My Hands Are Full, or Do You Want to Feed Me?

Zhou Chenglei and Jiang Xia walked past Wen Wan side by side.

Wen Wan watched thoughtfully as the smiling couple walked past.

Jiang Xia had actually beaten Wu Qizhi? In her previous life, she had divorced Zhou Chenglei for Wu Qizhi and willingly followed Wu Qizhi without a name or status.

What was going on today?

Could Jiang Xia have been reborn too?

Knowing that Wu Qizhi was a wife-beater, had Jiang Xia refused to divorce him and stayed at the Zhou Family? If Jiang Xia and Zhou Chenglei did not divorce, what would happen to her?

Jiang Xia saw someone ahead pushing a bicycle with a large box dragging behind it. An old cotton quilt covered the box. The person walked along hawking his wares and ringing the bicycle bell. "Popsicles for sale! Popsicles for sale!"

Jiang Xia saw a child pulling his mother over to buy one. She wanted one too, so she turned to the person beside her. "Do you want a popsicle?"

Zhou Chenglei glanced at her without saying anything. Instead, he walked over and said to the popsicle vendor, "One popsicle."

"Only the one-jiao ones are left."

Zhou Chenglei freed one hand and took out a one-jiao coin.

The man accepted the money, then took a popsicle from the wooden, foam-lined box and handed it to Zhou Chenglei.

Zhou Chenglei took it, turned around, and handed it to Jiang Xia.

The popsicle had no wrapper. It was white, its appearance and shape perfectly matching its name.

Jiang Xia accepted it and lowered her head to take a small bite. It was cold, sweet, and refreshing.

The tractor was not far away. Jiang Xia walked over while eating.

Zhou Chenglei followed beside her, carrying the basket and other things. Whenever someone approached, he would move ahead of her and shield her from that side, keeping her from being bumped.

Soon, the two of them reached the tractor. Its trailer was already packed full and had no room for passengers.

Jiang Xia climbed into the seat beside the driver's seat. The tractor had a roof to block the sun, so she took off her straw hat.

Zhou Chenglei put away the things Jiang Xia had bought, then went to start the tractor.

Jiang Xia watched as he inserted a Z-shaped starting crank into the slot, pressed down on the decompressor, and cranked it hard and fast several times.

The tractor's engine then belched out a thick cloud of diesel smoke, followed by a rumbling roar.

Zhou Chenglei removed the crank, stuffed it beneath the seat, climbed into the driver's seat, and drove the tractor away.

It was only a little past nine, but the midsummer sun was already fierce. The gray-white concrete road gleamed beneath the sunlight as the tractor chugged along.

A cool breeze blew toward them. Jiang Xia bit off a piece of popsicle and held it in her mouth, letting it melt slowly. From her mouth to her stomach, it was cold all the way down, sweet all the way...

Seeing how much she was enjoying it, Zhou Chenglei asked, "Is it cold?"

"Cold! Just look at the chill rising from it—you can tell how cold it is. Do you want some?" Jiang Xia held the half-eaten popsicle in front of him to show him the cold vapor rising from it. She was just about to ask, "If you wanted some, why didn't you buy another one just now?"

Before she could finish, he quickly glanced at the road conditions, then lowered his head and took a bite of the popsicle in her hand.

"Mm, it really is cold."

Cold and sweet.

"..."

Jiang Xia stared at the bite missing from the popsicle, then glanced at the man who was driving attentively.

This shameless man—how did he manage to eat it too?

The corners of Zhou Chenglei's mouth lifted. After letting her hold the popsicle and agonize over it for a while, he reminded her, "It's melting."

Just then, a drop of water formed on the popsicle and trickled downward. Jiang Xia jumped and hurriedly put it in her mouth, sucking up the drop.

Jiang Xia's body stiffened, but then she remembered that he had already eaten her leftovers twice.

Fine. That makes us even!

The corners of Zhou Chenglei's mouth twitched upward.

But Jiang Xia was ultimately too embarrassed to keep eating it. "You finish it!"

Her tone was fierce.

"My hands are full. Or do you want to feed me?"

Jiang Xia: "..."

