Manbao studied hard, reading the new text back and forth four or five times, and reviewing Bai Shanbao’s notes twice before closing her eyes to recite from memory.
When the early morning lessons ended and Mr. Zhuang walked into the classroom with books in hand, Manbao quietly breathed a sigh of relief, then turned her head to exchange a small, suppressed smile with Bai Shanbao.
Mr. Zhuang, upon seeing them, glanced at the items on the two children’s desks, and throughout the entire lesson, he did not call on his two favorite students to answer any questions.
This made the classmates seated behind Manbao and Bai Shanbao tense up, so much so that by the end of the lesson they were practically drenched in cold sweat.
They couldn’t shake the feeling that today’s questions from the teacher were exceptionally difficult, almost as if they were being targeted.
Could it be because they had been naughty and mischievous recently?
The classmates seated behind doubt themselves, while the ambitious Bai Shanbao and Manbao gradually felt some disappointment.
Especially Manbao, who had prepared for the entire early lesson, ready to answer so many questions, only to find the teacher didn’t ask anything, which was so disappointing.
After school at noon, Manbao didn’t check the system’s backend, nor did Keke speak up again. She held back until after school in the afternoon before letting her consciousness enter the system backend to see what was happening.
Only then did Keke pop up, "There’s an order."
It categorized and listed the orders for Manbao to see, and to her astonishment, the first on the list was cabbage worms.
Manbao was stunned, "Why would they like bugs?"
"Judging from the messages on the forum, there’s something in the cabbage worms’ genetics, and with some modifications, they can become great feed for carnivorous animals."
"For feeding chickens? Chickens love eating bugs."
"No, it’s more for feeding dual-horned beasts; their meat is not bad, tastier than chicken, but they are carnivorous and very picky eaters."
At the mention of food, Manbao’s spirits lifted, and she quickly asked, "What do they look like, do we have them here, and can I raise one?"
There were images of dual-horned beasts in the encyclopedia, even videos. Keke searched for a moment and showed her a clip.
Manbao watched the creature larger than a cow, something she had never seen before, and couldn’t help but blink, "Feeding it cabbage worms, how many bugs would we need to raise for it to be enough?"
Their chickens, as small as they were, could really eat bugs.
Keke said, "That’s why they need to do research. I’ve heard that some institutes can grow cabbage worms as big as a child’s arm, and these bugs are very easy to raise and seem to have decent meat quality, so the dual-horned beasts like them a lot."
Manbao shuddered at that thought, goosebumps crawling up her arms, and she quickly said, "Alright, I’ll catch them for them, Keke, no more talk."
Keke laughed, "Do you still want to raise a dual-horned beast now?"
Manbao firmly said "No," then exited the system, gathered up the books on her desk, turned down Bai Shanbao’s invitation to do homework together, and shouldered her bookcase to head home.
Bai Shanbao felt that Manbao had been acting strange these past two days and quickly packed his bookcase to follow her, "I just saw you shiver, are you sick?"
Manbao shook her head.
Bai Shanbao grew anxious, "If you’re feeling unwell, you need to tell someone. A minor illness can turn into a serious one if not treated."
Manbao sighed, "I’m not sick, I just got goosebumps."
She pulled up her sleeve to show him her arm.
Bai Shanbao looked but saw nothing unusual, so he rolled up his own sleeve and put it next to Manbao’s for comparison.
The two kids compared their arms, and it seemed there was no difference, except Bai Shanbao’s arm was a bit thicker and more solid.
But this convinced Bai Shanbao that Manbao wasn’t sick, so he asked again, "Are you sure you don’t want to do homework at my house?"
Manbao shook her head, "I have something to discuss with Datou and the others."
"Then you go find Datou and talk to him first; you can come over to my house afterward," Bai Shanbao said, "It will be quicker to do homework together."
Manbao thought it made sense, as two people working on homework would indeed be faster, and they could check each other’s work for mistakes.
So, Manbao nodded, "You go ahead, I’ll come to find you later."
The two then parted ways at the crossroad.
Manbao had not yet made it back to the Zhou Family’s home when she spotted Datou and the others by the river, not far from the Zhou home, busy beating hemp; Junior Ms. Qian was also with them.
Manbao ran over, calling out, "Sister-in-law, I need Datou and the others to help me with some work."
Junior Ms. Qian, without asking what it was for, waved them off, "Go on, but don’t fool around, and come back home early."
Overjoyed, Datou and the rest cheerily followed Manbao.
Junior Ms. Qian took over all the work of beating the hemp, and the children laboring by the river watched with envy as Datou and the others left with Manbao, while the women looked on admiringly at Junior Ms. Qian, "Zhou Family’s eldest daughter-in-law, have you brought in all your hemp already?"
Junior Ms. Qian laughed, "Not that fast. We planted a little more this year; it will take two or three days to gather it all."
"It looks like rain is coming, quite a few families in the village haven’t finished harvesting their wheat."
"Yeah, Old Zhou’s family was the first to finish; having many hands is an advantage."
Junior Ms. Qian joked, "But many mouths to feed as well. Our family has over twenty people, with one addition this year and another expected next, even if we only cook porridge every day, we need seven or eight times more rice than other families."
"You all say we finished our wheat harvest in a few days, but I wish we could have taken longer. Finishing fast means there wasn’t much to harvest; this year has been really unlucky, and I don’t know if the rice harvest this autumn will be any better." Junior Ms. Qian wore a worried expression.
That made sense; Old Zhou often lamented being poor, and with many mouths to feed, they ate a lot.
"Still, it’s much better than families with fewer people. Having many family members means you can cope if one or two fall ill. Like your eldest, after injuring his stomach and unable to do heavy labor, he still has Zhou Er, Zhou San, and his other brothers. Just look at Zhou Hu’s family, they used to live so well, but now his wife is bedridden, and everything depends on him alone, without anyone to lend a hand."
"Yeah, yeah, I hardly recognized him when I saw him this morning."
"By the way, eldest daughter-in-law of Zhou, I saw your eldest helping Zhou Hu harvest wheat today. Has he stopped working for Old Master Bai?"
"He has an injury to his stomach," replied Junior Ms. Qian smoothly, with a laugh, "My father-in-law dares not let him do heavy labor, fearing the injury inside his stomach might worsen. So, he didn’t go. Although he can’t carry heavy things, cutting wheat and beans is no problem for him, and since he gets along well with Zhou Hu, and they are neighbors, it’s just lending a hand."
The others envied even more.
Once again looking at the hemp that Junior Ms. Qian was beating, they too sped up their pace.
Harvesting hemp is a troublesome task, at least from the agricultural work Manbao had participated in; the one she disliked the most was the hemp harvest.
Datou and Daya felt the same.
As soon as they were out of sight of the adults, they extended their scarred hands for Manbao to see, saying, "It’s all from stripping the hemp; we always end up getting cut, so Grandma let us come by the river to beat the hemp, but it’s so tiring too."