Chapter 2 Reclaiming Wasteland
Everyone finished drinking the brown rice porridge in the earthenware pot. Even the rice grains remaining at the bottom were rinsed again by Chen Yao with the rice soup left on the stove, and some sugar given by her aunt was added to make sugar water, which was then distributed to everyone.
With food in their stomachs, everyone looked lively. Even Huang Xing, who was sick and groggy, had the strength to talk to her elder sister after waking up and drinking half a bowl of brown rice porridge.
However, everyone tacitly concealed the fact that Chen Yao almost died and did not tell her.
While Yang Wenying went to the kitchen to clean up the dishes, Huang Mei spoke in front of the whole family: "Ayao, don't try to be so stubborn. We are real relatives. Auntie is not just being polite by asking your cousin to come to my house tomorrow to help plow the soil."
Huang Mei held her niece's hand, and the more she looked at her, the more distressed she felt.
A Yao is good-looking and capable, but because she is a girl, she was soft-hearted and often bullied by outsiders. Huang Mei gets angry when she thinks of those people saying that her sister did not leave any descendants for the Shen family.
Chen Yao followed her words and told everyone about her next plan.
"Aunt, it's my family's turn to use the official oxen this year. I plan to first reclaim the wasteland at the foot of the mountain next to our tenants, and harvest another crop of soybeans before the snow comes. Wenying and I can do this job, so there's no need to trouble Cousin Tian. Besides, the land you rent also needs to be plowed, and that's the most important thing."
In my memory, the unattended wasteland was not big. It was connected to the two acres of fertile land rented by the Shen family, so they could take care of them together in the future.
"My dear child, it's hard for you to miss your aunt. There are many people in her family. Besides, your cousins are a few years older than you. They have plenty of energy. They can help you reclaim the wasteland and turn over the two acres of good farmland that your family rents. This will also prevent it from affecting next year's planting."
Without giving Chen Yao a chance to refuse, Huang Mei suddenly let go of her hand and stood up, scolding the intruder outside the fenced yard with a smile: "You rascal, you're here just as I mentioned you."
"Mom, Dad is worried about you walking alone at night, so he asked me to pick you up and take you home." Tian Baolai threw the sack on his shoulder into the house with a snap.
The eighteen-year-old boy was almost as tall as the door frame, and his voice was still changing. He laughed so hard when his aunt punched him twice.
Tian Baolai greeted everyone in the Shen family again. When he looked at Shen Yao, his brows furrowed. "Ayao is sick. I see that you don't look well."
"Thank you for your concern, cousin. I'm fine. What's in here?" Seeing that Tian Baolai was about to be beaten again, Chen Yao quickly changed the subject.
"These are the soybeans my father asked me to send over. They are all of the best quality and can be used for eating or keeping as seeds." Tian Baolai touched the back of his head and smiled innocently.
When Huang Mei saw her son's silly look, she pulled his arm and walked out: "Okay, that's it, we're leaving first."
Because it was inconvenient for her parents to go to the fields, Chen Yao immediately chased after them and said a few words to her aunt while standing outside the fence gate. "Aunt, I can ask the government oxen to plow our two acres of fertile land. I really don't need my cousins to help. If you are really too busy, I will invite you to come over."
Huang Mei saw that she was serious and didn't seem to be evading responsibility, so she smoothed her long hair and tucked it behind her ears: "Then I'll listen to you. As long as you have a plan in mind, it's good. Don't send me off. It's cold, go in quickly."
"Cousin, go in and have a good rest. Don't worry, your cousin will escort your aunt home." Tian Baolai still couldn't escape the second beating from his mother.
Chen Yao watched her aunt and cousin Tian cross the stone bridge and return to Shanghe Village. When she turned around, she was startled by the resentful expression on Yang Wenying's face.
"I've cleaned up all the dishes in the kitchen, and I've also soaked the half basin of soybeans I was asked to soak. When are you planning to go..."
Without Yang Wenying continuing to speak, Chen Yao already understood her implication. She locked the fence gate and raised her head to signal her to go back to the house with her.
Keeping the night outside the door, Chen Yao sat on the straw-covered wooden bed and deliberately lowered her voice: "East Suburb is a full twenty miles away from Xiahe Village. It takes a whole day to walk there and back. We can't redeem your brother now, and he will worry about whether you have caused trouble in my house."
Yang Wenying stood in front of her, biting her lip. After a long while, she finally spoke: "Then give me a definite answer. When are you going to see your brother?"
