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

Looking at the comb in Yang's hand, Ji Yongling took two steps back, then shook her head firmly, "Grandma, I won't use the comb anymore, I'm afraid it will hurt—"

Madam Yang got up and prepared to walk over to Ji Yongling, saying, "Baby, please comb my hair gently, it won't hurt or cause hair loss! Come on, the lice in my hair are running and jumping around, it's very uncomfortable, you'll feel better after combing."

Ji Yongling continued to back away, shaking her head: "Grandma, when you have too many lice, you don't feel the itch; when you have too much famine, you don't feel the pressure. I don't itch, and I don't need to comb my hair. I just washed my hair, so I really don't need to. I'm going to cut grass—" With that, she picked up the cage beside her, turned around, and darted out of the courtyard gate without looking back, ignoring how Yang Shi was calling her from behind.

Seeing Ji Yongling dash out of the yard, Yang was so angry that she stomped her feet in the yard: "That kid, his ditch is all slippery!"

"Yongning—Yongzhou—, come here and comb your hair—" Madam Yang called out towards a corner of the courtyard.

The two brothers, who were feeding the chickens with worms using sticks, suddenly trembled, and the worms fell to the ground. Ji Yongning accidentally stepped on one of them, and his shoe was covered in the worms.

Once outside the courtyard gate, Ji Yongling swung the cage in her hand and walked towards the ditch.

In fact, ever since the day she had the accident, her family had stopped her from cutting pig feed and had left it to the two brothers, Ji Yongning and Ji Yongzhou.

At this time, common pig feed included gray clover and bitter lettuce, which were not only a delicious treat for pigs but also a staple food for people. In lean years, these pig feeds were a lifesaver, and they were a frequent sight on the dinner table of Ji Yongling's family.

In that era of scarcity, people didn't even have enough to eat, and pigs were lucky to have grass to eat. So they couldn't possibly eat corn and other grains every day like their descendants in later pig farms.

However, nowadays pigs, cattle, sheep, donkeys and horses eat grass, and people also use grass for cooking. In addition, there is no good fertilizer, so the grass in the fields is not as plentiful or lush as it is in later modern times.

Not only is there little grass, but the pigs are also picky eaters, refusing to eat many kinds of grass, making it a waste of effort to cut them. So, every time you want to cut a full cage of pig feed, you really have to run through several ditches and ridges, sometimes it can be described as exhausting.

It's truly bitter and exhausting, with no end in sight.

Although cutting pig feed is hard work, it requires less strength and is much easier than tasks like grinding grain, shoveling manure, or hauling soil. Therefore, every household assigns the task of cutting pig feed to their older children.

Every morning and evening, you can often see children cutting pig feed in the fields, in groups of three or five, laughing and joking, making it quite lively.

Some children would get together to cut pig feed, but once they got together, they would start playing instead, and only realize they hadn't finished cutting the feed when it was almost time to go home. To make up the numbers, some children would secretly cut some weeds like ice grass and mix them into the cages, while others would use branches to prop up the bottom of the cages to make the feed look like there was more.

Of course, these tricks would be exposed once they got home, and the result would be a fancy spanking with a broom handle or a twig from the adults.

People who have never fed pigs don't know how big their appetites are. When they're hungry, their squeals are both piercing and unsettling. And when these guys are hungry, they'll occasionally push against the gate of their enclosure. If the gate isn't sturdy, they'll escape.

So, the village was always bustling with noise during pig feeding time, filled with the squeals of pigs, the cries of children, and the shouts of adults. The children who were beaten during this time were almost certainly involved in some kind of pig-cutting charade.

Cutting pig feed seems simple, but it requires skill. You need to hold a handful of pig feed in one hand and a sickle in the other, reaching for the ground to cut it at the root and throw it into the cage next to you. Sometimes, if you're careless or the sickle is too sharp, you might cut your finger. The people here don't bandage it; they often just pinch a pinch of fine yellow soil and sprinkle it on the wound before continuing to work.

The elders here often say, "Loess soil is the cleanest thing. Grains grow in it, and our ancestors rest in it..."

Some families had many members, and in their spare time, they didn't need to cut grass to feed the pigs. They could simply drive the pigs out into the gullies and let them find grass to eat on their own. These are the "free-range pigs" that can fetch exorbitant prices in modern times.

Of course, some lands, like the Loess Plateau, are particularly arid, so pig feed doesn't need to be cut, and even wheat doesn't need to be cut; it can just be pulled up by the roots.

Spring, summer, and autumn are alright, as pigs can still eat grass. But in winter, the loess land is barren, cold, and desolate. Even people don't have fresh vegetable leaves to eat, let alone pigs. So, to raise pigs in winter, you have to store sweet potato vines, soybeans, or soybean leaves in the fall, dry them, and crush them into "branch" for the pigs to eat, since these pigs will be slaughtered at the New Year anyway.

Ji Yongling grabbed a handful of gray strips and threw them into the cage, then plopped down on the hillside and looked up into the distance.

The gullies here are not mountains, but ravines. Although they are not deep, they stretch endlessly. Looking at them from afar, they inspire endless imagination and give people a sense of exhilaration and vastness.

She had never known before that the sky in different places could be so different. In her hometown in her previous life, the sky in summer was a deep, clear blue; but here the sky was a pure, deep azure, giving a sense of vastness, like a sea where fish can leap and a sky where birds can fly.

The clouds here are also in large clumps, like cotton balls hanging high in the sky, which is unbelievably beautiful.

After admiring the scenery, Ji Yongling got up, picked up the cage with one hand, and stretched out his rough palm with the other to look it over. He sighed in his heart, "No matter how beautiful the scenery is, it is not as good as a full bowl of rice. I should find a way to eat my fill and stay warm."

She had only taken two steps when she remembered the comb in Yang's hand and her two fingernails stained red with lice blood, so she turned around and walked towards the small ditch at the bottom of the valley.

Ji Yongling thought that he should try to find the herb "Hundred Stemona" by the stream.

She didn't want to comb her hair, didn't want to get lice, and even less did she want lice from someone else to jump onto her body while she was talking.

However, Stemona japonica mainly grows in humid southern regions, so it's probably hard to find in the Northwest.

Just as Ji Yongling was about to walk along the river to another village and was about to turn back empty-handed, a few swaying leaves under the shade of a large willow tree by the river caught her eye.

Ji Yongling looked closely and indeed, the leaves swaying in the wind looked very much like ginseng leaves.

She rushed over, jumping and hopping, and started digging and scraping with a sickle, getting herself covered in dirt.

When the roots were dug out, Ji Yongling's pupils dilated slightly; it was indeed Stemona japonica.

This wild grass not only has leaves that resemble ginseng, but its roots also look like ginseng, yet it is not ginseng.

She remembered that some unscrupulous merchants in later generations would sell the root of Stemona japonica as ginseng to make huge profits, but the root of Stemona japonica contains a highly poisonous substance. Once, someone bought Stemona japonica root thinking it was ginseng and ended up dying, which made the news and was the only time that the unscrupulous merchant was caught.