Chapter 14 The wind blows and the thunder strikes - Section 2

May is the busiest time of the year.When the wheat is ripe, it needs to be harvested; the reaped wheat needs to be threshed on the threshing floor; To flatten the field; flatten the field and transplant rice seedlings.Seasons wait for no one, and all these tasks must be completed within the limited days. The bearded captain came to Ximi's house and said to Mei Wen: "You are female educated youths, so I didn't ask you to work as soon as you came. Now you have to go to the field no matter what, you prepare tools." He said in one breath Lots of tools to prepare. After the bearded captain left, Mei Wenmu was stunned.She has never done farm work, is not familiar with tools at all, and does not know how to do it.

Mom said: "Don't worry about it, what should you do?" For several days, my mother was preparing for Mei Wen to go to work in the field.Scythe, shoulder pole, rope, straw hat, towel for wiping sweat... Mom prepares everything one by one.The sickle is the one with the best steel, and the handle is the most comfortable to hold in the hand. I picked three of them. Fortunately, when one is blunt, I will immediately replace it with another one with a sharper edge.The shoulder pole is made of mulberry wood, which is both strong and flexible.Mom specially picked a piece of water and tried it on her shoulders, and felt that it was trembling like wings that could fly. ...

Most of the other female educated youths had to prepare by themselves, and they all envied Mei Wen. All of this is ready to go, and my mother is worried again: can she work?Where are these girls doing the work in this field?My mother has done farm work, but she knows that farm work is hard.When thinking of farm work—especially the farm work in May, my mother always said: At that time, people were like climbing a mountain of knives.Think about it, you have to go to the field to cut wheat at the fifth watch, and sometimes you have to work late at night when you do night work, and you only sleep for four hours a day. Whether it is cutting wheat, threshing or transplanting rice seedlings, it is a bone-breaking job. .

Seeing that Mei Wen, who was like tender bean sprouts, was about to go to work in the field, my mother felt very reluctant. Mei Wen finally went to work in the fields.She was wearing a straw hat, a towel hanging around her neck, and her trousers were rolled up twice.When passing by the field ridge, the farmers in Daoxiangdu all turned their heads to look at her, because she looked really good-looking—a good-looking farmer, a good-looking peasant girl.But after a while, everyone will know that good looks are useless.A pair of hands that were originally very dexterous, but clumsily holding the sickle.The girls of Daoxiangdu gathered a small piece of wheat in their arms with a light scythe, and then the sickle sank to the root of the wheat, and there was a "click", and the wheat fell on the arm. In the corner, with a light hook with the sickle, a small sheaf of wheat fell to the ground.After so many knives, they were piled up into a pile, and then they were very quickly tied into a big bundle.Looking at the plum pattern again, only a small row has been cut, and the stubble is still high.When one girl saw it, she giggled at the other girl: "She seems to be cutting leeks." When she said this, she showed the pride of a country girl.

The girls wanted to take care of Meiwen, so they cut eight or ten rows by themselves, leaving only two rows for Meiwen, and let her practice and play first.And even with only these two lines, after a while, she was pulled down by others.Seeing that he was gone, she was shy and anxious, so she cut forward without raising her head.She also wanted to cut more with one knife, but she just couldn't get them together, and when she finally managed to get them together, she found that they were not as good as one-tenth of others. After a while, the sun rose, and as soon as it came up, it was very hot. The whole world was scorching hot, and the wheat fields that could not be seen as far as the eye seemed to be burning in the sun.

The sharp wheat awns pulled Mei Wen's hands, arms, and even her face into thin, invisible scars, and when she got sweat, she felt a burning pain, as if sprinkled with pepper water.Sweat kept flowing into her eyes, and she didn't want to wipe them off, but her eyes were blurred, and she couldn't see what was in front of her eyes clearly, so she had to keep on wiping, which took a lot of time and fell more and more behind. behind the house. The bearded captain carried the wheat bundles across the ridge and said, "Miss Mei, keep the stubble shorter." Mei Wen turned her head to look at other people's wheat stubble - the wheat stubble was almost level with the soil, and then looked at her own wheat stubble - her own wheat stubble was tall and fluffy.She thought it was too ugly, so she stopped cutting the wheat and turned around to trim the stubble.After repairing for a while, I thought: I will be even more backward in this way.So he quickly turned around and went to cut the wheat.

