The heat of dog days at noon is unbearable, and even the leaves of the trees are about to be scorched by the sun, and they know that they are chattering and screaming in the trees, and their voices are long and short, as if they will die at any time; The sky overhead was particularly blue, and occasionally one or two clouds drifted by in the breeze, and the birds did not know where to fly to avoid the sun; There was a dog running from the other end of the field stalk, with yellow hair, a long tongue, and a tail shaking as he ran; It is the neighbor's guard dog, named Rhubarb, often runs to Chen Ruifeng's house to find something to eat, every time Chen's mother will give it half a bowl of rice, but this time it is to pick up its owner, and wagging its tail at him when passing by him.

Chen Ruifeng's striped T-shirt at this time was dirty, full of black mud marks in the rice field, his trouser legs were rolled up to his knees, black pants were even more difficult to spare, there was unwashed mud on his wheat-colored calves, his face was red from the sun under the big hat, he was holding two sickles for harvesting rice in his hands, Xu Xiaoyu walked behind him, her situation was not much better, but her face was more cute under the straw hat, unlike him, her face was a little smelly, and her mood was a little hot and unbearable like today's weather.

Chenjiagou in the recess of the mountain, every household makes a living by planting rice, the surrounding mountains and forests are dense and the water source is abundant, but they have suffered from the hilly terrain, and they cannot use mechanical farming tools to transplant and harvest, so they can only cut by hand. July and August are the busiest times of the year, and it is necessary to harvest mature rice and plant the second season of rice before the Mid-Autumn Festival, often at this time the whole family has to go out to earn some rations for the family in the second half of the year, but seeing the news that the agricultural tax will be abolished from New Year's Day next year, and there is no need to hand over a quarter of their own grain to the state every year, Chen Ruifeng thought to himself that his parents finally don't have to work so hard!

This morning, he and Xiaoyu, Chen's father and Chen's mother finished harvesting the largest field in the family, the eight-point paddy field that is as long as willow leaves ('eight-point' is the unit of measurement, the largest unit is the mu), and the harvested rice is put on the field stalk to dry the water vapor, and tomorrow pick up the rice in the drying field in front of the door to beat the rice.

Chen's mother went home 20 minutes early to cook, Chen's father went to the other fields of the family to check the ripening of the rice, and now the siblings washed their hands and feet and went home for lunch. Chen Ruifeng, who was walking ahead, remembered what happened a month ago, when he asked Xiaoyu, 'Why did you come to our house?' The answer was simple.

'Eat your fill! ’

After Xiaoyu answered his question that day, the atmosphere between the two became very strange, and after returning home, Xiaoyu was obviously avoiding him, and the relationship that was originally close to him returned to the original point, which made him inexplicable and depressed for a long time. After returning to school, less than a month before the end of the term, under the heavy workload of study, he didn't have time to ask why, and he only talked about studying on the phone once a week. But once I talked to my eldest brother on the phone, and I talked about her, like I like to read romance novels, like little dolls, chasing stars, etc., and even the details of the date are like a few treasures, and the love for her between the words is getting deeper and deeper, which deepens the depression in his heart a little.

What makes him more depressed is still to come, the eldest brother specially asked for leave to pick up Xiaoyu home on the day of the summer vacation, she and the eldest brother talked and laughed on the way home, he followed behind with a bag alone, and then noticed that she hung an ugly doll on her schoolbag, a yellow duck, when walking it will roll around on the schoolbag, the duck beak that can't be closed seems to be laughing at him, especially eye-catching, I haven't seen it before should be sent to her by the eldest brother, she seems to like it.

On the second day of the summer vacation, the eldest brother dragged him to the ginkgo tree in the back mountain, chose the thickest trunk, climbed up and down and installed the swing. said that it was to prevent Xiaoyu from being bored during the summer vacation, let her come to swing when she was fine, and let him tutor her in her homework, don't always pretend to be cool with a straight face, be careful of being disliked. Oh...... It's not a matter of a day or two that he is disliked.

The striped T on Chen Ruifeng's body is the old clothes of the eldest brother a few years ago, big and ugly, there are oil prints on it that can't be washed off, and the hem sways back and forth with his movements, Xiaoyu went into the house to help Chen's mother cook, and he picked up the wooden nail rake by the wall to turn over the millet at the door. A large field of hundreds of catties of millet is the fruit of their family of four yesterday's labor, and they can be stored in the warehouse tomorrow for another day, so he turned it very seriously, pushing the wooden nail rake over and over again, not letting go of any corner. The sweat on his face under the big hat was like rain, he raised his arm and wiped it on his sleeve casually, and the black mud splashed on his clothes in the morning wiped his face again, leaving a few shallow black marks, which was very cute.

