Chapter 022 600 Jin of Paddy

Beside Lei Tie, there were bundles of paddy tied by a rope made of straw. He untied the rope and spread the paddy on the ground. The sweat on his cheek rolled down one by one and disappeared onto the paddy, the bare sturdy arms were shining under the scorching sun.

Standing not far away was a few idle women chatting away with baskets hanging on their arms, about to send food to their own men.

There were another four to five farmers gathered for meal and spoke loudly.

“Lao Liu, your family only harvested paddy in the field south of the village this morning, right? That field is less than 7 fen[1]. I saw you pulled seven or eight carts to the grain-sunning ground in the morning, such good harvest ah! We are fellow villagers, if you have any secret recipe for farming, you must have hid it.” The speaker’s face looked envious.

Another man was annoyed by what he said. The man sneered and said: “Who in few miles of the village doesn’t know Third Brother you likes to hang around in other people’s fields when you don’t have anything to do? If I really have a secret recipe, can I hide it from you?”

Several others laughed heartily at the words and didn’t cut in, taking pleasure to watch them fight.

The pervious speaker laughed hollowly, “Look at what you say. Even forbid people who had nothing to do to roam around casually?”

Everyone laughed even louder. They all knew what Third Brother thought.

Qin Mian glanced at them but didn’t see any acquaintances and went directly to Lei Tie’s side.

“Brother Tie, eat first.”

“Nn.” Lei Tie followed after him to the short willow tree beside the grain-sunning ground and took the basket in his hand.

Qin Mian liked to be clean. He couldn’t stand the sweat on the man’s face and took out the water jar in the basket. “I’ll pour the water, wash your face.”

Lei Tie nodded and took off the new face washcloth hanging on his neck to soak it with cold water. He wiped his face, neck and hands and suddenly felt much cooler.

Lei Tie sat on a bundle of paddy as he uncovered the lid and saw the dishes in the bowl. His black pupils were dyed with some faint warmth, “Have you eaten?”

“Yes.” Qin Mian sat down beside him and looked around casually.

The grain-sunning ground was located at the edge of the village. It was an open space and the trees around were not dense that one could see the scenery in all directions. In the field, people were busy transporting the harvested paddy to the grain-sunning ground. Some people used oxen to pull the cart, others use donkeys, more people relied on their shoulders to carry using a sturdy shoulder pole hanging a bundle at each end and the heavy paddy tottering on their shoulders along the pace. Although tired, the farmers still wore a satisfied smile on their faces. This year’s harvest was slightly better than that of the previous years. Although they had to pay a lot of land taxes, there were still some left for them and their families also could solidly eat few meals of white rice.

Qin Mian turned his head to ask Lei Tie, “We don’t have animal power. Do we need to borrow from others?”

Lei Tie took a bite of chive omelet and spoke profusely with strong fragrance. “There are too many monks and too little gruel[2]. If I can’t borrow it, I’ll pull the stone roller myself.”

Qin Mian was surprised and opened his mouth but he didn’t know what to say. Pulling by manpower? His eyes drifted to an idle stone roller beside the grain-sunning ground. This thing weighed at least 400~500 jin. Even if he could pull it, it would be very tiring, right? At this time, he felt that their family was poor, without a house or a cart. Although this was ancient era, the cart was also divided into 3-6-9 grade[3]. Donkey cart was equivalent to modern three-wheeled vehicle, ox cart was equivalent to modern car and horse carriage was equivalent to modern BMW level. Qin Mian’s goal in this life was to buy a cart. Don’t say buying a ‘BMW’, having a three-wheeled vehicle was good enough.

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With a large bowl in his hand, Zhang Dashuan came over with big strides while eating a big mouthful of meal. He was accompanied by a black faced young man in his early twenties with handsome facial features and a tall, thin figure, also carrying a big black porcelain bowl in his hand as he pushed food into his mouth and made a loud chewing sound.

“Tiezi, what’s tasty food are you eating?”

“Brother Zhang.” Qin Mian got up to greet.

Zhang Dashuan introduced the young man beside him to Qin Mian, “This is my neighbor, Wu Di.”

“Greeting, sister[4].” Wu Di had a smile on his face and his eyes were very lively when he looked at Lei Tie’s bowl, “Brother Tie, what kind of food does sister make for you? I can smell it all the way.”

Several women in the field saw this and whispered.

“Are Zhang Dashuan and Wu Di stupid? What kind of people are Lei Tie and Qin Mian? They (ZD&WD) actually went to join those (LT&QM).”

The woman who was talking was glared at by her man, “Do you have to care about other people’s family?”

Lei Tie moved the bowl to Zhang Dashuan’s direction. “My wife made sautéed shredded pork with green pepper, chive omelet and cold eggplant salad.”

He ate in refined manner. Currently, there were still many dishes in the bowl.

Qin Mian looked into the bowl of Zhang Dashuan and Wu Di quietly. There were two salted eggs in Zhang Dashuan’s bowl and Wu Di’s bowl was full of vegetables, but he could see that there was much oil.

Zhang Dashuan unceremoniously took a clip of shredded pork with green pepper from Lei Tie’s bowl and upon seeing the greedy but embarrassed appearance of Wu Di, he laughed. He squatted down on the side. They were all families of peasant, who didn’t pay much attention about chewing with mouth closed and lay [to rest] with silent. “Tiezi, how are you going to thresh your paddy?” While he spoke, he glanced at Wu Di either by design or accident.

