Chapter 237: Hurry Up and Get Well, Hurry Up and Leave

Chapter 237: Chapter 237: Hurry Up and Get Well, Hurry Up and Leave

The reason dinner was so late today was to wait for Hu Dacheng.

After the wanderer’s cast was removed, Ji Huan didn’t bother the Hu brothers to come over as often.

But when the wanderer said he wanted a bath that afternoon, Ji Huan had no choice but to make another trip to the Hu Family’s home.

Hu Liang was definitely too busy to get away, so she spoke with Hu Ximei, who was at home, and asked her to have Hu Dacheng stop by the earthen hut when he returned.

In any case, Hu Dacheng had been the one spending the most time with the wanderer recently. He’d gone from trembling and not daring to look at the man’s face to finding it all quite ordinary.

Take tonight, for example. Carrying an oil lamp and a food basket, he’d gone ahead to the earthen hut by himself.

When Ji Huan arrived, Hu Dacheng was sitting by the entrance of the earthen hut, waiting for her.

"Why aren’t you going inside?" Ji Huan asked deliberately.

Hu Dacheng scratched his head. "Well..."

He might have gotten used to the wanderer’s face, but seeing it during the day was one thing; seeing it at night was another.

Besides, when he went inside, the wanderer didn’t say a single word. He’d wanted to talk, but for some reason, he felt a knot of fear in his stomach, so he just set the food on the table and scurried back out.

Ji Huan pointed at him without a word and went into the kitchen to boil water.

Hu Dacheng followed her in, offering to take over, but Ji Huan wouldn’t let him.

"You just took a bath. Go wait outside, or you’ll just get all sweaty again."

Hu Dacheng didn’t seem to care at all. "What’s a little sweat? The threshing ground isn’t far from the river. Worst case, I’ll just jump in for another swim."

But Ji Huan’s attention was caught by something else. "You’re going back to the threshing ground later?"

"Of course!" Hu Dacheng nodded. "All the wheat is piled up at the threshing ground. How could we leave it unguarded? If someone came to steal it in the middle of the night, or if a fire broke out by accident, we’d be ruined. What would my family eat then?"

A so-called "threshing ground" was typically a wide, open space by the roadside or the edge of a field, shared by several families. They would hitch an ox to a stone roller and have it walk in circles, continuously sprinkling water to moisten the earth. They kept at it until the ground was packed flat and hard, ready to be used for threshing grain.

Widow Xie’s family’s threshing ground was south of the village entrance, which wasn’t close at all.

But the weather was dry, making everything flammable, and grain stalks were especially combustible. Once a fire started, it would be impossible to put out. They really did have to be on guard at all times.

As for theft... at first, Ji Huan hadn’t believed it either. But in reality, it was all too common.

It was mainly because there were so many poor people. They would stoop to pick up a single grain that fell on the ground. Otherwise, the harvested fields wouldn’t be filled with people gleaning stray ears of wheat.

Some families even mobilized everyone, young and old. They would set out before dawn with sacks on their backs and a bit of dry food, only to return after nightfall.

After spending the entire day out there, they would only manage to gather half a sack, or a full one at most. Once husked, there would be even less to show for it.

After all, no family was foolish. After cutting the wheat and hauling it from the fields, the family members themselves would be the first to go over the ground with a fine-toothed comb. How much could possibly be left after they were done?

Then there were the lazy ones who couldn’t be bothered with such hard work and would simply resort to stealing from others under the cover of night.

They’d snatch a bundle from one family and haul away an armful from another. A single night’s haul was worth at least several days of someone else’s gleaning.

That was why nearly every family arranged for someone to stand watch over their threshing ground at night.

"Isn’t your brother there on watch?"

"I have to bring him dinner later, so I’ll just sleep there. It’s much cooler sleeping out in the fields than at home. Besides, he can’t stay up the whole night by himself. We take shifts. I watch the first half of the night, and he watches the second. My second-oldest brother says most of the thieves come out in the latter half of the night."

By the time they finished talking, the water had boiled, and the wanderer had finished his meal.

Ji Huan mixed the hot and cold water to the right temperature and had Hu Dacheng carry it into the main room, repeating her usual set of instructions.

"I’ll watch him. I won’t let him move, and I won’t let him get it wet..."

Hu Dacheng closed the door to the main room and walked over to the wanderer, muttering to himself as he handed him a dry cloth.

"Hurry up. I won’t tell Sister Wan you washed up by yourself."

