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

"Fine! You're afraid your parents and brothers will become farm laborers, but aren't you afraid my child and I will become farm laborers?" Ji Mantun became angrier as he spoke, took two steps forward, and roared with glaring eyes.

Zhao Yunxia was also angered by Ji Mantun's unusual attitude, and retorted, "If you want to be a farmhand, then go ahead! Who's stopping you? Your whole family can be one!"

A loud slap landed on Zhao Yunxia's face, so hard that she fell to the ground.

Zhao Yunxia seemed stunned and couldn't react for a moment. She lay on the ground, covering her face, staring blankly at Ji Mantun: "You hit me? You actually hit me? Are you really planning to disregard our more than ten years of marriage and divorce me?"

In truth, Ji Mantun was also in a daze after making the move. He looked at his hands, not knowing why he had just acted. However, hearing Zhao Yunxia's words, he curled his palms, exhaled the suppressed breath from his chest, and said in a muffled voice, "Yes!"

Zhao Yunxia immediately burst into tears, loudly questioning, "Ji Mantun! You're planning to divorce me for just one or two taels of silver? Am I not even worth one or two taels of silver?!"

Ji Mantun didn't answer for a long time before saying, "It's not about a tael of silver. It's about your heartlessness. You don't treat me like a husband and wife at all, and you don't treat this house like your own!"

Zhao Yunxia hurriedly got up from the ground, took two steps forward, grabbed Ji Mantun's arm, and cried, "Don't you care about me or the children? You divorced me, how will Yongbai and Yonghua hold their heads up in the village? How will Yongfei find a husband?"

Ji Mantun suddenly felt lost.

He had just seriously considered divorcing the woman in front of him. But... she was the mother of three children. His family, the Ji family, always valued its reputation. If he really divorced her, wouldn't the children hate him? Would they be able to hold their heads high in front of the villagers afterward?

Oh, child... that's your Achilles' heel!

The thought of his strong-willed children being unable to hold their heads high in the village because of their divorced mother made his chest ache.

Zhao Yunxia covered her face, sobbing uncontrollably: "Don't I treat you like a husband? Have I done even the slightest bit less work in this house? I, Zhao Yunxia, ​​aside from everything else, have you ever found fault with my needlework, cooking, or the crops in the fields? I only did one thing wrong, and you're going to divorce me? Were all your previous acts of tolerance just an act?"

Ji Mantun suddenly deflated like a punctured balloon, completely devoid of his previous rage. He sighed deeply and said in a desolate voice, "Haven't I been tolerating you all these years? My tolerance wasn't cowardice, but for the sake of this family! But what about you? You really don't care about the lives of this whole family at all!"

"You don't care about me, fine, but what about the children? You take all the money your whole family worked so hard for, fine, but at least leave some for the money my children and I earned carrying timber, risking our lives. You've taken it all; what are we supposed to do if something happens?"

Zhao Yunxia covered her face, tears welling up in her eyes. She choked out, "What can I do? What can I do? I am also my parents' child. My mother begged me, she almost knelt down. How can I bear to abandon them?"

Ji Mantun squatted down against the wall, sighed, and said, "It's not that I don't want you to help your family, but you have to do what you can. Think carefully about our family's situation... We have three children, and their weddings will cost a lot of money. This year's harvest is so-so, but what about next year and the year after?"

"If a famine strikes and we have no money at all, are you planning to let this whole family starve? This time the money isn't much, but you're not leaving anything for the family. Even if Yongbai and the others knew, wouldn't they be heartbroken?"

Hearing this, Zhao Yunxia felt a little nervous. She wiped away her tears, glanced at the courtyard gate, and said, "Father, just this once, just this once! I won't do it again. I will never give money to his maternal grandmother's family again."

Tomorrow I'll ask Ling'er if she has any needlework left. I'll definitely make up for the lost money. Please, I beg you, please don't mention this to Yongbai and the others."

Ji Mantun sighed, his chest heaving, and said, "It's harvest time now, and during the busy farming season, even the embroiderers have to go downstairs. Who will do your needlework? This time, the money is gone, but if it happens again, I won't care about the children's feelings. You can just ask to be divorced and go back to Zhao Family Village."

Zhao Yunxia covered her face, tears streaming down her face, and turned to go into the kitchen.

The courtyard was completely quiet.

During the meal, Ji Yongbai said, "The villagers made some money selling herbs a while ago, and my third and fourth uncles helped them. So this year, more families are buying meat, and they're buying more meat. When I came back, I saw that several families who were reluctant to buy meat in previous years after harvesting wheat were carrying back fatty pork."

Hearing his brother's words, Ji Yonghua's eyes lit up. He looked at Ji Mantun and asked, "Dad, aren't we going to buy some meat?"

Ji Mantun didn't say anything, but picked up another piece of chives with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth.

Ji Yongfei glanced at her father, then at her mother, pouted, and continued eating.

Ji Yonghua called out again, "Dad?"

Ji Mantun frowned and said, "We won't buy meat this year. We'll wait until we sell the rapeseed before buying meat."

Ji Yongbai tightened his grip on his chopsticks, glanced at his mother, and continued eating with his head down.

Ji Yonghua said unhappily, "Why? We've been working ourselves to the bone these days, harvesting wheat, can't we at least have some meat?"

Ji Mantun didn't speak, and Ji Yonghua looked at Zhao Yunxia again and asked, "Mom, why is your face swollen?"

Zhao Yunxia hurriedly brushed the hair down beside her face to cover it, and said, "It's nothing, I just tripped and fell."

"Bang!" Ji Yongbai slammed the bowl he was holding onto the table, stood up and said, "I'm full, I'm going to pull weeds in the field first!"

Ji Mantun sighed, put down his bowl, and looked at Ji Yongbai's back. He didn't know if his son had noticed that he had hit their mother, or if his son was blaming him.

Ji Yongbai strode toward the courtyard gate. As he passed the pile of firewood by the gate, he suddenly pulled out a split log and held it across his chest. With a "crack," the log, as thick as a baby's arm, broke in two.

The people in the courtyard all looked at Ji Yongbai in surprise.

Ji Yongbai forcefully threw the wood into the pile of firewood and walked out of the yard without looking back.

"elder brother--"

Ji Yonghua found Ji Yongbo squatting there in a daze under a tree by the ditch. Ji Yongbo turned around, saw that it was his younger brother, and said, "What brings you here?"

"Brother, do you blame Dad for hitting Mom, or do you blame Mom for taking all the money to her maternal grandmother's house?" Ji Yonghua asked, squatting down next to Ji Yongbai.