Chapter Sixty-Five
At home, aside from cutting pig feed and tending the vegetable garden, Bai Qiqiu and Wen Zhaoran spent the rest of their time either catching cicadas or searching for cicada shells.
The next day, Zhou Lin took them directly to town and sold the peaches and cicadas to the Zhao family.
The cotton flowers in the fields have bloomed, and the hibiscus fertilizer has been prepared in advance. The weeds in the fields have been cleared away in the last two days.
Immediately apply manure to the cotton field.
Because of the three piglets at home, who eat and poop a lot, we have accumulated a lot of manure.
Seeing that there was still some cotton left after the cotton was planted, Mu Jin scattered some more into the sorghum field.
The hibiscus was carefully tended, but it couldn't compensate for the poor quality of the family's fields; the crops in the fields grew much weaker than those of the neighbors.
Since it was the first year of land reclamation, Mu Jin wasn't too disappointed. With careful tending over the next few years, even a barren field could be transformed into a fertile one.
I wiped the sweat from my forehead; the high-hanging sun was scorching.
After scattering the last shovelful of manure, Mu Jin sat at the edge of the field, took a big gulp of water from her bowl, and rested for a while.
The cicadas chirped incessantly in the trees, and suddenly a few drops of water fell.
Hibiscus glanced at the water on her hands, thinking it had rained, but when she looked outside the shade of the tree, the sun was still blazing.
Only then did he realize what it was, and he immediately couldn't sit still. He quickly picked up the wooden shovel and went home.
Feeling smelly and sticky, Mu Jin went back and took two showers, especially scrubbing her hands thoroughly with soap.
After letting out a deep sigh of relief and changing into clean clothes, Mu Jin finally felt refreshed.
In the vegetable garden, tomatoes are ripe and red, green beans are sprouting in batches, and eggplants and peppers are all ripening in a rush. Even after selling hundreds of kilograms of vegetables to the town, there is still more than enough left to eat.
These days, after drying green beans and eggplants, Mu Jin is drying all the vegetables that can be dried, packing them into sacks and storing them in the cupboard.
Looking at the cold tomato and cucumber salad, garlic green beans, and stir-fried green beans with chili and eggplant in front of him, Wen Zhaoran's face turned a little green.
Just one dish of fried cicadas looks quite appetizing.
"Brother, we've been eating green beans every day lately, so please don't make green beans for dinner."
Hibiscus broke open a rough-textured steamed bun, added a few chopsticks of minced garlic and green beans, and two or three fried, crispy cicadas.
"We've dried everything that can be dried. If we don't eat it, it'll go bad, and it would be a waste to throw it away."
Farmers don't earn money easily, so they are reluctant to waste anything that can be eaten or used.
Wen Zhaoran took a bite of cicada and sighed inwardly. He would definitely ask him to take him to town for a good meal when they returned to Muzhou for their rest day.
Of course, we should bring Qi Qiu, Jin, Si, and Mu Bai along.
Mu Jin took a bite of the coarse flour steamed bun filled with plenty of vegetables. He hadn't had enough of the green beans; he thought they were delicious no matter how he ate them.
Seeing that Zhao Ran hadn't eaten much food, he didn't pick up any green beans with his chopsticks.
He chuckled and said, "Tomorrow I'll have your older brother buy some pork, and we'll make steamed buns."
Wen Zhaoran immediately perked up, then asked listlessly, "Big brother, it's not filled with green bean paste, is it?"
"I'll make you some with locust flower filling."
Wen Zhaoran then laughed.
Bai Qiqiu could eat anything. He would drink some millet soup, take a big bite of a coarse flour steamed bun with green beans, and eat it with relish.
Wen Zhaoran watched for a while, and before she knew it, she had picked up several pieces of green beans with her chopsticks, and didn't even feel like she didn't want to eat anymore.
The wheat harvest had just ended, and the villagers were waiting to pay their grain taxes, sell their grain, and have some money in their pockets so they could treat themselves.
Taking advantage of the convenience, Mu Jin went to Mu Sheng's house and brought back a shi (a unit of dry measure) of wheat, based on the town's wheat purchase price.
