Autumn Harvest

It took ten days to make persimmon cakes, and only two-thirds of the persimmon forest was transported. The two peeled and dried the persimmons, and they were almost done. Fang Zeng did not plan to transport the rest. It was very simple. The autumn harvest was coming soon, and his family had two plots of mountain land. After all, food was the most important thing.

During the autumn harvest, most families like to work together. There is strength in numbers, especially during the autumn harvest, people rush to work, for fear that it will rain and the harvest of the year will be ruined. Naturally, it is much easier for families with livestock to work. Fang Zeng’s family only has two plots of mountain land, and he did not work with others. He was more skillful, and it would only take three or four days. Besides, there was a big mule at home, so it was not too tiring.

Fang Zhiyuan also wanted to go with him. Although he looked only ten years old, he was a half-grown boy in this place and could work in the fields. Fang Zeng was unwilling to do so. He felt that he was strong and healthy, and he didn’t need his nephew’s help.

The two talked about the matter for a long time, and Fang Zeng finally decided to let Fang Zhiyuan stay at home to cook and dry persimmons. Fang Zeng went to work in the field, and Fang Zhiyuan agreed when he saw the persimmons in the yard. In his heart, he planned to make something good to replenish his uncle’s strength.

Fang Zeng’s mountain was not far from his home, and there was a mule cart to pull it, which saved a lot of effort. Fang Zeng harvested most of the corn and sweet potatoes on the first day, as well as some other crops. Since he was drying persimmons in his own large yard, Fang Zeng dried the corn outside the yard with a wooden rack he made, and let Fang Zhiyuan watch it.

Fang Zhiyuan realized at this time that he had caused trouble for his uncle again. At this time, drying persimmons would take up the space for drying coarse grains. Fortunately, his family didn’t have much land, and the harvested grain didn’t need a large area. He could find a flatter place outside to dry it. But this also made Fang Zhiyuan secretly determined that he must be more thorough in doing things in the future and not cause trouble to his uncle.

After three or four days of harvesting, all the coarse grains in the field were harvested. Fang Zeng was busy drying and shelling the grains. Fang Zeng lent the mule to Lin Zheng’s family, who was on good terms with him. Otherwise, with a mule at home, people would still remember it and ask it to work for his family. It would be better to lend it to someone he was familiar with first to avoid offending people.

The persimmons were almost dried, so Fang Zhiyuan started to pinch persimmons with Fang Zeng every day. They worked all morning and their hands were sore. After more than ten days of doing this, the dried persimmon cakes were almost ready, so Fang Zhiyuan and Fang Zeng started to put the persimmons into the jars for frosting. Eight large jars couldn’t hold them all. In the end, Fang Zhiyuan couldn’t bear to let his uncle buy another jar. After all, a large jar cost a hundred big coins, which was almost a tael, and he hadn’t made a big buck from dried persimmon cakes.

 After thinking about it, he directly put the coarse grain mat on the floor of the house, put the persimmons and the persimmon skin on it, and covered it with the mat. For safety, he also used the old mat at home to cover it tightly. He also prepared all the persimmons carelessly, and just waited to see the finished product a month later.

When the persimmons were put into the jar, the family affairs were almost done. Fang Zeng took Fang Zhiyuan to collect pears, sand apples and other mountain fruits. The bamboo flat basket at home was filled with pears, sand apples, dates and chestnuts. Looking at these fruits, Fang Zhiyuan’s eyebrows were curved. It was a blessing to be a child loved by the elders.

Fang Zeng also harvested the cabbage and radish greens planted in the vegetable garden. Every family here has the habit of making pickled vegetables. In the winter, they rely on these two or three vegetables to support themselves, and every family has sufficient reserves. But Fang Zeng and Fang Zhiyuan encountered a problem. They knew how to pickle pickles, but they didn’t know how to store pickles.

Fang Zeng used to only hunt and do farm work, and the omnipotent Auntie Lin took care of the family affairs. Not to mention Fang Zhiyuan, his mother worked twice as hard as a man, and loved his child, so naturally he didn’t want him to help store pickles. The uncle and nephew stared at each other, and it was obvious that they didn’t know what to do with these cabbages.

When Fang Zeng decided to ask Lin Xin and Lin Zheng’s fulangs for advice on how to store sauerkraut, Fang Zhiyuan decided that he didn’t know how to store sauerkraut, but he could make spicy cabbage and kimchi. After these two things were made, they could be exchanged with other families in the village, and maybe they could be exchanged for some silver. Well, he was now completely obsessed with money, and wanted to turn everything into white silver.

