Being a second wife is difficult

The soil on both sides of the ridge had been turned over and was a bit soft to the touch. Jiang Wan walked slowly, observing everyone's movements as she went.

Lu Wan was already squatting in the furrow furrow furthest away, her trouser legs rolled up to her knees, her fingers digging in the soil, and the small bamboo basket beside her was already half-covered.

Lu Zhao was on the other side, three or four steps away from her. His movements were much more proper. He would bend down and pick up whatever he saw and put it in the basket. He didn't dig, but just picked up the ones that had been missed.

His basket didn't have much, but every ear of corn was husked and neatly stacked.

Jiang Wan walked over and squatted down next to him.

"Mother?" Lu Zhao looked up at her, holding a corn cob in her hand, which she had peeled in half.

"Zhao'er arranged them in such an orderly fashion." Jiang Wan looked at the arrangement of the items in his basket.

Lu Zhao lowered his head and continued peeling. "It's hard to take them if they're scattered. Besides, these corns are dried out. We can hang them up when we get back and cook them in the winter."

As Jiang Wan continued the conversation, she pulled out a potato from under the withered leaves beside her. It was a little bigger than an egg. She held it in her palm, looked at it, and put it into her empty basket.

She wasn't quick in finding these things; she would only bend down to pick them up occasionally when she saw them, as if she was bored and looking for something to do.

"Mother," Lu Zhao walked over, took two ears of corn from his basket and handed them to Jiang Wan, casually saying, "Your basket is piled with all sorts of things. If it's not full, it'll easily get damaged if it rolls around."

"I have two ears of corn here. My mother put them in the basket to weigh them down."

Jiang Wan glanced down and saw that her basket was indeed loosely packed, with a few sweet potatoes at the bottom rolled to the corners, making them easy to bump and bruise.

Jiang Wan took it and put it in the basket, saying, "You're so thoughtful."

Lu Zhao turned his face away, his ears turning slightly red, and mumbled, "I'll go take another look over there," before turning and walking towards the other end of the paddy field.

Just a few steps later, a surprised exclamation suddenly came from the other side of the field.

Jiang Wan turned her head and saw Lu Hui squatting behind a big tree. In front of him was a pottery jar half-buried in the soil, with the mouth of the jar sealed with mud and a section sticking out.

He was using a small twig to dig the soil around the pot, trying to dig the whole thing out.

An old farmer nearby saw it, quickly walked over from a distance, bent down to take a look, and laughed: "Young master, those are pickle jars buried last year, not treasures."

Lu Hui's hand paused. He looked up at the old farmer, then looked down at the jar, and a small red spot appeared on the tip of his ear.

"...Pickled vegetables?" he asked softly.

"Pickled vegetables." The old farmer nodded. "In the village, they're usually buried for a month, and then picked up to eat the following month—they're crisp, sweet, and refreshing."

"Speaking of this old locust tree, it is a famous old tree in the village. When I was a child, this tree was already this tall. I heard from the elders of my generation that this tree is very spiritual, so many families bury pickled vegetables and wine near the roots of this tree."

"Everyone says that eating the pickled vegetables buried next to this tree will keep you healthy and live a long life, so people bury them every year. This year, this family buried them particularly shallowly, and I never expected that the young master would dig them up."

Lu Hui listened intently, and after finishing, he couldn't help but mutter, "I never knew this tree had such a saying."

After he finished speaking, he squatted down and carefully put the jar back into the pit, covered it with the topsoil, pressed it down firmly with his hand, then stood up and bowed three times to the old locust tree, muttering something under his breath, as if making a wish.

The old farmer watched from the side, a smile on his face: "Young master has a kind heart; this tree will remember it."

He patted the dirt off his hands as he spoke, "The old man goes to get busy over there, young master can play by himself." After saying that, he picked up his hoe and walked back along the ridge of the field.

Lu Hui looked down at the contents of his basket: a few peanuts, a cracked ear of corn, and two pieces of yam that hadn't been washed properly.

There weren't many, but the variety was good, and it didn't look empty.

Seeing that Lu Hui looked at the old locust tree for a while longer before running back to the field to pick up things, Jiang Wan didn't go over to him.

Because of her young age, Lu Shan followed behind her, and the two walked slowly.

She squatted on the edge of the field, her legs together, her hands supporting her chin, and refused to move.

Jiang Wan turned around and saw her, then walked back and squatted down: "Can't walk anymore?"

