The sun had just risen, and the dew on the grass had yet to dry. Li He rubbed his eyes, then used the water from the ditch to clean his mouth and got to work.
Li He suffered a lot every day following He Long to open up wastelands in the countryside. He was a little regretful, regretful that he should not have come.
He had originally thought that he would just come out to join in the fun and enjoy the scenery of nature. He might even be able to compose a few poems or even sing a song.
He had fantasized about eating different game every day, but reality was cruel. He did not even have the chance to pick up chopsticks. A big bag of steamed buns was his meal for the whole day.
These steamed buns were brought over from home. When it was time to eat, they could be roasted or soaked in water.
This was the most fertile land in China.
It was originally a land of exile, sparsely populated. Now, it was a reclamation area.
In the past few years, because the price of food was not high, farming always lost money. The family workers in the farm area were not very enthusiastic, and large areas of land were left uncultivated.
But in recent years, the reclamation area began to implement a household contract system. Many families could contract hundreds of mu of land. Many farmers from other places also came here to contract land.
Many people became a ten-thousand-yuan household by contracting land and lived a well-off life. There were also people who lost money from contracting land. They owed too much, so they left the farm and went to open up wastelands themselves. This was a business without capital.
Even city people like the He family came to contract land or open up wastelands. He Long did not have a job in the city, so he simply contracted 300 mu of land in the reclamation area. The contract fee for one mu was less than 20 yuan.
Most of the He family's land was ripe. As long as the season came, the land would be plowed and planted. But most of it was uncultivated wastelands.
In order to deal with these uncultivated wastelands, the He family went to work. They did not even go home. They used wooden poles to build a human shape and covered it with grass. It was a shack for shelter. The next day, they went to open up wastelands.
The shack was full of pots and pans. Occasionally, a meal of pork stewed with vermicelli was considered a bitter memory. The new and old society were two different worlds!
Apart from puddles, the fertile uncultivated land was densely packed with rivers, and there were also some slopes and highlands. Above them were patches of scattered forest. The main tree species were poplar, birch, oak, and the like. There were also some hazel, tortoise willows, willow hairs, and other low shrubs.
Before reclaiming the wasteland, they had to first uproot the sparse trees that grew on the wasteland.
Because there were more blisters and there were no machine embankments, tractors could not drive in. They had to rely on people using shovels to dig out the roots one by one. Li He and He Long did the work of digging out the roots. He Long did it easily, but Li He did not have it easy. This was because he did not do much farm work, so he did not have much endurance. Not to mention that his hands were worn out, even the soles of his feet had changed a layer of skin. Every step was painful.
Out of the five words "able to endure hardship", he had achieved the first four …
It wasn't that he couldn't bear hardships, but he had suffered enough in his previous life, and he didn't intend to suffer again in this life.
He Fang followed his mother and sister-in-law to the side, holding a sickle to cut the shrubs and weeds. From time to time, she would smile at Li He, who was sighing in despair. Li He felt wronged. He felt that he had been tricked. If he had known that it would be so hard, he wouldn't have come to the wasteland!
He used his experience to prove that to please his mother-in-law, one had to act according to one's capabilities!
There was a blue sky and fresh air in the black soil. Li He loved it very much.
He loved this oily black soil and everything that lived there, he loved it deeply.
However, he had to work like a donkey every day from dawn to dusk!
He couldn't agree to it!
This was probably how Lord Ye loved dragons!
Li He suggested, "Why don't we hire someone? How long will it take us to work with just the few of us here?"
The endless wasteland made him feel a little hopeless.
He Fang pointed into the distance and said, "Look around here. Isn't everyone working like us? Who's the stupidest? If they could hire someone, they would have done so long ago. Why would it be your turn? All the educated youths have left, and there's no one to do the work. All the farms recruit people from other villages. Not only do they pay a salary, but they also give them a residence permit. Even if they hire people, they might not be able to provide for them. The current policy is that the wasteland belongs to whoever clears it. Who wouldn't be jealous of this fertile land? Why would they care about the treatment of a farm? "
He Fang's words made sense to Li He, but he didn't give up and asked, "Let's just increase the pay. As long as they help us with the work, we'll pay more. "
He Fang smiled and said, "Forget it. The price of a plate of eggs is equivalent to that of meat. You might as well not plant the land. Don't be anxious. When the water bubble is filled, we'll be faster with the tractor. "
Li He heaved a sigh of relief. It was good that they didn't need people to pull the plows. However, if they wanted to borrow a tractor from the farm, they had to queue up and take turns. Many people couldn't wait and pulled the plows. Of course, most people pulled the plows with horses and oxen.
