Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 8 Once you've sold it, don't talk about feelings.

Mr. Li, an old man in his forties or fifties, was woken up by a young boy.

Old Man Li, along with Aunt Li and Niu Li who were sleeping nearby, all stood up and looked at this bully who was supposedly very good at fighting.

"Hurry up and get to work! I promised to help your family harvest ten mu of land, just ten mu, no more!"

Beijiwu brandished a sickle and spoke harshly, making Li Niu, Old Man Li, and even Aunt Li, who liked to speak loudly, afraid to raise their voices.

Li Niu asked in a low voice, "Where's my sister?"

"Didn't you sell him out?" Beiji Wu glanced at them disdainfully and walked straight out. "Hurry up and get to work, the only son of the Li family."

Li Niu felt ashamed and wanted to argue with him, but in the end, he cowardly let the person who was younger than him leave.

Beijiwu roughly estimated the area of ​​ten acres and started harvesting from the unharvested middle section to avoid confusion later.

Bending down, with his body hunched over, he grasped the ripe wheat stalks with his left hand, inserted the sickle deep into the base of the stalks with his right hand, and then pulled hard. With a ripping sound, the wheat was cut down.

Grab the cut wheat stalks with your left hand, place them casually on the ground, and then continue working on the other side of the wheat stalks by twisting your waist, or pushing forward.

Repeat the above actions hundreds or thousands of times...

The larger your hand, the more wheat you can grasp, and the fewer times you need to twist your waist and swing your arms.

Once or twice is about the same, but when you add up more than ten acres, the difference becomes significant.

Men are inherently more suited to this kind of physical work than women.

Wheat in this era was shorter than that of later generations; the taller the wheat, the less suitable it was for doing farm work that required bending over.

This wasn't a problem at all, because the tall ones were all taken to fight in the war.

Those who eat slightly better and have more nutrition are generally not from farming families, as they don't need to do farm work.

Arctic Wu works extremely fast, constantly tossing handfuls of wheat onto the ground.

Wheat is slightly more expensive than millet and is more popular.

Most people would grow some wheat, which sells well, in addition to millet and other grains.

Farmers toil in the fields year-round, and their arduous physical labor requires ample nutrition. Wheat-based pasta dishes are popular among soldiers and farmers, serving as an excellent way to replenish their energy.

If you don't have enough to eat, you won't have the energy to work.

If you don't have the energy to work, you won't have enough to eat.

Now everyone has to use the wheat they urgently harvested to exchange for money and pay taxes, and they can only eat one or two white flour buns during the Lunar New Year.

Although the imperial taxes were not heavy, the local area was extremely poor, lacked start-up capital, and had a severe shortage of various daily necessities.

Farmers have very few other ways to make money; farming is their only option.

Li Niu and Old Man Li looked at Beijiwu harvesting wheat with a sizzling sound and felt like they had struck gold!

"This kid works fast! He's a good farmer!"

Old Man Li felt that even when he was young, he wasn't as capable as Beijiwu at working.

Aunt Li also watched the hardworking young man, Bei Jiwu. In just half an hour, Bei Jiwu had already harvested half an acre of wheat.

"I'll talk to my two daughters later and ask them to help our family out more. We have plenty of work to do, and we can even cultivate a few more acres of land."

Aunt Li started to make her own plans, figuring out how to get her son-in-law to do more chores for her family.

Li Niu was in charge of bundling wheat at the back. Looking at the Arctic Martial Kingdom getting further and further away, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Finally, we have someone who can do the work.

Bundling wheat isn't usually a back-breaking activity; it's typically something women and young girls do. However, this was a perfect opportunity for Li Niu, whose back was aching from the work.

The family of three continued working, but even with Li Da Niang and Li Niu bundling wheat straw, they couldn't cut it as fast as Bei Ji Wu.

When Arctic Warrior gets tired, he goes to rest for a while, drink some water, wash his face, and take a piss.

He worked from noon until six or seven in the afternoon, and Beijiwu looked at the three or four acres of wheat that were left.

"I'll come over and do the rest tomorrow morning. Once it's done, we'll be even."

Beijiwu called out to the family of three who were harvesting wheat together behind him.

Old Li's back was aching badly, but he still joined in the wheat bundling. He might be taking a break, but he wasn't idle; he was still doing something for his family.

Their home is not Arctic Martial's home, and Arctic Martial once again reminded both sides of the boundaries.

Aunt Li quickly stood up and said, "What's this talk of being clear or not? We're all family."

"Who's family with you?" Beijiwu cursed. "I would never sell my daughter! Since you did, and so many people in the village heard and witnessed it, then let's not talk about anything else. I'll harvest the grain and deliver it to your family. I'll come over tomorrow to harvest the agreed-upon ten acres of wheat."

