Chapter 1137: Chapter 1137: Autumn Harvest
"I’ve long known that sons are nowhere near as good as daughters."
When Guodong arrived at Jin Family Village, Li Yunqiao wanted to bring Zhibin along.
"Forget it, Honglin and Lihong will see Zhibin tonight. Didn’t you say you wanted them two to go back to work?
There’s no one watching Zhibin either. If I stay home, I can keep an eye on him."
Li Yunqiao smiled and took his young daughter‑in‑law’s hand. "Fengzhen, you’ve worked hard."
"What’s hard about it? You hurry up and go, Guodong is still waiting."
When they reached Li Family Village, they still ate at the younger brother’s place, then went off to work together. Today Li Honglin and his wife had set off by bike at four in the morning.
They didn’t come empty‑handed; they brought brown sugar, cloth, and a few jin of pastries.
Zheng Lihong didn’t feel the slightest bit distressed spending it. This second uncle’s family really was too good to their side: white flour, eggs, big roosters, and watermelons. After autumn there would be potatoes, cabbage, peanuts, soybeans and such.
Their own family might live in the city, but instead of supporting the relatives back in the countryside, it was always the other way around.
The two of them shared one bike, and by six o’clock they were in the township. They ate breakfast there and even bought five jin of fried dough sticks. At first the stall owner wouldn’t sell that much, but Honglin pestered him shamelessly until, in the end, he secretly slipped the man half a jin of food tickets and managed to buy them. Before seven they had reached Li Family Village.
Every household’s door was shut, and there wasn’t a soul to be seen outside.
"They’ve gone out to work this early?" Honglin was puzzled.
"We’d better go home first. We’ve got so many things with us, we can’t not go home."
When they got to Second Uncle’s front door, they saw the "Iron General" guarding it too.
"Lihong, you wait at the door. I’ll go find someone."
A man they didn’t know rode up on a bicycle. There were still a lot of people in the village who didn’t recognize Li Honglin. After all, he really didn’t come back very often.
Honglin found Li Yungui.
"How come you’re here this early?"
"Second Uncle, where’s the house key? Lihong is waiting at the door. We’ll put our things in the house and then come back to work."
"It’s right up there on the left side of the entryway. Go open the door yourself and go in. If you get tired, rest for a bit."
The young couple came back half an hour later. Zheng Lihong didn’t want to squeeze into the cornfield, so she stayed with Honglin loading the carts.
Everyone knew this was Li Yunqiao’s eldest son.
The high‑intensity work wore the couple out, but seeing that even the half‑grown kids were more capable than they were, they were too embarrassed to stop. It would have been really shameful.
Li Yungui went to find Qu Xiaoli and told her that Honglin and his wife had arrived. Qu Xiaoli decided she’d leave work a bit early too. After all, her niece‑in‑law had come; no matter how busy she was, she couldn’t treat them too poorly.
They were busy until it was time to knock off work. Zheng Lihong felt she couldn’t even straighten her back.
Li Xue came running over, happily calling her "sister‑in‑law."
Looking at her little sister‑in‑law’s energy, it was far better than her own.
"Sister‑in‑law, if you’re tired just rest, otherwise you won’t be able to get up tomorrow.
We normally don’t do this much work either, it’s fine."
Zheng Lihong also knew she’d been acting tough, but as an adult working among a group of kids, if she ended up not doing as well as them, that would be too embarrassing.
The two sisters‑in‑law hurried home. With so many people to feed and only Second Aunt cooking, it was pretty tiring too.
"Sister‑in‑law, Dad is working in the village too, and Zhibin is at Aunt Lu’s place."
"Then I’m relieved. With Aunt Lu watching Zhibin, I don’t have to worry."
The sisters‑in‑law got home. Qu Xiaoli already had lunch in the pot.
Yesterday she’d gone to buy two jin of smoked meat with Jiang Xinyu. She’d also bought a big rooster, which Li Yungui had gone to the chicken farm for that morning, and Second Uncle had already slaughtered it for them.
