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

During a break on the road, Ji Yongling demonstrated other uses for the telescopic baton, leaving Ji Manchuan speechless for a long time.

He lovingly stroked the dark stick, exclaiming, "My goodness, from which deity did your great-grandfather find this treasure? How can it be so magical?" As he spoke, he couldn't resist demonstrating its various functions before carefully putting it away and tucking it into the straw rope at his waist.

Like an old mother watching her child perform, Ji Yongling watched Ji Manchuan explore the various functions of the telescopic baton, then shook her head and smiled. She thought, if she showed her father every security weapon in the storage warehouse that was going to be shipped to Africa, she wondered how excited he would be.

Ji Manchuan put away the extendable baton and turned to Ji Yongling solemnly, saying, "I have to hide this treasure well. Tomorrow I'll make a case to cover it up so that no one else can see it and steal it from me. Then I'll have nowhere to cry. Especially your fourth uncle, you must not let him see it, otherwise it will be his in no time."

Ji Yongling was a little amused and nodded, saying, "Dad, don't worry about losing it, I still have more, and I'm not afraid that Fourth Uncle will want it. Of course, it's best not to let it fall into the eyes of those with ulterior motives, after all, one can't be too careful."

Ji Manchuan glared at his daughter and said, "That won't do. No matter how many there are, we have to hide them well. This material doesn't look like it's from around here. We're not afraid of thieves stealing it, but we're afraid of thieves eyeing it."

"Okay, okay, Dad, I'll do whatever you say."

It was already dark when we got back to Niujiazhuang.

From afar, a torch was seen burning brightly under the old locust tree at the village entrance. Upon closer inspection, it was Grandpa Ji standing under the tree, gazing in the direction he had come from.

Seeing that Ji Yongling and her father had returned late, Old Master Ji scolded, "Why did you two take so long! It's already dark, I was so worried about you."

Ji Manchuan grinned foolishly and said, "Dad, we sold astragalus for a good price today, and we also did something big, look—"

He pointed to the mule cart behind him, looking like he was showing off a treasure.

Grandpa Ji raised his torch, took two steps forward, examined the mule cart that Ji Yongling was leading, and asked, "Where did this mule cart come from? Who did you borrow it from?"

"Dad, let's go back first, I'll tell you the details on the way."

On the way, Ji Manchuan told the old man in detail how he met Li Tiezhu and his gang and how he got the mule cart. When he got excited, he even stopped and gestured a couple of times, making the old man not dare to breathe.

Only after Ji Manchuan finished speaking animatedly did Old Master Ji kick him in the butt.

"Dad, what's wrong?" Ji Manchuan asked, feeling wronged, after receiving a solid slap on the bottom.

Grandpa Ji glared at him angrily and said, "How old are you? It's one thing to disregard your own safety, but you dare to bring a child along? You're really something!"

"father--"

Ji Manchuan lowered his head, looking aggrieved, and weakly pulled the cart behind Grandpa Ji, completely devoid of his earlier joy.

When they arrived home, the family heard the commotion and knew that Ji Yongling and his daughter had finally returned. Ji Manqing quickly helped to remove the threshold, and Hu Xirong also got off the kang (a heated brick bed) and came out to help, slipping on her shoes.

While directing Ji Manqing to unload the things from the cart into the cave dwelling where she and Grandpa Ji lived, Yang walked towards the kitchen, intending to prepare some food for Ji Yongling and the other man.

Ji Manchuan quickly stopped Yang Shi and said, "Mother, don't make a fuss. Ling'er and I have finished all those vegetable dumplings, so we're not hungry."

Actually, on her way back from the market, Ji Yongling had taken some biscuits and beef jerky for herself and Ji Manchuan to fill their stomachs. Otherwise, those few low-calorie vegetable dumplings would have made them faint from hunger.

If you ask what the most unbearable thing is in this era, it's not dry toilets, not lack of water for bathing, and not tattered clothes, but hunger.

It seems that the people here have become accustomed to hunger, and that as long as they don't starve to death, going hungry every day is the most normal thing.

