Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 55 Enticing People to Go on an Autumn Outing

Sister Jin tied her hair back up and said, "It's in the suburbs, far from here. It takes about an hour to get there from the South Station. Sanglinzi, ever heard of it?"

Li Na said, "Jin Jie's family grows rice. Go help them out during the autumn harvest in a couple of days, and I'll get you each some fresh rice then."

Xiao Wei said, "Okay, I've never planted rice before. My family's land is all dry land. When will we harvest it?"

Xia Maosheng nodded and said, "Okay, I'll give it a try. I've never done manual labor before. But I'm strong, I can do it."

Xiao Wei asked, "Sister Jin, how much rice do you have?"

Sister Jin leaned against the desk and said, "My family is small, and we don't have much land, just about thirty mu."

Xiao Wei's vision went black for a moment, then he stared wide-eyed and asked, "How much? Thirty, maybe thirty mu?"

Sister Jin gave him a strange look and said, "Yeah, it's only about 30 mu, which is the smallest in my area. My family is small, and I have an older sister who got married, so it's just the three of us. I also work outside, so we can't plant more than we need."

Xia Maosheng tugged at Xiao Wei and asked, "What's wrong?"

Xiao Wei, his face contorted, asked Xia Maosheng, "You've never farmed before?"

Xia Maosheng shook his head and said, "No, why?"

Xiao Wei said, "About thirty mu, rice."

Xia Maosheng scratched his head, looking confused, and asked, "Um, what's wrong?"

Xiao Wei was convinced and said, "Just like you laughed at me for never chopping vegetables, I'm now convinced by your claim of never farming. Let me put it this way, one mu of land is about 700 square meters, and thirty mu of land is more than 2,000 or 3,000 square meters. Harvesting rice is a fast job, called 'rush harvesting.' This stuff can't get wet in the rain. My dad's back hurts so much from harvesting rice that he can't even turn over in pain for more than ten years."

Sister Jin opened the drawer of the table, took out a bag of sunflower seeds, put it on the table, grabbed a handful and cracked them open, saying, "Not that many, six hundred and seventy per mu, less than seven hundred."

Xia Maosheng was still confused, and even Li Na looked at Xiao Wei with a curious expression.

Xiao Wei grinned and asked Sister Jin, "Sister Jin, do you collect the produce manually or by machine?"

Sister Jin, cracking sunflower seeds, said, "It's done by hand. The machines are quite expensive, and you have to wait in line. My family has little land, so the wait will be very long. If it rains in the middle, it'll all be over. It's much faster to do it by hand. Thirty acres isn't much."

Xia Maosheng nodded and said, "Yes, about thirty mu, that's really not much. Xiaowei, what are you doing looking like that?"

Xiao Wei pointed at Sister Jin and said to Xia Maosheng, "Ask Sister Jin how much a good laborer can earn in a day."

Sister Jin thought for a moment and said, "My dad can harvest one and a half mu a day by himself, and my mom and I can harvest about one mu a day together. That's about it, so what?"

Xiao Wei looked at Xia Maosheng and asked, "Do you understand? About thirty mu." He raised his hand and held up three fingers, gesturing in front of Xia Maosheng.

Xia Maosheng asked, "Why is it so slow? Is it difficult to do?"

Xiao Wei took a step back, spread his legs apart, bent over, stretched his left hand forward and to the side, and then waved his right hand in a circular motion, saying, "Come on, keep this position for an hour, and I'll treat you to dinner. You don't have to squat in place; you can walk around in this position."

Jin Jie's eyes lit up, and she smiled at Li Na, saying, "He really is from the countryside; his posture is more standard than mine. I can't squat down like that."

Xia Maosheng tried to imitate Xiao Wei, but after taking five or six steps, he couldn't keep going. He stood up straight and said, "No, no, this posture is tiring, like a horse stance. What's this all about?"

Xiao Wei said, "Harvesting rice, about thirty mu, I just keep doing it this way all the way."

Xia Maosheng widened his eyes and said, "This is the posture? Can't I stand up straight?"

Sister Jin laughed and said, "Standing up straight won't work. The rice stalks are only so tall. If you stand too high, you can't reach them. Actually, harvesting is more tiring than this. Your right hand is just swinging in the air. When you actually harvest, you have to cut the rice, and you have to use your strength. The sickle is also quite heavy."

Xia Maosheng was truly stunned. He said, "Then how do you collect your taxes every year? You can't possibly collect them for only one month, can you?"

Sister Jin chuckled and said, "We'll hire someone. There's still a month left. Finishing the harvest in a week is too slow. We're worried about rain. If it rains, we'll have to reduce production."

Xiao Wei said to Xia Maosheng, "Hiring people costs money, so in rural areas, the emphasis is on mutual help; a meal is enough."

Xia Maosheng said, "This help comes at a high price, Li Na. Are you trying to set me up?"

Li Na laughed and said, "If you guys don't want to go, fine, you can leave. I can't bear to lose face with you guys."

Xia Maosheng looked at Xiaowei, who said, "Go ahead, they've all agreed. Let's bring over Tiezi, Lao Li, Yang Changjiu, Wang Zhilong, and everyone else. Let's see if we can still fool them. There's strength in numbers."

Xia Maosheng thought for a moment and said, "Okay, I'll go coax them. I'll just say we're going for a spring outing, the scenery there is beautiful, and they even provide food." The group laughed together.

Li Na pointed at Xia Maosheng and said, "Big guy, you're so mean, haha, 'autumn outing and picnicking,' what's with the yellow leaves? There's no green in autumn."

Sister Jin said, "There are too many people, what are we going to do? How are we going to feed them? My family's food is just country food, we can't cook anything good, and we can't afford to."

Xiao Wei said, "It's okay, we'll just buy some vegetables and cook enough to fill us up. You guys use a traditional earthen stove too, right? Stewing a big pot of it actually tastes better than stir-frying."

Just then, the kitchen doorbell rang a few times. Li Na said, "Oh, it's finally finished. I can rest for a while now."

Sister Jin glanced at her and said, "You talk like you're tired. I've been standing here all morning without saying a word."

Li Na said, "I'm tired from thinking and talking, is that not allowed? You guys are doing the physical work, we who use our brains are even more tired, you know?"

Jin Jie looked at Li Na very seriously and said, "I'm saying, your head is so small, is it tired?"

The four of them laughed again, and Li Na stood up to hit Sister Jin.

Jin Jie is petite and weak, while Li Na is also thin but taller. After a few playful exchanges, Jin Jie started begging for mercy, as Li Na pinned her to the table and tickled her, making her laugh until tears streamed down her face.

"Stop making a fuss, stop making a fuss. I need to watch them work." Sister Jin struggled free from Li Na's grasp, tidied her hair, and walked out from behind the screen.

The kitchen was quiet now. The stove was off, the blower and exhaust system were all stopped, and the dirty water pump was in the next room. The only sounds in the kitchen were the laborers working and talking. Xiao Wei and his two companions could hear Sister Jin's voice from behind the screen: "Clean it up! Haven't you eaten? Sweep up and dry the water on the counter. Xiao Wang, where did you put that knife? Did you put on any powder? Why hasn't the trash been taken out yet? Li Lifeng, don't touch the oil pan yet, let it cool down first, are you trying to kill yourself? Who's going to change the cans today? Over there, those two are empty, take them away."

Xiao Wei glanced at Sister Jin's bed again. The kitchen was so damp and the air was bad. He could imagine what it must be like to live here. Women have it tough. Why is it so hard for people in the countryside? Why do they have to give so much?