Chapter 26: Cutting Sorghum, Wuyou Grass

It’s only a few months until winter, and Jia Qingshan decided to go to the town to buy new bedding, and then visit the carpenter’s house to make a wardrobe and a dressing table.

He also needed to buy some pots, bowls, spoons, needles, thread, and other small items…

When Jia Qingshan walked back through the village a week later, he had not only bought all the necessary things, but also made a trip to the county.

Jia Qingshan originally planned to sell the musk he had in a medicine shop in the town.

The town had two medicine shops. At the first one, after the shopkeeper examined the musk, he immediately offered a price of one hundred taels of silver.

Though Jia Qingshan had never sold musk before, he knew that the price was far too low.

He then went to the second shop, where the shopkeeper, perhaps judging from his modest clothing that he wasn’t wealthy, thought he didn’t know the market price of musk and quoted only eighty taels.

Seeing the even more unscrupulous pricing at this second shop, Jia Qingshan decided to take the musk to the county town to sell.

The county town had more people and greater demand, so he believed he would be able to get a better price there.

He took a bullock cart to the county town, and after an hour of bumping along, they finally arrived.

The county was much more bustling than the small town. Wide streets lined with restaurants, teahouses, and various shops, with people constantly coming and going. There were bullock carts, donkey carts, and even some horse-drawn carts, which were rarely seen in the town.

Each shop was busy with customers standing outside, and the air was filled with the sounds of haggling and children playing.

Jia Qingshan had no time to care about anything else and headed straight to the largest medicine shop in the county, Jishantang.

He had heard that although Jishantang was not the largest pharmacy in the county, its reputation was better than the other three shops. Sometimes, poor families would receive half-price medicine.

Jia Qingshan decided to go there.

Inside the shop, there were not many people, and the apprentice was yawning while preparing medicine for the patients.

“How many times have I told you? When dispensing medicine, you must be careful. If you give the wrong medicine, you might harm the patient!”

Hearing the old doctor’s stern words, the apprentice quickly nodded, “Grandfather, I was wrong. I won’t do it again next time…”

Looking at the elderly man with a puffed-up beard and glaring eyes, Jia Qingshan was reminded of his own grandfather, who had warned him countless times not to go hunting in the deep mountains.

When Jia Qingshan saw the white-bearded old doctor, he felt a strange sense of familiarity.

The old doctor, who had just scolded his apprentice, noticed someone was watching him. He looked up and saw a young man with a fairly pleasant appearance. His stern expression immediately softened into a broad smile.

“Young man, are you here for treatment or to buy medicine?”

“I’m neither here to see a doctor nor to buy medicine,” Jia Qingshan replied.

The old doctor asked, “Then why have you come to the pharmacy?”

Jia Qingshan smiled and said, “Doctor, you misunderstood. I’m not here to see a doctor or buy medicine. I came to sell some medicine, and I wonder if you would be interested in buying it?”

Upon hearing this, the old doctor asked, “What kind of medicine is it? Let me see.”

Jia Qingshan took out the wrapped musk, opened it, and handed it to the old doctor.

The old doctor sniffed the musk and asked, “Would you sell it for two hundred taels?”

“I’ve been running a pharmacy for many years, and my prices are fair. If you don’t believe me, you can take it to the other three pharmacies and compare. I can guarantee that our price will be the highest,” the old doctor said.

“Alright, I’ll sell it to you. There’s no need to go to the other pharmacies. I trust you, especially because I’ve heard that you only charge poor families half for their medicine. I believe in your integrity,” Jia Qingshan replied.

The old doctor stroked his beard and laughed loudly. “This young man has great prospects.”

Since one pound of silver equals ten taels, two hundred taels would weigh twenty pounds, which is not very convenient to carry. Jia Qingshan asked the old doctor to give him fifty taels in silver and exchange the remaining one hundred and fifty taels for silver notes before he left.

Thinking of the delighted look in his wife’s eyes when he last gave her a wooden hairpin, Jia Qingshan headed toward the silver exchange shop.

Time quietly passed in this simple routine and before long the harvest season arrived.

Looking out, the endless rice fields were golden and shimmering under the sun. The breeze swept through, causing the heavy rice ears to sway, bending the stalks under their weight.

At the foot of the mountain, the sorghum fields were filled with fiery red heads, adorned with plump, pearl-like grains. In the breeze, they seemed to nod and smile at the hardworking people.

Autumn is the season of harvest, but also a busy one. The fields were full of people at work.

In some families, the whole household worked together. Even three-year-old children helped by picking up fallen rice ears from the ground.

Some people were pushing carts filled with harvested grains, while others were driving ox carts to bring home the straw.

The Li family arrived early at their own fields, looking at the plump sorghum and heavy rice ears in front of them.

Li Father and Li Mother wore joyful smiles on their faces.

Today, the private school had a break for the harvest season, so Li Wen also came to help in the fields.

The whole family wore hats and sleeves and took up sickles. Each person handled two rows of sorghum stalks, cutting and bundling them as they went along. When they reached the end, they would turn back to continue cutting the other two rows, working in this manner until all the sorghum was harvested.

Since Li Wen was still young and didn’t have much strength, the family asked him to follow behind and pick up the fallen ears of grain.

After only cutting a few rows, Li Guo’er and Li Xing’er both developed blisters on their hands from the handles of the sickles. When the blisters burst, the pain was unbearable whenever they gripped the sickles tightly.

Li Guo’er gently lifted the still-intact blister on her younger sister’s hand and took out a handkerchief from her sleeve to wrap it up.

She told her not to cut any more sorghum and asked her to join Li Wen in picking up the fallen ears of grain, as this would ease the pain in her hands.

Cutting sorghum required looking up, and after only half an acre, Li Guo’er felt intense pain in her neck.

Looking over at her parents, who were still cutting sorghum, she couldn’t help but feel a little guilty.

Aren’t farm girls supposed to endure this kind of work? Why did she feel like she couldn’t handle it?

She really had been spoiled by her parents. During non-busy seasons, Li Father and Li Mother never asked their two daughters to work in the fields. They only needed to help Shen Shi with housework at home.

Looking at the blisters on her hands, she realized that she had been away from the fields for so long that she had forgotten she was also a farmer. Why was she complaining about a little hardship?

Seeing her parents already far ahead of her, Li Guo’er hurried to catch up and increased her speed in cutting the sorghum.

When she finally finished the acre of sorghum, she sat down with her parents on the field ridge to rest.

Li Wen quickly set down the sorghum ears in his hands and picked up the water jug to bring water to his parents and elder sister.

The sweet spring water refreshed Li Guo’er instantly, making her feel cooler.

After resting for a short while, the family returned to their work. By the time it was getting dark, they had finished harvesting all the sorghum.

Li Father looked up at the sky and said, “It looks like we won’t finish today.”

Since the Li family had fewer people to help, they couldn’t manage everything at once. They decided to first cut down the sorghum stalks and leave the task of gathering the ears of grain for later.

Looking at the already cut sorghum, Li Father sighed, “It seems like we won’t be able to finish today.”

As they were busy loading the cart, they noticed a man pushing a cart in the distance coming towards them.

Jia Qingshan had returned from the county town in the afternoon. He touched the hairpin in his pocket, feeling eager to see his wife.