nucmednet Chapter 35 Grain Harvesting
Chapter 35 Grain Harvesting
The sun hangs motionless at midday, as if the whole world were in a furnace.
June weather is always unbearably hot. Xiao Siyue lay on the bed, fanning herself frantically with a fan. "It's so hot! I really want air conditioning!"
Today, everyone in the Xiao family except Xiao Siyue went to the fields to harvest wheat. As for the workers who made toys, the Xiao family also gave them a few days off.
Xiao Siyue sat up abruptly in bed. It was so hot; she could easily get heatstroke.
Xiao Siyue thought that she seemed to have mung beans at home, so she decided to cook a pot of mung bean soup.
She got up and went to the kitchen, found some mung beans and cooked a big pot of mung bean soup. To make it taste better, Xiao Siyue added some sugar. She didn't have white sugar now, so she used rock sugar.
After the mung bean soup was cooked, Xiao Siyue put it in an earthenware pot, placed it in a bucket, and then slowly put it into the well to chill for an hour.
After taking it out, Xiao Siyue first served herself a bowl. She took a big gulp; it was so refreshing and cool, instantly dispelling most of the heat.
After Xiao Siyue drank a bowl, she put the rest into an earthenware pot, put on the little straw hat made by her grandfather, and took the mung bean soup to the field.
The Xiao family's fields were about a quarter of an hour's walk from home. Xiao Siyue was small and carrying such heavy things, so she walked very slowly and it took her almost half an hour to get there.
Looking up, Xiao Siyue saw golden wheat fields, the blazing sun overhead, and people working in the fields, creating a beautiful picture.
In the Xiao family's fields, the entire family was busy harvesting wheat. They were drenched in sweat.
It was so hot that Xiao Qinian couldn't stand it anymore after cutting for a while. He straightened up to rest for a bit, and then he saw Xiao Siyue walking by.
"Mother, look, isn't that Yue'er?" Xiao Qinian looked at the little figure walking towards them from a distance.
The rest of the Xiao family also heard Xiao Qinian's words. When they looked up, they saw Xiao Siyue carrying a very heavy earthenware pot, walking towards them step by step, swaying unsteadily.
"Siyu, hurry and help your sister," Old Mrs. Xiao said, her heart aching for her granddaughter.
Xiao Siyu quickly ran over and took the earthenware pot from Xiao Siyue's hand. Xiao Siyue immediately felt much more relaxed, shook her little hand, and followed behind her brother.
"Why is Yue'er in the fields? It's so hot, why don't you stay at home?" Old Mrs. Xiao said, pulling Xiao Siyue to sit on the edge of the field. Her little granddaughter wasn't well, and she couldn't let her run around in such hot weather. If she got sick, she would be heartbroken.
"Grandma, I cooked some mung bean soup and brought it over to help you cool off in the summer," Xiao Siyue said, opening the earthenware pot, pouring a bowl, and handing it to Old Lady Xiao.
“We brought water, so she won’t get heatstroke. Yue’er can’t come again,” Old Mrs. Xiao said disapprovingly, taking the bowl from her.
"Huh, why is it iced?" Old Mrs. Xiao asked in confusion after taking a sip. The weather was so hot, a sip of ice water was incredibly refreshing.
"Grandma, I put it in the well to chill for a while."
"Yue'er, you're so clever! How come I didn't think of that?" She hadn't thought of it before, otherwise she could have put the water in the well to chill for a while. Chilled mung bean soup would be so refreshing.
"Come on, everyone, have a bowl." After drinking, Old Lady Xiao felt much better and invited everyone else to have a bowl as well.
The chilled mung bean soup was refreshing and cooling, making them feel comfortable all over. The children especially liked the mung bean soup with sugar.
"Little sister, did you add sugar to it? It's so sweet and delicious," Xiao Siyu asked happily after finishing a bowl.
"Yes, I added a little rock sugar."
After resting for a while, everyone got back to work. The Xiao family had 20 mu of fertile land, and it would take about ten people four or five days to harvest it all, mainly because the children couldn't harvest much in a day.
After delivering the mung bean soup, Xiao Siyue didn't go back. Instead, she found a big tree and sat down to cool off.
Watching her family work in the wheat field, Xiao Siyue finally understood what it meant to be "feet steamed by the hot earth, back scorched by the blazing sun."
Although she was an orphan in modern times, she had never worked in the fields. The orphanage was in the city, so she had never experienced anything like this. Besides, modern harvesting is all done by machines; it's not that hard.
Xiao Siyue then thought that wheat yields were low now, with an average yield of less than two shi (a unit of dry measure) of wheat per mu (a unit of land area), which was about 160 jin (a unit of weight). This was considered a relatively good harvest. If there was a drought, the yield might be less than 100 jin per mu. The Xiao family's 20 mu of land would yield about 3,000 jin a year, just enough to eat. Of course, this was because the Xiao family did not have to pay taxes.
The tax system of the Great Zhou Dynasty was one-fifteenth of the total tax. After paying the tax, many families still didn't have enough to eat. Moreover, farmers had to sell their grain to earn money for other purposes, so they didn't have much grain left at the end of the year.
To solve the problem of food and clothing, many people used their fertile land to grow wheat and their inferior land to grow some coarse grains such as beans, which had a relatively high yield. The Xiao family did the same.
Sigh, farmers these days have such a hard life. Xiao Siyue wondered if she would ever be able to obtain grain seeds, which would help improve the living conditions of farmers.
"System, do you think I can get high-yield seeds by doing tasks?" Xiao Siyue thought and asked the system.
"Host, yes, as long as you complete the tasks, you will have the opportunity to obtain seeds in the future," the system replied.
"I must do my best on missions from now on and try to obtain food seeds." Xiao Siyue clenched her fist and silently cheered herself on.
If she used to do missions solely to save her life, which is why she wasn't very proactive, now she suddenly feels that if she's just living for the sake of living, what's the difference between her and a walking corpse?
Since God has given her a second chance at life, she should cherish it and do something meaningful!
For example, helping farmers around the world improve their living conditions so that they can all have enough to eat and warm clothes to wear, would make her second life worthwhile!
Thinking of this, Xiao Siyue suddenly felt an unprecedented sense of mission welling up in her heart, as if she had found a new direction in life.
With a goal in mind, Xiao Siyue became full of passion and motivation, and her heart was filled with boundless hope.
"Little sister, look what this is." Xiao Siyu's voice rang in her ears.
Xiao Siyue turned her head and saw that Xiao Siyu was holding a small straw cage with two grasshoppers inside, which startled her.
"Brother, take it away, I don't want it." Xiao Siyue wasn't scared, she just didn't like these little insects. She was a plush toy lover and liked furry animals, like cats and dogs.
"Little sister, don't you like it?" Xiao Siyu was a little frustrated when he saw his sister's disgusted look. He had wanted to give the little treasure he had caught to his sister.
However, since his sister didn't like it, he kept it for himself.
"Brother, what brings you here?"
"Grandpa sent us over, little sister, let's go play." He and his two younger brothers had been chased away by Grandpa Xiao; not only were they slow at harvesting, but they also kept losing ears of wheat, making things worse. Grandpa Xiao let them come and play with Xiao Siyue.
"Okay, where should we go?" Xiao Siyue was quite bored sitting here.
"Let's go up the mountain," Xiao Siyu suggested.
"Row."