After the month of June, in the blink of an eye, it was Lesser Heat.
After last night’s heavy rain, the ground was lush and abundant, full of vitality everywhere.
The couple squatted in their private plot, one shoveling, the other weeding.
Not far away, Lin Juhua saw Zhou Jiao cautiously moving her feet and burst into laughter.
"Jiao Jiao, stop working, I’ll take over later."
Zhou Jiao shouted back to her: "Second Sister-in-law, no need, I can do it. Slow work yields fine work."
Lin Juhua teased: "Can you thin seedlings? Can you tell which is which?"
Zhou Jiao saw Zhang Guoqing laughing and gave him a sidelong glance. How about you come and fertilize?
Zhou Jiao muttered softly, "Aren’t they just tall ones like millet and soybeans, and corn and sorghum just sprouting? I can recite them by heart."
Zhang Guoqing heard it with his sharp ears, pointed to a place with his finger, and laughed: "So, what do you say those are? Get it right, and there’s a reward — I’ll agree to one of your conditions."
"No need, I don’t want a reward. Anyway, it’s either sweet potatoes or potatoes. Considering this plot and the backyard, can we handle all the harvest come autumn?"
"Once the harvest is done, haul it to the county to sort out slowly," Zhang Guoqing wasn’t worried at all. With space available, there’s no fear of anything rotting in the fields.
Hearing this, Zhou Jiao nodded. She was silly, forgetting they had a divine artifact at home. She looked at Lin Juhua not far away, her eyes filled with admiration and envy.
Truly, she worked like a man, getting work done faster than Zhang the Second nearby.
Zhang Guoqing finished beside her, squatted down quickly to weed and thin seedlings. Seeing Zhou Jiao’s face covered in mud when he raised his head, he quickly told her to go home to check on the kids.
It’s now the busy farming season, and even Mother Zhang can’t avoid going to the fields. Now, with Ping’an left with a few older kids, Zhou Jiao was truly uneasy. Hearing this, she quickly stood up and went home.
She hadn’t even reached the door when she heard the cries of the Mai sisters, scaring Zhou Jiao to rush into the courtyard.
Entering and seeing the scene in front of her, Zhou Jiao almost laughed herself to death.
Her son was looking at the crying sisters, shouting ’go’ while clapping his hands on the bamboo stroller. Each clap made it sink down and bounce up. If she hadn’t wrapped it in several layers of cotton, it might have been clapped apart already.
Seeing Zhou Jiao, Ping’an happily raised his arms wanting to be held.
Zhou Jiao quickly asked the two little girls, "What’s wrong, don’t cry. Tell your auntie what’s wrong first?"
After speaking, she saw Ping’an kicking the stroller with his foot, scaring her into quickly picking up the child.
This little ancestor had already broken one stroller, and if this one broke, there’d be no more left.
"Little Auntie, it hurts so much. Little brother is so strong, he hurt my arm."
"I want my mom, it hurts..."
Oh no! Zhou Jiao’s heart skipped a beat, she glared at the child in her arms, then hurriedly placed the child on her lap, reaching out to pull up the sleeves of the two little girls.
Indeed, both little girls’ arms were heavily bruised and swollen from the clapping.
"There, there, you two come into the house with auntie. I’ll put medicine on your arms, and it won’t hurt soon. Auntie will spank little brother for you later to vent your anger."
Mai Miao grabbed Mai Sui’s hand with her other hand and followed Zhou Jiao into the room.
Placing her son on the kang, giving him toys, Zhou Jiao quickly used ointment on the two kids, then, still not reassured, bandaged them with medicated gauze.
After filling a basin with water to wash the girls’ faces, she finally had time to ask what happened in detail.
Just look... in just this short while, a small bowl of steamed egg was completely gone, no wonder his strength was so big.
"Jiao Jiao, from now on, the kid has to be looked after by us alone, his destructive power is too great." Talking about Ping’an’s destructive power, Zhang Guoqing was at a loss.
The child liked the sound of breaking bowls, only after much teaching did he stop breaking them; then he disliked sleeping in the cradle and kicked it apart; after teaching him not to kick the cradle, he switched to kicking the stroller.
Now if he started hitting people, that would be trouble.
Hurting people would really be unaffordable.
"I’ll personally take care of him until he can speak and understand."
"Actually, Ping’an is pretty good. He won’t act up unless provoked. As long as you indulge him, everything is fine."
Upon hearing this, Zhou Jiao gave him a look, "If you continue like this, be careful that when your son grows up, he’ll be imperious."
"No problem. If he becomes rebellious, just hand him over to Dad." Saying this, he couldn’t help but chuckle.
"What do you think we should tell Big Sister and the others later? It’ll take a few days for the swelling to go down, I’m worried sick!" Zhou Jiao stared at him, hoping he could give her a solution.
Zhang Guoqing patted her, took over the child, "Don’t worry, with the ointment on, it’ll heal quickly. In the countryside, kids often get hurt playing and are still fine."
Zhou Jiao didn’t think so. She thought to herself if her Ping’an were hurt like this by someone, she’d never associate with that family again. She couldn’t let others bully her child, only herself.
After the Mai sisters finished eating, Zhang Guoqing took them back to the room, unwrapped the bandages, wiped off the ointment, and seeing it wasn’t too serious, reapplied the ointment and discarded the bandages.
Looking around, not finding it too serious, Zhang Guoqing took them to the eldest and second brother’s houses to explain.
After a round of explanations and apologies, as they took their leave, the couple couldn’t stop talking about how hard it was to be parents, quickly packing up their things, taking the children, and rushing back to the county.

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