He thought of buying a tractor for the He family, but in this corner, a tractor with low horsepower couldn't show its capabilities. It had to lie down after rolling back and forth in the field. There were too many weeds that wrapped around the plows, and it couldn't be carried at all. Only a tractor with high horsepower could do it. However, large tractors were in high demand. They had to go to the big city to buy one, and they had to queue up to buy one. It would take at least a year and a half to get one.
"Why don't you go back? Can you do it?" Li He still wanted He Fang to take care of the fetus. Although cutting grass wasn't heavy work, the food they ate was too poor. Even if they didn't eat folic acid, they had to at least have enough nutrition.
He Fang said disapprovingly, "We have to move too. How can we not move? It's not like we're too tired. "
"Really?" Li He chuckled and said, "Why don't we move a little?"
"Go to hell." He Fang looked at his expression and knew that he was thinking of something bad.
Li He could only look at the forest and sigh. Using the sky as his blanket and the earth as his bed was his long-cherished wish for many years, but now it was hard to realize.
After digging up the tree roots, they began to fill the water bubble. They dug up soil from the high hill one shovel at a time, then put it into a wicker basket, and filled the water bubble with the soil one by one.
One does not know the weight of a burden without carrying it, and one does not know the distance without walking a long road.
A load of soil started at least 50 kilograms. It wasn't considered heavy for Li He. He had plenty of strength, but he couldn't handle the workload. In the end, he clenched his teeth and could only change this shoulder to another shoulder when it hurt. Moreover, it was too time-consuming. He went back and forth, one load after another. He started work in the morning and hoped that the sky would turn dark quickly so that he could call it a day. It was tiring and boring.
After a day, his waist and legs were sore. Even if he rested for a night, his shoulder would burn with pain the next day when he had to carry a load.
Li He happened to be the impatient kind, and he almost gave up and left …
He Fang said, "No, let me do it."
Although he knew that He Fang was joking, Li He didn't like to hear it. He Fang treasured her belly very much. How could she carry a load?
"How can a man say no! Just watch. I'll definitely do more than He Long today. "
He still had to act tough. What if it came true!
Li He held back his tears as he picked up the load again.
Just like that, he persevered.
As expected, one had to be forced a little. The key was to be able to hold on at all times.
After a month of back and forth on the He family's wasteland, Li He experienced the education of going to the mountains and going to the countryside again. He Fang's belly was about to pop up. The two of them had to prepare for the banquet. It wouldn't be good to show her belly.
Li He couldn't decide whether the He family would do it or not. He still had to listen to his mother-in-law's opinion.
The Old Madam said, "It's not too much trouble, but we have to inform some relatives and ask them to come over for a meal. There's no need to record the gifts. "
This was in line with Li He's intentions. He wasn't going to hold a banquet in his hometown on either side. He was only going to hold a banquet when he returned to the capital.
He Fang had the same idea. Even if the relatives came, they wouldn't have to cook at home. It would be convenient to just arrange for them to eat at a restaurant.
But the Old Madam disagreed. "They're here for the liveliness. No place is as lively as home. They're all relatives. It's not right to rush them out."
He Fang smiled. She understood what the Old Madam meant. They lived in such a big house, but not a single relative had come.
There were a lot of relatives in the He family. There wasn't enough space in the house, so they built a shed in the open space downstairs. They set up tables and benches. The adults and children squeezed into five tables.
Most of these relatives were influential people. They didn't look down on or reject Li He just because he was an outsider. Therefore, Li He drank with them without hesitation. He Fang kept signaling him with her eyes, but it didn't work.
Li He ignored them, and He Fang could only stare. She couldn't ask others to stop drinking when there were guests in the house. It didn't make sense. She didn't leave. She pulled He Long up from another table and went to help her brother-in-law drink.
He Long was complaining. He had drunk quite a lot, and he probably couldn't drink anymore.
However, he still went to Li He's table. Although he didn't drink for Li He, he could at least attract some attention. He admired this brother-in-law very much. It wasn't easy to win his sister's heart!
He had seen his sister's longest relationship. She was narcissistic, loved herself, and didn't have any rivals.
He understood his sister. To put it nicely, she was arrogant! To put it bluntly, she didn't look people in the eye!
She would rather be arrogant and mold than fall in love with someone lowly.
He originally thought that his sister would be alone for the rest of her life. It was scary to think that she was still unmarried in her thirties!
He didn't expect that she would bring a man back unexpectedly. He even got a marriage certificate. What surprised him even more was that his sister could snuggle in Li He's arms like a little bird. This almost made him go blind.
