Days off always pass quickly, with time slipping by in leisurely ease. In the blink of an eye, summer vacation arrived. As usual, Zhou You didn’t let a single student fail, which cost him his "smiling tiger" reputation. Regardless, their relationships grew closer.
A couple of days ago, his parents called to say the house was all finished and asked him to come back during the break to take a look. Zhou You was planning to head home for a few days anyway. He was getting a bit tired of driving the Wrangler—it wasn’t very comfortable—and planned to swap it for something else when funds were more plentiful at the end of the year.
The drive left him with an aching back and sore waist. When he arrived home, he saw it had indeed changed a lot. A two-story building had been constructed on the site of the old main hall. The location was perfect, and the height was just right—neither too tall nor too short. Too tall would block the neighbors’ sunlight, causing unnecessary conflicts, while too big would leave rooms unused and make cleaning a hassle. This way, the front yard still had some space left for planting vegetables and fruits.
During construction, they also dug a well and installed a pump, so now they could draw water directly with electricity, saving the trouble of a hand pump and keeping it cleaner than tap water. The bathroom and shower were on the first floor, with a septic tank buried underneath. This meant they only needed to hire someone to pump it out every few years—simple, convenient, and hygienic.
The entire yard, except for the area designated for planting, was paved with cement at a slight slope. This ensured rain wouldn’t seep into the rooms or cause backflow. Inside, the floors were all gleaming white tiles, and the walls were uniformly painted white—simple and minimalist, making the rooms feel bright and airy. Every room had air conditioning, and the bathroom was equipped with a heating lamp for warmth. At the very least, it made winter showers comfortable, unlike the current situation where they’d have to go to a public bathhouse.
Finally, Zhou You hauled a rocking chair out of the car and placed it in the small yard. The rocking chair was entirely made of bamboo, polished to a smooth finish. It was one of Zhou You’s dreams—cooling off in the summer evenings and basking in the winter sun. It couldn’t be more perfect.
The first floor housed the kitchen, bathroom, living room, a small storage room, and two bedrooms. The second floor had one master bedroom, two secondary bedrooms, and another storage room. The total indoor area was about 400 square meters. It was undeniably a proper countryside villa.
Zhou You fell in love with it at first sight and said to his father, "Dad, you’ve got good taste. Not bad, not bad." "It’s all thanks to your design. Many of the workers had never seen anything like it, but it wasn’t too hard overall. This house is one of a kind in the whole village. Lately, lots of people have been coming by to check it out, wanting to build one just like it." His mother, beaming with joy, added, "The bathroom and kitchen are really well done—no different from city houses. I felt a bit awkward at first, but now, if I go to someone else’s house to use the toilet, I feel uncomfortable."
Seeing his parents happy made Zhou You happy too. He continued boasting, "A house like this in Luzhou would cost at least five or six million. Forget about Beijing or Shanghai—that’s tens of millions starting. So you two are living the good life. I told you to build it last year, but you didn’t listen. See? You missed out on a year of comfort."
Especially the younger folks in the village, who had seen the world and knew how to enjoy life, were eager to build similar houses after seeing Zhou You’s. If they couldn’t afford the high-end version, they’d settle for a budget one. The only ones suffering were the parents, whose construction budgets suddenly shot up. Just kidding—Zhou You had hired someone to design it, drawing on mature concepts from the future, at least a decade ahead of its time.
What kind of houses did the countryside usually have? The typical tall, spacious ones, but in reality, they weren’t much different from old rural homes. They still used pit latrines, still bathed outside in the summer. They looked good on the surface, but nothing else had changed. Now that Zhou You had set this standard, even those who had already built came asking if they could renovate. If nothing else, adding an extra room on the side wasn’t out of the question.
That was the beauty of the countryside—as long as your land didn’t cause disputes with neighbors, you could do whatever you wanted. Adding a room was perfectly normal. Try doing that in the city, living in a 30-story building and wanting to build something—ridiculous, right? Want to fix something? Forget it unless you sort out the neighborly disputes first. If you lived in a poorly soundproofed apartment, you’d hear the upstairs neighbors running, the thumping below, the arguments above—everything crystal clear. What privacy was there? What was the point? And after living for 20 or 30 years, if the walls cracked, the roof leaked, or the elevator broke down, could you still live there? Who would fix it for you? The maintenance fund would be long gone, and no one knew what to do about it now.
Forget it, he wouldn’t dwell on that. At least he was from the countryside and had his own land. At least in this life, he had money and could afford a villa.
It was now the height of summer, the busy farming season, and many who worked elsewhere had returned home. When he was a kid, harvesting wheat was the toughest job, taking at least two months. Everything was done by hand with sickles or scythes. Then they’d bundle it up and load it onto carts. The carts would haul it to the family’s threshing ground. They’d use a tractor pulling a stone roller to thresh it. Sometimes they had to go over it several times. After threshing, they’d winnow it and dry it in the sun. Once it was all done, they’d bag it up, sack by sack, and store it at home. When it was time to pay the public grain tax, they’d have to hand it over—that was the agricultural tax. After the wheat was done, they’d start planting autumn crops like corn and soybeans.
*In the fields, few idle months; come May, everyone’s twice as busy.* *When the south wind blows at night, the wheat covers the ridges in gold.* *Women and girls carry food baskets, children bring jugs of drink.* *They follow to the fields to feed the workers, who toil on the southern slopes.* *Their feet steam in the summer heat, their backs scorched by the blazing sun.* *Exhausted, they forget the heat, only cherishing the long summer days.* *There’s also a poor woman, holding her child nearby.* *In her right hand, she picks up stray ears of grain; on her left arm, she carries a tattered basket.* *Listening to their words, anyone would feel sorrow.* *Her family’s fields have all gone to taxes, so she gathers this to fill her stomach.* *What merit have I, who never toils in farming?* *My salary is three hundred bushels, and at year’s end, I still have grain left.* *Thinking of this shames me, and I can’t forget it all day.*
The "May" here refers to the lunar calendar. When Zhou You was a kid, he didn’t understand. The older he got, the more he felt it—every word was soaked in blood and tears, full of hardship.
Kids couldn’t do the heavy work and thought it was fun, since the adults had no time to watch them. Occasionally, they’d glean wheat—picking up stray ears from the fields or fallen ones from the dirt roads. Over a summer break, they could gather half a sack or a full sack. What Zhou You loved most as a child was when someone rode a bicycle with a foam box selling popsicles. One popsicle cost a dime. On a hot summer day, even the adults couldn’t resist buying some, and the kids would get to share.
Work went on all day long. Zhou You often fell asleep and was carried home. This was why the countryside hoped for more boys. During the busy farming season, the whole family worked together. One family alone couldn’t manage the wheat harvest. It was also when Zhou You’s clan was most united. With a common goal, they weathered the hardships together.