With the rescue of Jiang Zhixia and Cheng Yunan, Xiao Han finally managed to avoid being chased by four big geese.
"Ga-ga-ga-" When the four big geese were driven back by Cheng Yunan, their backs were still unrestrained and domineering, without any sign of frustration of returning empty-handed.
"It's so scary." Xiao Han clung tightly to Cheng Yunan's back, still feeling frightened when he thought of the thrilling "chase" just now.
"You have nothing better to do than to provoke them," Cheng Yunan shook the person off his back and asked with a smile, "Don't you know that geese are at the top of the food chain in the countryside? When they get angry, they even dare to nag people."
"I understand now." Xiao Han pursed his lips, looking aggrieved.
At this time, Sang Luo and Xia Zhi also came downstairs and asked Xiao Han about the details.
In general, Xiao Han could only blame himself for this. When he went to Aunt Hua's house to look for Xiao Bai, he met a group of geese on their way home for dinner. It was the first time Xiao Han saw rural geese. He had heard of their bad reputation, but he just didn't believe it. He thought that a group of fat and beautiful geese couldn't be that scary, so he went up to tease them a few times. But he didn't expect that the fat geese were not easy to tease, and they were annoyed by Xiao Han in an instant, and then they started to bite people.
After everyone heard Xiao Han's story, they all fell silent. After a while, they uttered two words in a chilly voice - "You deserve it!"
Xiao Han: “QAQ”
The next day, Xu Tian brought his staff to shoot. After hearing about Xiao Han being chased and peed by the goose, he felt very sorry and kept muttering to himself the whole day - "Excellent material!"
Finally, Xu Tian, who was unwilling to give up, borrowed four geese from somewhere and wanted Xiao Han to recreate the scene. Xiao Han was so scared that he immediately climbed on Cheng Yunan's back and hid. Later, Xiao Han threatened to quit the show, which finally made him give up.
Today is their sixth day in Jingwu Village, and the filming is about to be halfway through. In the past few days of filming, the director team did almost no interference, and the content of each day's filming was left entirely to the members to decide.
However, since none of the five had any experience recording variety shows, they didn't know how to create memes or show effects, so the first six days were basically just the members' daily vacation life, eating, drinking, catching cats and dogs, and occasionally strolling around the village with their hands in their pockets. Although life was easy and leisurely, it seemed too boring for a variety show, and there was nothing to watch.
So last night, the director team held an impromptu meeting and made adjustments to the subsequent shooting plans. It was decided that the director team would appropriately intervene in the shooting and set some more interesting tasks for the members in order to increase the fun of the show.
So, the next day, after the members had slowly finished enjoying breakfast, Xu Tian stood behind the camera and asked everyone with a smile: "Do you have any plans for today?"
The five of them looked at each other and shook their heads in tacit agreement.
Xu Tian smiled even more happily: "Since you don't have any arrangements, why don't you listen to our arrangements?"
Everyone looked at each other again and asked in unison: "What's the arrangement?"
"It's like this," Xu Tian explained to everyone with a smile, "These few days are the days for Jingwu Village to harvest rice. Everyone knows the situation in Jingwu Village. The village is basically full of elderly people, and there is a clear shortage of labor. Therefore, every year during the harvest season, the villagers are particularly hard-working. So I thought, since everyone has no special plans, why don't we go and help them. How do you think?"
Everyone's expression was a little dull.
"You mean..." Cheng Yunan asked uncertainly, "We go help them..."
"Harvesting rice!" Xu Tian smiled brightly, "Aunt Hua's family has planted two acres of land, but as you know, Uncle Hua is not in the village recently. So we went to find Aunt Hua this morning. We have already told her that everyone will help her harvest rice today. I think they will be here soon."
As soon as he finished speaking, Aunt Hua's hearty laughter came from outside the house.
