"Sewing a pocket is really handy for picking Galaha. This is the fabric I begged from mom, it wasn't easy to persuade her at all," Yumei muttered. In those days, housewives typically valued fabric scraps highly, for they were excellent for patching up clothes. Skillful women could use tiny scraps to piece together cushions or quilt tops. Who would be willing to let children play with them?
"Be content, you don't know how much your aunt must have grudged giving you that bit of fabric. That's good material, and she let you have it to play with," Jinghan teased Yumei.
"Right, Jinghan, should we go pick jujubes in a few days? People come to buy them every year, I hear they use them to make wine or something, and they pay three coins per pound. They want as much as we can get. There's a spot where we pick lady fern that has them, and they're almost ripe," Yumei remembered and quickly told Jinghan.
Upon hearing this, Jinghan was quite delighted, for making money was certainly a good thing. "Alright, then we'll wait and go check it out sometime. Do we have to wait for the buyers to arrive before we can pick them?"
"Hmm, soon. I heard Brother Xu say that those people come around this time every year," Yumei nodded.
After sitting at the Lin family's house for a while and deciding to go jujube picking, Jinghan headed home. Mrs. Xue was cooking, and Jinghan quickly stepped up to help. "Mom, I thought it wasn't your turn to cook today?"
"Your second aunt went out again. At this time of year, we can't just wait for her, so I hurried to get the meal ready," Mrs. Xue was busy at the stove.
Mrs. Chen joined in, "That second daughter-in-law, I never know what she's up to all day, not even coming back to cook." As she spoke, she picked pancakes out of another pot.
Once the meal was ready, they set the table outside. Zhixin and the old man returned from the fields, and everyone sat down to eat together. They hadn't finished the midday meal when a woman around Mrs. Xue's age entered, "Uncle Xu, auntie, Brother Xu, sister-in-law, you're all here."
"It's Shitou's wife, come in, sit down. Have you eaten? If not, have something with us," Mrs. Chen quickly invited her to join.
"Auntie, don't trouble yourself, I've already eaten. I'm here today to ask if Brother Xu could spare a few days soon, my family needs to build a house and we want to ask for his help. And sister-in-law, could you help with cooking?" Shitou's wife was the second daughter-in-law from the eastern Wang family.
"Your family is building a house? Don't you already have one?" Mrs. Chen asked, puzzled.
"We've just split the household. My brother-in-law is staying with the parents, and we're building a separate house. We've chosen the site, just waiting for enough people to start the construction. That's why I've come to ask brother and sister-in-law for help," said Shitou's wife.
"Splitting the household, that's good. To live independently, however one pleases. We don't have much work these next few days, so let Zhixin help you out for a bit. Older daughter-in-law, you go give them a hand, too. Your cooking is splendid, and in this village, you can't be left out when someone needs help," the old man agreed after hearing this.
"Thank you, Uncle Xu. I should head back now, there's still a lot of work to be done at home," Shitou's wife said and left.
"That couple from the Shitou family are going to do well now that they've split off. Just watch, their older brother will end up regretting his lazy ways. You'll see, eventually the old folks will realize their mistake," Mrs. Chen commented. "Alright, we should help out. Meilin, you go and cook for their family for a few days. We have enough hands here at home, and Jingya and Hui Xin can assist as well. It'll be fine."
After everyone finished eating, they cleaned up the table together. Zhixin and the old man went back inside to lie down for a while, waiting for the sun to become less intense before returning to work in the fields. Mrs. Xue and Jingya worked on their sewing inside the house, and with nothing else to do, Jinghan also lay down for a nap.
The next day, Zhixin and his wife went to help the Wang family. Jinghan, unable to stay idle, fed the pigs and chickens before heading over to watch the house construction. Around here, houses were normally made of adobe, but Shitou's family hadn't prepared any adobe bricks. So they had to ram loess walls instead. Wood panels were set up, and loess mixed with straw was poured between them. Then, they would pound it down forcefully, the firmer the better. Once a layer of earth was thoroughly compacted, the wood panels were removed, and they continued ramming earth upwards. Such walls, once finished, were coated with a layer of mud on the outside. Of course, there were also many pillars inside the walls—without them, the walls simply wouldn't stand.