Chapter 18

In the following days, Lin Yun and Lin Yumei spent more time studying. Lin Yumei had it a bit easier, since if she truly studied, she would be starting from high school, but Lin Yun had only one year until the college entrance exam.

Though the textbooks at this point didn’t seem too difficult, Lin Yun didn’t dare take the college entrance exam lightly. Universities hadn’t yet expanded their intake, so getting into college was truly a challenging task, especially in such a remote rural area. As far as Lin Yun knew, no one from her village had ever gone to university.

It was quite normal for a rural high school to go for years without sending anyone to university. Lin Yun never underestimated the intelligence of people in this era. Her only advantage was a bit of understanding of the future.

Days passed like this, and during this time, they sold a centipede again, making what could be considered a fortune in this era. With the money, Lin Yun and Lin Yumei became even more focused on their studies, as it was already late July.

The reason was simple: late July meant the start of the rural “Double Harvest” season, during which everyone, regardless of age or gender, had to participate, and there would be no time left for studying.

Lin Yun had heard her elders talk about the “Double Harvest,” but she had never experienced it herself and was quite curious.

She didn’t know exactly when it started, but one day, the whole team’s atmosphere suddenly became heated, and the daily broadcasts turned into announcements about the Double Harvest, calling everyone to join.

On July 20th, Lin Yun woke up at four in the morning, quickly ate something with her family, and went to the fields. Lin Chuntian, whom she had rarely seen before, stayed behind.

Lin Yun never imagined that one day she would become proficient at threshing rice. Lin Chuntian and Zhao Lanxiu were cutting the rice, while Lin Yonggang placed the cut rice next to the threshing machine. Lin Yun and Lin Yumei would pick up handfuls of rice and do the preliminary processing in the threshing machine. The machine was borrowed from someone, and with two people standing on it, it was quite cramped, but they had to keep pressing the foot pedals to make it work.

Lin Yun truly experienced what it meant to sweat profusely. Sweating was one thing, but she couldn’t even wipe it off, and the chaff from the rice was not only painful but also itchy. She thought to herself how in her past life, she had always been fully protected from the sun, armed with sunscreen, yet now she was threshing rice under the blazing sun with just a straw hat.

When the small grain bin in the threshing machine was full, Lin Yonggang would pack the rice into bags and later take it to dry. They also had to deal with the haystacks that no longer had rice.

While sorting through the rice, Lin Yun suddenly understood why the rural mindset of preferring sons over daughters was so strong. Besides the usual territorial disputes, many farm tasks truly required young, strong labor.

Of course, women could work to match men’s strength, but in rural areas, it was difficult. Women and men both had to do the same tasks, but physically, they were not equal.

And completing all this was just the first step of the Double Harvest. After harvesting the early rice, they still had to plant the late rice before August.

Perhaps because there was less rainfall this year, the rice fields were dry. To successfully plant the late rice, they needed to irrigate the fields. Fortunately, there was a reservoir at the top of the rice field, and they could directly draw water from it.

Lin Yun and Lin Yumei took hoes and went to the reservoir to bring water back to the fields. By the end of the day, when Lin Yun saw that the fields had finally received water, she let out a sigh of relief.

Next came plowing. Everyone was scrambling to borrow water buffalo, and Lin Yun began to wonder if they should buy one for the family next year.

After much effort, they managed to borrow a buffalo. Lin Chuntian was in charge of plowing, Lin Yonggang was in charge of fertilizing and harrowing, and Zhao Lanxiu took Lin Yun and Lin Yumei to transplant the seedlings. Even transplanting the seedlings wasn’t easy. Later, seeing that Lin Yun wasn’t doing well with it, Lin Yumei took over the task of transplanting the seedlings and only let Lin Yun handle the seedling pulling.

The late rice had to be planted by August 6th at the latest, and Lin Yun couldn’t even remember how those days passed. She was waking up at two or three in the morning to go to the fields.

If all of this was just physical exhaustion, one morning, after arriving at the fields before sunrise, Lin Yun realized that her legs were bleeding, and several soft-bodied animals were lying on them. She truly broke down. The life of being transported to the 1980s after being in a restroom left Lin Yun in shock.

Looking at her bleeding legs, Lin Yun felt numb. She felt like she couldn’t move at all and just stared blankly at the bleeding spots on her legs before calling out, “Sister.”

Lin Yumei heard her voice and rushed over, “What happened?” She then saw the blood on her legs. “How did your legs get like this? Are you okay? Let me take a look.”

As Lin Yumei walked toward her, Lin Yun suddenly burst into tears. She couldn’t hold it in anymore. She considered herself a strong person, but life here had been really tough. She would still joke about it, telling herself that the 1980s were considered the “golden age,” but now she felt like life was too harsh. She had lived comfortably in modern times—her parents were loving, and she had many friends. They would hang out on weekends, go to concerts, and music festivals, but now she had woken up in such a place.

The more she thought about it, the more wronged she felt, and her crying grew louder, as if to cry out all the grievances from the past two months in this world.

Hearing her cries, Lin Yumei was startled. “What’s wrong? Is it very painful? Are you okay? Come, sit down for a moment.” As she spoke, Lin Yumei helped Lin Yun sit down on the field ridge.

“It’s just a few leeches. It’s fine. Look, there are still marks on my legs from where they bit me. It looks scary, but it doesn’t really hurt,” Lin Yumei comforted her while handling the situation. She first removed the leeches that were still stuck on Lin Yun’s skin, then gently tapped the ones that had bitten her to make them fall off.

“If you encounter them again, don’t pull them off yourself. I heard of someone who got bitten by a leech, pulled it off, and ended up leaving the head inside.”

Seeing that her sister looked even more terrified after hearing this, Lin Yumei quickly stopped talking.

Zhao Lanxiu had already noticed her second daughter crying, but she couldn’t stop her work, as halting it would mean they wouldn’t finish in time.