I dreamed of being like Lu Miao, wearing a watch, applying cream, and living a prosperous and bright life from then on.
Li Yue, who was as dark and thin as a village girl, swallowed her saliva.
Pulse up your courage, hold your recommendation letter and walk into Kumon English with your head held high.
With the compulsory countryside class coming up on Monday, Lu Miao could only put off dealing with Lu Yuanzheng for a while.
Early in the morning, it was bright outside the house, and there was a crescent moon hanging in the sky and a few stars falling.
Tang Mei got up early to cook.
Lu Miao got up sleepily after listening to the noise.
Fu Jingyou followed her and lifted up the thin blanket.
Lu Miao squatted on the side eaves of the kitchen, brushing her teeth next to the vegetable patch.
Fu Jingyou mixed some warm water for her face, then bowed down by the well and washed herself quickly.
The stubble on the forehead was hung with water drops, and I didn't have time to wipe it off.
Fu Jingyou walked into the small vegetable patch where grasshoppers and crickets were screaming.
I picked two juicy cucumbers, followed them for a long time, and picked four or five tomatoes with most of their faces red.
After washing her face, Lu Miao came out of the room with her hands and face moisturized.
Tang Mei has already packed her lunch box and water bottle, and is bagging her and telling her:
"The drinking bottle is made of glass. Be careful when carrying it on the road. Don't drop it or cut it."
"Have you got the money? Keep an extra dollar with you in case you need it for other purposes."
"It's fine if you work slowly, take a rest when you are tired, and have a delicious lunch."
Tang Mei is an old mother who is worried about her children.
She could not rest assured that her daughter, who was carefully raised at home, had to work in the fields.
He was chattering and had endless things to say.
Lu Miao is also like a rebellious child in adolescence. She can understand her parents' painstaking efforts, but she dislikes their parents' excessive nagging.
“Oh, I got it, little aunt!”
Taking the handbag, Lu Miao opened the mouth of the bag and let Fu Jingyou put the washed cucumbers and tomatoes in.
"I'm going out. I'll be back in the afternoon."
"Be careful on the road."
"I know."
Lu Miao responded, grabbing Fu Jingyou's clothes from the waist and sitting tremblingly on the back seat of the bicycle.
Tang Mei stood at the door, watching the bicycle swinging past the corner of the alley, then closed the courtyard door and entered the house to continue working.
The bicycle clanked twice and stopped halfway.
There was no time to eat at home, so Fu Jingyou bought two fried dough sticks for Lu Miao.
Lu Miao stuttered, and he asked:
"Is it cold?"
Lu Miao shook his head.
It has just entered May, and it is still a bit cold in the morning and evening.
But it doesn't matter, it's summer now, it's early, and it'll be fine soon after the sun comes out.
Lu Miao's appetite was not very good in the morning, and the fried dough sticks were very greasy. After eating half of them, she pushed her hands away and refused to eat them.
Fu Jingyou had no choice but to stuff the remaining fried dough sticks into his mouth twice.
I unscrewed the cap of the glass bottle for her and watched her take a few sips to relieve her tiredness before continuing to take her to Junda.
The school gathers at six o'clock in the morning.
Fu Jingyou walked Lu Miao to the school gate and stopped.
He straightened the broken hair that fell around Lu Miao's ears and said:
"I will finish class early this afternoon and will come to pick you up then."
"I know. ”
Lu Miao said “Hmm”, waved to him, and trotted into the school.
Fu Jingyou watched in place for a while, then turned his bicycle around, went back to have a hasty breakfast, and hurried to school.
Working on Labor Day corresponds to the title of this holiday. This compulsory class brought together several grades and classes in the school.
It took more than an hour of walking from school to get there.
The land in the north thaws late in spring.
In the fifth month of the Gregorian calendar, the spring wheat that was sown earlier has only sprouted more than ten centimeters of wheat seedlings and is about to return to the jointing stage.
This stage belongs to the post-emergence management period, and the main work is weeding and top dressing.
Others are the sowing period of early spring crops such as sesame, spring peanuts, and sweet potatoes.
It is said that this period is the busy farming season in the north, and the work is plentiful and complicated.
But it may be that they are too embarrassed to trouble the students in these schools, so the corresponding production team did not arrange such troublesome work.
Lu Miao was assigned to a small courtyard in the morning.
The woman on the production team picked two large bundles of sweet potato vines and taught her and two other female classmates to cut them into small sections.
The cut sections are sweet potato seedlings, which need to be collected afterwards and taken to the ground for cutting.
The work is neither heavy nor tiring.
I just sit on the pony with my head lowered all the time. After a long time, my shoulders, back and lower back are so sore.
Lu Miao put down the scissors and straightened her back with both hands on her lower back.
Seeing her move, the two girls next to her also put down their scissors and took a rest.
“When I came here just now, I didn’t see anyone planting rice in this area. I glanced over and saw that it was all wheat.”
“It’s like this in the north. There are very few people planting rice...”
"I'll just say it! But the land here is really good, there are large tracts of it. In my hometown, I often have to climb one or two hills to go to the fields..."
No one had spoken before while working, but now that they were resting, small voices started to sound.
Someone saw that Lu Miao was wearing a watch, stretched his neck and asked:
"Hey, classmate, what time is it now? Is it time for dinner?"
Lu Miao took a look and said:
"Come on, it's already a quarter past eleven."
When the school set off, the cafeteria was not open yet, and all the students who came together were empty stomachs.
When I arrived in the morning, within an hour of walking, people were already complaining about hunger, let alone this time.
Lu Miao had a bite in the morning, but he didn’t eat much. He was a little hungry here.
Two big bundles of sweet potato vines, three people can work together easily.
There wasn't much left. Lu Miao thought about finishing it early, going to eat early, and almost resting, so she picked up the scissors again.
The same was true for the other two female classmates.
I asked about the time just now, and the distance between them briefly narrowed.
When we were working behind the scenes, everyone was chatting and the time passed very quickly.
For lunch, the three of them also sat under the tree and ate together.
Lu Miao originally wanted to spend one or two cents to ask a fellow villager to heat up his lunch box, as Tang Mei had asked.
As a result, they didn’t accept it at all.
He kept saying that it is not easy for them to study, and they have to find time to work for them. It is so hard.
Not only did they heat up the rice for free, but they also stuffed three steamed sweet potatoes into Lu Miao's hands and let the three girls share a portion among themselves.
Lu Miao brought her own food, while Wang Hong and Zhao Ying, who worked together, only brought dry sesame pancakes.
It’s just a piece as big as Mingyi and Mingxia’s fist, two pieces for each person. They were all received in the cafeteria a few days ago.
Dry pancakes are filling and durable, so they are not afraid of spoilage during this season.
It just hasn’t been as crispy as it was after being away from the stove for a long time.
Now the taste is weak, but the bite is strong, and the texture is like chewing a rubber band.
Lu Miao gave them all the sweet potatoes. The two of them were very embarrassed:
“You should keep them for yourself!”
Lu Miao shook her head, "It's okay, I brought enough food with me." (End of Chapter)