Yang Wenquan's Rural Daily Life: Learning to Grow Rice and Drive a Tractor, with Plenty of Seasonal Fun

This is the fourth year I have grown rice with eco-friendly farming methods. The novelty of the past few years is gone, and when I see the rice heading, I no longer have the urge to snap a photo and post it on Facebook for my friends to see. Of course, the work in the field is bound to get smoother year after year, and this year I was lucky that hardly any weeds have come up in the field so far, so I could take time off in mid-May to go learn to drive a large truck. By mid-June, I had actually passed the test and gotten my license!

Driving a large vehicle has been a dream of mine since childhood, and I never expected to have the chance to make it come true. Last year, my mentor A-Xing, who taught me to drive the tractor, told me to go get this license, because that way I could help him drive that 8-ton large truck, carrying the tractor to plow fields for farmers. Otherwise, as things stand now, whenever I need to go plow a field, he has to drive the large truck to carry the tractor, which is very inconvenient.

It's just that last year my farming situation was still unstable, so I dragged my feet on getting the license. This year during the spring plowing, Mentor A-Xing brought it up again, and sweetened the deal by saying he would pay half of my tuition. With my mentor urging me on, and with this year's spring plowing going smoothly, I, itching to make a move, finally took that step.