80s Transmigration: The Young Widow's Hustle to Riches

Chapter 394 - 392: Stepping Back to Move Forward

Lin Guozhu looked at Li Xiangyang and smiled. "Xiangyang, do you know how to plant rice seedlings?"

Li Xiangyang looked back at him and smiled. "Don’t worry, Third Brother. I can at least plant them in a straight line."

With that, he rolled up his pant legs and got into the paddy. He casually picked up a bundle of seedlings, untied the grass binding it, and flattened the bundle with his left hand. His right hand took the separated seedlings from his left, and after aligning them horizontally and vertically, he quickly plunged them into the soft mud beneath the water.

The number of seedlings in each bunch had to be roughly the same; too few or too many would affect the autumn harvest.

Lin Guodong watched and laughed. "Third Brother, Xiangyang is really no slower than you at planting seedlings!"

Lin Guozhu glanced up and chuckled. "No way. Could I have misjudged him?"

Tong Xinglan and Qiaohui picked up the nylon ropes used for marking the planting grid and helped set it up, shouting as they walked, "Go, Third Cousin! Your cousin-in-law is catching up to you!"

"Alright, just watch your third cousin!" Lin Guozhu also picked up his pace, and the sound of SPLASHING water came from the paddy field.

The few people in the field were bent at the waist, planting the seedlings one by one, their butts in the air as they moved backward step by step.

It was just as the Budai monk’s poem described: With green seedlings in hand, I fill the paddies. I lower my head and see the sky in the water.

Only with the six roots purified can one find the Way. Stepping back is, in fact, moving forward.

Halfway there, Lin Lan ran into Lin Changyou and Lin Guoliang, who were carrying bundles of seedlings on shoulder poles. She smiled and said, "Dad, Eldest Brother, we’re here."

Lin Changyou saw that four more people had arrived and smiled. "With all these able-bodied workers for four mu of land, let’s try to finish planting in two afternoons."

An expert seedling planter in the village could pull and plant seedlings all by themselves, finishing a whole mu of land in a day with time to spare.

Lin Lan smiled and nodded. "Okay, let’s work hard!"

Lin Changyou and his son walked off, carrying their shoulder poles.

The fields were filled with busy figures. In families with fewer able-bodied workers, even the children came out to help, tossing bundles of seedlings from the ridges of the paddies.

Lin Lan arrived at the seedling paddy on Niu Bei Mountain. In the lush green field, she saw farmers bent over, pulling seedlings, their faces to the yellow earth and their backs to the sky, moving slowly through the water.

She saw her mother and two sisters-in-law had straps tied around their waists. The grass ties for the seedling bundles were held by rubber bands and attached to the straps, allowing them to pull up seedlings with both hands while in a half-squat.

Lin Jun, Lin Hong, and the other kids had their pant legs rolled up. They were in the seedling paddy, carrying the tied bundles up to the ridges to be placed in bamboo baskets. Little Douzi had his pant legs rolled up above his knees and was also helping carry the bundles.

"Be careful not to fall into the paddy."

Seeing Lin Lan arrive, the kids shouted happily, "Grandma, Mom, Auntie is here!"

Lin Lan looked at them. "Be careful. Don’t let the bundles fall apart."

Wu Shufen straightened up, turned her head, and smiled. "The grass ties are on the ridge. Get them yourself."

Lin Lan said, embarrassed, "I forgot to bring a strap."

Zhang Xiuqing smiled. "Little Lan, just grab a handful and put it on top of the seedlings."

"Alright!" Lin Lan picked up the grass ties from the ridge, got into the paddy, and walked over to the patch of seedlings. She placed the ties on top of them and glanced at Wu Shufen, who was squatting nearby.

’She suddenly remembered how, when she was a child helping her family pull seedlings, she always used to break them.’

’Her mom would squat next to her, teaching her as she worked. You not only had to be fast when pulling seedlings, but you also had to pull them cleanly. If the seedlings were broken, or if the tied bundles were messy, the person planting them would be slowed down. The survival rate of the transplanted seedlings would drop, and it would affect the harvest.’