Fang Zeng was overjoyed when he heard that Fang Zhiyuan had a way to deal with these cabbages. He really didn’t want to discuss how to store sauerkraut with his buddies, or else Lin Zheng, the big mouth, would make fun of him. Now his nephew proposed another way to store cabbage, and Fang Zeng had no doubts, just follow it.

Fang Zhiyuan saw that there were sand apples and pears at home, so he started to do it. In fact, most of it was done by Fang Zeng. Fang Zhiyuan just talked and lent a hand, and the two of them worked for a day and finally processed the cabbage. They also made some pickles with radishes. As for how it tasted, Fang Zhiyuan wanted to say: he hadn’t eaten it yet, so he didn’t know.

After the autumn harvest, everyone was happy. The guys from the grain store came to the village with mule carts and started to collect grain. The price of collecting grain in the countryside must be a few cents less than sending it to town to sell, which is very convenient. The money for hiring a mule cart to send grain to the town is only enough to cover the difference in this trip, so it is better to sell the grain directly to them, which is convenient and safe.

 Fang Zeng had no grain to sell, but he went anyway. Fang Zhiyuan was still growing, so Fang Zeng planned to buy some fine grains for him there. It was not impossible to buy in the village, but the villagers would be unhappy if he gave them too much money, and they would be unhappy if he gave them too little. It would be better for him to buy some while the grain store was collecting grain. He would give the same price as the others, and no one would complain.

When Fang Zeng came back, he carried two loads of millet. Fang Zhiyuan was happy to see the millet, but he was afraid that his uncle would spend more money, so he said to Fang Zeng: “Uncle, you don’t need to buy millet. We eat coarse grains the same way. These millets can be exchanged for a lot of coarse grains.”

Fang Zeng waved his hand and said with a smile: “The New Year will come in two months, and we have to eat better. It is more cost-effective to buy millet than to buy refined rice, but it is more laborious to shell it. Taking advantage of the current low grain prices in the grain store, it is not a loss for uncle to buy more. Well, uncle has to go twice more, and this time uncle bought a lot of millet.”

As he said, he poured the millet into the large vat for storing grain and went out again.

Fang Zhiyuan looked at the millet, and his eyes lit up. At the same time, he was more determined to make money and honor his uncle in the future.

Dinner was pork bone soup and fried pork intestines. Ever since Fang Zhiyuan showed off his skills, Fang Zeng usually brought some bones and pig offal with him when he went to town. Although these things also cost money, they were much cheaper than meat, delicious and not expensive, so Fang Zeng was still willing to buy them. Fang Zhiyuan also pickled a few pig hearts and prepared to dry them in the sun. When there was no food, they would stew them and eat them. They were also very fragrant.

The uncle and nephew had a happy dinner. Before they finished eating, Lin Zheng came.

Lin Zheng was Lin Xin’s younger brother. He and Fang Zeng were good friends who grew up together. They were the kind of people who could wear the same pants. When he got married four years ago, he asked his father Lin Cheng to separate them because he was afraid that the family would fight over trivial matters and their feelings would fade. Now he is living a good life, and his son is already three years old.

Fang Zeng was very happy to see Lin Zheng coming over. He quickly sent Fang Zhiyuan to serve the remaining dishes in the pot, found his own collection of wine, and took Lin Zheng to eat at home. Lin Zheng didn’t bother to be polite with Fang Zeng. He hurried over and didn’t eat. He was really hungry.

After eating two bites of food, he told Fang Zeng what he had come here for today.

It turned out that a few days ago, Fang Zeng brought Fang Zhiyuan back to settle down in his own home. Most people in the village knew about it. They all watched Fang Sheng grow up. After hearing what the midwife Fang Zeng brought back said, everyone cursed the Li family for being inhuman and even mistreating their own child. They were quite sympathetic to Fang Zhiyuan and didn’t say anything.

He didn’t know what happened but the news of Li Fu’s family spread to the whole town in a few days. The reputation of Li Village was damaged. Some families in other villages who were already discussing marriage were reluctant to marry their gers. They looked down on the village customs of the Li family, and several marriage proposals of the Li family were cancelled.

The people of Li Village were very angry, and naturally they didn’t have a good face towards Li Fu’s family. They also told others how unfilial and disobedient Fang Zhiyuan was. They said Fang Zhiyuan was worthless, as if that would make them look so good.

