Chapter 126 Busy Ghost Festival
It took Qin Yao's family three and a half days to harvest the ten acres of land.
The speed is not the fastest, but it is not slow either.
However, compared with her efficiency in chopping heads, Qin Yao's efficiency in threshing is not as impressive.
The harvested millet was carried home in loads, and the front and back yards were filled with it. It was turned over and dried every day when the weather was good.
When the last load of grain was carried in, Liu Ji sat down on the hot gravel ground, and said, "I'm finally done!"
As soon as he said this, he seemed to have no strength left and his soul was in a state of emptiness.
Qin Yao felt better and strode into the main room and drank half a pot of water.
The three brothers and sisters of Dalang walked slowly and arrived home a little later. The scorching sun made their little faces as red as Guan Gong.
Qin Yao looked down at her hands. The skin exposed outside her clothes was all darker.
Three days of sun destroyed her skin, which she had maintained for half a year, back to its original state.
Liu Ji, on the other hand, was not very tanned. He was lying on his back beside a pile of grain, with his hair disheveled and his clothes in tatters, looking like a rakish guy.
"Rest for 25 minutes, then go call Liu Dafu's family and ask them to take the food away." After giving the instructions, Qin Yao slumped in the chair and let her mind wander.
Dalang and his three sons naturally followed suit. They put away the farm tools they had brought back, took off their shoes and socks, and sat in a row under the eaves barefoot to rest.
Seeing the bird flying down to eat the millet in the yard, Si Niang stood up and shouted "Hey!" and ran over to chase the bird away, "Don't eat my millet!"
Liu Ji grinned, and found it very interesting to see his daughter struggling with a bird.
Unfortunately, two quarters of an hour passed in the blink of an eye. He patted his butt, got up and went out, calling Liu Dafu to come and collect the grain.
We harvested 500 kilograms of grain from the first acre of land, and everyone was very happy.
But the yield per mu after that failed to exceed this number. In June, the ridges of several mu of land collapsed, resulting in a lot of losses, and only 460 to 470 kilograms were harvested.
A total of 4,895 kilograms were harvested from these ten acres of land, an average of 489 kilograms per acre.
Compared with previous years, one acre produces about 50 kilograms more grain. A little bit adds up to a lot, and ten acres produce nearly 500 kilograms more grain.
Liu Dafu's family harvested 40%, a total of 1,958 kilograms.
The remaining 2,937 kilograms, minus one-fifteenth of the grain tax, resulted in a final total of 2,741 kilograms, which was the total harvest of Qin Yao's family this year.
This amount of grain could be sold for about 16 taels and 4 qian of silver based on last year's grain prices.
However, Qin Yao now has to eat the food of four people by herself, and the more than 2,700 kilograms are barely enough for her own consumption, and she does not plan to sell it.
Of course, this is barely enough, referring to white rice for every meal.
If it were other families in the village, it would be great if they could drink porridge all year round and not starve to death.
If they had this much yield per acre, they would sell most of it and exchange it for silver to be used for daily expenses.
The three Liu Gong brothers led their family's horse-drawn carriage and ox-drawn cart and came to Liu Ji's house with Liu Ji to get food.
Along the way, he repeatedly expressed his envy of Liu Ji's family's per-acre yield, and said that he wanted to buy seeds from them and planned to plant his seeds next year.
Liu Ji said seriously: "I envy you. You have so many good fields and you can get so much harvest every year just by sitting there."
The three Liu Gong brothers: "."
"Hey? Why aren't you talking?"
Liu Ji looked at the three people with a blank face. If you ignore the evil that flashed in his eyes, he could not be more innocent.
Qin Yao heard some noise outside the door and walked out. She saw Liu Ji bringing people in and inviting them into the house.
"The yard is not big enough to dry so much millet, so I have to trouble you to take it back first." Qin Yao explained politely.
The three Liu Gong brothers finally recovered from the awkward atmosphere. One of them got the receipt cleared with her, and the remaining two went with Liu Ji to take the grain back.
They brought baskets with them. One cart could carry eight baskets, which contained more than 1,900 kilograms of grain. They could finish the work in two trips, which was very fast.
With 40% of the millet missing, the remaining space in the front and back yards was just enough for drying.
Qin Yao looked at the sky. There would be at least two more sunny days, so all the grain at home could be dried.
Tomorrow is the Ghost Festival, which is also Liu Ji's last day of vacation.
Qin Yao must make good use of this strong laborer.
The task of drying the grain was left to Dalang and the other two. They took up their sickles and dragged the crying Liu Ji to the village entrance.
The wasteland near the water mill was covered with grass as far as the eye could see.
When Liu Ji heard Qin Yao calling him to cut, he felt his eyes go dark, "Madam, I think I have heatstroke!"
Then, his body began to shake, as if he was about to fall down at any time.
Qin Yao turned around and put a sickle on his neck, "Do you want to cut it?"
Liu Ji took a deep breath and blinked twice sincerely, "I'll do it."
The sickle on his neck was finally removed.
Qin Yao pointed to an area with few vines, and then plunged into the wasteland. She swung her knife with a "clang clang" sound. With her as the center of the circle, the surrounding grass became visibly shorter, revealing the color of the earth.
All day long, other families are celebrating the Ghost Festival, celebrating the harvest, offering sacrifices to their ancestors with the best rice of the year, inviting their ancestors to taste the rice, and feeling very happy.
Qin Yao's family cleaned up the more than 300 square meters of wasteland and didn't even think about ancestor worship.
In the evening, when the couple got home from work, they saw the tables and incense sticks placed in the yard of every household, and then they suddenly remembered this.
But when the couple looked at each other, neither could find any reverence for their ancestors or ghosts in each other's eyes.
"Is there any incense in our house?" Qin Yao asked.
Liu Ji scratched his head, "It seems to have been burned out during the Chinese New Year."
"Are there any candles?"
Liu Ji hissed, "It seems that it has been used up. I copied books all night before."
Qin Yao thought for a moment and said, "How about cooking two bowls of meat and praying?"
Liu Ji rolled his eyes, "Madam, have you forgotten that we had already eaten all the meat two days ago?"
It's too late to go to town to buy pork now, the pork shop has closed long ago!
Qin Yao was about to say, then don't celebrate this festival.
Liu Ji suddenly stopped.
Qin Yao looked up and saw that it was the gate of the Liu family's old house.
Liu Ji pointed at the incense table inside and said, "We all have the same ancestor anyway. Let's go home and get some newly harvested grain and worship it together."
Qin Yao raised her eyebrows. That makes sense!
So the couple walked back home slowly, put down their sickles, washed their hands and face, took the remaining half bag of snacks and a bowl of newly harvested millet, locked the door, and led their four children to the Liu family's old house.
"Dad, let's come and pay respect to our ancestors!"
Liu Ji held snacks in one hand and grains in the other. His voice came before he even showed up. He, the cook in the kitchen, was so frightened that her heart skipped a beat.
Turning around, he saw the third brother's family of six appearing in the yard, holding new grain for ancestor worship in their hands. He thought to himself that something was wrong.
Sure enough, the third brother said directly to her: "Sister-in-law, please cook more rice. We will eat here tonight and have a lively family dinner."
He let out a long sigh. What else could she say when she met this bastard? She just had to take a ladle and wash the rice!
(End of this chapter)