Daily life of farming and supporting a family on the ancient Loess Plateau

Ji Laosi said irritably, "Eat! Give me your cornmeal if you're not going to eat it!"

Old Mrs. Ji snorted coldly: "What the hell? Are you trying to give this old woman a hard time? Do you want to shit on my neck? Let me tell you, it's a long way off! Wait until I'm buried in the earth before you go shit on my grave and defile the dead!"

Ji Jiuwa and his wife both lowered their heads, pretending to eat seriously, not daring to utter a sound.

Yao was so angry that her hands trembled. She gritted her teeth, swallowed the words in her mouth, and picked up her chopsticks again.

In the courtyard of the Ji family, the family had already sat down. Yang had just brought the stir-fried sliced ​​pork to the table and divided it into three slices for each person's bowl.

Ji Manqing chattered on and on, gesturing wildly as he told Old Master Ji about delivering the medicinal herbs that day.

"Waaaaah—" Ji Yongzhou wailed as Hu Xirong shoved him into the courtyard.

Everyone turned to look over.

"Hey, Yongzhou, what's wrong with you? What trouble have you gotten yourself into that got you beaten by your mother?" Ji Manqing asked with a hint of schadenfreude.

Ji Yongzhou was sobbing uncontrollably. Before he could even speak, Hu Xirong shoved him onto the cart next to her and slapped him several times on the buttocks.

While slapping her, Hu Xirong cursed, "You good-for-nothing! You've disgraced your ancestors for eight generations! Does your family starve you or drink you? Have you never eaten cornmeal before?" Then, several more loud slaps followed.

The people gathered under the tree were stunned. Yang kicked Ji Manqing and said, "Aren't you going to check? The child is about to be beaten to death!"

Ji Manqing finally realized what was happening, and responded with "Oh, oh—" before running to pull Hu Xirong away.

Hu Xirong suddenly stopped hitting him, hugged Ji Yongzhou tightly, her eyes filled with tears, and said, "Child, I'm hitting you today to teach you a lesson. We may be poor, but we must not lose our spirit! Remember, you are my son, and you must stand tall and be a pillar of society. You would rather starve than covet other people's food!"

Ji Manqing was stunned, unsure whether he should step forward.

When Ji Yongling heard Hu Xirong say "poverty does not diminish ambition," he thought Ji Yongzhou had done something spineless.

What she didn't know was that in modern times, poverty is just one word, meaning that a person has no money; but in ancient times, "poverty" was two words: "poor" meant having no money, and "lacking ambition" meant being unsuccessful and lacking drive.

In fact, Hu Xirong was just suddenly reminded of her past self, the one who was wronged and humiliated because of poverty.

When she was about the same age as Ji Yongling, her mother took her to visit her aunt's family. Of course, they also planned to borrow some grain. But as soon as they entered the door, her aunt's face immediately turned long, so her mother was too embarrassed to speak. She just sat in the yard and chatted casually for a while.

For half a day, she didn't go anywhere, staying by her mother's side the whole time. She only went to the kitchen once to fetch a bowl of water. But before they left, her aunt's mother-in-law stopped her and said, "Xirong, did you just take some steamed buns from your in-laws' house?"

Hu Xirong said blankly, "Grandma, I didn't take any of your steamed buns. I don't even know where you keep them."

Her aunt said, "I was afraid the mice would eat it, so I hung it on the wall above the water vat, in a steamed bun basket, covered with a white cloth. When you scoop water from the vat, you can see it just by looking up."

Hu Xirong shook her head and said, "Grandma, I really didn't take it. I didn't even see that steamed bun basket."

Her aunt's mother sneered, "Take it if you want. I know your family isn't well-off. If you want some steamed buns, just tell me, and I'll get them for you. How could you steal them?"

Hu Xirong firmly stated, "I didn't steal it, you can't falsely accuse me!"

Her aunt rolled her eyes and said, "I clearly put nine steamed buns in that basket. After a little bit went in, there were only eight left. You were the only one who went into the kitchen. If you didn't steal them, who could it be!"

Her aunt looked at her suspiciously, as if she were the one who took it, and said, "Xirong, you stole it, so what? Your mother-in-law won't say anything. Just admit it openly."

After saying that, she turned to her mother and said, "Second sister, people say, 'If you don't teach a child to steal a needle when he's young, he'll be shackled when he's old.' Children need to be taught, and we can't spoil them too much. Otherwise, when they go out in the future, even if they didn't take the things, people will say they stole them."

Upon hearing this, her mother flew into a rage and slapped her hard across the face, saying, "If you took it, then take it back right now. We are an honest and upright family. If we can afford it, we will eat it; if we can't afford it, we won't eat it. Even if we starve to death, we will not become like those thieves and pickpockets."

She was dizzy from her mother's slap, staggered, covered her face, and barely managed to stand up, saying, "I didn't take it, I didn't take it, I didn't take it even if you beat me to death!"

Her aunt sneered, "Of course you didn't take it, you ate it, it's all over your throat and ass right now."

Upon hearing this, her aunt's children clapped their hands and sang: "You little thief, you little rascal, you stole the Zhang family's dog. The Zhang family wants money, and the little thief is scared and running around in a panic."

Her mother got even angrier when she heard this. She puffed out her cheeks and tried to defend her, but then felt that all her defenses would be futile. So she grabbed her ear and dragged her home.

That day she was extremely resentful of her mother. Why didn't she believe her? Why did she beat her without even knowing the facts? She still remembers the humiliation and injustice of that day.

But afterwards, her mother said, "Poverty makes people lose their ambition, and a thin horse has long hair. People always have respect for the rich. No matter what they say or do, it's all right. Even if they just fart, everyone would want to hold it in their hands and say it smells sweet."

But people are always suspicious of the poor. If you are suspected or insulted because of poverty, no amount of explanation or crying will help. They will trample on you like dirt, calling you a thief, even if you aren't.

Ji Yongzhou didn't know why his mother was crying. Ignoring the tears on his own face, he raised his hands and gently wiped away the two lines of tears on Hu Xirong's face with his dirty little hands. He nodded vigorously and agreed, "Mother, I remember! I will never be greedy again. I will be an ambitious son!"

Hu Xirong smiled through her tears, nodded, and gently patted Ji Yongzhou's head, as if saying to Ji Yongzhou or to her past self, "Mother believes in you!"

Unbeknownst to her, the two lines of tears that streamed down her cheeks that day also touched the young heart of Ji Yongzhou. Many years later, even after Hu Xirong passed away, Ji Yongzhou would always remember the beating he had received that day and the tears his mother had shed.

Later, whenever he recalled how his mother would chase him around the yard, the threshing floor, and even the whole village with tree branches, fire sticks, and brooms, he would always say, "I really don't know if I ran too fast or if my mother didn't really want to beat me. The child who was beaten grew up, but the mother who beat the child turned to dust."

However, if Hu Xirong knew, she would definitely roll her eyes and say, "I really want to beat you, I want to beat you every day, and I want to beat you in different ways. It's really like raising two bandit kids, endless clothes to mend, endless lawsuits to settle, and endless hammering. They've finally grown up, and now I have to take care of my grandchildren, and it's all over again."