Then, Xue Da looked at Xue Yan, “Xue Yan, you told me that you could never refuse me. You are a well-read and polite child. You accepted everything that I’ve given you politely before. What’s wrong with you today?”
Xue Yan was helpless.
Jiang Yue was surprised. This old man was quite smart.
Xue Yan had no choice but to put his hands together and, as usual, politely bowed to Xue Da before taking a piece with both hands.
This was Jiang Yue’s first time seeing Xue Yan bow. Although he was young, he was well-mannered, and his posture was upright and pleasing to the eye.
Xue Da then turned to Jiang Yue and coaxed her as if she was a baby, “Jiang Yue, look, your brother has already taken it. You’re younger than him, you could…”
The old man looked at her expectantly with shining eyes.
Jiang Yue had no choice but to accept it.
“Alright, perfect.” Xue Da was overjoyed when he saw that they had all accepted his gift.
“Grandpa, you should eat too.” Jiang Yue and Xue Yan both broke the red date cake in half and stuffed it into Xue Da’s mouth.
Xue Da looked up and grinned from ear to ear, “You both are too kind.”
Seeing the old man that happy, Jiang Yue and Xue Yan also smiled and started to eat the other half of the red date cake.
Although it was called a red date cake, it was only a little sweet. Obviously, there was not much sugar added.
Jiang Yue and Xue Yan stayed at Xue Da’s place for a while before they left.
When he got home, Liu Guixia was already making dinner. Yu Hongyan was near the stove, using a fire stick to stuff firewood into the stove.
The sun hadn’t set yet. They were cooking so that they could finish eating before dark, then wash up and go to bed.
Work at sunrise and rest at sunset. This was what it meant in the Xue family.
They also did not want to work at night due to the wastage of oil lamps. The farmers would save on whatever they could as much as they could.
When Liu Guixia saw them return, she immediately smiled and said, “Hey, I forgot to bring my hoe back. It must have fallen into the ditch beside the wasteland. Your father and the others probably don’t know. Also, tell your father and the others that your second sister-in-law and I are already cooking. Tell them to come back and not stay up too late. It becomes dangerous when it gets dark. ”
“Alright, I’ll go now.” Xue Yan agreed and went to prepare.
Jiang Yue thought that she could take a look at where the barren land was and see what was planted on the land. She wanted to see if she could replace it with something with a high yield from her space. After all, these were ancient times. Olden-day seeds were completely incomparable to the yield of the same kind of crops in the modern world with all kinds of high-tech technology.
Therefore, Jiang Yue quietly followed behind.
Xue Yan noticed it and turned back, “Wait, you’re coming too?”
“Yes, let’s go and take a look.” After a pause, he added, “At our family’s land.”
Xue Yan didn’t say anything and just nodded.
The two of them went to the area together.
The barren land was on the left side of the mountain closest to Locust Village. On that mountain, the right side of the Locust Village had already been cleared, and things had been planted. Now, if anyone in the village wanted to explore, they had to go from the left side.
On the way to the barren land, Jiang Yue learned from Xue Yan that Xue Dafu’s family had opened up a total of five barren lands in the past few years.
They didn’t have any paddy fields at home. The paddy fields they planted were all rented from the landlord in town.