1368 - Yuzhou, China
The sun begins to appear between the mountains slowly, its light reaches the darkest places that look intimidating, the roosters get ready to give their usual morning song. I can sense that today is going to be a harvest day, and I hate harvest, that is a disadvantage of living in an agricultural town.
I open my eyes when just a sunbeam crosses my window, it usually takes me a lot when it comes to getting up, and yes, that means I didn't sleep at all during the night. Since the neighbor's chickens were making noise all the damn night, as if they were killing them. I quickly stalk my eyes with my wrists to take my sleep away but I see that it is in vain, suddenly a huge yawn escapes me, it sounded so loud that it made my puppy wake up.
I take off the sheet and let my feet fall to the ground like bags that were pushed by a gust of wind. I walk to my dressing table and when I barely see myself in the mirror ... I look like a monster, I have messy hair, lizards at the corners of the eyelids and dry saliva on the cheeks. I am in total disaster, I look with disgust at my own image. I put on some sandals and go straight to the bathroom, or as my grandmother tells her "the cleaning room", just remembering that, I giggle.
I take the giant barrel where we normally bathe, and also grab several buckets and then fill them with water. This is the hardest part when it comes to taking a bath and on top is the initial part. I begin to fill the cuvettes with water one by one to put them all in the barrel; The good side is that it doesn't take you so long to fill them, they take about four or five seconds to fill.
After making sure they were full, I grab one by one and dispose of its contents in the barrel. Fortunately they are enough to fill the barrel, so the first phase is ready, now comes phase two. I take off my sandals, then I take off my light blue blouse carefully since the fabric is very delicate, then I take off my gray pants, and finally my underwear to be completely naked. When I barely place a foot inside the barrel, a chill that starts from my foot that reaches my shoulders makes me take a small jump, but I steeled myself and decided to get into the full body barrel.
"It's freezing!" I complain while I hug myself to keep some body heat.
Next to me is a small wooden table with cleaning implements, which is shampoo, soap, ointment, a small container with lavender extract to aromatize the body, a sponge and a towel. I take the sponge and put some soap on it and then pass it all over my body comfortably, I can feel the water become soapy, which makes my skin feel softer.
Somehow my gaze rests on the curtains that open the way to the room. I stay for a long time staring at them while doing my cleaning. Until suddenly they open strongly making me jump in fright. It is about my mother, she barely sees me inside the barrel, she gives a slight blow to the forehead with her palm as a sign of disappointment.
"Are you barely taking a bath?" she looks at me with a frown and walks straight towards me "You should already be in the field."
I leave my eyes blank at his comment, no matter what he does, he always wants to hurry me. It's my mom He has long black hair with gray hair but he always wears it in a bun since it bothers him that he has it on his face, brown torn eyes, short stature, pale skin like porcelain and pink lips, they are not so because they are natural, but that she uses red fruits and stir them in a bowl and with that makes her lips more pink. I love her with my whole being ... but there are times when I don't understand her; She takes the harvest days very seriously, she wants our crops to be the best, I honestly don't see anything important to this kind of day.
"Get dressed quickly, there's no time to lose." he says before leaving the bathroom leaving me alone.
A sigh comes out of my mouth and I take one foot out of the barrel and then take out the other. I grab the towel and wrap myself in it as if it were a gift, deposit the water from the barrel and leave the bathroom fresh.
I go to the room and prepare my clothes, I plan to wear something simple for the occasion, nor will I wear a kimono and then dirty it with dirt and mud. I wear an open beige blouse, pants of the same color but a little darker, and finally I use a lemon green ribbon around my waist to ensure that the blouse does not open, since I can not cover my breasts.
In my town there is a rule that we all must follow, from the age of sixteen, teenagers should start collaborating on harvest days together with their elders, which in my case would be my mom and my grandmother and I'm just sixteen; although they are not the only adults in the house. There is my father, who is the only man in the family. He could be cultivating in the field but he would do it if he can at least get up from his bed, I don't mean to be lazy; What I want to say is that he is very sick of his legs so he can't walk well, a doctor who came to check him said he should stay in bed for a good time, and if I remember, that was seven years ago.
With a brush I fix my black hair, I don't want to look like a scarecrow. With nothing else to do, I leave my house running towards the fields of crops that unfortunately are a little far from my house. Along the way I had trips, I crashed with nine people, I broke a box that had chickens inside, I fell on top of a rabid dog that bit my right ankle, his teeth were very pointed since with them I could drill until the skin. After several attempts I was able to escape from the dog and I kept running like crazy but now that I have an injured ankle it is already difficult for me to run without complaining.
Infinite minutes passed since I left my house. Then I found a river that apparently has no end, or so I think. In the crops of the previous months and years, my grandmother always mentioned that the crops are near a river called ... What is it called? Oh, I remembered, it's called Yangtze which is the longest river in China. So from what I see, I'm near the field, that's a great sign.
