"Let go of me first," Zhou Shuran said helplessly to her niece.
"No!" Xiao Yuxi shook her head vehemently. "I am afraid you will run away once I let go, Little Aunt!"
She avoided her little sister's innocent yet curious eyes. Embarrassment burned at her heart, but she had no choice. She couldn't think of anything else that would be able to make her little aunt stay besides acting like a spoiled brat.
Her mother and brother went back to the field and couldn't help her.
"I won't…" Zhou Shuran tried to pull her legs away to no avail. Xiao Yuxi's grasp was quite strong unlike typical girls her age.
Xiao Yuxi looked up, her eyes sparkling as she wiped her face. "You won't… does that mean you are going to sleep here, Little Aunt?"
Zhou Shuran pursed her lips and fell silent.
Upon noticing her hesitation, Xiao Yuxi cried again. "Waa… Little Aunt. Don't go…"
At this moment, just as she rolled all over the ground again and cried, the door suddenly slammed open, revealing the three figures of her mother and siblings.
They instantly witnessed the sight of her embarrassing moment.
Xiao Yuxi felt like she just had a social death. Her face burned red, which made Zhou Shuran become worried. "Xi'er, are you alright?"
Zhou Anran coughed. They had heard Xiao Yuxi's tantrum before they opened the door.
"Xi'er, don't be rude to your little aunt," she scolded, yet her tone lacked some fierceness.
"Elder Sister, it's alright." Zhou Shuran shook her head. Since her elder sister was here, she thought that she could finally return home more easily. However, just as she was about to bid farewell, she heard Zhou Anran's suggestion.
Zhou Anran had a helpless look on her face. "Xi'er is so spoiled. Please forgive her." She paused briefly. "But she has a point. Shu'er, how about you stay here for a night? The sky has gotten dark. It's been a while since you spent some time with the children too."
As if she had been given a cue, Xiao Qingya also jumped from her stool and waddled over to Zhou Shuran and grasped a few of her fingers with her little hand, saying in a childish tone, "Auntie, stay."
With so many people coaxing her, Zhou Shuran finally relented. Zhou Anran was also quick to act, sending Xiao Fenghao over to the main family to inform them that Zhou Shuran will stay at their house for the night.
Chen Huayun didn't give him a good look. Her face bristled with a mix of anger and displeasure. Xiao Fenghao was quick enough to run away before she opened her mouth which resembled a firecracker.
After all, he only came there to inform them. He didn't come to get abused!
When the night came, the small family gathered around. They had given Xiao Qingya her baby bottle to suck on. She was drinking her milk again after she ate a small bun.
"Elder Sister, how are the crops in the field?" Zhou Shuran asked, swallowing her bun.
The question reminded them of the current unfavorable situation.
Zhou Anran opened her mouth. "The harvest might be worse than the last one. There are some kinds of bird pests that often come to visit the field. The numbers have increased and they are eating the grain."
"Fortunately, Second Brother has made a lot of scarecrows. Although it can't completely stop the birds from coming, compared to other neighbouring fields, our crops noticeably retained more of their grain," Xiao Yuyan chimed in.
Xiao Fenghao had a smug look on his face. "Of course, who else could make such effective scarecrows besides me?"
They let out small giggles. Xiao Yuxi gave him a playful punch, and he evaded. The siblings ended up playing wrestling with their arms.
Xiao Qingya blinked, and she listened attentively to the discussions around her.
[System, is there some kind of pesticide for pest control?]
The System replied immediately.
[Let me check…]
[There might be some that are effective on birds and bugs, Host. Due to the restriction on the system information, the description on their uses is still quite vague. We need to do more missions and obtain points to be able to upgrade the shop.]
For the time being, the system's shop only allowed her to browse over a limited number of items. Most of them were related to medicine.
The program must have thought that they needed it the most, considering that their build was considered thin, severely lacking in nutrition. On top of that, Xiao Qingya had suffered from fever and Xiao Yuxi got rashes on her hand.
If the System could open a back door to take a peek at the items they could purchase once the system's shop leveled up, there was a high possibility they might unlock items related to farming next.
Zhou Anran and others fell into a brief silence, trying to digest the System's long explanation. Until Zhou Shuran's words snapped them back to their senses.
"If others see such improvement with more numbers of scarecrows, others might copy the same strategy soon," she muttered worriedly.
The main family's fields also had more scarecrows compared to other farmers' fields, but not as much as Zhou Anran's family's fields. There was also a slight improvement.
If others also copied the strategy, wouldn't it be useless soon? The birds had avoided fields with a lot of scarecrows, fearing them to be real humans, but if all fields were like that, their attention would be evenly divided again—they would target all fields.
"The volume of water we need to bring to the field has also increased lately. We need a few more wooden buckets of water each week. Elder Sister, it's been really hard on us, farmers." Zhou Shuran sighed sadly.
Although the main family's location was a bit far from a river, they had a well.
Zhou Anran could only offer a few words of comfort. "Compared to our provinces, our situation is still better. We can only hope that things will get better soon."
The Zhou sisters slept in one room with Xiao Qingya nestled in the middle of them. Once the little one fell asleep, Zhou Anran suddenly asked her younger sister. "Shu'er, can I ask you something?"