After the noon break, Lu Yuning changed into long sleeves and long pants. She also put on the little straw hat Grandpa Lu had woven for her. Grandma Lu had even specially sewn a circle of mosquito-netting cloth around it to block dust and help shield her from the sun.
Once fully dressed, Lu Yuning went to the storage room to find her little basket, hooked it over her arm, and followed beside her older brother Lu Yuting as they headed out to the fields together with Grandpa Lu and the other adults.
Well, her job was simply to trail behind the adults and pick up fallen rice stalks and wheat ears.
Grandma Lu stayed home doing odds and ends, cooking meals and brewing herbal tea so everyone would have food ready when they returned from work.
When the group headed out, Lu Yuning walked at the very back. Lu Yuting stayed beside his younger sister, while Twelfth Cousin Lu Yubo walked on her other side. The two boys practically escorted Lu Yuning out of the alley.
When they reached the entrance of Ninth Branch’s house, they just happened to run into Jiu Yeye and the others heading out for work too.
“Old Ten, you’re bringing Yuning along too?”
Grandpa Lu smiled. “Mm, the child has nothing to do at home, so she’s just tagging along to play.”
Lu Yuning gave a shy smile.
Jiu Yeye said enviously, “Your Yuning is really sensible. My Fubao only knows how to play at home. She’s been spoiled rotten by her grandma…”
But the doting look on Jiu Yeye’s face clearly showed that he adored this little granddaughter too.
His granddaughter was definitely one of a kind in the entire brigade!
Grandpa Lu merely chuckled and didn’t respond.
He had never liked competing with others over such meaningless things.
Lu Dabo, Lu Erbo, and Father Lu exchanged glances before looking toward Lu Jiu Dabo and his brothers walking beside Jiu Yeye. Seeing that the three brothers neither spoke nor exchanged looks, it was obvious that the incident at noon had created a rift between them.
Which was normal. After all, when such a large family lived together, there were bound to be frictions and grievances.
Still, it was another family’s business. They had no intention of interfering.
When Jiu Yeye saw that Grandpa Lu wasn’t responding, he stopped talking about Fubao and instead shifted the topic to this year’s harvest.
The two family elders chatted in front while the younger generation followed behind.
Lu Shier and Lu Shisan also came out to work. The moment they saw Lu Yuting and Lu Yubo, they hurried over to chat with them.
Lu Shier said, “Hey, Yuting, why are you letting your little sister come out to work? As her older brother, shouldn’t you protect her a little?”
Lu Yuting: “…”
“Whether I protect my sister or not, what’s it got to do with you?”
Eating radishes while worrying about blandness—sticking his nose where it didn’t belong! Bored out of his mind!
Lu Shier curled his lips. At noon, he had just suffered a round of “bamboo shoots fried pork”—a beating. He didn’t dare say much more now.
Lu Shisan frowned slightly. “The sun’s so harsh today. You should let Yuning stay home and play. Fubao’s at home too, so Yuning could go keep Fubao company.”
Lu Yuting immediately felt anger rise in his chest. What was that supposed to mean? Was his little sister supposed to be Fubao’s follower or something? Did she have to accompany Fubao all the time? Couldn’t she find her own fun?
Just as he was about to retort, Lu Yubo leisurely spoke first, “Little Sister likes going out to play. If she stays cooped up at home all the time, she’ll be unhappy.”
Lu Yuning, who hadn’t said a single word from beginning to end: …
Still, warmth spread through her heart as she watched Lu Yubo and Lu Yuting casually shut down Lu Shier and Lu Shisan’s words one after another.
See? You do have older brothers who dote on you too!
Lu Yuting nodded. “Exactly. My little sister loves coming out to play. Besides, I’ll stay by her side and watch over her. I won’t let her get hurt.”
Lu Yubo slowly nodded, reached out to hold Lu Yuning’s hand, and said unhurriedly, “Walk slower, Little Sister. If you get tired, I’ll carry you.”
