Chapter 40 I Want One Too

On the afternoon before the wheat harvest was set to begin, Caiyun brought out several rusted sickles, sat before the doorstep on the whetstone, and splashed water over it as she sharpened them. She then tested the sharpness of the blades by running her thumb along the edges.

Caiyun instructed Yuqiang and Yulan that when harvesting wheat, they should bend their waists at roughly a ninety-degree angle, embrace the middle-upper part of the wheat stalks with their left hand, and hold the sickle in their right hand with the blade kept level. They were to cut the stalks at about two centimeters above the ground, lay the harvested wheat onto a binder rope, or simply place it neatly if tying was unnecessary.

The two quickly mastered the art of cutting wheat, but when Caiyun proceeded to teach them how to twist and make the binder ropes, this task proved to be quite a challenge for them.

A binder rope was essentially a twisted cord used for bundling items. There were mainly two types. The first was made on the spot using local materials with joints, which could be further divided into wheat-straw ropes, rice-straw ropes, and wild-grass ropes, with the locally-sourced ones being the most commonly used.

The second type was a seamless, spiral disc-shaped binder made of rice straw, resembling a flattened, irregularly shaped cylindrical spring that had to be straightened out before use.

Binder ropes were essential for tying wheat. Caiyun casually cut two small handfuls of wheat, crossed them in an X-shape at the joint where the ears met the stalks, wrapped them around a few times, and then twisted the converging ears to form a knot, thus completing a wheat binder rope.

Both Yuqiang and Yulan practiced diligently following their mother’s method for a long time, yet they simply could not form that knot. Even when they occasionally managed to make one, it would slip apart at the slightest touch, and neither of them ever succeeded in making a usable wheat rope.

Growing slightly impatient, Caiyun said, "That's enough. You can practice another time, just focus on cutting the wheat now."

As Caiyun cut the wheat, she continuously made ropes and tied the bundles. Although Yuqiang and Yulan knew how to cut, their pace was far too slow. Thinking that his mother was fast at cutting and that bundling the wheat was simple enough, Yuqiang decided he could take over that task for her.

He squatted down, grabbed both ends of a wheat rope, and pulled hard—only for the rope to snap apart. As he stood there bewildered, his mother walked over and asked, "Do you know why that happened?"

"No," he replied.

"It’s because your hands exerted uneven force. If you apply even pressure with both hands, this kind of rope will tighten as you pull; otherwise, the rope will slip right out from the knot. The correct method is to press the wheat stalks down with your knee right against the knot of the rope, grab both ends of the rope, pull them tight with steady and even force, cross the ends, twist them a few times, and tuck them in. That is how a wheat bundle is tied."

With that, Caiyun made another wheat rope and told Yuqiang to try again, but Yulan rushed forward and snatched it away, crying, "Mom, let me try!"

Following her mother's instructions, Yulan placed the wheat rope on the ground, brought over a heap of wheat, and laid it on the rope. Everything progressed smoothly step by step, and feeling immensely proud of her perceived success, she crowed, "Mom, look at my older brother—a grown man, and he's not even as good as me!"

"Have you tied it securely?"

"All done."

The moment Yulan let go, the wheat bundle burst open. Mortified, she made a funny face at her mother and went back to cutting wheat.

As Yuqiang cut the wheat, he kept pondering the art of making binder ropes. Distracted, his sickle accidentally bit into his left shin, and the skin over his shinbone began to bleed. Fearful of being mocked by Yulan, he gritted his teeth and kept working.

The blood from his calf had already trickled down to the top of his foot. With no other choice, he had to stop, covering the wound with his hand. Catching sight of this, Caiyun asked, "What is it? Got yourself wounded?"

"It's bleeding," Yuqiang answered.

Caiyun hauled a wheat bundle over and told Yuqiang, "Rest your leg on this."

She then grabbed a handful of dry soil from the ground and pressed it firmly onto the wound, saying, "It's nothing. The bleeding will stop in a moment."

The afternoon sun baked the wheat field, releasing a stifling, scorching vapor. Beads of sweat poured from Yuqiang’s hair, soaking his face entirely. His sleeves were drenched from constantly wiping away the sweat, and his arms and the backs of his hands, peppered with red stings from the wheat awns, burned and itched terribly in the salty moisture, causing him extreme discomfort.

