Her Cultivation Diary

Chapter 2167: Chapter 1846: All Grown Up

On the Saturday when Aunt Zhang Hong departed, it was a great relief that it stopped raining in the morning.

Even though the sky was still overcast, there was no rain directly falling on the mountains, meaning many activities could resume. Weeding, pest control, antifungal protection, harvesting, pruning...

The whole village buzzed with activity again.

Meanwhile, early in the morning, Song Tan held a bowl, eating the steaming hot hand-rolled noodles made by his Seventh Uncle, while listening to Qiaoqiao happily report his work...

Hmm, it was quite beautiful too.

But Wu Lan felt a bit heartbroken listening to it.

"This child, I told him to go play at Yang’s house, yet he quietly started working again. Doesn’t know how to enjoy..."

Song Tan, however, was very casual about it: "Kids have a lot of energy. If you let them play at home, what can they play? They might as well go out to run around and learn more."

Besides, is that really called farm work at Yang’s house?

Like the last time they picked daylilies, they pulled a bagful, happily ending the live stream.

Afterwards, they surely wandered around here and there again.

The same with picking cotton, picking some, and then using the big equipment.

Qiaoqiao’s face was flushed with excitement, and he could even help Yang sell goods.

Looking at this morning’s video, Qiaoqiao was brimming with happiness—he was going to switch farm machinery again and experience a harvester today!

Not the small ones at home, but a big one! A combined harvester! Roaring through, reaping several rows of rice along with threshing at the same time!

"...now let’s harvest the double-cropped rice first! Sister, their double-cropped rice here is different from ours. After harvesting, they plow the fields again to plant seedlings."

Taking advantage of the convenience of early seeding each year, their family grew ratoon rice.

This means that after the first crop of rice is harvested, the stems are left longer to allow the second set of seedlings to sprout directly.

Otherwise, with re-plowing and planting, in the era relying solely on manual labor, there would be no time to grow two crops of rice.

However, the yield of this second crop is much lower than the first.

Because growing grain isn’t profitable, by the time Song Tan was little, this manually forced double-cropping of rice was phasing out.

But now, since the rice at home is too delicious and each plot has its own plan, they started arranging for it again.

"And their wheat! After harvesting the rice on this side, we’ll go harvest the wheat. They’re growing spring wheat here!"

There is also winter wheat.

But winter wheat has long been harvested, so the wheat available for Qiaoqiao to harvest is all spring wheat, also called late wheat.

However, though there is such a large place, Yang’s pseudo-rural life was a bit different from his.

Qiaoqiao enthusiastically shared: "I asked Yang if he snuck wheat ears to roast and eat when he was little, and he said no..."

Taking advantage of the empty fields at noon, kids would sneak some wheat ears and roast the grains in the stove until crispy and fragrant to chew.

This was a childhood joy back when food was scarce or living conditions were poor. With such large farms at Yang’s place, he wouldn’t need to steal if he wanted to eat wheat, right?

But no one explained this to Qiaoqiao seriously.

Only Yang was there scratching his head, deeply regretting:

"Ah, Qiaoqiao, it’s all because I met you too late! No one taught me such fun stuff. My childhood playmates didn’t go down to the fields either."

"Right?" Qiaoqiao in all seriousness:

"Now I’m teaching you. Next year, you can try it, starting when wheat is still green you can start roasting them—but but don’t take too much."

"My mom said it’s very hard for everyone to farm, stealing three or five stalks, nobody will say anything. Stealing too much, you’ll be scolded..."

One taught earnestly, the other took it very seriously. Not to mention Song Tan felt warm listening, Wu Lan felt happy hearing it too.

No wonder among all the guests and relatives that come and go at home, why is Yang the only one so liked?

"Are you going live today?"

Seeing their conversation veer off-topic, Song Tan quickly pulled it back.

Qiaoqiao shook his head: "The harvester is very loud. Today, we need to harvest both wheat and rice, a heavy task with no time to stop and instruct little friends all the time. But Yang said he would help me record videos."

"When we return, we’ll post the videos on the account, so the kids will know what I’m up to."

The siblings chatted on, Professor Song happily enjoyed his second bowl of noodles beside them:

"Qiaoqiao has grown up."

This growing up wasn’t about physical age but about his mental growth.

His thinking ability became sharper, his logic matured, in some ways, he became someone who could communicate normally (though a bit too directly).

But his innocence remained unchanged.

Perhaps because he has not experienced the pains of growing up and indeed has a perceptual deficiency in this area, but precisely because of this, his perpetual innocence feels all the more precious.

Isn’t that right?

This ordinary statement from Professor Song somehow brought a tingle to Wu Lan’s nose.

"Yes." Prior to last year, who would have thought the future would be so stable?

Money brings confidence, and the growing savings made Wu Lan put her mind at ease.

But more than that, it’s Qiaoqiao’s growth, the skills he learned, and the success he’s achieved with his own live streaming career.

Teacher Tang previously praised their family, saying something about ’teaching a man to fish’...

She understood, it meant that! Her Qiaoqiao could live a very good life too.

...

At this moment, the joyful siblings faced another round of panic.

To be exact, it was a one-sided panic from Yang.

Considering those things he ate from his dad’s private stash before the incoming package arrived, then signed for such a big box...

Let’s just say, the whole summer became incredibly delicious with Qiaoqiao’s presence.

And now, as the rice harvesting was underway, he suddenly became terrified:

"Qiaoqiao, I have to report to school on the 20th of next month! The start of school means military training, do you know what military training is?"

He immediately found a few videos of the parade with how tough, and sweaty the training was—

"Look! I’ll be living this kind of, um this kind of... life similar to this!"

Qiaoqiao widened his eyes, watching attentively, and suddenly asked after watching:

"Yang, will you be wearing these clothes and boots too? They look so nice! Will wearing them make you as tall as them?"

The people inside seemed so hard-working and amazing, looking taller than him, is this what his sister meant by aura?

Yang was suddenly hurt!

This is probably the price of fibbing T_T

He stammered: "When I’m having this tough life at school, can you send me more delicious food?"

"When the holidays come, I’ll take you to the amusement park here for a few days! We’ll have fun together!"