Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 26 Maintenance
As night fell, everyone gradually left the courtyard.

Kitada finally breathed a sigh of relief after reaching his doorstep, looking at the pork he was carrying.

"I can finally get a good night's sleep tonight. Beijiwu still wants our family to help with some things. As long as we behave well, everything will be fine."

Kitada's attitude displeased his daughter-in-law. "Father, do we really have to listen to him? Can't we report it to the authorities?"

Kitada looked at this ungrateful woman with a cold face.

The woman felt afraid.

Kitada Ne raised his hand and slapped the woman across the face!
"Snapped!"

Kitada slapped his daughter-in-law hard across the face, cursing, "You slut! I hit you, why don't you report it to the authorities?!"

How can that be the same... The daughter-in-law had something to say, but dared not speak, and could only cover her face and cry, hiding beside her husband.

Kitada Biao dared not disobey his father, much less utter a word of reproach.

As the head of the family, Kitada Nei led his family into the courtyard; he had none of the thoughts of reporting to the authorities that women often have.

The idea that the weak should submit to the strong is deeply ingrained.

As long as you can survive and the losses aren't too great, there's no need to seek justice.

If we call the authorities, won't our own family suffer a great loss?

Do you really think everyone in the government is an upright and just official?!
Kitada Gen, who had served in the army, knew all too well the nature of the border troops. Reporting to the authorities would be like inviting lightning, and they would all die together!

It's not a civil dispute. Beiji Wu can kill six people by himself. There will definitely be more than fifty soldiers coming. Beitian Gen, as a border soldier, knows all too well the consequences of more than fifty soldiers entering the village!

In that case, both his own daughter-in-law and other men's wives will be played to death.

Kitada would rather have the leader of the Arctic Wudang than have government troops come.

"I'm telling you! If the soldiers come, my whole family will have to go back to the army and die there!"

Kitada Ne was old and had finally retired. Unlike the old man from the Arctic family who died in the army, or the old man from the Kitamiya family who was still in the army and couldn't escape.

"Without men, how can you women survive?! The cattle and grain have been stolen, you bunch of worthless sons of bitches will starve to death!"

Kitada cursed his family, then warned them again, "If Beijiwu wants to live a peaceful life now, don't provoke him for no reason. Do you have to be so restless at night that you'd only be happy if your whole family was killed?!"

The Kitada brothers have given up on the idea of ​​fighting the Arctic.

Beijiwu is a man, and Aidake is also a man, but the differences between men are too great.

The Kitada brothers are three people, but each of them only has one life. When they encounter someone like Ai Dake who doesn't fight back but only begs for mercy, the three brothers can easily deal with him. They could even handle three hundred of them.

Encountering someone like Arctic Wu, one person alone could terrify the three of them, making them unable to eat or sleep.

Military households with weapons and access to external communication channels are more likely to submit to the authority of the Arctic Army, as was the case with the Kitada and Ma families.

As long as the Arctic forces don't go too far, they won't dare call for help.

The last time he was beaten, it was the same thing. Bei Gong Dingbian told his father about it, and his father just told him to endure it.

It's better to avoid trouble. As long as Beijiwu doesn't indiscriminately kill his fellow villagers, no one wants to lead the government troops back to their hometown.

At night, Beijiwu sat leisurely under the grape trellis, eating pork soup.

The courtyard gates were already closed, so Arctic Warrior no longer needed to wear clothes.

Li Hong and the other girls sat on stools or haystacks, eating steamed buns and drinking minced meat soup.

While breastfeeding her child, Gao Conglian dipped a steamed bun into the meat broth at the bottom of the bowl and ate it.

The little girl next to me, Xidan, was eating a piece of meat with a bone in it. She spat it out and swallowed it back in dozens of times, refusing to throw it away.

Xiulan and Xianglan also got a piece of meat; the less meat there was, the slower they ate.

After Li Hong and Li Bing finished their share of meat, they helped clean up the spare ribs that Beijiwu had left over, to make soup the next day.

