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

Ji Shuihua tore a strip of cloth hanging from a tree branch on the earthen wall and blindfolded Tian Lao Er.

She gently lifted one foot and stepped between Tian Lao Er's legs. Tian Lao Er instantly winced in pain, his brows furrowed, his lips twitched, and his eyes under the cloth strip remained closed.

Ji Shuihua chuckled softly, then stepped on one of Tian Lao Er's knees again...

"Crunch—" It sounded like bones breaking.

The night was quiet, with only the sound of the wind.

Ji Shuihua gently brushed the shoe print off Tian Lao Er's clothes, then turned and left...

That night, Tian Lao Er was carried back. The Tian family home was brightly lit and noisy all night. In the end, Tian Lao Er was saved, but he was mentally impaired, had a limp, and was also impotent. He could no longer walk, walk, or have children.

Grandma Tian wept bitterly. This was her most beloved son. She lamented the injustice of fate and her own bitter life, but ultimately, she could not change the outcome.

From then on, Tian Lao Er became obedient, like a child who didn't know any better, and was moved to Tian Lao Tai's courtyard. Tian Lao Tai stopped trying to torment Ji Shui Hua, and Ji Shui Hua finally had some peace and quiet, living alone in her own courtyard.

"Mother—" Chunxiang's voice pulled Ji Shuihua back from her memories.

Ji Shuihua smiled and pulled Chunxiang into the main room.

The two opened the bundle left by Ji Manchuan and found several prepared medicine pouches and some cut-out pieces of cloth inside. She asked Chunxiang to sit down and look at them together.

After studying it for a while, the two began to thread the needle and discuss how to do the work.

Ji Shuihua suddenly felt like she was a girl before she left home. She and her older sister used to do needlework together, but she was asking questions while her older sister taught her. She didn't want to learn, so they forced her to learn.

Back then, her needlework was like a centipede walking, but now, after so many years of marriage, she is skilled in needlework and can easily sew and cut clothes.

After leaving Ji Shuihua's house, Ji Manchuan and his companion ate some dry food and compressed biscuits given to them by Ji Yongling on the road before hurrying on their way.

This time, Ji Manqing didn't swallow it whole. Instead, he carefully opened the outer leaf, held the biscuit in both hands, and cautiously took small bites with the tip of his teeth, afraid of dropping even a single crumb.

Ji Manchuan couldn't stand it anymore, rolled his eyes, and said, "I'm telling you, why are you becoming more and more effeminate?"

Ji Manqing paused, immediately looked up, and shouted, "Who's being effeminate? Have you ever seen a woman with leg hair longer than her beard? Hey Third Brother, have you been giving me the cold shoulder lately?"

Ji Manchuan sneered: "When have I ever found you pleasing to the eye? When you were little, you were weak, loved to fight, cried easily, and loved to tattle. Now that you're all grown up, you're still a simpleton, all you do is eat."

Upon hearing this, Ji Manqing quickly finished the biscuits in his hand, got into a fighting stance, and shouted, "Third brother, come on, let's beat you up again. I didn't do a good job beating you at Second sister's doorstep."

Ji Manchuan completely ignored him, casually tossing out a sentence: "I've already given you a chance to beat the number one expert in Niujiazhuang today, but you didn't seize it." With that, he continued driving the carriage.

Ji Manqing withdrew his outstretched arm with a bored expression, then suddenly remembered that he had something to ask but had completely forgotten it when he was distracted.

What he actually wanted to ask was, where did Ling'er get such good cookies? Why didn't she give such good cookies to her family? And what was in the straw rope sheath that Ji Manchuan always wore on his waist?

The two brothers bickered all the way to Ji Shuicao's house.

Ji Shuicao's home is indeed far away, but because it is located in a large, deep ravine with a large river running through it, water is readily available. Moreover, the terrain is low-lying, making it easy to dig a well; you only need to dig a dozen meters deep to find water, unlike people on the plateau who have to dig a dozen or twenty meters deep to dig a well, which is truly exhausting.

