After fleeing famine, I have thousands of acres of fertile land

After a tiring day, after dinner and queuing up to wash up, Ye Qing fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.

The birdsong in the early morning broke the silence, and the earth was covered with a layer of mist. The quiet yard was also disturbed by the early risers.

Old Man Ye got up first, led the cow out, and put it by the river to eat grass.

Then Li also got up. As she got older, she slept less and got up earlier.

The Ye family is very skilled in stir-frying snails and lobsters, so they don’t get up so early.

Another thing is that all the lobsters in nearby areas are gone, and it is inconvenient for many people to go to distant areas. The lobsters collected every day are only half of what they used to be.

The money that Boss Ye left behind for his family to sell was only supplied to two restaurants, and the price was increased by two cents, which meant the cost of collecting money increased by one cent.

Boss Ye drove a ox cart to the city to deliver vegetables. On the way, he kept his eyes out for the cotton-fluffing craftsmen, but he never met them.

Ye Dalang went to Xu's house again. Ye Qing worriedly reminded his brother, fearing that his brother might have been wronged.

When Boss Ye came back, he turned into the courtyard in the city. The courtyard was very clean, and it was obvious that someone cleaned it regularly.

He put the fresh vegetables he brought into the kitchen and fetched a few buckets of water to fill the water tank.

Just when Boss Ye was busy, he heard shouting coming from outside.

"Fluff the cotton, fluff the cotton. Fluff half a pound of cotton into eighty-eight ounces. Fluff the old cotton into new cotton. After the quilt is fluffed, the girl is going to get married. Oh, oh, oh, oh~"

Boss Ye hurriedly put down the bucket and walked out of the house quickly. "Cotton fluffer, there is cotton to be flubbed here."

The shouting stopped abruptly, and an old voice came from across the house, "Here I come."

Boss Ye was very happy. He had been looking for it all morning but couldn't find it. Now he got it without any effort.

The cotton spinner was an old man who walked towards us slowly, carrying a large wooden bow on his back.

"Young man, is it your family that wants to fluff cotton? How much cotton do you have?" the fluffer asked anxiously.

Boss Ye said directly, "Old man, my family needs to fluff cotton. We have both new and old cotton at home, and we need to fluff them all."

"The cotton-fluffing fee is charged by day and by the number of quilts. The daily fee is 110 wen and the quilt-fluffing fee is 50 wen per quilt." The cotton-fluffing worker first explained the wages.

The Ye family has a lot of cotton, so it is more cost-effective to buy it on a daily basis. There are also villagers who want to pluck cotton, and it is estimated that it will take more than a month to pluck all the cotton in the village.

"Old man, our whole village needs to play it, can you make it cheaper?"

The cotton spinner was a little tempted after hearing this, as it was rare to meet such a big client. Most people would make two quilts when they got married or had a happy event.

"Young man, don't call me old man anymore. Call me Master Wu. Today we met, it's fate for us to meet. One hundred coins a day, no less."

Boss Ye agreed directly. He let Master Wu into his house, took a bench, and sat down to rest.

After Boss Ye cleaned up the house, he took Master Wu to Kaoshan Village.

Master Wu brought a longbow, which was four or five feet long. The waist of the bow was not bent, and the two ends where the strings were installed were slightly tilted forward. The strings were generally made of wear-resistant cow tendons, as thick as the cotton thread used to make shoe soles.

A wooden hammer, cylindrical, seven or eight inches long, with a thin handle and a thick hammer, is used to hit the string on the bow;

A round wooden millstone, five or six inches thick, mostly made of strong wood such as sandalwood, is used to compact fluffy cotton wool.

The other is a bamboo piece with a cross-line groove on the top. The cotton wool tends to loosen after being fluffed, so cotton yarn needs to be covered on both sides of the cotton wool.

When the hammer hits the bowstring, it makes a "bang bang bang, bang bang bang" sound, like a symphony.

Boss Ye brought Master Wu into the house and arranged for Master Wu to rest in the back seat.

The back seat was intended to be a storage room, but now that we don’t have that many things at home, it has been left empty.

There is enough cotton in the house to last for a day, and the weather is not cold now, so we put a straw mat inside, which is very soft and comfortable to lie on.

Li took out all the cotton that had been dried at home. The cotton had already been picked. She gave some water to Master Wu and then went to do other things.

Master Wu did not delay. He held the slingshot tightly in his left hand, with the bowstring close to the cotton. He grabbed the hammer with his right hand and hit the bowstring hard.

The vibrating bowstring constantly rubbed the cotton, and the solid cotton gradually became fluffy due to the vibration.

Being a cotton fluffer is a hard job. Although he doesn't have to be exposed to the sun or rain, it is physically demanding to curl up and fluff cotton all the time.

Especially in the summer, when the weather is hot and the sweat on your body sticks to the cotton wool, it is even more unbearable.

New cotton is cleaner, but old cotton is not, and dust flies everywhere.

After the cotton wool is fluffed, it is covered with a layer of crisscrossed cotton yarn, and then the thread is pressed. The round wood millstone rotates and rolls on the cotton wool to sew the yarn and cotton wool together.

The Ye family made eight new quilts weighing five kilograms each, two of which were prepared for Ye Dalang's wedding, and the rest were kept for him to use slowly.

The old quilt was remade and sewn, and it was still warm. The mattress was also refurbished and felt soft under my body.

Zhou kept 30 kilograms of fluffed cotton to make cotton clothes in the winter, and the children in the family all grew taller.

Take apart the old cotton-padded jacket, wash it, fluff the cotton again, add some new cotton, and it will be a new cotton-padded jacket.

The Ye family's yard was filled with banging sounds all afternoon, which attracted neighbors to come and see several times and also arranged Master Wu's next itinerary.

Master Wu worked even harder. After working in this village, he could earn two or three taels of silver a month. With some money, he could buy an acre of dry land.

It was almost dark when Ye Dalang dragged his heavy feet into the house. He followed the same procedure as yesterday and drank some water first when he entered the house.

Everyone can see from the situation that there is no one to deliver water to the Xu family.

Ye Qing's face darkened, "Brother, let's not go tomorrow. This family is bullying you alone."

Ye Dalang was also unhappy. He thought it was an accident yesterday. He didn't expect that his family spoiled their son like this.

The sons never did any work at home, so they were taken care of by the old couple and the little girl from the Xu family.

"Qingya, I have already rejected them. I haven't finished my housework yet."

The other members of the Ye family looked a little better. As long as the girl from the Xu family was a good person, they were still willing to marry her.

For dinner, Master Wu refused to eat with the Ye family. He took the food that Ye Qing had helped to serve and sat at the door to eat.

Master Wu was worried that there was too much lint on his body and it would float into other rooms and be difficult to clean.

The Ye family did not treat Master Wu badly. They gave him whatever they ate at home.

It took Master Wu six days to finish beating all the cotton at Ye's house. Other families had less cotton, so it would probably take two or three days to finish beating all the cotton.

Ye Qing plans to plant cotton next year and take the villagers with him. Everyone will learn how to beat the cotton stubble and they will be able to harvest more.

Uncle Ye took Master Wu home and prepared to re-stitch the old quilt.