Chapter 396: Chapter 232: Morality and Rules
Xing Nong stared at the yellowing half-withered weeds in front of him and sighed, "Lying here for another hour, I wonder if I’ll start sprouting?"
"I don’t know about sprouting, but all these gourds will be picked by me, and I’ll have snacks for tonight." Luo Ye carefully extended her paw and plucked another gourd.
The gourd is a type of wild fruit, vine-grown, with a shape that is pointy at both ends and thicker in the middle, oblong in shape. When green, it can be picked and chewed with the skin on, crisp and refreshingly sweet, a favorite among the children. Mou Ye, this kid who’s still hanging onto his teenage years, also adores these little fruits. To find these green gourds at this season is quite difficult.
"Give me a couple to eat now!" Xing Nong cocked his head and stared at Luo Ye: "It’s so boring."
Luo Ye stuffed the plucked gourds into her pocket, "No way, the cart for hauling corn has already entered the field. If we’re discovered, there goes five points."
Glancing out of the corner of his eye and seeing the cart getting closer and closer to their position, Xing Nong sighed softly and lay down obediently without daring to move. Luo Ye also stopped what she was doing and properly lay down.
For the afternoon’s stealth task, Mo Datong had the students wear camouflage suits and lie next to the fields in the ditches. The color of the camouflage suits was similar to the weeds, and if you didn’t look closely, you really couldn’t tell.
Of course, even though the color of the camouflage suits resembled the grass, upon closer inspection, one could still tell. Therefore, most of the students pulled up the weeds to cover themselves up to strengthen their camouflage, which is why, even if there were no farmers in the field, everyone still dared not move a muscle.
The first three students discovered by the farmers would be eliminated. Students who remained undetected until 5:30 pm would receive an additional five points.
Whether you were discovered or not wasn’t up to you to decide. The chief instructor and several instructors were watching with binoculars from afar. As soon as the farmers showed any change in their gaze, the chief instructor would send someone to take the students away.
The three students who were eliminated had emerged half an hour into the stealth task, all because they only wore camouflage suits without additional cover. They were probably already sent back. Now, the remaining students were all focused on those five points.
The three-wheeler entering the field was carrying five people—two men, one woman, and two boys about six or seven years old who looked almost identical. After the vehicle stopped at the edge of the field, the woman lifted the two kids off, urging, "Mum and Grandpa are going to load the corn, go play by yourselves, and stay away from the vehicle."
The two kids, with a joyful grunt, ran wildly around the field.
A man in his forties hobbling over to the three-wheeler called out to the driver loudly, "Third, we’ve also finished picking, help us haul it back later, okay?"
The woman stepped forward with a frown, "Bao Ku, we’ve just finished this plot of land, and we haven’t chopped all the cornstalks yet. Baosheng will help you guys haul the corn, but who’s going to help me and Father-in-law with the work in the field?"
"I’ll help you. I’ll chop the rest of those cornstalks for you. Hey, I’ve been wanting to buy a three-wheeler for a while, but my family won’t let me. The ox-cart is just too slow, otherwise, I wouldn’t be bothering you."
Hearing this, the woman’s face broke into a smile, "Why buy one? It’s all the same whether my family has it or yours. Just let Baosheng haul it all back for you. Oh right..." The woman giggled, "Your Xiao Ying is a bit young, but if you use the ox-cart to bring her home, maybe you’ll luck out with a liberation army son-in-law!"
The man called Bao Ku grinned mischievously, "What do you mean luck out? Uncle Sanquan said, if it weren’t for the liberation army taking liberties with his daughter, he wouldn’t have let her marry a soldier!"
The woman’s Father-in-law snorted, "She would just marry because he said so? The liberation army kindly saved his daughter, but he’s so ungrateful!"
Bao Ku laughed while loading the corn, "Uncle, Uncle Sanquan has been stubborn for a long time. His daughter Qinqin grew up without ever daring to wear a short-sleeved shirt. There’s something fishy about this, haha..."
"The chief instructor is so screwed!" Xing Nong stuck out his tongue, a face full of schadenfreude.
Luo Ye blinked, "Hearing them talk like that, I’m also a bit curious. What does the woman held by the chief instructor look like? Could it be, this is an arranged marriage?"
Li Xiaobei tilted his head, "The chief instructor is pretty handsome, just a bit swarthy."
"It doesn’t matter if his face is dark, as long as his teeth aren’t." Yaoguang propped up her chin and pondered for a while, "I remember the chief instructor’s teeth should be quite white."
Luo Ye chuckled quietly, "You’re all bad, the chief instructor must be so annoyed he feels like hanging himself, and we’re sitting here making sarcastic remarks... Quick, heads down, the kids are coming."
Seeing the pair of twins chasing after some big grasshoppers coming closer, everyone hurriedly buried their heads. You see, being discovered is secondary; what’s crucial is not to scare the wits out of the kids. Saving a young woman can get you wrongly accused, so other matters are even trickier to deal with.