"If you don't want to live in this village, then get out! I'm not going to serve the three of you!"

Prejudice in people's hearts is like a mountain. Just as Beigong Dingbian said, Beiji Wu is indeed a selfish and ruthless person who doesn't care about his own family.

The family of three dared not offend such a scourge. They couldn't beat him or out-argue him, so they could only watch as the village bully with a sickle swaggered out.

"You beast!" Aunt Li only dared to mutter a curse under her breath after Beijiwu had walked far away.

Granny Li was so angry that she cursed everyone she could, "Those two wretched girls, those lowly servants! They should have been sold off long ago! Those lowly servants who give birth to sons without an anus!"

Old Man Li also felt extremely humiliated. As his family went home to rest, they listened to Aunt Li's incessant cursing of the two girls.

As Bei Jiwu arrived at the path outside his house, he saw Zhang Xiulan and her younger sister Xianglan squatting at the door.

"Brother Wu! My family boiled some eggs, and my mom asked my sister and me to come and bring you three eggs to eat."

The lively and clever Zhang Xianglan greeted everyone warmly.

Beiji Wu was hungry and came over, saying, "I still have three or four acres of land to work on tomorrow, and I have to dry the wheat in the afternoon. Besides, I already have two women in my house. What are you all doing here?"

Zhang Xianglan said with a smile, "There are only a few people in our village. We know Li Hong and Li Bing. My mother asked me to bring over the eggs. We hope our two families can visit each other more often and help each other out."

Beijiwu took the basket from Zhang Xiulan's hands, opened the steaming cloth covering it, and found that in addition to eggs, there were also mixed flour buns and pickled vegetables.

“Okay, I happen to be short of farm tools for threshing wheat. I can borrow yours for now. I’ll finish what I’m doing at Old Li’s house this morning and then I’ll go help yours. Let’s all finish harvesting the wheat as soon as possible.”

Beijiwu took an egg, casually crushed the shell, and peeled it open to reveal the tender white egg inside.

Seeing that Beiji Wuken was willing to help, Zhang Xiulan happily said, "Great! I'll go back and tell my parents!"

Seeing that they were about to leave, Beijiwu handed the egg to Xianglan, saying, "Here, have this. Eat it before you go back. I'll just have one egg."

Zhang Xiulan was a little jealous. "If you've taken a liking to my sister, I'll go back and talk to my parents and ask them to let her be your daughter-in-law."

Beijiwu laughed and said, "No, but seeing how thin and short she is, barely reaching my belly, I'll give her an egg to help her grow taller. If you want one, I'll give you one too. Anyway, it's hard to divide the remaining two eggs."

Zhang Xiulan decisively took advantage of the situation, "Okay! I'll have one too! You're so kind!"

The three of them sat at the doorway, each holding an egg and eating it, oblivious to the reaction of the two people inside.

Xianglan asked, "Brother, you gave all the wheat to the Li family this year, how are you going to live from now on?"

Beijiwu said, "I also planted two acres of millet in the south. I can also do some work for others to earn some food. I definitely won't go hungry. Next year, I will buy a few chickens to raise for eggs, and then I will try to buy a cow. Life will be much easier then."

An egg was quickly eaten, and Beijiwu clapped his hands and said, "I'm going back inside, you guys hurry home."

“Okay!” Zhang Xianglan said, reaching out to pick up the eggshell that Beijiwu had dropped on the ground.

When the sisters peeled the eggs, they used their hands to catch the shells so they could throw them into the vegetable garden and help the vegetables grow.

Upon entering the courtyard of Beijiwu, Li Hong and Li Bing were tidying up wheat straw.

"The food is ready. I'll tidy up this place and move it inside, in case it rains tonight and gets soaked."

Beijiwu said directly, "I'll do it. Li Bing's foot is injured, so he shouldn't do any work."

Li Bing quickly said, "I'm fine, I'm all better now."

Beiji Wu didn't believe that a sprained ankle from the morning would be healed by the afternoon, and said directly, "Go when I tell you to! Don't disobey!"

"Okay, I'll listen to you." Li Bing dropped the wooden fork, somewhat reluctantly but also very touched, and went back into the house.

Beijiwu walked over and said, "Let me help you inside. I'll boil some water later. You've been working hard all day and are all sweaty. You should wipe yourselves down."

"Mm." Li Bing was supported by Bei Jiwu's thin arm and walked into the house with him.

Li Hong continued working, wiping the sweat from her face and putting on an even more energetic performance.

A woman who can work is a good woman in the countryside.

(End of this chapter)