Lu Shan shook her head and pointed south: "I want to see the river over there."

Jiang Wan looked in the direction she was pointing and indeed saw a small river, shimmering in the sunlight. Several clumps of reeds grew on both banks, their spikes swaying in the wind.

"Want to see?"

Lu Shan didn't speak, but she nodded.

Jiang Wan stretched out her hand: "That river is a bit far, how about I lift you up and let you see it?"

Lu Shan hesitated for a moment, but still opened her arms.

Jiang Wan picked her up and lifted her up a bit, which opened up Lu Shan's view. She opened her eyes slightly and stared into the distance for a while.

"And there are ducks swimming around!" she suddenly said, her voice a little louder than before.

Jiang Wan looked in the direction she pointed, and there were indeed several white ducks floating on the river, motionless, as if they were lying on the water sunbathing.

"You have such good eyesight," Jiang Wan said. "I almost missed it."

When Lu Shan heard Jiang Wan praise her, she lowered her head shyly, then raised it again and leaned over to gently press her cheek against Jiang Wan's.

Like a little sparrow, she took a peck and then withdrew, saying softly, "Thank you for the compliment, Mother."

Jiang Wan was stunned for a moment, then couldn't help but laugh and reached out to touch her soft hair.

Seeing her smile, Lu Shan's eyes crinkled in response, and she moved closer to her, as if she had received some extraordinary reward.

As the sun rose higher, the children had been running for almost an hour, and they finally seemed to feel tired.

The accompanying maids and wet nurses had spread out a large cloth under the shade of the trees by the field early in the morning, and placed several plates of snacks and a pot of cold tea on it.

Several children, their faces flushed from running, gathered around and, without any regard for proper seating, sat down on the cloth. They each gulped down a couple of mouthfuls of water and then grabbed some snacks to stuff into their mouths.

Jiang Wan also walked over and sat down by the cloth. Watching them wolf down their food, she couldn't help but say, "Eat slowly, don't choke."

With half a piece of jujube cake still stuffed in his mouth, Lu Hui mumbled a reply and then bent down to reach for the teacup.

Lu Zhao ate politely, taking a couple of sips of tea before putting it down. He glanced at the others, chuckled, and seemed quite relaxed.

After resting for a while, the group began to take stock of their respective gains.

Lu Wan turned her small bamboo basket upside down, and sweet potatoes, potatoes, and corn rolled all over the ground. She even held up the largest sweet potato and shook it, saying, "I dug this up, the King of Sweet Potatoes!"

Not to be outdone, Lu Hui turned his own basket upside down before finding a few larger ears of corn: "I still have two king ears here!"

Lu Zhao didn't reply, but simply arranged the various-sized potatoes in the basket neatly on the cloth, thus revealing his secret.

Lu Shan was the youngest, and her basket contained only a small handful of soybean pods and two potatoes. Most of the potatoes were picked by Jiang Wan, but she didn't care that she picked the fewest. Instead, she carefully laid out the items in her basket one by one on the cloth, as if they were some precious treasures.

After Lu Wan finished counting her own, she turned her head to look at Lu Zhao's, then glanced at Lu Hui's, and started muttering, "Mine is bigger than yours" and "Your color is not nice." Lu Hui was not convinced, and the two of them bickered back and forth for a while, neither willing to give in.

Jiang Wan sat beside them listening without interfering, letting them make a fuss. Lu Shan squatted in the corner of the cloth, placed her smallest potato aside, looked up at Jiang Wan, and whispered, "This is for Mother."

Jiang Wan paused for a moment, then reached out and took the potato, which was still covered in fine dirt. She wiped it with a handkerchief, glanced at it, and without refusing, simply said, "Okay, thank you, Sister Shan. I'll keep it safe."

Lu Shan smiled at Jiang Wan again, as if she had a weight lifted off her shoulders, and then lowered her head to arrange her bean pods.

The other children were still counting their own things, talking amongst themselves about whose was bigger, rounder, and more completely dug.

The wind blew, flipping over the corners of a few leaves spread on the cloth, but no one paid any attention to them.

Jiang Wan sat under the shade of a tree, clutching the small potato in her hand, watching them gather around and sort through the muddy sweet potatoes and corn. She felt that this was more lively than any elaborate banquet.

The shadows of distant trees slanted across the ground, and the wind blew from the other side of the field, carrying the scent of earth and grass, which mingled with the laughter of children, making one reluctant to leave.