Time Travel: My Comfortable Life After Going to the Countryside

"I'm very curious about men like you!"

"I'm also very curious about New Brunswick. Everyone says that all the girls in New Brunswick can sing and dance, and can twist their necks. Is that true?"

"Yes, look." As she spoke, Jiang Xiaowen put her hands under her neck and started doing a neck-twisting dance, her tight and plump long legs making her pants legs bulge.

Liu Xiangyang clapped his hands, looking at those legs and wondering what it would feel like to have them clamped between his legs.

"I paid for the house repairs myself, and then I asked Village Chief Zhang to help me arrange it. Of course, you just need to decide what kind of house you want first."

Jiang Xiaowen: "I plan to live with Xiaoqin. It'll be nice to have company and save money. I've looked at Leqi and Leyao's houses, and I'll choose one similar to theirs."

"And what about the courtyard wall? Is it also made of mud?"

He Xiaoqin: "Let's not build mud walls, let's save some money."

"If we don't build a mud wall, that will only cost thirty or forty yuan. You also need to prepare the ingredients for the housewarming feast, so ten yuan should be enough."

Jiang Xiaowen discussed it with He Xiaoqin, and then Jiang Xiaowen said...

"We can accept twenty-five yuan each."

"We'll have time after the autumn harvest."

"Can we eat with you during this time? It's quite chaotic at the educated youth settlement. We'll replenish the firewood you use."

"I'm sharing a room with Xue Bingbing and the other three. You can use my kitchen. I have two rabbits. You can feed them some hay every day."

"That's easy, no problem."

Liu Xiangyang: "Then I'll head back now and get some rest."

A week passed just like that.

After everyone returned their tools at the end of the day, Zhang Tiejun and Wang Lixin kept everything behind.

Zhang Tiejun stood in the threshing ground in front of the village office and said loudly, "Fellow villagers, fellow educated youth, young and old men of Dongsheng Village, women who can hold up half the sky, and of course, children who have come back to help during the holidays, tomorrow is the beginning of the assessment of the results of everyone's hard work throughout the year. Whether everyone will be able to eat well next year, whether you can go to the county town to buy a piece of cloth for your wife to make new clothes for the New Year, whether you can buy some candy for your children, and whether you can buy some wine for yourself, all depends on the next ten days or half a month."

"Now we've reached the most crucial moment! We must seize the autumn harvest before the weather changes! The harvest is our most urgent revolutionary production task! We must carry forward the revolutionary spirit of being unafraid of hardship and death, and get ahead of the weather to ensure that every grain of fruit is safely stored! Does everyone have confidence?"

"Yes! Yes! Yes!"

"Alright, now let Captain Wang assign positions."

Wang Lixin: "The first brigade is harvesting soybeans, and Xie Zhiyong is among the personnel..."

"The second brigade is responsible for harvesting corn, and Liu Xiangyang is among the personnel..."

The third brigade was mainly responsible for harvesting potatoes, and its members included Roland, ...

"The Fourth Battalion is responsible for cooperating with the Second Battalion... Personnel include Jiang Xiaowen, He Xiaoqin... Zuo Qingqing, and Bai Jie."

"The people drying grain include Zhang Laosi's family, Li Er's family, Leqi, Leyao, Wang Cuihua..."

Basically all the men were assigned to the first and second brigades, while the third brigade, which was tasked with harvesting staple grains, was assigned to the more capable women.

The fourth group consisted of the elderly, women, children, and newly arrived female educated youth.

The teenagers followed the elderly to collect the fallen grain in the field.

Old Wang had it easy; all he had to do was drive the horse-drawn cart to transport the grain.

Liu Xiangyang, carrying a sickle, followed the group to the edge of the field. Harvesting corn requires teamwork; the girls picked the corn while the boys followed behind, leaving stubble.

Liu Xiangyang was paired with Zuo Qingqing, a girl from Hunan Province. The new educated youth had been trained in the previous days and knew what they were supposed to do.

Zuo Qingqing steadied herself, stepped forward with her left foot to brace against the stalk, bent her knees slightly, gripped the middle of the corn cob with her left hand while twisting it diagonally downwards with her right hand. With a crisp "crack," the corn cob was broken off and tossed into the bag tied around her waist.

Because Liu Xiangyang had to wait for Zuo Qingqing to finish clearing three rows of corn before he could clear the stalks and leave stubble, he had also helped Zuo Qingqing clear one row of corn earlier.

Liu Xiangyang was a little clumsy at first, wielding his sickle to cut the straw, but he quickly got the hang of it, cutting the straw in one stroke and leaving a three-finger-high stubble in the soil for burning in the spring. He bundled about twenty straws together, stacking them in a grid pattern with the ears facing inward.

The two worked together better and better. Seeing her working posture and her healthy skin, Liu Xiangyang began to believe what Zuo Qingqing had said before.

Maybe I can take her with me when I go hunting in the mountains again in the future.

The other educated youth were all working hard; they couldn't afford not to, as everyone was watching. If they slacked off or dawdled at this time, the village would not tolerate it and would deduct their work points directly. If they angered everyone, they might even have to return their work points, and then life would be difficult in the future.

Liu Xiangyang and Zuo Qingqing's group was considered outstanding among the educated youth, not much different from the villagers' groups. Liu Xiangyang also grew to appreciate Zuo Qingqing more and more. As a new educated youth from the south, she had strong learning ability, strong hands-on ability, and never complained.

"Zuo Qingqing, you're amazing. If you can persevere through the autumn harvest, I'll take you with me when I go hunting."

"Of course, I'm someone who can hold up half the sky too."

After working for three hours, the veteran educated youth could still hold on, but some of the new educated youth couldn't keep up. One of the new male educated youths fainted from exhaustion. Wang Lixin and his men dragged him to the edge of the field, fanned him, and pinched his philtrum. In the end, he was still asked to get up and continue working.

The four new female educated youths all persevered, even the short-statured He Xiaoqin, which made Liu Xiangyang look at them with new respect.

Liu Xiangyang's body is too abnormal. He would go up to help Zuo Qingqing break off the sticks from time to time, and then immediately catch up with the progress, and his body was not very tired.

Lunch was a communal meal provided by the village. The food was alright, though I don't know how the village preserved it. Each person also received a piece of bear meat as thick as a finger.

The villagers and the older educated youth were eating and chatting as usual, while the new educated youth lay on the ground like dead people.

Zuo Qingqing also brought some Hunan chili sauce. Liu Xiangyang smelled it and his mouth watered. He asked Zuo Qingqing for some and spread it on the steamed bun he had brought. He took a bite and his mouth watered from the spiciness.

Leqi and Leyao found the work in the drying yard much easier than in the fields. They just had to turn over the bean stalks that the first harvest team brought over and drive away the birds that came to steal the beans.

Xue Bingbing was the most relaxed, because it was the first day, and the items would be put into storage in the evening.

The mealtime was short, unlike usual when everyone had time to rest and relax. Soon, the three leaders joined the squad leaders, who started yelling and cursing, urging everyone to get up and work.

It wasn't until almost 8 p.m., after the scorekeeper had recorded Liu Xiangyang and Zuo Qingqing's work points, that the first day of the autumn harvest finally ended.

Liu Xiangyang first went to the drying yard to check on Le Qi and Le Yao, who were almost done. After helping them gather and stack the last of the bean stalks, they went to the warehouse together to see Xue Bingbing.