Chapter 15

Xiumei happily took the cucumber and bit into it. “Wow, this cucumber really tastes good. Can I have another one? It’s summer now, and our Dazhuang loves eating smashed cucumber.”

While eating, Ding Xiaomei continued talking, cucumber juice nearly splattering onto the face of the person opposite.

Ning Mei distanced herself with a look of disdain. “Alright then, I won’t disturb you much longer. Xiaoxiao, there’s a lot of work in the field. If you’re tired, take a break. Don’t feel shy; these are your uncles and aunts, they’ll let you off easy.”

After a pause, she continued, “Honestly, why does this big girl have to work so hard? Knowing that you’re in the fields, Fangzi was so anxious she wanted to come help too. Can you imagine how much pressure you’ve caused on all the young girls and newlywed women in our village?”

Ning Mei said this with a grin, but her words were far from polite.

And it was true—because of Wu Xiaoxiao working in the fields, a lot of people in the village were gossiping.

What’s so hard about cooking at home? The Wu family’s man passed away, and their young girl not only cooks but also works in the fields earning points. Why don’t others compare?

After such talk, the young women in the village had a pretty bad impression of Wu Xiaoxiao.

But Wu Xiaoxiao didn’t know any of this. Even if she did, it wouldn’t have affected her. She didn’t mind Ning Mei’s words; after all, she was just helping her mother and trying to improve her abilities by working in the fields.

As for what others thought, she didn’t care at all.

Once Ning Mei left, Wu Xiaoxiao said, “Aunt, let’s start working. I’ll start from this area; where will you begin?”

This large plot of land was at least four or five acres, and with only four people working, it wouldn’t be easy to finish weeding it all.

Ding Xiumei smiled, “I’ll work with you. You’re just a little girl; I can’t let you do all the hard work.”

She thought to herself, since this plot of land was light work, if she worked with Wu Xiaoxiao, even if it wasn’t perfectly weeded, no one would say she was lazy. She could always claim she didn’t do it well on purpose to teach Wu Xiaoxiao.

However, before she could finish her thoughts, Wu Xiaoxiao had already started weeding at a fast pace.

—-

Wu Xiaoxiao looked like she hadn’t done much work, but her movements were fast. She directly pulled out the smaller weeds by hand and crushed the roots, while for the bigger ones, she used a shovel to dig them out. In no time, the field ridge had many weeds pulled out. Since they had just been weeded a couple of days ago, most of the roots were thin.

Ding Xiumei couldn’t keep up with Wu Xiaoxiao’s speed at all.

Not long after, Wu Xiaoxiao had already reached the end of the field.

“Hey, Ding Xiumei, you’d better hurry up! Don’t let Xiaoxiao leave you behind!”

Aunt Tian looked at Ding Xiumei, who was moving slowly, and shouted. She couldn’t stand Ding Xiumei, who was always crafty and lazy. She would always look for the easiest task and take shortcuts. Now, she had finally met her match. Xiaoxiao was only on her first day working in the field, and she had already weeded beautifully. How could Ding Xiumei, who had been working for so many years, not even keep up with a child?

Sure enough, Ding Xiumei couldn’t keep up.

She initially tried to catch up a bit, but soon waved her hand and went to rest on the side. “Oh, this child, Xiaoxiao, is so nimble. On her first day working, she already got the weeds so clean. Xiaoxiao, today, I’m relying on you.”

She didn’t feel embarrassed at all, stretching her back and continuing, “Oh, my old back just can’t handle it anymore. I’ve only worked for such a short time, and my back’s already stiff. You young people are strong. You’ve probably finished three-tenths of it already, and you’re not even out of breath.”

Ding Xiumei sat by the field, resting while watching Wu Xiaoxiao work, chatting non-stop. “Taking a break, I’ll drink some water. Oh, your water bottle is so nice. Is it the one your dad brought back? Ah, such a shame about Brother Jianjun…”

She hadn’t even put the water bottle down before she was reaching for cucumbers in the basket.

“Hey, hey, hey, how many have you eaten? This is Xiaoxiao and her mom’s lunch. How can you be so shameless?” Aunt Tian came over, moving the basket further away. “Xiaoxiao, take a break too. You can’t do everything yourself. You’ve already weeded half an acre.”

Wu Xiaoxiao walked back and sat on the ridge of the field. “It’s fine, Auntie. I’m not tired. I just want to do more. You know, if I can weed two acres in one day, can I go to the village head and ask for more work points?”

When people were close, she acted like she was pulling weeds by hand. But when they were farther away, she used her abilities to make the weeds lift out of the ground by themselves. All she needed to do was toss the roots onto the ridges. This made her work much faster than the others, and as for the bending and fatigue, it wasn’t an issue for her at all.

“If it were up to me, of course, you could, but don’t overdo it. It’s your first day working, so take care not to wear yourself out. If you don’t pace yourself, you’ll be feeling it tomorrow.”