"Before you go back for lunch at noon, I'll put the bucket with half a barrel of herbal tea on the top bunk near the door in your room!"

"Ahh Lu Yao said.

"Then you haven't drunk any water all afternoon?" asked A-Ying.

"Isn't there a tap in the orchard every fifty meters? Lu Yao replied.

"The water in the pipes is coming down from the pool in the mountains, it is unsanitary without sedimentation and disinfection. A-Ying said.

"It's okay, I'm used to it. My hometown is in the mountains, and I grew up drinking mountain spring water. Lu Yao said.

"It's not good to drink raw water for a long time, it will lead to parasitic infection, remember to bring herbal tea out tomorrow! Have you not rested all afternoon? The weeds in this orchard have all been hoeed, and it should be more than three acres. You can't do that, it's going to tire you out. A-Ying said.

"No, when I was busy in my hometown, I had to harvest two or three acres of land every day, and I had to carry it back to the drying field. I didn't do much work this morning, and I want to get back in the afternoon. Lu Yao said with a smile.

"I told you at lunch that when you first started working in the orchard, you should get used to it slowly, not too much pressure, and combine work and rest. There are still more than 200 acres of the entire orchard without hoeing, and it will not be able to dry up in a short time, so we must be prepared for a protracted war. A-Ying said as she motioned for Lu Yao to go ahead, and she used a flashlight to show him the way.

Lu Yao stretched out his hand to take the flashlight and said, "You go ahead, I'll show you the way." You have four children and you have to do so much work every day, I am far from you. ”

"Did you listen to Brother Ah Hua that I am taking care of this orchard alone? In fact, my husband has done most of the work of hoeing the more than 100 acres of orchards. Some time ago, he was not too busy, and basically stayed in the orchard every day, hoeing and fertilizing the soil. Recently, he has been busy again, and he rarely comes back. A-Ying said.

"The boss can also hoe the grass?" Lu Yao asked in surprise.

"Lu Yao, it's not good that you can't remember what I said! Ah Xin and I both came from the countryside, and since we were children, we followed our respective parents to the fields to do farm work, ploughing, ploughing, hoeing, and threshing. A-Ying said.

"No wonder, when the old, ah, and new brother shook hands with me in the morning, I felt a thick callouse in his palm. At that time, I wondered, how could an engineer who had been holding a pen for a long time have rougher hands than me, a farmer who did farm work?

That's why Ah Xin is reluctant to shake hands with others. A-Ying said with a smile.

When they returned to the yard, Lu Yao felt unusually quiet, and even the two dogs stayed in the kennel honestly and did not come out, he couldn't help but get nervous, and shone a flashlight around.

"Don't be nervous, there are burglar guards installed all around the orchard and where we live, and if a stranger comes in, the police will be called. The children ate and went to sleep, and Ah Xin did not come back. Do you know what time it is? It's past eight o'clock. Originally, at six o'clock, I was going to come out and call you off work for dinner. Due to the need to bathe and feed several children, it has been delayed until now. You're hungry, aren't you? You go wash your face and sit down for a while, and I'll go heat up the food, and I'll be fine right away. A-Ying said, walked to the door of her room, turned on the street lamp in the yard, and then walked into the kitchen.

When Lu Yao came out after washing, A-Ying had already put the steaming meal on the table, loaded the food for Lu Yao, and sat on the stool waiting to have dinner with him. Lu Yao's heart was hot, full of emotion, and he almost shed tears.

After eating, A-Ying walked into the room, took out an electronic watch, handed it directly to Lu Yao and said, "This electronic watch is what I usually wear when I work in the orchard, and I gave it to you." From tomorrow, don't go past twelve o'clock at noon and no more than seven o'clock in the afternoon, and be sure to come back for dinner. On the desk in your room, there is an alarm clock, put on the battery, set the time and you can use it. The new battery is placed in a drawer under the desk. ”

"Thank you!" Lu Yao took the electronic watch and said gratefully. He put the electronic watch in his jacket pocket and immediately cleaned up the dishes and chopsticks on the table.

"Lu Yao, you go and rest, I can do these jobs. A-Ying said.

"It's inconvenient for you to carry a child on your back, and I often do the work of washing dishes and cooking rice at home, and these bowls are washed quickly. Lu Yao said. He put the dishes and chopsticks in the kitchen and immediately began to clean them.

After Lu Yao cleaned the kitchen, he walked into the yard and looked around, put a few toys scattered in the yard into the toy box at A-Ying's door, and then checked that the iron door was locked, he walked into his room and closed the door casually.

He lifted the lower half of the bucket of herbal tea from the top bunk, poured a cup of herbal tea from the stainless steel cup hanging from the bucket and placed it on the desk. He opened the suitcase that he had brought over at noon, and saw that all kinds of books were neatly placed inside, and Lu Yao's heart was happy.

He pulled out his first-year English book, then took the tape from his canvas pocket and put it in the tape recorder.

Whether it's the books in the suitcase or the cassette cartridge on the cassette recorder, it's all clean. It seems that in normal times, Ah Ying is often doing cleaning and nursing.

Lu Yao was afraid of disturbing A-Ying and the children in the next room, so he turned down the volume of the cassette recorder to the minimum and began to listen to the recordings against the English books.

In order not to affect tomorrow's weeding work, Lu Yao studied until eleven o'clock and went to bed.

At five o'clock the next morning, as soon as the alarm clock rang twice, Lu Yao woke up. He quickly reached out to turn off the alarm so as not to wake Ah Ying and the four children next door to sleep.

He got dressed, put his straw hat on his back, lifted the herbal tea he hadn't drunk yesterday, opened the door to his room, and saw two dogs standing in the doorway shaking their heads and tails at him. By feeding them twice yesterday at noon and in the evening, the two dogs have become very friendly to him.

"Two friends, I'm going to work, I'll come back for breakfast later, and I'll feed you later! ”

The two dogs seemed to understand Lu Yao's words, and they kept wagging their tails to get out of the way. When Lu Yao went out, they followed Lu Yao and walked towards the tool room.

He walked out of the tool room with a hoe, and then walked to Ah Ying's door, and removed a key from a hook that was attached to a copper wire. When he came back from work last night, he saw Ah Ying locking the iron door and hanging the key on this hook.