Farming for Three Meals a Day [Farming Life] 90

Chapter 90

It was Major Heat, and it was still dry with little rain. Fortunately, the fields in Shanxiu Village had been irrigated once with water from the fishpond, and being in a valley, with temperature differences between day and night, there was some dew in the mornings, which saved the crops from completely drying up. In other villages, the seedlings were dying from the drought. Ye Xi peeled potatoes and sliced sweet potatoes in the courtyard, while Lin Jiangshan carried water from the mountain stream to water the vegetable garden.

“How about steamed sweet potatoes and potato cakes for lunch?” Ye Xi asked.

Lin Jiangshan watered the garden and then let the rabbits out into their fenced enclosure.

“No wheat flour or rice?” Lin Jiangshan wasn’t picky about food but was curious about his husband’s frugality recently, always making meals with coarse grains.

Ye Xi said, “I’m saving the wheat flour and rice, in case there’s another drought or flood next year, we don’t want to have an empty granary.”

Lin Jiangshan smiled. “Don’t worry too much, husband, it’s just the two of us, even if the harvest is poor, the grain we have stored is enough, and we also have savings, we can always buy more.”

Ye Xi smiled. “I must be overly worried then. We’ll have steamed flower rolls and cold tofu skin for dinner, and there’s also leftover mushroom soup from yesterday.”

He felt a bit guilty, he could eat coarse grains, but he forgot that Lin Jiangshan did hard labor every day and needed more nutritious food.

Lin Jiangshan, seeing his husband’s guilt, smiled. “I can eat anything, I’m more concerned about you and the baby, you can’t go hungry, our life isn’t bad now, I can’t let my husband and child eat poorly, it would be embarrassing.”

Ye Xi’s belly was showing now, four months along, due in January, during the New Year. He looked down at his belly and smiled. “This little one has a sweet tooth, always craving fried foods, I made some sweet potato balls this morning, sprinkled with chili powder, crispy, chewy, and spicy, I couldn’t resist and ate seven or eight of them.”

Lin Jiangshan, watering the plants, looked at his belly and smiled. “Sour cravings mean a boy, spicy cravings mean a girl, perhaps it’s a little ge’er.”

Young men could only give birth to sons or young men like themselves, and Lin Jiangshan thought, if it was a fair and delicate young man like him, he would spoil him endlessly.

Ye Xi said, “Either way is fine, as long as it’s our child.”

A breeze blew through the valley, dispelling some of the heat. Their small courtyard, nestled behind the bamboo grove, with the mountainside and forest behind the house, was shaded and cool, the breeze from the mountain stream creating a pleasant environment. They even needed a thin quilt at night with the windows open.

After lunch, Lin Jiangshan accompanied Ye Xi back to their room for a nap, the afternoon drowsiness common in summer.

As Lin Jiangshan was getting up to go back to the fields, Ye Xi held onto his finger, unwilling to let go.

Lin Jiangshan bent down and kissed his husband’s forehead. “I have to check on the cotton in the field, it’s a drought this year, although cotton is drought-resistant, I still need to see if it needs watering.”

He was always like this, constantly worried about the farm work, never idle.

Ye Xi nodded drowsily and let go of his hand.

Lin Jiangshan left the room, picked up the buckets, and prepared to go to the field. The two puppies had grown considerably and looked quite impressive now. They were very obedient and, seeing their master leaving for the fields, wagged their tails and wanted to follow him.

Lin Jiangshan looked down at them. “Stay home today and guard your other master.”

The two puppies, understanding his words, sat down obediently and didn’t follow him.

Lin Jiangshan closed the courtyard gate and went to the fields.

The cicadas chirped, and Ye Xi slept for another half an hour before waking up. The fawn and goat were also sleeping in the main room, and the hens in the coop occasionally clucked, laying eggs.

The wind rustled the bamboo leaves, the afternoon peaceful and quiet.

Ye Xi got up and brewed a pot of honeysuckle tea, picked from the mountain and dried, which could also be sold in town. He had gone foraging with Li-ge’er for a while and had dried three or four catties, some for their own tea and the rest sold for two hundred wen.

There were also many forsythia flowers on the mountain recently, but he and Li-ge’er didn’t dare to go near them, as they attracted snakes, which they were both terrified of. Even though the shops were buying them for ten wen per catty, they weren’t brave enough.

He had told Lin Jiangshan about it, and his husband, brave and experienced in the mountains, said he would pick them after tending the crops.

Thanks to his husband’s hard work and skills, their family’s savings were increasing steadily, the money box half full. He could buy a nice longevity lock for their baby when he was born.

After waking up, Ye Xi mixed grass and wheat bran to feed the chickens and ducks, collected five warm eggs from the coop, and thought about collecting some snails from the riverbank to feed the ducks, so they would grow faster, since they hadn’t been laying many eggs recently.

The pigs in the pigsty were oinking, they must be hungry. They had been saving grain recently, and he hadn’t been feeding them sweet potatoes, only boiled rice bran with grass, which wasn’t very filling, so he had to cook another meal for them every afternoon.

