In order to save time to work, Jiang Zhi's feet were already red and stiff from the cold.
Judging from the frostbite scars on the original owner's feet and Xu Errui's unsurprised expression, it was common for the original owner to work barefoot on the ground.
There's no way around it. In rural areas, during busy farming seasons, women are used like men, and men are used like livestock. No one gets a break.
Moreover, the original owner of this body was a man who couldn't do heavy work, and with young children at home, someone had to work in the fields to prevent the whole family from starving.
Jiang Zhi walked out of the terraced fields, wiped the wet mud off her feet on the grass stems beside her, and put on her straw sandals. She immediately felt warmth under her feet.
Thanks to Grandpa Xiaoman, he's been trying to weave straw sandals for everyone these past few days. Otherwise, we'd have to go barefoot all the time, coming and going in the rain and mud.
Inside the house next to the terraced fields, Grandma Xiaoman and Qiaoyun were sitting on the kang (a heated brick bed), combing cotton with a small rake made of bamboo nails, preparing to spin yarn and weave cloth.
Nini obediently imitated her great-grandmother and Aunt Qiaoyun's actions, and also sorted the cotton thread on the side.
Farmers make their own clothes, but not everyone knows how to weave.
In the past, the men in Xiaoman's family were all skilled workers. Xiaoman's grandmother never had to work in the fields; she spent her days at home weaving and spinning, and she was very good at it.
Not only could they gather enough fabric for the whole family to wear, but they could also sell the extra fabric for money.
The women in the village wanted to learn a lot from her, but Grandma Xiaoman didn't teach them. Now, however, she has started teaching Qiaoyun and her great-granddaughter Nini.
Seeing the three return, Nini quickly put down the cotton thread and ran over: "Grandma Jiang, Uncle Errui, Uncle!"
She has become familiar with Jiang Zhi and the others, and has lost her timidity, gaining more childlike innocence. Now she even goes up the cliff with her great-grandmother to visit other people every day.
Moreover, she especially enjoyed learning to spin thread with Aunt Qiaoyun.
When the three workers returned home, Qiaoyun and Xiaoman's grandmother quickly put down their work, poured hot water for them, and handed them handkerchiefs.
"Mother, quickly soak your feet!" Qiaoyun placed the hot water next to Jiangzhi's feet.
My mother-in-law said she was pregnant and wouldn't let me get out of bed. She just stayed home learning to spin and weave, and the kang (heated brick bed) was kept warm so my feet wouldn't get cold.
In rural areas, pregnant women still have to work.
Some older people, in particular, love to boast to their young wives about how they endured hardships to get through those years.
Even if her stomach started to hurt, she would still cook breakfast before giving birth, and after giving birth, she could still get up and wash the dishes for the whole family.
As for postpartum confinement, that's just a lazy excuse; people wish they could be like old hens laying eggs, clucking away and then getting back to work and scavenging for food.
Qiaoyun thought so too when she was pregnant, because she used to work every day when she was in the village.
But once we came up the mountain, my mother wouldn't let me do anything. Even the water for cooking was carried by Errui from the spring to the kitchen.
She felt as happy as a rich lady, and became even more attentive to her mother-in-law.
Watching the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law from the side, Grandma Xiaoman couldn't help but sigh: Although this Jiang woman was a bit shrewish and vicious, she didn't torment her daughter-in-law and treated herself like a man. Just look at how she worked; ordinary people really couldn't compare.
She thought of her deceased daughter-in-law and her granddaughter-in-law who had returned to her parents' home, and her eyes welled up with tears. She quickly turned her head away.
Xu Errui and Xiaoman didn't have the patience to soak their feet. They scooped up hot water from the stove to wash their feet clean, then sat down by the charcoal brazier to warm themselves and eat some crispy dried meat.
Wheat has now been planted in the terraced fields, and the busy spring farming season has temporarily come to an end.
During these past few days, as soon as the rain stopped, the three of them had to go out to work.
Around the time of Qingming Festival, people plant melons and beans.
Jiang Zhi and his two companions not only planted sorghum and beans on the burned barren slopes around them, but also planted a lot of vegetables.
Basically, we just planted seeds wherever there was thick soil, in cracks and pits in the rocks.