She wasn't a man, but her heart was stronger than a man's.
He really couldn't understand why a sister like her would fall into the hands of such a young man. It was really unexpected.
However, after interacting with him at this stage, he admired this brother-in-law who was much younger than him.
He had originally been worried that those who had been educated would think too highly of themselves, and that their eyes would look upwards. After interacting with him, he realized that this brother-in-law was very easy to get along with. He didn't put on any airs. When he spoke, he would be mature and childish at times. It always made people not know whether to laugh or cry.
However, he treated people well and was reliable. According to relatives, he wasn't a brat. At least, he wasn't a brat at the table. If he didn't agree, he would dare to argue with you.
What made him the happiest was that his family bought a house. Although it was his sister who bought it, he knew that his sister's monthly salary was so little. She had just sent a large sum of money to their family before the New Year. How could she have any money left?
Therefore, he was very sure that the money was his brother-in-law's. Although he didn't know what his brother-in-law did for a living, he knew that his brother-in-law didn't lack money. From the way he spoke, he could tell that his brother-in-law didn't care about money.
Moreover, this house was said to be filial to his mother, but he was the only son in the family. He knew that it would be his sooner or later. His only dissatisfaction with his brother-in-law was that he was too pretentious when working. He would either smoke or drink water. He couldn't do solid work.
At this moment, his cousin wanted to continue competing with Li He in drinking. He stopped him without hesitation. "I really want to get brother-in-law drunk. Let him rest. He hasn't been to the other tables yet."
Li He had already drunk quite a lot. When the other tables had to take turns toasting him, he simply switched to beer. He couldn't drink white wine anymore.
When everyone left, He Fang rebuked, "Why did you drink so much?"
She was pregnant and didn't dare to drink. Otherwise, she would have personally replaced Li He.
Old Madam said happily, "Isn't that just to help you?"
They were all relatives. If one raised his glass and the other raised his glass, he couldn't refuse to drink. Old Madam was very clear about these rules. Before Li He could recover his energy, he started drinking again. This uncle asked him to eat, and that aunt asked him to eat. There were two meals a day. It was a full schedule.
He really didn't want to drink anymore.
In the following days, he didn't feel comfortable. He Fang's dishes didn't suit his taste. He angrily asked, "Surnamed He, you've changed!"
There was no chili in the dishes. There was no taste at all. How was he supposed to eat it? At least put some chili in the meat! He could tolerate it without chili, but how could he not put soy sauce!
She usually had to think about his taste and accommodate everything to his taste.
"For the sake of the baby, I have to eat bland food."
"But you don't eat meat!" Li He didn't have any opinion on the other dishes, but he had a big objection when there was no soy sauce or chili in the meat.
"For the sake of the baby, I have to eat balanced nutrition." She usually ate more vegetables and rarely touched meat.
"Why do you have to read so many books?" Li He could only feel sad and indignant. She would rather be less scientific. She really did everything for the child.
As the days passed, He Fang's belly was really going to get bigger. The two of them hurried back to the capital. They took a carriage from an acquaintance to the train station in the nearby city and then took the train to Bingcheng. They stayed in Bingcheng for a night and originally planned to fly back to the capital from Bingcheng airport the next day.
However, He Fang wanted to go to Kazakhstan University to see a friend who used to go to the countryside with her. Li He accompanied her. Kazakhstan University was most famous for its Russian major. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that it was the best in the country. Basically, many Russian teachers and translators in universities came from there.
He Fang's friend was a teacher there. She was a tall and thin woman in her thirties. When she suddenly saw He Fang, she was so happy that she cried and jumped. She wouldn't let He Fang go no matter what.
The two women chattered non-stop. Most of them were reminiscing about the past. Li He couldn't get a word in.
Li He followed them and stayed in Bingcheng for another night. They booked two rooms in the hotel. The two women wanted to light the lamp and chat at night. He had to sleep alone in the other room.
When they returned to the capital the next day, it was only one in the afternoon.
He Fang was very tired. She still had to cook and clean the house like before.
However, Li He didn't allow her to do it. "Let's hire a nanny."
He Fang shook her head. "I'm not that delicate. Don't look for trouble. I'm not used to having an outsider stay. "
"Then don't move. I'll do it. " Li He's laziness had to be cured. During the first trimester, the fetus was still unstable. At this time, it was easy to miscarry.
This was different from mowing the grass in the fields. At most, one would have to bend over. There wouldn't be any big problems. However, there were too many trivial things to do at home. He had to worry about them and it was more tiring.
Li He had to carry the heavy burden of washing clothes and cooking!
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