"Xiao Sang, Xiao Xia, Xiao Jiang, Xiao An, Xiao Han, are you ready? Today's task is a bit heavy, let's go there early and finish the work early."
Five people:"… "
While everyone was still stunned, Aunt Hua came in carrying a bamboo basket.
"Oh, you are going to dress like this." Aunt Hua expressed her opinion on the five people's attire as soon as she came in.
Everyone subconsciously looked down at their clothes. They were wearing short-sleeved shirts, shorts and a pair of flip-flops. It was indeed not appropriate to do farm work. But to be honest, they only knew that they had to go to the fields to harvest rice a minute ago, so they didn't have time to change clothes at all!
Aunt Hua waved her hands in disdain: "Hurry up, go back and change. Change into something good for work. You know what to do. By the way, you are harvesting rice, remember to wear long clothes and long pants."
"Oh." Everyone responded dully, then went upstairs to change clothes in a daze.
After going upstairs, the five people began to rummage through their suitcases, and the atmosphere was very silent.
After a long time, Xiao Han spoke first: "We really need to go to the fields."
Cheng Yunan held his forehead and said with a wry smile: "Aunt Hua is here, it's not appropriate for us to regret it now."
Xiao Han scratched his head, looking distressed: "But I have never harvested rice before, have you ever harvested rice before?"
"What do you think?" Sang Luo sat on the bed with his arms folded, looking like a king—albeit a king who was sulking.
As a young master of a wealthy family who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he had never done such a thing, and probably no one dared to let him do such rough work.
After Xia Zhi changed his clothes, he saw Sang Luo still sitting on the bed, so he patted his shoulder and comforted him, "Don't be depressed. After being a young master for so long, it's good to come down to earth and experience the life of an ordinary person. Besides, Aunt Hua is so good to us. She always thinks of us when she has something delicious. Just consider it as a way to repay her."
Sang Luo lowered his proud head and let out a long sigh.
Xia Zhi laughed, knowing that his reaction was a compromise, so he opened Sang Luo's suitcase and prepared to take out clothes for him. However, looking at the suitcase full of branded clothes, he was silent for a moment, then he turned around and took out a set of clothes from his own suitcase and asked him to change into them.
After changing clothes, the five of them went downstairs. Aunt Hua saw that the five of them had indeed changed into long coats and long pants, and nodded with satisfaction. She took out five straw hats from the basket and handed them to them: "Put them on, it's so hot today, and you all have delicate skin, it's not good to get tanned."
The five people took the straw hats and put them on with mixed feelings.
"Let's go, let's go." Aunt Hua shouted and was the first to leave the house.
The five people also followed him out. Their steps were not as brisk as Aunt Hua's, but rather heavy.
Aunt Hua’s rice fields are not far from the B&B, just a five-minute walk away.
The five people followed Aunt Hua down the ridge of the field, each holding a sickle in their hands.
"None of you have harvested rice before, so I'll show you how to do it first. Watch carefully." Aunt Hua said as she took a sickle and went down to the rice field and began to demonstrate the movements to them.
"Watch carefully. First, grab a handful of rice." Aunt Hua bent down, gathered a handful of rice in her palm, and reminded them, "Remember, hold the root, otherwise it will be difficult to exert force. Then--" Aunt Hua raised the sickle in her right hand, "Remember to hold it like this, and then gently cut it down along the root. Remember not to cut all the way to the bottom, leave about five inches. Also, this knife is very sharp, everyone must be careful, don't cut yourself! Did you hear me?"
The five people nodded obediently: "I heard it."
"Okay, then come down and try it." Aunt Hua waved at them and said with a smile, "It's very simple. You are so smart, you will definitely be able to learn it right away."
Seeing Aunt Hua harvesting rice was not difficult, everyone was not so resistant and went to the fields with sickles in hand. After harvesting a crop of rice by hand, the last bit of resistance in everyone's heart disappeared, and they even found it quite interesting, and their enthusiasm for work suddenly increased.
