20demayo Chapter 1 Harvesting Wheat
Chapter 1 Harvesting Wheat
This is the sixth day of the wheat harvest.
Meng Chen bent over, holding a sickle in his right hand and a bundle of wheat stalks in his left, wielding the sickle to cut the wheat, then placed it at his side, took another step forward, and continued the same set of movements.
He didn't know how much time had passed when he reached the end of another row of fields. Meng Chen straightened up and wiped the sweat from his face.
In the distance, cicadas chirped, and as far as the eye could see, there were endless golden wheat fields, and the bent-over laborers looked like ants swept into a turbid torrent.
It was midday, and the sun was exceptionally scorching.
Meng Chen took off his straw hat, fanned himself as he walked to the edge of the field, and took down the basket hanging on the mulberry tree. Inside were a pot of water and four grain cakes.
He first drank water to quench his thirst, then picked up a pancake, caught the crumbs with one hand, and ate it in big bites.
This place is called Niujia Village. Meng Chen's family has lived here for generations. He lost his mother when he was young, and his father was conscripted to repair the river more than half a year ago, but there has been no news of him since. Now, only Meng Chen is left to support the family.
During the wheat harvest season, Meng Chen dared not delay, so he worked from dawn till dusk every day, working like crazy, for fear that the rain would come too early.
But lately, I've been having strange dreams every night after falling asleep.
In my dreams, I seem to have seen another world and experienced another life, and every time I wake up, I feel as if I have lived in another world.
Even his temperament has changed. He was originally a simple and honest farmer's son, but now he always has other thoughts popping into his mind.
In the past, I thought I should spend my whole life toiling in the fields, marrying and having children like an ordinary farmer, and then rotting away in this land in my old age. At most, I would think about earning a few more acres of land and growing a few more loads of grain. But lately, I keep thinking: If I were to work as a hired laborer, how could I become rich and noble?
Meng Chen didn't dislike farming, but he felt that life was endless and he would be trapped in the fields for his entire life.
Meng Chen is now full of ideas, but the wheat is still in the field, and he can't get away from it.
What's even stranger is that Meng Chen can see a strange pattern as soon as he has a thought, as if it's somewhere inside his body.
Its shape is a black fish and a white fish, with black dots in the white and white dots in the black. The two chase each other endlessly, which seems to be yin giving rise to yang, and yang giving rise to yin. It should be a variant of the Tai Chi Bagua diagram.
Meng Chen called it the Yin-Yang Fish Diagram, but he hadn't figured out what its effects were. It couldn't predict the future, nor could it be used to pray for rain or water.
Since it wouldn't delay the wheat harvest, Meng Chen simply ignored it.
After hastily finishing the pancake and sucking the crumbs from between his palms into his mouth, Meng Chen got up to get back to work.
The harvested wheat was bundled up and carried to the drying ground in trip after trip, where it was threshed using flail.
Meng Chen lives alone, so these past few days he has been cutting wheat in the morning and threshing and winnowing it in the afternoon and evening, not daring to leave the cut wheat overnight.
Under the blazing sun, Meng Chen, shirtless, threshed the wheat again and again, using the wind to winnow it until the crescent moon hung high in the sky, before finally finishing his work.
Two bags of wheat chaff were harvested, but only one bag of wheat was harvested, weighing about 80 or 90 jin (approximately 40-45 kg).
The yield from one mu of land is only about 110 to 120 jin, and if the harvest is good, it can be 20% to 30% more. Meng Chen harvested wheat from seven fen of land this morning, and it's already quite good that he was able to harvest this much.
After carrying the wheat and chaff home twice, I finally managed to store them in the granary.
Before I could even take a sip of cold water, two people entered through the dilapidated gate: an old man and a young girl.
This is Meng Chen's neighbor. The old man is over eighty years old, has no children, and no one knows his real name. Anyway, everyone in the village calls him Old Chen. The little girl was picked up by Old Chen during a flood a couple of years ago and is called Qingyu.
"I was just watering the donkey when I heard the noise and realized you were done." Old Chen was always amiable and spoke with a smile.
