دانلود رمان انگلیسی “مراقب مرغ باشید” – کتاب 3

My hands drifted along the wood, taking in the form. There was, as always, something so profoundly relaxing about sitting down and working with my hands . . . most of the time. Mechanics had never been my forte, but woodworking? It was one of the things I had been good at, in another life. A bit of an old-fashioned thing, to be sure, like knitting, but it helped pass the time and let everything wash away. It was a little odd for things to suddenly be so quiet. Tigu, Xiulan, Ri Zu, and the Xong brothers had left last week for the tournament in the Dueling Peaks. I had gotten used to Tigu doing something strange, shouting and boasting. But they hadn’t been gone for so long that I was missing them yet. I just hoped that going to the tournament would be something they enjoyed, rather than something that they would regret. I knocked twice on the wood under my fingers. No jinxing my friends, please, whatever fates are out there. The week after my friends had left had been generally filled with the most boring part of farming. Bookkeeping, and looking at what I had to do for the next harvest. Last year I had been alone and had to do a lot more work to prepare the land—I had actually planted earlier this year than last year, by nearly two full months. That was combined with the topography of my property. The hills were a bit smaller around here, so they didn’t block the sun as much as they did in Hong Yaowu, or most places around Verdant Hill. That meant that the plants grew just slightly faster too. Farming wasn’t something that was exact. The harvest could happen in a rather large time frame, and this year it just happened to be a lot earlier than last year. Harvesting just at the end of summer, rather than so close to the Mid- Autumn Festival. It was something to think on for next year. Should I delay planting by a little? It would spread out the work a bit more at the beginning of the season, but that means I might not be free to head over to Hong Yaowu to help out like I normally do, I thought. But maybe this time for harvest was better. There was a bit less rain this time of year too, and the rice was still drying. Less rain did make things easier—because it still needed to be husked and polished, and that was the most labour-intensive part. Even as a cultivator, I would need help, and I was waiting until after the tournament to get started, because this would be all hands on deck.