Now, instead of running, I am walking because I feel that at any moment my ankle is going to fall because I step on the ground so hard. The closer I get, the more I see the field and luckily I could distinguish my grandmother and my mother who were sitting on the floor, I guess they were waiting for me. They were the only ones who did nothing just to wait for me while the other women and teenagers were cultivating.
I get closer and closer until my grandmother saw me and comes almost running towards me, and when my mother also notices my presence, she does the same. I don't say anything, I only have a stupid little smile on my face.
"I'm sorry for the delay." I say ashamed while I bow.
"You weren't so late." answered my mom.
"Hueni, you could have arrived faster with your horse." now the one who speaks is my grandmother. Regarding "Hueni", my grandmother tells me so because my name is Hua, and my dad wanted to put Hueni but in the end he didn't wear it, so he gives me that nickname since it reminds me of my dad.
My grandmother, a gray-haired woman, is also short, her skin is not as pale as my mother's, she is slightly brown. His eyes are light brown with some wrinkles around those bright eyes.
"No, I couldn't find Faruk anywhere, I was sure in the pond drinking water."
"What are you talking about? Faruk was in the stable all the time." my mother replied, made me feel idiotic.
"Oh ... this little girl, " said the grandmother mockingly making me get a small smile "Well, this is supposed to be a very important day, we should not waste it."
The grandmother takes a basket that inside had a small bag the size of the palm of a hand, also had a kind of fertilizer that I had never seen, a machete, a small rake and a small portion of land which I find strange.
"What is this?" I say curious pointing out the ration of land.
"It is Earthworm Humus" the grandmother responds "In my days when it was harvest day, the Earthworm Humus was used a lot, it helps plants to grow faster. "
And I didn't lie, from my perspective I could see how earthworms crawled across the surface of the land ration, it was disgusting, but I need them. I had never cultivated in my life, I already said the reason, so I have no experience of that; Sometimes my dad said that my grandfather was an expert in plants, he knew everything about fertilizers, farming tools. If he were here, it would be easier for us to do this.
I take the basket that my grandmother offers me and look for a land that is not so inhabited, I am of that type of people who do not like to share. In my search for land I can see that some girls who are probably my age are already starting to sow, and that I have not even been able to find a good territory of fertile land.
I look for the desired space until finally I find it. I kneel on the floor making the mud come in contact with my pants, it is a very uncomfortable feeling since the mud is a kind of mixture of water and earth.
With my fingers I make a hole in the ground to be able to introduce the seeds, now what I need is to open the bag where the famous seeds are found; Unfortunately, I don't have scissors to open it, so my last option is my teeth. With all my strength I manage to tear the bag and finally open it.
Finally I put the seeds inside the hole in the ground carefully, they didn't tell me how many seeds they should be so I put three. Then you cover seeds with more soil and with a bucket of water I spray a few drops, and my work is finished, I shake my hands feeling a little proud. I look at the other girls and I see that a small group of girls are giggling, mutter, tease, and whose is it? Exactly from me.
That kind of people make me sick, they judge any people that go through them, and the very unfortunate people keep laughing; I hate people getting into my business because I don't like to be looked at while I'm focused and that is exactly what they are doing. I like to look intimidating, cause fear, so it does not make me look weak, I have always said that it is better to be feared than loved. I have always been told that I have a terrifying look, that I am afraid, because that I will try to do. Slowly I frown and close my fist, when they see this they all have the face of having repented so they return to theirs and I remain calm.
Well, I'm done and I feel that something I didn't do well. From my angle I see the progress that my mom and my grandmother's crops have had, and I have noticed that not only must I make a hole, but I must do more until I reach the possible land limit. I give myself a few seconds to inhale and exhale the fresh air that it gives us today; I kneel on the ground again to repeat the above procedure.
After a few minutes doing the same, I feel proud and sow, because I could say that I did a good job with regard to planting crops, not bad to be a beginner; and I also feel piggy because I have mud everywhere, water spots above, and wheat in my hair. I turn to my mother and grandmother and when they barely see me they jump from fright.
"How did you end up like this?" my mother asks surprised "It is impossible that this happened to you in twenty minutes. "
"With Hua, everything can happen," laughs my grandmother.
With my hands I try to dust myself off and in the attempt I put my hand out of mud. I see my grandmother as she breathes serenely, and nothing else occurs to me that ...
"Grandma, what did I just plant?"
"You grew wheat, they grow faster. If I'm not bad I guess it takes a month or two to germinate. This is how beginners begin" the grandmother replies.
The sun is already setting and we must all go, unfortunately they came here walking, instead I came running. So we must walk to our house; I guess the experience was fun.