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

In this era of scarcity, everything had to be saved.

For example, when cooking, the stems and leaves of crops such as corn stalks and wheat straw are mostly used as firewood; small dead branches are used as firewood, usually for heating the kang (a heated brick bed); the wood split from tree trunks is called hardwood, which is usually not burned, but can be saved and carried to the county to sell.

The cave dwelling used as a kitchen by the Ji family is dark and dimly lit because it has been used for a long time and is mainly used for burning firewood.

Ji Yongling filled the firewood with straw, gently pulled the bellows a few times, and slowly sent air into the stove. The flames at the bottom of the pot popped up and excitedly licked the bottom of the pot with their tongues.

These clusters of red and yellow flames rose and fell, flickering and burning, making the whole kitchen even hotter.

Yang's forehead was covered in sweat as she washed and chopped, the sound of the wind whipping things up creating a lively symphony.

Before long, Old Master Ji led the mule and entered the courtyard one after the other with Ji Manchuan and Ji Manqing.

When Hu Xirong saw the men return, she came into the kitchen to help. She looked at Yang Shi carefully and took over the work from Yang Shi's hands in an extremely ingratiating manner.

As soon as Grandpa Ji entered the courtyard, he saw Brother Hu Xirong and asked Ji Manchuan to tie up the mule, while he and Ji Manqing came over to wash their hands and greet him.

Hu Xirong had already stood up when Grandpa Ji entered the courtyard. He was awkwardly rubbing the corner of his clothes. When he saw Grandpa Ji coming over, he shrugged and called out "Uncle Ji" apologetically. He then nudged his son next to him, telling him to greet him.

Grandpa Ji shook the water off his hands, wiped it on his clothes, glanced at the burlap sack in Brother Hu Xirong's hand, took out his pipe, filled it with tobacco leaves, and said, "Is the family out of food again?"

Hu Xirong was extremely embarrassed. After stammering for a while, he finally said with a red face, "Yes." After saying that, he lowered his head even further.

He had prepared a lot of things to say before he came, and even planned to have his son kneel down and kowtow to beg for help. He never expected that Old Master Ji would be so direct and ask the question as soon as they met.

Hu Xirong also stopped what she was doing, carefully peered out from the kitchen door frame, and pricked up her ears. However, before she could hear the next sentence from Old Master Ji, she was angrily pulled away by Madam Yang.

Grandpa Ji took a puff of his pipe and said, "Let's eat first, then we'll talk."

During the meal, Hu Xirong and his son held their bowls, hunched their shoulders, and only dared to shovel rice into their mouths, not daring to make a sound.

During the lean season when food is scarce, every family is poor, and it is very common for relatives to borrow grain from each other.

Everyone ate quietly, and even the younger ones didn't dare to make a sound. The only sounds during the meal were chewing and slurping soup.

After finishing his meal, Grandpa Ji said to Ji Manqing, "Go and scoop out half a bag of flour for your brother-in-law, and then fill it with half a bag of beans."

Upon hearing this, Hu Xirong's eyes immediately welled up with tears.

Hu Xirong knew that this was the second time her elder brother had come to borrow grain this year. No one had enough to eat, and the Ji family was eating all sorts of vegetable scraps mixed with potatoes stored in the cellar every day.

Ji Yongzhou and Ji Yongning said yesterday that they eat potatoes every day, so much so that even their farts smell like potatoes.

She truly didn't expect that Old Master Ji would agree to lend her brother grain again.

Yang stared intently at Old Master Ji, her eyebrows furrowed, her mouth opened and closed, but she gritted her teeth and ultimately said nothing.

What she really wanted to say was, "We can't lend it. We don't even have enough to eat at home. The wheat isn't even ripe yet, and with the addition of another baby, we might not be able to make it through."

But since Grandpa Ji had already spoken, what could she say? Would she lose face as a daughter-in-law, or offend her in-laws?

Hu Xirong wiped his eyes with his rough hands and said to Grandpa Ji, "Uncle Ji, we really can't make ends meet anymore. We had no other choice but to swallow our pride and come to your door. We've been eating very sparingly the grain we borrowed last time, but with so many people in the family, it's really not enough. In fact, the grain jars were empty half a month ago, and the potatoes in the cellar are all gone." As he spoke, tears streamed down his face.

Hu Xirong's eldest brother's family has five children, the eldest of whom is the one they brought along, along with Hu Xirong's parents. However, they only own fifteen mu of land in total. Hu Xirong's father broke his leg last year while carrying wood in a mountain gully and has been unable to do heavy work since.

Ji Yongling lowered his head upon hearing this.

You don't know how precious food is until you've experienced hunger, and you don't know how difficult it is to ask for help until you've borrowed food.

In ancient times, when productivity was extremely low, agricultural production relied entirely on manual labor. Coupled with the poor soil fertility, land output was very low, and at least five acres of land were needed to feed one person.

Therefore, among the rural people who have lived and thrived on this land, those who have never borrowed grain are extremely rare.

The Ji family had borrowed grain before, so they knew it took a lot of courage. Unless they were truly desperate, no one would be willing to humbly knock on the doors of relatives or neighbors.

When Ji Manqing came out carrying the flour bag, Hu Xirong pulled her son down to kneel down and kowtowed several times to the old man.

"Borrow grain! It's grain to tide you over the famine, and it will save your whole family's lives!"

Everyone born on this land has heard this saying: What an immense favor it is to lend grain during times of famine!

Hu Xirong was also in tears. She knelt down and called out "Father, Mother" several times, banging her head back and forth.

Madam Yang sighed and asked Ji Manqing to help his wife up.

After seeing off Brother Hu Xirong, the family gathered under the apple tree in silence.

Hu Xirong silently got up, took out two feet of red cloth from her dowry cabinet, and went to Jia Ronghua's side. When she came out, her eyes were red.

She wasn't unreasonable; otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to live peacefully with Jia Ronghua in the same courtyard for so many years. Today, when her eldest brother came to borrow grain, she was genuinely grateful to Old Master Ji, and also to her third brother and sister-in-law for their understanding.

Although both families were poor, her family was even worse off than Jia Ronghua's.

Although they hadn't separated their households, her elder brother had come to borrow grain twice, which was enough to make her lose face. She was also sensible and knew how to repay kindness. She planned to use the fabric that Yang had given her to make clothes for the old couple, and also took some scraps of fabric that she had collected when Ji Yongru was a month old, to send to Jia Ronghua to thank her for not holding her brother's borrowing of grain against her.

In the evening, Grandpa Ji went to the village head's house and briefly told him about Ji Manqing's encounter with bandits, and also asked about the situation in the surrounding villages.

The village head said he hadn't heard anything unusual about the surrounding villages recently, nor had he heard any rumors about bandits.

Grandpa Ji was finally relieved. He figured that the bandits Ji Manchuan had encountered were just that small group and that there were no other accomplices. He told everyone when he got home, and the whole family was finally at ease.

Ji Manchuan couldn't stay idle, so he caught some grasshoppers and other insects from the alfalfa field, and together with a few children, strung them together with straw stalks and roasted them in the ashes of the stove.

In just a few minutes, the grasshoppers were roasted until they were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Their outer wings had been burned off, revealing their yellow skin and tender flesh. The aroma was so tempting that the children cried out in delight.

Before going to bed that night, Ji Yongling took some pregnancy supplements from the storage room and gave them to Jia Ronghua, hoping that she could have a healthy postpartum period.