Farming for Three Meals a Day [Farming Life] 77

Chapter 77

After the Spring Equinox comes Qingming Festival. During Qingming, the rain falls continuously, and the mountains are shrouded in mist.

Pear blossoms scattered on the mountain path, crushed into the mud. Ye Xi walked on the petals, fallen blossoms brushing against his shoulders and eyebrows. He was going to the mountains to gather mugwort leaves for making qingtuan (green rice balls).

Peach blossoms were in full bloom, and Ye Xi used his clothes to collect some petals, planning to use them for making peach blossom pastries.

Passing by Li-ge’er’s house, he saw him airing clothes in the courtyard and called out to him over the low mud wall.

“Xi-ge’er, where are you going? Foraging for wild vegetables or spring bamboo shoots?”

Ye Xi showed him the mugwort leaves in his basket. “It’s Qingming Festival, I’m going to make qingtuan, have you made any?”

Li-ge’er said, “My mother is making them, she’s in the vegetable garden. I’m washing clothes while the weather is good.”

This was the courtyard Li Xi built after they got married: a small courtyard with side rooms, a main room, and two main bedrooms, facing south, spacious and bright, only a few hundred meters away from Ye Xi’s house.

Ye Xi teased him, “You’ve become so domesticated after getting married, Li Xi is a lucky man.”

They chatted for a while, and then, thinking that Lin Jiangshan would be back soon, Ye Xi hurried home.

He soaked the mugwort leaves in a basin, washed them carefully, and blanched them in boiling water.

The unique aroma of mugwort filled the air. He rinsed the leaves in cold water, chopped them finely, and then pounded them in a mortar.

He added flour, kneaded it into a dough, covered it with a cloth, and let it rest.

The sweet potato vines in the field had sprouted, and Ye Xi went to pick some tender leaves and stems for stir-frying.

Lin Jiangshan returned, carrying a shoulder pole. He had gone to the mountains two days ago, and while chopping firewood, he caught two rabbits in a trap. He had taken them to town to sell, along with the spring bamboo shoots Ye Xi had dug.

“You’re back earlier than usual,” Ye Xi said with a smile, peeling sweet potato stems.

Lin Jiangshan said, “The market was crowded today, everyone buying paper money, incense, and candles for Qingming, so my things sold quickly.”

“I gathered some mugwort leaves today, I’ll make qingtuan later. We’ll have a simple lunch. Did you buy the pork I asked for?” Ye Xi asked.

Lin Jiangshan nodded and took out the money bag from his pocket. “I bought it. Pork is two wen more expensive today because of Qingming, I spent twenty-three wen on a piece of meat, and also bought paper money, incense, and candles. This is the remaining money from selling things at the market.”

Ye Xi wiped his hands, took the money bag, and counted the coins. “Didn’t you buy a meat bun for yourself?” His husband had left early this morning, and he only had time to make porridge with leftover rice, which wasn’t very filling. He had told him to buy a bun in town if he was hungry.

Lin Jiangshan smiled. “I wanted to come back and eat at home, so I didn’t stop.” Ever since his husband started cooking for him, he didn’t want to eat out anymore, only thinking about the warm meals at home.

Ye Xi picked up the vegetable basket. “Alright, I’ll cook now, so we can eat early.”

Back in the kitchen, the dough for the qingtuan was ready. He steamed the red beans until soft, mashed them, and added honey, making red bean paste, then decided to make another filling.

He roasted some peanuts, ground them into powder with a rolling pin, added black sesame seeds and sugar, and made a sesame and peanut filling.

He made ten qingtuan with each filling, steamed them in a pot, stir-fried sweet potato leaves with dried chili peppers and garlic slices, and stir-fried sweet potato stems with pickled chili peppers and sour beans. Since there was no meat, he went to the wall outside the courtyard and picked a bunch of wild scallions, then made scrambled eggs with them.

Their lunch was qingtuan, and they ate in the courtyard, enjoying the food with the side dishes.

They had to visit the ancestral graves in the afternoon. The Ye family’s ancestral graves were on the southern hillside of Shanxiu Village, the earliest ancestor being their great-grandfather. They didn’t know where their ancestors were from before that. They would visit the Ye family ancestors first, then return in the evening and offer sacrifices to Lin Jiangshan’s parents. His parents-in-law’s graves were in Beizhou, so they could only pay their respects to the memorial tablets.

After lunch, Ye Xi packed the pork, wine bowls, and paper money in a basket and went out with Lin Jiangshan.

April was lush and green, the weather pleasant, the wind gently swaying the grass, a cheerful and refreshing day, no wonder the young ladies and gentlemen in town went on outings to enjoy the spring scenery.

Children in the village were flying kites, eagle-shaped kites soaring high in the sky, a group of children chasing after them.

They went to the Ye family’s house, and together with Liu Xiufeng, Father Ye, and Ye Shan, they went to visit the ancestral graves. In Nanchuan Prefecture, there was no custom of excluding married-out sons from visiting the ancestral graves, they were still considered family members and could return to pay their respects to their ancestors.