Chen Yao looked at her with an expression that said, "You are not allowed to lie to me!" and sneered.
"At least there must be food at home and money on hand. When you go to see them, bring them some winter clothing and food. And ask the steward how much money it would cost to redeem them early. Is this a good arrangement?"
"This is your home. No matter how it is arranged, I have to listen to you." Even though Yang Wenying felt that what Chen Yao said made sense, she pouted and refused to admit it, rubbing the hem of her clothes awkwardly.
Chen Yao sighed. A fifteen-year-old girl is just of school age, but she can have children here.
However, Xiahe Village was too poor. People had no food to eat, so how could they have the energy to have children? If the villagers could pay the rent, they would not have teamed up with the fugitives this time.
"Can you read?"
Chen Yao asked casually, but she didn't expect Yang Wenying to stare at her with a wary look on her face.
"What does it matter whether I know him or not?"
"If you can read, I'd like to learn from you. That way, whether it's doing business or signing things, I won't be easily deceived. Are you willing to teach me?"
Yang Wenying let down her guard a little. She felt that Chen Yao seemed like a different person today. She spoke and acted very systematically. It seemed that she was discussing with her, but in fact, she did not give her any chance to refuse.
Thinking that Chen Yao was learning these things in order to earn money to redeem her relatives, Yang Wenying's face once again showed a hint of arrogance and confidence: "I can not only read but also count. But your family doesn't have any writing brush, ink, paper, or inkstone. How can I learn?"
Chen Yao raised the corners of her lips, stood up and patted her shoulder: "Get up early tomorrow morning, go to the drying yard to grind the soybeans, reclaim the wasteland, then go to the Yan River to pick up some sand and make a sand table. Practice with the sand table first."
After hearing what Chen Yao said, Yang Wenying's eyes lit up. She had never thought that this method could be used to practice calligraphy. When she left Chen Yao's room, she couldn't help but mutter, "I didn't realize you were so smart!"
Chen Yao couldn't help laughing at her, causing Yang Wenying to flee back to her room.
The night was like ink splashed in the house, and it was pitch dark when one stretched out one's hand. Chen Yao was lying on the bed with her hands spread out. Now that she could read and count, she could learn from Yang Wenying. If her relatives suspected her actions in the future, she would have an excuse to evade them and would not be burned to death as a monster.
As for the current predicament.
Chen Yao has always been like this: when problems arise, solve them.
After figuring it out, Chen Yao turned over and fell asleep in an instant after smelling the straw under her.
The next day, it was still dark.
Chen Yao held the soaked soybeans in a wooden basin and told Yang Wenying, who was following behind with a wooden bucket, to speak softly so as not to disturb her parents. After locking the fence gate, the two of them walked towards the village drying yard.
The cool autumn breeze penetrated the coarse linen clothes and penetrated into the body. At this moment, the doors of all the 25 households in Xiahe Village were closed, and the streets were empty. The two little girls shivered at the same time.
Chen Yao quickened her pace and walked to the stone mill in the drying yard while the villagers were still asleep. She scooped some soaked soybeans with a spoon and put them into the small hole of the stone mill.
"What is this used for?" Yang Wenying put down the two empty wooden barrels in her hands and looked at the millstone curiously.
Relying on her original memory of using the stone mill, Chen Yao first ordered Yang Wenying to fetch half a bucket of water from the well. Then, she held the handle of the stone mill with both hands, pushed it clockwise once, then pushed it counterclockwise five times, and the soybeans put in were crushed into a muddy state.
Yang Wenying grunted as she threw the bucket at Shen Yao's feet. Before she could even catch her breath, she was told to add water to the millstone.
The two of them cooperated with each other, and in a short while, the soybeans they brought turned into a bucket of pulpy water with residue.
After returning home, the filter residue was boiled until dawn.
When the family drank the steaming hot soy milk, even Yang Wenying praised Shen Yao generously.
This was the first time Yang Wenying drank this soy milk. Unlike cow's milk, the unique flavor and taste made her drink two bowls in a row, after all, she had participated in making it herself.
"Mom and Dad, you guys take a good rest. Wenying and I are going to reclaim the wasteland and will be back before noon!" Chen Yao stood up and took the bowls and spoons from the two elders. Without her instructions, Yang Wenying had already taken them into the kitchen to wash them.
Shen Qingshan looked outside the door and saw his daughter putting plows, sickles and counting ropes into the backpack, holding a small hoe in her hand.
The heavy farm tools bent his daughter's frail body. Shen Qingshan couldn't help but warn her with red eyes: "Don't go into the mountains rashly. I will take you in when Dad gets better."
