Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 31 Mountain Farmer
Li Hong was very upset.

But she still had to force a smile and bring a bowl of well-cooked pork rib soup to the men and women in the room.

"Brother, it's time to eat. We started cooking the meat this afternoon, and now it's tender and delicious."

Li Hong smiled and placed a bowl of meat on Beiji Wu's plate. If Jiang Rong hadn't been sitting next to Beiji Wu, her smile would have been absolutely genuine.

Beijiwu ate on the kang (heated brick bed), using chopsticks to pick up a piece of pork that had been boiled for three or four hours, and took a big bite with a steamed bun.

The ginger paste and ginger herbs next to it made my mouth water.

Beijiwu chewed on his steamed bun and meat, and after a few seconds said, "Give them a bowl of porridge to fill their stomachs first. From now on, you should get along well. As long as you behave and work hard, I will take care of your meals."

"A cow, a pot, a load of grain—haven't I brought back enough grain these past few days? Don't worry about anything. Once you've eaten your fill, tidy up the house, get some mud and bricks, and get ready to build a house!"

Beijiwu sat on the kang (a heated brick bed) and criticized Li Hong.

After being told this by Arctic Martial Arts, Li Hong realized her mistake.

“Brother, I was wrong. I was just worried that there wouldn’t be enough food at home. My sister and I are so afraid of being poor and hungry.” As Li Hong spoke, tears streamed down her face. She cried even harder than Jiang Rong had before, and sobbed, “I never want to live those hard days again.”

Beijiwu said expressionlessly, "Crying won't solve anything. Get out there and get to work. The newcomers can have some thin porridge first. You guys can each have three pieces of steamed bun and a bowl of soup. Just eat something oily. I'll eat the meat."

Li Hong quickly replied, "Yes, sir!"

Beijiwu corrected him, saying, "From now on, call me Factory Director at home, and call me Clan Chief outside, no matter if you're men or women. You're all here to help with the work."

"The government doesn't allow ordinary people to keep servants. We're from the same village, so it's not a problem, but we still need to be careful. If we encounter outsiders, we should say that we're here to help out."

Li Hong replied, "Yes, Manager."

He didn't say which character it was, so everyone assumed it was the character for "drying yard".

Gao Conglian asked, "Director, how should Xidan address him? Can we let her continue calling him 'Dad'?"

Beijiwu said directly, "Just like you guys, go and bring Jiang Rong and Jiang Cao a bowl of thin porridge to fill their stomachs. From now on, Xi Dan will take your surname, Gao."

Gao Conglian didn't care much about her daughter changing her surname; since she had already sold her daughter, she didn't care about that.

Jiang Rong stood up and said, "I can get it myself, no need to trouble Li Hong."

Beijiwu said, "Okay, you guys go out to eat. If Mu Chuanliang and the child's wife come over, give them three bowls of porridge too."

"Okay." Li Bing agreed, smiling as she lowered the curtain and went back to serve the rice.

She was much more optimistic than her sister Li Hong, and seeing that Beijiwu was getting food and money every now and then and that his life was getting better and better, she was naturally willing to accept new companions.

Li Hong is mainly used to being the older sister and thinks too much about the whole family. She doesn't believe that life can stay good forever, so she tries her best to be frugal and control consumption.

Arctic Martial Arts is concerned that people's digestive systems need time to adjust after being hungry for a long time.

However, this is an overreaction; at least the situation in this village is not that serious.

As long as there are still green mountains and clear waters, people generally won't go to such extreme levels of hunger.

The drought was severe, resulting in a complete crop failure and the inability to find any water, so the refugees began to flee the famine.

Mu Chuanliang came over with his mother and children for a meal, and then they all went home to live their lives, leaving Jiang Rong and Jiang Cao behind.

There are a total of thirty households in the village, and Beijiwu has already taken in four of them.

At night, Beijiwu and his whole family squeezed together to sleep.

You can sleep on the kang (heated brick bed), but it's too hot to squeeze together.