Li Ran, heavily pregnant, couldn’t go with them, so she made some glutinous rice cakes early in the morning for Ye Shan to offer at the graves, a gesture of respect from the new daughter-in-law.

Liu Xiufeng was delighted, praising her daughter-in-law for her thoughtfulness.

They encountered many villagers on the way, families carrying offerings and paper money to visit the graves, and they exchanged greetings.

This was Lin Jiangshan’s first time visiting his husband’s ancestors, so he knelt down and kowtowed three times.

Father Ye smiled. “Son-in-law, your sincerity will definitely be blessed by our ancestors.”

After paying their respects, they left the offerings at the graves. Ye Xi and Lin Jiangshan didn’t stay for dinner at the Ye family’s house, they had to hurry back and pay their respects to Lin Jiangshan’s parents.

Back home, Ye Xi cut a square piece of pork belly and placed it in a bowl as an offering, poured two bowls of wine, added a plate of qingtuan, and placed them on the table in the main room. They burned paper money and lit incense in the courtyard.

Watching the ashes being carried away by the wind, Ye Xi said, “Your parents must have come to see us, look, they took the paper money we burned for them.”

Lin Jiangshan agreed, his voice low, his heart filled with longing for his parents on this rainy Qingming Festival.

He looked at Ye Xi and felt a surge of gratitude. If he hadn’t come here, he wouldn’t have met his husband and might still be alone.

He had a family now.

After burning the paper money, Ye Xi went to the kitchen and made a pot of dough drop soup, thickened with cornstarch, with added eggs and green vegetables, a warm and comforting dish.

The Qingming rain started falling again, a light drizzle, and the mountains were shrouded in mist.

Ye Xi, sipping his soup, planned their future activities. “Dragon Boat Festival is not far off, we have to prepare some salted duck eggs. Our ducks are only two months old, they’re not laying eggs yet, we’ll have to buy some from the village, not just for Dragon Boat Festival, but also for adding to porridge or steamed buns.”

Lin Jiangshan agreed. “We’ll be harvesting the wheat after Dragon Boat Festival. The winter wheat is growing well this year, it seems we’ll have a good harvest. I’m thinking, since we don’t have much land, we should finish harvesting ours first, so we can help your parents with their harvest. Your brother has the fishpond now and is busy every day, he probably won’t have time during the wheat harvest.”

Ye Xi nodded, if his brother couldn’t help, and his sister-in-law was pregnant, his parents couldn’t harvest the wheat alone, they would have to hire help, which wasn’t cost-effective.

“What about the sweet potatoes and potatoes in the field?” Ye Xi was also concerned about the crops on their new land.

Lin Jiangshan smiled. “The land is fertile, the sweet potato vines are growing long, and the potatoes have bloomed. We can harvest them after the wheat harvest, and we’ll have to dig a new cellar, otherwise, we won’t have enough space to store them.”

Ye Xi asked, “Shouldn’t we sell some? We can’t possibly eat that much, and when the winter wheat is harvested, the price is the highest. Many villagers sell half of their harvest and then eat the new rice after the autumn harvest.”

Lin Jiangshan disagreed. “Money is ephemeral, food that fills our stomachs is what truly matters. If we want to sell, we can sell it next year, we should always have two years’ worth of grain stored at home.”

Ye Xi didn’t understand why his husband insisted on this, but Lin Jiangshan always made the decisions, and he just managed the household, trusting that he wouldn’t make any decisions that would harm them.

Lin Jiangshan swallowed his food and then said slowly, “I might be overly cautious, but I’ve seen the hardship of famine, it’s worse than war. Two years ago, there was a flood in Dongjiang Prefecture. You’re far away here and probably haven’t heard about it, I happened to be traveling there at that time.”

Ye Xi put down his chopsticks and listened quietly.

“The crops in the fields were all washed away, a complete loss, the streets filled with starving people. Grain was more expensive than silver, those with money would exchange a bag of silver for two dou (a unit of dry measure) of rice, and those without money would sell their children.”

Lin Jiangshan paused, not wanting to describe the more gruesome scenes, afraid of scaring his husband, who had always lived a peaceful life in this beautiful place.

“I survived on two pancakes, and I had to hide them, if people knew you had food, they would surround you, beat you to death, and steal your food.”

Ye Xi’s eyelashes fluttered, he had never seen such things. Nanchuan Prefecture was fertile and rarely experienced famine. They lived simple lives in the village, relying on the land for food, although not wealthy, they always had enough to eat and wear.

“Since you’ve seen more of the world, husband, I’ll listen to you, we’ll store more food, we’re not short of money anyway.”

Lin Jiangshan smiled. “Your parents will probably laugh at us, two gluttons, always thinking about our own stomachs, hoarding all the food at home.”

Ye Xi pinched his cheek. “My mother already said I’ve gained weight since getting married, she said you’re taking good care of me.”

Lin Jiangshan encircled his husband’s slender wrist with his hand. “You can still gain more, you’re still thin.”

Ye Xi glared at him. “No way, my clothes won’t fit anymore.”