Chapter 237: Share Hardships ②
Huang Yan’s face flushed red, and she waved at Nie Qiu, “Nie Qiu, there are oranges here, come and eat quickly.”
Nie Qiu glanced at Li Kai with a smile and walked over. Huang Yan handed her a peeled orange and said with a smile, “These oranges are so sweet, try them.”
Nie Qiu took it and sat down with Huang Yan to eat the oranges. Zhang Haiyang washed the sugarcane and climbed up from the lakeside. He had two stalks of sugarcane, handed one to Li Kai, and broke the one in his hand into two pieces. One piece was half a meter long, and he handed it to Huang Yan. Li Kai also broke his sugarcane into two pieces and gave one to Nie Qiu.
Nie Qiu and Huang Yan sat, while Li Kai and Zhang Haiyang stood. The four of them ate oranges and sugarcane while looking at the lake water. The distant mountains, the nearby trees, the hazy city, far from the hustle and bustle of the city, the city lights seemed like twinkling stars, becoming a landscape in their eyes.
Eating delicious food, looking at beautiful scenery, chatting with loved ones about studies, about playing, about the past, about the future, time passed a bit quickly. After finishing the sugarcane and oranges, it was almost midnight. The four of them tidied up simply and returned to the camp. As soon as they entered the camp, they heard a girl shouting, “Who is snoring so loudly? How can we sleep if you snore like this?”
There were boys snoring in the camp, and some girls were still whispering instead of sleeping.
The four of them separated at the camp entrance and tiptoed back to their respective tents. Of course, Huang Yan slept in the same tent as Nie Qiu.
However, Huang Yan was very excited and chatted with Nie Qiu for a long time before falling asleep in a daze. Nie Qiu, on the other hand, had already fallen asleep while Huang Yan was talking.
When the country rooster crowed, it was already past seven o’clock. Perhaps it was because they slept soundly during the few days off before receiving their grades, their biological clocks that usually woke them at five didn’t work. Everyone grumbled and turned over upon hearing the rooster’s crow. Nie Qiu got out of bed, put on her clothes, packed her down sleeping bag, poured some mineral water, and brushed her teeth by the river.
She saw that a few classmates were already awake. Nie Qiu returned to her tent, crawled in, and shook Huang Yan, “Huang Yan, hurry up, get up. Our eight o’clock bus is arriving. If we don’t get up, wash up, tidy the camp, and pack the tents, we won’t be able to catch the bus that Zhang Haiyang called.” Zhang Haiyang had called those two buses to pick them up yesterday, and they actually arrived around the same time as the buses coming to this countryside. It was just a convenient pick-up.
Huang Yan rubbed her eyes groggily. Without unzipping her sleeping bag, she wriggled out and grabbed the clothes she had taken off to put them on, then got up to wash up. After she had washed up and sobered up, the entire class couldn’t sleep anymore.
She held her toothbrush and a disposable paper cup. After brushing her teeth by the river, she started to clear her throat, “Get up quickly, get up quickly, get up and pack up to go home, pack up the tents! Pack them up properly. Nie Qiu said that vegetable garbage and meat dish garbage should be used as fertilizer, and everyone should put the plastic garbage next to their tents into the plastic bags they used to carry things and take them back to throw in the garbage dump.”
Zhang Haiyang was naturally the first to respond to Huang Yan’s call. He immediately put on his clothes and crawled out, starting to shout with Huang Yan, “Everyone get up quickly, the bus is at eight o’clock, hurry, hurry, hurry!”
Some people who were woken up by Huang Yan and Zhang Haiyang were reluctant to get out of bed, while others got up immediately. After washing up, they packed their tents and put them back into their backpacks. While packing the camp, some people were awake, and some were sleepwalking.
“It’s you kids!” Just as Nie Qiu and the others finished packing and were about to leave, they saw an old man running from a hilltop in the distance, with a big yellow dog running as fast as him.
“It’s you kids who stole my sugarcane and oranges, it’s you kids.” From afar, the classmates could hear what the old man was saying.
Zhang Haiyang and Li Kai’s faces stiffened, and they shouted in unison, “Run!”
Although the classmates didn’t understand what was going on, they heard Zhang Haiyang and Li Kai’s words and started running with their backpacks, boys and girls alike. They all ran towards the stone-paved bridge bank of the reservoir, looking back as they ran at the old man who was running without his face flushing or his breath catching.
After all, they were young. They ran for a good distance and were almost at the place where they were waiting for the bus before they could no longer see the old man. When everyone stopped, panting, they looked at each other and burst into laughter.
The bus arrived, swaying on the gravel road. The classmates got on the bus one by one. Just as the bus started, a classmate in the back car saw the old man run out from a small path, followed by a line of middle-aged men and women, running while holding hoes and carrying poles.
The driver saw this in the rearview mirror, frowned, and was about to brake. Zhang Haiyang was terrified, “Driver, don’t stop, don’t stop! Drive faster, drive faster!”
Nie Qiu sighed and stood up from her seat, “Driver, please stop!” This matter was indeed their fault.
“Nie Qiu!” Zhang Haiyang looked at Nie Qiu in surprise. Seeing Nie Qiu nod, he reluctantly said to the bus driver, “Driver, please stop for a moment!”
The driver listened, stopped the bus, and opened the door. Soon, the farmers caught up. Nie Qiu got off the bus and smiled at the people who had followed, “Grandpa, uncles, and aunties, I’m sorry.” With that, Nie Qiu bowed.
“We are in the third year of junior high now. We only have this winter holiday to spend together as classmates for three years, so our class organized this outing.” Nie Qiu smiled and said, “I’m sorry for borrowing your things without telling you, and I didn’t know where you lived. I… we can pay for what we ate.”
“It’s not about paying money!” The old man snorted, “We who live near the reservoir know when you come to play. But you play, and then you can’t just break the sugarcane in my field and pick the oranges from my trees?”
Nie Qiu knew she was in the wrong and bowed her head, sincerely saying again, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Grandpa.”
Li Kai and Zhang Haiyang got off the bus and also bowed, “We’re sorry. Grandpa, we picked those oranges and broke that sugarcane. If you need anything, just tell us.”
“Tell you what?” A woman jumped out, holding a carrying pole. Because she was agitated, she swung it, almost hitting Nie Qiu’s head. “You people, you picked half my field of oranges and broke half my field of sugarcane. How can you afford it? Can you afford that much money?”
Li Kai pulled Nie Qiu, who was standing in front, behind him. When he looked at the woman again, he realized, half a field of oranges? Half a field of sugarcane? How was that possible? Last night, they only broke four stalks of sugarcane, and the four of them only ate ten oranges. They had to go to the restroom several times because they ate too much watery food. How could the four of them eat so much?
