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

Ji Yongzhou cried out in alarm, and the people below instinctively scattered and fled.

This was agreed upon beforehand: if there was any disturbance, the others would immediately flee, so as to minimize losses and prevent those who were captured from revealing their other companions.

The white-haired old woman under the tree poked at the tree with a stick while cursing, "You naughty brats, you've ruined all these perfectly good apricots! Look, apricots are rolling around everywhere in this gray circle!"

The situation happened so suddenly that Ji Yongzhou, being the youngest among them, was completely stunned and almost slid off the wall.

Ji Yongning, who was hiding in a pile of corn stalks in the distance, was so anxious that he kept stamping his feet. He tried to wave to Ji Yongzhou, signaling him to jump down and run away quickly.

Unfortunately, Ji Yongzhou seemed to be under a spell, frozen in place, standing on the wall and crying foolishly.

Finally, Ji Yongning couldn't resist crawling out from the pile of corn stalks and shouting to Ji Yongzhou, "Get down, jump down quickly—"

When Ji Yongzhou saw his brother, it was like seeing a savior. Without thinking twice, he jumped off the wall and lay on the ground.

Ji Yongning didn't care whether Ji Yongzhou was hurt or not. He grabbed him and ran away like a rabbit fleeing for its life.

Xing'er, which was tucked into Ji Yongning's clothes, fell out and scattered all the way. He didn't bother to pick it up and just desperately pulled Ji Yongzhou forward to escape.

The white-haired old woman in the courtyard was surprisingly agile. As Ji Yongzhou jumped off the wall, she quickly rushed out of the courtyard gate with a stick in hand, chasing after him and smashing the Ji Yongning brothers with the stick all the way.

Because Ji Yongzhou was shorter and had shorter legs, he ran a little slower and took several solid hits.

Tie Dan and Er Dan also emerged from the haystack and ran towards the Ji Yongning brothers.

In the end, even a good horse can't catch up with a lame donkey. The white-haired old woman chased after it for a while, then stopped, panting, stood there cursing for a bit, and turned to leave.

Ji Yongning and his companions only stopped and gasped for breath when they saw the pursuing troops sound the retreat.

Ji Yongning reached into his collar and pulled out the apricots from his chest. He had been running too fast and some of them had been crushed to pieces, but he couldn't bear to throw them away. He gently picked one up and put it in his mouth.

Ji Yongzhou stopped and realized that his back was burning with pain. He looked like he was about to cry and said, "Brother, can you take a look at my back? It hurts a lot."

Ji Yongning lifted Ji Yongzhou's shirt from behind, revealing bloodstains all over his back. Feeling both distressed and angry, he scolded, "All you ever do is drag others down with you! Look, if you hadn't climbed the wall, we could have eaten the apricots perfectly fine. Now we haven't even eaten many apricots, and we've already gotten a beating. You're truly a useless, incompetent coward!"

Ji Yongzhou was so aggrieved that he almost cried.

Erdan shook his head, finished the last apricot, and said, "Alas, how tragic! I tried to steal apricots but got a beating instead. Well done, well done—"

Tie Dan slapped Er Dan on the back and cursed, "Goodness my foot, goodness my foot!"

.......

In the Ji family courtyard, several adults were discussing when to go to the county to deliver mugwort floss when someone knocked on the gate: "Is this the home of Ji Yongling and her father?"

Ji Manchuan and his daughter exchanged a glance and shook their heads, indicating that they had never heard of that voice before.

Lately, everyone has gotten used to people from other villages coming to their door from time to time, all asking for insecticide.

I don't know if it was Hu Jipo's sister-in-law's promotion or other people in the village's promotion, but in the past few days, several people from other villages have brought their children to ask for medicine.

In fact, some children are perfectly healthy and, in Ji Yongling's words, do not need to take medicine. However, the parents insist on giving their children a bowl of medicine before they will leave, saying that it will put their minds at ease.

So when someone knocked on the door today, everyone's first reaction was to assume that it was someone coming to buy medicine again.

When Ji Manchuan ushered the man through the gate, everyone saw that the man who entered was a refined middle-aged man in a long gown, followed by a servant in short clothes.

Grandpa Ji and the others immediately stood up.

The middle-aged man cupped his hands and smiled, "Greetings, Mr. Ji. I am Wang Defu from Jishi Pharmacy."

Old Master Ji stepped forward, clasped his hands in greeting, and said with a smile, "So it's an honored guest. I'm so sorry for not welcoming you properly. Please come in."

Ji Manchuan gestured for him to sit down, saying, "My family is poor and we have not been able to provide adequate hospitality. Please forgive us."

Wang Defu smiled and said, "Not at all." He sat down naturally on the small stool under the apple tree, and the servant placed the gift box he was carrying on the low table.

When Grandpa Ji and the others saw Wang Defu sit down, they all sat down as well.

Upon seeing that they had distinguished guests, Yang and Hu Xirong quickly went to the kitchen to prepare the meal.

Wang Defu secretly surveyed the courtyard, his gaze lingering on Ji Yongling for a moment before he smiled and said, "I am here on the orders of our master to discuss cooperation with Miss Ji."

Grandpa Ji nodded. Man Chuan and the others had already discussed this matter before, saying that Jishi Pharmacy would send a manager over, but they hadn't seen anyone for the past few days, so they assumed they would have to go to the county to meet the manager.

Ji Manchuan smiled at Wang Defu and said, "It's really too much trouble for you. Actually, you could have had someone inform us that we could have gone to the county."

Wang Defu waved his hand and said, "How could I trouble Miss Ji to run around like this? It's more convenient for me to come. This is just a small token of my appreciation, some snacks for the elders and the children. Please accept them." After saying that, he pushed the gift box on the low table toward Old Master Ji.

Ji Manchuan declined, saying, "How could I possibly let you spend money like this? Please take it back. It's already a huge honor for you to grace my humble abode with your presence. How could I possibly accept your gift?"

Wang Defu smiled and said, "Our master calls Miss Ji 'young friend,' how could I dare to be negligent? Please accept this." He then took out a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Ji Yongling, saying, "Miss Ji, please take a look. This is the list of medicinal herbs for this time."

Ji Yongling had been sitting next to Ji Manchuan. She took the order form from Wang Defu, nodded her thanks, and said, "Thank you for your kindness, Manager Wang. But please just call me Madam Ji. We country folk don't deserve to be called 'Miss'." After saying that, she lowered her head and carefully looked at the order form.

“Then I won’t stand on ceremony and will address you as Madam Ji.” Wang Defu replied with a smile, while sizing up Ji Yongling. Seeing that she could read, he thought to himself, “She is indeed literate and not to be underestimated.”

Seeing that Ji Yongling was looking at it carefully, he said, "These are some medicinal materials that we have listed based on the prescription you provided before. They are in high demand and do not require special processing. I wonder if you can supply them?"

In fact, Jishi Pharmacy generally doesn't deal with these farmers because their demand is large, and many medicinal herbs need to be processed. Farmers harvest little medicinal herbs themselves, and most of them are dried without processing. So they order medicinal herbs from buyers.

This time, since Liang Dongjia had spoken, demanding the purchase of the herbs provided by the Ji family, they would comply. If the Ji family couldn't provide enough in a short time, they would find another buyer; these weren't rare or precious medicinal herbs.