There are four people in the family, and they eat a lot. The grain that Mu Jin bought in the spring, along with the fine rice and flour that Wen Zhaoran paid for, have long been gone.
At the end of last month, while going to town to collect money from the rice noodle shop, I rode in Musheng's oxcart and hauled a shi (a unit of dry measure) of chestnuts, half a shi of millet, and half a shi of sorghum flour.
Nowadays, the country is peaceful and prosperous, with favorable weather and abundant harvests, so grain prices are naturally not high.
Millet and sorghum cost four coins per pound, and sorghum five coins per pound. I spent one ounce and two hundred and seventy-five coins on this trip to buy grain.
The rice noodle shop, which yielded 1.7 taels of silver per month, left him with only 425 coins.
Adding the shi of grain I brought home today, which cost 900 wen, I've spent a little over two taels of silver in total.
Hibiscus felt heartbroken; buying grain was truly expensive.
For farmers, life really isn't the same without land.
Thinking about making steamed buns tomorrow, Mu Jin gritted her teeth and bought five catties of wheat.
After drying it, I sprinkled some water on it and carried it to the big stone mill in the village.
Mu Jin felt a surge of joy; since getting married, she hadn't ground her own grain for a long time.
When the wheat in the fields is harvested in the fall, he will grind ten jin (5 kg) at a time.
When Mu Jin arrived, many uncles and aunts had already come to the stone mill, sitting and chatting while waiting for the mill to grind flour.
"Jin-ge'er is here." Ichiro patted the empty seat next to him. "Come on, sit here and wait."
When Mu Jin saw Zhou Wushi standing at the front of the line, she called out, "Mother."
She then sat down next to the man and placed the wooden basin aside.
Upon hearing this, Zhou Wushi turned her head and glared at him, not wanting to pay him any attention.
Mu Jin smiled without saying a word, not caring at all about how Zhou Wushi treated him.
The woman and her husband exchanged glances for a moment while waiting for the flour to be ground, glancing at Mu Jin and Zhou Wu Shi.
The air was still for a moment, then the group started chatting and laughing again.
"The season was good this year, the crops were not damaged, and the harvest was quite good."
“Your husband is the best at tending the fields. Even Chief Kimura said that your family will harvest the most grain this year.”
The woman waved her hand, her eyes brimming with undisguised joy.
Hibiscus sat quietly to the side, occasionally chiming in with a few words.
"By the way, Zhaoye said he was going to build a new house after the wheat harvest. Now that the work is done, why haven't I seen him hire any people from the village? My husband is idle at home and is thinking about finding some short-term work."
Although the villagers were afraid of Mu Zhaoye, they were even more afraid of not having money. Besides, he had only ever hit his father once, and they had never seen him beat up any of the villagers.
If there's work to do and money to be made, then many men are happy to go.
Upon hearing this, Zhou Wushi pricked up her ears.
Mu Jin's husband sighed and laughed, "Don't wait any longer. That kid Ren Zhaoye specially invited a craftsman from town. I saw him yesterday as he brought a cartload of bricks and stones from town, and he's already started building."
"Wow, they even hired a master?"
"The craftsmen in that town are all excellent at building houses."
"How much money will this cost?"
“Ren Zhaoye is capable; he managed to come back alive from the northern frontier battlefield. I heard he’s quite familiar with the city gate captain in our town.”
"What skills do you have? It's all just hearsay. If you're so capable, how come you haven't earned any merits after two or three years on the frontier?"
"Whether there are any military achievements or not is another matter, but the money is real."
That's true.
Mu Jin listened and secretly considered it. Bai Qiqiu was already of marriageable age, so it would be better for him to get married sooner rather than later.
The best men in the village have already been chosen; it's really not easy to find someone his age.
Now, a group of men who build houses have come to Mu Zhaoye's house; they are also craftsmen from the town.
If she could choose a husband from among them who had a skill, their life wouldn't be bad.
He knew this all too well; any wooden items in the house were made by Zhou Lin in his spare time.
If you buy them all, it would cost a lot of money.
