For contemporary young people, Song Tan understood them all too well:
"They still have to drive over from the city, so with kids, they won't be able to leave too early."
Wu Lan: ...
She was at a loss for words.
Then she asked, "They can't get here by seven or eight o'clock? What kind of rice cutting experience will they get? Yesterday you said to hire people, but someone sent me a message at 5:00 AM saying they were already heading to the fields..."
In the summer, it's hot, and farmers go to the fields at five in the morning, work until around nine or ten, and then come back. In the afternoon, they don't head back to the fields until three or four o'clock.
When the heatwave of a summer vacation hits, you really don't want to start until six!
So Wu Lan really couldn't understand these people—just the idea of bringing children to cut rice seemed crazy to her.