Even when the wanderer’s left hand was still wrapped in gauze, he would wash his face and body himself whenever possible, avoiding Hu Dacheng’s help. Now that the bandages were off, there was no way he would let the boy assist him.

Hu Dacheng was well aware of this.

The wanderer sat upright on the stool, took the cloth, dipped it in the water, and, sure enough, began to wash himself.

Hu Dacheng hopped onto the kang bed and sat down. Utterly bored, he gathered his courage and tried to start a conversation with the wanderer.

"When the rest of your casts come off, I’ll take you down to the river for a proper bath, how about it? It’s so hot out, and it’s such a hassle for Sister Wan to have to boil water for you. We’re grown men. A quick rinse with cold water is all we need."

No response? Hu Dacheng scratched his head.

"Hey, when are you leaving? Sister Wan said you’ll go once you’re all healed up. So, when is that going to be?"

Still nothing? Hu Dacheng fidgeted, scratching his ear.

"Uh, this isn’t me asking, you know. My mom told me to ask! She says Sister Wan worries about you day in and day out, just one thing after another. It’s an endless list of worries, and you can see she’s gotten thinner... Besides, if this drags on, the villagers are going to notice. How is Sister Wan supposed to find a husband later on...?"

The SPLASHING of water suddenly stopped.

Hu Dacheng didn’t notice and kept rambling.

The main gist of it was simple: he was urging the wanderer to be grateful for the kindness he’d been shown, get well quickly, and leave, so he would stop being a burden to Ji Huan.

He also managed to spill all the details of Ji Huan’s unfortunate past, like her broken engagement and being sold off for a propitious wedding to ward off illness.

It wasn’t until Ji Huan knocked on the door that Hu Dacheng belatedly slapped a hand over his mouth.

The door to the main room opened, and Ji Huan eyed him with suspicion. "What were you doing? It took you so long today."

Hu Dacheng just laughed and changed the subject. Ji Huan didn’t think much of it. But as she bent over to pick up the water basin, the wanderer glanced at her.

His eyes swept over her gaunt cheeks and slender waist for a moment before he quickly looked away.

The summer harvest was in full swing.

In this era, there were no combine harvesters. Everything relied on human and animal power.

People spent all day bent over in the fields. Families that owned livestock were in the minority; it was often said that for every one family with an ox, ten others would be begging to borrow it.

Not only were the people exhausted, but so were the oxen.

Fortunately, the weather was mostly clear and sunny during this time, with no long stretches of rain. Everyone seized the opportunity to rush the harvest, and the work progressed smoothly.

The entire summer harvest lasted for a little over ten days.

By mid-July, a few scattered families were still busy in their fields—those were the ones with larger plots of land.

Widow Xie’s family had less land, so they finished their work straddling the end of June and the beginning of July.

As soon as the summer harvest ended, the summer planting began in earnest.

This phase of work was different from the last.

During the summer harvest, the common folk prayed to Buddha, hoping the rain would stay away. But after the harvest, they immediately switched which temple they prayed at, hoping day and night for a timely rain to improve the soil’s moisture. This would ensure the newly sown summer corn and other crops could sprout properly and that the young seedlings would grow quickly.

It seemed the heavens hadn’t accepted the villagers’ offerings of incense for nothing. Overnight, a welcome rain descended, and it was by no means stingy.

In fact, it was a little too generous. The downpour continued for five or six straight days, and the welcome rain threatened to become a disastrous flood.

Rain was indeed good for sowing, but a continuous, widespread deluge could have devastating consequences.

What’s more, some families still had their threshed grain spread out on the drying grounds!

The murmurs of gratitude quickly turned to curses.

The village chief gathered the able-bodied young men of the village. Donning bamboo hats and straw rain capes, they grabbed their shovels and picks and headed out into the wind and rain. They worked together, inspecting the edges of the fields and draining the excess water to prevent flooding.

Fortunately, the heavens knew when to quit. On the eighth day, the rain gradually subsided.

Everyone wiped the sweat from their brows. Ji Huan, too, now deeply understood why summer farming was often described as "snatching grain from the dragon’s mouth."

From harvest to planting, farmers were in a constant struggle, one moment praying for rain, the next praying for it to stop. They were always racing—racing against the heavens, racing for favorable conditions. Everything was a race.

’Just getting a bite to eat isn’t easy,’ she thought.

But the villagers had no time for such sentiments. They were still busy as could be—clearing stubble, tilling the land, and sowing seeds while the soil was still moist.

By mid-July, the summer planting was mostly complete.

The bustling village once again grew quiet and peaceful. And it was at this very moment that a rumor started to spread from the Hu Family—