Beautiful Peasant Girl: The Young Marquis's Beloved

A few days passed in a flash, and Liu Xu found time to go to town with Liu Changshun, and bought all the things that were missing at home. She also secretly bought some refined rice and fine noodles.

The mother and her four children started a new life in earnest.

The continuous exposure to the sun made the rice in the fields bow their heavy heads. From afar, the golden color shone brightly in the sun, as if the earth was covered with a gorgeous golden carpet.

When the wind blows, the rice ears rub against each other, making a rustling sound, as if telling the joy of the harvest.

Some villagers had already put on straw hats and walked into the rice fields to begin harvesting the fruits of their labor over the past six months.

They were seen using sickles to skillfully cut the plump rice plants and neatly stacked them aside. Sweat dripped down their cheeks, but they didn't care and kept working.

The rice was harvested one after another and piled into small hills in the fields, exuding a rich rice fragrance.

There were gourds and buckets on the edge of the field, and both men and women were shouting and beating the rice ears with their arms.

The children were running and playing happily on the ridges of the fields, adding a bit of liveliness and vitality to the harvest scene.

Liu Xu also went to see the land they were allocated in the morning. The four mu of fertile land was full of rice, which was yellow and waiting for her to harvest them. The three mu of dry land was also not vacant, planted with sorghum and soybeans.

She should have been happy, but now she felt a little conflicted. She looked down at her small body and smiled bitterly.

Meng, who was passing by, saw this and understood something.

"Xu girl, are you worried about the harvest?"

Liu Xu looked up upon hearing this and said helplessly, "Yes, Second Grandma, my mother is still in confinement after giving birth. I don't know when I will be able to receive the baby by myself! What if it rains in the middle of the journey? Wouldn't it be a waste?!"

Hearing this, Meng couldn't help but chuckle: "Are you stupid, girl? Don't you know how to ask for help?"

"Yes!" Liu Xu's eyes lit up, then dimmed again, "But everyone is busy harvesting, where can I find anyone?"

Mrs. Meng couldn't help but knocked her head: "Okay, it's no big deal! Do you think every family in the village has a lot of land and few people like you? I'll let your second grandfather help you with this matter. You just need to prepare the wages and food."

"Really? Second Grandma, thank you!" Liu Xu understood, her health bar instantly refilled, and she hugged Meng excitedly. She thought to herself, this is my grandma, not like old lady Zhang!

After saying goodbye to Mrs. Meng, Liu Xu ran home and told her mother what happened.

"Your second grandmother is right. In previous years, your grandfather also hired people to harvest and sow. Otherwise, we have a small family and a lot of land, and we wouldn't be able to handle it." Xu Ruolan said with a smile.

"Then mother, how do we prepare wages and food?" This is an area of ​​knowledge blank for both the original owner and Liu Xu herself.

"As for wages, your grandfather hired workers at the beginning of the year for 25 wen a day, not including food. There are also people in the village who provide two meals for 20 wen a day. We only have a few acres of land, three or four people, and we can finish the harvest in two days."

Liu Xu thought to herself that labor in this era is really worthless. Considering that she was an orphan and a widow, Liu Xu decided not to provide food.

He then ran to tell Meng about his plan. Coincidentally, her second uncle Liu Dalin was there too, and he immediately said that he knew about it. He asked her to occupy the drying yard early tomorrow morning and clean the yard, and then just wait to store the grain.

So the catkins went home happily.

But when she was almost at the door of her house, she saw her grandfather Liu Dashan hesitating. Liu Xu approached him in confusion: "Grandpa, why are you here? Come in and have a drink of water."

"No," Liu Dashan shook his head and refused. "I just came to ask you, tomorrow my family will hire someone to harvest the crops, you two... do you want me to hire someone to help you, so that it won't be ruined by the rain!"