Jiang Zhixia was the fastest of the five people to get started. Although it was his first time to harvest rice, he grew up in the countryside and had seen a lot, so he naturally understood it better. His skillful and neat movements won Aunt Hua's praise, praising his beautiful harvesting and fast speed.
Aunt Hua's family planted two acres of rice. Although it only takes a few minutes to harvest two acres of rice with a machine, it would still be a lot of work if it relied solely on manual labor.
At first, everyone thought this job was interesting and they were in a mood to chat and laugh. But later, as time went by, the sun rose higher and higher, and the temperature outside gradually increased. The long hours of bending over put too much pressure on the waist, and the body began to be unable to bear it. Gradually, in order to save energy, everyone kept silent and worked hard, and the only sound in the field was the rustling of rice being cut.
Fortunately, hard work pays off. After six people worked for a whole morning, the rice in the field was finally reduced by half. When it was time for lunch, Aunt Hua went back to cook for everyone. Everyone continued to work in the field until Aunt Hua came to call them back to eat first.
We had lunch at Aunt Hua’s house.
Aunt Hua’s house is the most traditional rural mud house. There is no separate dining room. They just set up a square table in the kitchen and eat there.
The kitchen space is not big, a farmer's earthen stove takes up two-thirds of the area, and a table is placed there, which makes it even more crowded. The kitchen is not well lit, and the lights are old-fashioned tungsten filament lamps with limited brightness. The lighting range is just right to illuminate the dining table, so that food will not enter your nose when you eat.
"Everyone, please sit down and eat," Aunt Hua put her hands in her apron, looking a little embarrassed, "The house is a bit messy, and there are no delicious dishes, please don't be dissatisfied."
Everyone waved their hands and said the meal was already rich, then sat down to eat with calm expressions.
These days, they have become very familiar with the people in the village and have also learned some information about Aunt Hua's family from the villagers.
Aunt Hua and Uncle Hua had three children in their lifetime. Their youngest son died young and has been dead for more than 30 years. Ten years ago, their second son got Parkinson's disease and was not cured after many years of treatment. They still owed a large sum of money. The second son's condition became more and more serious day by day. The couple knew that it was only a matter of time before their son left. But what they never expected was that before the old couple sent their son away, their eldest daughter passed away due to a sudden heart attack two years ago. Before the old couple got over the grief of losing their eldest daughter, their second son also passed away soon.
Within a year, Aunt Hua and Uncle Hua lost all their children. The blow of losing a child in old age is extremely heavy. Some elderly people with poor tolerance may even want to die when encountering such a thing. But Aunt Hua and Uncle Hua are very strong and still live with the most positive and optimistic attitude.
The couple's main income comes from Uncle Hua's salary. Uncle Hua is a good carpenter and usually builds houses everywhere. Recently, Uncle Hua took a big job in the county town and has been working there for two months. Due to the tight schedule, he couldn't come back to harvest the rice. Last night, when the couple talked on the phone, they were still worrying about what to do with the two acres of rice fields at home. Unexpectedly, a ready-made helper was delivered to their door.
While eating, everyone chatted with Aunt Hua.
Cheng Yunan asked: "Aunt Hua, is rice still harvested manually in our village? Why don't we use machines? Machines are much more convenient and save trouble. There is no need for every household to buy one. It would be nice if there is one in the village and everyone can take turns using it."
"Oh, I don't have the conditions." Aunt Hua waved her hand.
"Is it because you don't have enough money?" Sang Luo took out his cell phone and was about to make a call. "I can donate a few units and they will be delivered this afternoon."
"Oh, no, no!" Aunt Hua hurriedly stopped him, "It's not about the machine. Even if you can't afford it, you can rent one now. It's not expensive. The main reason is that there are no roads in our village, so the machine can't drive in."
"No road?" Xiao Han raised his head and thought for a while, "It seems so. The roads around the farmland are too narrow. It is indeed difficult for the car to drive in."