This old man Chen is an extraordinary person. He was a skilled farmer when he was young, and now that he is over eighty years old, he can still work in the fields just as well as a young person. Moreover, he is kind, helpful, and of advanced age, so people inside and outside the village respect him.
Although Meng Chen was tired, he still valued etiquette in the countryside, so he quickly brought out a wooden stool and invited the other person to sit down.
"Even though your father isn't home, you're not young anymore. Haven't you thought about getting a wife?" Old Chen asked casually after sitting down.
In the countryside, marriage is done so casually. Besides, Meng Chen is of marriageable age, and although he's been exhausted these past few days, he can't stop thinking about women.
Moreover, with each passing night of dreaming, Meng Chen grew increasingly eager to find a beautiful woman to marry.
Hearing Old Chen's words, Meng Chen thought that the union of men and women was also a principle of Yin and Yang. Perhaps after marrying a wife and sleeping with her, this Yin-Yang fish diagram would be effective.
Thinking this, Meng Chen looked at the little girl next to Old Chen.
Although the night was deep, the moonlight was bright. The girl was tanned even darker than him and looked rather thin, not yet fully grown. Meng Chen was a little troubled and said, "Old Chen, isn't the bluefish still a bit small?"
Upon hearing this, the little girl Qingyu immediately stamped her foot and said urgently, "What are you thinking? It's just that today when you went to the fields, the people from Wangjiafen Village saw how hard you were working and came to ask my grandfather what you were thinking!"
Meng Chen realized he had made a fool of himself, so he quickly changed the subject and asked, "Isn't Wang Family Gravesite next to our village? Which family is it?"
"It's that third daughter of the Yang family. She became a widow at the beginning of the year and is two years older than you," Old Chen said.
In rural areas, widows are not actually looked down upon. As long as they can carry on the family line and work in the fields, that's enough; there aren't many other requirements.
"It's fine if she's a widow. Given my family's circumstances, it's a miracle she's even willing to come; it's like my ancestors' graves are emitting auspicious smoke." Meng Chen wanted to understand the principles of Yin and Yang as soon as possible, and it would be even better if he could save some money. However, he wasn't entirely satisfied with this widow. He said, "But I remember Widow Yang has a nursing baby! If she remarries, the child will have to stay with her. My family doesn't even have many acres of land; the two of us can only afford thin gruel. We don't even have enough money left over for new clothes for the New Year. If it were raising our own child, we could manage, but there's no reason to eat chaff and gruel to raise someone else's child!"
"See, I told you so!" Qingyu said, hands on her hips, looking wise and insightful.
Old Chen didn't press the matter. He said, "I thought it wouldn't work either, but they took a liking to your looks and your abilities, so they asked me to inquire. I can't refuse a fellow villager. Since you're unwilling, I'll talk to them about it when I meet them tomorrow."
"Old Chen, don't say it's because I'm unwilling." Meng Chen grabbed Old Chen's hand and instructed, "Just say this is a big matter, and we have to wait for my father to come back and make a decision."
"You've really grown up now. You never thought this much before. Don't worry, I won't let you offend anyone." Old Chen was over eighty years old, and he had seen more of life than Meng Chen. He was very considerate. "I'll look around for you. If you find a girl you like, tell me, and I'll ask around for you. People from all around here give me some face."
After chatting for a few more minutes about the harvests in each family's fields, Old Chen and his grandson left.
The next morning, Meng Chen had just gotten up and washed his face when Qingyu came to knock on the door.
She was dark and thin, with a slight sheen of sweat on her nose. Her hair was casually tied back, and her eyes were dark and deep. She was leaning to one side, her gaze passing over Meng Chen as she looked aimlessly into the courtyard, seemingly curious about something.
"Why did you get up so late? Were you tired yesterday?" Qingyu glanced into the yard several times, then looked up at Meng Chen and continued, "My grandfather said that since you live alone, it's troublesome to start a fire and cook. Why don't you come to my house for a meal? It'll be more lively with more people."
At this point, Qingyu tiptoed closer, lowered his voice, and said, "But we have to agree on this: you can eat, but after you finish harvesting your wheat, you have to come help me with the work!"