Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 10 A Rain
After leaving Old Man Li's land, Beijiwu walked for more than ten minutes to reach Old Man Zhang's land.

"Old Zhang, can I use your whetstone?"

When Old Man Zhang saw Beiji Wu coming over, he said happily, "Good! Xiulan, quickly give Brother Wu a whetstone."

Beijiwu walked to the front of the wheat field and sat down. Old Zhang, his wife, and their eldest son cut wheat side by side. The three of them shared a piece of land and moved forward together.

There's plenty of space nearby, since it's close to the wheat fields that Beijiwu has already harvested, so there's no need to worry about harvesting the wrong place.

Xiulan found the whetstone for sharpening sickles and ran over to hand it to Beijiwu.

"Brother Wu, has Li Hong finished harvesting the wheat?"

Beijiwu squatted down to sharpen his knife. "I've harvested the ten acres I promised, and they can harvest the rest themselves. How much more do you need?"

Xiulan looked at Beijiwu sharpening his knife, then stood aside and looked at her own wheat.

"I don't know how much there is, but it will take seven people five or six days to finish collecting it."

Beijiwu said, "I'll help you harvest one acre of wheat and then go home for lunch. I'll come back this afternoon to continue helping. Your family can send two people to help me with the work."

Xiulan readily agreed, "Okay!"

Hearing this, Aunt Zhang, who was resting nearby, smiled and said, "How about letting Xianglan and Xiulan go over and help you?"

“Okay.” Beijiwu knew that the two women were useless at work, but he still readily agreed.

During the wheat harvest, the two sisters, Xiulan and Xianglan, who were not very strong, were no match for a male laborer, while Beijiwu alone was equivalent to 5 to 7 male laborers.

Two for one, that's an absolute steal!
Even a four-for-one trade wouldn't be a loss!
The two families quickly formed a strategic alliance, integrated their production tools, and pushed forward with four sickles at the same time!
Four people working at the same time is definitely more than four times faster than one person doing four tasks in succession!
All everyone needs to do is push forward along a single line and tidy up the space about a meter in front of them.

After Beijiwu overtook Zhang Laoda from behind, Zhang Laoda also started working harder.

Aunt Zhang gave the sickle to Zhang Lao Er, and the four male laborers cleared more than two acres of land in an hour.

Seeing Beijiwu working so hard, Aunt Zhang couldn't bear to call them to stop for a meal and thought she should work a little longer.

Beijiwu has a precise sense of time. When it's almost time, he stops and says, "I'm going home for lunch. I'll come back this afternoon."

Xianglan stood in the field and called out to someone more than ten meters away, "Brother Wu, when are we going over?"

"Just go over after you finish eating." Bei Jiwu took the sickle home. This sickle was worth one tael of silver, and losing it would be a huge loss.

Xiulan and Xianglan soon joined their family for dinner, but after a few bites, they were chased away by Aunt Zhang.

"Go visit your brother Wu at his house and offer him some help."

Xiulan and Xianglan hadn't finished eating yet, but after their mother said that, they had no choice but to get up and leave.

Several men and women began to eat, while Xianglan and Xiulan, who were used to this kind of thing, didn't think too much about it.

The two happily arrived at the gate of the Beiji Wu family's house, pushed open the gate and called out, "Brother Wu, we've already eaten."

The three members of Beijiwu were eating under the grape trellis, and neither Li Hong nor Li Bing said a word.

Seeing this, Beijiwu said helplessly, "Come and eat something. You can only work well if you're full."

I really don't want to provide meals, but rural people have their own kind of resilience.

Xianglan happily approached, glancing at the mixed flour buns and pickled vegetables with dried meat on the wooden table. Especially after seeing the boiled meat strips soaking in the bowl, she couldn't help but swallow.

“We’ve already eaten,” the older sister, Xiulan, said, pulling her younger sister along so she wouldn’t embarrass herself.

Beijiwu said, "Let's eat together, we still have work to do this afternoon."

"Okay!" Young Xianglan ignored her older sister's objections and shamelessly accepted the invitation to dinner.

There are only three seats, so Chunlan and Xianglan can eat standing up without feeling awkward.

While eating boiled pork and mixed flour buns, Beijiwu said to the others, "Let's divide them up, one bun for each person and one mixed flour bun for each person."

"Okay!" Xianglan had completely lost all restraint and couldn't refuse such a good thing.

Xianglan, who is greedy, is in a state of hunger most of the time, and her body and mind are always looking for food to fill her stomach.

In the countryside, the squeaky wheel gets the grease; cowardly men and women are considered fools.

Li Hong and Li Bing ate the salted meat in silence. Li Hong took a bite and handed the rest to Li Bing.

Xianglan watched as her older sister picked up a softened strip of meat. After Xiulan tore off a large piece with her teeth, she handed the remaining small piece to Xianglan.

Xianglan couldn't care less about complaining about her older sister eating too much. It was just a common practice in the countryside for her sister to eat a lot, just like how Xianglan's clothes were all hand-me-downs from her sister.

After biting into the salty jerky, Xianglan began to struggle to digest the tough, chewy meat.

Xiulan was also chewing with difficulty, and asked curiously, "What kind of meat is this?"

Arctic Warrior replied, "Badger meat."

"What kind of meat?" Li Hong had never heard of it.

