The old Zhou's harvested the wheat very quickly, and within five days, all the old Zhou's wheat had been collected.
Fortunately, this year, Lao Zhou's family has two yards. The ground is level and level, and the picked ears of wheat are spread in the yard to dry.
Two days in such a big sun is enough, plus it can always be in the field for another half a day.
Zhou Dalang and others continued to cut the wheat, while He and Fang stayed at home and beat the wheat with the flail. With a flick of the stick, the flail spun half a circle in mid-air and landed on the ears of wheat, and the wheat grains fell. on the ground.
Qian took the rest of the children to sit on a low stool with wooden sticks of moderate thickness and patted them bit by bit.
When Zhou Dalang and the others came back from the field, they didn't need the help of a group of young children, sick and pregnant, just tied up their sleeves and picked up a handful of wheat ears that had been thrashed twice.
Rubbing wheat is very hard, not only tiring, but also prickly. This kind of work has always been done by men in the old Zhou's house.
When Fang just came in, she was still not used to it, because as far as she could remember, women had always done more of this kind of work.
For example, her home is like this.
In addition to cutting and picking wheat, her father and elder brother also had to kill sheep, so she and her mother-in-law had always been doing things like cutting wheat, carrying water for cooking, and threshing wheat.
Of course, father and elder brother will help if they are free, but there are not many such things in her memory.
She didn't quite understand why the old Zhou's family had to wait for the men to come back and rub it in the dark.
But Mrs. He, who has been married into the old Zhou's family for many years, has become accustomed to it. Seeing Mrs. Fang looking at Zhou Zhou Lang with a distressed face, she even pulled her to comfort her, "It's okay, men are rough-skinned and thick-skinned, and the fourth brother can't beat him when he fights." It's okay, don't worry about him."
Xiaoqian also just came back from the fields, everyone had already eaten dinner, but they hadn't washed up yet.
She went directly into the kitchen to boil the water, and when it was hot, she called the aunt over, "Ask your sister-in-law and your brothers and sisters to take a bath, and go to bed quickly after washing, we will cut the beans tomorrow, we don't need you."
Da Ya is happy.
Xiaoqian continued: "Tomorrow, I will go to wash clothes, and when I come back, I will go to Xiaowan to peel some vegetable leaves and feed them to the chickens. If there are insects, remember to catch them."
Da Ya responded, and happily went to fetch water for a bath.
After the children are washed, they go to the women, and after the women, they go to the men.
This is also different from the customary rules of other families.
Fang didn't think it was a big deal before, but now this rule is very important when the farming season is busy.
Because everyone is very tired and comes back late, taking a bath earlier can go to bed earlier.
Of course Fang would not feel that the rules were set by her father-in-law, so it could only be set by her mother-in-law.
So when the men were not around, Fang couldn't help but whisper to her sister-in-law and aunt, "Grandma is really amazing, the rules of the family are so clearly set."
Feng Shi and He Shi nodded approvingly.
Xiaoqian burst into laughter, and was about to say something, but stopped when she saw Zhou Xi at the side.
Zhou Xi only said, "This rule is not made by my mother."
Fang blinked suspiciously, "Who decided that?"
Zhou Xi thought for a while and said with a smile: "No one has to make rules, but they become rules after getting used to them."
Man Bao came rushing in from the outside, all dressed in fragrance, and shouted, "Sister-in-law, daddy stopped telling me to catch birds."
Xiao Qian turned around and tapped her forehead, put away the washed dishes, and said, "It's fine if you don't give it. How much wheat have you wasted these few days?"
"Obviously not much," Man Bao said, "I use it repeatedly."
"That's a handful, a handful. Dad was busy harvesting the wheat before and didn't care about you. Now that the wheat is harvested, you can feed the birds with the wheat. Don't you feel sorry for your father?"
"Then you eat birds too, you all say it's delicious."
"That's not how it tastes delicious," Xiaoqian said, "Although the meat is delicious, the flour tastes better and lasts longer, don't you think? Besides, you go to school, and you have to read and do your homework every day. How can there be time to catch birds?"
"It's time, just squeeze and there will be."
"If only you thought the same way when you were reading."
Man Bao said seriously: "I thought the same way when I was studying."
However, Xiao Qian still didn't let go, unwilling to persuade his father for her, so Man Bao sighed sadly.
Regardless of her young age, she actually knew how to pick persimmons, so she dared to bargain with old Zhou Tou, dared to pester Xiaoqian to intercede, but she didn't dare to go to her mother.
Man Bao sighed, and the next day he looked for Bai Shanbao and Bai Erlang with his head bowed, and said, "We can't catch birds anymore?"
Bai Erlang, who has been playing with them for the past three days, exclaimed, "Why?"
The voice was so loud that everyone in the school looked at him.
Bai Erlang immediately lowered his voice and asked, "Why?"
"Because my father won't bring me wheat anymore," Man Bao said, "Without wheat, I can't use it as bait to lure birds."
Bai Shanbao pointed to Bai Erlang, "His family has them."
Bai Erlang was also about to blurt out "I have it in my family", but seeing Bai Shanbao said it first, he was not convinced, and shouted: "Don't you have it in your family too?"
"My family doesn't have any," Bai Shanbao said, "My family only has rice, and the wheat is far away."
His family's property is not here. Master Bai allocated a few acres of nearby land to his family, and asked his family to grow rice and other things, such as vegetables and fruits.
Anyway, there is no shortage of food in their house, even if the outside manager doesn't bring it in, they can still buy it from Master Bai, which is very convenient.
Only then did Bai Erlang realize that Bai Shanbao's family's field is not here, even the rice is only more than one mu, and it seems to be grown for fun.
So Bai Erlang became proud again, raised his neck and said, "Don't worry, it's just wheat, my family has plenty of it."
His family has a lot of land in Qili Village, a lot of land in Dali Village, a lot of land in Baimaguan Town, and a lot of land near the county seat. There is no shortage of wheat.
So when school was over in the afternoon, Bai Erlang ran away, and within two quarters of an hour, he came back with a servant.
Man Bao and Bai Shanbao stared at the servant with a bundle of wheat on his shoulders.
Man Bao also rubbed his eyes, and after making sure that he was not dazzled, he looked down at his homework, turned his head and said to Bai Shanbao: "Let's finish our homework before going to play."
In order to save time, they didn't go to Bai's house to do their homework, nor did they go back to Zhou's house to do their homework, but just sat in class and wrote.
Bai Shanbao also looked away, swallowed the word "fool", nodded and continued to do his homework.
Daji, who was guarding outside the classroom, lowered his head, his shoulders shook, and he raised his head with a serious face after a long while, but his eyes were a little wet.
Bai Erlang had already rushed into the classroom, and said, "Maizi is here, let's go quickly."
Bai Shanbao said: "Where are the fishing nets and sticks, weren't they left in your doorman yesterday?"
"That's right," Bai Erlang remembered now, told his servants to put down the wheat, turned around and ran again, "Wait a minute, I'll go get it right away."
Bai Shanbao and Man Bao looked at each other, and continued to do their homework slowly with their heads down.