The few taels of silver I've saved up might not even be enough.
Upon further reflection, if Zhou Lin hadn't learned carpentry from Uncle Heng, he wouldn't have been able to save up even a few taels of silver, and his life would have been incredibly difficult.
Because a skilled man can support his family, even though Bai Qiqiu can do anything, he still wanted him to find a man who could support him.
Life won't be too tiring from now on.
Time flies when you're chatting, and before you know it, it's Hibiscus's turn.
Grinding wheat is hard work; it takes two or three grindings to get finer flour.
Five pounds of wheat, Hibiscus pushed the wooden millstone, turning it round and round.
It took some time to grind it.
He swept the flour off the millstone with a small broom, greeted his uncle and aunt who were still waiting, and carried the wooden basin home.
The flour and wheat bran were mixed in a wooden basin and had not yet been separated. When they got home, they had to be sifted through a bamboo sieve twice before they were ready.
Since there was no bamboo sieve at home, Mujin carried the bag of flour back to the kitchen and hurriedly went to the foot of the mountain to cut a bamboo pole.
Before he got married, there was a neighbor who was very good at weaving bamboo items.
Mu Jin learned a few tricks from him. Because bamboo sieves were the best-selling items, and the neighbor's aunt made many of them, he became the most proficient at them.
To sift out finer flour, a sieve is usually used, consisting of a circle of bamboo and a layer of hemp cloth underneath.
The flour sifted through a sieve is less than that sifted through a bamboo sieve, and although it tastes better, most farmers are reluctant to use it.
The same goes for Mu Jin. The flour sifted through the bamboo sieve is already very good for him; it's much better than sorghum flour.
Bamboo was brought home, and Mu Jin, Wen Zhaoran, and Bai Qiqiu sat under the peach tree.
Two people were sorting hemp, while one person was making bamboo strips and weaving bamboo sieves.
In between her busy work, Mu Jin glanced at Bai Qiqiu several times.
He cleared his throat and said, "Brother Zhaoye is building a new house, and a lot of craftsmen from the town have come. I heard that some of the men are quite good-looking."
Bai Qiqiu laughed and said, "There is one, and she looks strangely fair-skinned."
Mu Jin asked in surprise, "When did you meet her?"
"When Zhaoran and I went to the foot of the mountain to cut pig feed, there was a lot of noise over there, so we went to take a look."
"So what do you think? If it's suitable, I'll go and ask around for you?"
The reason for the question is self-evident.
Bai Qiqiu sighed, "It's no use even if I think it's good, he's already married."
"Brother Qi Qiu asked that man directly yesterday, which made the man blush."
Hibiscus: "..."
The men from northern Xinjiang are really bold in pursuing their husbands.
This was true for Zhou Qiang, and it was also true for that man.
"What's most infuriating is Mu Zhaoye. He said that it's one thing that I haven't been able to make a fishing net for so long, but he was the one laughing the loudest in the room."
Mu Jin sighed, no wonder the two of them had spent the whole afternoon working on their brains and hadn't gone out to look for knowledge.
It turned out that he was provoked by Mu Zhaoye.
"Zhaoye-ge can laugh out loud?"
Mu Jin was somewhat skeptical; he had never seen Mu Zhaoye laugh so loudly before.
Bai Qiqiu and Wen Zhaoran nodded in unison.
"Brother, you didn't see the way he was. I'm going to make a fishing net and throw it in his face."
As Bai Qiqiu spoke, he seemed to mistake the ramie in his hand for Mu Zhaoye's head and yanked it hard.
Mu Jin chuckled and shook her head slightly, a hint of helplessness in her voice.
"Didn't you fancy any of the other men?"
Finally, not giving up, he asked one more question.
Bai Qiqiu shook his head. He preferred the pale-faced scholar type; he didn't fancy any other big, burly men.
Mu Jin sighed and chuckled. Wen Zhaoran smiled and said, "Brother Qi Qiu, don't be discouraged. Mu Zhou is keeping an eye on things for you at the academy."
Bai Qiqiu nodded and sighed, "It's really nice to have acquaintances at the academy."
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