country bumpkin

After dinner, Caixia and Xianghong came to play with Yunya.

The three friends hadn't seen each other for a long time, and now that they met, they had so much to talk about. Yunya did most of the talking, while Caixia and Xianghong listened.

They were very curious about what the city was like, what the skyscrapers and brightly lit nights that Yunya had described would look like.

He stopped talking after Yunya finished recounting what she had seen and heard, and then listened attentively to Caixia and Xianghong telling him about what had happened in the village.

Caixia said excitedly, "Yunya, the eldest son of Old Li's family at the east end of our village got married! It was such a lively scene! There was music and dancing, and more than a dozen tables were set up for the banquet. Everyone ate with great relish."

Xiang Hong added from the side, "Yes, yes, the bride is so beautiful, wearing a bright red wedding dress, she looks so gorgeous." Yun Ya's eyes lit up as she imagined the lively scene.

Then, Caixia said mysteriously, "There's more, there's a thief at Old Zhang's house at the west end of the village. The thief sneaked into the house at night and stole some grain and money. Old Zhang chased after him for a long way, but the thief still got away."

Yunya's mouth dropped open in surprise: "Oh, is that so?! What will happen to Old Zhang's family?"

Xiang Hong sighed, "Sigh, I heard that Lao Zhang has been asking around for help to find clues these past few days."

Then Caixia whispered, "There's something else important. I'll only tell you if you're sure you want to keep it a secret."

Yun Ya and Xiang Hong exchanged a glance and said, "Okay, go ahead and tell us. We'll keep it a secret."

Caixia came between the two women, whispered in their ears, and covered her mouth with her hand, "One day, I saw Grandma Zhang's son, Zhang Qingguo, drunk. He actually dragged my mother to their house..."

Yun Ya and Xiang Hong stared wide-eyed, their faces filled with disbelief.

Xiang Hong, who knew a lot, said, "Really? How could this happen? Didn't your mother tell Grandma Zhang so she could discipline her son?"

Caixia shook her head. "No, my mother was probably afraid of being embarrassed, so she pretended that nothing happened. She didn't know that I had seen her."

Yunya asked, still confused, "Do you two mean they're sleeping together? Like Mom and Dad in one bed?"

Caixia nodded seriously, while Xiang Hong looked at Yunya with an expression as if she were an idiot and said, "Huh? Yunya, are you so old and still don't understand matters between men and women?"

Yun Ya waved her hand. "I understand. It's just sleeping in the same bed, right?"

Xiang Hong said speechlessly, "Yes and no. It's not as simple as just lying together. You'll understand in a few years."

Yunya looked at Caixia and asked in confusion, "Caixia, do you know what Xiang Hong meant?"

Caixia nodded. "I know a little bit, they kissed and hugged."

Yunya suddenly realized, "Oh, I see! I know that, it's the same for married people."

Xiang Hong didn't say anything more. She didn't want to explain to this little fool. She would understand in time.

The three friends chatted away, covering all the big and small events that had happened in the village. As it got dark, they reluctantly went home.

After Xiang Hong and Cai Xia left, when Yun Ya went back to her room to sleep, she remembered that she had let Qin Shou kiss her when she was playing house.

Yun Ya was startled and quickly shook her head. [No, it's not like that. It should be different from me.] Thinking about this, Yun Ya fell asleep.

The next day, Yunya forgot about it and continued to have fun with her friends.

In the afternoon, the three of them went to the fields to dig purslane. They came to a small melon patch, where there was a bed with a shed in the middle of the field, but no one was inside.

I guess he went home for lunch and hasn't come back yet.

Yunya led Caixia and Xianghong to steal melons. They looked around and, seeing no one passing by, quickly squatted down to pick the nearest small, sweet melon.

Yunya picked six, Caixia picked five, and Xianghong also picked five. They each put the small melons into their own woven bags.

There was a layer of grass underneath, so it wouldn't be obvious that there were small melons inside the bag. Purslane was also placed on top, so no one would know they had stolen the melons unless they were emptied out.

After they left the melon field, they saw several middle-aged women walking by nearby. They were all carrying baskets on their backs, covered with grass on top and underneath, and no one knew what was inside.

Perhaps it's a small melon, or a scallion, apple, or peach. These rural women all operate in the same way.

Whenever two or three people go out to work in the fields together, they either steal other people's fruit trees or vegetables.

Anyway, there's no fixed quantity of crops in the field; if ten or eight are missing, you can't tell at all.

These thieves also look for fruit. They pick it separately so no one will notice it's being stolen.

However, there are usually local dogs guarding the orchards. But the cabbage fields, radish fields, watermelon fields, green onion fields, and coriander fields are not guarded by local dogs and are therefore targets.

Several women looked at Yunya and her two children, wondering what good things were in the woven bags on their backs.

When I saw that they came out of a nearby melon patch, I realized, "They've stolen some melons."

Yunya and her friends walked away silently, without looking back at the middle-aged women. Once they were gone, the women quietly slipped into the melon patch, intending to steal some melons.

They bent down slowly and began picking melons. They picked one and put it in their baskets. Just as they were picking the second, someone suddenly shouted from the edge of the field. Startled, they grabbed their baskets and ran.

"Hey... what are you doing here?" the old man shouted at them from the edge of the field.

After realizing what was happening, the old man chased after the thief, shouting, "Hey! Help! Thief! A thief is stealing melons!"

The women ran incredibly fast, covering several hundred meters in the blink of an eye, and the old man couldn't catch up at all.

Ahead lay a cornfield, the corn stalks already quite tall. The group quickly slipped into the cornfield and crouched down, remaining motionless. In no time, they were swallowed up by the sea of ​​corn stalks and disappeared without a trace.

The old man, panting heavily, chased after the people to the cornfield, and, seeing them disappear, angrily cursed them.

"You wretched creatures, if you want to eat, grow your own. It's not like you don't have land. Stealing what I grow makes you thieves. Aren't you afraid of getting styes or boils if you eat it? God, take heed and punish you damned thieves."

The old man continued cursing, and the women squatted in the cornfield listening to the cursing, none of them daring to utter a sound.