She’d just thrown potatoes, green beans, and eggplant in and stewed a big pot.
The pot was filled to the brim. There wasn’t even any space left along the sides to stick corn cakes, so in the end they could only set a steamer basket on top and steam corn buns.
"Lihong, hurry up, wash up and lie down on the kang for a bit." A niece‑in‑law from the city—how could she ever have done such exhausting work?
"Second Aunt, let me help you cook."
"No need. Just have Xue mix the cucumbers and the kelp, that’ll do. Be good and go lie down for a while."
Another half hour later, everyone in the family was back.
Looking at his eldest son and daughter‑in‑law, Li Yunqiao felt quite satisfied.
There was plenty of oil and meat today, and everyone ate happily.
Zheng Lihong saw that Qu Xiaoli was getting a separate portion of food ready to take out.
"Second Aunt, what’s this for?"
"Hongjun is out sowing the fields, I’m taking his meal over."
"Mom, you eat. I’ll be done in a minute, I’ll take it to Hongjun."
"Second Aunt, I’ll come along too. I’ve never seen a rotary tiller and a seeder before." Honglin also sped up his eating.
"Let the kids go. You hurry up and eat, then rest for a while." Li Yungui also felt sorry for his wife. At her age, she was still the same as ever—when it came to work, she’d never once slacked off.
Zheng Lihong quickened her eating as well. "Dad, Second Uncle, Second Aunt, I’ll go have a look too."
Knowing the two of them were curious, no one stopped them.
Changhe took his older brother and sister‑in‑law to the edge of the field. Looking at the vast stretch of leveled land, Zheng Lihong couldn’t help sighing to herself. Goodness, what a sight.
"Changhe, has this already been planted?"
"Not yet, Sister‑in‑law. Right now the two tractors are just tilling the land. They’ll probably start sowing after lunch."
Honglin squatted down and pushed the soil around with his hand. "This really is something."
"Isn’t it? This whole stretch will be planted by this afternoon. Tonight Hongjun and the others will switch shifts and keep on with the tilling, and tomorrow in the daytime they’ll sow."
"They work at night too?"
"They do. The other villages are still waiting to use the rotary tiller and seeder.
The two new tractors we got this year still need to earn back their cost doing work for other villages."
Honglin clicked his tongue in amazement. He knew his second uncle was enterprising, and it really was true.
Hongjun had already noticed his big brother and sister‑in‑law had come. When he drove back to the field edge, he shut off the engine right away.
Seeing that always‑mischievous second brother jump down from the tractor, that scene stuck in Honglin’s mind for a long time afterward.
"Big Brother, Sister‑in‑law."
Zheng Lihong smiled with squinted eyes. "Hongjun, you’re really something."
Li Hongjun grinned and nodded. "Impressive, right? I think so too." He turned, laughing, and waved at the other tractor in the field.
Li Honglin laughed. Still the same little brother.
Jiushang’s family had also come to bring food. Just then Jiushang walked over.
Honglin recognized him. "Big Brother, Sister‑in‑law."
"You two hurry up and eat."
The fare at Jiushang’s place was pretty good too. There wasn’t any meat, but there were griddle cakes and scrambled eggs.
The two families pooled their food and ate together. Watching his younger brother wolf down his food, Honglin realized he really had grown up.
"Big Brother, Sister‑in‑law, I have to get back to work. What about you two?" Changhe asked, lifting his basket.
"We’ll go with you."
"Big Brother, I have to get back to tilling too. Uncle Cun Shan should be bringing the wheat seed over any minute now."
The brothers split up. The two didn’t go home with Changhe but headed straight back into the fields.
"Honglin, on the way here we saw that the other villages haven’t even started the autumn harvest yet, have they?"
"That must be because our village sowed early, so of course we harvest early too. Didn’t you hear what Changhe said? Second Uncle is still planning to go earn some money."
