Quick Wear: Men Farming and Women Weaving

Every morning the three chickens would lay three eggs, one of which was left for Song Baoer to eat, and the rest were saved and sold at the market.

Song Baoer also looked quite angry. She pulled Liu Pozi's hand and took the opportunity to pinch Song Xiaohe's soft flesh many times.

"Mom, this little bitch is not worth getting angry at. As punishment, she should not be allowed to eat for the whole day and should do all the housework," Song Baoer suggested.

When Song Xiaohe heard what Song Baoer said, she collapsed to the ground in a state of despair.

After hearing what Baoer said, Mrs. Liu agreed and decided to do all the housework today.

Village chief Zhang of Xishan Village has been looking worried these days, inspecting the growth of crops and the water level in the river every day. The weather has been abnormal in the past few months, with hot weather and reduced river water levels, and even those who need water have begun to feel nervous.

I asked the experienced old people in the village, and they said that the signs of drought have already appeared. It has not rained for several months, and the crops in the fields will be completely destroyed.

The thought of having to flee the famine when the river dries up and there is no water makes me feel at a loss.

While standing on the edge of the field, he watched the villagers tending to their crops and shouted to the people over there that a meeting would be held at the entrance of the ancestral hall that evening, and asked every household to come and discuss important matters.

When the villagers heard that the village chief was going to hold a meeting, the news spread throughout the village.

No one was in the mood to work. The fact that the village chief could hold a meeting must be something very important.

Song Yiyue guessed that it was probably because of the drought and the village chief could not hide the truth.

Before going out in the morning, I peeled the pheasant eggs in my younger brother's room, put them in his hands, and asked him to eat them quickly.

Song Hai looked at the two white and tender eggs in his hand, his eyes shining, and he said to his elder sister with reluctance in his eyes that he only wanted one and she could eat the other one.

"Don't worry, I've already eaten it. This is left for you," Song Yiyue rubbed his little head and comforted him.

"Then I'll leave it for my second sister." Song Hai didn't want to eat alone, and his two sisters were usually very nice to him.

"I have already left some for your second sister." Afraid that he wouldn't believe it, she took out a pheasant egg from her arms.

When he saw the pheasant eggs in the elder sister's hand, he believed it. He took the peeled eggs and ate them in small bites.

Song Yiyue took Eryue to dig wild vegetables. He took out eggs from the back mountain and gave them to her to eat, and let her slowly look for wild vegetables nearby.

There was a small bamboo forest growing nearby. She found a relatively thick bamboo, took out a machete and cut it off at the root.

Cut the bamboo into pieces and make them into bamboo tubes. Use a knife to smooth out the burrs on the edge, make a small hole on the edge, and make a wooden stopper to check if it leaks. There are about 2 to 3 pounds of water in it. As long as you don't use too much force, the water will not overflow.

I cut two bamboos from the side and made bamboo tubes. There were more than 25 in total, each of which could hold about three pounds of water. When fleeing from famine and there were no pots and bowls, I could use the bamboo tubes to cook bamboo tube rice, soup, etc., which was very convenient.

When he returned, he brought back the wild vegetables he had dug in February, a basket of firewood he had chopped, and four or five bamboo tubes in his hands.

Eryue was very curious. What did the elder sister use these bamboo tubes for?

"These are used to hold water. If we are thirsty outside, we can use these to hold water to drink," he explained to Eryue the purpose of these bamboo tubes.

He returned to the yard, put the firewood away, scooped a basin of water from the kitchen, and cleaned the bamboo tube.

Song Baoer was bored in the room, so she went out for a walk. She saw Song Yiyue from the third room coming back and cleaning a bamboo tube. She kicked her over.

"You little girl, you look so tattered and dirty, I know you'll marry a farmer in the future."

"But I'm different. I'm a born scholar's wife." Song Baoer looked proudly at her dress without any patches. Scholar Wang from the same village was handsome and talented, and he had been eyeing her for a long time.

Song Baoer and Wang Xiucai had been getting along with each other in private for a long time, and she would save the eggs every day for Wang Xiucai.

Mr. Wang said with great pity that after she passed the imperial examination, her parents would come to propose marriage, and it would be more glorious for her to become the wife of a juren than to be the wife of a scholar.

Song Baoer was mesmerized by his words, and her eyes were filled with the idea of ​​becoming a juren's wife.

She secretly kept it a secret from her parents and gave all the 100 copper coins her mother gave her as pocket money to him to use for his health and his studies.

Song Yiyue looked at her as if she was looking at a fool. What was her identity? If she wanted to be a scholar's wife, it would probably be faster than dreaming.

In ancient times, people of equal status were very important. Scholars were the stepping stones to enter the imperial court, and they would usually marry girls of the same status to help them. Or, poor people would marry rich girls to improve their family conditions and prepare funds for the next imperial examination.

The Song family was just an ordinary farming family and did not have enough money to support a scholar.

Song Baoer looked at her with a very uncomfortable look and her temper flared up.

"Mr. Wang is a man of great talent, gentleness and elegance, and he will definitely pass the imperial examination. He told me personally that he would marry me."

After saying this, he looked very proudly at her, then turned around proudly and complacently to go find Mr. Wang.

Song Yiyue cleaned the bamboo tubes and placed them under the beams to dry.

At noon, when the weather was hot, the men all came back, looking somewhat depressed and withered.

I have been tending to the crops every day for the past month, but the crops in the fields are still not growing well.

The porridge I cooked today contains mostly wild vegetables, with only a small amount of coarse grains.

There was also a large pot of stir-fried wild vegetables with a little coarse salt.

Song Baoer looked at the watery soup in the bowl and felt a little reluctant.

Seeing that Bao'er couldn't eat, Mrs. Liu coaxed her by saying that they would go to the market tomorrow. She reluctantly finished her wild vegetables and went back to her room to eat some snacks.

Some people had been waiting since early in the afternoon, anxiously waiting for the village chief at the entrance of the ancestral hall.

After all the villagers gathered, the village chief told them that a drought might occur, and asked everyone to prepare food and not sell it. During this period, they should try their best to find edible plants or store food.

"Everyone must be prepared mentally. We cannot wait until it really happens, as it will be too late," the village chief warned with some sorrow several villagers who were planning to sell grain recently.

"There can't be a drought, it's just that it hasn't rained. Maybe it will rain in a few days." Some villagers did not believe it and hoped that it might rain in a few days.

"Wu Tietou, didn't you notice that the river water has exposed the riverbed?" Li Erniu next to him believed it a little. He passed by the river and found that the river water was dropping quickly.

Elderly people who had experienced the drought also stood up and told everyone that the drought more than 40 years ago was the same as the one today, so they should be prepared early, as the river would not dry up for more than 20 days.

All the villagers returned home and told their families to start storing food as this year's harvest might be a total failure.

The main hall of the Song family was full of people, all listening to what Old Man Liu told their village chief.

Let the whole family eat two meals starting tomorrow and skip dinner. Let the women go to the mountains to look for edible food and wild vegetables.