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

Jia Ronghua patted Hu Xirong's arm, her eyes crinkling with laughter, and said, "Alright, alright, Fourth Aunt, I was wrong. If you keep talking, Yong'an will be woken up by us. Let's get to work."

Hu Xirong put away her smile, sat cross-legged on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), and said, "The wives of Shuanzhu and Hengsheng in our village are very good at needlework. The eldest daughter-in-law of the village head and the daughter-in-law of Niu Lao Er are also good at needlework, and there are also..." Hu Xirong paused and looked at Ji Yongling.

Ji Yongling looked up and met Hu Xirong's somewhat awkward expression. She raised an eyebrow and asked, "Fourth Aunt, what's up? Who else is there?"

Hu Xirong lowered her voice: "It's Maihua, who was divorced by her husband's family. This girl lost her mother when she was five or six years old, and she started cooking, washing clothes, sewing and mending, and working in the fields. There is really no one more hardworking than this girl."

"Hmm, that's fine, as long as the skills are up to par—" Ji Yongling continued working on her tasks.

Hu Xirong raised an eyebrow and asked mysteriously, "You don't mind?"

Ji Yongling looked up, somewhat puzzled, and asked, "What are you complaining about?"

Hu Xirong touched the tip of her nose and said, "People do things for good luck. For example, some job postings in the county don't want divorced women or widows, saying it's unlucky."

Jia Ronghua patted Hu Xirong's arm and said, "Don't talk nonsense in front of the children. We have daughters of our own, and they will get married in the future too." After saying that, she also sighed.

Hu Xirong slumped her shoulders, looking somewhat disappointed, and said in a low voice, "That's why I asked Ling'er to find her to do chores. I thought this woman was pitiful, and I hoped she could earn some pocket money so she wouldn't be without a pair of cotton-padded trousers to wear in the winter."

Jia Ronghua sighed, "Maihua is so pitiful. She's lucky to have survived until now without starving, thanks to her father and stepmother. She can't even spend a single copper coin. If it weren't for her mother and sixth aunt, her father and stepmother would have tortured her to death."

Madam Yang sighed repeatedly, wiping away her tears with her rough hands, and said, "When a woman gets married, it's like being reborn. If she's not reborn well, even her children suffer. Look at Maihua, she endured all the hardships as a child, and then she thought she'd be reborn again after getting married, but it only made things worse. Now she can't go back to her husband's family, and she can't stay in her own family either. She's no better than a homeless beggar than a homeless person, except she has a shack. It's more bitter than bitter melon."

Back then, Maihua's stepmother brought her daughter from her first marriage, Liu Taohua, into the family. At first, she was somewhat restrained, at most making Maihua suffer by doing more work and eating less.

Later, seeing that Maihua's father and grandmother were pretending not to see it, she became even more ruthless. One year on the 29th of the twelfth lunar month, Maihua's stepmother made some cornbread, put it in a basket and hung it on the wall of her cave dwelling. The next day, one of the cornbreads was missing.

Maihua's stepmother insisted that Maihua had stolen the food and beat her half to death. In the dead of winter, she made Maihua kneel at the gate of the courtyard. Maihua didn't have a cotton-padded coat; she was only wearing a thin shirt wrapped in straw. She almost froze to death. Fortunately, Yang and Chen, who were passing by, saw her and saved her.

Thinking of all this, Yang's tears began to flow again, her voice filled with endless sorrow: "We women suffer so much—"

Jia Ronghua winked at Hu Xirong, who immediately put on a smile and said, "Mom, we never had the chance to help before, but now we do. Let's help Maihua, so don't be sad."

Yang wiped her eyes twice, took a deep breath, and said, "Well, let Yongning and Yongzhou invite these people over to try it out first. If it works, we should take it home and make it as soon as possible."

Ji Yongling had some doubts and said, "With only this many people, how long will it take to finish making these thousands of medicine bags?"