Lu Yuning smiled brightly and nodded. “Okay! Thank you, Little Brother.”
Lu Yuming, who had been walking a little ahead, heard the conversation behind him and chuckled. Turning around, he scooped Lu Yuning straight into his arms. “Little Sister, ignore them. Second Brother will carry you.”
Startled at first, Lu Yuning quickly reacted and wrapped her arms around Second Brother Lu Yuming’s neck with a grin. “Thanks, Second Brother. If you get tired, you can put me down. I can walk by myself.”
“The place we’re working this afternoon is far away. Carrying you is no problem.”
At that moment, Lu Yujie also nodded. “Mm. If your Second Brother gets tired, there’s still me.”
Lu Yuning laughed.
Lu Yubo froze briefly before obediently letting go of Lu Yuning’s hand. He exchanged a glance with Lu Yuting, and both of them smiled.
Lu Shier and Lu Shisan widened their eyes.
If they had known earlier, they would’ve brought Fubao out too! Then they could’ve carried or piggybacked Fubao and shown Tenth Grandpa’s family that they were the ones who treated Fubao the best!
In the entire production team, only their family treated Fubao the very best!
Unfortunately, all they could do now was stare helplessly as Lu Yuning was passed around among her older brothers and sisters, each of them teasing and doting on her.
Unable to resist the instincts of this child’s body, Lu Yuning burst into cheerful laughter just from being carried around and fussed over by her older siblings.
Her silver-bell laughter rang out all along the road!
Even Grandpa Lu and the others couldn’t help smiling when they heard it.
Meanwhile, Jiu Yeye and his family felt rather uncomfortable watching the scene.
It somehow felt like Old Ten—Tenth Uncle, Tenth Grandpa—was doing it on purpose.
In the past, it had always been other families envying how much their family doted on Fubao.
They had never seen any family in the production team pamper a granddaughter more than theirs did.
But today, they had seen that Old Ten’s family spoiled Yu Ning just as much.
Then what was so special about the way their family treated Fubao?
Jiu Yeye truly couldn’t bear staying any longer. At a fork in the road, he separated from Grandpa Lu’s group and headed off another way.
Watching the backs of Jiu Yeye and the others, Lu Yuning felt puzzled.
Why did Jiu Yeye’s family feel so strange?
The longer she stayed in this world, the more she felt that the plotline given to her by the system had problems.
Or rather, in the original period novel The Beloved Fubao of the Sixties, the plotlines surrounding the female lead and the original host weren’t as simple as they appeared on the surface.
Interesting.
Though Lu Yuning’s face still wore an innocent, joyful smile, inwardly she became more vigilant.
During the Underworld’s pre-job training, besides the countless practical skills they had been taught, there was one lesson engraved deep into her soul—
After entering a mission world, the more peaceful and comfortable things seemed, the more vigilant one had to be.
The slightest lapse in caution might lead to eternal damnation.
Especially since this was still her very first mission. Whether she succeeded or failed would directly determine whether she could officially join the system workforce.
She absolutely couldn’t let down her guard.
Even if the original female lead she was facing now was only a little girl whose protagonist halo wasn’t particularly strong, Lu Yuning still didn’t dare relax.
She had the vague feeling that the moment she relaxed, someone would take advantage of an opening.
As for who it would be—or how they would exploit it—she had no idea.
After all, this world was merely an ordinary period setting, not some world with supernatural powers.
After silently reminding herself to stay alert, Lu Yuning temporarily set the matter aside and followed Grandpa Lu and the others to the farmland where they were assigned to work that afternoon, trailing behind them as she picked up fallen wheat stalks and rice ears.
The climate around Hong’an Production Team was favorable, with four distinct seasons, so they grew winter wheat, spring wheat, double-crop rice, and all sorts of grain.
In short, this was one of the country’s major grain-producing regions, and grain production quotas here were extremely important!