Arctic Wu described it as, "It's an animal about the size of three or four rabbits, with a long snout. It's black and white. I caught it in the mountains during winter. I made a shoe insole from its hide, but I kept running around and it wore out in a month."

"The meat isn't tasty; it's not as good as mutton."

Arctic Martial gave a very casual and honest evaluation of this meat.

Xianglan stared wide-eyed at Beijiwu, "You've ever eaten mutton? What does mutton taste like? I've never had it."

Beijiwu laughed and said, "I'll let you try it in winter. Lamb will be cheaper then, and we can trade some wheat for some lamb!"

Xianglan looked calmly at Beijiwu and said seriously, "I have no money, and I have nothing to eat to exchange." It was true that she had no money.

It's true that there's nothing to exchange for food. We have to be careful with the food at home, and we would never let Xiao Xianglan exchange it for mutton.

Even if she were to get married tomorrow, or die tomorrow, it would absolutely not be acceptable.

Arctic Wu doesn't have many worries and lives a carefree life.

"If you help me with the work these next few days, I'll let you have a taste, just one bite!"

Arctic Martial Arts shamelessly flirted with the young girl.

Xianglan nodded happily, "Mmm!"

Xiulan, Li Hong, and Li Bing were all eating the meat in their mouths, thinking about the mutton soup that hadn't been cooked yet.

How could it be mutton? It must be that she was given a taste of the dishwashing soup.

But they smelled really good!
Xianglan licked the oil off her hands, then tilted her head back and licked the bottom of the half-bowl of rice porridge clean as well.

Although I'm still not full, I'd be happy if I were half full.

Seeing that there was no need to wash the dishes here, Beijiwu got up and said, "Go back to your room and sleep for a while before you start working. You guys should also rest for a bit and not overwork yourselves."

"Okay!" they all happily agreed.

After finishing their meal, Beijiwu went back to his room to rest. The four girls didn't start working right after eating; instead, they all lay comfortably on the kang (a heated brick bed) and took a nap.

Since it was wheat harvest time, none of the five of them slept in; they got up and started working as soon as it was almost time.

There's not much to say about the repetitive work in the fields; during the busy farming season, it feels like there's never an end to the work.

The next morning, Beijiwu finished harvesting the wheat for Lao Zhang and then went home to take care of his own business.

Four women were threshing wheat in the yard using the tools they had brought. The wheat had to go through processes such as sun exposure, threshing, separation, and dust removal before it could be stored. It usually took a month and a half from harvesting the wheat to storing it.

Harvesting wheat is probably the fastest process, while drying it is the slowest, as the wheat needs to be dehydrated to a certain extent before it can be separated.

When Beijiwu and the four women finished harvesting wheat and had dinner together that evening, a cool breeze blew into the courtyard.

The refreshing breeze made Arctic Martial realize that something was wrong.

"It is going to rain."

Beijiwu had a feeling it would rain, and he had been rushing to finish the wheat harvest since the night before, especially urging the others to hurry up and finish the harvest.

Bad things will still happen.

Not only did Beijiwu predict that it would rain, but experienced farmers in the village also realized that something was wrong.

"Hurry up and harvest the wheat! Everyone come out and help! Go to the fields and help! Hurry up!!"

The village mobilized its resources as it had during the bandit invasion, banging gongs and shouting for everyone to act quickly.

The mountain rain is about to come, the wind is filling the buildings, and the black clouds are pressing down on the city, threatening to destroy it.

Beiji Wu wanted to go back to lie down and sleep, but Xiulan and Xianglan quickly ran outside.

"Our wheat harvest isn't finished yet! It's all piled up in the field!"

Xiulan called out and ran to the door. She found that Beijiwu hadn't moved. After glancing at him urgently, she quickly ran out.

Beijiwu thought about it and felt that he got along very well with the Zhang family, so he said, "Let's go help the Zhang family."

“Okay!” Li Hong and Li Bing both nodded in agreement.

Rural society is a place where people should help each other.

Old Li's family had already finished harvesting their wheat and had bundled it up and taken it back to their home. The old man was lucky; the three of them were able to harvest the wheat almost completely.

Old Zhang's family had a lot more trouble because they had a lot of people and land. After the wheat harvest, they had taken the straw to an open space to dry, which made it very difficult to collect.

When Beijiwu took Li Hong and Li Bing out, everyone in the village was busy.

The whole village became lively as every household rushed to harvest wheat, quickly carrying the dried wheat straw and bundles back into their houses.

In Old Zhang's field, the family members quickly tied wheat straw to a wheelbarrow.

Beijiwu pulled the cart over, laughing and calling out, "Old Zhang, have you seen your daughter? I'm here to help!"

Old Zhang was so excited he wanted to shout, "They're all here! Come quickly and help me harvest the wheat, I'll give you both my daughters!"

Beijiwu laughed and pulled the cart over. "Stop talking nonsense and hurry up and load it into the cart. Where do you live again? I've never been there before."

Zhang Xianglan exclaimed happily, "Brother! I'll take you home!"

With the help of an extra vehicle and three people, transportation became much simpler.

In particular, Beijiwu's dilapidated cart could do the work of a wheelbarrow six or seven times, and Beijiwu could also pull the cart very fast.

The heavy rain gave everyone a long half hour to make amends; if they could pass, they would pass; if not, they would have to find their own solutions.

A heavy rain fell as night fell, and heart-wrenching cries echoed through the village.

The next day, it was still drizzling.

(End of this chapter)