Liu Dashan looked a little embarrassed. Liu Xu looked at the old man who was already a little hunched over, and felt a little complicated. But she smiled and replied:

"Xu'er, thank you for your concern. Don't worry, I have already hired a good person, don't worry, I will make sure that not a single grain is missing!"

"Oh, then, I'll go back first!" After saying that, he turned around and left quickly without waiting for Liu Xu to answer.

"Grandpa, slow down!" Liu Xu shouted loudly. After watching the old man walk away, she opened the door and went home.

It is said that children grow up with the wind during the confinement period. Perhaps Xu Ruolan's mind became more open after the separation, and Liu Xu prepared food carefully, so the milk was sufficient. The two little ones slept after eating and slept after eating. Now, after only ten days, they have changed a lot, white and tender. Even Xu Ruolan has become more rosy.

The next day, Liu Xu went to the fields early in the morning to see that her family was already busy, with two people harvesting rice and two threshing rice. Then she turned around and went to the drying yard.

The drying yard in Liujia Village is not far from the old house, covering an area of ​​about one acre. Each household has a small piece of land for drying grain.

There were many children her age on the drying ground, all of whom were arranged by their families to guard the food. Before she even got close, Xing'er called out loudly:

"Xu'er, Xu'er, here, come here quickly."

Her family's drying yard was separated from Liu Dashan's family. The original owner had come here to guard it in previous years, so she was quite familiar with it. Xing'er's family lived next door, and she and Xing'er had become good friends since childhood, which was also the reason for this drying yard.

This year they separated, and her grandfather asked Liu Chengcai to take care of the family, and Xing'er happened to be on the left and right. Ignoring Liu Chengcai, the two sisters soon started playing around.

Tiedan and some friends from the mowing team also gathered together. Since the adults had not yet brought the grain, and there was still a lot of open space on the field except for what was harvested yesterday, they had to seize the time to have some fun.

As the sun rose higher, rice was carried from the drying yard one after another. Only then did Liu Xu realize that the one who helped her family collect the rice was Grandpa Guisheng from the village.

Unlike Liu Xu's family, Liu Guisheng and his wife had four sons and one daughter. The eldest daughter married to a neighboring village at an early age. The family was not rich and lived a tight life. The eldest son gave birth to two sons and one daughter after marriage. The second son also had two daughters and one son. The third son gave birth to a pair of twin sons. In addition to a 17-year-old son, there were 17 or 18 people in the family, but only 7 or 8 acres of land. In addition, the grain harvest was not high in this era, so even if the family worked hard from dawn to dusk to tend to the fields, life was extremely difficult.

When there is a shortage of food, people have to tighten their belts to make ends meet.

The family is illiterate and has no skills. In order to earn more money, the young men in the family can only rely on labor to earn money to supplement the family income.

The one carrying the grain in front of him is Liu Tianzhuang, the eldest son of Guisheng's grandfather. He looks like a simple and honest man.

"Hey, little girl Xu, are they all here?"

"Yeah, thank you for your hard work, uncle!"

"It's not hard, it's not hard!" The honest man waved his hands awkwardly, and then left quickly.

After three days of hard work and spending three hundred coins, all the rice and soybeans from Liu Xu's family were brought back home.

Looking at the empty room now filled with food, the mother and daughter smiled with satisfaction.

Liu Xu estimated in her mind that one stone was worth about 60 kilograms in the previous life. They now have about 800 kilograms of rice, and 200 kilograms of soybeans and sorghum. According to the current 15% tax rate, as long as there is no tax increase, the remaining amount is enough for the mother and daughter to eat for a year.

Now their family has money and food, right? When the money comes in, they can rebuild the house. In a few years, the two children will grow up and be sent to school. If they pass the imperial examination and become the top scholar, who knows when her mother will become a lady of the imperial family, and she, Liu Xu, will also be a lady of an official family? ... Tsk tsk, she felt happy just thinking about it, and Liu Xu couldn't help but grin.

Um, I seem to have forgotten something?

(Liu Donglai: Girl, where is your father?)