Her Cultivation Diary

At the end of February and beginning of March, it was a rare leisure time for farmers throughout the year.

The New Year had just ended, and the children had again taken their families and flown away, the swallows under the roof beams had not returned yet, and more and more land was going fallow, with dull yellow and grayish-brown tones taking over vast expanses.

Apart from the distant green mountains, the entire village was a picture of desolation and silence.

But today, in the fields by the bamboo grove of Lao Song's family, it was bustling again.

"Song Sancheng, what's with your family this year? Have you made a fortune and are preparing for a big endeavor? Are you going to tidy up all these fields?"

"Indeed, Old Song, what do you plan to plant? There used to be a couple of patches of tea trees in the field, are you not keeping them?"

Everyone had been asked by Song Sancheng to come and tidy up the field.

In the corner, the tiller was rumbling away, and before they could till the soil, they first had to clear the weeds and miscellaneous trees that had accumulated.

Otherwise, that little machine might get jammed up.

Luckily, there were many hands, and everyone working together made the task not only fun but also efficient. Once one patch was cleared in front, the tiller would turn over the soil twice behind, working together just perfectly.

Those who came were about the same age as Song Sancheng.

At their age, if they tried to work outside the village, most factories didn't want them.

They could relax the age requirements for manual labor jobs, but employers were also afraid of accidents.

Besides, people in their forties and fifties had endured hardship when they were younger and quite a few had lingering aches and pains...

Now staying in the village meant working sporadically, doing their best not to become a burden to their children.

So when Song Sancheng talked about hiring help, despite the hard and poorly paid work of bending over all day for 150 yuan, everyone was willing to come.

Getting older, they also longed for some excitement.

Song Sancheng also sighed, "Tea leaves aren't worth much anymore, and I still have so much of it on the hillside. I haven't taken care of these here for years... Why keep them?"

This was true.

Their place wasn't known for any famous teas, just ordinary leaves from the valley. Even if they were good for a fresh and sweet drink at home, selling them for fifty yuan a kilo, there were hardly any buyers out there.

The tea shrubs in these fields were purely because they didn't like to see the land lay bare...

But they were getting old!

They really couldn't handle the heavy-duty farm work anymore and had slowly come to accept it.

"So what do you plan to do, tidying up both the fields and the hillside?"

Asking the question was the neighbor Li Baoni.

Speaking of this, Song Sancheng didn't know how to begin.

How to explain? His daughter had decided not to work and to come back to farm?

These days, how many young folks knew how to farm? If he said it aloud, wouldn't the villagers laugh themselves to death?

So he said nonchalantly, "It's nothing much. My Tantan has been working too hard and can't take it anymore. I told her our farming at home could use a hand, let her rest up at home for a year or so before going back to work."

This was true.

Didn't every family's young ones go out to forge their paths?

Li Baoni, the neighbor, sighed as well, "Indeed, my daughter came back for the New Year, and her face was so pale. When I asked, it was because she had been working overtime until one or two o'clock in the morning—the salary isn't much, and she has nothing left by the end of the year."

Li Baoni's daughter worked in a clothing store chain. With a sweet mouth and a gift for gab, she was now a supervisor, sometimes counting stock late at night and going on business trips to expand stores. It was all tough work.

And with the economy being poor the last two years, her salary hadn't increased, leaving her to worry about potential layoffs...

When it came to their children, every household had its difficulties.

Zhou Shunshui, who lived a bit further away, also sighed, "My son last time said he wanted us old folks to move to the city and live with them, to help take care of the grandchildren—the chilies at the supermarket near their door cost more than ten yuan per kilo! How can one afford to eat that?"

"Taking care of grandkids, in the morning sending them to kindergarten, in the evening picking them up and off to various classes, all in different places—riding the bus got me all dizzy and disoriented. Their apartment's always air-conditioned; it's not as warm as our stoves at home."

