By the time Wen Jiu finally finished harvesting the entire field, the kindhearted Yu Qing had already pulled the director into the shade of a tree, where he had finished a slice of watermelon.
A row of people sat beside the road, eating watermelon and watching Wen Jiu putter away and back again before he finally switched off the engine and stopped near the ridge between the fields.
The director casually wiped his mouth, utterly puzzled. "How exactly did Wen Jiu get that machine in there?"
Although the terrain here was flat, the fields were arranged in terraces.
Beside the large field at the very top was a two-meter-wide ditch. It simply wasn't somewhere farm machinery could reach.
Village Chief Liu perked up at the subject. He beckoned to the director and led him over to look.
"Here! A ditch this wide, and he just laid a concrete slab across it and rumbled right over!"
"A concrete slab?"
"That's right, the one sitting unused in Old Wang's backyard. It was cast back when they were pouring concrete, but they accidentally made it too long, so they'd never found a use for it."
Village Chief Liu marveled, clicking his tongue. "Xiao Wen looks so skinny, but he's as strong as an ox! Back then, Old Wang and I could barely move it from beside the house to the backyard together, but he just picked it right up!"
Village Chief Liu walked down to the concrete slab and gestured for him to look. "There, right here!"
Zhang Guozhong: ...
The cameraman zoomed in for a close-up.
[Even though I was already shocked earlier, looking at it now, it still seems ridiculous.]
[That slab must weigh over a hundred kilos, right?]
[No idea, but it could definitely smash someone's brains out.]
[...]
[Is the director scared? I think I heard him swallow.]
[I still can't forget President Feng's expression when he saw his wife pick up that concrete slab and slam it down. You couldn't capture anything that amazing in a movie.]
[President Feng must be intimidated by his wife. Look how well-behaved he is, sitting under that tree.]
[Hahahahaha [losing it], are we really sure we haven't got their roles backward???]
[Hmm... I'm reserving judgment. A kawaii top is still a top, after all.]
[But a weightlifting bottom is still a bottom.]
[...Fuck, are we ever getting an answer to this?]
Wen Jiu hopped down from the machine and marched proudly up to the director with his newly acquired lackey, pointing at Lin Shuheng and his partner laboring away at cutting rice in the field below. "Director, we're in second place now, right?"
Transporting the machine and the concrete slab had cost him so much time that he hadn't managed to take first, but second should be fine, right?
As long as his team wasn't last, and the last-place team was made up of people he disliked, that was satisfying enough.
Meeting Wen Jiu's eyes, the director felt inexplicably intimidated. "Well, um, technically, that isn't allowed."
Wen Jiu said, "Hmm?"
The director shuddered. "If nobody objects, then it's fine!"
Wen Jiu looked toward the people beneath the tree.
Yu Qing smiled gently. "No objections."
Village Chief Liu raised the watermelon in his hand. "None!"
If he could, the cameraman would have liked to raise the equipment in his hands and shout "None!" to the sky too.
Excellent. Wen Jiu bent over and announced directly to the people below, "Hey, our team's in second place now!"
Lin Shuheng said, "You!"
Wen Jiu said, "What about me? Do you still want to eat or not? The food's going cold!"
"If you won't accept it, fine. We'll head back first, and you can stay here harvesting until dark!"
With that, Wen Jiu straightened up to leave.
"Wait!" Li Peiqi looked up and asked, "What if we accept it?"
At least he had some brains. Wen Jiu pursed his lips. "Then I'll help you finish harvesting so we can wrap up. What else would I do, leave it here for the new year?"
This time, even the director froze.
He hadn't expected Wen Jiu, who looked like such a heartless little menace, to be so reasonable.
"These three fields are our production crew's responsibility today, after all. We can't just leave them for the villagers." Seeing the director's stunned expression, Wen Jiu offered a rare explanation. "The sooner we're done, the sooner we wrap up!"
