My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 100 Shotgun
On the first day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, the sky was overcast all day, and a light rain began to fall in the afternoon. The villagers were worried about the heavy rainfall this year, so they put on straw hats and carried shovels to the fields to drain the water.

Before wheat ripens, the worst thing is for it to rain for several days in a row. Watermelons growing in the ground are easily soaked by rain and will crack and rot, or their sugar content will drop and they will not be sweet. This only affects the price of watermelons. However, wheat is more serious. If ripe wheat encounters continuous heavy rain, it will sprout in the field, and the farmer's hard work for half a year will be wasted, resulting in huge losses.

Fortunately, on the afternoon of the second day of the fifth lunar month, the sky cleared completely. After a few days of southeast winds, golden waves of wheat stretched as far as the eye could see. The threshing ground needed to be cleared and prepared. First, livestock were harnessed to pull harrows inlaid with iron teeth. A layer of topsoil was removed. Then, people pulled a large, broken pot with ropes attached, using the rim of the pot to scrape the surface smooth. Water was sprinkled on, and after it dried slightly, the wheat straw from the previous year was spread on top and repeatedly rolled down with a stone roller. This process was repeated several times, and then the ground was dried in the sun until it was flat, hard, and smooth.

On the fourth day of the fifth lunar month, it's not quite appropriate to call it the wheat harvest or the wheat harvest at this time. It would be more fitting to call it "harvesting the sickle." Before harvesting the sickle, the county's opera troupes would also join in the fun and perform at the temple fair in the county town. They would perform harvest plays and play music to celebrate the harvest. With the Dragon Boat Festival approaching, going to the temple fair, eating zongzi (sticky rice dumplings), and listening to operas would be a wonderful thing.

At the temple fair, the stalls were crowded with summer harvest tools such as sickles, brooms, sieves, and winnowing baskets, which made Chen Dazhi's business better than ever before. He was all smiles. Wang Lixian's family had gone to the farmers' market a few days ago to sell fruits and vegetables at three or four in the morning. They sold a little more than half of their watermelons. They also set up a stall to sell watermelons at this temple fair, and business was very good.

Chen Ling also joined in the fun and listened to two performances. He was mainly there because Wang Susu had sent him to buy glutinous rice to make zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) the next day. However, he was spotted by Liu Xingeng, the owner of the oil mill, who was holding his granddaughter by the stage. Liu Xingeng then came over and ordered several thousand kilograms of peanuts from him. After Chen Ling agreed, Liu Xingeng gave him the address of the small courtyard in the south of the city and told him to just slip a note inside whenever he needed anything.

After the temple fair, the festive atmosphere became very strong. After Chen Ling bought the glutinous rice, Wang Susu soaked all the glutinous rice, peanuts, and red dates. Early on the morning of the Dragon Boat Festival, she picked fresh reed leaves to prepare to wrap zongzi (sticky rice dumplings).

However, just as they finished packing a few, Liu Nier arrived in a flurry with a group of little kids.

"Uncle Fugui, Uncle Fugui, we've come to feed the fish. Look at these earthworms, they're so thick and so long."

"Good heavens, where did you dig these up from? And there are so many!"

"Right from outside your yard."

Since the lotus pond was dug and fish were raised there—beautiful and unusual fish at that—Liu Ni'er and her mischievous friends have come every day without fail. The ones in elementary school are on holiday, and the ones who aren't in elementary school run around like crazy every day. When they come to Chen Ling's house, they all bring small buckets and catch crickets, grasshoppers, and tadpoles to feed the fish.

However, after a heavy rain, the water in the fish tank and lotus pond in the front and back yards overflowed, causing weeds to grow wildly in both yards, and earthworms and insects to be enormous.

Even the grape trellis in the yard has started to hang bunches of small green grapes.

Following closely behind, more birds came to the area around Chen Ling's yard. In addition to sparrows and swallows, white-faced birds, orioles, hawfinch, woodpeckers, and others also made a ruckus, chirping and chattering on the trees every morning. Magpies also came, but having learned their lesson from last time, they still dared not get too close.

Therefore, it's not surprising that Chen Ling listened to Liu Nier's words.

However, he was puzzled because it was a holiday, and given Wang Lixian's temper, why would he let this child come to his house? But a little while later, Wang Lixian also arrived, bringing Da Ni'er and driving a cart, unloading twenty or thirty watermelons for him.

"What are you doing, Brother Xian? Just give us one or two. How can Susu and I possibly finish so much? There's still a lot left from the last time Liu Nier brought us."

Chen Ling was stunned when he saw so many watermelons and didn't know what to say.

"It's a holiday, so I'm sending you extra. Eat it when it gets hot."

Wang Lixian smiled and said, "As you know, the land we were allocated this year is at the bottom of a slope, in a low-lying area. When it rains heavily, the water from other people's wheat fields flows into our melon fields. If the melons are soaked in water, we can only watch helplessly, and it's difficult to drain them. It's all thanks to you and Jusheng's help that we are able to get this land out."

As the two were talking, Da Nier carried a basket and brought Wang Susu a basket of candied dates into the house so that she could use them to make zongzi (sticky rice dumplings).

Afterwards, Chen Ling and Wang Susu saw the father and daughter off, and then they went to deliver melons to Wang Jusheng's family.

It was still early, so after Wang Lixian left, Chen Ling and his wife wrapped zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) while watching the children play "grass fighting" in the yard. "Grass fighting" is an old custom for the Dragon Boat Festival. They also play it when they are bored. They find leaves, make a thick stack in their hands, hook them together with the stems, and pull hard. The one that breaks loses.

Fresh leaves, with their crisp, green stems, are often no match for the resilience of withered fallen leaves. Liu Ni'er, holding a withered, reddish-brown leaf stem, shouted, "I've beaten you all! This 'Old Red Withered' is the king!"

