Although the land of the Shu and Han families is small, they can ensure the harvest by drought and flood, even if it rains heavily this year, the crop yield will only be reduced by three or four percent. The land on the banks of the Joux is a good land, where rice, millet and wheat can be grown, and the crops change every year, and they tend to grow better without heavy cropping. So what is planted on this piece of land is not fixed every year. This year, Shu Han and his family planted rice.

These days, the crops in the fields will be ripe. Some families are already starting to harvest. Harvesting crops is the work of young and middle-aged laborers, even young adults like Shu An and Han Ning still need the help of their wives and children. Take a look at the current labor force of the Shu and Han families: the two elderly people and a fourteen-year-old child of the Shu family can support up to half a labor force together; A sick woman and two children in the Han family are also half a catty and eight taels with the Shu family. This is sad for these two families, because the harvest of rice pays attention to the heat, not too early, if the grain is not ripe, not full, it will definitely reduce the yield; It can't be too late, if it is too late, although the grains are mature and full, but if the heavier ears are subjected to strong wind and rain, it is easy to cause crop lodging, and in the process of harvesting, storage and transportation, the mature grains are very easy to fall off, which will also cause losses.

After a few more days, Shu Yan's rice was almost ripe. He is not only worried about his own rice, but also about Zhixin's family. That morning, Shu Yan and Xie Yi had breakfast early, picked up the sickle, and went to the field to harvest rice. Passing by the door of Han's house, I saw that Zhixin's family had also cleaned up early, Liu's health had improved in the past two days, and she was also preparing to harvest rice with her two children. In the past, Liu rarely worked in the field, not because she was lazy, but because she was cooking, cooking, laundry, sewing and mending, she had to do it, and the most important thing was that she also made money as a female celebrity, and she was idle all the time. Although it is hard, but the two of them are happy, there is no excessive luxury, this kind of male farming and female weaving, there are children and daughters of life, these two live quite nourished, feel very happy. Only because of this is that Han Ning's departure will cause Liu to be so traumatized.

They both looked at each other's labor lineup, and they felt sorry for each other for a while, especially the Han family felt even more sad, sorry for the Shu family, because Shu An and his family were only doing it to save their Han family. Liu remembered the fact that Shu An gave them firewood and rice clothes, and Zhixin and Ruoxin remembered that Shu Yan let their sister practice calligraphy with paper and pen, and the various benefits of the Shu family were vivid......

Shu Yan saw Zhixin come out, and the two looked at each other for a while. After this accident, both seem to have grown two years older and appear to be much more mature.

At that time, men had to tie up their hair at the age of fifteen, but they were not allowed to wear crowns, and they did not perform crowns until they were twenty years old, wearing hats that indicated adults. Until the age of fifteen, the hair is loose or has two horns. Shu Yan is only fourteen years old, but now everything in the family is taken care of by him, and he has become the pillar of the family. In order to make himself look a little more mature, he tied up his hair in advance.

When a woman reaches the age of fifteen, if she has promised to marry, she will also put her hair on the top of her head and call it a curtain, indicating that she has reached adulthood. At the age of twenty, even if you are not married, your hair must be coiled. Girls under the age of fifteen, underage, headdresses are more casual.

Shu Yan looked at Zhixin, the hair on the top of her head was tied in a bun, and the rest of the hair naturally drooped on her shoulders. With less childlike immaturity on her face and more youthfulness of a girl, it won't take two years to definitely become a slim beauty. At this time, he suddenly remembered the famous saying of Sage Kong - "Don't look at indecent things", his face turned red, and he hurriedly looked away. If you look at people who have played with you since childhood, how can it be called indecency? I know it's not indecent, but why do I blush? This feeling has never been felt before.

Zhixin looked at Shu Yan and looked at the young man who had already tied his hair early. Although he "pretends to be mature", his handsome face is obviously immature, looking familiar and unfamiliar. This poor brother with a different surname of the same age, alas, owes his family too much. Although Zhixin didn't understand the dogmas such as "don't look at incivility" in the Analects, the girl's shyness was innate, and she also looked away.

Although the two of them are underage and do not have a trace of distractions, they have grown up after all, and now they have rarely had physical contact. Together they just talk and read, and they don't fight as unscrupulously as before.

"Brother Yan, you said that our rice can be harvested in a few days?" Now that they have grown up, Zhixin's name Shu Yan is not a childish and overly intimate "Brother Yan".

"If others use it for three days, we will use it for five days, and if it doesn't work, it will take seven days, and there will always be a time to finish!"

"Yes, there's always a time to finish!" The two men looked at each other and smiled, this was the first time they had laughed since their parents had an accident.

The two families spent dozens of days in sorrow and despair. Today, Xie Yi and Liu Shi felt a little relieved after listening to the words of these two children, and their strength seemed to be greater. The five of them encouraged each other with their eyes, held their strength, and prepared to work hard for a few days. They seem to have forgotten how difficult the process of rice harvesting and storage is for them.

