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

Remembering that the Northwest was an important medicinal herb producing area in later generations, but now the people here even have difficulty getting a full meal, Ji Yongling said what he knew and could say: "Our Northwest region has a dry climate, plenty of sunshine, and a large temperature difference between day and night. It is actually very suitable for the accumulation of medicinal components in herbs, especially for planting some precious root and rhizome herbs. Angelica, Codonopsis, licorice, and rhubarb can all be grown here."

Madam Yang asked, "Did Granny Liu tell you this? Oh dear, what a pity for that old woman. She was such a capable person. Why didn't God let her live a few more years? It's true that good people don't live long, while evil people live for a thousand years."

Grandpa Ji sighed, "Child, don't even think about medicinal herbs. It's too far-fetched. We farmers can't even feed ourselves properly by cultivating dozens of acres of land. Where would we find spare land to grow medicinal herbs? It's just wishful thinking."

Ji Manchuan said, "Father, I think Ling'er makes sense. Look, we sold over twenty taels of astragalus last time. If we grow astragalus, wouldn't it be more profitable than growing crops?"

Grandpa Ji said seriously, "We are farmers, farming is our duty. We must do our duty. Besides, what else can we do besides farming? Farming may not make money, but at least we have food to eat! If we don't farm, what else can we grow? Only by selling it can we make money. What if we can't sell it?"

Ji Yongling understood the farmers' deep attachment to the land. Thousands of years of agricultural culture had deeply rooted the land in the hearts of farmers. The land was the lifeblood of farmers; it was their most important existence. People could not live without the land. The land was the starting point and destination of all farmers' lives, as well as the sole sustenance of their lives and the pillar of their survival.

Therefore, it is essential to cultivate the land and grow crops. This is the lifelong pursuit of farmers like Grandpa Ji who live on this land.

Exhausted from a long day, Ji Yongling lay on the kang (a heated brick bed), thinking about the mugwort. The crickets outside kept chirping, which was quite annoying. Suddenly, Ji Yongling felt an itch on his scalp. He scratched it vigorously, but the more he scratched, the itchier it became. Then, his whole body started to itch as well.

Unable to bear the itch any longer, she got up, lit the oil lamp, took off her undergarment, and looked under the dim light. Her scalp itched even more. She saw that the seams of her clothes were covered with countless black lice crawling back and forth, along with clumps of white nits (lice eggs).

Ji Yongling is going crazy, she's going insane.

In her past life, when she borrowed money from her best friend to buy a house, she joked, "If you have too many lice, they won't bite; if you have too many debts, you won't pay them back." But now, having too many lice is really itchy, so itchy that she feels like she's being drained of her blood by these lice.

She jumped off the kang (a heated brick bed); she was going to kill the lice!

She immediately rushed into the storage warehouse to find lice-killing medicine, but unfortunately, in the modern world she lived in, very few people had lice, and many pharmaceutical companies no longer produced the relevant drugs. In the end, she only found sulfur ointment in the medicine warehouse.

After frantically applying medicine to his body and scalp, Ji Yongling began silently squeezing lice under the oil lamp.

She felt like a beggar squatting against a wall, picking lice. She pinched a louse, squeezed it hard with her two thumbnails, and with a crisp "snap," the louse was crushed into a bloody mess.

The oil lamp blackened Ji Yongling's nose and singed the hair on her forehead, but she didn't care about anything else and devoted herself to the task of squeezing out lice.

At first, it was a little hard to accept, but later I actually found that squeezing lice was a kind of stress-relieving and satisfying activity.

So that night, she turned her clothes over and squeezed lice out with a "slap, slap" sound.

It wasn't until late at night, when the high-hanging moon was about to set, that Ji Yongling finally squeezed out the last louse from her clothes. Her fingernails were stained red. Only then did she feel less itchy, yawn, and drift off to sleep.

The next day, as soon as the rooster crowed, Ji Yongling, who was fast asleep, suddenly heard Ji Yongning and Ji Yongzhou banging on the door and shouting outside. She immediately jumped up and sat on the kang (a heated brick bed), scratching her bird's nest-like hair, wanting to get a haircut right away.

Ignoring the questioning looks from her family, she grabbed a stick from the wall and started practicing. However, unlike before, she was completely out of sorts today. It took Ji Yongning a couple of taps with the stick for her to come to her senses.

Today it was Ji Manqing's turn to fetch water, and Hu Xirong was also going to wash clothes. Before she could call Ji Yongling, a messy bird's nest flew past her. She opened her mouth in surprise and muttered, "Was this girl out stealing last night? Why did she mess up her hair like this?"

Ignoring the stares and questions from her family, Ji Yongling carried the wooden basin and ran to the stream.

Ji Manqing looked at his niece's back and her messy hair, thought for a moment and said, "I'm afraid she went to the market and learned some new things from the city people, so she got this hairstyle to cover up her ugliness?"

Hu Xirong, holding a wooden basin, glared at Ji Manqing and said, "I think you're the one who needs to fart and put on a show to cover up your embarrassment!"

Ji Yongling arrived early, before the people washing clothes by the river had come. Ignoring the coldness of the river water, she plunged into it, squeezed on the shampoo she had taken from the storage tank, and vigorously rubbed her hair, losing countless strands in the process.

After washing her hair, she finally felt a little better and let out a long sigh of relief. Suddenly, she thought of another problem—taking a bath.

On the Loess Plateau, water is scarce, and there are no conditions for daily bathing. People simply bring hot water into their cave dwellings at night and wipe themselves down with a cloth.

But now, Ji Yongling has a strong urge to take a bath.

She looked around, silently picked up a basin of water, and walked toward an abandoned, partially collapsed cave dwelling halfway up the mountain.

Ignoring the icy river water, she rinsed herself twice from head to toe, put on a disposable vest and shorts she had taken from the storage room, and changed into clean clothes covered in patches before finally going out comfortably.

When they reached the stream, Hu Xirong arrived. Seeing her hair was wet, she jumped up and exclaimed, "God of Heaven, how could you wash your hair with cold water! You're going to die! This will leave you with a chronic illness!" As she spoke, she prepared to twist her hair.

Ji Yongling took two steps back to avoid Hu Xirong's hand, because she was afraid that her freshly washed hair would be ruined again by the lice on her fourth aunt.

Given the contagious nature of lice, she thought it best to exterminate the lice in her entire family to truly cleanse herself and keep her away from lice.

Hu Xirong tried several times to twist Ji Yongling's hair, but Ji Yongling dodged her each time. In the end, the two fell silent and went their separate ways to do their laundry.

When they arrived home, Ji Manchuan had already loaded the mule cart and handcart with mugwort leaves, and was just waiting for Ji Yongling to finish eating before setting off.

Hu Xirong ran to Jia Ronghua to complain, telling her that Ji Yongling was washing her hair with cold water by the river.

So when Ji Yongling was called into the cave by her mother, both women glared at her fiercely, as if she had committed an unforgivable crime. Jia Ronghua launched into a tirade of abuse, almost waking Ji Yong'an, who was sleeping nearby.

This was the first time Ji Yongling had ever seen the seemingly frail Jia Ronghua curse. He trembled slightly, thinking that it would be best not to provoke the women in his family in the future, as they were quite formidable.