The Ji family was relatively well-off; they often had cornbread made from black flour, although they mostly ate vegetable dumplings. At least they wouldn't go hungry for three meals in one sitting, but that was only enough to keep them from starving to death.

Full? Not at all.

The hunger of this era is different from the hunger that modern people experience when they try to lose weight by not eating.

The hunger here refers to the burning sensation in one's stomach, the vomiting of acid reflux, and the gnawing at one's heart and liver; it is an illness caused by hunger.

Whenever Ji Yongling recalls how picky she used to be when eating, she wishes she could turn back time and slap herself.

If she were to return to the modern world and tell her colleagues and classmates that she was drooling over the slightly yellowed white steamed buns at the market, they would probably think she was crazy.

When Yang saw that Ji Manchuan insisted on not letting her prepare food, she gave up and the family settled down before going to sleep.

The second day was the liveliest day at Grandpa Ji's house.

The whole family got up early in the morning and kept circling around the mule cart, unable to get enough of it.

Everyone made Ji Manchuan recount the story of fighting the bandits over and over again. Ji Yongning and Ji Yongzhou listened with great enthusiasm, shouting "Hey, ha!" and gesturing wildly as if the bandits were right in front of them.

Ji Manqing cracked his knuckles and gritted his teeth, saying, "Third Brother, you should have let me go yesterday. If I had gone, I could have beaten a few more bastards to death."

Ji Manchuan patted Ji Manqing on the shoulder earnestly: "There will be other opportunities. Next time we meet, I'll catch one alive and give him a good beating."

Yang kicked Ji Manqing in the buttocks and cursed, "You're always hammering this person to death and that person to death, but I've never seen you hammer a single fly to death!"

“Mother—” Ji Manqing said, looking aggrieved.

Yang turned around and saw that it was already broad daylight, so she quickly called Hu Xirong, who was still touching the mule cart, to the kitchen.

Grandpa Ji continued to lovingly stroke the mule's neck, reluctant to move.

In fact, the Ji family used to raise cattle and donkeys, but due to some events, the cattle and donkeys were taken away by the county magistrate's brother-in-law. They haven't had the money to buy new ones in recent years, so they haven't raised them again.

Ji Manqing conscientiously cleaned up the shed where cattle and donkeys used to be kept, preparing to make a home for the mules. The two little ones, Ji Yongning and Ji Yongzhou, pestered Ji Manchuan, wanting to learn how to ride a mule.

Ji Manchuan casually brushed it off and even tricked the two younger ones into cutting grass for the mules.

Ji Yongling lay on the edge of Jia Ronghua's kang (heated brick bed), looking at Xiao Yong'an, and recounted what she had seen and heard at the market yesterday. She then took out some folded white cotton cloth from the storage warehouse and asked her to make some small clothes for Xiao Yong'an to wear.

Actually, the storage room contains some regular, ordinary clothes for all four seasons, as well as some suitable for infants and young children, but these are not suitable for immediate use.

These white cotton sheets are not actually fabric, but bed sheets and duvet covers, which are medical supplies. This is because clothing in later generations is mostly ready-made, and unless custom-made, it rarely requires fabric to be made.

Although they are bed sheets and duvet covers, their softness and fineness far surpass those of coarse linen that I wove myself.

Jia Ronghua lovingly touched the cloth in her hand. She knew that Ji Yongling had taken it out of the "Heavenly Granary," but she still couldn't help but ask, "Ling'er, how did you weave this? It looks so dense and soft. It's really nice."

Of course, Ji Yongling couldn't say that this kind of clothing couldn't be woven in this day and age. She could only make up an excuse: "Mother made some clothes for my sister to wear. If anyone else asks, just say that I bought them from a merchant in the south."

“Yes, take less stuff from ‘Tiancang’ in the future. Every piece of this stuff is one less available. Keep this precious treasure for yourself. You can keep it as a safety net when you leave home,” Jia Ronghua said earnestly.

Ji Yongling was speechless. She was so young, and her mother was already thinking about getting her married?

She knew that there was a custom of self-combing in ancient southern China, but she didn't know if it existed in the north.