Rebirth in the 50s: The Couple with the Hidden Space-Chapter 593 - 472: Summer Grain Harvest

Time swiftly passed by, and in June, the school sent out a notification to go to the countryside to harvest wheat.

Regarding participating in farm work, Zhou Jiao had expected it in her heart.

After Qingming, every time she went home, she saw many empty fields along the way, with farmland opened up inside and outside walls. She understood that the tasks this summer would not be easy.

For this activity, Zhou Jiao concealed the truth from her father, only saying that her task wasn’t heavy, which temporarily fooled the busy Zhou Xiaozheng.

Harvesting wheat—sounds incredible, but for so many years, rural families couldn’t bear to cut, indeed it’s all harvesting wheat.

Why so? Besides the essential wheat ears, even the roots are treasures—after pulling them up by the roots, use a cutting knife to chop off the roots, and once the roots are dried, they can be used for cooking.

And wheat straw has more uses, such as roofing, making curtains, and braiding grass ropes. After the busy farming season, production teams will arrange for women to braid ropes, and those grass ropes can be sold for quite a bit of money, accumulating to a considerable annual income for the team.

Zhou Jiao and her class, along with Class Three, were assigned to nearby countryside, participated by farmers who had spent their lives with the land, which seemed much easier compared to students going to remote farms.

Zhou Jiao was secretly relieved upon hearing the news soon after that, besides students, cadres, and soldiers were also going to the countryside to harvest wheat, increasing the pressure significantly.

With more people comes competition, and competition brings activists, and with activists, no one dares to slack off. This vicious cycle forces one to endure exhaustion.

The hundred or so students started heading downhill at dawn.

No matter how Zhang Guoqing protected his wife, Zhou Jiao didn’t receive any special treatment. Today, all the girls were assigned to harvest three rows, the boys even more—five rows!

Just like that, last night some girl was making a fuss about gender equality, suggesting evenly distributing four rows. If not for bad timing, Zhou Jiao would absolutely have slapped her.

Facing the seemingly boundless wheat, Zhou Jiao squeezed her eyes shut hard. She truly felt stifled, having space yet tormented like this, what’s it all for?

No matter how many thoughts she had, she couldn’t just run away now. Especially with Zhang Guoqing, who looked worried nearby.

Zhou Jiao raised her fist, demonstrating to him, "No big deal!"

Zhang Guoqing spoke with melancholy in his eyes and meaningful intent, "You have severe anemia, you can’t push yourself, or you’ll end up in the hospital again."

The couple exchanged knowing glances, making the nearby classmates worried.

This made Yi Jiefang on the left roll his eyes toward the sky several times fiercely. This couple, anemia nonsense, hospital visits? He felt it was toothache-inducing.

The most hateful part was that he had to go along with the flow, claiming anemia as well.

"Alright, students who aren’t well, please help each other as much as possible. Let’s hurry up and work hard. Don’t dawdle, class three has started working."

Zhou Jiao smiled, learning from everyone to do proper protection, and walked to her target task.

After a brief "training" from the uncles, Zhou Jiao knew to shake off the soil from the roots, one must stand on the right leg, lift the left foot, grasp the wheat tightly with both hands, and hit it against the foot until the soil is clean.

But reality told her, it’s tiring and painful.

The saying "sore back, aching neck" is to understand the meaning of this phrase, welcome to harvest wheat. Zhou Jiao admired the ancestors’ knack for creating phrases.

Now she squatted for a while here, bent at the waist for a while there, wanting to rest yet worried about falling behind others, stood up and looked far ahead.

Her hands were burning with pain, seeing Zhang Guoqing far away on the left and equally distant on the right, Zhou Jiao put on thread gloves. She was worried about blistering, which would truly render her incapable of working.

The morning ground was moist, relatively easy to pull, but as noon approached, and with the sun heating up, it got increasingly difficult, coupled with wheat awns irritating the skin, sweat kept pouring... this sore feeling was unforgettable for Zhou Jiao.

Zhang Guoqing pulled quickly for half an hour each time, sneaked to his little wife, sheltered her, let her sip water, eat an ice stick, while gleefully nibbling a bit himself, not forgetting to help.

The couple secretly working and amusing themselves brought much fun to the monotonous and tiring farm work.

By twelve noon, they finally heard the horn announcing a break for lunch.

After eating two vegetable buns, Zhou Jiao handed the remaining to Zhang Guoqing, softly leaning against the tree’s shadow, looking at the tree trunk with few remaining leaves, touched her knee.

Zhang Guoqing saw this and asked softly, "Does it hurt?"

Zhou Jiao smiled and shook her head. She didn’t plan to tell him, that idiot worked for two all morning, she should avoid complaints, otherwise, the last row would be bare, wouldn’t he have to help?

"I’m starting to understand why you insisted we become classmates."

Zhang Guoqing shook his head with a bitter smile. Could he say he somewhat regretted it, initially thinking university life would ease her, yet reality isn’t optimistic.

Zhou Jiao comfortingly smiled at him. What was on their minds was clear with one look. Compared to working, campus life wasn’t considered toiling for her.

Given the current circumstances, even working requires going to the countryside for farming. Unless they leave their motherland, leave the land that raised them.

But Zhou Jiao never entertained such thoughts, especially with her father’s presence. Unless forced into a corner, she didn’t want to leave these dear ones.

They worked continuously for nearly ten days, harvesting wheat here, while the team used blindfolded donkeys to tread in circles over there, after the trampling, wheat stacked in piles like small mountains.

Finally having finished the work, they watched experienced elders on the drying ground use wooden shovels to thresh.

The shovelful of wheat tossed into the air like a rain, with chaff blown away by the wind, wheat grains piled on one side, forming a golden wheat mountain.

Looking at the harvest, seeing smiles around, all these are their contributions, finally, no matter how exhausting, it’s worthwhile.

"First round radish, second round vegetables"

Without a day’s rest, the next task was sowing Chinese cabbage on the freshly harvested wheat field.

To ensure the growing cabbages were ready in early November for concentrated sale, everyone got up early and worked late, unceasingly busy for many days.

Nearly a month of busy farming, even though the prepared coarse grains were enough to fill everyone, the laborious farm work still made them darker, thinner.

Fortunately, both had the kind of skin that doesn’t get sunburned, especially Zhou Jiao, who had cured bitter summer this time, feeling better, or Zhang Guoqing wouldn’t dare to face the father-in-law.

Once the farm work ended, the school announced a one-day holiday, and the worried couple was eager to return home, ignoring the sleepiness, hastily took a car back.

Since Ping’an’s birth, the couple hadn’t been away from their child for so long. Upon reaching the Big Courtyard, before going home, they first picked up the excited Ping’an.

Listening to their son’s childish tales of daily life during this time, Zhou Jiao knew she was doomed, this time Xiao Wang who drove over to visit her might get implicated.

Upon reaching home, Zhou Jiao ignored having a drink first, hurriedly ran to the bedroom for maintenance, while reminding Little Ping’an to plead for leniency from grandpa when met later.

As the scorching summer arrived, they were about to move to coastal offices. Zhou Xiaozheng busily arranging meetings and work schedule, waiting to see his daughter’s sunburnt skin peeling, already too late.

What could Zhou Xiaozheng do? Besides tenderly letting the health doctor treat the scars on the children’s hands, only sigh, more importantly, feel proud—his children faced all difficulties fearlessly.