Jiang Xia wanted to throw it away.

"Don't. You'll attract ants." The man seemed to have seen through her thoughts and reminded her.

Throwing a popsicle onto the street really could attract a swarm of ants, but feed him?

"If you don't eat it now, it'll melt again."

Jiang Xia glared at him, then still put the popsicle in her mouth.

Feed him? Impossible!

When she went out for hot pot with colleagues and friends, people who used their own chopsticks to pick food straight from the pot were still eating everyone else's saliva, weren't they? Thinking of it this way, Jiang Xia ate with ease.

The corners of Zhou Chenglei's mouth stayed raised the entire way.

Jiang Xia asked, "Do they sell newspapers in town?"

"Yes."

Zhou Chenglei went to the Supply and Marketing Cooperative and bought two cartons of cigarettes and a bottle of Moutai. He also brought out several newspapers. Then he bought a hand-operated water pump and a long hose, placed them on the tractor roof, tied them down securely, and only then left town.

Jiang Xia noticed that the tractor was not taking the road home. She had no idea where Zhou Chenglei was going next, but she did not ask.

He had bought Moutai and cigarettes, so he was probably going to give them to someone.

Jiang Xia lowered her head and flipped through the newspapers.

The tractor chugged forward. Not long after leaving the town center, fields stretched along both sides of the road. Beneath the deep-blue sky, the rice paddies shone a bright green.

Jiang Xia browsed through the newspapers as though searching for some particular piece of news.

Zhou Chenglei asked, "What are you looking for?"

"A job. I'm seeing if there's anything I can do to make money."

Zhou Chenglei fell silent.

The one she was reading was the City Daily, so she still wanted to leave?

Zhou Chenglei felt that even the sweetness of the popsicle he had just eaten had turned into bitter ashes in his mouth.

Popsicles are made with saccharin. That's why they taste like this after you finish one, Zhou Chenglei thought.

Jiang Xia finally found a suitable part-time job. She put the newspaper away.

Zhou Chenglei wanted to ask, but he did not dare.

Jiang Xia said instead, "One day when we don't have to go out to sea, I want to go to the city. Do we have to go to town to catch a bus to the city?"

Zhou Chenglei's Adam's apple bobbed. He spoke with some difficulty. "Yes. There's no bus from the village to the city. I'll go with you then. I can also accompany you to visit your parents."

Afraid she would refuse, he found an excuse.

"Okay." Jiang Xia did not refuse. She did not even know where the original owner's family home was, so having Zhou Chenglei take her back was convenient.

The tractor raised clouds of dust as it traveled along the road, and it was noisy. The two of them did not speak again.

The tractor drove for two hours. It was already past eleven, but they still had not arrived. They had even stopped once midway to refuel.

Most of the scenery along the way consisted of fields. Beneath the blazing sun, Jiang Xia saw two people in a paddy. One held each end of a bamboo pole, sweeping it horizontally across the lush green rice plants and raising wave after wave.

Curious, she asked, "Zhou Chenglei, what are they doing in the field?"

Hearing her, Zhou Chenglei turned his head for a glance, then turned back to watch the road. "They're shaking the flowers. That is, they're producing rice seeds. That stretch of paddy is a rice-breeding base. The male and female parent rice plants are different heights. Shaking the flowers scatters the pollen from the male plants onto the female plants."

Jiang Xia understood at once.

She studied the paddy carefully. It really was different from ordinary rice fields. The plants varied in height, and their colors ranged from light to dark, like a green striped shirt.

Jiang Xia said, "Working at noon is way too hard. Can't they do it when the sun isn't so fierce?"

Zhou Chenglei said, "Rice flowers bloom for two hours before and after noon. The blooming period is short, so the flowers have to be shaken at noon while there's still time."

Jiang Xia sighed. "A good harvest really never comes easily."

Zhou Chenglei said nothing, but he deeply agreed.

Another half hour passed before the tractor stopped in front of an orchard. "We're here."

Jiang Xia looked at the man beside her. So he had driven the tractor for so long because she had suggested planting some fruit trees in the yard last night?

As for posting more chapters, wait until my old book is finished~