Chapter 147: Ming Dai's Breakdown and the Anomaly at the Agricultural Machinery Station

Zhou Sinian completely failed to perceive Ming Dai's internal collapse. Holding a straw hat in each hand, he presented them to her from every angle.

"Look, Ming Dai! This one is yours, and this is mine! Aren't they pretty?! Dazheng and I worked on them for ages!"

Ming Dai stared speechlessly at the two hats in his hands.

No!

They shouldn't be called hats; they should be called two botanical gardens!!

It was obvious that they had poured their genuine effort into these creations. They were densely covered with various crocheted cotton flowers of all sizes, packed tightly together, completely smothering the hats. The brims of the straw hats were layered with at least four or five tiers of ruffles, giving them a very strong princess-dress-and-little-floral-hat vibe!

However, the real problem lay in the fact that these two idiots had also enthusiastically dyed the hats!

Sinian's bright red hat, aside from being glaringly conspicuous and somewhat eerie, was still barely passable!

But!

Her hat was dyed green!

Shit-green!!

A fluorescent, glowing shit-green!!!

Ming Dai had no idea how they had managed to brew up such a hideous shade!!

Looked at from a close distance, you could tell it was a hat decorated to look like a green garden.

Looked at from afar, anyone unaware would think it was a swarm of green-bottle flies resting on a giant piece of crap!!!

And besides, Zhou Sinian, making me wear a cuckold's green hat, what is the meaning of this?!!

Liu Dazheng, standing nearby, seemed to sense Ming Dai's impending breakdown and tentatively spoke up, "I suggested changing it to yellow, but Brother Sinian insisted. He said you just love this color."

Who the hell loves shit-green?!

Ming Dai was practically on the verge of fainting from anger.

Paying no heed to either of them, Zhou Sinian proudly placed the red floral hat on his own head. Then, taking advantage of the moment when Ming Dai was stunned with fury, he slammed the shit-green hat right onto her head.

The hat had been thoughtfully designed with chin straps underneath. When Zhou Sinian helped tie them for her, he accidentally used too much force, causing Ming Dai's eyes to roll back.

He looked at the butterfly knot he had tied with immense satisfaction, quickly tied one for himself as well, and dragged Ming Dai over to the water vat.

Ming Dai was almost moved to tears by how hideous the pair of them looked in the reflection. Yet Zhou Sinian pulled her along, constantly shifting poses to admire the picture in the water.

"Ming Dai! Look, isn't it gorgeous?!"

Ming Dai genuinely started crying: "Gorgeous my foot!"

Zhou Sinian frowned: "Good children don't use dirty words! Spat, spat, spit!!!"

Ming Dai: ......

It was definitely learned from Sister Huang, no doubt about it!

Displeased that Ming Dai had rejected his design, Zhou Sinian turned around to seek Liu Dazheng's validation.

"Dazheng, look, don't we look good?"

Under the weight of Ming Dai's resentful glare, Liu Dazheng forced himself to say, "You look great!"

Ming Dai: Won't your conscience hurt?!

And Zhou Sinian found a kindred spirit in Liu Dazheng: "You're the only one who truly understands me!"

Ming Dai was completely speechless. Exhausted in spirit, she thought, just let the world end!

While the two of them dawdled, the bell for the morning shift at the village entrance rang out.

Insisting on taking off the hat, Ming Dai hurried to Liu Dazheng's storage shed and found two brand-new hats. She would rather wear a plain, oversized straw hat than go outside wearing something the color of a fresh turd!

Especially when it still had those green-bottle flies on top!!

Ugh!

Zhou Sinian, however, refused to take his off: "I want to wear this one! You wouldn't let me wear the red headscarf, so now you won't even let me wear a red hat?!"

Furious, Ming Dai snapped: "Then go back to wearing your red headscarf!"

Zhou Sinian puckered his lips: "I'm not that stupid. Only a fool wears a headscarf now, it's way too hot!"

You really know how to be cleverly misguided when you shouldn't be!

In the end, Liu Dazheng came up with a solution. He twisted his red silk scarf into the shape of a red peony flower and sewed it onto a yellow straw hat. Only then did Zhou Sinian reluctantly agree to take off his red hanging garden!

"Add two floral-patterned ribbons as well!"

Liu Dazheng hurriedly arranged it, and Ming Dai's face turned completely dark.

Finally, the two of them jogged all the way so as not to be late.

It was almost 7 o'clock now, and practically the entire village had gathered at the entrance.

When Zhou Sinian and Ming Dai arrived, they instantly drew the attention of everyone present. People pointed and whispered at Zhou Sinian's hat, clearly discussing the red peony perched on top of it.

Ming Dai felt immensely grateful that she had stubbornly insisted on vetoing those original two hats.

Just a single peony flower had sparked this much discussion. If they had actually stepped out wearing those apocalyptic hats, they wouldn't have needed to do any work all day—just being a public spectacle would have been enough, and they might have been remembered for a lifetime!

Seeing how much attention everyone was paying to his hat, Zhou Sinian's depressed mood finally brightened up quite a bit.

