For the next two days, Li Long harvested wheat in the First and Fifth Teams.
The First and Fifth Teams were close together. Once one household had its wheat harvested, the others soon heard about it. Relatives and friends talked about such things when they sat together. Word might not have spread like wildfire, but within two days, almost all the nearly hundred households in the two teams knew.
Li Long had not expected to skip the Second and Sixth Teams after finishing the Fourth Team's wheat fields and some of the Third Team's, heading straight to the First and Fifth Teams on the edge of the county town.
After harvesting Ye Jiaping's fields and those of two other households, Li Long received invitations from another three farming households before he left.
So when he returned to the courtyard that day, he told his family his plans after dinner.
"I'll probably be harvesting around the First and Fifth Teams for the next few days. I won't come back here at night. I'll go straight to the big courtyard in the county town. It's closer and easier to get to."
"Then go back to the big courtyard," Li Qingxia said, quite clear about it. "Your wife's over there. How can you keep staying away? Your mother and I are counting on holding your baby next year!"
Li Long smiled.
"Exactly. Go back whenever you can. Look at you, spending more time away than at home all year round. How's that any good?" Li Jianguo said nothing, but Liang Yuemei spoke up. Though her parents-in-law were both present, she had looked after Li Long for so many years that she still had to say what needed saying. "You're earning money, sure, but when does earning money ever end? Go back when you