country bumpkin

Chapter 16 Autumn Harvest 1

Autumn is a season of harvest, with warm sunshine and everything ripening.

In the orchard, bright red apples and golden pears hang heavily on the branches, making one's mouth water.

In the fields, the rice paddies are golden, presenting a scene of abundant harvest. Autumn, a season that brings satisfaction and beauty.

Yunya and her family live in the north. The crops grown there are corn, peanuts, soybeans, sweet potatoes, and some families also grow sesame and cotton.

Wheat, which is a staple food, is harvested in June during the summer.

Right now, Yunya is helping harvest sweet potatoes in the field. Harvesting sweet potatoes requires several steps.

The first step: Cut off all the stems and leaves (sweet potato vines) with a sickle. Pile them aside and take them home when you have time. The dried stems and leaves can be ground into pig feed. Fresh stems and leaves can also be taken home directly to feed the sheep and pigs.

The second step is to use a large hoe to dig the sweet potatoes out of the soil. This requires skill. Newcomers often damage the sweet potatoes by cutting them in half, making them harder to sell. The key is to dig deep enough to avoid leaving half of the sweet potato in the soil. This is physically demanding work, usually done by men, while women handle the initial and final finishing touches.

The third step: The dug-up sweet potatoes come in bunches, some big, some small, and need to be separated from their connected stems, a process known as "twisting the stems." This is an easy task, mostly done by children and women. Twisting the stems doesn't require much effort; at the point where the sweet potato connects to the stem, a quick bend and it breaks with a crisp snap. Yunya is doing this now. After twisting, two or three sweet potatoes from closely spaced plants are piled together. This saves time and effort when harvesting.

Mu Shuyun bent over and skillfully chopped the sweet potato vines, piling them aside. After chopping two rows, she straightened her back and continued working. Zhou Caiyun also chopped two rows.

Kong Tongming and Kong Xiangdong began digging sweet potatoes, working simultaneously on both sides.

Watching the sweet potatoes being dug out of the soil, Mu Shuyun's face beamed with a simple smile, her eyes revealing her love for this land.

Yunya's voice came from the distant edge of the field. "Grandma, I'm thirsty."

Mu Shuyun ran over and poured her a bowl of water, saying, "Drink slowly, check if it's hot, don't burn yourself."

The little girl took a small sip, looked up at her grandmother, and said, "It's not hot, gulp gulp..." After finishing the water, she wiped her mouth with her sleeve and said, "Okay, Grandma, you go do your work, I'll go help too."

After saying that, he chuckled and went off to dance.

Mu Shuyun and Zhou Caiyun finished cutting all the rice seedlings in the entire field. Without resting, they went to play ball with Yunya.

By the time all the sweet potatoes were dug out of the soil, twisted, and piled up, it was already past 4 p.m.

The family started working in the fields at 5 a.m., and for lunch they ate scallion pancakes and pickled radishes that they had brought from home, along with plain water. That was their lunch.

I've only had a short break during mealtimes since this morning. Mu Shuyun is the hardest working because she got up at 4 a.m. to make the packed lunches and also made breakfast.

For breakfast, we had egg noodles. For lunch, we had scallion pancakes, which weren't too greasy. And men who prefer stronger flavors could also eat pickled vegetables and raw scallions.

Seeing that it was already this late and it would soon be dark, I quickly grabbed the fertilizer bags to pack the sweet potatoes.

A large bag, made by sewing two fertilizer bags together, was filled and required two people to carry it.

By the time all the sweet potatoes were packed into bags, it was already getting dark.

The donkey cart, borrowed last night, was used to load all the sacks full of sweet potatoes onto. Hoes were also placed on the cart. Kong Xiangdong drove, with Kong Tongming helping to push from behind. Yunya, her grandmother, and her second aunt followed behind, carrying thermos flasks and baskets for holding rice. The family happily made their way home.

In the evening, the family sat around in the yard, enjoying fresh roasted and boiled sweet potatoes. A warm atmosphere filled the air, and Yunya felt happy to be with her family.

While chatting with her family, Mu Shuyun asked Yunya, "Yun~ are you tired today? Is anything bothering you?"

Yunya looked up at her grandmother and said, "I'm alright, just a little tired. Grandma, are you tired? You got up so early this morning, aren't you sleepy?"

Mu Shuyun smiled with satisfaction and said, "Our Yunya knows how to care for her grandma now. She's such a filial and good child, a good child to her grandma."

Yunya beamed with joy as she listened to her grandmother's praise. "Haha, Grandma, you're so good to me, I'll never leave you."

Night fell, and stars twinkled in the sky. Yunya lay in bed, reflecting on the day's busyness, a smile involuntarily appearing on her lips.

In this beautiful autumn, she reaped not only abundant fruits, but also a wealth of warmth and joy.

Her maternal grandmother, paternal grandfather, second uncle, youngest uncle, and third aunt are all her closest family members. They have been there for her as she grew up. In this family, everyone loves and cherishes her.

In Yunya's heart, this is her home, her own home.