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

Ji Yongling shook his head.

She felt that Huo Zhiyuan's simple yet earnest, bamboo-like temperament was not something that could be cultivated in an ordinary wealthy family. It must have been nurtured by growing up in a scholarly family.

In such families, the path of life for boys is predetermined from birth: the imperial examinations. No matter how interested they may be in medicine and herbs, their elders will not approve of their choice.

Huo Zhiyuan felt a little uncomfortable under Ji Yongling's scrutiny, and asked with a slightly flushed face, "May I ask who your teacher is, young lady? May I pay them a visit?"

"No." Ji Yongling said, then turned to help Ji Manchuan tie up the mats.

Huo Zhiyuan choked: "Such a direct rejection? Miss, shouldn't you ask your master?"

"No need to ask," Ji Yongling said, sticking her head out from the side of the cart. "She's gone to heaven to become a goddess; I can't see her anymore."

"This—" Huo Zhiyuan twitched the corner of his mouth and said, "Girl, you're quite interesting."

Ji Yongling tied the rope, clapped his hands, walked around to Huo Zhiyuan and said, "I suppose your family doesn't want you to study medicine and make medicine either. Go back quickly. The road to studying medicine is very hard and long. It's not something that rich kids like you can do."

“Young lady, how can you say that? Healing the sick and saving lives, practicing medicine to help the world, is it only children from poor families who can learn it?” Huo Zhiyuan asked, sticking out his neck.

Ji Yongling looked at Huo Zhiyuan, smiled slightly, and said, "Scholars, farmers, artisans, merchants, doctors, diviners, astrologers, and so on—young master, you have your own path to take."

Huo Zhiyuan said angrily, "Young lady, as the sage said, 'If you cannot be a good prime minister, then be a good doctor.' You are also a medical student, how can you belittle the medical profession like this?"

Ji Yongling was taken aback. She suddenly recalled a saying that people often joked about in later generations: "Advising someone to study medicine is like being struck by lightning." As a professional who had been on the medical path for nearly ten years, how could she belittle the studies and career she once loved?

Ji Yongling gently shook her head and said slowly, "Young Master Huo, I am not belittling the medical profession, but I don't want you to have to make a difficult choice between your own heart and your parents' wishes."

Upon hearing this, Huo Zhiyuan calmed down slightly. He knew that his family would never allow a son of an official like him to pursue a career in medicine.

But he was unwilling to accept it.

He will never forget what his mother looked like before she passed away.

That day, his mother lay on the bed, her face pale, her body convulsing, her chest heaving violently from constant gasping, her wide-open eyes filled with terror.

Everyone stood by and watched her, waiting for her to take her last breath.

He was only three years old at the time and did not know what death was or the feeling of separation from loved ones.

He was held in his wet nurse's arms, who kept urging him to call her "Mother," which frightened him so much that he cried.

Although everyone says that three- or four-year-old children don't remember things, he remembered what his mother looked like before she died, and he still often dreams about her.

In his dream, his mother stared intently at him, breathing heavily as if expressing her resentment, but in the end, she slowly closed her eyes and breathed her last.

He wanted to find out exactly what illness his mother had back then, and also whether the illness was curable.

However, as the son of an official, he knew that his fate had already been decided and that he had to shoulder the expectations of his family, but the flame deep in his heart could never be extinguished.

Therefore, he wanted to seize every opportunity to learn more.

Huo Zhiyuan said in a low voice, "I don't necessarily want to become an expert. I just want to follow my heart and learn a little bit."

"You can go to the clinic and find a doctor to become my apprentice..."

"Well, uh..." Huo Zhiyuan was embarrassed and didn't know how to respond.

He couldn't very well say that all the doctors in the county clinic knew he wanted to study medicine and that they all avoided him, since his father was the county magistrate.

“Young lady, I could tell at a glance that the deer antler was fake, which shows your solid skills. If you don’t mind, could you leave your address? I would like to visit you when I have time,” Huo Zhiyuan said loudly, mustering his courage.

Ji Yongling "..."

Huo Zhiyuan looked to be only thirteen or fourteen years old.