After finishing the chores, Ye Xi took a basket and prepared to go and collect snails.

Just as he left the courtyard, the two older He children arrived.

Ye Xi opened the gate and asked them to take the cow out to graze. “Why didn’t Xiu-guniang come today?”

Little He pursed his lips. “My sister went to the mountains to dig wild vegetables. My brother and I are here to herd the cow and cut grass today.”

They usually came together, but recently, Xiu-guniang hadn’t been coming, so he was responsible for herding the cow, and his brother for cutting grass.

Ye Xi paused and asked softly, “Is your family running out of food?”

He noticed that Little He seemed thinner, the new harvest wasn’t ready yet, and the prices in town had increased rapidly.

Little He and Big Brother He didn’t answer, just licked their chapped lips and led the cow away.

Ye Xi took the basket and went to the stream to collect snails, plump and juicy this time of year, their shells covered in mud, slowly moving along the riverbed.

He usually only collected them occasionally, to feed the chickens and ducks or as a treat. They were troublesome to prepare, requiring soaking to remove the sand and then stir-frying with yellow wine, chili peppers, ginger, and garlic to mask the muddy taste.

This year, with everyone saving grain and reluctant to buy meat, more people were collecting snails.

Ye Xi collected along the riverbank for a long time, barely filling half a basket, enough for one meal for the chickens and ducks, and then went home.

When he returned, the two He children had also finished their chores. They were always diligent when working for Ye Xi’s family, carefully cutting the tenderest grass, arranging it neatly, even cleaning the mud off the cow with broad leaves, smoking the cowshed and chicken coop with mugwort, and helping Ye Xi collect the manure for fertilizer.

Ye Xi offered them tea. “Come and have some tea.”

The two children each drank a large bowl in one gulp. “Pretty Uncle, we’ll be going now.”

Ye Xi stopped them. “Wait, stay for dinner.”

The two children looked at each other, swallowed, but still refused. “Pretty Uncle, my mother is waiting for us at home, we can’t stay for dinner.”

Ye Xi’s face darkened, and he asked softly, “Tell me, are you running out of food at home?”

Big Brother He and Little He lowered their heads and didn’t answer, and Ye Xi knew the answer.

He went to the kitchen, filled a basket with sweet potatoes and potatoes, a cloth bag with wheat flour, and placed ten eggs on top.

“Take this home, wild vegetables and coarse grain buns aren’t enough, you’re still growing, you’ll get sick if you don’t eat properly.”

The two children didn’t dare to accept it, and Little He said, “You’ve already given us wages and grain, Pretty Uncle, we can’t take any more.”

Ye Xi pretended to be angry. “Your mother saved my sister-in-law and nephew, this is to repay her kindness. If you don’t accept this, you don’t have to come and work anymore, tell your mother that you don’t consider us family, and I won’t visit her again.”

Little He finally took the basket, grateful. “Pretty Uncle, we’ll definitely work harder for you in the future! Mother said you’ll be buying more land, we can help Uncle Lin with the farming then!”

Ye Xi smiled. “Alright, I’ll tell your uncle, I’ll ask him to buy more land soon, so you can help him.”

After the children left, Ye Xi went to the kitchen, took out the dough he had prepared earlier, rolled it out, brushed it with oil, sprinkled salt, pepper, and chopped scallions, rolled it up, and steamed it in a pot.

He cut the soaked dried tofu skin into strips, mixed it with shredded cucumber, mung bean noodles, and lettuce, stir-fried some scallions, ginger, and garlic in hot oil, poured it over the vegetables, sprinkled sesame seeds, chopped scallions, chili flakes, and cilantro, and finally, added vinegar, creating a refreshing and delicious cold dish.

Dinner was simple tonight. Ye Xi, seeing that Lin Jiangshan hadn’t returned yet, crushed the snails he collected and fed them to the chickens and ducks in the courtyard.

The steamed flower rolls were soft and fluffy, and he carefully placed them in a basket.

Lin Jiangshan returned, carrying buckets of water, having watered the cotton field, the plants growing well, a good harvest in sight.

They had dinner in the kitchen. The soft flower rolls, paired with the spicy and sour cold dish, were delicious.

Lin Jiangshan wiped the oil stains from Ye Xi’s mouth. “I have to go to town and ask about the price of grain, so we can sell half of the sweet potatoes and potatoes in the cellar, it’s a good time to sell grain now.”

Lin Jiangshan always made the big decisions, and Ye Xi had no objections. He nodded. “Alright, I’ve saved enough grain in the other cellar, rice, flour, sweet potatoes, and potatoes, you can sell the rest and earn some money.”

Lin Jiangshan said, “If we can sell them for four or five taels of silver, plus our savings, we can buy another two acres of paddy fields, and we’ll have even more grain next year.”

Ye Xi smiled. “If we can buy another two acres of paddy fields, we’ll be considered a wealthy family, and we won’t have to worry about food and clothing for our baby!”