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

When the two returned home, the old courtyard of the Ji family was still bustling with activity, filled with all kinds of medicinal herbs.

Ji Yongling and Ji Yonghua didn't have time to eat, so they just grabbed a little bit of steamed vegetable dumplings with more vegetables than noodles and went to help.

It wasn't until evening, when the medicinal herbs in the courtyard were mostly put away, that Ji Mantun and his son returned home, and the old Ji family courtyard finally quieted down.

The whole family was too tired to talk, but Hu Xirong tirelessly kept asking Ji Yongling, "Ling'er, what did Manager Wang say? He was too busy today and didn't even have time to ask you when you got back."

Ji Yongling was sitting on a small stool, flipping through yellow paper and checking the accounts kept by Ji Yongbai. When Hu Xirong asked, he replied, "It's settled. This batch of medicine bags will have 5,000 units shipped to the south, so we need to rush the work. We'll start arranging it tomorrow."

"My goodness, how many did you say, five thousand, five thousand? Did I hear that right?" Hu Xirong shouted, raising her voice.

Yang slapped Hu Xirong's arm: "If you keep yelling, you'll attract the wolves from the other side of the ditch!"

Hu Xirong completely ignored Yang's patting, lowered her voice, and still excitedly said, "Everyone should get up early tomorrow, I also need to work and earn money." After saying that, she excitedly went to share the news with Jia Ronghua.

When Ji Mantun and his two sons returned home while they were talking, Zhao Yunxia had just arrived home as well.

Seeing Zhao Yunxia sitting in the courtyard with a worried look on her face, Ji Mantun asked, "Mother, what's wrong? Did something happen to the child's maternal grandmother?"

Zhao Yunxia sighed deeply: "Oh, my mother is so foolish, she actually borrowed grain from the Zhao family."

"What?!" Ji Mantun and his two sons exclaimed in unison.

Everyone in Ningping County knows that unless you're desperate, you should never borrow grain from a rich man, because grain is "difficult to borrow and difficult to repay."

Ji Yongfei said angrily, "Mom, why doesn't my maternal grandmother come to our house to borrow grain? She should return it now!"

Zhao Yunxia wiped her eyes and said, "Your maternal grandmother came to our house to borrow grain a while ago. At that time, our family didn't have any surplus grain, and we ate potatoes every day."

Ji Manbai glared at his sister and said, "You have the nerve to say that? Don't you know where our family's food has been coming from lately?"

Ji Yongfei raised her chin and said defiantly, "What? You're eating the grain that my mother and I got back, and you still complain that my mother and I are being nosy? If it weren't for my mother and me, you wouldn't even have potatoes to eat!"

Ji Yonghua pulled Ji Yongbai back and said to Ji Yongfei, "Yongfei, look at you, you're only a year younger than Yongling, how come you're so stubborn? Yongling has been making money for the family lately, and today he even talked business and signed a contract with the manager of Jishi Pharmacy!"

Ji Yongfei was even angrier. She stretched her neck and gritted her teeth, saying, "Am I your sister or is she your sister? She thinks she's so capable, so powerful? Then go live in the old courtyard! Go ahead!"

Ji Mantun scolded, "What are you all arguing about? Let's talk about your grandmother first." He turned to Zhao Yunxia and said, "Take the remaining grain to her grandmother and return the grain to Zhao the rich man first."

Zhao Yunxia shook her head and said, "It's not enough, far from it. The Zhao family borrows grain in batches, and if it's repaid within a month, they borrow a load of corn and repay a load of wheat. If it's delayed by a month, they add ten catties of wheat. We don't have that much wheat."

"That Zhao the rich man is too heartless! He borrowed corn and returned wheat. His heart is blacker than the bottom of a pot! In the next couple of days, my third and fourth uncles will go and collect the medicinal herbs from my maternal grandmother's house. Then we'll have some money, buy some wheat, and pay it back quickly." Ji Yongbai clenched his fist angrily and said.

Ji Yonghua chimed in, "How about I ask Yongling to settle some of my and my second brother's wages in advance, so we can use them to buy wheat for my grandmother?"

"What wages?" Zhao Yunxia looked up and asked in surprise.

Ji Yonghua scratched his head and said, "Yongling said that Dad and the two of us went to help collect medicinal herbs recently, and he wants to pay us for our work."

Ji Yongfei hurriedly asked, "How much do you charge per day?"

"Dad, Third Uncle, and Fourth Uncle get the same amount, twenty coins a day; my brother and I will start getting paid tomorrow, ten coins a day."

Ji Yongfei pouted and said, "That's more like it."

Ji Mantun looked at her daughter with some dissatisfaction and said, "Yongfei, you can't talk like that. You are sisters, and it is only right and proper for us to help. Yongling pays us wages to take care of us, and we can't take it for granted."

Ji Yongfei turned her head away, refusing to look at Ji Mantun or say anything.

Zhao Yunxia's brows relaxed slightly. She glanced at her two sons and said, "I don't know how many days you can work. Even if it's ten days' wages, it probably won't be enough."

Ji Yonghua suddenly remembered the medicine pouches and comforted his mother, saying, "Mother, Yongling and the others still need to make medicine pouches for Jishi Pharmacy. They need to make several thousand. We should ask the villagers to make them. You and Yongfei can go and see if we can take some over to make them."

Ji Yongfei rolled her eyes at her second brother and said, "Hmph, I'm good at embroidery, what's so difficult about a small medicine pouch!"

Ji Mantun raised his voice a few decibels and said, "Yongfei, you should learn manners. You really should learn from Yongling. Yongling is like a well-bred lady in a play. Look at you, why are you so awkward!"

"Hmph—you've always compared me to her since we were little, saying she's sensible, well-behaved, and capable. No matter how good she is, she's not your daughter!" Ji Yongfei said angrily, then turned and strode quickly toward her cave dwelling.

Ji Mantun shook his head and sighed, "We've spoiled this woman too much. She's too arrogant; she'll probably suffer in the future."

The next day, Ji Manchuan and Ji Manqing tidied up their home, packed some dry rations, and went to another village.

Ji Mantun and his son continued to come and help, but Zhao Yunxia and Ji Yongfei also came along.

When Grandpa Ji saw Zhao Yunxia come over, he glanced at Ji Mantun and said, "Yongfei and her mother have come to help? This work is heavy, I'm afraid they can't do it."

Ji Mantun smiled sheepishly and said, "Father—the child's mother and Yongfei came to see if they need any help in making the medicine pouch."

Grandpa Ji continued picking up the medicinal herbs, saying, "The medicine pouch was made by Yongling's mother and the others. Let Yongfei go in and ask Yongling."

On the kang (heated brick bed) in Jia Ronghua, apart from the baby Ji Yong'an who was sleeping all day, the other women were busy with various tasks.

Hu Xirong had already cut a bolt of cloth into long strips according to the width of the medicine pouch template. Jia Ronghua then neatly stacked these strips together, layer by layer.

Then, Yang used thinly sliced ​​pieces of yellow clay to divide the long strip of cloth into small squares according to the template of the medicine bag, and then carefully cut them out with scissors.

After processing a bolt of cloth, Hu Xirong and Jia Ronghua stacked fifty of these square pieces, which would be made into medicine pouches, together and tied them with hemp rope.

When Zhao Yunxia and Ji Yongfei arrived at the entrance of Jia Ronghua's cave dwelling, they heard the soft voices of several women talking inside.

Zhao Yunxia hesitated for a moment, tucked her chin in, and then lifted the straw curtain and went inside.

When the women on the kang (a heated brick bed) saw Zhao Yunxia and her daughter enter, they all stopped what they were doing and looked at the two of them.