The sun slowly sets on the other side of the mountain, the red sunset spreads in the western sky, the sky darkens little by little, the people who work have called it a day and go home, the birds flutter their wings and fly to the nest, the nocturnal insects have not yet appeared, only the green flies are still flying around in the night. The mountains in the distance are only left with the outline of splashed ink landscape paintings, and clouds of white smoke drift from nowhere between the mountains, and I don't know whether it is smoke or fog, as if entering the scene of a martial arts novel, allowing people's thoughts to 'soar' in that scene.

At this time, at noon, the neighbor uncle who was picked up by the dog appeared in sight, he was leading a pair of big and curved horns of the buffalo down the mountain slowly, followed by Chen's father who was carrying the rice, his back was a little hunched because of the burden on his shoulders, and he walked steadily and gently step by step, which was the last load of rice harvested by Chen Ruifeng and Xu Xiaoyu in the afternoon.

In the afternoon, he and Xiaoyu were quite fast, and they completed the task of harvesting a field before dark, of course, not as big as the field in the morning. Chen Ruifeng simply cleaned himself up and found a clean field stalk to sit down to drink water and rest. The evening breeze that slowly blew drove away the sweltering heat of the day, brought a trace of coolness, threw away the hat, tore off the towel above his head to dry the sweat on his face and neck, and threw it to the side, his legs hanging under the stalks, his trousers rolled up to his knees, and his exposed calves and stomachs pressed against the thatch, prickly and prickly, but he didn't care much.

After a busy day, I still have the sound of the sickle harvesting in my ears, the touch of my feet stepping through the mud one foot deep and one foot shallowly in the paddy field, and the pain in my left ankle when the leech was adsorbed in the afternoon. wanted to lie down and relax his body, but Xiaoyu's sitting down stopped his plan, she sat three fists away from him, the white school uniform on her body couldn't tell that it was white and yellow, her originally white arms were now a little tanned by the sun, in stark contrast to the skin color covered by the short sleeves, but a few marks on her small arms were still very obvious by the green leaves of rice, and there were also a few on her neck and face, and the little thumb of her left hand was still wrapped in gauze, which was cut by her own sickle in the afternoon, and the gauze had been dyed yellow by muddy water.

In the afternoon, Xiaoyu's sudden screams frightened his heart, threw away the work in his hand, and ran to check, she hung down her bleeding left hand, pretending to be calm and looking at him, with tears in the corners of her eyes, making his heart tighten. Chen Ruifeng still clearly remembers his panic and helplessness at that moment, but fortunately, he calmed down immediately, because he had cut himself the first time before he had mastered the skill of using a sickle, and he knew that there were several herbs on the side of the field to stop the bleeding. He immediately dragged her to find it, fortunately, herbs to stop bleeding are very common, rubbed the herbs with the local method taught by Chen's father, applied it to her three bloody fingers, and then asked her to hold it tightly with her right hand and wait for him to come home to find medicine and gauze.

"Brother Feng, today's sunset is very beautiful." "Hmm!" Chen Ruifeng's answer was a little unnatural, "Thank you today!" Xiaoyu raised his left hand and thanked him. Let's tear it down! The gauze is soaked, and it's not good for the wound, so I'll wrap it up again tomorrow morning. "Okay." Xiaoyu peeled off the gauze, revealing her whitish fingertips and the wound on the half-cut nail cover. "It still hurts." "Well, a little bit." Although Xiaoyu's voice was still soft, Chen Ruifeng already felt her closeness. "Brother Feng is late, let's go back." "Hmm!" He stood up neatly, then helped her to her feet.

The two of them went one after the other, this time Chen Ruifeng was behind Xiaoyu in front, or he was holding a sickle, Xiaoyu took off his slippers and carried it with his right hand, walking barefoot on the thick cow tendon grass, and the soft heaviness was transmitted from the heart to the heart, leisurely and comfortable. Chen Ruifeng also learned to walk barefoot, and instantly felt relaxed and comfortable all over his body.

"Chen Ruifeng, can I not call you 'Brother Feng' when I'm not in school?" "Uh-huh???" 'Why?' He didn't ask, Xiaoyu didn't explain, and the two of them just talked without a word. When he was about to arrive at the door, Chen Ruifeng vaguely heard Xiaoyu muttering a word and sighing slightly.

"Alas! I don't know when Big Brother will come back? ”