Leaving the Xu family's house, Shen Weimin carried the empty baskets on a shoulder pole toward their private plot. Before he even reached the edge of the field, he was greeted, as expected, by a wave of hearty laughter.
'How about it?'
'Should I play along and give them a round of applause?'
Another burst of laughter, this time mixed with applause, made Shen Weimin laugh along with them. Good grief, he had only been gone for a moment, and even more people had shown up.
Many hands make light work. Not only had they finished digging up the remaining small patch of potatoes, but they had also sorted every single potato by size and packed them into gunnysacks.
A line of young men, carrying sweet potatoes and shoulder poles laden with potatoes, worked as if in a race. Amidst the lively atmosphere, they moved the entire harvest from the tenth-of-an-acre private plot into her home.
