The blazing sun beat down as golden waves of wheat swayed in the fields.
It was June, the season of the summer harvest. Back and forth across the farmland, people could be seen working diligently, their faces turned toward the earth and their backs toward the sky.
This year counted as a modestly good harvest. Seeing the golden grains, each one plump and full, weighing down the wheat stalks until they bent at the waist, everyone wore joyful smiles despite having worked for most of the day and being exhausted and drenched in sweat.
“Water’s here! Water’s here!”
A childish yet clear voice rang out from afar, causing quite a few thirsty workers to raise their heads and look into the distance.
On the narrow dirt path winding through the fields, a group of children between the ages of two and five were huffing and puffing as they worked together to move a wobbly little wooden cart.
The cart was crudely made. It consisted of several old wooden boards of uneven lengths roughly pieced together into a somewhat square, open-topped wooden box. Four little wheels had been attached underneath, and several hemp ropes were tied to the front for pulling.
And just like that, it became a useful little transport cart.
Several large gourds sat inside. As the cart wobbled along, water sloshed noisily inside them, making it obvious that they were filled to the brim.
The water was heavy. Even with the help of the cart, the tiny children had to pull and push with all their strength, their little faces flushed red and their breathing labored.
Yet even so, not a single child complained about being tired.
Especially the youngest little girl among them.
She was tiny, with a crooked little straw hat perched on her head as though it had been specially made for her. It shielded her from the blazing sun. Only two years old, with short arms and short legs, she looked like a little ball of milk even in her thin summer clothes soft and round and squishy.
But when it came to pushing the cart, she worked harder than anyone.
Hearing the commotion, heads began popping up one after another from among the tall golden stalks of wheat.
When the villagers saw that all the children had come together to deliver water, they immediately clapped the dirt from their hands and called out loudly.
“Water time! The little ones brought us water!”
Their voices, colored by the local dialect, carried across the fields, and soon even more heads popped up.
Seeing that it was about time for a break, the village chief picked up a makeshift megaphone rolled from bamboo shoot husks and shouted, “Everyone, put down what you’re doing! Go have some water and take a short rest!”
“Alright!”
With the village chief’s word, everyone immediately stopped working and walked up onto the paths between the fields. They helped their own children or someone else’s push the water cart over to a shady spot beneath the trees, where everyone could drink and rest.
“Oh, our Shushu is such a good girl! You came to help deliver water again.”
The little girl, who had been pushing the cart with all her might, was suddenly scooped up by a tall, sturdy woman. The woman gave her a playful bounce, making the little one break into a wide grin.
Then, in her sweet baby voice, she proudly praised herself.
“Shushu helps. Shushu is capable.”
“HAHAHAHA…”
Every adult who heard her burst out laughing, one louder than the next.
Embarrassed, the little girl covered her face with her chubby little hands, too shy to look at anyone.
Seeing this, the woman holding little Shushu immediately became unhappy. She put on a fierce expression and glared at everyone.
“What are you laughing at? What are you laughing at? Who said you could laugh at our little girl?”
“Sister-in-law Zhang, that’s not right,” someone immediately objected. “Shushu belongs to everyone. How did she suddenly become only your child?”
“Why isn’t she mine? Shushu is sleeping at my house tonight, so tonight she’s my child.”
Sister-in-law Zhang was extremely confident when she said this.
After all, her family was the one lucky enough to have Shushu staying with them that night.
In the village, that was something everyone envied.
“Hmph. You can only be proud for one day. In a couple of days, Shushu will be coming to *our* house,” someone else said sourly, unable to stand Sister-in-law Zhang’s smug expression.
“That’ll be a couple of days from now. Right now, she’s mine.”
Feeling that she had won the argument, Sister-in-law Zhang happily bounced the little treasure in her arms again. Then, deliberately softening her voice, she asked gently, “Shushu, do you want some sweet water? Mama Zhang will pour you some.”
“No more. Big Brother Dafei already gave me some before we came.”
Shushu knew that sweet water was precious. The water they had worked so hard to bring was meant for the adults who were busy harvesting the grain. She was only a little child, and since she had already drunk half a bowl earlier that day, she shouldn’t have any more.
“It’s fine. How much can a little thing like you drink? Have a little more.”
She said a little, but Sister-in-law Zhang actually took a fist-sized ceramic bowl and filled it more than halfway from one of the gourds.
It was nearly full.
“Here. Take it and drink.”
Unable to refuse, Shushu blinked as she was handed the bowl of sweet water. Holding it with both hands, she turned to the other children who had come with her to deliver the water.
“Sweet water?”
“No.”
“I already drank some at home.”
“I’m not thirsty.”
“Shushu, be good and drink it yourself.”
…
Almost everyone shook their heads and refused.
And their refusals were sincere. No one wore an expression suggesting that they desperately wanted some but were only pretending otherwise.
She couldn’t even give away the delicious sweet water!
Having no choice, and not wanting to waste it, Shushu could only hold the bowl and gulp it down herself.
Although they called it sweet water, it was actually a cooling tea made with brown sugar.
