Age: My Small World

"Brother Malha, what is this?"

Yang Jun held the bowl, wanting to ask a question, but was met with a puzzled look from Malha.

Okay, let's forget he can't understand.

However, Yang Jun had a guess in his mind: the millet-like thing in the bowl was probably fried rice, which is common on the grassland.

Besides the fried rice, there was also a dish of minced meat with sauce. I must say, it tasted really good and was quite unique.

Just guessing that even though the people here raise a lot of livestock, they don't eat meat every day, so Malha and his son and wife ate with relish and didn't stand on ceremony with Yang Jun, eating and drinking normally.

After the meal, Yang Jun handed out a few pieces of candy, which marked the first step towards a friendly relationship.

In the afternoon, all the students were called to the brigade's threshing ground to assemble.

"Little Fish, how are you and Teacher Wei doing?"

Wei Ran and Yang Jun were assigned to the same group, and Cheng Xiaoyu was also there.

The two lived together; in Wei Ran's words, she was there to help Yang Jun take care of his little wife.

"Brother Xiaoshan, it was great. That lady Bayar was so hospitable. She even took us to see the chickens she raises."

Although he didn't know what was so interesting about a chicken, seeing how happy Cheng Xiaoyu seemed, he smiled along with her.

Wei Ran waited until all the students had gathered before announcing that they would start working today.

Firstly, it's impossible for them all to be assigned to herding sheep or anything like that, so they went with the team to the fields to the south to harvest crops.

Under the scorching sun, many people were drenched in sweat.

Fortunately, the team had made preparations in advance, and each household provided a straw hat to the students living at home, so they wouldn't get sunburned when they went to work.

Each person carried a sickle and walked on the relatively flat land, which stretched as far as the eye could see. To the north were green grasslands, and further north were lush green hillsides, which represented the mountain peaks.

The south, however, becomes rugged, with several hills crisscrossing the landscape. A river quietly appears, followed by a lush lake with crystal-clear water that seems to swell with a deep blackness when you look inside, due to its immense depth.

On both sides of the river that flows into the lake, there are specially reserved green meadows to provide fodder for cattle and sheep; otherwise, once the grasslands to the north are depleted, the people here will have to migrate.

Now that they have a spare pasture, they can use the grass by the river to replace the northern pasture, allowing the cattle and sheep to live here for a short period of time, and then release them back once the new pasture has grown well.

It can be said that this land brought the Maliangou Brigade a rare period of peace and tranquility, at least they didn't have to run around like people from other banners.

That's why the people here grow crops.

"They even planted corn."

When Yang Jun arrived at the field, he found that most of the crops in Maliangou were corn, and there were withered potato seedlings next to the corn.

Neither of these two things are particularly picky about the land, making them among the easiest crops to grow, and naturally they are the villagers' first choice.

"Let's divide it up. Those who want to pick corn can form a team, and the rest can dig potatoes."

There were naturally people in the team who could understand Chinese, including the accountant and the team leader. So after discussing it with Wei Ran, they divided Yang Jun and the others into two teams to help each other.

Yang Jun joined the potato-digging team, mainly because Wei Ran and Cheng Xiaoyu were there, making it convenient for him to keep an eye on them.

Of course, digging potatoes is actually much easier than picking corn.

Don't be fooled by the fact that digging potatoes involves pulling them out of the soil and carefully removing the dirt to keep them clean. It may look hard work, but it's not actually that difficult.

Picking corn is much more grueling; the leaves on the corn stalks are truly a torment.

Corn leaves have backward-pointing teeth that can easily cut the skin upon contact, causing intense itching even if it doesn't draw blood.

Plus, corn cobs scatter everywhere, and if they land on your sweaty neck, it's quite uncomfortable. At that point, digging potatoes seems less daunting, except for the dirt.

Yang Jun carried a hoe and dug in front, while Wei Ran and Cheng Xiaoyu pulled the bags to clean the potatoes and put them in.

The three worked together so efficiently that they overtook the old farmers next to them.

"Wow, this student is amazing, working so hard."

The men immediately stopped moving, still holding their hoes, and started chatting in Mongolian.

Yang Jun's eyebrows twitched slightly, and his movements slowed down accordingly.

Sometimes being too assertive isn't a good thing; otherwise, people might leave all the work to them, which wouldn't be good.

"Take a break and have some water."

Yang Jun casually placed the hoe on the ground and then sat down on the hoe handle.

"Okay, wait a minute."

Wei Ran didn't say anything; she was also sweating profusely and feeling very hot.

After fetching the water bottle from the edge of the field, the three of them simply picked it up and poured it into their mouths, without needing any cups.

"Why is the water still ice-cold?"

The two women touched the kettle with some surprise, but unfortunately they couldn't see anything.

Yang Jun couldn't very well say that he had replaced the water in the kettle with groundwater while in mid-air, and also added some spiritual water.

"Yang Jun, what are you planning to do in the coming days?"

Wei Ran didn't avoid Cheng Xiaoyu, and asked Yang Jun in a fairly friendly manner.

Cheng Xiaoyu glanced at Wei Ran in surprise, then looked at Yang Jun, wondering what his answer would be.

Yang Jun shook his head: "It seems like I should just quietly learn how to do farm work from the comrades in Maliangou, and then go back in three months."

He actually knew what Wei Ran meant.

In Wei Ran's view, Yang Jun couldn't possibly just quietly work every day; he must be up to something.

Just like how he used to help people dig wells, or even go hunting in the mountains and catch a bear, these things left a deep impression on people.

"Forget it, just be careful anyway. Don't act recklessly like before. If you encounter wild animals, run away immediately. Your life is your own, don't joke around with it."

Even knowing how capable he was, how could Wei Ran not worry? So he gave him a few more words of advice.

"Don't worry, Teacher Wei. I value my life very much. If I encounter danger, I will definitely run away immediately."

"I hope you remember what I said today."

Wei Ran nodded, unsure whether she believed it or not.

After resting for a while, it was time to get back to work.

Having had experience working in the countryside multiple times, no one acted awkwardly anymore, and they truly became qualified farmers.

And so, the first day on the grassland passed quickly.

Dinner wasn't at the guesthouse, but rather a large pot of rice. Compared to the minced meat at Brother Malha's place, the large pot rice also had some minced meat in it, but the taste was just average.

Being able to eat meat is already a blessing. (End of Chapter)