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

In the evening, Grandpa Ji and Mrs. Yang were making fire ropes under the apple tree in the yard. Fire ropes are actually ropes made of dried mugwort, but they are not used to tie things up. Instead, they are dried in the shade and then lit to repel mosquitoes. Of course, they can also be used to start a fire. They can be said to be an essential item for families in Northwest China.

Just like now, fire ropes have been lit in several of the cave dwellings where people live, to ward off mosquitoes before going to bed.

The twinkling lights of the fuse, like fireflies, shone through the windowpane, bringing a sense of warmth.

Ji Yongling went over to help rub the mugwort. Just as she picked up a stalk of mugwort, she suddenly remembered something the owner of the pharmacy had said: "The Songjiang Prefecture area in the south suffered from floods some time ago."

After a great disaster there will be a great epidemic.

Therefore, medicinal herbs must be in high demand.

This humble mugwort is a powerful remedy for disease prevention, with a history of thousands of years. Even during pandemics in later generations, it remains indispensable. Of course, in later generations, mugwort has been used in a hundred and one ways, such as moxibustion, mugwort foot baths, and mugwort fumigation, which are extremely common.

Artemisia is abundant in Ningping County and can be harvested and used immediately. In addition to dried artemisia leaves, every household has at least dozens of kilograms of twisted fire rope.

Of course, besides mugwort, there are many other medicinal herbs in the mountain gullies near Niujiazhuang. However, some herbs are very cheap and can be dug up by every household, so the demand from pharmacies is not very high, and they cannot be sold.

However, people would often gather some themselves, clean them, and store them properly. Sometimes when they were sick, they could simply boil some themselves, or borrow a few herbs from various households that they didn't have according to the doctor's prescription, so they wouldn't have to spend money on medicine.

However, with the floods in the south, the demand for even these inexpensive medicinal herbs will be very high.

As Ji Yongling rubbed the tinder, he thought about how he should go to the county pharmacy to ask about it the next day.

At this moment, the courtyard gate was pushed open, and Ji Mantun and his eldest son Ji Yongbai carried in grain.

"Father—" Ji Mantun put down the grain on his back and knelt down in front of Old Master Ji with a "thump".

"What's going on? Get up!"

“Father, my wife was blinded by greed. We have enough to eat, so I will return this grain to you.” Ji Mantun remained kneeling, his voice filled with self-reproach.

“Mantun, your family is about to run out of food, why didn’t you say so sooner! You’ve always been able to endure hardship since you were little, and you never want to talk to your elders about anything. Now you’re such a grown-up, and you’re still forcing yourself like this. It’s so hard for me as your father!” As he spoke, Grandpa Ji’s dry eyes welled up with tears. “Even if Yongbai’s mother hadn’t come to tell me, if I had known, I would never have watched you suffer like this!”

Ji Mantun's eyes also welled up with tears.

During the day, he took Ji Yongbai to carry timber for a wealthy man in the next village. Although it was called carrying timber, it actually involved cutting and felling. When they finally got to the wealthy man's house, a piece of timber as thick as a bowl only cost fifteen coins, and everyone was still eager to do it.

When he got home in the evening, he heard that the old courtyard had delivered grain. After asking around, he learned the reason and immediately carried the grain over.

Because he had never been to school, Ji Mantun always felt inferior to Zhao Yunxia, ​​believing that she was a young lady from a scholarly family who had married down to him. Therefore, he let Zhao Yunxia make all the decisions at home.

But he cannot tolerate what happened today.

During the lean season, when every household's flour jars were empty, how could his parents' large family, with so many mouths to feed, old and young, possibly survive the famine?

Ji Manchuan quickly pulled Ji Mantun and said, "Second brother, I saved a benefactor a couple of days ago. He gave me a mule cart and some grain. So we have food at home. Take this back with you. Yongbai and the others are growing up. You can't neglect the children even if you're short of money yourself."

Ji Mantun stood up, patted the dirt off his knees, and sat down on a small stool. He said, "Manchuan, you can't say that. What a benefactor gives you is yours. Just because someone gave it to you doesn't mean you have to give it to me. That's not how it works."

“Second brother, have you forgotten how we used to be when we were kids? You took me and Manqing to work in the fields before the rooster crowed, our shoes soaked with dew. Manqing’s buttocks were swollen from a snake bite for almost half a month. We’d grind grain together in the middle of the night, and the fourth brother would doze off and fall asleep on the millstone. What did we say back then? We said we’d work hard together, eat our fill together, and eat white flour buns every day.” Ji Manchuan said, tears glistening in his eyes. “Now you’re starving and about to faint. How can I, as your younger brother, feel good about this? If you don’t take this grain back, you won’t have a third brother like me anymore.”

Ji Manqing was initially moved to tears by what was said, but when he heard Ji Manchuan say in front of everyone that he had been bitten on the butt by a snake, his sadness immediately vanished, and he said unhappily, "Back then, you were bending over so you could pick up more potatoes. Every time you said you'd roast potatoes for me when you got back, you ended up steaming them instead, and you even said that roasted potatoes had too thick skins and were a waste!"

"You're just making things up like a bald man's head, you can't even talk properly! And you're blaming people for fooling you."

"Second brother, look, this is how my third brother coaxed me into growing up!"

"I'm lying to you? You have no conscience. Have you forgotten who used to rub garlic on your groin every day? If it weren't for me rubbing it on your groin, you wouldn't have gotten better for half a month."

Ji Mantun was amused by his two younger brothers and said, "Alright, I'll take these grains back first, consider it a loan."

"Second Brother, now that you mention borrowing, I remember I still owe you three hundred coins. I'll have Ling'er give them to you later," Ji Manchuan said, slapping his forehead.

On the other side of Ningping County, Zhao Yunxia's family was also struggling to make a living.

Although Zhao Yunxia's father was a student who had passed the imperial examinations, he never passed the county-level examinations. He had spent many years studying, which had drained the family's savings. His health had always been poor, and this year he fell seriously ill. In order to treat Zhao's father, they sold several acres of land, and the family's food reserves were almost gone.

Zhao's mother sat under the lamp, mending tattered clothes while sighing.

"Mom, what's wrong?" Zhao Yunxia's younger brother walked into the house and asked when he saw his mother's worried face.

"The flour jar at home is almost empty, and the remaining grain probably won't be enough to feed us," Zhao's mother sighed.

"What should we do then? Are we going to borrow grain from the rich man's house too?" Zhao Yunxia's younger brother felt a pang of anxiety. He knew that the interest rate for borrowing grain from the rich man's house was terrifyingly high, and he would never borrow grain from the rich man's house if he had any other choice.

"Sigh, let your father think of another way. But your eldest and second eldest sisters are short of food, where are we going to borrow from?" Zhao's mother shook her head and said.

The next day, Ji Yongling was taken by Ji Manchuan to the Ji family's old graves early in the morning. It was actually just a few simple mounds of earth on a barren slope, without tombstones or weeds. The yellow soil on the mounds was dry and cracked.

Ji Manchuan took out two black steamed buns from his pocket and placed them in front of the grave. He then took out a stack of yellow paper treasured at home, separated them one by one, lit them, and kept muttering words of thanks and blessings.

Following Ji Manchuan's instructions, Ji Yongling lit three incense sticks, kowtowed three times respectfully, and silently prayed that the old man she had never met before would not blame her.

Ji Manchuan talked on and on about the grave mound for a long time. Before leaving, he put the two nests back in his pocket and then took Ji Yongling back.

Ji Yongling thought to himself, "Can this sacrificial offering be brought back?"

But thinking about it, it makes sense. In an era when there wasn't enough food for the living, why would we feed the dead?