Traveling through ancient times: living a different life

As summer begins, the day becomes hotter than the last. The sun hangs in the sky like a fireball, scorching the earth.

In the blink of an eye, it is late July, and tomorrow Chen Biyue's family will start harvesting rice.

Biyue leaned lazily on the bamboo chair, fanning herself with a small fan in her right hand, her eyes fixed on the book in her left hand, but her mind was already wandering somewhere else.

I was thinking about taking a few days off tomorrow to go to the fields to watch my grandfather and others harvest rice.

I grew up in the city in my previous life, so I was unfamiliar with and didn’t understand this area, and I wanted to go and watch the fun in person.

Doctor Lin came over with a fan in his hand, and the sweat on his face never stopped. He said to the little girl who was studying hard, "Xiaoyue, your family will start the summer harvest tomorrow. If your family is busy, don't come over for the time being. You can rest at home or help out in the next few days."

"Master, I'm still young and probably can't help much, but I want to watch my father harvest rice. It must be a lively scene. Last year, I was only four years old, and my grandparents didn't let me go to the fields. This year is different. I can go up the mountain with you to collect herbs. My family will definitely allow me to go. Since you said so, Master, I will rest for three days before coming back. Don't miss me!"

Blink your big eyes mischievously.

"Naughty, haha!"

Wearing a straw hat on his head and walking briskly on the way home, he greeted a few familiar villagers, and they also had smiles on their faces.

The harvest season makes people happy.

This is a big event for farmers. After working hard for half a year, there are immediate results. How can we not be happy?

My grandfather has been talking about it these days, saying that this year there has been good rain and plenty of sunshine, the rice ears in the fields are full, and the harvest should be better than last year.

Everyone feels that life is becoming more and more promising.

There are many fields at home, so grandpa goes out after lunch.

Bi Yue looked at the scorching sun outside and turned to ask her grandmother: "Where is Grandpa going in the middle of the day when the sun is so strong?" Grandma said gently: "He must be going to look for the three people who helped us harvest rice last year."

These three families had relatively small fields, and their own rice was harvested in less than a day, so they were all willing to come to the Chen family to help.

The Chen family was very generous when hiring people, providing breakfast and lunch, the food was good, and they also paid 30 cents a day.

Grandma said that although there are four laborers in the family, they can finish the harvest in a few more days, but she doesn't want her husband and son to work too hard, so spending a little money is worth it.

It only takes two or three days at most to hire some help to finish the harvest. Taking advantage of the good weather during these days, we dried the harvested millet and other grains, which was a great accomplishment.

At noon, a carriage came from a distance and drove to the door of Chen's house. A man got off the carriage, and everyone saw that it was Fourth Uncle who had returned.

Dad and second uncle came to the carriage. Fourth uncle said he had bought a lot of things. The three of them started to move things down from the carriage, including a large piece of pork, two chickens, a duck, salt, sugar, soy sauce, etc.

After moving, the fourth uncle brought a large bowl of well water, walked up to the coachman and said, "It's so hot, drink some water. We have to go back to town soon, and it's such a long way." The coachman took the water and drank it. The fourth uncle paid him 10 cents, and the coachman drove away in the carriage.

After everyone had eaten, the elders started to work.

They opened a room, found rolls of bamboo mats, moved them all to the yard and stood them up there. The three women unfolded the bamboo mats, which numbered about thirty or forty, 2.5 meters long and 2 meters wide, and were specially used for drying millet.

Then spread out one sheet, wipe it clean with a damp cloth, and dry it on a bamboo pole. If there are not enough sheets, hang them on the wall.

It was noon and the sun was particularly strong. The three men wore straw hats and squatted on small stools. The sweat on their faces flowed like rain, soaking the backs of their clothes.

But I had to work hard and didn't care about so many things. I laid all the dried bamboo mats flat in the room I had just been in, stacked them up, and needed them tomorrow.

Based on her limited memory, Bi Yue knew that this was used to dry the grain. The family had a lot of land, so there must be a lot of grain. The freshly harvested grain had to be dried so that it could be stored for a long time, and the tax grain that was handed in also had to be dried.

Grandpa and dad moved a lot of benches out of the house and checked to see if there were any missing parts. If there were any, they would knock on them, repair them and put them for use.

The second uncle and the fourth uncle went to the backyard to tidy up, sweeping what needed to be cleaned and putting things in order.

The house was busy and the children could not help much, so they all hid in Biyue's room, reading or practicing calligraphy.

Biyue walked behind the screen and placed orders for ice cream, lychees, cakes, yogurt, etc. on the system.

Place the ice cream in a bowl and place on the dressing table.

Then he asked the three little ones to bring small chairs over. The three children ran over obediently. Tingwei saw that there was food, turned around and walked over to close the door, inserted the wooden bolt, leaving only the window open, and then they all hid behind the screen to eat.

The icy cold ice cream captured the taste buds of the three little ones. One bite made them feel cool and refreshing, and all the heat disappeared.

It was not the first time for the children to eat ice cream, and today it was a different flavor.

Every afternoon is the happiest and most anticipated time for the three little ones, because their second sister always gives them delicious food and drinks.

The elders were too busy to take care of the children, so the fourth uncle asked the children from outside the window if they wanted some water.

Biyue asked her uncle to scoop a large bowl of water from the well and bring it over.

Tingwei stood by the window, took the water handed to him by his fourth uncle, brought the water into the house, poured it into a small basin, and asked his younger brothers to wash their hands.