Chapter 227
227 Eating Lotus Root
When Old man Wang found out that his horse had disappeared, his heart tightened and he almost couldn’t breathe.
He went to check around and indeed could not find any traces of the horse.
The villagers also said that they had never seen it before.
Everyone was busy harvesting. How could they have the time to care about a horse?
“This horse doesn’t belong to our family!” This was what ached Old man Wang’s heart the most. He had to compensate for losing someone else’s horse.
Someone asked, “How much is this horse? I think it runs quite quickly.”
“It costs at least 35 taels of silver!” When Old man Wang went to buy the donkey cart, he had asked about the horse and carriage.
An ordinary donkey cost two taels of silver, and the better ones cost nearly three taels.
According to the laws of the Great Chang Nation, ordinary people were allowed to buy ordinary horses. Ordinary horses were usually selected from warhorses or old horses.
When there was a war, the government could take them away for free.
Inferior horses like that were usually good enough for normal usage. If they were to be brought onto the battlefield, they would basically die. Therefore, being requisitioned was equivalent to giving them to the officials.
If the family did not need a horse very much, they usually would not buy it. They felt that it was not worth it.
Even if they could buy it, the price was unimaginable for ordinary people.
The quality of the horses that had wandered into the villages and towns was definitely worse, but they were still much better than donkeys.
Even the lousiest horse was worth 35 taels of silver, and the slightly better ones could cost up to 60 to 70 taels.
Qin Huai’s horse was even better than the ones on the market. Old man Wang did not dare to imagine how much it would cost.
Hearing the price of the horse, the others gasped.
They called out to everyone to quickly find the horse.
Compared to a horse worth dozens of taels of silver, it did not matter if the harvest had to wait a little.
They could not let the Wang Family compensate so much money, right?
At this moment, the sky suddenly rumbled.
Before long, there was a loud bang.
There was thunder.
Old man Wang’s expression changed. “Everyone, stop working. Hurry up and harvest the crops!!”
Summer thunderstorms came and went as they pleased. From the time the first sound of thunder appeared to the time of rain, it usually did not take long.
The adults hurriedly loaded the harvested wheat in the fields and carried them back.
The children panicked and also began to collect the crops.
At this time, they heard a series of cries on the dam.
“Ah, my leg hurts!”
“Heavens, I can’t move. Someone help me!”
These children had squatted for a long time in the Horse Stance, and all of them were now walking like ducks.
Still, they still had to gather the crops quickly.
It was simply painful and torturous.
Old man Wang’s family had an especially large amount of crops, but fortunately, there were also a lot of children.
Including the three Gou brothers, there were a total of 10 boys and the silent Tang Yuan. The group of people quickly gathered all the crops.
Then, they covered it with a layer of oil cloth and straw. Finally, they some stones on the top as weights.
Just like that, the grains were safely put away.
After they finished collecting, they did not stay idle and hurriedly helped the others collect theirs.
Little Ah Yu waved her arms and legs and also helped.
She had a small dustpan that Old man Wang had made for her. She panted and put the grains into the spatial pocket when no one was paying attention.
Then, when she poured the grains into the middle pile, she released the ones in the spatial pocket.
As everyone was busy, no one noticed Little Ah Yu’s actions.
“Eh, they finished collecting it so quickly today!” Someone exclaimed.
“Wouldn’t you get used to it after harvesting crops everyday?”
The farming work would last for more than half a month. Some families had already started harvesting a few days ago. These children were used to harvesting and drying grains every day, thus their movements were very fast.
“Pa-”
Suddenly, there was the sound of water dripping on the ground.
“Pa, pa-”
The sound grew louder and louder.
It was as if someone was beating a drum, approaching from afar.
Water “coins” also began to appear on the ground, exploding into round flowers.
Wang Dalang’s expression changed. “Quickly, quickly. The rain is here!”
In the end, there was only one family left so everyone went to help.
Just as they covered the last pile of grains with cloth, the dense sound of rain arrived.
“Hua-”
“Hua-!”
