Chapter 43 ☆ Picking grass for pigs (Part 2)

“What a hassle!” Goudan said with a fierce tone and an impatient look on his face, “I won’t wait for you anymore. I’m leaving first!”

He said this but stood at the door with his hands behind his back, waiting.

Cheng Yaoyao hurried back inside, changed into a long-sleeved shirt and trousers, put on her Liberation shoes ^[1]which are a type of traditional Chinese footwear. and rummaged through the boxes to find the small bamboo hat Xie San had woven for her.

Before leaving the house, Cheng Yaoyao called out again, “What should I do if I don’t have a basket?”

Xie Fei hurriedly took out a basket and said, “Brother braided it for you last night. Take this.”

Xie San had made a new basket for her overnight. It was beautiful and light. Cheng Yaoyao put it on her back with satisfaction and nodded, “Then I’ll go.”

Just as she reached the door, Xie Fei chased after her and handed her the kettle, “Sister, kettle, kettle!”

Goudan had already walked to the entrance of the alley impatiently, shaking his head like his father, and said, “Women are so troublesome!”

Xie Fei also stood at the door and waved to Cheng Yaoyao reluctantly. Cheng Yaoyao waved back, “I will be back soon! I will come back to make dinner later!”

Xie Fei watched Cheng Yaoyao leave with envy. It took her a while to return to the yard and close the door again.

Grandma Xie was busy stringing grass beads, shaking her head. She had said earlier that Cheng Yaoyao was patient, but now she seemed hurried and annoyed.

The sun was already very strong outside. Cheng Yaoyao, wearing her favorite little bamboo hat, followed Goudan through the alley towards the suburbs, feeling dizzy from the sun.

Goudan was only seven or eight years old, but with his short legs, he walked much faster than Cheng Yaoyao. He moved through the difficult paths in the field as if they were flat ground, leaving Cheng Yaoyao far behind.

Goudan was not Xie San, and he was not considerate of Cheng Yaoyao at all. He couldn’t help her when she encountered difficult places to walk. Cheng Yaoyao felt like crying.

Just as Cheng Yaoyao was about to collapse, they finally arrived at their destination.

The place where they picked grass for pigs was beside a river, where the water flowed gently and the weeds and bushes were lush and green. Several large willow trees stood on the bank, and two cows were drinking water in the river.

Several children were already by the river, some riding on cows.

As soon as Goudan saw the kids, he left Cheng Yaoyao and ran over, yelling, “I found this piece of land first! Lin Weimin, don’t take my land!”

“Why? We were here first today!” The child named Lin Weimin, wearing a sailor shirt, obviously came from a well-off family.

Two or three other ragged children ran up to Goudan and shouted, “Brother Goudan, Lin Weimin has taken over our pig-grazing ground and fenced it off, so we can’t get any!”

Seven or eight little kids started fighting on the shore.

Cheng Yaoyao walked over with the basket, passed through the group of fighting children, and looked at a clump of grass surrounded by willow branches, “Is this the pig grass?”

The two naughty kids who had rolled into a ball at Cheng Yaoyao’s feet looked up at her, mesmerized by her beauty. They stared at her, dumbfounded.

Cheng Yaoyao, dressed neatly and speaking in a very pleasant voice, said, “Who among you can answer me?”

“Yes… this is it,” a little boy reacted first. He rolled over and got up from the ground, pointing at the pig grass with long serrated edges and saying, “This is what pigs eat.”

Cheng Yaoyao smiled and said, “Thank you.”

The other children stopped fighting and stared at Cheng Yaoyao intently. They had been so busy fighting that they hadn’t noticed Cheng Yaoyao before, but now they saw the famous beauty of the village.

She was so pretty, prettier than the beautiful widow at the village entrance and the little girl from Lin Dafu’s family!

A few naughty kids pushed and shoved around her. Cheng Yaoyao noticed but was too lazy to pay attention. She frowned and looked at the clumps of pig grass, unsure where to start.

The pig grass was large and dense, with jagged edges. Cheng Yaoyao reached out and plucked one, pulling it off with great difficulty. The back of her hand was accidentally cut by the weeds, and she shook her hand away in pain.

Xiao Tiedan grew anxious and said, “You don’t pick them that way. You just pull them out in one swoop!”

“Like this?” Cheng Yaoyao tried to grab and pull, but it didn’t move.

“How stupid.” Lin Weimin laughed, “My mother said that city women can’t work!”

Several children laughed along, which made Cheng Yaoyao very angry. She bit her lip, glanced at the children, and continued to argue with the grass, snorting.

“Go away!” Goudan picked up a stone and threw it at Lin Weimin and the other kids. He said to Cheng Yaoyao in a disappointed tone, “Hey, how come you can’t even pull grass for pigs!”

“…” Cheng Yaoyao had lived so long but had never been scolded by a child before. She snorted angrily, “Every profession has its own specialty! I can’t pull pig grass, but I can read! Can you read? Can you write your own name?”

