and then buy some fresh soil from the mall and say they dug it up in the mountains.

As for those planted before, they are still okay, they have other uses.

This time they wanted to let the villagers know that they had dug up something good in the mountains, so the two of them did not go around the bamboo mountain, but walked up the mountain road with their backpacks on their backs. If they met someone on the way and asked them, they would say that they went up the mountain to dig herbs.

Halfway through the walk, I ran into Cheng Xiaomei, a newly married woman. She was wearing a light red, double-breasted dress embroidered with hibiscus flowers. She had her hair down on this hot day, a silver hairpin on her head, and a handkerchief in her hand like a rich lady. She was standing by the roadside talking to a few women.

Cheng Shuang and Wei Qinglang also went to the wedding banquet of Cheng Xiaomei and Feng Tiegen to drink a glass of wedding wine. With the money, the Feng family held a very generous wedding banquet. It is said that Tiegen treated Cheng Xiaomei very well after the marriage and took her to the county town to buy things several times.

However, every household was harvesting at this time, and Feng Tiegen's family also had a lot of land. Why was Cheng Xiaomei, the new daughter-in-law, dressed like this and chatting with people here?

Although she was confused, Cheng Shuang had no intention of paying any attention to her. She only went to the wedding because Feng Tiegen personally invited her.

Cheng Xiaomei caught a glimpse of them coming over and deliberately raised her voice, saying, "Tiegen is really worried about me. He told me I don't need to do farm work. I can just rest at home when the sun is hot."

A woman said with envy, "You are so lucky, Tiegen, to marry a caring and generous man."

Cheng Xiaomei became increasingly proud, and pretentiously raised her hand to smooth her hair, revealing the bracelet on her wrist. "I also think I'm lucky. Tiegen even bought me a lot of clothes and jewelry, saying that he would spoil me like a young lady in the future."

The path was not wide, and Cheng Shuang and Wei Qinglang passed by her without any reaction.

Cheng Xiaomei couldn't help but get anxious and shouted, "Sister and brother-in-law, where are you going?"

The call came out so smoothly that Cheng Shuang was speechless. Of course she heard those deliberately boastful words, but she just didn't want to pay attention to them.

Without even turning her head, she said, "No one is as lucky as you to be a young lady. My family is poor, and I have to go up the mountain to dig herbs in the hot summer."

Cheng Xiaomei was so angry that she grabbed her handkerchief. She came out wearing a dress just to make the villagers envy her. Especially after seeing Cheng Shuang, she wanted to hear her say, "Your dress is so beautiful" or compliment her hairpin and bracelet.

Then she talked about how good and loving Feng Tiegen was to her, asking Cheng Shuang to be envious, but she didn't react at all.

Looking at Cheng Shuang's back, Cheng Xiaomei lost the desire to continue showing off in front of those women, and turned around and left angrily.

Soon they arrived at her mother's field. There was a lounge chair under a tree at the edge of the field. Boss Cheng was sleeping with his legs crossed and his face covered with a straw hat.

This recliner has been never empty since morning. The eldest Cheng and the second Cheng take turns lying down to rest. Cheng Caizhi, Cheng Caipeng and the second Cheng's two sons also work for a while and then take a break. They have to rest for a quarter of an hour after carrying a load of rice back.

After Cheng Caipeng carried three loads of rice back home, no one knew where he went.

The male laborers were all lazy, so Hu Chunhua could only force her two daughters-in-law and daughter to work.

Seeing Cheng Xiaomei coming over, dressed in fancy clothes, Hu Chunhua immediately became furious and shouted, "What are you doing here dressed like this, you damn girl? Why don't you come and help me?"

Cheng Xiaomei used a handkerchief to wipe the sweat off her face in a pretentious manner. "Mom, I'm a member of the Feng family now. Tiegen said I don't have to work. Didn't you say that if I go to the Feng family, I can become a young lady. Which young lady needs to work?"

"Why are you here if you don't have any work to do?" Hu Chunhua was so angry. She actually took the words of coaxing her daughter to get married seriously. Not only that, she actually coaxed Feng Tiegen to raise her as his wife. Look at the material of the clothes on her body. She has never worn such good clothes in her life.

Cheng Xiaomei came here to show off to her family, but she didn't dare to tell the truth. She said, "It's so hot, of course I came here to remind Mom to take care of herself and not get too tired."

Boss Cheng took off his straw hat and said, "Talking about your concern is useless. If you have any filial piety, you should let Tiegen come to help us and let your father relax."

Cheng Xiaomei pouted, "But we also have to harvest rice at home."

"Then let Tiegen spend some money and hire a few people to come and harvest rice for his father-in-law's family."

Boss Cheng sat up and said, "With all this money, shouldn't he be more filial to his father-in-law? Why can't he be willing to spend this little money on you?"

"That's right." Cheng Caizhi, who was squatting on the ridge of the field and lazing around, also spoke up. "You're so reluctant to spend this little money, and you still have the nerve to ask me to make you a young mistress?"

"Of course he's willing to do that. Tiegen said, not only will I not have to harvest rice, I won't have to do any housework either. I'll be the young mistress of the Feng family in the future."

Cheng Xiaomei was eager to prove her status in the Feng family to her family. She snorted, "Isn't it just hiring someone to harvest the rice? Dad and Mom, wait. I'm going to go back and ask Tiegen to give me the money to hire someone."