Beijiwu complained that there were too many people, so he sat up and said, "Let's make do for tonight. Tomorrow we'll prepare a mat and have the children sleep at the entrance of the main room."

Li Hong said, "Let them go now, they can sleep on the straw."

“Okay.” Beijiwu also thought it was fine. “Xianglan, Xidan, Jiangcao, you and Conglian go to sleep outside.”

Several young women, children, and married women responded, "Okay!"

Wheat straw is similar to dried grass; it's not hard, and it's comfortable to sleep on. Poor families all sleep on this, so they don't feel any discrimination or abuse.

As long as they could have enough to eat, nothing else mattered; for the girls, sleeping in the haystack was quite comfortable.

The cows in the cowshed were still grazing, and the hardworking young girls used their time after meals to gather a lot of fresh grass.

The children and women treated the cow, a rare animal, with great respect, even laying out straw for it and cleaning the cowshed.

In most rural areas, the elderly and children sleep in the same place as livestock such as cattle and sheep, about two meters away from where they are tethered.

After the troublesome children were separated to sleep, Beijiwu, Jiang Rong, Li Hong, Li Bing, and Xiulan all had a good, restful sleep.

In the morning, Beijiwu woke up to the smell of meat.

"Factory manager, the meal is ready."

Gao Conglian and Jiang Rong were sitting on the kang (a heated brick bed) tidying up the linen when they saw that Beijiwu had woken up, so they greeted him.

Beijiwu sat up and looked at the two people cutting linen, knowing that they were making him a robe that suited the times.

"Factory manager" sounds a bit unpleasant; Arctic Martial feels that calling him "master" is much better.

But that was slavery, a step backward in history. Factory manager is the more progressive title.

But I always felt that the factory manager was a bit awkward. If it were just a regular worker shouting at him like that, it would be fine, but being shouted at like that by the woman next to him early in the morning made him feel like he was rushing to get to work.

"Actually, I know quite a lot. You can call me sir."

Arctic Martial Arts is indeed knowledgeable. After several trials and errors, it finally found a decent title that was somewhere between the master and the factory manager.

It can prove one's status and position without being overstepping one's bounds or being offensive, while also being slightly more approachable, which is good for both oneself and others.

Gao Conglian and Jiang Rong looked at Beijiwu strangely; the way he was addressed was always changing.

Fortunately, since we've been making changes all the time, it's not a big deal to change it again now.

"Sir." Jiang Rong addressed Beiji Wu as "Sir" first.

Gao Conglian, who had also sold herself into servitude, echoed, "Sir."

Both of them were bought in, so they won't talk about sovereignty.

Li Hong and Li Bing were essentially sold in; although they seemed somewhat independent, they were actually quite obedient.

This was not only a feudal patriarchal era, but also a poor era where people needed to eat their fill. Two maids who had sold themselves into servitude did not have much face to lose.

In other words, there are no other men or relatives in Beijiwu's family, otherwise Li Hong would never have had the opportunity to offer her opinions.

Hearing the two young women address him in such a way, Beijiwu's mood improved for the entire day.

"My clothes don't need to be that big, just make them as simple as my boxer shorts."

Arctic Wu took off his knee-length shorts and tossed them to the two men.

"Just follow the instructions. This is a special garment of our mountain farmers, which is convenient for working."

Beijiwu lied very naturally, “Mountain farmers all have short hair. Women can also cut their hair shorter so it won’t get in the way when they’re working. Since you are now my people and are also mountain farmers, you can follow my rules!”

Arctic Martial finally understood that it was normal for alien races and other species to have strange rules.

Although the imperial court had a poor attitude towards these barbarian tribes, it treated the local people even worse.

Whether it's language or lifestyle, it's better to make others adapt to you than to adapt to others.

Gao Conglian and Jiang Rong hesitated for a moment, but still agreed, "Yes, sir."

Beijiwu was very happy, thinking: Women are easy to talk to and open-minded. They are indeed a group that is good at making progress.

(End of this chapter)