By mid-May, the weather had already become very muggy.

Meanwhile, the rainy season has also arrived here.

It rained non-stop from morning till night, just like a hole had been opened in the sky.

The water in the pond was murky, just like yellow mud.

Such filthy water, Yang Ruohui naturally wouldn't dare to use it for washing clothes and vegetables. So most of the time, she was by the well in the backyard of her house.

But the families in the village who didn't have wells were in a bind. After washing their clothes and finally drying them in the wind, they inevitably had a faint musty smell clinging to them when they wore them.

This is an example of HTML tag formatting. Let me know if you have any other text you'd like translated!

Liu Doukou couldn't sit still now.

Every day, she pulled at the clothes on her body and sniffed them, her small face contorted like a bitter gourd.

Let me know if you have any other text you'd like me to translate!

"Cousin, this water is too dirty, it's really unusable. If we absolutely have to, let's find someone to dig a well!" Liu Doukou said.

Mu Zichuan glanced at the rain curtain in the courtyard outside and shook his head: "Not to mention that digging a well is no small feat, it would take at least half a month of non-stop digging."

Even after digging it up and waiting for the water to seep out, filtering out the first few batches of dirty water, I estimate that it would still take more than a month. By then, the rainy season would be over, and the real summer heat would have arrived.

Liu Doukou wore a troubled expression, gazing out at the raindrops cascading from the eaves and splashing onto the ground, creating a succession of tiny ripples.

The whole courtyard was wet, except for a narrow stone path leading to the kitchen. The rest of the courtyard was mud.

Liu Doukou lowered her head and looked at her floral skirt, feeling utterly stumped.

If only I had known life in the countryside was this hard, I should have brought two maidservants with me when I first arrived. Now look at me, I've become a maidservant myself.

Dad, Mom, I miss home so much!

At the moment when Liu Doukou was screaming in her heart, Mu Zichuan beside her suddenly moved.

He quickly put on a raincoat from the side, then placed a straw hat on his head. After that, he strode into the kitchen.

"Cousin, what are you going to do?" Liu Doukou asked loudly.

Mùzichuan poked his head out from the kitchen doorway: “I’m going to fetch two buckets of well water from Qīng’er’s place. Later we’ll use the well water to wash clothes and cook.”

In Yang Ruohing's home, she was taking in clothes that had been dried in the wind inside a large house with ventilation on all four sides.

Having learned from past experiences, during the rainy season each day, clothes cannot be dried outside. Therefore, many households have almost switched all their clothes to empty cupboards.

So in the end, both adults and children could only wear clothes that had gone sour.

Otherwise, the children would simply not wear clothes and go about naked, just like the men who would go shirtless.

It'll be better once this rainy season is over.

This was also something Yang Ruqing frequently experienced as a child, so when she married Luofengtang and built a new house, she specifically had a piece of land cleared in the backyard to build a large shed dedicated to drying clothes during the rainy season and overcast days.

It is well-ventilated and can also use a charcoal fire pan to raise the indoor temperature and humidity of the air, achieving rapid drying.

So right now, she's not only receiving clothes here, but Xiaohua and Xiaojie are also here.

Both families' clothes were brought here to dry, especially Feng'er had many little clothes.

“Sister, I think this drying room is really useful now! It makes all the housewives in the village envious,” Xiaohua said with a smile as she tidied her clothes.

Xia Jie also said, “It is indeed convenient. We can change into clean clothes every day, and the well water cleanses them without any lingering smell. It’s really good.”

Yang Ruqing said, “Yes, the well water is indeed clean. I was thinking about whether to go back to my stepmother’s place and bring their clothes over to wash.”

Let me know if you have any other text you'd like me to translate!

Xiaojie said, "Sister, doesn't Old Mu's family have Liu Doukou taking care of the household chores? Clothes and dishes are all handled by her. You going to get your clothes to wash wouldn't be appropriate, would it? Are you doing laundry for just your mother-in-law, or all three of them? If you take everything, that's too much work."

Yang Ruqing said, "It doesn't matter to me whether it is hard or not. I just don't know if Liu Doukou offended her somehow, or what happened. These days, I go to visit my foster mother and rarely have the chance to meet her."

“She barely came out of the kitchen, just nodded at me when we passed each other. It felt like she'd become a stranger overnight!”

“If I go to get my clothes again, she’ll think I find her wash job too dirty. It's such a thankless chore, I'd rather not bother!” Yang Ruohong said.

Xiaohua and Xiaojie both nodded. "Well, then we won't go. Anyway, sister, you've done your best. Just visiting your stepmother once a day is enough."

Xiao Hua and Xiao Jie had finished packing their clothes and were preparing to leave. Footsteps could be heard outside in the courtyard.

"It's pouring rain now, and someone still came to visit?" Xiaojie said in surprise.

Little Flower Path: “I don’t know which one it is, they’re still carrying two buckets!”

Hearing this, Yang Ruoqing also stuck her head out and saw a man in a raincoat and hat walking quickly towards them.

At a glance, Yang Ruqing recognized the shoes on that person's feet.

"Zichuan? How did you get here in this heavy rain?"

Yang Ruocheng shouted to Mu Ziquan in the rain curtain and quickly moved aside to let him come in out of the rain.

Mu Zichuan entered the room, put down two buckets, and took off his hat, revealing a face wet from the rain.

“The water in the pond is undrinkable, it tastes earthy and muddy. I thought I'd come to your well and draw a couple of buckets of water to take back and boil for cooking.” he said.

Yang Ruqing nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, yes, I just told my two younger sisters about this, and you just happened to come."

"Well then, you can bring your clothes back to my place to wash. Tell your cousin Doukou that our well has plenty of water and there's a good place here to dry clothes, so she should come over and wash them." She added.

Mu Zi Chuan smiled and said, "There's no need to wash clothes. I come over every day to draw two buckets of water. One bucket is used for boiling water for cooking and the other for washing the clothes after they are washed in the pond. It will be fine once this rainy season passes."

"Well then, I'll go with you. Oh, the rain has lessened a bit. Come on, I'll accompany you to the well in the backyard to fetch water." Yang Ruqing said.

Then she told Xiaohua and Xiaojie: “You two should also hurry home while the rain is still light!”

"Well, we'll be going back now." Xiaohua and Xiaojie waved goodbye to Mù Zichuan one more time, then the two of them hurried away with their baskets.

In the backyard, Yang Ruqing helped Mu Zichuan fill both wooden buckets with clear well water and then covered the mouths of the buckets with two straw hats.

"Carrying that like this will be very tiring. Wait a moment, I'll go get a pole for you to carry it on your shoulders." she said.

"Good." Muxi Chuan replied.

Genius one second: m.