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

"A hanged ghost putting on powder before going into the coffin, still trying to save face!" Ji Manqing muttered angrily, abruptly putting down the wooden stick used to lift the scales. The sack landed heavily on the ground, raising a cloud of yellow dust.

Ji Manchuan glared at him and said, "You have so many rhymes to recite every day, are you trying to pass the imperial examination?"

"What a load of crap! If I could pass the imperial examination, would I still be stuck in this Niujiazhuang, eating nothing but vegetable dumplings, vegetable porridge, and vegetable chunks every day, making my mouth water?"

"You talk the most, get to work."

Ji Yongling paid no attention to his father's and fourth uncle's feelings. He calculated the money by weight and handed 422 coins to Zhao Yunxia's mother.

Old Lady Zhao carefully took the money, wrapped it in her handkerchief, smiled happily at Ji Yongling, and hurriedly said, "Oh my, Ling'er is such a clever girl. She can do accounting and business at such a young age. Your Ji family has taught her children very well."

Seeing that his family's mugwort had been sold, Zhao Xiaodi blushed awkwardly, tugged at his mother's clothes, and said, "Mom, let's go home early. Dad is still waiting for us at home."

Old Lady Zhao quickly stood up, smiling broadly, and said, "Then you two go ahead with your work, we'll head back now. Thank you so much this time, thank you so much!"

Watching Zhao Yunxia walk out of the courtyard with her mother and younger brother, Grandpa Ji said to Ji Yongling, "Ling'er, keep the mugwort from your grandmother's house for your own use. Let your grandmother calculate the cost for you."

"No need, Father." "No need, Grandpa," Ji Yongling and her father said in unison.

Grandpa Ji looked at the bags of mugwort in the courtyard and said in a deep voice, "These are extras. We can't force them to be sold to Manager Ma. There's no reason to do that. Consider them as something your grandmother and I bought. Keep them at home for our own use."

Ji Yongling shook his head and said seriously, "Grandpa, we don't need all of these. I have other uses for these mugwort leaves."

In fact, when Zhao Yunxia mentioned that her mother wanted to bring mugwort leaves, Ji Yongling began to consider whether she could process the herbs. Although she didn't study traditional Chinese medicine, her grandparents liked to tinker with herbs in the village when they had nothing to do. In addition, when she was doing her postgraduate studies, several research groups in her college focused on traditional Chinese medicine, so she was often pulled in to help her classmates and doctoral students with their work.

She had looked around and found that there were many medicinal herbs in the mountain gullies around Niujiazhuang, but they were all common herbs, with almost no precious herbs, and no one usually collected them.

The reason why the mugwort was able to sell for three copper coins a pound this time was mainly because of the floods in the south, and Manager Ma needed it urgently. Normally, this much mugwort would mostly end up in the stove or at the bottom of the pot.

"Ling'er, do you have another idea? You must be planning to make money again! Oh my, how does this girl's brain work? It's so clever!" Hu Xirong had already started dreaming of making money and getting rich.

"Grandpa, Grandma, look what I found!" Ji Yongning, standing at the gate of the courtyard, held up a lump of cow dung and looked at everyone in the courtyard with a pleading expression.

The smile on Hu Xirong's face vanished instantly. She grabbed the broom beside her and stormed out of the courtyard.

Ji Manqing called out from behind, "Hey, hey—don't hit the kid. It's good that the kid picked up cow dung. He's good at managing his resources."

When Ji Yongning saw Hu Xirong come out, he ran into the yard in a flash, hid behind Grandpa Ji, and said in a wronged tone, "Grandpa, I had to fight with Gou Dan for this cow dung. I finally won, and this cow dung is mine."

Hu Xirong returned to the courtyard, still gripping the broom handle, and roared, "You still have the nerve to say that? Look at your clothes! They're covered in cow dung, and the front of the shirt I just patched for you a few days ago is torn again. Do you think I sell cloth? Where am I going to get so much cloth to patch your clothes every day!" With that, she circled around Ji Yongning, ready to hit him.

"Sir, help! Help!"

Ji Manqing grabbed his eldest son and asked, "This cow dung isn't from your village head's cow, is it? You should return it right away."

"No, I asked around, and my village head said his cow didn't go to the west side of the hill," Ji Yongning explained.

Just as Hu Xirong's broom was about to fly over, Ji Manqing grabbed his son and jumped to dodge, catching the broom in one swift motion. He said, "Alright, alright, the kid meant well, thinking of adding some manure to the house. If his clothes are dirty, he can just wash them, and if they're torn, he can just mend them!"

"You make it sound so easy. Go wash it, go mend it."

Ji Manqing touched his nose, kicked Ji Yongning lightly in the buttocks, and said, "Look, it's all your fault. Hurry up and put the cow dung in the latrine."

Ji Yongning obediently carried the pile of cow dung away.

Ji Yongling found it both funny and heartbreaking. In this era, cow dung and sheep dung on the road were considered valuable treasures. Picking up cow dung was like finding money.

After failing to beat her son, Hu Xirong turned to Ji Yongru, who was sitting under a tree sucking her thumb, and yelled, "How old are you? Still sucking your fingers? I'll chop them off if you do it again. Learn from your sister Ling'er, don't just think about eating with your brain!"

Ji Yongling instantly felt like she was someone else's child. She said, half-laughing and half-crying, "Fourth Aunt, if you keep saying this about me in front of my younger siblings, it will make them hate me. They will definitely dislike me in the future."

Hu Xirong raised her eyebrows: "They dare!"

Yang glared at Hu Xirong and said, "Your fourth aunt is like someone who drinks liquor while wearing a fur coat—it's all about profit, don't pay her any mind. Ling'er, how could you possibly know that you have other uses for these mugwort leaves? What do you mean by that? Look how anxious Grandma is, afraid that these hundreds of pounds of mugwort leaves will just sit in her hands."

Seeing that everyone was looking at her, Ji Yongling said, "I plan to make some mugwort floss from these leftover mugwort leaves."

"What is this mugwort floss? I've never heard of it before," Yang asked.

"This moxa floss is similar to the moxa sticks we make. Except we don't use the stems, only the leaves. We crush them with a stone pestle, then use a fine sieve to remove dust and dregs, until it becomes soft and mushy like cotton. That's moxa floss," Ji Yongling explained.

"This is quite laborious. I wonder if the yield of wool will be high after all the hard work?" Ji Manqing frowned.

"It depends on whether you want coarse or fine down. I only saw coarse down being sold at the pharmacy the other day. I don't know if they have fine down. I'll ask again when I go to the pharmacy tomorrow," Ji Yongling replied.

Grandpa Ji took a puff of his pipe and said, "Tomorrow, you and your father can ask around and we'll discuss it further. There's no rush, and the mugwort won't spoil."

Madam Yang then asked, "Ling'er, can this moxa wool you're talking about really be sold? No one in our family practices medicine, so how can we sell this moxa wool? We don't want to lose our investment in the end."

Ji Yongqing chimed in, "That's right. What if people don't believe in the things we farmers make? We'll lose everything."

Ji Yongling smiled and said, "No one in our family used to practice medicine, but now I'm the inheritor of Granny Liu's craft. Not only can we make moxa wool, but we can also make other medicinal powders and pills, and even grow herbs..."

"God of Heavenly Light, what did you say? Growing herbs? These herbs can be grown?" Hu Xirong exclaimed in surprise.