The people in Lin Village heard the ins and outs of the matter from the midwife who had been to the scene. Although they felt that Fang Zhiyuan was too hot-tempered at a young age, he was filial to his mother. They didn’t care much about the rumors outside, but people in other villages who didn’t know the truth now said that Fang Zhiyuan was an unfilial son who didn’t even recognize his own father.

Originally, Fang Zheng had asked his brother Lin Xin to ask his brother to help Fang Zhiyuan study in the private school in Zhao Village. It had already been agreed that Fang Zhiyuan would go to Zhao Village to study at the beginning of the year with Da Zhuang. But now the private school teacher was unwilling to do so, saying that Fang Zhiyuan had problems with his character. He was afraid that other parents in Zhao Village would have opinions if he accepted Fang Zhiyuan, so he rejected him.

 Fang Zeng was getting angry as he listened. What kind of thing was this? It was clearly Li Fu’s fault, how did it become his nephew’s fault? Now he doesn’t even have a chance to go to school. Li Village really hurt people. They really thought that everything would be fine if they pushed the fault onto a child. People are not blind. They can find out how they treated his brother with a different surname. What good can they do if they ruin his nephew’s reputation?

After Lin Zheng finished speaking, he didn’t eat and hurried back. His family was still waiting for him.

Fang Zhiyuan listened without saying a word. He really forgot what kind of era this was. In modern times, he was a gangster and the school would persuade him to drop out if he lost his good reputation. What’s more, in this ancient times where fathers and sons are loyal to each other. How serious is the crime of being unfilial? Some people with low psychological tolerance can’t raise their heads to face people for the rest of their lives.

He ignored the surrounding environment. In modern times, it doesn’t matter if he has no reputation. As long as you don’t kill or set fire to people, it doesn’t matter if you do small evil things. As long as you have money, you can still live a happy life and be loved by others.

But it doesn’t work here. A person’s reputation is like his communication card. Without a reputation, you have to think twice before doing anything. This is the first time that Fang Zhiyuan feels that people’s words can kill people but he doesn’t regret it. Even if his reputation can trap him for a while, it can’t trap him for a lifetime.

It was impossible for him to swallow his anger and be manipulated by Li Fu for a temporary reputation.

Fang Zeng looked at Fang Zhiyuan with some regret. If he hadn’t been so angry and stopped Fang Zhiyuan from saying those words, Li Fu would still annoy him in the future but his nephew wouldn’t have ruined his reputation! Thinking of this, Fang Zeng felt more and more sorry for Fang Zhiyuan. His eyes were filled with more guilt!

Fang Zhiyuan saw this, and he quickly said, “Uncle, I am a person from another village, and I may not be able to learn well in school in Zhao Village. I am old, and I can only recognize words. When Da Zhuang goes to school, it will be the same if he comes back to teach me. Uncle, I know you feel bad, but I don’t regret it. If I fell into Feng Mei’s hands, I don’t know how hard it would be, and I might not even see you now. Compared with those hard days, I am already in a honey pot. People should be content. I am now well fed and warmly dressed, and my uncle protects me so that no one dares to bully me. I am very happy. As for whether to go to a private school or not, it has no effect on me.”

Fang Zeng felt better after listening to Fang Zhiyuan’s comfort, but still said, “Hey, if uncle had stopped you at that time and didn’t say those words, those people wouldn’t have said that to you. It was uncle who was so angry that he didn’t care about these things. I’m sorry for you.”

Fang Zhiyuan didn’t think so. He said, “Uncle, are we going to be manipulated by Li Fu just for this reputation? He killed my mother. I won’t do anything because he is my biological father, but I will never take care of him in his old age, especially when I have to support Feng Mei, the executioner. If we didn’t tear it apart at that time, I would have to work like a cow and a horse for him for the sake of reputation. It would be better to let me drown in the river at that time to save myself from being humiliated. Even if I feed the dog with steamed buns, don’t expect me to give a grain of food to the bastards who killed my mother.” 

Fang Zhiyuan said calmly, “Actually, it’s okay now. Anyway, everyone knows that I don’t recognize Li Fu. At that time, if he wants to use the name of biological father to suppress me, it will be useless. His reputation is already bad. What else can he threaten us with? As long as we ignore him, he will have no way.” Fang Zeng was silent for a long time after listening to Fang Zhiyuan’s words. He sighed and said, “What a sin!”