The five of them harvested from morning to noon, and each of them had a different harvest, but they were all exhausted. Xie Yi harvested more, Liu and Shu Yan followed, Zhixin again, and Ruoxin the least. Xie Yi is old and frail, Liu is dragging the sick body, and the three children are weak and weak, and their skills are not skilled enough. This morning, they had only harvested about 10 percent. Looking at the golden ears of rice, they were mixed blessings.

Shu Yan wiped his sweat and looked at the end of the rice field not far away, he never thought that his rice field was so big. He looked up at the sun again, and this surprised him a lot—he had just been harvesting the rice, and at some point there were many dark clouds in the sky.

"Grandpa Xie, look at the sky!"

Xie Yi was already an ancient person, and when Shu An and his family were there, they didn't let him do this kind of work at all. But now that the situation has changed abruptly, there is really no way. The old man was swinging his sickle with his head bored, and when he looked up with Shu Yan's shout, he was startled: "It's broken, it's going to rain." ”

This can make a few people anxious. Because it is good that the rice is not harvested, the harvested rice is the most afraid of rain and is easy to mold. Although the weather will not come as quickly as the storm in summer, it will not rain more than before dark at the latest. Neither of them has an ox cart, not even a wheelbarrow, so how can these rice grains be transported back!

Everyone was struggling with how to transport rice home, but something even more worrying happened. Father-in-law Xie is very old, he has just been tired for most of the day with his head stuffy, and when he looks up at the sky in a hurry, he suddenly feels dizzy, his legs and feet are weak, and he almost faints to the ground, but fortunately, Shu Yan helped him in time.

Even if you know that it is going to rain, you should hurry up and harvest more rice at this time, even if you can't transport it home, at least it can be stacked together and covered with hay, but Shu Yan doesn't care about this, people are much more important than rice!

Shu Yan helped Gonggong Xie leaning against a tree, and was secretly worried, when he suddenly saw a group of people in the distance, about twenty of them, and two ox carts, heading straight for them. When they got closer, they found that each of them had a sickle in his hand.

"Grandpa Xia, why are you going?"

"Of course, it's for you to harvest rice. Yan'er, you kid, didn't I tell you a month ago, when your family harvests rice, tell everyone that everyone would rather not harvest their own rice than harvest it for your two families. How can you two old and young, sick and crooked, do this job! ”

It turned out that a month ago, Pavilion Chief Xia had told Shu Yan and Zhixin that everyone would help them harvest rice. But Shu Yan is a strong person, and he will not ask for help easily unless he has to. So he never mentioned today's rice harvest to anyone else. Although he didn't want others to help, his villagers were worried about it, but they didn't know when they would receive it. Today, someone saw them go to harvest rice, and everyone passed on two, two and three, and in a short time about 20 people spontaneously organized.

Shu Yan saw that there was an ox cart, and hurriedly planned to help Xie Yi into the ox cart.

"Father-in-law Xie, get in the car, let's go home first."

Xie Yi resolutely did not get into the car: "No, I'm fine, it's important to harvest rice." ”

Where was Shu Yan willing to listen, and hurriedly called Zhixin: "Zhixin, help Father-in-law Xie go home, we are here." ”

After Zhixin helped Xie Yi leave, the rest of the people began to harvest rice. These twenty young men in the prime of life, compared with the five people who are old, weak, sick and young, this combat strength is simply eighteen levels. Before the unitary period, all the rice of these two families was harvested at home. Dr. Shu hurriedly asked everyone to eat, but everyone refused. Shu Yan was helpless and sent everyone away, and as soon as he entered the door, it rained heavily. This rice harvest is really timely.

After harvesting the rice, Shu Yan still couldn't be idle, he immediately went to see Gonggong Xie. Gonggong Xie said that it was fine, but Shu Yan still helped him hire a doctor, and the doctor diagnosed the pulse, shook his head and said: "I'm old, I'm afraid I can't recover, grab some medicine, it's good to save my life." Shu Yan burst into tears when he listened. Father-in-law Xie grew up watching him, and Shu Yan also treated him as his own grandfather, and never treated him as an outsider. Shu Yan grabbed the medicine according to the prescription and fed it to Father-in-law Xie.

Shu Yan set up a spiritual seat for his parents and made some offerings during the New Year's holidays. Although the bodies of my parents were not seen after being swept away by the flood, everyone knew that it was impossible to live. The Han family insisted on not wanting to admit that her husband was dead, so her family did not set up a spiritual seat for Han Ning. The more rainy it is, the more I miss my loved ones. Dr. Shu, Shu Yan, Zhixin, Ruoxin and others all shed tears at home. Others are fine, but Zhixin's mother Liu can't stand it, plus she is tired today, she can't breathe, and she can't stop coughing. Zhixin hurriedly grabbed the medicine according to Doctor Liu's prescription. Liu took two doses and calmed down a bit.

Since then, Shu Yan and Zhixin have had an additional burden of taking care of patients in addition to heavy housework.