The wide row of wheat has been cut down, leaving only two rows next to the ditch, like a long thin braid on a big bald head. Mei Wen kept pushing forward.She was anxious, and her movements were uncoordinated. One or two stalks of wheat were either pulled down by the sickle, or the felled wheat leaked from her hands and fell to the ground. Mei Wen suddenly felt that she was useless. While Ximi's mother was working at home, she was thinking about the plum pattern in the field: I don't know if she cut her hand?Didn't you get the wheatgrass in your eyes?Still talking to himself, "Don't compare yourself with others. This is the first time we have harvested wheat, so you can harvest as much as you want. Don't worry, no one cares about you. Cut it slowly, cutting one is also called cutting..." She sharpened the other two scythes to shine.

After the first class in the morning, Xi Mi came home to drink water. Mom said: "Go, give these two sickles to Miss Wenwen." Ximi didn't bother to drink water, took the sickle and ran into the field. After the second class in the morning, Ximi went home to drink water again. Mom said: "Send this bowl of porridge to the field. Your sister Wenwen has no appetite when she wakes up in the morning and eats little. She should be hungry by now." Millet didn't bother to drink water, so she picked up the basket containing the porridge bowl and walked into the field - she couldn't run, she could only walk slowly and steadily, as soon as she started running, the porridge in the bowl would spill out.

The bamboo basket was woven by my mother out of bamboo strips, and there was just a small earthen basin in it. There was almost no space around it, so the earthenware basin stayed there obediently without shaking.The clay basin has a cover, and on the cover is an empty bowl, a spoon, and a pair of chopsticks, and a small plate is placed on the empty bowl. In the plate are freshly cut salted duck eggs. The yolk is red and oily, making everyone greedy. . At this time, there were people who sent food to the fields, but none of the female educated youths, only Xi Mi's family sent to Mei Wen.

Xi Mi walks carefully, as if there are duck eggs on the ground, afraid of accidentally stepping on them.He just walked slowly on the long ridge. When the workers saw the bamboo baskets, earthen pots, and salted duck eggs on the plate, they all turned their eyes. A child carrying a basket, walking under the tile-blue sky and in the golden sea of ​​wheat has become a landscape in the summer field. Later, as long as Meiwen was working in the field, Ximi would appear in people's field of vision with a bamboo basket on time every day at this moment. Usually, Ximi always jumps and jumps when she walks.My mother said: "He grows up so big, I have never seen him walk." But at this time, the millet is really called walking, walking very steadily, evenly, very quietly, and walking is The steps of a girl's house.

People who work in the field like this moment. They want to see how Xi Mi walks across the field with a bamboo basket, and they will never tire of watching it. "Ximi, who are you delivering food to?" Someone asked intentionally. Ximi didn't answer, but continued on his way. "Small rice, is it for me?" the educated youth named Cao Ning asked. Ximi didn't answer, but continued on his way. At this time, almost all the people in the field were sitting in the shade to rest, but the plum veins were still being cut.She was already hungry and thirsty, and a sickle weighing about one catty felt heavy in her hand.After only a few hours of work, she felt that her legs could not move.Her hands were already blistered, but she gritted her teeth and persisted.She felt that she was too ashamed, why was she so useless!As soon as she started working, she panicked about the labor ahead.Ximi walked up to her all the way, but she didn't notice. Someone shouted: "Mei Wen, look who is here?" Mei Wen turned around and saw that it was Xi Mi, and asked, "Why are you here again?" "Mom asked me to bring you porridge." "I'm not hungry." Ximi just stood on the ridge of the field without moving. Someone shouted: "If you don't eat it, we can eat it." Mei Wen smiled, put down the sickle, and walked to the field ridge with her hands leaning on her sore waist, which was so sore that she couldn't stand upright suddenly. Ximi put the bamboo basket on the field ridge. The porridge is cold, thin, and very thirst-quenching.Sitting on the ridge of the field, drinking porridge in broad daylight, Mei Wen immediately felt a special good feeling, and for a while forgot about her tiredness and the embarrassment of being far behind. Xi Mi sat on the ridge of the field, although she had heard the class bell ringing, she didn't seem in a hurry.It was the first time he heard Mei Wen eating porridge - it turned out that when she was eating at the table, she never made any sound, as if she hadn't eaten.