Perhaps overcome by exhaustion, Caiyun shifted her posture from a bent waist to a half-squat, and eventually to a half-kneel. Yet she stubbornly persevered, inching forward bit by bit. Later on, she knelt on both knees, propping herself up with the sickle against the ground, resting her head briefly against the handle before pressing on.

That night, the three of them collapsed onto their beds and fell fast asleep the moment they lay down. Troubled by lingering thoughts, Yuqiang woke up from his sleep and found himself unable to drift off again. The image of his mother kneeling to cut the wheat kept flashing before his eyes. He thought about his failures during the day with the binder ropes and the wheat bundles, feeling deeply ashamed that a strapping young man like him couldn't even manage such small tasks. The more he thought about it, the more frustrated he became.

Seeing that Yujun was still fast asleep, Yuqiang quietly slipped on his clothes, stepped out into the moonlight, and headed back to the wheat field. There, he tirelessly practiced making binder ropes and tying wheat bundles over and over again. Fortune favors the persistent; at last, he succeeded, bundling more than forty sheaves in one go.

At dawn, Caiyun got up, prepared breakfast, and went to the small room to wake Yuqiang and Yujun, only to find Yuqiang gone. Yujun knew nothing of his whereabouts, and a search of the surroundings yielded no results.

When Caiyun walked out to the wheat field, she found Yuqiang lying asleep amidst the wheat, still clutching a wheat binder rope in his hand. She used her sleeve to gently wipe away the dew from Yuqiang's face and hair, and feeling that his clothes were slightly damp, she shook him awake. "Yuqiang, Yuqiang, wake up. Time to go back for breakfast."

Rubbing his eyes, Yuqiang sat up and said, "Mom, let me finish tying these up first."

"No, you shouldn't tie the bundles at this hour. You have to wait until the sun dries the dew on them. That way, they'll be lighter to carry, and the wheat won't spoil easily."

Looking at his mother, Yuqiang nodded. "Then I'll tie them at noon."

"There's no need. Some are bundled just to be used for thatching the roof, and we have plenty for that already. The rest don't need to be tied; we can haul them back directly."

"Why do the ones for building the house have to be tied?" Yuqiang asked, puzzled.

"Bundling them makes manual threshing possible without needing a stone roller to crush them. Thatching the house with them keeps it neat, aesthetically pleasing, and durable."

Caiyun gazed at the wheat bundles and asked Yuqiang, "In the dead of night, whatever possessed you to come out and do this?"

"Mom, seeing you kneel while cutting the wheat made my heart ache, and I couldn't sleep."

Caiyun stroked Yuqiang's head gently. "Good boy. Mom developed this postpartum ailment when your younger brother was born. It's nothing serious."

Following the implementation of the " household responsibility system," every family leveled a patch of ground in front of their house to serve as a threshing floor. Once harvested, the wheat had to be transported to these private floors for threshing, winnowing, and drying.

Spotting Fafu approaching with a carrying pole over his shoulder, Caiyun knew he had come to help her carry the wheat bundles. For heavy labor of this kind, Caiyun had no choice but to rely on him.

"Goudan, is picking up fallen wheat fun?" Fafu asked upon seeing Yujun collecting stray stalks. He scooped the boy up and kissed him on the cheek.

"Second Uncle, look how much wheat I've picked up!" Yujun pointed proudly at the fruits of his labor to show off to his uncle.

Whenever Yujun accumulated twenty-odd stalks of stray wheat, he would take them to his older brother to tie into a tiny bundle. By now, he had amassed five such bundles.

The stray wheat Yujun had collected was already thoroughly dried by the sun. Taking two of the small bundles, Yuqiang used his sickle to shear off the wheat ears, then used his second uncle's matches to ignite the remaining straw, tossing in a handful of wheat ears along with a string of grasshoppers he had caught himself.

Bursting into tears at the sight, Yujun ran to his mother and cried, "Mom, older brother burned the wheat I picked up! Make him pay me back right now!"

"Yuqiang, what are you up to?" his mother demanded.