“…, my mother said she would let me go to school next year!” Goudan blushed and retorted.

Cheng Yaoyao nodded, “Then you can’t. What about you? Can you all read?”

The children looked at each other in amazement. Rural children start school late, and they can’t read.

Cheng Yaoyao perked up and nodded, “So you can’t even read. And you still have the nerve to teach me a lesson.”

The children blushed immediately. Rural people, regardless of age, naturally respect those who are educated. Cheng Yaoyao, being an educated young woman from the city, was admired. What’s wrong with her not being able to pull pig grass? She can write!

Cheng Yaoyao narrowly won the first battle against the naughty kids.

These children didn’t come to the suburbs just to play. In the countryside, children could also earn work points by cutting grass for pigs, rabbits, and cows. They could earn half a centimeter every day, which was a good job for them since they were idle.

Cheng Yaoyao was a special case: she was pretty but not good at working, so she was assigned to collect grass for the production team’s pigs daily and was fine with just a trick.

Unfortunately, Cheng Yaoyao was not skilled at this task. Seeing Goudan quickly fill a basket with pig grass and run around with the children playing war games, she squatted by the grass and struggled with a bunch of pig grass.

There were mosquitoes in the grass, biting Cheng Yaoyao’s snow-white ankles and leaving several bites. Cheng Yaoyao pulled the grass while crying, missing Xie San more than ever.

Suddenly, a little boy walked up to Cheng Yaoyao and poured some pig grass into her basket.

Cheng Yaoyao looked up and saw an extremely thin little boy wearing a small jacket and pants made from adult clothes. Although he was very thin, he had delicate features and was very cute.

“Huh?” Cheng Yaoyao looked at him, a little surprised.

The little boy blushed and whispered, “For you.”

“Thank you!” Cheng Yaoyao smiled softly. Looking at the half-full basket of pig grass, she felt touched and amused. “What’s your name?”

The little boy said, “My name is Mingming.”

“Lin Mingming, get out of here!” Goudan suddenly ran over aggressively and pushed Mingming away.

Mingming was pushed and fell on his butt, sitting on the ground.

Cheng Yaoyao stood up suddenly. “Goudan, why are you bullying him?!”

Cheng Yaoyao was an adult, and she was very pretty. When she got angry, she was quite intimidating.

Goudan yelled, “His mother is a bad woman, and no one in the village cares about him!”

“Yes! His mother is a bad woman!” Lin Weimin and several other children also ran over and were now angry with Goudan.

Mingming got up without saying a word, dragged his basket, and walked away silently, looking like someone who was used to being bullied.

Cheng Yaoyao hated bullying the most. She was furious. “Shut up! In my opinion, you are the bad ones. You bully others just because you have more people.”

Goudan widened his eyes. “I… I’m not a bad guy!”

“You are, and you too! You’re even pretending to be PLA soldiers^[2]refers to a member of the People’s Liberation Army.. Are there any PLA soldiers who bully others like you?” Cheng Yaoyao said contemptuously.

Cheng Yaoyao was so pretty and educated that the children felt dejected when she criticized them. Tiedan, the youngest, pulled on Cheng Yaoyao’s sleeve and said incoherently, “I… I don’t bully people. I’m nice to you.”

Cheng Yaoyao chuckled and held Tiedan’s hand. “Okay, you are a good boy.”

Tiedan immediately attracted the disdain of the other children! Cheng Yaoyao actually held Tiedan’s dirty little hand, wiped his face with a fragrant handkerchief, and took him to pull pig grass together. Mingming also came over and followed Cheng Yaoyao like a loyal follower.

After a while, Tiedan put on a stern face and stuffed a large bundle of pig grass into Cheng Yaoyao’s basket. Seeing this, the other children didn’t want to be outdone and helped Cheng Yaoyao pull up pig grass.

Cheng Yaoyao: “…” Do these naughty kids really deserve to be bullied?

With a full basket of pig grass, and it not yet being eleven o’clock, Cheng Yaoyao stretched and sat under the shade of a tree by the river, watching the children play.

Goudan and the other children rolled up their trouser legs and fished for snails in the river. With the beautiful Cheng Yaoyao present, the children were particularly eager to show off. Occasionally, when they found a lobster or a snail with patterns, they would show it to Cheng Yaoyao like a treasure.

Cheng Yaoyao covered her mouth and yawned. “It’s so boring. Is this what you usually do after you finish cutting pig grass?”

Goudan scratched his head. “We also play war games, catch cicadas and monkeys, catch loaches when it rains, and fish for lobsters in the evening!”

Cheng Yaoyao asked, “Catching cicada monkeys? Do you know about cicada molting?”

Lin Weimin rushed to answer, “I know! They are cicada shells. Some people come to the village to collect them. Two taels of them can be exchanged for a piece of maltose!” ^[3]refers to a type of sweetener made from malted barley or other grains.

Cheng Yaoyao finally showed some interest. “Can you catch them?”