By the end, Jiang Zhi didn't know how many holes she had dug or how many times she had bent over. She only knew that her footprints covered half the mountainside, and if calculated by area, it would be at least several dozen acres.
With such a large area, the income is hard to say. If half of it were fertile land, it could solve the problem of food and clothing for two families.
Of course, this is also the reason why there was a wildfire.
In previous years, the mountains were covered with grass, so planting grass there would have been useless.
In addition to these crops, Jiang Zhi also wants to grow some cotton.
But cotton is difficult to grow, or rather, this is not a cotton-producing area.
In any case, each cotton plant in the village only produces two or three cotton bolls. Often, even after a year of careful cultivation, the plants only grow leaves and do not flower. The cotton bolls that do form will fall off, resulting in very low yields.
However, Jiang Zhi had seen her family grow cotton in modern times and had some understanding of cotton cultivation.
Back then, my parents said they would prepare cotton quilts for me as my dowry, so they planted cotton every year. As a result, I never got married, and the cotton quilts they added every year filled half a room.
Growing cotton was hard work with lots of tasks, especially for my parents who had to make seedlings from manure balls. I still vividly remember the dreaded tasks of pruning the side shoots every morning, picking cotton bolls in the afternoon, and peeling cotton at night.
There was no other way but to plant cotton, even though it was a lot of work, because I urgently needed fabric and clothing.
She only just realized that Qiaoyun's baby didn't even have any baby clothes prepared.
According to the village custom, when a child is born, those who are particular about their appearance will sew a close-fitting undergarment for the child and wrap them in a small cotton quilt.
If you don't want to waste money, just wrap yourself in an adult's tattered clothes, stuff you in the blankets, and put a diaper clamp made of wood ash under you.
If you wait until the child is a little older, you can use the older child's hand-me-downs, mainly to save money.
Jiang Zhi definitely couldn't stand this; she needed to prepare clothes for the child.
Adults can be handled easily, but children have delicate skin and cannot use coarse cloth; only soft cotton cloth can be used.
Jiang Zhi's cotton-padded coat, which was burned in the wildfire, will not be repaired.
She asked Xiaoman's grandmother to make diapers from the dismantled cloth, and to comb and twist the cotton inside into fine threads to weave clothes for the child.
Not only Jiang Zhi's cotton-padded jacket was to be dismantled, but Xu Errui's jacket was also to be dismantled to make a small swaddle blanket.
Their thick cotton-padded coats were gone just like that!
Fortunately, the weather is gradually warming up, and the clothes I'm wearing are still usable.
This means that cotton needs to be grown so that there will be new clothes to wear next year; otherwise, the two of them will have to wear wild cotton and tree bark to keep warm during the winter.
Cotton seeds? Xiaoman's place has them!
When Jiang Zhi found Xiaoman's grandfather, the stubborn old man was stuffing vegetable seeds into a crack in the rocks next to the yard.
Upon hearing that Jiang Zhi wanted to plant cotton, Grandpa Xiaoman shook his head vigorously, saying, "Cotton originally grows in the north. We can grow it here, but it's not easy to grow!"
We need to find good fields and land, and use good manure to cultivate them.
If you take good care of it, it will only grow leaves and not peaches; if you don't take good care of it, it will die. The soil on this mountain is thin, so it probably won't grow well.
Cotton was expensive in the Great Yan Dynasty, and cotton cloth was even more expensive. His wife had to spin yarn and weave cloth, so Xiaoman grew cotton himself, thinking he could save some costs.
Unexpectedly, this plant not only has a low yield but is also very delicate. It often grows with lush foliage and tall plants, but never produces cotton bolls.
Regarding Xiaoman's concerns, Jiang Zhi reiterated, "Give it a try! Give it a shot, and maybe it'll work!"
Little Man was already numb to Er Rui Niang's words.
It's good to make some changes.
If you can't keep pushing yourself, you'll just wait to die; if you do push yourself, you'll die willingly!
Cottonseeds are very precious, and Xiaoman only had a few dozen.
Jiang Zhi looked at the small packet of cottonseed in her palm, which looked like sheep droppings, and felt its weight.
I didn't value these seeds before, but now I realize how precious they are. If I ruin these cotton seeds, this winter will be very difficult.
Cotton seed sowing requires warmer temperatures, so we can't rush it now; we have to wait for the rain to stop.
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