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

Although her body's instincts allowed her to quickly adapt to life here, including her speech and behavior, it was as if she were the ancient Ji Yongling.

However, when it comes to the medical field, her deeply ingrained academic mindset takes over, as if she were still the Ji Yongling from later generations who saved lives in the hospital.

She repeatedly told herself, "This is ancient times, this is ancient times, this is a centralized era where imperial power was supreme and the landlord class was the basis of rule."

.......

Before we knew it, the Dragon Boat Festival had arrived.

On the day of the Dragon Boat Festival in May, before dawn, Yang and the others had already gotten off their kang (heated brick bed), swept the courtyard, and cleaned and dusted the various cave dwellings.

Grandpa Ji hung fresh mugwort leaves and willow twigs on the doorframes of each cave dwelling, and even the pigsty received the same treatment.

Yang took out realgar and sprinkled it on the "shuahuozi" (fragrant sachets) and the colorful rope, and then put them on each of her children.

Although life may not be wealthy, we should still have good hopes. Wearing a "shuahuozi" (a type of amulet) is a way to ward off evil and bring good fortune, protecting children so they can grow up healthy and safe—a simple and traditional practice.

The two brothers, Ji Yongling and Ji Yongning, were considered big kids. Apart from the colorful ropes they wore on their ankles and wrists, Yang had only hung a few different-sized and different-shaped "playthings" in the shape of toads, rats, and snakes on their chests.

The two children, Ji Yong'an and Ji Yongru, were favored and cared for. Their clothes were decorated with models of various beasts, insects, and birds, symbolizing their immunity to all poisons.

Ji Yongru carried a whole set of "show-off clothes" on her back, showing them off to this person and that person. Her pursed lips and upturned chin made her look absolutely stunning.

As the eldest daughter, Ji Yongling also received an extra "Five Poisons" bellyband, which was embroidered with five poisonous insects: snake, centipede, scorpion, centipede, and toad, symbolizing warding off evil spirits.

Although she wouldn't wear this bellyband, it didn't stop her from appreciating it. These five poisonous insects weren't like the flat embroidery of later generations; they were all made by shaping "rags" into the shape of poisonous insects and then embroidering them on, so they were very three-dimensional.

The Dragon Boat Festival here is unlike that in the south. There are no lively dragon boat races, no gongs and drums, and no strict ancestral worship. But the village children have a light patch of realgar smeared on their foreheads and behind their ears, colorful ropes on their hands and feet, and "playthings" with a strong herbal scent hanging from their bodies. Running around the village is another kind of liveliness.

Because of the festival, the Ji family finally got to eat something other than wild vegetable dumplings, potato dumplings, dough dumplings, wild vegetable porridge, and dough paste—yellow millet rice.

This yellow millet rice is similar to the zongzi of later generations. However, since rice is not produced in the north and glutinous rice is very expensive nowadays, ordinary families no longer make zongzi and use the refreshing and delicious rice instead.

This braised rice is made from millet, a type of crop. It's very sticky and sweet, and the Yang family generously poured some honey on top, making it cool and sweet. The only difference between this rice dumpling and the rice dumplings of later generations is the aroma of the bamboo leaves.

Although the yellow millet rice was only a large bowl, and the whole family finished it in just a couple of bites, everyone was still very satisfied with the meal.

In addition, Ji Yongling has two extra fried eggs today, because it's her tenth birthday. After today, according to the local calculation method, her official age will be twelve (by Chinese reckoning).

Speaking of this age calculation method, it really made Ji Yongling laugh and cry. She was clearly only ten years old, but her family said that she would be added a year after the New Year, and then another year after the "Year After Year" festival, so she would be twelve.

Twelve it is, anyway, her core is almost thirty.

This reminded her of a time when she was on a house call and encountered a grandmother holding a baby who was only a few months old. She asked the grandmother how old the baby was, and the grandmother said two years old. Looking at the child who could barely sit up, she asked speechlessly how the age was calculated. The grandmother said, "It counts as one year old in the mother's womb. It just passed the New Year, and it grew another year, so it's two years old. There's nothing wrong with that."

The whole family looked at Ji Yongling with smiles, waiting for her to eat the poached egg. Ji Yongru, in particular, said with bright eyes, "Sister Ling'er, I found this egg in the chicken coop on the wall yesterday. It was still covered in chicken droppings, so I wiped it clean with grass and saved it especially for you."

Ji Yongling knew that eggs were expensive these days, and most families would raise chickens to lay eggs but wouldn't eat them themselves; they would save them to sell for money to buy salt.

She felt as if the chopsticks in her hands were a ton of weight, and she couldn't get the egg into her mouth no matter what she did. She put down the chopsticks and said, "Ru'er, you can have this egg. I don't want to eat eggs."

Ji Yongru shook her head vigorously: "Eggs are so delicious, how could you not want to eat them? I have some too, look!"

As she spoke, Ji Yongru took a hard-boiled egg out of her clothes with her chubby little hands. The egg seemed to be a little hot, so she quickly put it on the table and blew on her little hands.

Madam Yang smiled and said, "Eat up. Today is your birthday, so you must eat this egg. I also cooked an egg for Yongning and the others."

Grandpa Ji also said, "You are a lucky child, born at this time, when the summer harvest is coming soon, so you won't have to worry about going hungry. Some children are born during the lean season, and they really can't survive."

Once the Dragon Boat Festival is over, the summer solstice will arrive.

The summer solstice is the iconic time for harvesting wheat here. There is a farming proverb that says: "Summer solstice, summer solstice, wheat cannot survive!"

A few days ago, Ji Manchuan and Ji Manqing went to Chuanli to help their older sister Ji Shuicao harvest wheat. When they came back, they had lost a lot of weight and were tanned a deep red.

In this era, poor farmers lacked labor and animal power. During the busy farming season, harvesting, planting, threshing, and threshing were fraught with difficulties. As a result, people took advantage of the differences in the ripening time of wheat in different regions and formed the production custom of "exchanging jobs" (also called exchanging labor) in the plateau and river valleys.

The low-lying plains produce wheat that ripens early, while the high-lying plateaus produce wheat that ripens late. Therefore, people in both plains and plateaus help each other and neighbors work together to harvest the wheat as quickly as possible without missing the farming season.

However, this year, Grandpa Ji only allowed Ji Manchuan and Ji Manqing to help at Ji Shuicao's house, but did not allow Yu Fengshou and his son to come to the plateau to return the work, because Yu Fengshou had been sick some time ago, and Grandpa Ji was worried that harvesting wheat continuously would exhaust him again.

Yesterday, Ji Manchuan and Ji Manqing had just returned from Sichuan, and today Ji Manqing was sent to buy meat and tofu.

Because the wheat harvest is followed by the autumn planting, the rush to harvest and plant is the busiest, most tiring, and most physically demanding time, and also the time when people need the most food and oil. No matter how reluctant they are to spend money normally, they will tighten their belts at this time to prepare some good food and oil to get through this most difficult season.

However, many farmers still cannot afford meat or have no meat to eat, so after a summer harvest, several people in a village will always fall ill.

The Ji family had some income this year, and this time Madam Yang was very generous. She casually took out a large handful of silver and stuffed it into Ji Manqing's arms, telling him to use it all to buy meat.