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

Ji Yongning followed Ji Yongling step by step into the kitchen.

Soon, Hu Xirong's roar came from the kitchen: "Heavenly God, why don't you take a sickle and cut off your head? You really are something, if I don't keep an eye on you for a second, you dare to run into the tiger's mouth and steal food, causing trouble for us!"

Ji Yongling quickly stopped Hu Xirong, who was about to swing the fire poker, saying, "Fourth Aunt, don't rush! Yongning is a boy, he's active and sweats a lot, so he's prone to lice. His hair is getting long and it's really uncomfortable. Besides, I'm planning to get some lice medicine, which might be able to sell for money. Yongning has to take me to find these herbs."

Upon hearing that medicine was being sold for money, Hu Xirong's attention was largely diverted. She pointed at Ji Yongning at the door with a fire poker and said, "I'll spare you for your sister Ling'er's sake. You just wait, when your father comes back, he'll beat you flat."

Ji Manqing, who had just entered the courtyard carrying a hoe, chimed in: "Who do you want me to flatten?"

Hu Xirong shouted towards the door, "Come in and take a look! Look at your eldest son's head, it looks like a dog chewed on it. How can he go out and face people?"

Ji Manqing, tall and imposing, entered the kitchen, blocking the light from the doorway. He looked at Ji Manqing's hair, ruffled it a couple of times, and said cheerfully, "This hair really wasn't shaved properly; it needs a little more trimming. For a boy, it's best to leave a tuft of hair on the crown, just like before. I always said, why leave any hair? It's getting hotter, and hair sticks to your face and feels sticky and uncomfortable. Anyway, the boy is still young, not even fifteen yet. We're not like the wealthy families in the city who have some kind of coming-of-age ceremony, so let's just shave it off."

Hu Xirong glared at Ji Manqing and said, "It's hard to burn grass, and it's hard to teach a spoiled child! A spoiled child is unfilial, and a spoiled dog will climb on the stove! You're just going to spoil him. When you get old, your kid will wrap you in a straw mat and throw you into the ditch to feed the wolves. Then you'll know you've regretted it!" After saying that, she turned around and sat down in front of the stove to pull the wicker.

Ji Manqing slapped Ji Yongning on the back: "It's all your fault, you coward! If you ever dare to wrap your father in a straw mat and throw him into a ditch again, I'll crawl out from under the ground and break your dog legs! Come out now, or I'll get a sickle and fix you up again."

Ji Yongling hurriedly said, "Fourth Uncle, let me shave Yongning's head. I'm good with a knife."

Ji Manqing looked at Ji Yongling suspiciously, seemingly not quite believing her: "Are you sure you won't use a sickle to cut Yongning's seedlings off?"

Ji Yongning jumped up and down, leaping three feet away, shouting, "Sister, sister, dear sister, please have mercy! I haven't even had a bite of my white flour bun yet—"

Ji Yongling stared speechlessly at Ji Yongning, who had jumped far away from her, and wanted to punch him.

No matter what, she has modern knives, which are sharper and easier to use than a sickle for cutting grass!

Besides, she had performed many surgical prep procedures on patients in the hospital before, and as a self-taught prep technician, "Tony" was skilled and elegant.

Although there have been minor mishaps, such as when a male patient wanted to have a mole removed from his chest for pathological examination, but his chest hair was too thick, she transformed into a "hairdresser" and almost shaved off the large mole while shaving his chest hair, shocking her colleagues who exclaimed, "Save the mole! I haven't even touched it yet!"

Afterwards, the male patient, who had no moles on his chest, awkwardly covered his chest hair, which had been shaved like a grassland gnawed by a cow, and looked at her resentfully, saying, "Doctor, do you know what I do? I'm a fitness instructor. How am I supposed to face my students after you shaved my chest like this?"

At the time, she was a novice and shy, and feeling bad for the other person, she said, "Then I'll refund you the twenty yuan for the shaving fee, and you can go to the barbershop to get another shave."

