At noon, Wu Mei and Liu Qing came back to cook, while the others continued chopping bamboo on the mountain. To build a new house, they needed much bamboo. There were seven of them working together. It would take them at least two or three days to get enough bamboo, so they decided not to come back to rest at noon. Wu Mei and Liu Qing would go home and get the food ready so that they could all eat on the mountain.

Wu Mei raised chickens, ducks and pigs at home. It was Dahu’s duty to take care of the chickens and ducks, so whenever he was free, he would cut some green grass to feed them. As for pigs, their feed had to be cooked first, and then it had to be carried into the pigsty by barrels. However, at the moment, as the pigs had been hungry for a whole morning, they were grunting loudly there.

Thinking that he had recovered, Xu Ran went to help Wu Mei carry the pig feed.

Although Xu Ran was a man, he had been a fool for many years and had been spoiled by Liu Tong. Obviously, he couldn’t compare with Wu Mei in working.

Seeing Xu Ran hurriedly come to help him carry some pig feed, Wu Mei just thought that he was curious and did it as a fun. He didn’t laugh at him seeing that he wasn’t able to carry up the barrel. However, Xu Ran himself was a little embarrassed. In order to prove that he could help, Xu Ran chose to help Wu Mei to scoop the feed out of the pot into the bucket.

Xu Ran understood that he couldn’t do heavy physical work at the moment, but this kind of easy job was still a cinch to him, and Xu Ran suddenly felt glad that he was able to do something at last.

Although this something was really…

It was still hot outside. The adults stopped their children from going out, because they were afraid that the children would go to the river at the entrance of the village to take a bath. It would be a miserable result if anything happened in the end.

It was the same situation with the children in Wu Mei, Wu Lan’s and Liu Qing’s families. None of them was allowed to go out.

As for Tangtang and Guoguo, they had never thought of going out to play.

After Wu Mei and Liu Qing got the food ready and left, Xu Ran asked Tangtang and Guoguo to organize the other children to sleep on the bed, saying that they were going out to play after waking up.

Of course, what Xu Ran meant was not really going out to play, but he meant to help with getting the pig grass. Wu Mei and other adults went up the mountain to help chop the bamboo. They still had a lot of family chores to do at home, like the children needing to eat, chickens and ducks needing to be fed… However, they had no time to help with all these until nightfall after they came back from the mountain. Xu Ran felt guilty for all these, thinking that he could do something and try to help. After all, at the moment, all the adults were busy working for his family.

Xu Ran seldom talked with the other children. He usually talked to Tangtang and Guoguo only. The two obedient children thus became good messengers between Xu Ran and the other children.

It had been about two hours by the time Xu Ran woke up again, but he didn’t know the specific time. It was just his guess because Tangtang and Guoguo were still sleeping soundly beside him, snorting and sweating.

Xu Ran went to the yard to get a basin of water. He then took a towel and wiped the sweat for the two kids. All these were done and he woke them up.

Though still sleepy, the two kids followed Xu Ran to wake up the other children.

Similar to Wu Mei, Wu Lan also had  two children-one was Xiaozi (a man who couldn’t give birth, such as Xu Ran) and the other was a Ge’er (a man who could give birth, such as Liu Tong). For Liu Qing, he had three children, two Xiaozis and one Ge’er. Xu Ran helped the two Ge’ers wipe their sweat. As for Xiaozis, he didn’t want to care about them, so Dahu took them to the yard to wash themselves.

After everything got ready, Xu Ran asked Guoguo to organize all the children to go out for the pig grass.

Dahu knew well where all the  sickles  and baskets were at home. He was already eight years old. He usually helped with the housework. Today, however, Xu Ran didn’t let him work. He was going to cut the grass himself.

To him, the advantage of growing up in the countryside was to know what the pig grass was.