" Tong'er it's great you are here, " said Qiu Bai he happily took the basket that Yu Tong brought for him, before turning to look at his daughter with a delicate and soft expression " Tong'er, can you please help your father? I want to harvest this wheat but my hand hurts so much that I can't even raise my arm anymore ."
Qiu Bai was great at talking and compared to Shen Li and the others, he was dainty and petite just like a cute little girl. If not for the bright vermilion lotus on his forehead many would have mistaken him as a woman - coupled with the fact that he never worked in the fields after marrying Yu Dong's aunt thus time was really good to him. With his frail figure that looked like it might get blown away with just a gust of wind, and those watery eyes that had a tint of redness made him look like a pitiful white rabbit, no one refused his plea.
If Qiu Bai was to pout his lips and softly coax his wife, even the resolute Aunty Yu had no other choice but to give in to his whims.
This was why Qiu Bai was able to get rid of Yu Dong's family with just a simple tactic as pillow talk.
Qiu Bai was used to having his ways, and he believed that as long as he swayed his tiny waist and pulled an extremely pitiful expression on which young or old women would have no choice but to fall for his antics. But this time the woman in front of him was his own daughter even though Qiu Bai didn't sway his hips and twist his waist like a seductress, Yu Tong still found his dewy eye look really nauseating.
She rolled her eyes and then looked at the field that wasn't even touched. The sickle was carelessly lying on the ground and even a single stalk of wheat was harvested and yet her father had the face to say that his hand was hurting after working in the fields?
What did he take her as? An idiot?
Her mother might be easy to flatter but she wasn't her mother. So Yu Tong simply took two steps back and sneered " Father, you have barely touched the wheat in the field. You haven't even started yet your hand already hurt? "
Qiu Bai wasn't easy to back down either, even though his daughter shredded his pretence to bits. He still kept smiling at her but if someone was to look carefully, they would see traces of being wronged in his eyes " but I have never worked in the fields. Tong 'er, you are a woman and you are much stronger than father, I'm nothing but a weak mer - how will I harvest this much wheat alone. Tong'er even your grandmother used to work in the fields, as her granddaughter you shouldn't shrink away from this little work "
Yu Tong heard what her father said and her expression turned a little complicated, she knew as the woman of their family she should be working in the fields instead of letting her father harvest them. But she was lazy as well! After being pampered by her mother and grandmother, Yu Tong's personality became warped.
She was extremely arrogant, conceited and self-centred. She was used to people bringing food to her mouth instead of her working for that food, in the beginning, her aunt used to hunt and bring a decent income to her family. Later on, her mother got a job in the town after she finished her education and Yu Dong married those three fuglies, so the job of household work fell on those three mers including Yu Dong's father.
With her aunt's income, they didn't have to worry about eating good meals either. But then her aunt passed away in an accident after a bear mauled her and her uncle in law too passed away because he couldn't bear the separation from his wife.
Ever since her aunt passed away, the financial condition at her house became tight. Her mother's salary was good but her brother who was studying to bring glory at home had a lot of expenses as well.
Yu Tong understood that if she wanted to eat good meals she needed to work but she was too lazy and couldn't bring herself to harvest this ten mus of land! Why should she be the one working in the fields while her brother only had to stay at home and wait for his meals? Why? Just because he was studying?
Yu Tong was regretting not agreeing to her mother's suggestion. When she was five her mother wanted to send her to school as well but Yu Tong found studying to be a headache and refused. And since she was the ' only daughter ' of her mother, her mother didn't force her either. But now Yu Tong was regretful if she knew that if she didn't study then she would have to work in the fields she would have studied even if her head exploded!
Suppressing her negative emotions, Yu Tong rubbed her forehead and closed her eyes in annoyance " Father, it's not like I don't want to work but you know that I haven't worked in the fields either. If I were to harvest these wheat stalks then I'm afraid I might ruin them in my negligence - these wheat stalks are our family's financial lifeline I can't afford to risk it and ruin the harvest "
Qiu Bai listened to his daughter ' nonsense ' calmly and not once did he doubt her words. After all, Yu Tong was his daughter, whatever she said or did was correct! Thus, he nodded his head in understanding then looked over to their family's wheat field and said " then what should we do? Your grandmother is old and your grandfather won't allow her to come to the field and harvest wheat. He is afraid that your grandmother might hurt her waist if she pushed herself to harvest it "
The responsibility of harvesting the crop belonged to grandmother Yu but a few months ago while sowing seeds she fell on her back and hurt her waist. Though she has long recovered and was moving around without any difficulty, Grandfather Yu was still worried that she might hurt herself again if she went to the fields again. So he ordered Qiu Bai to harvest it of course he could have helped but he was too ' lazy ' and ' afraid of labour ' so he simply used his authority as an elder and ordered Qiu Bai to do it.
" You can ask Yu Dong to send her husbands to help us, " said Yu Tong with a casual shrug as if she was Yu Dong's mother and had complete control over her family even if she separated from their family " they are used to this kind of labour, they will do it in a jiffy. Why should we bother with it and ruin the harvest just let them do it "
Qiu Bai too thought that his daughter made sense and immediately agreed " you are right, how forgetful of me. They were the ones who helped your grandmother in harvesting the fields before so they must know how to do it properly, I almost made a mistake, ah! "