The more Village Chief Liu looked at this young man, the more he liked him. "All right, I'll help too!"
"Hey-" Wen Jiu raised a hand. "Why wouldn't we use the farm machinery when we have it?"
Village Chief Liu: ?
By then, Feng Chi and the others had come over too, ready to finish everything in one push. Wen Jiu's words left them momentarily at a loss.
Shen Huaian asked, "How?"
There was a drop of at least half a meter to the field below. That rice harvester was so slow that no matter how they looked at it, there was no way to drive it down.
There was a path on the other side, but they would have to take a long detour back onto the main road.
Wen Jiu raised an eyebrow. "Watch me!"
As he spoke, he walked over to the concrete slab and waved the director aside. "Move over."
Zhang Guozhong instantly pulled back the leg he had propped on it.
Wen Jiu gripped the two short ends of the concrete slab with both hands and, with a "Heave-ho," lifted it straight up!
Zhang Guozhong: Holy shit!!!
Everyone watched as the youth dragged the concrete slab with both hands like he was pulling a cart, walked over to the slope, picked out an empty spot, and set it down at an angle.
The bullet comments: [...]
No matter how many times they watched it, it was still mind-blowing.
Wen Jiu dusted off his hands and told the two people below, "Come on up!"
Then Wen Jiu turned and asked Shen Huaian, "Want another ride?"
Feng Chi said, "I..."
"Yes, yes! Absolutely!" Before Wen Jiu had finished speaking, Shen Huaian pattered over and perched on the rice harvester.
"Excellent!" Wen Jiu clapped. "Admirable courage!"
He turned back and waved at Feng Chi on the field ridge. "Wait for me."
Feng Chi pressed his lips together, looking less than happy. "Be careful."
[Tsk, tsk, tsk. President Feng's jealous.]
[Does President Feng want a ride too?]
[Sure enough, no Cinderella can resist Prince Charming's bicycle. Even President Feng, with his luxury cars worth hundreds of billions, is no exception.]
[Bicycle, my ass. His wife's clearly driving a harvester.]
[What's wrong with a harvester? Forget a harvester-even if it were an excavator, as long as his wife was driving, President Feng would still want a ride. Believe it or not.]
Putt-putt-putt-putt-putt-putt-putt!
Wen Jiu's puttering interrupted the bullet comments, and everyone's eyes fell on the figure in the driver's seat.
Wen Jiu set off.
Shen Huaian still didn't quite dare look at the plunging view ahead. He turned to wave at Yu Qing and the others, hoping to distract himself with a little conversation, when there was suddenly a clack!
He instinctively looked back and saw the harvester's front claw touch the concrete slab.
It instantly slipped down an inch.
Shen Huaian: ?
He suddenly grew uneasy. "Wen, Wen Jiu, did you... Holy shit!"
With a dull thud, the concrete slab-
Fell?!!
"Wen Jiu, I've got a bad feline about thiiiiis!"
Vroom, vroom, vroom!
Putt-putt-putt-putt-putt-putt-putt-putt-putt-putt!
The rice harvester's engine roared, and its puttering abruptly accelerated to full speed!
Everyone stood to one side, watching in shock, stupefaction, or numbness as the cumbersome-looking rice harvester traced an elegant arc through the air.
Then, amid Shen Huaian's screams-
It plunged straight down!
"Aaaah, holy shit, aaaaaah!"
The bullet comments: [!!!!]
Feng Chi immediately rushed down to check, but Wen Jiu gave none of them a chance to react. As though pressed for time, he puttered away with Shen Huaian's lingering screams of terror.
They could faintly hear Wen Jiu's shouting mixed in. "Stop screaming! You're going to burst my eardrums!"
Feng Chi: ...
The director arrived beside him half a step later, clearly badly frightened too. "Th-they're all right, aren't they?"
Feng Chi pinched his brow. "They're fine."
A full two minutes passed before someone voiced a heartfelt observation. "That's fucking incredible..."