’On this day in her past life, she had been just over seven years old. It was also the first year of the household responsibility system for her family. She and her younger sister had been dragged out of bed by their mother early in the morning. After breakfast, they went to help their parents pull seedlings...’

Lin Lan shook her head, pulling herself from her thoughts. She reached out and grabbed the seedlings by their roots, pulling them up horizontally with both hands. Then, she brought her hands together, holding the seedlings and dunking their roots under the water. With the roots facing outward, she swished them back and forth with moderate force.

With a few SWISHES, the roots were washed clean. She then took a grass tie, bundled the clean seedlings tightly, and placed the bundle in the water.

The grass ties her family was using this year had been prepared for her long ago by Yang Liying and her sister.

These ties were made by pre-selecting brightly colored rice straw, stripping the outer layer, pinching off the knotted ends, and keeping only the bright, smooth middle section. This made for the best kind of grass ties.

Soaking them in water overnight before planting made them incredibly tough and very difficult to break.

Zhang Xiuqing smiled. "Little Lan has gotten some practice. Your speed at pulling seedlings is quite fast."

Zhao Xiaohui nodded. "Exactly. Little Lan, what’s harder, planting seedlings or making pastries?"

Lin Lan chuckled. "They’re both hard in their own way. It’s better that we came to plant in the afternoon. It’s not so hot once the sun starts to go down."

Zhang Xiuqing said, "I see Lexing’s seedlings are generally good. Looks like it’s going to be a great harvest this year."

Wu Shufen said, "A good harvest is a blessing. The old saying goes, ’With grain in the house, there’s no panic in the heart.’ We should store up the grain from a good year, so we have food to eat when a lean year comes."

Zhang Xiuqing and Zhao Xiaohui had both lived through the Great Famine. The memory of an empty stomach made them shudder. "Exactly. If we have money, we should buy more grain and oil to store. If another great famine comes, we won’t have to be afraid!"

’Lin Lan recalled that since the implementation of the household responsibility system, there really hadn’t been any famines. Even when natural disasters struck, the military would provide relief. There was truly no need to worry about not having enough to eat.’

But she couldn’t tell them the truth, so she just smiled and said, "Don’t worry. My pastry shop has plenty of flour and oil stored up. And since you run a restaurant, you have grain stored too. If there really were a famine, we’d have enough to eat for a while."

Wu Shufen nodded. "Little Lan is right. The restaurant has a good amount of oil and grain stored. We don’t need to worry about famine."

The four women chatted away while pulling seedlings, and before they knew it, the sky began to grow dark.

The children weren’t as cheerful as before. Lin Qing and Little Douzi even started complaining that they were hungry.

Lin Lan said to the three women, "Mom, Sisters-in-law, let’s go back and come again tomorrow."

Wu Shufen looked at the sky. "Alright. My eyes are getting old. It’s hard to see clearly when it gets dark."

The four of them carried the last of the seedling bundles up to the ridge. Lin Lan said to the children, "Little Jun, take your younger brother and sisters home. We’ll be right behind you."

"Yay, yay, yay! We’re going home!" The kids picked up their shoes and ran off happily.

They hadn’t even finished bringing all the bundles to the ridge when Lin Guoliang and his brother walked over with their shoulder poles. "Mom, Little Lan, once we carry these over and plant them, we can call it a day."

Lin Lan replied, "Okay. We’ll head back first and make something to eat. Do you want noodles or rice?"

Lin Guoliang said, "Let’s have noodles. They’re quicker."

"Okay."

The four women helped load the seedling bundles onto the shoulder poles. After watching the two brothers leave, they picked up the grass ties from the ridge, carried their shoes, and started walking back barefoot.

On the way, they passed other villagers heading home from work in twos and threes. Everyone was carrying shoulder poles, holding grass ties, and some had water buckets, all hurrying back.

Before they had even reached home, they could see Lin Gang and a few others in the distance, locked in a shouting match with Xiong Weicheng.