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

Ji Yongning remained silent, his neck stiff. Seeing his brother's silence, Ji Yongzhou hesitated for a moment, then cautiously looked at his mother and said, "Yang Jiafa said that the old grave is haunted at night, and that it emits will-o'-the-wisps, so we..."

Seeing that Ji Yongzhou was stammering and wouldn't continue, Hu Xirong angrily cursed, "Keep going! You scoundrel Yang Jiafa, Yang Jiafa told you to eat shit, why didn't you go!"

Ji Yongzhou glanced at his brother and dared not continue.

Erdan coughed behind him and said seriously, "We did see will-o'-the-wisps yesterday when it was dark. When we ran over, the will-o'-the-wisps followed us. So today we want to burn the ghosts in the grave to death and rid the people of this scourge."

Niu Gensheng pointed at Erdan, his finger trembling, and finally managed to utter only half a sentence: "You...you...sigh..."

Tie Dan cautiously chimed in, "We just blew some wood dust into the old grave, caught a big rat, lit its tail, and sent it into the grave. We really just wanted to burn the ghosts inside, but we didn't expect it to collapse."

Ji Yongning looked up, appearing righteous and awe-inspiring, and said, "That's all there is to it. We just wanted to burn the ghosts, we didn't mean to collapse the grave."

Hu Xirong roared, "Who caught the mouse? Who started the fire?"

Startled, Ji Yongzhou shrank back and stammered, "I...I caught...a mouse..."

Ji Yongning glared at Ji Yongzhou, puffed out his chest, and said with his head held high, "Mother, I take responsibility for my own actions. I was the one who came up with the idea, I stole the wood powder from home, and I started the fire. If you want to hit someone, hit me!"

Hu Xirong was so angry that her teeth chattered. Without thinking twice, she grabbed Ji Yongning by the collar and swung the stick down.

"I see you two get really anxious if you don't get beaten up every day."

Ji Yongning hopped around and cried out in pain, but still stubbornly insisted, "We are doing this for the people, to rid them of evil spirits and demons."

Niu Gensheng and Ji Yongling quickly stepped forward to pull Hu Xirong and Ji Yongning away respectively.

Seeing that Ji Yongning was being protected by Niu Gensheng, Hu Xirong grabbed Ji Yongzhou and did the same thing again. Ji Yongzhou's buttocks were slapped several times with a fire poker, and he cried out in pain. Tie Dan and Er Dan were so frightened that they shrank back and hid.

Fearing that Hu Xirong would "go berserk," Ji Yongling took advantage of Hu Xirong's inattention and snatched the fire poker from her hand, barely ending the family discipline.

When Grandpa Ji and Madam Yang heard Ji Yongning and Ji Yongzhou shouting outside, they knew that Hu Xirong must be disciplining the two brothers, so they continued to do their work and did not come out until they heard that the beating was over.

When Ji Yongzhou saw his grandparents come out, he immediately burst into tears, sobbing and wiping away snot and tears, looking pitiful as he looked at Madam Yang and Old Master Ji.

Grandpa Ji looked at Niu Gensheng and asked, "Brother Gensheng, what's wrong with these kids?"

Niu Gensheng sighed and said, "Oh dear, I was just weeding in the field when some village kids ran over and said that Yongning and his friends had blown up the old grave. I ran over and saw that, sure enough, the old grave had collapsed. I was just about to tell you what to do about this."

Upon hearing this, the old man's expression, which had just shown some tenderness for his grandson, vanished instantly, replaced by uncontrollable rage. He pointed at Ji Yongning and cursed, "You brats, you're so bored you have nowhere else to go, you even dare to dig up graves! You...you..."

Seeing that Old Master Ji was too angry to continue speaking, Ji Yongning's stubborn neck immediately softened. He lowered his head and said softly, "We didn't know it would explode. I just wanted to exorcise the demons and ghosts so that the will-o'-the-wisps wouldn't scare people."

Ji Yongling didn't know whether to applaud Ji Yongning's chivalrous spirit or shake her head at his mischievousness. She thought she should find an opportunity to educate the children about will-o'-the-wisps.

Madam Yang shook her head helplessly: "You bunch of good-for-nothings, you're always causing trouble. If you're not disciplined for three days, you're up to no good and tearing off the roof. That old grave has been there for so long, who knows whose ancestors are buried there? Instead of burning paper money and kowtowing to them, you dare to rip off their roof. Really, sigh... you're ruining the lives of their ancestors!"

Old Master Ji glared at the mud-covered children and said, "Go wash yourselves in the ditch, make sure your faces are clean. We'll talk about it after I've discussed it with your village head. You'll definitely have to go to the graves to kowtow and apologize to the people inside."

The mud dolls, having heard the news, ran happily like little sparrows towards the ditch, completely forgetting that two people had just been beaten half to death.

Ji Yongling planned to educate the younger children, so she went to the stream as well.

Hu Xirong gritted her teeth and shouted from behind, "I'll deal with you two when I get back." However, the Ji brothers completely forgot about this threat.

Several children were splashing around in the stream, their clothes, which were originally covered in dirt, now turned into muddy water that streamed down their bodies. If Hu Xirong were there, she would probably get a beating from her mother.

Because the ditch was shallow, the children found splashing in the water uninteresting, so they simply lay down in the ditch and let the water wash away the yellow mud on their bodies. When they got tired, they climbed onto the rocks by the river and lay sprawled out on them, letting the sun shine directly on them.

Suddenly remembering something, Ji Yongning looked smugly at Ji Yongling, who was constantly searching for herbs, and said, "Sister Ling'er, although the old grave didn't burst into flames and the coffin was pulled out of the ground like Erdan's father said, it still collapsed. There are no demons or monsters inside now. Amazing, right!"

Ji Yongling straightened up and said, "Very impressive. But what does Erdan's father say to you every day? How come there's this whole grave-exploding thing?"

Ji Yongning chuckled and said, "It's all about digging up graves and digging tombs."

Erdan squeezed through and said, "My dad said they were tomb raiders."

Ji Yongling shook his head. It seems that from ancient times to the present, everyone has been very interested in tomb raiding stories full of adventure, mystery and excitement.

She beckoned and said, “Come here, let me tell you about will-o’-the-wisps. Actually, when we die, as the coffin is buried in the ground, our bodies decompose and release gases. Some of these gases are very easy to ignite, or even burn on their own without being lit. This is called spontaneous combustion. So the will-o’-the-wisps we see at night are these spontaneously combusting gases.”

Ji Yongning's mouth gaped open, wide enough to fit an egg, and he said, "Oh, it can even spontaneously combust. Sister Ling'er, how did you discover that? Did you perhaps dig up a grave?"

Ji Yongling threw a piece of husk at Ji Yongning and said, "Does it mean you only know something after you've done it yourself? Can't someone else teach you?"

Ji Yongning nodded thoughtfully: "The first person to discover this problem must be very capable, a master of grave robbing."

Ji Yongling: "......."

Ji Yongzhou, shirtless, wrung out his shirt and said, "Sister, if it was just spontaneous combustion as you said, why didn't it burn the grave down, but instead caused it to collapse?"