Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 12
The Li Hong sisters and the Zhang sisters were not very close.

I don't know most of the people in this village very well.

People's social circles are actually very narrow. Apart from their neighbors across the street, they basically only have one or two distant friends with whom they can get along.

In the days before school, women's social circles were even narrower, and there were no fixed work and rest times. They spent their days working at home or going out to collect firewood and hay.

Fetching water is usually a man's job, unless the man is too busy to do it.

The boys did the easy tasks like herding sheep, while the girls were responsible for taking care of the children, cooking, washing clothes, and doing farm work.

Both sides were sisters, but the sister in the courtyard had a gloomy and calm expression, which looked very bad.

The two sisters who came in from outside the courtyard both had familiar smiles on their faces, as if they were very close friends and had known each other for a long time.

People who come to our door for meals always have this expression; we're all used to it.

Li Hong regretted not locking the door earlier. Seeing the two shameless girls coming to freeload again, she expressionlessly chased them away.

"Brother Wu isn't here; he hasn't come back yet."

Li Hong is bigger than Bei Jiwu, but it's not wrong to call him "brother". It's a tradition in most areas for women to call capable people "brother".

Li Bing was more aggressive than Li Hong. She sat there without getting up, glancing at the two of them and saying, "Don't you cook at home?"

Xiulan and Xianglan both sensed the aggression.

Xiulan said awkwardly, "I did. My mother asked us to come and see if we needed any help."

Li Hong said directly, "No need to help. There's only a little bit of work at home, it'll be done in no time. Brother Wu just went out and I don't know where he went. Why don't you come and find him tomorrow?"

The Zhang sisters knew perfectly well that this meant no meals would be provided.

"Okay, then come again tomorrow."

Zhang Xiulan said awkwardly, "We're leaving now."

As the two sisters were walking out, Li Bing, whose legs had healed, came over and quickly closed the door.

Zhang Xiulan and her sister heard the sound of the gate closing behind them, and when they turned around, they saw that the courtyard gate was closed.

Xiulan felt wronged and angrily cursed, "You dog! You son of a bitch!"

The two walked along the path into the village. Zhang Xiulan was in a bad mood and disliked the Li sisters as well.

"Sis, let's hurry home and eat, or we'll be out of food again."

Zhang Xiulan felt very unwell and didn't eat much in the morning.

Ever since Xianglan boasted at home that she had eaten meat at the Beiji Wu family's house, her mother has always let the two of them come over for meals, and has given the food that was originally meant for them to her younger brothers.

Take advantage of any opportunity, save money wherever possible. As for chastity and reputation, those things were shattered by a century of war. Anyone who believed in that should have committed suicide long ago.

In an era when selling daughters to brothels was commonplace, no one cared about rural men and women getting together in the wild in remote rural areas.

Besides, this kind of thing is normal in any era.

It would be normal without a century of war, let alone in this era where survival is the only goal.

Chastity is the least important thing here. Whether in grassland areas or self-protective villages dominated by people of the same surname and clan, women are offered to be bred by tall, healthy men from outside the village to leave offspring.

The Zhang sisters, who were worried, soon spotted the best cattle and horses in Beitian Village on a grassy country path.

"Brother Wu!!"

Xianglan saw Arctic Martial and shouted happily.

Hungry Zhang Xiulan looked up and saw Bei Jiwu carrying a gun, with three large brown fish, each about two palm lengths long, hanging from the gun by a hemp rope.

Beijiwu walked over with a smile, "Hmm, you two are here to freeload again, aren't you? Tell your dad you can stay here tonight, I'll cover your meals!"

Zhang Xiulan nodded happily, "Xianglan, you go and tell them."

"Okay!" Xianglan nodded happily.

Arctic Martial lowered his spear from his shoulder and handed over a fish that was about 35 or 36 centimeters long.

"Take this to your father, and bring your two rice bowls over to eat."

"Okay!" Xianglan hugged the still struggling fish tightly and walked quickly outside, her face full of happy smiles.

Besides farming, Beijiwu also knows how to fish. It's not that he's particularly skilled at fishing, but rather that the region and the era it was in were rich in resources.

Especially in summer and autumn, they certainly won't starve.

The most troublesome time is winter, when the weather is freezing cold, the rivers freeze and dry up, and the animals all hide away, which is the hardest time to endure.