Wu Di looked at the spread out paddy. His eyes immediately lit up and he hurriedly opened his mouth before Lei Tie answered, “Brother Tie, my family only harvested less than a half of the paddy in our field. After this, we are not going to thresh it. In the afternoon, we will continue to harvest. You can use our donkey.”

For fear that Lei Tie would be silly, Qin Mian took the bowl out of his hand and brought it in front of Wu Di, “Many thanks. If you don’t dislike it, try some.”

“No dislike, no dislike. How fragrant! Thanks Brother Tie, thanks sister.” Wu Di grinned and stretched out his chopsticks, but not taking too much. He took a bit of shredded pork with green pepper and a small piece of chive omelet.

Lei Tie still kept the posture of holding the bowl with his left hand. Looking at Qin Mian, his gaze both carried helplessness and a little connivance.

Zhang Dashuan saw it clearly and quickly took back his gaze, bowed his head to eat.

“Eat.” Qin Mian returned the bowl to Lei Tie, patted him on the shoulder as a token of comfort and said generously, “If you like it, I can cook these three dishes for dinner.”

Lei Tie nodded, mixed the remaining dishes with the cooked rice and began to eat again.

Qin Mian was kind to the young man, “Wu Di, thank you so much for today. After done with the busy season, Brother Tie and I will invite you to dinner.”

Wu Di waved his hand, “It’s not worth being anything. Anyway, my donkey is idle.”

“Just agree on this.” Qin Mian insisted.

Wu Di then no longer refused and happily nodded, “Then, deference is no substitute for obedience[5]. I’ve heard Brother Zhang said that sister is good at craftsmanship. I’ve the luck to get something nice to eat.”

“At that time, I’ll have to bother Brother Zhang to accompany him then.” Qin Mian said to Zhang Dashuan. He didn’t fail to see that Zhang Dashuan intended to help.

Zhang Dashuan and Lei Tie had a good relationship, it would be too hypocritical to be polite and so he laughingly said, “Of course that’s fine.”

After finishing lunch, Zhang Dashuan and Wu Di left in a hurry as they would have to continue to be busy in the afternoon.

Lei Tie ate all the food and drank half the water.

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“Go back. Sunning. ”

Qin Mian didn’t get up at once, but asked: “When will you finish the work here?”

Lei Tie answered: “Four hours top.”

Qin Mian asked tentatively: “What about your parents’ side?”

Lei Tie said in a low voice: “We take care of ourselves first.”

Qin Mian nodded in his heart with great satisfaction, “I’ll go back and tidy up first, then come to help.”

“No need.” Lei Tie looked at the sun as he refused.

Qin Mian didn’t say anything verbally, he had his own opinion. He went home to wash the dishware, locked the door, made a straw hat out of bamboo strips, took the basket with him as well and went to the grain-sunning ground. He didn’t want to be in the sun either, but since he and Lei Tie were a family for the time being, he had to take some responsibility for this family. Otherwise, he wasn’t living in a reasonable way.

When Wu Di’s family done with the donkey, Lei Tie led the donkey over and took the stone roller to begin threshing the paddy. Qin Mian turned the paddy over with a pitchfork and the process continued on. After so many times doing this, almost two hours later, Lei Tie stopped, took over the fork in Qin Mian’s hand, picked up the stalk and saw to it that the grains had basically fallen off. He nodded to Qin Mian and led the donkey away.

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After threshing, the paddy stalks becomes rice straws, which could be used as burning material or fodder. Qin Mian picked up all the straws with the pitchfork and piled them aside. When he picked them up, he had to shake them a few times to make sure that all the grains in the stalks were shaken off. Afterwards, he swept them with a bamboo broom to form a pile.

When Lei Tie came back, he used a wooden shovel to winnow. The wind blew in waves; the dust and the chaff in the grains were blown away along the wind, leaving only clean grains.

Their one mu of paddy field eventually harvested 600 jin of paddy, filled in five big sacks. After sunning, it’s about 400 jin, which was too low for modern society, but it’s not bad for this era.

Lei Tie easily picked up a sack onto his shoulder and carried the grain home in five trips. The straws were all tied up and transported back home the same way.

On the last trip, they picked some vegetables in Lei’s vegetable garden.

Lei Tie brought clean clothes to bathe in the river but Qin Mian bathed in hot water at home before he started to prepare dinner.

The dishes for dinner were the same as they had at noon but there was no lean meat left, the sautéed shredded pork with green pepper turned into sautéed streaky pork with green pepper.

Lei Tie ate a lot, as if he wanted to make up for what he ate less at noon. The green pepper was very spicy, but the spiciness lessened with the cooked rice. Both of them were satisfied.

After the dinner, the sun would set.

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“I have something to discuss with you.” Qin Mian said as he cleared away the dishware.

“What is it?” Lei Tie looked at the socks hung on the bamboo pole outside the house.

Note:

[1] 1 fen = 61.44 m2

[2] 僧多粥少 [sēng duō zhōu shǎo] = There are too many monks and too little gruel — cannot meet the needs of the people; The monks are many and the supply of gruel is meager — not enough to go around;

[3] 3-6-9 grade means various grades and ranks

[4] Sister (saozi) here is an address to married woman/someone’s wife

[5] deference is no substitute for obedience (idiom); (said to accept sb’s request, invitation etc)