"Roasting wheat and grasshoppers," Yuqiang replied. "Come and taste some, Mom."

His mother turned to Yujun and said, "Go on, your brother is making you something delicious. Hurry up, or it'll all be gone."

The wheat ears crackled and spat in the fire for a moment. The husks turned scorched and golden, wisps of fragrant smoke rising into the air, releasing a rich aroma of grain. Yuqiang picked up two wheat ears, rubbed them to pieces in his palms, and gently blew away the chaff, leaving behind tender yet slightly yellowed wheat grains that drifted with a sweet fragrance.

Scooping up a few grains, he tossed them into his mouth. They were simultaneously soft and firm, chewy and crisp—neither fully cooked nor entirely raw. Smack-ing his lips, he declared, "Delicious! The more you chew, the more fragrant it gets."

"I want some too!" Yujun chimed in.

Yuqiang prepared some more for his younger brother, who snatched them eagerly, shoved them into his mouth, and began chewing away.

"Is it good?" Yuqiang asked with a smile.

Nodding, Yujun smiled back.

Yulan picked up a roasted grasshopper, blew away the ash on its surface, and held it to her nose. A refreshing scent of meadow grass rushed into her nostrils. Taking a bite, she exclaimed, "So good! Crisp, fragrant, and crunchy."

Yuqiang handed one to his mother and his second uncle each for them to taste.

Glancing at Yulan and Yujun, Yuqiang couldn't help bursting into hearty laughter—both of them had smudged soot mustache marks across their upper lips.

Turning to Caiyun, Fafu said, "Sister-in-law, I've finished plowing the paddy fields in Xichong. Tomorrow it's your family's turn for irrigation. I can rake it all in one day, and you can transplant the rice seedlings the day after tomorrow."

"We really have to trouble you with the plowing and raking," Caiyun said.

"This is a man's job anyway."

"Second Uncle, I want to learn how to carry wheat bundles from you," Yuqiang said, feeling that at thirteen, he ought to master the tasks proper for a man.

"You're still young and growing. Wait a couple of years," Fafu replied.

"Let him get a glimpse of it and try his hand now," Caiyun added in support of Yuqiang's wish.

"It's actually quite simple," Fafu explained as he demonstrated for Yuqiang. "First, drive the pointed end of the carrying pole firmly into the ground so it stands vertically. Lay out the ropes with their wooden hooks in a straight line perpendicular to the base of the pole. Using the pole as a support, place the wheat bundles across the rope in alternating directions, overlapping the ear ends and the stalk ends. Once you've stacked the bundles to a proper height, pull the rope tight and secure it."

"Second Uncle, how high is best to stack the wheat bundles?"

"That depends on your height, the weight you can shoulder, and whether the bundles are tied. Generally, you want to stack them a bit high so it's easier to heave onto your shoulder and lower it down, and it will feel lighter as you walk."

Once Fafu hoisted the load onto his shoulder, he lightly rested one hand on the carrying pole, stepping forward with light and steady strides. The wheat bundles at both ends of the pole bobbed and swayed rhythmically with his pace, creating a graceful, dance-like motion. Pointing at Fafu, Caiyun remarked to Yuqiang, "Look how majestic your second uncle looks carrying that load!"

"I heard Second Uncle has exceptional carpentry skills. Can you ask him to teach me?"

"I suppose that's doable. I'll discuss it with your second uncle first."

Fafu's carpentry craftsmanship was renowned in the surrounding area. The wooden carrying poles he crafted boasted features such as "curved surfaces that don't gall the shoulders, mushroom-shaped edges that don't poke, and dragon-boat bellies with great elasticity." The craft of making a wooden carrying pole was the ultimate test of a carpenter's technical skill.

Fafu could easily shoulder a load of around two hundred catties while making it look effortless. In less than a day, he had transported all the wheat bundles from Caiyun's field to the threshing floor. Concluding that carrying wheat bundles wasn't all that difficult as long as one had strength and mastered a few techniques, Yuqiang resolved to begin learning from his second uncle right away.

After several days of grueling toil, the wheat harvest was finally complete. Yuqiang and Yulan thought to themselves that they could finally rest for a couple of days.