Farming for Three Meals a Day [Farming Life] 92

Chapter 92

After chatting with Li-ge’er for a while, Ye Xi returned to his parents’ house. Liu Xiufeng was in the courtyard, holding Little Thunder and watching the chickens and ducks, while Li Ran sewed baby clothes beside her.

Ye Xi teased his nephew with a flower, then gave the ginger flowers he brought to his mother. “Did Brother buy new land?”

Liu Xiufeng said happily, “Yes, we bought that sandy plot west of the river yesterday, we can plant mulberry, hemp, cotton, or even sesame and sweet potatoes there!”

Ye Xi smiled. “Brother is doing well now, building a good life for his family, are you going to buy a cow?”

Li Ran, sewing, smiled gently. “The fishpond is large, we have to tend to it first, so we bought a mule to transport grass and feed. We don’t have much land, so we’ll hire people to plow for now, and when we have more money, we’ll buy a cow.”

“Sister-in-law and Brother are good planners, you’re a wealthy family now!” Ye Xi held his nephew and played with him with a cloth tiger toy, making him giggle.

Liu Xiufeng, mindful of his pregnancy, said, “Careful, my dear, look at your belly, it’s getting big.”

Ye Xi smiled. “I know, my husband treasures this baby, I can’t be careless.” Lin Jiangshan would talk to the baby every night, even though the baby couldn’t understand him yet, always saying, “I’m your daddy,” which was amusing.

As it got late, Ye Xi went home, Liu Xiufeng seeing him off halfway up the mountain.

He sliced the ginger flowers he picked today, stir-fried them with dried bracken ferns and cured meat, a fragrant and oily dish, then steamed a pot of rice. The aroma filled the house, and he sat in the kitchen, embroidering, the fawn and goat keeping him company, waiting for Lin Jiangshan to return.

He heard the sound of cart wheels in the distance, and the two dogs ran out to greet their master, wagging their tails.

Lin Jiangshan returned in the ox cart under the cover of night, the baskets on the cart empty.

Ye Xi stood up with a smile. “You sold everything?!”

Lin Jiangshan unhitched the ox, put away the baskets in the woodshed, led the cow to the cowshed, then stretched his shoulders and smiled. “Sold out, and at a good price, let’s go inside.”

Ye Xi locked the courtyard gate and secured it with a stone.

In the kitchen, he served Lin Jiangshan a bowl of spinach and egg drop soup and a steamed bun to fill his stomach.

Lin Jiangshan had left before dawn and was starving after a long day of work. After eating a bun, he felt better and said, “I had lunch in town, early, I treated your brother and Li Xi to roasted chicken and steamed buns, I can’t let them go hungry after helping me. I even bought them a roasted chicken each to take home, it cost sixty-five wen.”

Ye Xi nodded. “You should, no need to save on that.”

Lin Jiangshan wiped his hands and took out the money bag from his pocket, the heavy thud as he placed it on the table telling Ye Xi that it wasn’t just copper coins inside.

Lin Jiangshan said, “The price of grain in town has increased to over thirty wen, ordinary people can’t afford it, so the coarse grains I brought sold well. Sweet potatoes and potatoes used to be four or five wen per catty, but the shops have run out of coarse grains, and with the drought, the farmers are reluctant to sell. The cart I brought today was the first time anyone had sold coarse grains in over ten days, so I sold them at the market price, fifteen wen per catty.”

Ye Xi’s jaw dropped. “The price has skyrocketed! How can it be so expensive?!”

Lin Jiangshan replied, “The war in the north has begun, and surplus grain is being sent there. And with the drought in Nanchuan Prefecture this year, the autumn harvest will be poor, so the grain shops are hoarding grain and selling it at a high price. Although coarse grains are more expensive than rice now, people are buying whatever they can afford to fill their stomachs.”

Ye Xi opened the money bag, and inside were several pieces of silver, larger than the usual small pieces, with official markings.

He weighed them in his hand. “This must be seven or eight taels!”

Lin Jiangshan smiled. “Eight taels and seventy wen, I spent ten wen exchanging the copper coins for silver at the money changer’s, easier to carry and store. I brought a cartload today, about five hundred catties, and sold out in less than two hours.”

Ye Xi went to get his money box from the cabinet, which contained a few land deeds and their savings, thirteen taels of silver. Adding the almost nine taels they earned today, they now had over twenty taels.

Although they couldn’t compare to the wealthy families in town or the officials and nobles in the prefecture, in the mountain villages, having six or seven acres of good land, a cow, and over twenty taels of silver meant they were one of the wealthiest families, a family’s annual expenses were only one or two taels. Even a wedding feast only cost seven or eight taels.

Ye Xi put the silver in the money box and said happily, “My brother bought new land to plant cash crops, and we now have enough to buy more land ourselves, we’ll save the rest for emergencies.”

Lin Jiangshan was also happy for Ye Shan. “Your brother’s life is improving, he won’t have to worry about food and clothing with the fishpond.”

