Late summer, early autumn, the weather was no longer excessively hot, but the sun shone down, making the cornfield scorching hot. A gentle breeze swept past, and the yellow corn leaves swirled in the hot wind, striking the bodies of the hardworking commune members.
Squad Leader Thủy Hoành Sinh held a faded towel, wiping away the sweat that was running into his eyes. Looking at the plump, round ears of corn made his eyes crinkle in a smile; under his leadership, Willow Squad had finally welcomed a year of abundant harvest.
At this moment, the heat was stifling, yet the commune members, sweating like rain, still showed no trace of laziness or slack. The baskets beside each person were filled to the brim. Just looking at the plump, round ears of corn, Thủy Hoành Sinh couldn't stop smiling.
After taking a gulp of cold water, Thủy Hoành Sinh then loudly shouted encouragement to everyone. No sooner had he finished speaking than his second son, Thủy Học Dân, quickly ran up to him, panting loudly as he said, "Dad, something bad has happened! Little sister got sunstroke and fainted on the ground!"
Thủy Hoành Sinh's vision blurred, and his feet stumbled. He suddenly grabbed Thủy Học Dân's arm: "Quick, take me to see her."
By the time Thủy Hoành Sinh and his son ran over, an experienced woman from the field had already carried Thủy Đào to the cool bamboo grove to help her cool down.
Thủy Đào's hair was soaked with sweat and stuck to her face, her fair complexion flushed crimson from the sun. Her eyes were tightly shut, making Thủy Hoành Sinh's heart ache uncontrollably as he looked at her.
A woman in a floral print dress with short, tied-up hair saw Thủy Hoành Sinh's anxious and pained expression. She opened her mouth to comfort him, "Squad Leader, don't worry. Your Thủy Đào is just dehydrated. It's nothing serious. Once her body temperature goes down, she should wake up."
This woman didn't actually understand medicine, but every year during harvest time, people would suffer from this. Having seen it so many times, she could naturally tell whether it was serious or not.
Hearing these words, Thủy Hoành Sinh finally let out a sigh of relief. He then spoke to the working commune members, "These past two days of urgent harvesting have truly been hard on everyone. The weather is hot, so please pay attention to safety and make sure to drink plenty of water. Everyone, whatever you do, don't end up like my Thủy Đào. Urgent harvesting is important, but your health is also important."
"If Giang Tuấn Hiền hadn't given the sugar water Mom made for Thủy Đào to someone else, Thủy Đào wouldn't have gotten sunstroke," Thủy Học Dân suddenly said, seething with anger. "If you want to blame someone, blame him."
Thủy Đào's sister-in-law, Khúc Anh, also said furiously, "Luckily, my Thủy Đào is alright, otherwise I'd show you what's what! He doesn't take care of his own fiancée, but goes to take care of someone else. I've truly never seen such a person!"
Thủy Hoành Sinh had thought it was because his daughter was frail and couldn't endure the arduous farm work. Who would have known it was actually because of this incident?
"Tuấn Hiền, what's going on here?" Thủy Hoành Sinh frowned, looking at Giang Tuấn Hiền, who was standing not far away.
The man lowered his head, his face filled with self-reproach and regret.
Seeing that Thủy Hoành Sinh was about to unleash his anger on Giang Tuấn Hiền, Cố Phán immediately took the blame upon herself.
"Squad Leader, this is my fault," Cố Phán said. "If you want to blame someone, blame me for being so weak and unable to work. My body couldn't take it, and I almost fainted. Big Brother Giang, being kind-hearted, saw that I couldn't stand steadily, so he gave me the sugar water to drink. If I had known it was Little Sister Thủy Đào's sugar water, I wouldn't have drunk it for anything."
“Captain, please, by no means blame Brother Jiang.”
Seeing the frail and helpless Gu Pan, Shui Hongsheng’s face darkened even further. These educated youths who came down from the city hardly did any work, and were experts at dragging others down. Especially this girl Gu Pan; she’d been here for so long, yet hadn’t made any progress in her work. She really gave people a headache.
“Jiang Junxian is kind-hearted and likes to help everyone; it’s his business if he wants to help her. But what right does he have to give my sister’s sugar water to her to drink? Working in such hot weather, who isn’t thirsty, who isn’t tired? If she can’t stand it, do you think my sister can?” Shui Tao was the apple of her family’s eye. Normally, if she so much as sneezed, the Shui family would be utterly heartbroken. This time, because of those two, she suffered from heatstroke, and Shui Xuedan and Qu Ying were absolutely devastated.
Fortunately, their mother, Zuo Liping, wasn’t here, otherwise Jiang Junxian would surely have been in big trouble.
Gu Pan had been at Yangliu Production Team for a while. She was beautiful and had a timid personality. The team members had never made things difficult for her; normally, when people spoke to her, they would all speak softly, afraid of startling her.
This was the first time anyone had ever yelled at her like that, and what’s more, it was a man! Gu Pan felt a pang of bitterness in her heart, feeling extremely wronged, and two streams of tears immediately flowed down, beyond her control.
As soon as Gu Pan started crying, Shui Xuedan felt embarrassed. He admitted that he was taking his anger out on her a bit, but she didn’t need to cry just from one scolding. Just now, his sister was so unwell she didn’t even let out a whimper, yet this educated youth cried like this over a single sentence – was it really that bad? Jiang Junxian saw Gu Pan crying with such quiet restraint, and his heart sank even further. He clearly wanted to do something good, but who knew his good intentions would backfire? Not only did he cause Shui Tao to suffer heatstroke, but he also caused Educated Youth Gu to be unfairly scolded.
Taking responsibility for his actions, Jiang Junxian stood in front of Gu Pan, shielding her from Shui Xuedan’s wrath.
“Brother, this has nothing to do with Educated Youth Gu. She thought the sugar water was mine, that’s why she accepted it. Please don’t blame her unfairly.”
Jiang Junxian’s actions infuriated the Shui family. If not for the crowd, Shui Xuedan would have truly wanted to ask him what he thought he was doing. Protecting this educated youth like that, who was his fiancée, really? Shui Hongsheng also frowned as he watched, but he didn’t say anything. His thoughts were the same as Shui Xuedan’s. Although Jiang Junxian and Shui Tao weren’t married yet, he had long been considered part of the Shui family. As the saying goes, family scandals shouldn’t be aired, so he preferred to deal with Jiang Junxian’s displeasing actions in private.