"Brother Wu, save the leftover meat from today. It'll last you three days. We'll just have some soup." Beiji Wu, who was already full, smiled and said, "Okay, you take care of it. We'll make dumplings for the New Year. We definitely need to eat our fill of meat dumplings to truly celebrate the New Year."

Li Hong looked at Bei Jiwu happily, "Okay, I'll listen to Brother Wu."

After eating and drinking his fill, Beijiwu washed his hands and went inside to rest.

After dividing the meat today, there were still more than 20 pounds left. I ate two pounds myself in one meal, and the rest can be preserved with salt for a while.

There were a few more bowls and chopsticks, a basket for storing grain, a mat, three pairs of straw sandals, several earthenware jars for water, and a considerable amount of miscellaneous grains, vegetables, and eggs.

Dividing the meat is definitely the right thing to do. Next, we need to build a house, otherwise the space will be too small.

Building a house requires the help of many people, which is one of the reasons for dividing the meat.

Many hands make light work; Beijiwu couldn't possibly do everything by himself.

After figuring out what he needed to do, Beijiwu laid out the straw mat that the Zhang family had given him, and then laid out a blanket on top of that.

The temperature difference between day and night in the mountains is significant, which is good because the fruit is relatively sweet.

Beijiwu leaned against the headboard, thinking about the grapes.

"The grapes will be almost ripe in about a month, then we need to make a wooden frame to air-dry them into raisins."

Arctic Martial was planning winter snacks when Li Hong lifted the curtain and walked in.

"Brother, I'm done washing."

Li Hong blushed and took the initiative to sit next to Bei Jiwu, wearing only a simple undergarment and an open linen robe.

Beijiwu stopped thinking about random things and said with a smile, "Come here quickly, take everything off."

"Great!" Li Hong couldn't wait any longer. If an eighteen-year-old girl couldn't have a child, people would definitely gossip about it.

Although the two eighteen-year-olds had no witnesses or marriage certificates, there weren't many formalities in the rural areas during that chaotic feudal era.

The two were doing business inside the house, while the girls in the courtyard outside were still working and tidying up.

Pack the grain, clean the pots and pans, burn dry leaves to repel mosquitoes from entering the house, or lift the curtain to watch what the two people inside are doing.

Listening to the commotion inside the house, Li Bing sat alone in front of the wheat baskets, feeling heartbroken as she looked at the baskets of unhulled wheat.

No matter how loudly her sister cried out, it wasn't as painful for her as the ten baskets of wheat she was giving away.

Other people's women are given away for free, but my sister and I have to buy them with ten acres of wheat.

Li Bing didn't think that she and her sister were particularly valuable; on the contrary, she felt very sad because they could have kept the wheat for their own consumption.

Thinking of this, Li Bing quickly added more soil and pebbles to the basket.

As the temperature gradually dropped at night, everyone, exhausted from a long day, went back inside to sleep.

Gao Conglian's children slept soundly. Children from poor families didn't need night feedings after ten months and weren't spoiled.

Early in the morning, Gao Conglian got up to work. After eating, she went back to take care of her three older sons, the oldest being four or five years old and the youngest two or three years old. They were all able to live on their own.

Without eating the food from the Arctic family, Gao Conglian wouldn't have the energy to take care of several children.

Beijiwu still went to help Ai Dake harvest the wheat. Many hands make light work, and it also gave the other villagers a good impression, so it would be natural for Ai Dake's family to work on his fields in the future.

With help from others to collect the food, Ai Dake was able to barely manage to survive on his own with three children.

Gao Conglian is only going back to take care of the children. She will still eat and sleep at the Arctic Home. She has already been sold to Arctic Martial Arts by Ai Dake, so she doesn't have to go back at all.

After giving the ten mu of grain they had prepared to Li Hong's parents, the Beijiwu family's food problem remained serious.

The Arctic family currently has eight members, and the remaining food is definitely not enough to feed them.

(End of this chapter)