These deep ravines are similar to the valleys between two large mountains in the south. However, in the Loess Plateau, these ravines are located at the bottom between two large plateaus, like the deep gullies that have split open on the plain.

The biggest drawback is the inconvenient transportation. Secondly, there is little flat land available for cultivation. Most of the land is mountainous, which needs to be cultivated by the farmers themselves. Cultivation is very hard work, and the yield of crops in mountainous areas is also low.

"Big sister, big sister, it's me, Manqing." Before even reaching the courtyard gate, Ji Manqing's loud voice rang out.

"Oh my, Third Uncle and Fourth Uncle are here! Come in quickly!" Ji Shuihua's eldest son, Yu Liangdi, ran out of the yard with a look of surprise on his face. As he spoke, he quickly removed the threshold of the gate and let Ji Manchuan drive the car in.

Ji Manchuan parked the car in the yard, and before he could even grab anything, Ji Manqing jumped out of the car, hugged Yu Liangdi, and patted him on the shoulder: "Good lad, it's been half a year, and you've grown so tall!"

Yu Liangdi touched his nose sheepishly: "Fourth Uncle, I'm almost seventeen, I have to grow taller quickly."

Ji Manqing released Yu Liangdi, hooked one arm around his shoulder, and walked towards the side of the yard, saying as they walked, "In your uncle's eyes, you've always been that silly little brat." After saying that, he looked around furtively, and seeing that no one was around, he quietly took out a small piece wrapped in dry leaves from his pocket and stuffed it directly into Yu Liangdi's mouth.

Before Yu Liangdi could react, a mouthful of food was shoved into his throat, causing him to choke and stretch his neck. With his cheeks puffed out, he mumbled indistinctly, "Fourth Uncle, what is this?"

Ji Manqing chuckled mischievously and said, "This is good stuff. I specially saved it from my own mouth for you. Nobody else has this much. There's no more than this."

Yu Liangdi swallowed the last bit, licked the crumbs out of his teeth with his tongue, smacked his lips and said, "It tastes pretty good, but it's too dry and makes me choke."

Ji Manqing laughed heartily: "The best thing about this stuff isn't how delicious it is, it's how filling it is, really filling. It's a pity we don't have any. Hmm, where's Wangdi? Where is he?"

Yu Liangdi was still savoring the delicious taste in his mouth when he said, "I went to catch scorpions with some boys from the village."

Hearing the commotion in the yard, Ji Shuicao came out of the kitchen and saw Ji Manchuan and Ji Manqing. She exclaimed with delight, “Oh my, what brings you two here? Wow, you’ve even bought a mule cart!”

Ji Shuicao came to the mule cart, looked at it with great affection, and stroked the mule, saying, "Oh my, this mule is very strong! Look at its coat, look at its physique, it's really good!"

Because they live in mountain valleys, most of their farmland is accessible via mountain roads. In addition, going to the county to sell goods at the market is a long journey that involves climbing many slopes. Therefore, people in mountain valleys love large livestock such as mules, donkeys, and cattle the most.

Seeing that Ji Shuicao really liked the mule cart, Ji Manchuan felt a pang of sadness and said, "Sister, the harvest has been good these past two years, and we have plenty of fertile and prosperous land. Why don't you go to the county to find some work and earn some money to get a donkey or mule for the family? Otherwise, you and your brother-in-law will be working yourselves to death farming so much mountain land."

In the past, during spring plowing and autumn planting, the two brothers, Ji Manchuan and Ji Manqing, would also take time to come and help their eldest sister's family with farming. Later, their eldest brother, Ji Mancang, took his whole family to the county, so they also had to help their brother's family with farming, and they really couldn't take care of everything.

Ji Shuicao's eyes were still on the mule, unwilling to look away, and she nodded: "Yes, we originally wanted to get a new donkey before the summer harvest this year, but your brother-in-law is sick and doesn't have time to go to the county."