A large drop of water landed on Little Ah Yu’s forehead. She was stunned and touched it with her hand. It was wet.
Tang Yuan hurriedly pulled open her sleeves to block the rain for Little Ah Yu, but how could she block it?
“Little Sister Ah Yu, come over quickly.” Wang Wulang took off his single coat and placed it on Little Ah Yu’s head to help her block the rain.
Wang Dalang hid the harvesting tools into the tarpaulin and turned to call his brothers to hurry home.
His clothes were wet, but he could not change.
If not for the fact that he had to help the others, he would have returned home after keeping the crops and would not have been drenched in the rain.
“Run!” After Wang Sanlang shouted, he hurriedly ran forward.
The mud path had become very slippery. Wang Sanlang slid for a long time and eventually fell into the soil.
The others laughed when they saw this.
Not long after, a few of them fell on the path and became mud dolls too.
In the end, they simply stopped running and started a mud slinging war in the fields.
When Little Ah Yu saw this, she was also a little eager to join in.
Wang Dalang was carrying Little Ah Yu on his back and could feel her struggling. He said, “Ah Yu, don’t come down. Let’s go home first.”
Little Ah Yu: “Big Brother, I want to play too!”
This looks so fun!
She was wearing Wang Wulang’s clothes on her head and when she looked out from under the clothes, she saw her brothers rolling in the mud in front of her, playing happily.
Wang Wulang also wanted to go and play, but when he saw that Little Ah Yu also wanted to go, he thought of the scene of Little Ah Yu covered in mud and imagined his Grandma’s face.
He immediately shivered.
At this time, Tang Yuan reminded him softly, “There are lotus seed pods over there.”
Wang Wulang turned around and saw the lotus pond not far away.
“Little Sister Ah Yu, let’s go pick the lotus pods!”
In any case, her clothes were already wet so it did not matter.
Compared to playing with mud, Little Ah Yu was more curious about the lotus pods.
Wang Dalang glared at Wang Wulang. Not only did he not know how to coax his sister into returning home, he also made suggestions to play elsewhere!
I’ll deal with you when I get back.
Wang Wulang stuck out his tongue at his eldest brother and made a face before turning around to run towards the lotus pond.
There were two lotus ponds in Hu Family Village which were planted by Old Master Hu. He liked to walk around the lotus ponds and when he was in the mood, he would bring his brush and ink to the lotus pond to paint.
Usually, lotus flowers were allowed to be plucked. But the lotus leaves could be picked.
If the children wanted to make lotus leaf rice, they would pick one or two.
Now, there were still many lotus pods in the lotus pond. The surrounding ones had basically been removed, and the rest were gathered in the middle.
Wang Wulang rolled up his pants and went down the lotus pond to pick a large handful.
When the other children saw this, they stopped playing with the mud and ran to the lotus pond to pick lotus pods.
It was just right to enjoy lotus pods in this weather. The lotus pod was tender, and even the lotus seed inside was not too bitter.
If they waited a little longer, the lotus pod would become hard and the taste would be much worse.
This was the first time Little Ah Yu had eaten a lotus pod. When the soft lotus seed pod was peeled open, round little seeds jumped into her palm.
Then, she peeled off the skin of the lotus seeds and took out the lotus seed flesh.
A fragrance bloomed on the tip of her tongue.
Little Ah Yu’s eyes widened again. “It’s sweet and delicious!”
Everyone had a lotus seed pod in their hands, except for Wang Dalang, who was carrying Little Ah Yu.
Little Ah Yu held her hand forward and stretched it out in front of Wang Dalang. “Big Brother, do you want to eat?”
Wang Dalang originally wanted to quickly bring the children back. However, the thunderstorm came and went quickly. Now, it has stopped completely.
Hearing Little Ah Yu’s soft voice, Wang Dalang said to himself.
Forget it, it was rare for Little Sister Ah Yu to enjoy herself. It was better to let her play for a while longer.
There was no lotus pond in town for her to play with anyway.