Farming for Three Meals a Day [Farming Life] 77

Chapter 77

After the Spring Equinox came Qingming, a time of drizzling rain. The mountains were shrouded in mist and clouds for several days, the pear blossoms on the mountain paths scattered, their pink and white petals trampled into the mud.

Ye Xi, carrying a basket, walked on the petal-strewn path, fallen blossoms brushing against his shoulders and eyebrows. He was going to the mountains to pick mugwort for making green rice balls.

The peach blossoms were in full bloom, and Ye Xi collected a handful of their petals in his clothes, to be used for making peach blossom pastries.

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

“Xi-ge’er, what are you up to? Digging wild vegetables or bamboo shoots?”

Ye Xi lifted his basket to show him the mugwort inside. “I’m going to make green rice balls for Qingming Festival, have you made any?”

Li-ge’er said, “My mother is making them, she’s in the vegetable garden. I’m just taking advantage of the sunny weather to wash clothes.”

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

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

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

He soaked the mugwort in a basin, washed it carefully, and then blanched it in boiling water.

The unique aroma of mugwort filled the air. Ye Xi took out the mugwort, rinsed it in cold water, chopped it finely, and then mashed it 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 shoots and stems for a stir-fry.

Lin Jiangshan returned, carrying a shoulder pole. He had gone to the mountains two days ago and caught two wild rabbits in a trap while chopping firewood, and he had also taken the bamboo shoots Ye Xi picked to sell at the market.

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

Lin Jiangshan said, “There were many people at the market today, all buying paper money and candles, so my things sold quickly.”

“I picked some mugwort today, I’ll make some green rice balls for us to eat later. We can just have a simple lunch. Did you buy the pork?” Ye Xi asked.

Lin Jiangshan nodded and took out a money bag from his pocket. “I bought it. The price of pork increased by two wen today because of Qingming Festival, I spent twenty-three wen on a piece of meat, and also bought paper money and candles. This is the money left over from selling my things.”

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 in the morning, and Ye Xi had only had time to make porridge with leftover rice, which wasn’t very filling. He had told him to buy a steamed bun in town if he was hungry.

Lin Jiangshan smiled. “I wanted to come back and eat at home, so I didn’t stop.” Since his husband started cooking for him, he no longer wanted to eat outside, only craving a hot meal at home.

Ye Xi took the vegetable basket. “Alright, I’ll cook now, let’s eat early.”

Back in the kitchen, the dough for the green rice balls had risen. He steamed the red beans until soft, mashed them, and mixed them with honey to make red bean paste, then decided to make another filling.

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

He made ten of each filling and steamed them in a steamer.

He stir-fried a plate of sweet potato leaves with dried chili peppers and garlic, and another plate of sweet potato stems with pickled chili peppers and pickled sour beans. Remembering there was no meat, he went to the wall outside the courtyard, found a patch of wild scallions, and stir-fried them with a few eggs, a golden yellow dish.

The main dish for lunch was green rice balls. They each took a green rice ball and ate it with the side dishes in the courtyard.

They had to pay respects to their ancestors in the afternoon. The Ye family’s ancestral graves were on the southern slope of Shanxiu Village, the earliest ancestor being his great-grandfather, and beyond that, he didn’t know where their ancestors came from. They would first pay respects to the Ye family’s ancestors, and in the evening, they would set up an altar to pay respects to Lin Jiangshan’s parents, whose graves were in Beizhou, too far away for them to visit, so they could only worship their memorial tablets.

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

It was a beautiful April day, not too cold, not too hot, the wind gently swaying the wild grass, the sky clear and sunny, a cheerful mood. No wonder the young masters and ladies in town liked to go out for spring outings.

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

They went to the Ye family’s house and went with Liu Xiufeng, Father Ye, and Ye Shan to pay respects to their ancestors. In Nanchuan Prefecture, there was no custom of forbidding married sons from visiting their ancestral graves, they were still considered family and had to pay respects to their ancestors.

Li Ran, being heavily pregnant, couldn’t go, so she got up early and made a few glutinous rice cakes for Ye Shan to offer at the graves, a gesture of respect from her as the new daughter-in-law.