The tea was a light brown color. It contained dried lotus leaves and fresh bamboo leaf shoots. Sweet and refreshing, it helped cool the body and restore strength after exhausting work.
More importantly, aside from the brown sugar, none of the other ingredients cost money. They were plentiful in the wild and could be gathered by the handful. It was one of the most popular summer drinks among village households.
Shushu was only a tiny little thing. After drinking such a large bowl all at once, she was completely full of water.
“Hic…”
The little girl rubbed her round, bulging tummy and let out a tiny babyish hiccup.
“Shushu is so cute!”
Unable to resist, a five-year old girl standing nearby suddenly wrapped her arms around Shushu and rubbed her soft little cheek against Shushu’s even softer one.
The sight of the two little girls cuddling together was warm and adorable.
That was, if one of them hadn’t been wearing the expression of an overly enthusiastic middle-aged aunt.
“Shoo, shoo! Your face is covered in dirt. What are you rubbing against her for?”
Unable to bear watching any longer, the little girl’s mother chased her away with a look of disgust.
“Mom, you’re just jealous. Tsk, tsk. What an ugly look on your face.”
Fearlessly shaking her head and adding one last cheeky remark, the little girl saw her mother raise a large hand as if she were about to smack her.
She immediately let go of Shushu and took off running.
“Ke Xiaohua! If you’ve got the guts, don’t run!” her mother shouted after her, half laughing in exasperation.
“If I don’t run, I’d be an idiot! Bleeeeh!”
Even as she ran, the little girl turned around to make faces.
Her lively and mischievous antics amused everyone beneath the tree who had been watching the show.
“Shushu, be good. Don’t ever learn from that little monkey,” said a little boy standing on Shushu’s other side.
He looked only a little over three years old, yet he reached out to pat her head with the solemn, kindly manner of an adult.
“Mm. I won’t,” Shushu obediently nodded.
She didn’t find it strange in the slightest to be lectured by someone about the same age as herself.
Or rather, she had long since grown used to it.
Everyone in the village, regardless of age or gender, treated her as though she were the only child in the world.
Now that everyone was rushing to bring in the harvest, the adults and older children rested for less than five minutes after finishing their cooling tea. Then they picked up their farming tools and headed back into the fields to earn work points.
Shushu and the other younger children, who were too small to be much help, were left behind to play by themselves.
Of course, playing was really just another way of saying that a group of children went all over the countryside looking for something to eat.
In this era of scarce food and clothing, rural children learned from an early age how to find food in the wild.
Whatever it was, as long as it could be put into their mouths, there was nothing they couldn’t find.
“Come on! Let’s go find something to eat!”
There were eight children in Shushu’s group who were too young to work in the fields.
Leading them was a little boy with a particularly upright and serious expression.
Like Ke Xiaohua, he was five years old. He wasn’t especially tall or strong, but for some reason, all the other children admired him and were willing to listen to him.
No matter what the group did, he was always their leader.
“Big Brother Dafei, are we going to the little woods to look for food again today?”
A slightly younger boy, skinny as a little monkey, gave a meaningful glance toward the mountain not far away.
There were many forests in this area. Outside the village lay vast, continuous mountains, while inside the village there was also a small patch of woodland.
The little woods were located at the eastern edge of the village, a short distance from where the villagers lived.
But because they were still within the village boundaries, they were much more convenient and safer than going into the mountains.
Whenever the village children had free time, they loved to explore the woods, searching to see whether they could find anything edible.
The little woods weren’t very large. They covered less than five mu of land, and after being searched over and over again by the children every day, there was hardly anything good left.
The mountains, however, were different.
They were vast and full of resources, with plenty of good things to be found.
The skinny boy wanted to go there instead.
“No. We’re still too young. Going into the mountains isn’t safe.”
Chen Dafei shook his head and rejected the skinny boy’s suggestion.
The others immediately nodded in agreement and chimed in one after another.
“Yeah, yeah.”
“The mountains are too dangerous. I’m not going.”
“We’ve got Shushu with us. We can’t go.”
At the mention of her name, Shushu raised her little head.
The skinny boy had initially been reluctant to give up. But as soon as he heard someone mention Shushu, he looked at the little girl, whose face was full of innocent confusion.
Then he shut his mouth.
Obediently, he followed the rest of the group toward the little woods to search for food.
The trees in the little woods were not densely packed. Looking across them, they appeared sparse and scattered. In fact, if two people stood at opposite ends of the woods, they could vaguely see each other’s figures through the gaps between the trunks and branches.
If anything happened, the others would notice immediately.
There were no dangerous animals inside either, making it very safe. That was why the village adults had no problem letting the children come here to play.
Of course, Shushu and the others weren’t actually here to play.
Everyone was very serious. Obediently following Big Brother Dafei’s instructions, they split into pairs and spread out through different parts of the little woods to search.
“Shushu, will you team up with me?”
Ke Xiaohua was the first to invite Shushu.
“Okay.”
Shushu nodded her little head, picked up her small basket, and walked over, holding out her hand for Ke Xiaohua to take.