Now I'm even burdened with one big and one small lazybones, if we split the family, I'm afraid the whole family will have to drink the northwest wind!
"Spending so much money to raise a girl, who knows when she'll run off with a man!" Zhang Guihua, face sour as she counted the money, felt as if her heart was bleeding.
Knowing she was once again thinking of her little daughter, Jiang Dashan just closed his eyes and didn't join the conversation.
*
"I'm going to the outhouse." Jiang Mianmian, who had had enough, licked the tomato sauce off the corner of her mouth, got out of bed, and put on her shoes.
When she walked out and saw Da Ya, Er Ya, and a few other girls sitting in the courtyard, she casually asked, "What are you all crowding around for?"
San Ya, holding a kerosene lamp, replied, "We're picking blisters for Second Sister."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Mianmian saw that Er Ya's palms had several blisters, two of which had already burst.
Bloody and raw, just looking at it made her feel the pain, and this was only the second day of harvesting!
The other girls didn't think much of it, as they occasionally got a blister or two when working normally.
Da Ya even looked relieved as she said, "Er Ya is relatively lucky. Wang Xiaohua, who was harvesting rice with her, got a leech inside her leg sucking blood. They had to scrape off the skin with a sickle to get it off."
Leeches were common in the fields and rural people were used to them. If a leech clung to their leg, they just had to pat around it gently with their hands a few times to knock the creature off.
But Wang Xiaohua was young and inexperienced. When she saw a leech sucking blood, she tried to pull it off directly, causing it to suck even tighter, so tight that the adults couldn't smack it off. Since the salt was too far to get, they had no choice but to scrape it off, skin and all.
The thought of that terrifying scene made Jiang Mianmian shiver.
The things she feared most were those squishy animals—snakes, leeches, caterpillars—just one glance was enough to make her hair stand on end and her scalp tingle.
So, in that moment, she decided—she was going to school!
She absolutely, positively did not want to have any chance of intimate contact with those creatures!!
The system immediately showered the screen with flowers, "Host, it's wonderful that you've come to this realization!"
It was a cause for celebration, as it was finally going to shut down the preschool education mode and start the noble journey of a struggling student turning into a brilliant one.
"I'm only doing this because I'm forced!" Jiang Mianmian dejectedly exclaimed in her heart, her little head drooping as she walked into the outhouse.
After finishing in the bathroom, she heard rustling in the stack of firewood and her heart suddenly tightened. She swallowed nervously and said, "System, activate thermal imaging scan."
No sooner had she spoken than her vision turned blue. She could see within the blue stack of firewood a large golden mass writhing—
It's a snake!!!
Jiang Mianmian instantly covered her mouth in horror, afraid to make a sound, and then bolted into the house.
She ran in wild-eyed but couldn't hide her excited thrill as she said, "Dad, there's a big snake in the outhouse woodpile."
At this, Jiang Changhai, who was lying on the bed, rolled over and leapt up, "Meat's here! Let's go catch the snake to eat."
He didn't even put on shoes, just ran out barefoot, clutching his daughter and heading outside.
In fear that a moment's delay would cause the ready meat to fly away.
"It's in that spot." Jiang Mianmian stood a good distance away, poking at the pile of wood with a stick.
Upon hearing this, her dad positioned the shovel and banged it against the targeted spot.
The snake inside, frightened, immediately started writhing and scrambling to escape.
Jiang Mianmian kept her eyes fixed on the golden length, providing side-line guidance, "Dad, over here, it's about to come out."
Thus, the unlucky snake had just poked its head out when Jiang Changhai grabbed it securely by the neck with precision and strength.