The little red headscarf brotherhood gathered once again around their big brother for a discussion, and they all unanimously decided to ask their families to sew a flower on their hats when they got home.

Many of the older maidens and young brides were also tempted.

Truth be told, once the lunatic wore it like that, it actually looked quite dashing—even more handsome than a newlywed groom!

Zhou Sinian, proudly sporting his red peony straw hat, once again led the latest trend in Liujiawan straw hats, completely shattering Ming Dai's worldview.

As a result, Liu Dazheng's straw hats sold for a good price without even needing to be taken out of the village.

At this moment, Ming Dai was profoundly thankful that her head was small and the straw hat was large, allowing her to shield her face completely.

That insufferably smug Zhou Sinian!

He was simply too embarrassing!!

With the hat episode behind them, the spring plowing officially began.

At this stage, the work primarily involved plowing the dry fields to plant spring wheat, corn, soybeans, peanuts, and potatoes. The paddy fields would have to wait a while longer before they could be prepared.

Upon arriving at the fields, Ming Dai was once again awed by the vastness and abundance of Heilongjiang.

Last year's chore of cutting Chinese cabbages and pulling radishes had already stretched beyond the horizon, but these open fields looked even more daunting, stretching out as if they connected directly to the edge of the sky!

Sister Huang was still paired up with Ming Dai and laughed when she heard her complaints.

"In the past, we used to break our backs doing everything completely by hand, and different villages would keep a few oxen to take turns plowing, but it didn't help much. We mostly had to rely on human labor.

"But nowadays, the commune has a mechanization team that rotates through the different production brigades. Tractors plow the fields so much faster than manual labor!

"Right now, our main job is to level the fields, fill in any depressions, clear away rocks, and pull up weeds to prevent the seeds from getting buried too deep during the plowing.

"We just need to prep the ground and wait for the machinery team to arrive."

Hearing this, Ming Dai let out a heavy sigh of relief, and the new educated youths eavesdropping nearby also relaxed.

Even the veteran ox Qin Fangfang was terrified at the sight of so much land—it was endless, truly endless!

The work wasn't too heavy, so the new educated youths relaxed and began learning the ropes from the experienced villagers.

Ming Dai and Zhou Sinian worked right behind Sister Huang, learning as they went, and quickly mastered the techniques.

Later on, she and Zhou Sinian teamed up, focusing specifically on leveling the ground by filling in the hollows, while the others followed behind to pick up rocks and weed. With this division of labor and cooperation, their team worked much faster than the others.

Before noon, their group was already able to head home for lunch.

Amid the envious gazes of the crowd, Ming Dai led Zhou Sinian back home.

Along the way, Zhou Sinian guarded his large wicker backpack jealously, terrified that Ming Dai might throw away the straw hats inside.

Ming Dai hadn't expected Zhou Sinian to be so stubborn. No matter what she said, he insisted on bringing the straw hats back. He argued logically that they were his masterpieces—wouldn't it be fine if he only wore them inside his dimensional space?!

Ming Dai was speechless. *You just have to pick on me alone to torment!*

Whether wearing something so brightly red would make others envious or not, she didn't know, but it certainly made her own eyes sting with redness!

In the end, Zhou Sinian successfully defended his red straw hat, while the green one was hidden by Ming Dai in the dimensional warehouse, where Zhou Sinian couldn't find it no matter how much he rummaged.

The weather grew progressively warmer, and the dry fields in Liujiawan were almost all prepared. However, the commune's machinery team still hadn't arrived, making Liu Dachuan quite anxious.

The three big leaders of Liujiawan were holding a meeting in the village branch office, and Ming Dai and Zhou Sinian happened to be setting up the medical room right next door.

Frowning, Liu Dachuan puffed on his tobacco pipe and muttered, "What's going on this year? I asked around, and several surrounding villages have already had the machinery in their fields. Why hasn't a single machine come to our village?"

Liu Guoqiang stroked his fountain pen: "Could it be that our village is too remote and it's simply not our turn yet?"

Liu Qingmin shook his head: "That's not right. No matter how remote, it should be our turn by now. If no machinery gets into the fields soon, our spring sowing is going to be delayed."

He thought for a moment, looked up, and asked Liu Dachuan, "Could it be that the machinery team raised their meal requirements this year, and since we didn't know about it and failed to accommodate them, they're unwilling to come over?"

Liu Dachuan tapped out his pipe: "It's possible! Those bastards, extorting and demanding favors, never missing a beat yet never satisfied! They even dare to delay something as major as the spring plowing!"

Liu Qingmin advised him: "Let's get the matter resolved first. Call Third Grandpa, and let's make a trip to the commune to see what's really going on. If they really did raise the meal standards, we'll just have to match it even if it hurts to spend the grain. Spring plowing cannot be delayed!"

Righteous as his anger was, Liu Dachuan knew this matter couldn't be delayed either. He nodded, and the two men hurriedly left.

Ming Dai listened next door for a while, growing thoughtful as she watched Sinian wiping down the table.