Chapter 121
Cutting wheat was not an easy task, and threshing it wasn’t any simpler. Every day, they ended up covered in dust and dirt, their faces streaked with sweat, looking like a mess. The flying dust seemed to creep into every crevice, even reaching their throats, not to mention their noses, which felt dry and itchy, making everyone uncomfortable.
The old ox was harnessed with ropes, pulled the stone roller back and forth over the wheat. At the moment, Shen Xuanqing was leading the ox, while Shen Yaoqing, Lu Gu, and the others used long forks to turn the wheat. Once turned, the stone roller would pass over it again, and this process was repeated until the wheat grains were thoroughly threshed.
After turning the wheat once, Lu Gu straightened up to rest. For now, turning the wheat was manageable, but during the cutting, his back had ached terribly. To avoid wasting time, he had to squat while cutting, but squatting for too long made his legs sore.
He had wrapped a cloth around his head to keep the flying dust from dirtying his hair too much, and he also covered his nose and mouth with a cloth. It was hot, but at least he didn't swallow dust, and his throat didn’t feel dry.
Recently, the heavens had been kind, with the scorching sun shining high and no sign of rain. It was the perfect time for threshing wheat, and no matter how hot it got, no one wished for rain. If the wheat grains sprouted, half a year’s hard work would be wasted.
Shen Xuanqing and Shen Yaoqing both slept at the new house at night, they were busy during the day and keeping watch at night. Even their meals had to be delivered to them. The good thing was that they didn’t have to sleep on the threshing ground with their bedding, because there was a house where they could stay.
“The weather this year has been really good,” Wei Lanxiang said, wiping the sweat from her face as she leaned on a wooden fork. “When I was a girl at home, one year it rained during the wheat threshing. My grandmother cried while holding the wheat stubble in the threshing ground. That year’s harvest was poor, and we had to tighten our belts to get by.”
[勒紧裤腰带, lēi jǐn kù yāo dài):lit. To tighten one’s belt; fig. To live frugally or endure hardship, often due to lack of resources]
“We’re doing much better this year,” Shen Yaoqing chimed in.
As they spoke, Shen Xuanqing led the old ox, pulling the stone roller over again. Once more, the wheat was turned, and dust filled the air.
——
It took several days of rolling and threshing, everyone was exhausted, and even then, the work wasn’t over. They dried the wheat in their own yard, so there was no need to haul the threshed wheat back home. After removing the straw, they spread the wheat out to dry in the sun.
The harvest from thirteen mu of land was much larger than before. Wei Lanxiang’s favorite daily activity was coming to the new house, squatting among the wheat, and grabbing handfuls of the warm, sun-dried grains, watching them slip through her fingers. Each handful was full of grain, she stood under the sun, squinting as she looked at it, her nostrils filled with the hot dust and the scent of wheat.
During the day, they spread the wheat piles flat, and at night, they rolled them up and stored them at the main hall to guard against rain.
If they didn’t manage to gather the grain in time at night and it got wet, the grains would easily sprout. Piled together, they would also generate heat. Sticking a hand into the pile, one could feel the warmth. The top layer would become damp and sprout, while the bottom layer, trapped underneath, would grow moldy.
Thus, they had to labor diligently and carefully every day. Only thoroughly dried grain could be stored properly.
By the time the wheat was completely dry, there were only two days left until Shen Yuping’s wedding. After harvesting time, buyers came to the countryside to purchase the new graun, and the price was relatively high. Grain prices fluctuated quickly, and no one knew whether they would rise or fall later. To play it safe, Shen Xuanqing decided to keep enough for the family’s needs and sell the rest.
Since they had both rice and wheat, they could mix and eat them, so there was no need to keep all the wheat.
After selling the grain, the cool, low storage room was filled to the brim with new wheat. Not only were there six or seven large sacks on the mud platform, but the seven wide-mouthed jars, each as tall as a person, were also full. The jar lids were sealed with a mixture of wheat straw and yellow mud to preserve the grain for a long time. Once the sacks were empty, they could scoop the wheat from the jars to grind into flour.
When people were poor, they had no choice but to exchange grain for money or goods. Eating and trading would deplete the grain, and if the next year’s harvest was poor, they could only rely on fate. Simply surviving was already a blessing.
This year’s harvest was abundant, but no one could predict the future. Having surplus grain by the end of the year would bring peace of mind for the next year. For this reason, Shen Xuanqing and Shen Yaoqing discussed and decided to buy ten new jars from Liangzhang Bridge. They made two trips with a cart to bring all the jars home.
The family now had fifteen jars in total, both old and new. When it was time to harvest the rice, they would fill the remaining eight jars. With so much rice and flour, if they were frugal, it could last two or three years. There were too many jars to fit in the low storage room, but fortunately, they now had the new house.
Lu Gu had never seen so much grain before. The thought that the whole family would never go hungry, his heart filled with joy.
Although buying the jars cost a lot of money, and the profit from selling the grain wasn’t much, no one felt it was a loss. After all, grain was the foundation of survival.
“Our place is practically a granary now,” Shen Yaoqing said, patting the cool, large jars, his smile so wide his eyes nearly disappeared.
Shen Xuanqing simply nodded and hummed in agreement, but he was also smiling. Recently, he had become tanned and thin from the sun, but his star-like eyes shone brightly.
He had often heard of wealthy households with overflowing granaries, where rice and grain were never exhausted. He hadn’t thought much of it before, but now that they had stored so much grain, he felt a surge of ambition. One day, their family would also have a granary that never ran out of rice and flour. That would truly be prosperity!
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