"I know, don't worry, Dad." Chen Yao tapped the ground with her toes. She was still not used to wearing straw sandals.
At this moment, Yang Wenying lifted her backpack from behind and asked, "What should I carry?"
Chen Yao turned around and smiled at her, her teeth showing: "You don't have to carry anything, just do it in a while, let's go!"
Yang Wenying didn't know why, but she felt that Chen Yao's smile at her was malicious!
The houses in the village are all lined up facing south, with a large fertile field in front of the door, and Wufeng Mountain next to the fertile field in the distance.
The crops had just been harvested, and the remaining roots and stems had not yet been removed. Looking around, the whole place was barren with autumn weather.
Chen Yao looked around as he walked. This year, only five tenant farmers were entitled to the official oxen, so the others could only rely on primitive farm tools to plow the soil.
As he passed by the two acres of land he rented, he sighed and continued walking a few steps towards the foot of Wufeng Mountain.
Next to the wasteland there is a large maple forest, the maple leaves are still green, but deep in the mountains the forests are all colored, with yellow trees, red flowers, and wild grass as tall as a person. It makes people want to recite a poem, but unfortunately she has to farm.
Chen Yao placed the backpack on the wasteland, took out the counting rope, and asked Yang Wenying to hold the head end and stand still. She stepped back and used a wooden stick to mark the end point of the rope in the ground, resulting in a piece of wasteland that was 15 feet wide and 6 feet long, about 10 square meters.
Official cattle cannot be used on the wasteland, but it does not belong to the powerful. With this experimental field, Chen Yao is full of energy.
"Okay, let's get started!" She took out a small hoe and sickle from her backpack, handed the hoe to Yang Wenying, and started cutting weeds with the sickle in her hand.
Yang Wenying watched her wielding the farm tools with great vigor, then glanced at her own, her face flushed red. "How do I use this?"
Chen Yao threw the weeds in her hand away, and slapped her head, almost forgetting that Yang Wenying didn’t know how to do farm work, and she had to be taught!
After Yang Wenying squatted on the ground and dug with a hoe for a stick of incense, two blisters appeared on the palms of her hands. The pain was so severe that she felt like her little pearls were falling off, so she threw her hands away and stopped working.
But when he turned around, he found that Chen Yao, who had just been cutting grass behind him, was already far away, and the surroundings were full of haystacks she had left behind.
Looking at the small earth pit she had dug in front of her, Yang Wenying gritted her teeth and decided to fight to redeem her brother as soon as possible!
After mowing the grass, Chen Yao walked back and looked at Yang Wenying, who was working hard with her head stuck out. She poured two bowls of water from the earthenware jar, drank one, and handed the other to her. She praised her, "You did a good job. You even picked out all the stones."
The little girl is quite thoughtful!
Although she didn't hoe much land, we can't discourage the little girl's enthusiasm. She deserves praise!
Yang Wenying stood up and looked at Chen Yao with dizzy eyes. She thought it was the dazzling sun in the sky. She took the water, drank it down in one gulp, and was about to continue working.
Chen Yao also faced the loess with her back to the sky again. The two of them hoeed the ground together, and their speed was much faster. The stones in the soil were picked out and piled up into a pile. The roots of the weeds spread all over the ground like spider webs, and they were cut off one by one. After they finished hoeing the ground, the two of them were sweating profusely.
"It turns out that farming is so tiring." It's even more tiring than digging canals in Liuying!
Yang Wenying suddenly recalled the past. After she was tired from digging the canal, her brother had to do two jobs at a time so that she could only get one steamed bun. She was the one who made her brother suffer, and...
Yang Wenying looked at Chen Yao and suddenly burst into tears!
"Why, do you regret staying at my house to farm?" Chen Yao packed up the farm tools and piled the cut weeds in a fixed corner to make compost.
Yang Wenying wiped her face with her sleeve, tried to calm down, and loudly refuted Chen Yao: "No!"
As long as she can redeem her brother, she will work like a slave for the Shen family. She will keep her word and never regret it!
Chen Yao raised her eyebrows, a little surprised that she didn't leave, so she waved at the little girl with a smile, and the two of them moved the plow they brought from the backpack to the wasteland.
So Yang Wenying really worked like a slave for the Shen family. She pulled the hemp rope hard in the front, and Chen Yao held the harrow behind. The shallowly turned wasteland was plowed again, and the sweat once again broke into eight petals and fell into the soil.
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