"Yes." Aunt Hua said, "The fields in our village are basically like this. Cars can't drive in, and even if there are machines, they are useless."
Xia Zhi couldn't help but ask: "What about building a road that can drive machines?"
"It was planned, but the village doesn't have much money." Aunt Hua shook her head and smiled bitterly, "Two years ago they said they were going to build a road, but there's still no sign of it."
"I see." Sang Luo held his chin with his hand, tapping casually on the table with his other hand, as if he was thinking about something.
Xia Zhi and Cheng Yunan smiled at each other. It seemed that soon this problem would no longer be a problem.
After dinner, everyone took a short rest and then went back to the fields to continue working.
In the afternoon, Aunt Niu and Aunt Qingxiang also came to help, and Aunt Niu brought her husband with her. Aunt Niu and Aunt Qingxiang's family conditions are much better than Aunt Hua's, and their children send them money every month. The two families no longer grow rice and buy ready-made rice. So every year, the two come to help Aunt Hua.
With the addition of Aunt Niu and her family, the efficiency was significantly improved compared to the morning. Xia Zhi and her family continued to harvest rice, while Aunt Niu and her husband threshed the rice, and Aunt Qingxiang and Aunt Hua were responsible for bagging. Everyone divided the work and cooperated well, and finally finished everything at four o'clock in the afternoon. Everyone was exhausted and sweaty, and their backs were wet with sweat.
"Thank you so much," Aunt Hua held Xia Zhi's hand tightly, expressing gratitude, "I am really sorry to bother you today. You have all worked hard. Aunt Hua thanks you. I will stew a chicken for you tonight so that you can all have a good rest."
This afternoon, Aunt Hua slaughtered a duck at home to entertain them. Xia Zhi felt a little reluctant and wanted to refuse.
"No need, Aunt Hua. You always take good care of us. We are just wondering how to repay you. You're welcome."
"That won't do." Aunt Hua disagreed, "You guys helped me a lot today. If I were alone, I would have a lot of work to do with such a large field... Oh, your uncle Hua called me. Let's not talk about it now. You must come to my house for dinner tonight, understand?"
Xia Zhi wanted to say something else, but Aunt Hua had already answered the phone happily.
"Hey, Wu Xiang, the rice is harvested! Five guys may have done it! They harvested all the rice in one day! You don't have to come back, just stay in the city and build... What?! Something happened to Wu Xiang?"
Everyone's attention was drawn to Aunt Hua's words, and they looked at her with serious expressions.
Aunt Hua’s face turned pale and she asked anxiously, “What’s going on? What happened to him? Is it serious?... Okay, okay, I’ll be there right away, right away.” Her hands were shaking when she hung up the phone.
Everybody gathered around.
Aunt Niu asked nervously, "What's wrong? What happened to Wu Xiang?"
Aunt Hua's eyes were red with anxiety, and she said in a trembling voice: "Wu Xiang fainted and was taken to the hospital."
"What! Is it serious?" Aunt Niu was startled, but soon calmed down. "Go to the hospital immediately. Don't worry about it here. Leave it to us. If you leave now, you can still catch the last bus. Hurry!"
"Yeah." Aunt Hua was at a loss and went home with red eyes to get the money.
Aunt Qingxiang looked at Aunt Hua's panicked back, lowered her head, reached out to wipe away her tears, and said distressedly: "What a fate our Ah Hua has. Both her son and daughter died in the hospital, and now her husband is also in the hospital. I don't know if Wu Xiang can make it out alive."
Aunt Niu quickly nudged him with her elbow: "Don't talk nonsense! Wu Xiang will be fine."
"Well, I hope so."
Everyone felt heavy-hearted as they listened to the conversation between the two.
Sang Luo suddenly turned around and shouted towards the shore.
"Xu Tian! Prepare the car!"
(End of this chapter)