After dinner, they soaked their feet in the room, Ye Xi playfully stepping on Lin Jiangshan’s feet.

Lin Jiangshan said, “I almost got extorted by some thugs in town today.”

Ye Xi’s heart skipped a beat. “Tell me, why didn’t you mention it earlier?”

Lin Jiangshan gently rubbed his husband’s foot with his toes and smiled. “Don’t worry, it’s a bit chaotic in town recently, with the rising prices, and ordinary people are struggling to afford food, so those thugs are trying to extort money. Your brother, Li Xi, and I brought a cartload of coarse grains to town, and those thugs wanted us to pay a ‘stall fee’ and a ‘toll,’ and they also tried to steal a few baskets of our sweet potatoes. We refused, and they wouldn’t let us go and report to the authorities, there were too many of them.”

Ye Xi quickly asked, “How did you get away?”

“Grandma Zhao saw us, and she was afraid we would be at a disadvantage, so she went to the government office and found her brother, Zhang Yuan, who works there now, and he has some influence, he brought some officers, and they chased those thugs away.”

Ye Xi was relieved. “Grandma Zhao from our village? How is she doing now?”

Lin Jiangshan nodded. “She’s doing well now, her brother is filial and has a good income, she doesn’t have to worry about food and clothing anymore, she even works at a restaurant in town now, earning some money. She looks healthier and has gained some weight.”

Ye Xi smiled. “She’s finally living a good life after all those years of hardship, it’s good that I helped her, and she even helped you in return!”

After carefully counting their money again, they discussed buying more land. They would plant cotton on their current land and use the new land for buckwheat or sweet potatoes. They needed more land.

As the night deepened, they turned off the lights and went to bed, tired.

After another month of hot weather, it was the eighth lunar month, the time of the Autumn Equinox, and the autumn harvest began in Shanxiu Village.

However, with the drought this year, the harvest was less than half of usual. In previous years, the villagers would be happy and cheerful, harvesting rice and grinding new flour, but this year, everyone was worried, carefully collecting every single grain, barely enough for the winter and the following spring.

Lin Jiangshan and Ye Shan loaded the harvested grain onto the ox cart, while Ye Xi and Liu Xiufeng collected the fallen grains in the field. Although they had enough food at home, they couldn’t bear to see any grain wasted.

Some poor children and women from the village came to glean the fields but were chased away by the landowners. Unlike previous years, when the harvest was good and every family had surplus grain, they were more protective of their crops this year, having to save every grain for themselves.

A woman gleaning in the next field, her back sore, straightened up and said to Liu Xiufeng, “Mrs. Ye, your family is doing well, why are you still collecting these fallen grains? You don’t need these few grains.”

Liu Xiufeng, not one to show off, smiled and said, “With this drought, who knows what next spring will be like? Even if we have food and are living a good life, we still have to be frugal, we’re not a wealthy family, we have to be careful with our money.”

The woman smiled. “That’s right, it’s because you’re so frugal that your family is prospering now, buying a fishpond and land, your life is much better than before, you’re a wealthy family now.”

Liu Xiufeng said, “You’re not far behind, your family will be wealthy too one day!”

The woman was pleased and, after exchanging a few more words, continued gleaning.

That evening, Ye Xi and Li Ran prepared a hearty dinner with plenty of oil and meat to reward everyone for their hard work during the harvest. The family sat in the courtyard, an oil lamp lit on the table, with wine, dishes, and freshly steamed rice.

They had dug some wild scallions and pickled mustard greens today, stir-fried them with minced meat and garlic, a delicious and flavorful dish to go with the freshly steamed rice, enough for three large bowls.

Ye Shan and Lin Jiangshan, tired after a day’s work, ate heartily, their mouths oily, each with a mountain of rice in their bowls.

Village Chief Zhou arrived with a group of men, their sudden appearance surprising the Ye family.

Father Ye quickly stood up and asked, “What’s wrong? What happened?”

Village Chief Zhou’s face was grim. “There’s trouble, chaos in town! I heard a group of outsiders came and started looting food. My son, who works in town, came back and said many shops have been robbed, they might come to our village next, we have to be prepared!”

Liu Xiufeng, hearing this, gasped and clutched her chest. “Heavens, there’s really going to be chaos! With the poor harvest this year, and no hope for the autumn harvest, there are bound to be riots!”

Ye Xi and Li Ran, holding her baby, exchanged glances, their eyes filled with fear and unease.

Lin Jiangshan put down his bowl and chopsticks. “There are many young and strong men in our village, Village Chief, I’ll go with you.”

Ye Shan also said, “Yes, with the two of us, we won’t let those people cause trouble here.”

The village was full of their wives and children, the men had to protect them.

Village Chief Zhou praised them. “Good men, come with me to the village entrance, let’s see what we can do to defend our village!”

Ye Xi brought jackets for Lin Jiangshan and Ye Shan, although his heart was filled with worry, he wouldn’t stop them, and after a few more words of caution, he watched as they left with the other men from the village.