Liu Xiufeng was overjoyed, praising her daughter-in-law for being thoughtful and considerate.

On their way, they met many villagers, all carrying offerings and paper money to pay respects to their ancestors, 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 is sincere, the ancestors will definitely bless you.”

After paying respects to their ancestors, they left the offerings at the graves. Ye Xi and Lin Jiangshan didn’t stay for dinner at the Ye family’s house, as they had to go back and pay respects to his parents-in-law.

Back home, Ye Xi placed a square piece of pork belly in a bowl as an offering, poured two bowls of wine, and placed a plate of green rice balls 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, “Father-in-law and Mother-in-law must be here to see us, look, they’ve taken the paper money we burned for them.”

Lin Jiangshan hummed in agreement, his voice husky, his heart filled with longing for his parents on this rainy Qingming Festival.

He looked at Ye Xi, feeling grateful, if he hadn’t come here, he might not have met his husband and would still be alone.

Now he had a home.

After burning the paper money, Ye Xi went to the kitchen and made a pot of dough drop soup, thickened with cornstarch, with eggs and leafy greens, a warm and comforting meal.

The Qingming rain started to fall again, drizzling, the mountains shrouded in mist and water vapor.

Ye Xi, eating his soup, planned for the future. “Dragon Boat Festival is not far away, we should start pickling some salted duck eggs. The ducks are only two months old, they won’t lay eggs yet, so we have to buy some from the village. Besides eating them during the festival, we can also have them with porridge or in steamed buns later.”

Lin Jiangshan agreed. “We’ll harvest the wheat after the Dragon Boat Festival. The winter wheat is growing well this year, we should have a good harvest. I’m thinking, since we have less land, we can harvest ours first and then help your parents. Your brother has the fishpond now, and he’s busy, he might not have enough time for the summer harvest.”

Ye Xi nodded. If his brother was busy, and his sister-in-law was pregnant, his parents wouldn’t be able to harvest the wheat on their own, they would have to hire help, which was not cost-effective.

“What about the sweet potatoes and potatoes in our new field?” Ye Xi asked, worried about the harvest.

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 winter wheat. We’ll have to dig a cellar then, otherwise, we won’t have enough space to store them.”

Ye Xi asked, “Aren’t we selling some? We have so much, we can’t eat it all. After the winter wheat harvest, the price of wheat is at its highest, many villagers sell half of their harvest and then eat the new rice from the autumn harvest.”

But Lin Jiangshan disagreed. “Money is just paper, food that can fill our stomachs is what’s real. We can sell some next year if we want, but we should store at least two granaries of food at home.”

Ye Xi didn’t know why his husband wanted to do this, but he always trusted his decisions.

Lin Jiangshan swallowed his food and said slowly, “I might be overly cautious, but I’ve seen the hardship of having no food during a disaster, it’s worse than war. Two years ago, there was a flood in Dongjiangyuan Prefecture, you’re far away here, so you might not have heard, but I was there at that time.”

Ye Xi put down his chopsticks and listened attentively.

“The crops were all washed away, no harvest at all, the streets were filled with starving and bloated people, rice in the shops was more expensive than silver, those with money would exchange a bag of silver for two dou of rice, and those without would sell their children.”

Lin Jiangshan paused, not wanting to describe the more gruesome scenes, afraid of scaring his husband, who had lived a peaceful life in this beautiful mountain village and had never seen such brutality.

“I survived with just two pancakes in my pocket, and I had to hide them, if anyone knew you had food, they would surround you, even kill you for it.”

Ye Xi’s eyelashes trembled, he had never seen such things, Nanchuan Prefecture was rich in resources and had rarely suffered from disasters. They had lived their entire lives in the village, relying on the land for food, and although they weren’t wealthy, they had enough to eat and stay warm.

“Since you’ve seen more of the world, husband, I’ll listen to you, we’ll store more grain, we don’t lack money for daily expenses anyway.”

Lin Jiangshan smiled. “Your parents will probably laugh at us, two greedy mouths, storing all the grain at home.”

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

Lin Jiangshan put his arm around his husband’s slender wrist. “You can still gain more, you’re still thin.”

Ye Xi glared at him. “No way, I’m afraid I won’t be able to fit into my clothes.”