Didn't the ancients say that children under six shouldn't sit at the same table, and children under seven shouldn't sit in the same hall, and that boys and girls should be kept strictly separate?

Although in the Northwest, due to the harassment of bandits and foreign tribes, villagers did not pay much attention to such formalities, asking each other's address upon meeting seemed too unbecoming of a scholar like Huo Zhiyuan.

Seeing that Ji Yongling remained silent, Huo Zhiyuan cautiously said, "I didn't mean anything by it, I really just wanted to come and ask for your advice."

Ji Yongling "..."

Ji Manchuan, on the other hand, was very enthusiastic and said with a smile, "If you don't mind that my family is poor, please feel free to come. My family is in Niujiazhuang. My name is Ji Manchuan. You can find out by asking around in Niujiazhuang."

Huo Zhiyuan bowed to Ji Manchuan with delight and said, "Thank you, Uncle. I will definitely visit you another day." After saying that, he ran off into the county town.

Ji Yongling shook his head speechlessly, putting the matter out of his mind.

After all, the passions of young people are always short-lived and fickle.

After packing up their stall, Ji Yongling and Ji Manchuan discussed buying things for their families.

The two first went to the cloth stall at the east end of the market and asked about the price of cotton, which turned out to be eighty coins per pound.

Ji Manchuan was stunned on the spot, his mouth agape, unable to utter a word.

Although his family didn't buy cotton every year, they still knew the general price; the highest price for cotton each year was no more than fifty coins.

Eighty coins, more expensive than grain.

Ji Yongling didn't know the previous price of cotton, but seeing Ji Manchuan's expression, she knew that eighty coins per catty was definitely more expensive than usual, so she said, "Shopkeeper, can you make it cheaper?"

The shopkeeper dusted off non-existent dust on the counter with a feather duster, smiled, and said, "Girl, it really can't be cheaper. This price is already very low. Our shop has been in the market for many years, and everyone knows that I never set a price here. To be honest, even though it's hot now, the price of cotton will rise again. I estimate that it could reach one or two hundred coins by winter."

"Shopkeeper, why is that?" Ji Yongling asked, frowning in confusion.

The shopkeeper sighed and said, "Merchants are all saying that there was a severe flood in Songjiang Prefecture in the south a while ago. Many houses were destroyed, crops were flooded, people were displaced, and many people starved to death. I heard from those people that the cotton and rice harvests in the south this year will be reduced by at least 50%."

Ji Yongling sighed inwardly. In ancient times, when productivity was low, people were powerless to cope with natural disasters, and these disasters were inevitably followed by human calamities.

The famine caused countless people to be displaced, a truly tragic situation.

"Then let's get thirty catties of cotton," Ji Yongling said after thinking for a moment.

"Buying so many?" Ji Manchuan came to his senses and asked in surprise.

For rural people who are extremely frugal, buying 30 jin of cotton would be an absolute waste of money.

Whose cotton-padded coat doesn't get stiff and smelly from wearing it all the time? And whose cotton quilt doesn't get tattered from being used all the time?

The blanket is as hard as iron; this is not just a casual remark.

Many families don't even have a decent quilt. Even those tattered cotton-padded jackets and quilts are only worth a few dollars at a pawnshop.

Buying thirty catties of cotton in one go is a luxury only a wealthy family would do.

"Dad, let's buy more now, otherwise the price will skyrocket later and we won't be able to afford it anymore. I see that the quilts on Grandpa and Grandma's bed are as hard as rocks, so let's buy more today to make a new quilt for them. Besides, we have a little sister this year, so we need to make an extra little jacket. Yongning and Yongzhou are growing so fast, their jackets from last year probably won't fit anymore. Anyway, we got some money from selling astragalus today, so let's make a new cotton-padded jacket for them all."

What Ji Yongling wanted to say was that if they didn't buy it now, they might not be able to buy it even if they had the money later. Although she had a large amount of cotton in her reserve warehouse, she couldn't just take it out casually.

Ji Manchuan pondered for a long time, gritted his teeth, and nodded in agreement.