Moreover, Hong’an Production Team had relatively vast land and a sparse population. After the founding of the nation, they had reclaimed wasteland and replanted forests, so the production team occupied a huge area. There were farms, forest fields, livestock farms, and even a mud-brick factory.
However, the mud-brick factory didn’t require much labor, so only around a dozen fixed workers usually worked there. Everyone else only helped out during the farming off-season to earn some extra work points.
Great Grandpa clearly understood how to make use of circumstances to his advantage. So even under the people’s commune system, he still managed to ensure that the villagers lived fairly decent lives.
As long as Heaven cooperated in the future and blessed them with favorable weather, they wouldn’t have to worry about starving. Having enough to eat definitely wouldn’t be a problem.
Just like in the early years after the founding of the nation—they had even been able to send grain north to support the war effort back then!
Lu Yuting, Lu Yubo, and the others brought out burlap sacks while Lu Yuning carried her little basket around, carefully picking up every fallen wheat stalk and rice ear from the ground. Once her basket was full, she dumped everything into the sacks.
If they gathered carefully enough, they could fill around two sacks altogether.
Meanwhile, the vast rice fields and wheat fields before them had already been harvested clean. Lu Yubo, Lu Yuting, Lu Yuming, and the others were responsible for bundling and transporting the crops to Lu Yuwei and the others working at the threshing machine. Then Lu Yuqing and Mother Lu handled bagging the grain…
The entire family worked together in division of labor, and by the time work ended, they had finished all the fields assigned to their family’s work points!
The moment work ended, Lu Yuming immediately led his younger brothers and sisters to the nearby river to wash up.
Otherwise, by the time they got home, their bodies would itch like crazy!
Lu Yuning was fine since she was wrapped up tightly from head to toe.
But Lu Yuming and the others had it miserable. It was so hot that they practically didn’t want to wear clothes while working. Yet if they took their shirts off, their bodies would end up covered in bits of rice husks, wheat chaff, and dusty debris.
In the end, they simply threw themselves into the river and swam back and forth several times until all the scraps and dust on their bodies had been washed clean.
Lu Yuqing was a girl, and already nineteen years old at that, so she naturally couldn’t bathe openly in front of everyone anymore. She could only wash her face and neck a little before pulling back Lu Yuning, who wanted to jump into the river with her brothers.
“Little Sister can’t wash outside. We’ll wash at home instead. Be good. You’re a girl, you can’t be as shameless as those boys.”
Lu Yujie, who had also wanted to jump into the river: …
Fine then. Since Eldest Sister had said so, how could he still go?
After all, he was already a high school senior.
Thus, Grandpa Lu and the others left first together with Lu Yuqing and Lu Yuning, while Lu Yuming and the boys stayed behind in the river to finish washing up before running home laughing and shouting.
Perched on Eldest Brother’s shoulder, Lu Yuning turned her head to look at Second Brother and the others with envy.
If only she were a boy. Then she could’ve washed directly in the river instead of enduring it all the way home.
The afternoon work site really was quite far away.
The production team’s ox carts, donkey carts, and tractors were all being used to transport grain. Where would there be space for people to ride?
Although Second Grandpa had driven the ox cart over and, seeing Lu Yuning lying on Lu Yujie’s back, smilingly offered to let her ride in the cart since they were heading the same way and she was only a child who wouldn’t take up much room—
Grandpa Lu still smiled and politely declined.
Lu Yuning also didn’t make a fuss about wanting to ride the ox cart.
Second Grandpa chuckled, flicked his whip, and drove the ox cart away with a clatter.
Second Uncle Lu looked at it enviously. “If only our family had an ox cart too!”
Grandpa Lu sighed inwardly.
Maybe in earlier years, he could’ve gritted his teeth and saved enough money to buy an ox. But now…
He didn’t dare anymore.
Over the years, reading the books and newspapers his eldest grandson mailed back had made him increasingly feel that the situation outside wasn’t right. Times seemed liable to change at any moment.
They were just ordinary common folk. How could they possibly contend with the country?
It was better to simply live their lives honestly.