CH 58

Mo Yan had just left when she saw a large carriage entering their home. A large red horse pulled a mostly-new carriage, and the person sitting on the carriage held a whip in his hand. Mo Yan thought, isn’t that Zhong Cheng? Why is he in a carriage today?

Seeing Mo Yan, Zhong Cheng jumped off and asked, “Yan’er, has your sister gone to the fields to harvest the sorghum yet?”

Mo Yan shook her head, “She hasn’t left yet!”

Zhong Cheng tied up the cart then walked towards their house, greeting Mrs. Liang as soon as he entered the door. She was still eating and greeted him from the kitchen, “We aren’t doing business these few days. I forgot to tell you that there’s no need to send flour.”

Zhong Cheng smiled, “I’m not here to deliver flour today. Didn’t you say that you were going to harvest sorghum today? I had nothing to do, so I’m here to help.”

Mo Yan came in and added, “He came with a big carriage!”

Mrs. Liang didn’t even remember when she told this to him, but he remembered clearly.

“You really shouldn’t have!”

“It’s nothing, I was idling about at home anyways.”

“Then have you eaten? Come eat with us!”

“I’ve already eaten, I came after I finished eating.”

In the kitchen, Mo Ling lowered her voice and whispered to Mrs Liang, “Why did you ask him to help? Tell him to go back.”

Mo Feng was overjoyed when he saw someone here to help, and was afraid they would drive him away, “It’s better to have someone help!”

Mrs. Liang said, “He came by himself, I can’t tell them to leave!”

The Mo family was eating in the kitchen, while Zhong Cheng was waiting in the courtyard.

After Mo Ling finished her meal, she came out and packed up the sickle, hemp rope and other items on their wheelbarrow. Ms. Li had come over and saw Zhong Cheng.

“Isn’t this the guy from last time? I told you he was here to ask for Mo Ling’s hand in marriage, he’s even come over to help you with your harvest.” [1]

Mo Ling said with a stern face, “He’s just a helper hired by my family.”

Zhong Cheng stood up to explain, but Mo Yan winked at him, so he just smiled and kept quiet.

Mrs. Liang greeted her from the kitchen, “Hello, what’s the matter?”

“The Cao family is also harvesting its crops today. Mrs. Cao wants to buy some salted duck eggs for the workers to eat. Do you have any?”

“Yes, we haven’t been doing business these few days, so we have a lot!”

“Then I’d like a few dozen, so I won’t need to make multiple trips.”

Mrs. Li followed Mrs. Liang in to get the salted duck eggs, and Mo Ling glared at Zhong Cheng again, blaming him for causing this gossip.

Ms. Li had just left when their neighbour Mrs. Zhang came over. She hadn’t come ever since the quarrel with Mrs. Liang! So why was she here today? [2]

As soon as she entered the door, she also stared at Zhong Cheng and looked up and down before asking Mo Ling, “Ling’er, who is this?”

“The hired help,” Mo Ling replied as usual.

When Mrs. Liu heard this, her face immediately brightened, “Your family only has a little land, and you still need to hire help? Why bother spending money! Dagan hasn’t been doing anything the past two days, you should’ve asked him for help.”

As the saying went, Preemptively offering help was never due to good motives. Mrs. Zhang was cunning. Her taking the initiative to help out meant something was definitely up.

Mo Ling pushed her cart and walked out, and Zhong Cheng and Mo Yan both followed. Mrs. Liang came out of the kitchen with a clay pot filled with water, “No one’s labour is free, how could we just ask Dagan to work for us without any payment?”

Mrs. Zhang looked at the backs of Mo Ling and Zhong Cheng, and winked at Mrs. Liang, “We’re next door neighbours. Aren’t we closer than that out-of-towner?”

Mr. Liang immediately understood what she meant, and she was targeting Mo Ling. Her eldest son was already twenty-one, but he still didn’t have a fiance!

Dagan was a filial child, and he didn’t look too bad. However, his family was too poor. All they had was their dilapidated house.

