Chapter 195: Cooperation
Editor: Atlas Studios
Looking at the people carrying buckets and pushing carts on the road, Mu Yangling asked Liu Ting, “You call this not many people?”
“Don’t be dissatisfied.” Liu Ting said, “In a while, it will be more crowded, making it difficult to even walk. If we don’t water the fields in time, we’ll miss the timing for grain filling1 and the wheat grains will be deflated, resulting in a dismal output. So, we can’t rest at all now. If it weren’t for Little General’s order to stay away from the reservoir after seven o’clock, I’m afraid everyone would have watered their fields all night.”
The first time Mu Yangling went to the reservoir, Liu Ting had already been running around for two days. The river and reservoir were about the same distance from their land. Instead of running to the river first before running to the reservoir, it was better to familiarize herself with the journey from the reservoir to the field from the beginning.
Reservoir No. 2 was surrounded with people. Fortunately, there wasn’t a queue like what Liu Ting had mentioned. There were soldiers guarding the reservoir and patrolling back and forth to prevent any fights over the water.
Mu Yangling parked the cart under the reservoir for Liu Yuan and another cousin to stand guard by it. Then, she carried two buckets to fetch water.
Being young, small, and agile, in no time, she twisted her way to the front and threw the bucket down. When she raised it again, it was full. Seeing this, Liu Ting hurriedly called his cousins forward and said, “Ah Ling, you’ll be in charge of fetching water over there while we carry the filled buckets down.”
A burly man who was fetching water looked at Liu Ting in disdain when he heard that. Drawing water required much more strength and skill than carrying water. As much water had been drawn from the reservoir over the past few days, the water level had gone down by quite a lot. As such, they had to tie the wooden bucket with a rope and throw it down. When the wooden bucket was filled with water, they would bring it up. Only an adult would be able to pull up a bucket filled with water.
Mu Yangling had no objections. Everyone in the Liu clan knew Mu Yangling’s strength and was happy with such an arrangement. They lined up to place their wooden buckets over so that Mu Yangling could fill them with water.
Mu Yangling’s grip was strong, and she easily filled a pair of wooden buckets with water. Liu Ting quickly got someone to carry the filled buckets away. When she filled all the wooden buckets with water, no one came forward to bring her any more empty wooden buckets. There was indeed a long distance between here and their cart. When Mu Yangling saw a few teens pulling up the water buckets, she simply threw a bucket down and filled their bucket with water.
Stunned, the teens looked up at her.
Mu Yangling only smiled at them and continued to fetch water for them. The teens blushed and thanked her. “Thank you.” Then, they picked up the buckets and left in a panic.
However, a lot of people rushed up and squeezed their way through. This caused some of the water in their buckets to fall out, and one of them even fell to the ground after being bumped by someone, spilling all the water in the wooden bucket.
Mu Yangling frowned slightly, but the person who was knocked down seemed to be used to it. He simply got up, picked up the wooden bucket, and came back to fetch water.
Mu Yangling sighed slightly. Fortunately, she didn’t ask her great-aunt and Xiuhong to come. She turned around and fetched a bucket of water for him. After pouring it into his bucket, she said in a low voice, “Try to avoid them. If it really doesn’t work, stand still and wait for those people to pass first. You could get injured from the fall.”
The young man blushed and nodded hurriedly. After a while, he looked up at Mu Yangling and said in a low voice, “You’re really amazing even though you look pretty young. I can only pull up half a bucket of water every time. Good brother, can you teach me later?”
Mu Yangling looked down at herself. Did she look like a boy?
After some thought, she said, “I’m naturally strong. You can go back and train your arm strength.” Mu Yangling helped him fill the bucket. When she saw Liu Ting bring empty wooden buckets over, she no longer had the mood to talk to him. Turning around, she continued to fetch water for them.
After three trips like this, everyone’s buckets were filled. In the end, Mu Yangling carried a bucket of water down herself. Her buckets had already been placed on the cart, filled with water. Mu Yangling carefully placed the last bucket on it.
Seeing that everyone was here, Liu Ting waved his hand and said, “Alright, let’s walk together. The women will walk in the middle. Those in front, behind, and on the left and right, be careful not to be knocked down. Ah Ling, walk in the middle with your aunts.”
There were good people in this world, but there were also bad people, especially those who could not bear to see others doing well. When they saw someone coming back with water, they would deliberately bump into them. If they made an issue of it, their efforts that day would be in vain. On the other hand, if you did nothing about it, they would become even worse.
Every time the Liu clan came out to fetch water, they would form cliques. When there were many of them, no one dared to provoke them. However, there were also some who were unreasonable and insisted on bumping against them.
Liu Ting and the rest had only encountered such people twice. Yesterday, they had almost gotten physical. In order not to hurt the women, they had to walk in the middle every time.
Perhaps it was because of Mu Yangling’s luck, but they actually returned to the field successfully this time.
Mu Yangling pushed the cart and was about to turn into her own plot of land. Before she left, she waved at Liu Ting and said, “Uncle, ask Cousin Li’s mother to fetch water with us later.”
As the three-day vacation in the military camp was over, Liu Li’s mother was the only one left at home. It was too dangerous for her to go to the reservoir alone to fetch water.
Liu Ting glanced at his cousins and agreed with a smile. “Wait for us here later. We’ll be here soon.” They only sent the water back for the old and young at home to water the fields before returning with empty buckets.
Mu Yangling nodded.
The Mu family contained the water using a large vat. Having carried it over from home, Mu Yangling poured the water into the vat. Madam Ma-Liu and the rest then scooped out water with a basin to water the fields, and emptied the wooden buckets so that Mu Yangling could go to the reservoir to fetch more water.
Since they had yet to arrive, she helped to water the fields. As she watered them, she reached out to pull out some wheat ears to observe carefully. She memorized these conditions and planned to write them down in her notebook later.
Other than that, there was also the weather every day, the agricultural work that needed to be done, and so on. Mu Yangling recorded them all. She did not know if she would be able to achieve anything in agriculture in the future, but she knew that this information would definitely be useful. Even if she had no use for it, it could always serve as a reference for future generations.
Therefore, Mu Yangling took this very seriously.
Seeing that it was about time, Mu Yangling pushed the cart over to the intersection and waited. This time, Madam Liu-Ma indeed followed behind Madam Liu-Zhang, carrying the empty buckets on her shoulder. She knew that Mu Yangling had asked them to let her tag along, and they were only allowing her to do so on Mu Yangling’s account. She couldn’t help but nod and smile gratefully at Mu Yangling.
Mu Yangling only smiled and focused on walking in front. While pushing the cart beside her, Liu Ting whispered, “It’s fine if you help Cousin Li, but don’t be too biased. Otherwise, it will be difficult for your Aunt Ma in the village.”
Mu Yangling snorted and said unhappily, “Great-uncle He is getting more and more muddle-headed. It’s not Cousin Li’s fault for what happened to his family. If Cousin Li amounts to something great in the future, let’s see what benefits the clan can gain if they continue to be so biased.”
Liu Ting did not say anything, but he remembered these words in his heart. Liu Li’s character was not bad, and Uncle He had indeed been a little muddle-headed over the past half a year. On the other hand, Brother Dacang was too honest and might not be able to suppress the people in the clan. It was uncertain if the Liu clan could still live as peacefully as they had in Nearhill Village, going forward.
With the intention of being kind to others, Liu Ting asked his wife to help Madam Liu-Ma more. This resulted in his family becoming closer and closer to Liu Li’s family.