"Finally, we can breathe a sigh of relief," his father Paul's voice rang out from beside Jay.
"Yes, with this, Jay and Ameno's wedding can be held safely," his mother replied happily.
Jay, hearing his parents' relieved voices, immediately remembered an important matter regarding post-harvest rice harvesting in his village.
Like most villages around Jay's, when a village finished its main harvest, the government would come and collect taxes.
This time, as in the years following the new government, the tax was set at around 40% of the total harvest.
In other words, they had to pay 40% of the harvest to the government, and the remaining 60% would be distributed to all villagers according to the work points they earned.
So, when the rice harvest was good, the villagers would be happy because their food rations would be paid in full and in large amounts.
On the other hand, if the harvest is poor or yields insufficient yields, villagers will only earn a meager income, barely enough to cover their basic food needs.
And if the harvest fails, villagers will be filled with anxiety because they will have to owe the authorities for the agricultural taxes imposed on them.
This also leads to hunger due to the food crisis.
So, a village's bumper harvest is closely linked to its well-being and prosperity.
"When will the collectors from the sub-district come to collect our harvest?" Jay asked his father.
He was quite interested in seeing how the sub-district officials would collect the taxes.
"They should arrive early next month, as they need to visit several nearby villages before finally coming to our village to collect the taxes," his father replied.
"Then there's still about two weeks left before they arrive," Jay replied, mulling over some plans he had already made.
Because the main rice harvest would begin the next day, there was no other work available in the entire village, and all available labor was focused on harvesting the rice.
This was done to ensure the harvested rice could be dried immediately, as they couldn't deliver the wet, undried rice.
And no one knew when the rain would come. So, given the current hot weather, all villagers were mobilized to do the work thoroughly.
This was to shorten the harvest time and speed up the drying time of the rice.
######
The next morning, many villagers were seen gathered in the rice fields throughout Adam's village.
The entire village was divided into several groups, led by captains, as they began harvesting the rice in their respective areas.
Jay and his entire family joined in.
Relying on his enhanced strength, Jay harvested the rice quite quickly.
However, to avoid overloading his workload, Jay controlled his pace, avoiding overdoing it.
However, Jay still had to admit that his fitness was better than that of many adult men.
Ameno, on the other hand, with her ninja physique, also performed well in the farm work, relying on her ninja-like coordination to become fast and skilled at harvesting.
Seeing this, many aunts praised Ameno for her strong work.
"Look, Senorita's daughter-in-law! She looks strong and fast!" One aunt exclaimed in amazement.
"You're right, she speaks like a man," another aunt replied.
"Senorita is truly fortunate to have such a daughter-in-law! She's beautiful and also a hard worker!" The others joined in the conversation and praised her.
Ameno, hearing the criticisms of the various aunts present, felt a little embarrassed, her face turning red.
But even so, a feeling of joy flooded Ameno's heart. Harvesting rice like she was doing was a completely new endeavor for her.
And she had never done anything like it before, as a ninja living in the desert.
It was truly a privilege to be able to see a sight like that of Adam's village.
Where they could find abundant rice plants growing so lushly, she thought about Adam's village and Sunagakure, where her stepfather came from.
Ameno felt sad, imagining what it would be like if Sunagakure had been destroyed.
Having fertile land and a good environment like Adam's village would undoubtedly enhance their strength, and the villagers would live happier lives.
Even so, Ameno felt that her current life was quite good. Besides having a loving new family, she also had a caring husband.
Jay, who knew that Ameno came from a faraway place very different from Adam's village, often asked Ameno to tell him about her village.
From there, Ameno told him about how her village lived.
As for Jay, hearing Ameno's stories, he became even more curious because he could get the story from a different perspective than he had seen or read about Naruto.
So, Jay, who also had some knowledge from his previous life, began to formulate a plan.
As he awaited the time when he could cross over into the ninja world and come to Sunagakure, he would definitely try to improve the sand village.
But to achieve this, he would of course need the support of strength and the ability to convince the entire village.
The rice harvest lasted almost a full week, carried out by all the villagers of Adam.
After completing the main harvest, the villagers busied themselves with drying all the rice grains in the village.
This process took at least three days and at most a week, depending on the weather. The faster the drying time, the better the quality of the rice.
Conversely, the longer the drying time, the lower the quality, as the nutritional content of the rice is certainly not as good as rice that has been properly dried.
######
Just after the villagers had completed their main harvest, several ox carts arriving from the sub-district immediately attracted the attention of all the village families.
The ox carts were led by several sub-district staff, accompanied by militiamen tasked with guarding the harvest.
When sub-district officials arrived to collect agricultural taxes, several villagers were asked to send representatives to witness the tax checking and weighing.
At first, the village head greeted them warmly and invited them to rest for a while, until they felt it was time.
Then, the sub-district officials began inspecting each sack of unhusked rice.
Using a long, metal bar that could hold the unhusked rice, the sub-district staff carefully and rigorously checked the results of each sack of unhusked rice, which was intended for tax payment.
Finally, after the inspection and the unhusked rice met the requirements, the sub-district staff began weighing the rice according to the tax amount set for Adam Village.
After completing the tax payment, the sub-district staff and the village head signed the acceptance letter, which was then supervised by the sub-district militia.
The group returned to the sub-district office to deposit the unhusked rice they had collected from Adam Village.
"Okay, hurry up and tell the others! Gather at the village hall! We're going to distribute the harvest!" the village head shouted, urging residents to spread the word.