Mrs. Liang called Mo Feng to go out, and Mrs. Zhang happily followed, “Then should I call Dagan to come help out as well?”

Before Mrs. Liang could refuse, Mo Feng agreed, “Okay! Hurry up and call him.”

Mrs. Liu shouted loudly, “Dagan, are you still lounging around at home? The Mo family is harvesting their sorghum today, go help them out.”

There was no verbal reply, but Dagan quickly came out, holding a sickle in his hand.

Mrs. Liang politely said, “There’s no need for so many people, we only have a little land.”

Dagan was slightly embarrassed, “It’s okay, I didn’t have anything to do anyways.”

Mo Yan and Mo Feng rushed to climb up Zhong Cheng’s carriage. He asked Mrs. Liang to enter as well, but she said, “No need, you can go first.”

Zhong Cheng didn’t force her. He went to their fields, following Mo Yan’s directions.

When they arrived, Zhong Cheng grabbed a sickle from the carriage and started harvesting sorghum. He moved swiftly, and the sorghum stalks were cut off at the root and placed in piles. He occasionally turned around and told Mo Yan and Mo Feng to be careful.

By the time Mo Ling arrived, Zhong Cheng had already been harvesting the sorghum for a long time. Mo Ling told Mo Feng and Mo Yan to come and take a sickle to cut mung beans.

The mung beans were scattered in the sorghum field, and the vines were entangled with the sorghum stalk. When Zhong Cheng was harvesting the sorghum, he also cut them off. They just needed to separate the mung bean vines from the sorghum poles.

Zhong Cheng turned around and saw Liang’s presence: “Auntie, just remove the sorghum ear from the stalks! You aren’t in a rush to sow more seeds, so you can leave the stalks for now.”

If they did that, they’d be done in a day. After a few days, when the land was to be sown, the stalks could be removed then.

Mrs. Liang and Mo Ling removed the sorghum ears, being careful not to lose any grains. Then, they filled their cart up with it, and then dumped it onto the carriage.

Dagan went into the fields with a sickle, and wordlessly bent down to start harvesting sorghum. He was also good at farm work, not being slower than Zhong Cheng.

By mid-morning, the fields were half-harvested. Mrs. Liang couldn’t help sighing, “If you want to work in the fields, you really need to be big and strong!”

She called Zhong Cheng and Dagan over to rest and drink some water. Zhong Cheng promised to drink water after finishing with a half-done patch of sorghum.

Mo Feng and Mo Yan also ran over to rest. Mo Feng took a sorghum stalk in his hand, peeled off the skin with his mouth, and chewed it like sugar cane, saying it was sweet.

Were sorghum stalks edible? Mo Yan also picked up one and peeled off the skin. Zhong Cheng put down the clay pot with water and threw away the sorghum stalk she picked up with a smile, “Yan’er, this sorghum stalk won’t be sweet.”

“Why not?”

Zhong Cheng looked up at the uncut sorghum, picked up the sickle, walked over, and cut one off, “Look, the unripe ones are sweet. Those with ripe ears have the nutrients absorbed by the grain, so it isn’t sweet.”

With a wave of his sickle, he chopped off both ends of the sorghum stalk, giving the middle section to Mo Yan. She imitated Mo Feng, peeling off the skin and chewing it. He was right, it was really sweet.

“Brother Cheng, if there are any sweet stalks, please keep them for me. Otherwise, I won’t know which ones are sweet after my mum and sis remove the ears.”

Zhong Cheng agreed and went to work again. Mo Ling came over to drink water, gave Mo Yan a blank look and said, “Did he just buy you off with a single sorghum stalk?”

“It’s sweet! You can taste it.” Mo Yan handed over the sorghum pole.

Post-edit notes: Zhong Cheng proving himself to be a very good son-in-law in Mrs. Liang’s eyes. Too bad for him that Mo Ling doesn’t feel the same way.

Also, I’m really sorry I forgot to post this chapter…forgive me please ;-;