Even when the wind blows for miles, customs vary greatly.

In some places, grass fighting uses various kinds of grass, while in other places, like here, they use the petioles of various leaves, but it's all the same game.

This year, the Dragon Boat Festival coincided with the wheat harvest, so there were no dragon boat races on the Jinshui River, and no one would hire a theatrical troupe.

Playing with grass can also relieve boredom.

Chen Ling and her husband watched them play with smiles. They weren't planning on having a baby yet, and it was just the two of them at home, so it was better for it to be lively. After playing for a while, the mischievous kids all ran home after ten o'clock. If they didn't leave soon, their parents would come to call them, and then it wouldn't be as simple as just pulling their ears.

Eating zongzi (sticky rice dumplings), boiling salted duck eggs, and hanging mugwort leaves at the door... this year's Dragon Boat Festival has come to an end.

After the Dragon Boat Festival, the wheat harvest officially begins. If a family grows wheat, the whole family, young and old, will pitch in, sharpening their sickles and heading straight for the wheat fields.

The time for hard labor had arrived, and the smiles on their faces were impossible to hide. It was the joy of a bountiful harvest. The wheat fields were bustling with people, almost every family had a large group of people, calling out to each other as they cut the wheat in turn. The golden wheat fell down in neat rows, and the small animals hiding in the wheat fields had nowhere to hide, desperately scrambling out.

Rabbits, hedgehogs, pheasants, and quails flew and hopped about. Often, while people were cutting wheat, a plump rabbit would suddenly jump out from under their feet. Then, a group of people would shout, throw down their sickles, and start chasing the rabbit, creating a lively scene.

At noon, the men gathered in groups of three or five, sitting on the ground under the shade of the trees next to the threshing ground, drinking the large bowls of tea brought by their wives, chatting idly, mostly about how this year's wheat was so thick that it was a waste of sickles and arms.

Chen Ling sat with Wang Lixian and Wang Jusheng. They had come to help Wang Jusheng harvest wheat. The three of them guarded a large watermelon that made everyone around them drool. After quickly finishing it, they exclaimed with delight, making everyone else stare with wide eyes and swallow their saliva.

After finishing the melon and sitting for a while, Zhang Qiaoling brought over a large basket of food, carrying Da Tou. The three of them didn't even bother to wash their hands before each picking up a steamed bun with chopsticks and eating their lunch with the stir-fried vegetables in the basket. They ate a steamed bun in four or five bites, and Chen Ling finished a whole eight steamed buns from the pot.

The others were dumbfounded, but Wang Jusheng and his companion were already used to it. They simply said that they would invite Chen Ling and Wang Lixian to their home for dinner that evening, which meant they were going to treat them to drinks.

Unfortunately, it didn't work out. Wang Lixian was busy selling melons and had to leave at dawn, so it was postponed to next time.

Before long, Du Juan also came over and chatted with them. The woman had spent the whole morning wandering around with her camera, cutting and harvesting wheat. Goodness, she had really accumulated a lot of material. She had a great harvest in Chenwangzhuang these days, and was in a period of bursting inspiration. She was also full of energy.

When Chen Ling asked her about the lynx, she didn't hide anything and said that some of the lynx's elders and friends had an accident on an ancient trade route deep in the mountains, and the lynx had to go and deal with it.

Hearing this, Chen Ling didn't ask any further questions.

"Count the wheat until it's ripe, count the wheat until it's ripe, count the wheat until it's ripe, count the wheat until it's ripe..." The birds kept chirping, urging the farmers to harvest the wheat.

Legend has it that this bird was transformed from a human. It's said that long ago there was a foolish farmer who wouldn't harvest his wheat until it was fully ripe and completely yellow. Unfortunately, a torrential rainstorm flooded the fields, resulting in a complete crop failure. The farmer, angered, died and transformed into a bird. Every year during the wheat harvest season, it cries day and night to remind farmers to prepare for the harvest when the wheat turns yellow.

Although farmers understand this principle, the bird still calls until the wheat harvest is over, until its throat bleeds. Then, if you listen to it again, its call will sound like "cuckoo...cuckoo...".

Because after the summer harvest, it's time to plant corn.

After a fierce wheat harvest season, the wheat was being threshed, dried, and winnowed, and new stacks of wheat straw were being erected outside the threshing ground.

While everyone else in the village was busy, Chen Ling was quite leisurely, leading his two dogs to run around on the ridges of the fields, chasing rabbits and pheasants. The current Heiwa Xiaojin was not the same as before; he was a true hunting expert. In less than half a day, Chen Ling had accumulated several pheasants and rabbits at his feet, making everyone's mouths water.

Although they were all smiling, they were secretly cursing the lazy man for doing nothing and being able to eat meat every meal just because of his two dogs. It was truly outrageous.

What others didn't know was that Chen Ling hadn't actually done nothing. After helping Wang Jusheng's family harvest wheat, he not only delivered peanuts to the county town, but also planted spices such as Sichuan pepper and fennel by his own field. These plants are either perennials or annuals, so they don't require much care and are easier to grow than fruit trees. Chen Ling planted a lot of them.

"The flood is coming in more than a month. After the flood, I'll find something to do."

"For the sake of our future children, we should at least have some family heirloom skills, right?"

As Chen Ling pondered this, he walked through the harvested wheat stubble field, the crunching sound under his feet strangely comforting.

Over the next few days, the two dogs always came back with a catch every time they went out: chickens, ducks, rabbits, quails, and sometimes even wild kittens. Chen Ling and his wife were eating meat at every meal, and they were getting tired of it.

But that was all. What he didn't expect was that one rainy day, Heiwa somehow brought back a hunting rifle.

(End of this chapter)