One person can hunt once and last for ten days or half a month, but if a family has five or six members, they will have to go hunting frequently. Once all the easy prey nearby has been hunted, the probability of encountering danger will increase.

Zhang Xiulan quickly walked to Beijiwu's side, "Brother Wu, let me get the fish for you."

"No need, I knew there would be more fish after the rain. I caught three fish after half an hour of struggling. We'll stew two of them tonight!"

Arctic Wu didn't want to provide meals before not because he lacked food, but because he didn't like to have social interactions with outsiders.

Back then, a group of people bullied the young and weak Beijiwu. Now that Beijiwu has gained the loyalty of the Li Hong sisters and is being fawned over by the Zhang family, he naturally doesn't mind meddling in a few more mouths.

These people had previously displeased Arctic Martial Arts, so Arctic Martial Arts rejected them.

Now that I feel good, my attitude has naturally changed.

Zhang Xiulan said, "Two are too many, one is enough. Xianglan and I will just have some soup, and you can have all the meat, Brother Wu."

Seeing that the courtyard gate was closed, Bei Jiwu stood at the door and shouted, "Li Hong! Li Bing! Open the door!"

"Coming!" Li Bing shouted loudly, then quickly went to open the door.

Even before opening the door, he wore a natural smile, welcoming Arctic Martial back.

I was delighted to see Arctic Wu and prepared to welcome the men of my family to dinner.

But when he saw the woman standing next to him, his expression immediately relaxed naturally, and his brows furrowed slightly but clearly showed displeasure and anger.

"Has the food been cooked yet?" Bei Jiwu went straight in, completely unaware of these subtle changes.

Li Bing saw the two large fish that Beiji Wu was carrying on the gun barrel behind him and quickly became excited.

"Brother, did you go to the river to catch fish?"

Beijiwu laughed and said, "Isn't this obvious? Make a few more steamed buns today, kill two fish to make fish soup, and throw the remaining two into the water tank. Tomorrow, we'll eat them, whether they're alive or dead!"

If you don't work, you won't get food, so Zhang Xiulan volunteered, "I'll help too!"

Li Hong came out and looked at the lively courtyard. She said with some worry, "Brother Wu, fish doesn't keep us full. Two fish can last for five or six days. We can eat less grain at most, but we still need to eat. Our family's grain is almost insufficient now."

Beijiwu laughed and said, "How is it not enough to eat? We'll use 10 mu of the 15 mu of wheat to buy the two of you women, keep 2 mu of the remaining 5 mu for seeds, and exchange the remaining 3 mu of wheat for 7 or 8 mu of miscellaneous grains. That'll be enough to eat. Plus, my family's 2 mu of millet will make it almost 10 mu."

"Wheat prices are high this year, so there's no problem growing grain on ten mu of land!"

Arctic Wu had already considered the food problem.

Li Hong had already done the calculations and said directly, "A family of five would need at least twenty mu."

Beijiwu explained: "The twenty mu includes seeds and taxes. My family doesn't have to pay taxes. I've also calculated the seeds we kept. There's no problem feeding the five of us. The main issues are miscellaneous things, such as farm tools, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and farm tools and clothes for the spring, all of which cost money."

"But it's nothing, if we don't have enough to eat, I'll go to the county and ask my brother for some."

Beijiwu went inside, left the fish on the ground for the women to handle, and went inside to rest.

Asking his elder brother for grain was a ruse; in reality, Beijiwu had dug a cellar and hidden the grain.

The reason for not telling these women was to prevent the villagers from finding out.

If the villagers knew this, they would come to borrow grain.

It's not just about borrowing grain. If we encounter an army that comes to collect grain and fodder, we can just grab someone from a village and ask them who has a cellar hiding people. That way, we'll know who has a cellar hiding people.

Most of the men and women who hid and were later found and killed by the officials and bandits who massacred the city were betrayed by insiders.

Unless it's a small family unit, it's easy for a whistleblower to emerge when there are many people, and then a whole series of people will be found.

Beijiwu's words put the Li sisters and Zhang Xiulan at ease.

Zhang Xiulan volunteered, "Five people are enough to eat. We can't have any more, or we'll go hungry."

Before even getting on the bus, they were already thinking about how to close the door tighter.

Seeing that Beiji Wujin was resting in the house and looking at the fish on the ground, Li Hong and Li Bing put aside their other concerns and began to cook and kill the fish.

(End of this chapter)