Chapter 288

The weather this year turned hot exceptionally fast; it was only mid-to-late May, and the temperature had already risen to over 30 degrees.

Although the village was much cooler than the city, with such a high temperature increase, they had to turn on the fans every day when eating now.

It would only get cooler in the second half of the night, especially for the few young lads who were truly afraid of the heat; if they wanted to sleep in the first half of the night, they also had to turn on the fans.

Considering that Grandpa's house also needed to be tidied up for the summer, Song Tan endured and didn't buy air conditioning, but instead brought back a few fans, placing one in each room.

This was okay, but Qiaoqiao had a high internal heat and needed it blowing all night. He would turn on the fan in the first half of the night, not knowing how to turn it off while sleeping, and then would be searching for a quilt all over the bed in the second half of the night.

He slept in the room next to Song Youde's. Originally, the old couple felt sorry for their grandson, but when they took a look at night, blowing on his stomach like that wouldn't do!

Therefore, early the next morning, Song Youde called the siblings over:

"Tantan, Qiaoqiao, take a sickle and look around the village to see where there are rushes, cut two bundles and bring them back; I'll weave a few straw mats for you."

Nowadays, every household has air conditioning, so bamboo mats and straw mats are slowly being used less and less. The edges of the bamboo mats in Song Youde's house had already split from the seals, all branchy and splintery.

They could still be used, but it was hot now, and there was no farm work, so there was no need for that.

Rushes...

Song Tan thought to herself: I wandered around the whole village last time and only managed to get that one handful, which I even forced to grow.

If I need enough to weave straw mats now...

She pushed Qiaoqiao back: "Grandpa, it's hot outside; let Qiao stay home and study, I'll go get them."

"By the way, lend me your tricycle to ride."

As she spoke, she grabbed the keys directly from the room and rode on the little red tricycle.

Making Song Youde feel very distressed: "Ride slowly! Don't drive my car into the field ditch."

Answering him was the sound of Song Tan speeding up with a roar.

There were still a few clusters growing where the rushes were cut last time, and this stuff could grow long and big from just one cluster, plus the place was remote and was wasteland...

Song Tan gave it some spiritual energy and waited patiently for a while; soon, there was a big, lush, green clump in front of her.

She swung the sickle, bundled up quite a lot in a few strokes, and then filled the back seat.

Seeing that it was still early, she ran to the vegetable garden under the hot sun to take a look—

The cucumbers were already mature, so she grabbed two and ate them directly!

Holding the cucumber with both hands, she twisted in opposite directions, and the slightly rough little thorns on top were twisted off, and then she patted them on her body without caring...

Tsk, not a bit of a fairy-like appearance.

Once her hands were clean, she took a "crunchy" bite, and the instant freshness permeated her mouth; her throat even felt that refreshing fragrance belonging to the cucumber.

She crunched through it in a few bites, and looking down, Sanbao and Sibao were raising their heads, looking at her expectantly.

Goodness, these two greedy dogs.

They hadn't eaten less of the things in the vegetable garden.

She smiled, stuffed the remaining cucumber ends into their mouths one by one, turned her head, and pulled two more from the cucumber trellis: "Eat slowly, find a place to rest yourselves if you're hot."

Turning her head to look at the eggplants in the field.

Now a portion of the green eggplants had matured, the purple eggplants still needed some time, and the baby bok choy had been sold out, leaving only two rows, replenished as they were eaten, supplying her own family.

The chili seedlings planted before were now lush and green, with white flowers and green peppers flourishing, already ready for picking, though the yield wasn't large yet.

And the cowpeas.

Good heavens, this stuff grew as if it didn't want to live, hanging down long like hair, and a handful could be grabbed with a casual pull.

However, Song Tan didn't plan to sell these vegetables directly; she wanted Seventh Cousin-Grandpa to lead everyone to help pickle them into sour cowpeas before selling them.

And then dry some into dried cowpeas, to stew with meat in the winter...

Just thinking about it, drool was about to come pouring out.

Over here, Old Man Li was walking with his hands behind his back, looking back and forth in the rice field; the rice was growing robustly, with full grains, a stretch of green.

When the wind blew, continuous green waves spread across the field, making Old Man Li full of joy, even dreaming about the rice flowers blooming.

"Tantan," he said with quite a lot of experience: "You planted this rice early, and it's growing surprisingly well... I reckon it can be harvested in June."

"Alright, I'll find someone to bring a combine harvester then."

Song Tan answered readily.

"You girl, you don't know how to cherish money."

Old Man Li said to her: "For just these two fields, what combine harvester are you looking for? The big men in your family can just go up and cut it with a few sickles, and it can all be finished in a day!"

Song Tan:...

Well, it's not like we don't have money, right?

On such a hot day, why bother?

"Grandpa Li," she laughed: "If my family members do the work, I'm afraid you won't be able to help but do it too. It's so hot, if you get sunstroke, I won't know how to explain it."

"It's fine, I'll call someone to bring a combine harvester then. If you really feel bad about the money, there are leftover rice ears and such in the field; you can pick them up and clean them yourself, I won't mind."

Old Man Li was instantly pleasantly surprised: "Really give them to me?"

"Give!"

How many rice ears can two fields yield!

But Old Man Li didn't think so.

He watched the rice fields and vegetable gardens for Song Tan, so he knew how delicious the things in the house were; the cucumbers grew like that, could the rice be bad?

As an old man, how many jin does he eat in a year?

"Fine," he laughed: "I'll pick the rice ears, and you don't need to send rice to my house anymore; it's enough to eat."

Song Tan giggled and didn't answer—whether it's enough or not, she's the one who decides.

Seeing that the time had passed, she crunched through the cucumber in her hand, turned onto the cement road nearby, and rode the tricycle with a roar back home.

Just as she got home, she saw Song Youde had spread a clean plastic sheet on the ground and was sitting on a stool, smoothing out tobacco leaves one by one.

It's worth mentioning that Song Tan only planted about two fen of tobacco, but because of the spiritual energy, they grew exceptionally robustly, and the yield could be said to be the peak that could only be reached with extremely well-managed water and fertilizer—

A full 600 jin of tobacco leaves were harvested!

These 600 jin of tobacco leaves went into the curing room, which was about 200 jin of cured tobacco.

Song Youde had a treasure, and he even walked with a spring in his step!

At this moment, he had taken out a few pieces of golden-cured tobacco leaves, pinched the stem in the center of the leaf, and smoothed it with both hands, stripping the leaf off and leaving only the bare stem aside.

This action was clearly done very skillfully; with a few swishes, a small pile of tobacco leaves was stacked beside him.

Song Tan stood there and watched: "What is this for?"

Song Youde was happy, his heart and eyes full of expectation: "My tobacco shreds are gone, I'll cut some to smoke first."

Alright then.

Regarding tobacco, her grandfather was truly as active as could be.

Look, he didn't even care about that big pile of rushes on the back seat of the tricycle anymore.