"Squeak, squeak."
Little Mi jumped down from the field ridge, with a large rat still clamped in its mouth.
No, to be precise, it should be a field rat.
Right after, Little Black also dashed out from the nearby grass, similarly holding a field rat in its mouth, one cat and one dog, heading straight in Jiang Hu’s direction.
At this mont, the whole family was busy in the paddy field, except for Iron Egg constantly causing trouble, the other children, big and small, were all helping out with the work.
Jiang Yu and Little Snow, the sibling pair, were helping with transplanting rice seedlings in the field.
Little Mi and Wei Ziang stood on opposite sides of the field ridge, minding the hemp rope.
Once everyone finished planting a row of rice seedlings, they signaled the appropriate distance, pulled out the stick holding the hemp rope, and inserted it back into the paddy field.
This way, others could plant seedlings along the distance of the hemp rope, making them more orderly.
As for Iron Egg, like his sister Little Mi, he was small with short legs, so stepping into the paddy field might an he’d get stuck and unable to move.
anwhile, Wei Ziang, due to the scars on his body, knowing outside wasn’t like his space, even after more than a month, his scars hadn’t fully healed.
To avoid infection, he naturally wasn’t suited for the field work now.
Little Mi, with her sharp eyes, was the first to see Little Black and Little Mi, and quickly shouted, "Daddy, Mommy, Little Mi and Little Black caught a field rat!"
It was the first ti Wei Ziang saw this, and his eyes widened in surprise.
"Little Black and Little Mi are amazing."
Conveniently, Little Black passed by him just then, as if understanding, suddenly slowed down.
Even raised its chin high, with a proud deanor, as if it was doing it just for Wei Ziang to see.
Jiang Hu had just finished planting a row and simply got up onto the ridge: "Little Black and Little Mi are quite capable, with them around, no matter how much grain we have at ho, there’s no fear of rats."
Saying that, he called the two little ones: "Little Black, Little Mi, bring the field rats over, and we’ll roast them for you tonight."
As soon as he said that, Little Black, no longer able to boast to Wei Ziang, quickly trotted over, handing the field rat to Jiang Hu.
Little Mi reached Jiang Hu from the other side too.
Jiang Hu took a back basket, placing the field rats inside while putting another basket on top, so the two field rats were trapped in between the baskets.
"Looks like these field rats aren’t having it easy," Jiang Hu casually remarked, "they’re not as big as they were years ago."
Back when there was no drought, while still living at the old house, Little Black and Little Mi would catch particularly plump field rats every day.
Wei Ziang was a bit amazed: "Do Little Black and Little Mi even need them roasted?"
He was learning for the first ti that cats and dogs didn’t eat rats raw, preferring them cooked.
"Yes, they’re quite pampered, won’t eat it raw, they insist on having it cooked first."
Though he spoke with a tone of disdain, the smile on his face displayed none of that, in fact, he seed quite pleased.
The family worked together on the three acres of paddy field, taking two or three days to finish; then another two days planting peanuts, soybeans, and late-maturing autumn cowpeas and green beans.
After finishing all that, temporarily there was nothing more to do at ho, so Jiang Hu planned to take everyone to town for a visit.
Before leaving, he even specially gave each child five copper coins, allowing them to buy their own things.
Five copper coins might not be much, but giving five copper coins to each child wasn’t sothing many in the village could bear to do.
Especially since it was for five children.
However, apart from Wei Ziang, the other siblings were already used to it, happily accepting the copper coins, thanking their parents, and carefully storing them away.
In recent years, every year Jiang Hu’s second aunt would give the children a few copper coins, along with New Year money and birthday gifts too.
While it’s not much, adding up everything, each child would accumulate about ten or so copper coins a year.
But to the children, it was already a substantial amount, an exciting amount.
A few days ago, Jiang Yu just turned eight, growing another year older, and after eating a bowl of longevity noodles, he seed to have grown up all of a sudden.
Seeing Wei Ziang holding the copper coins, sowhat at a loss, he patted his shoulder.
"Later, let Little Snow make you a pouch, if you don’t want to spend it now, you can save your money for when you want to buy sothing."
Little Snow had just stored away her copper coins when she heard this: "Oh right, Ziang doesn’t have a pouch yet, I forgot to make one before."
Everyone in the family had a pouch made by Little Snow herself, hers was the ugliest, a practice piece, while everyone else’s looked better one by one.
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