On another occasion, in the ENT department, a sophisticated white-collar worker came in for tympanic membrane repair surgery. Her hair was slicked back with hair wax, looking as if a cow had licked it, shiny and smooth.

She transformed into "Tony the hairstylist" once again, determined which ear it was, and "swiftly" shaved off all the hair next to his left ear. Because her technique was so skilled, the shaved area was particularly large, and instantly the originally neat denim hairstyle became a terraced field, looking abruptly like a monster!

Of course, this time she was shameless. She refused to offer a refund and left the elegant white-collar worker, disheveled in the wind, floating away gracefully.

Later she learned that shaving the skin in the hospital was the job of nurses or nursing assistants. It was just that these interns and rotation students were simple, kind, and useful, so they went wherever they were needed.

Ji Yongling followed Ji Manqing and his son out of the kitchen.

Ji Manqing picked up the grass-cutting sickle that Ji Yongning had placed under the tree, sharpened it a couple of times on the whetstone, tilted his head, and examined the blade against the sun. The forty or fifty-centimeter-long blade gleamed silver in the sunlight, sending chills down one's spine.

Ji Manqing blew on the blade and shouted, "Yongning, come here, the sickle is sharp!"

Ji Yongning skipped over and brought his head close to Ji Manqing.

Ji Manqing held Ji Yongning's head with one hand and gripped the sickle with the other. With a swift and precise motion, he swung the sickle, and strands of hair fell to the ground.

It's truly a case of hair being as worthless as grass, ready to be harvested by the sickle.

Ji Manqing bent over, sticking out his buttocks, and circled around Ji Yongning's head, constantly changing positions. In less than a quarter of an hour, Ji Yongning's head was shaved into the "rooster head" that was common among boys in the 80s.

Upon seeing this, Ji Yongzhou also clamored to shave his head, and soon he too sported a "rooster head" hairstyle.

Ji Manqing looked at the two round heads, nodded in satisfaction, and blew on the hair on the sickle, looking just like an executioner who had just beheaded someone.

Ji Yongling trembled as she watched.

Ji Manqing put down his sickle, picked up a broom, and swept the stray hairs on the ground together. As he swept, he asked with a smile, "Ling'er, how about it? Could your fourth uncle become a hair comb maker with this skill?"

Madam Yang came over: "Hurry up and stop the northwest wind from blowing so early in the morning! The two kids are all naked, how are they going to go to school next year?"

Ji Manqing straightened up and said, "Mother, this child's hair is like chives in the field; you cut one crop and it grows back, it'll be long again next year!"

Grandpa Ji walked in through the courtyard gate and asked irritably, "Did you check the auspicious day before getting the baby shaved? Did the old almanac say 'suitable for shaving'?"

Ji Manqing shrank back, not daring to speak, and put the stray hairs into a rough burlap sack to use as mud scraps later.

After finishing her meal, Hu Xining didn't rush to wash the dishes. Instead, she anxiously asked Ji Yongling, "Ling'er, you just said you were getting some medicine to get rid of lice, is that true?"

"How could I possibly comfort you, Auntie?"

Hu Xirong nodded in satisfaction and said happily, "Then hurry up and get it done. Oh dear, these lice seem to be rampant these past two days. If I scratch it a couple of times, I can catch several lice the size of beans."

Ji Manqing glared at Hu Xirong with displeasure and said, "Stop talking! It's better if you don't. The moment you start talking, I feel like the lice on my body are stirring up trouble, and my whole body is rebelling!"

Ji Yongling glanced at Hu Xining's greasy hair, moved a little closer to her, and said, "I'll take Yongning to dig some herbs first, then we can start later." After saying that, she jumped up to get the cage and pulled Ji Yongning out of the yard.

Yang called from behind, "Ling'er, when are we going to get that mugwort floss you mentioned? We can't just leave the mugwort leaves, bought with real money, lying around burning as firewood!"