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"I stayed for a week, just couldn't stand it, so I came back on my own."

As for the old lady back home, of course, she couldn't bear to part with her grandson and stayed there to take care of him with all her heart and effort.

It doesn't matter whether farming is reliable or not, but anyway, the reason Song Sancheng found was quite plausible:

"Tantan also said that the food these past few years isn't as tasty as before. So I figured, since people are already here, why not grow some vegetables and rice for the kids, it'll taste better when we eat our own."

Upon hearing this, the villagers burst into laughter.

"Song Sancheng, you have the most farmland in the village now, you've become a landlord—you wait until the rice is ripe, and I won't buy rice anymore, I'll buy yours."

"Right, right, right, I'll buy too, the rice outside looks white, but that's all polished and has no nutrition, it costs several yuan per jin, and it's not as fragrant as the rice we used to grow ourselves."

Song Sancheng didn't dare to agree: "We only have two plots of land in our family, not enough to even divide among ourselves, not selling, not selling."

Who here hasn't farmed before?

The crowd became displeased when they heard this: "You add up two plots to several acres, come on, does your family eat thousands of jin of rice a year?"

Song Sancheng also smiled: "Then what should I do? This good rice variety I have tastes great but is expensive. At best, it produces one thousand jin per acre. One thousand jin yields seven hundred jin of rice, which is just enough for two or three people to eat for a year."

"Besides, my family's old man, old lady, the kid's grandma, uncle, aunt, eldest uncle... every household has to share a bit, right?"

"With just this amount, it's barely enough for our own consumption."

In the village, this is how relationships work, with neighbors and relatives always sharing a bit—not much, but it's about expressing the sentiment.

Everyone calculated, and there surely isn't much extra: "No way, I must eat your family's rice this year, otherwise, when it's time to plant seedlings, I won't come!"

Everyone echoed in agreement.

The meaning of this conversation was clear: they would help with the seedling planting without talking about payment.

Song Sancheng certainly didn't dare to agree: "With just these two plots, it would take us no more than two days to plant the seedlings ourselves... eating, eating, when it's really time to harvest, come help out, and there will be plenty of rice meals!"

The group laughed and teased each other, and when a plot of land was finally cleared and ready for a change of crop, someone suddenly remembered:

"You're preparing this twenty acres of land, only planting a few acres of rice, what are you planning to do with the rest?"

Song Sancheng didn't hide it: "Planting vegetables."

"I figure that we won't use pesticides, and by taking the shuttle bus to the city to sell them, we surely won't be losing money."

But one can't earn that much that way.

Without pesticides, the weeds and insects will pile up in layers, and the couple alone can't manage it in time, not to mention the extra worry.

Moreover, their road isn't easy to travel, with only one bus trip per day to and from the village, costing 40 yuan round trip...

Those vegetables still need fertilizer and physical labor, and there are so many vendors in the market who are from rural areas closer to the city than they are, the competition is fierce...

In the end, it's all hard-earned money.

Everyone internally did the math, and it really didn't seem worth it!

But then they thought: "That's doable, Old Song, you have Qiaoqiao taking care of the house, and we're getting on in years, nobody wants us for labor work, growing our own vegetables is pretty good."

"I'll come to the field when it's time and pick what I want to buy on the spot!"

...

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The crops planted in the village are mostly of a single variety, with the households' harvest seasons often overlapping, so many times, vegetables still need to be purchased.

Moreover, now in the countryside selling pigs is okay, butchering pigs for personal consumption is okay, but butchering to sell is illegal and not allowed.

Tantan's next step is to plant rice, watermelons, various vegetables, chestnuts from the mountain... she will also keep bees because the Milk Vetch Flower honey truly cannot be missed! There's also plenty of wild vegetables.

Keeping pigs, dogs, chickens, ducks, geese, as well as fish, shrimp, water chestnuts.

If there are any other crops that everyone likes, feel free to leave comments!

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