With a wave of her hand, Yang's voice returned to its previous cheerful tone, and she said, "Don't worry, would I, an old woman, possibly cause any trouble?"

Meanwhile, Ji Manchuan and his companion first drove to Jia Ronghua's mother's house to collect medicinal herbs.

Jia Ronghua's family home is located in the westernmost part of Ningping County, right next to Zhenping County, so it took the two of them nearly two hours to drive there.

"Mother, are you home?" Ji Manchuan jumped off the cart and called out into the yard.

"Who is it?" Old Lady Jia came out of the cave dwelling, her hands still covered in vegetable leaves.

Upon entering the courtyard, seeing Ji Manchuan at the gate, she quickened her pace and called out enthusiastically, "Oh, Manchuan! What brings you here? Oh, Manqing is here too—come in, come in!"

Ji Manchuan took a small cloth bag from the car and handed it to Granny Jia, saying, "Mother, this is two catties of white flour that my parents asked me to bring over, to make noodles for you two."

Grandma Jia declined, saying, "You're welcome to come. Why bring this? Leave it for your parents and the children to eat."

Ji Manchuan placed the bag on the windowsill of the kitchen cave and said, "Mother, don't refuse. Manqing and I came to see if we have any medicinal herbs at home, so we can take some back with us."

"What? Why are you collecting medicinal herbs? Is someone in your family sick?" Old Mrs. Jia asked anxiously.

Ji Manchuan sat under the walnut tree in the courtyard, took off his straw hat, fanned himself with it, and said, "No one is sick. It's just that Ling'er has been running some small business, collecting some medicinal herbs for the pharmacies in the prefectural city. So Manqing and I came over to collect the medicinal herbs at home."

Upon hearing that no one was sick, Old Lady Jia breathed a sigh of relief: "It's good that no one is sick. We poor people can't afford to get sick."

Then Old Lady Jia sighed and said, "Look at me, your mother. Aside from going to your house a few days ago to help Ronghua give birth, Ronghua has been out for quite some time now, and I haven't had a chance to go again. It's really—alas—"

Ji Manchuan shook the straw hat in his hand and said nonchalantly, "Mom, it's nothing. We live far away, so it's inconvenient. When Er Ya turns one month old, you and Dad can all come over for a bowl of noodles. By the way, the second child's name is Yong'an, which Dad named him."

Old Lady Jia wiped her eyes with her hand, which was still damp with vegetable leaves, and said, "Yong'an is good. The name Yong'an sounds peaceful and safe. The other day you sent word that Ronghua had given birth to another girl, and I felt uneasy. I thought that since you are young, you can have more children. Later, the person said that Ronghua went into labor early. I wondered if I had messed things up during the delivery?"

“Otherwise, how could she give birth the day after the delivery? My heart has been pounding the whole time. I wanted to go and check on her, but Rongkui and his wife were out working, and with two small babies, they couldn’t leave.”

Ji Manchuan put down his straw hat, placed his hands on his knees, and asked, "It has nothing to do with your childbirth, don't worry about it. When Ronghua finishes her confinement, I'll have her tell you. By the way, what are Brother Rongkui and his wife up to?"

Old Lady Jia rubbed the vegetable leaves on her hands and said, "In the neighboring Zhenping County, someone assembled a group of cooks who travel around providing services for weddings and funerals. Rongkui's wife is good at making noodles, so she went to help out once and was chosen. They've been put on the team to work together."

Ji Manchuan nodded: "It's a job, although it's tiring running around, but the two of you can take care of each other and earn some extra money. What about Ronglian? Is she going to the fields with my dad?"

Grandma Jia sighed deeply: "Oh, this third son is the most troublesome. He believes everything he hears and is always running off with people. He hasn't even found a wife yet. If only he could just go back to the fields and dig in peace. Last month, he heard that someone was buying stones at a high price on the mountain in Xishangou, so he went there with a few young men from the village."

Ji Manchuan frowned upon hearing this.