Chapter 105: 105



105 Picking Cattail and Harvesting Wheat

Li Yu dried the few catties of wild rice alone and sifted through them with a straw. She chose the straw grains and soaked them in a wooden bucket filled with lime water. She then soaked them alone and urged them to sprout.

After soaking the rice seeds for two days, Li Yu led people to pick the rice seeds to the side of the mountain stream. She washed the rice seeds and soaked them in the stream. She soaked them for six hours before picking them home. She spread the disinfected burlap bag on the ground and poured the rice seeds on the burlap bag. Then, she spread the rice seeds evenly on the burlap bag and covered it with a burlap bag to speed up the sprouting.

Er Ya looked at the sacks covering the rice and asked Li Yu curiously, “Miss, are you afraid that it will be cold?”

Li Yu taught her patiently, “This is to speed up the sprouting. When you’re on night watch, you have to touch it often. If the temperature of the rice is too high, remember to gently flip the rice with a bamboo pole. If it’s cold, you have to sprinkle some warm water on it.”

“Lady, this is the first time I’ve seen someone serve rice seeds like this. In the past, they would soak them in water and put them in burlap bags. After they hung them on the beam, they would take them to the fields to scatter them the next day.

Li Yu smiled. “Every family has a different farming method. It’s never wrong to work hard.”

Er Ya looked at Li Yu in admiration. “Miss, you’re right. Look at how hardworking you and Mr. Zhou are.”

Seeing that Er Ya didn’t understand at all, Li Yu was worried that she would ruin the rice seed. “I’ll guard the rice seed with you tonight. You have to remember how I do it, understand? I’ll leave it to you in the future.”

“Got it. I’ll keep it in mind,” said Er Ya seriously.

Li Yu brought Er Ya to flip the rice seeds once at almost dawn. At the end of the next afternoon, Li Yu sprinkled water again. After the rice seeds were exposed and sprouted, Li Yu brought people to spread the seeds and refine them for four hours. They handed the rice seeds to the long-term workers. The long-term workers carried the rice seeds to the edge of the field and scattered them on the roof. Then, they sprinkled a layer of rice husk dust on them.

Li Yu carried the exposed wild rice seeds to the field and scattered them alone.

After sowing the rice, Li Yu was free. She suddenly remembered that she still had the cattails. She patted her head in frustration and hurriedly went to the pond to take a look at the lotus roots and cattails.

When Li Yu arrived at the pond, Jin Jiu was scattering weeds to feed the fish. When he saw Li Yu, he went forward and bowed cautiously. “Miss, are you done?”

Li Yu nodded and smiled. “How are the fish in the pond? Are there many dead?”

“Not much. I only found two dead fish when I put them in. I haven’t seen them since.” Jin Jiu smiled and pointed at the pond. “Miss, look, three or four leaves have grown from the lotus roots.”

Li Yu saw that tender green lotus leaves had indeed grown on the grooves in the pond. She smiled and praised Jin Jiu. “Yes, it’s been hard on you.”

Jin Jiu’s dark face was red. “It’s not hard. I have food and clothes here. I haven’t been beaten or scolded.”

Seeing his reserved look, Li Yu smiled and pointed ahead. “Can I go see if the cattails can be harvested?”

“Yes.” Jin Jiu bowed and retreated to the side, watching Li Yu walk towards the shallow water on the other side of the pond.

When Li Yu arrived at the shallow depression filled with cattails, she saw that the depressions were already covered with cattails. The cattail flowers had already begun to bloom. It was time to pick cattails.

Li Yu went home and gathered the women and girls. She asked them to put some vegetables in the backpack and bamboo basket and carried the bamboo basket to the pond.

Er Ta held the bamboo basket and pointed at Puhuang as she told Li Yu, “Miss, this yellow thing is called a water candle. We can pick that thing at home to dispel the mosquitoes. Also, we can pick the white rod at the bottom to eat.”

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“The correct name is cattail,” Li Yu said to the women. “Pick some cattails and the water candle Er Ya mentioned. When you pick them, take off the piece of bulrush on top and put it in the bamboo basket.”

Jin Cuicui asked Li Yu in a soft voice, “Miss, what’s that for? How do you want it?”

Li Yu glanced at Jin Cuicui. “It is a medicinal herb. I’ll show it to you. Watch carefully and use your hands to wrap around the section on the water candle. Just peel off the cattails.”

Everyone looked at Li Yu and understood. “Miss, we’ve learned. Go ahead,” Er Ya said to Li Yu.

Li Yu handed the bamboo basket to Er Ya. “It’s too late to pick cattails now. Don’t pick too much. Come back tomorrow morning. Also, remember to spread out the cattails you picked and dry them in the sun mat. Be careful not to get wet from the rain.”

“Miss, don’t worry. We’ll take them back and dry them,” Er Ya replied crisply.

Li Yu nodded and turned to go to the farm. Zhao Junzi had just come down the hill with a basket of eggs on his back. When he saw Li Yu, he smiled and pointed at the backpack behind him. “Miss, the weather has warmed up. The chickens and ducks have also laid more eggs. The duck eggs and eggs that we picked up early this morning at the pond were all sent away by Brother Ruyi. We picked up another hundred or so here. When Ah Gou and Ah Lei were cutting the grass, they even touched some clams and snails in the ditch and came back to feed the chickens and ducks.”

Li Yu looked at the eggs in the basket. “Alright, let Auntie Liu cook eggs for them. Remember to sprinkle lime under the chicken shed every half a month to prevent chickens and ducks from getting sick.”

” We’ve noted it, we just scattered it a few days ago. It’ll be a few more days.”

Li Yu returned home from the farm and saw Blacksmith Xu and Zhao Cai sending the threshing machine back to the village. Zhou Jia was installing it with them.

When Zhou Jia saw Li Yu return, he pointed at a well-equipped threshing machine and smiled. “Xiaoyu, take a look!”

“I’ll try.” Li Yu smiled and stepped on the pedal. Perhaps it was because she was strong, but she felt that she didn’t use much force before the roller started to turn.

Blacksmith Xu pointed at the basket at the side and said to Zhou Jia, “Mr. Zhou, I’ve also prepared some easy-to-wear parts for you. You have to touch some oil on those connecting spots often to save energy.”

Zhou Jia and Li Yu looked at it and said to Blacksmith Xu, “Alright, you’re still the most thorough.”

“Since I craft all your things, I have to do a good job so we can work together for a long time. There’s another thing. After you and Miss Li left last time, an old man came to ask if you came from Qingzhou. He said that Miss Li looks like his niece and asked where you lived. I didn’t tell him.”

Li Yu shook her head and said, “I don’t have any uncles or relatives in my family. He might have mistaken me for someone else.”

“Good. I saw the twinkle in his eye and decided he wasn’t reliable, so I let him go.”

Everyone was busy for more than an hour. They loaded all ten threshers and pulled them to the farm to put them in the warehouse.

In the blink of an eye, more than half a month had passed. After cattails were plucked, Phoenix Village turned golden. The golden wheat ears swayed in the wind, stirring up golden waves.

Li Yu’s workshop also stopped work; she let the female workers go home to harvest wheat.

Taking advantage of the good weather, all the men, women, old, and young in the village went in stages. They hurriedly collected the wheat at home.

Li Yu’s ox cart pulled wheat into the farm one by one. Ah Gou, Ah Lei, and the other children were also busy drying the wheat in the field. They helped the adults unload the wheat from the ox cart and spread it out in rows to dry in the field. They also had to pay attention to the change in the weather at all times. As soon as they realized that the weather wasn’t good, they had to collect the wheat in time to prevent it from being damaged by the rain.

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