CHAPTER 57: CHAPTER 56: MIGHT AS WELL LET HIM DIE

Qin Yao sighed.

She had been trying to figure out how to make some money, but after all this time, the best she could do was turn two cow tendons into slingshot bands and nothing else.

"Shall we give it a try then?" Qin Yao said uncertainly.

Old Liu slapped his thigh. "It’s decided then. You and Laosan can discuss it yourselves. I’m heading home now."

The freshly harvested wheat still needed to be dried, and after drying, it had to be milled.

And that’s not all. They had to find the village chief to borrow an ox for plowing, which was the most urgent task at the moment.

Without an ox, relying solely on manpower to farm over a hundred acres would kill the people working it.

Liu Ji watched his father leave until he was out of sight, then turned back to the yard.

The couple exchanged a glance. Sensing what Qin Yao was about to say, Liu Ji quickly proposed, "Wife, why don’t we sell those two acres of wheat!"

Qin Yao thought to herself, you’re quite the genius, aren’t you?

"Don’t you see if there’s anyone who’d want our pile of weeds?" They hadn’t checked the field for months, and without a doubt, the weeds were surely more abundant than the wheat.

Qin Yao instructed, "Let’s go check the field together tomorrow morning."

Together?

Not just him alone?

Liu Ji chuckled, "Well, okay then."

Even if he didn’t want to, he had to. Qin Yao looked at the sky. The countryside really was beautiful; the sky was a pure blue without any impurity, spring had come, and the hills were covered in colorful wildflowers. A gentle breeze blew, and taking a deep breath, she felt refreshed.

The couple entered the kitchen together, with one preparing the meal and the other searching for farming tools inside.

Qin Yao rummaged around and pulled out two rusty sickles and two carrying poles. There was also a hoe, and that was all the farming tools in the house.

Qin Yao had been to the Liu Family’s old house many times and remembered that the tool shed over there had many kinds of tools, such as rakes and wide hoes, and some she couldn’t even name.

Anyway, just for hoeing, there were several types: ones for weeding, ones for digging trenches, and ones for clearing new land.

Qin Yao took out the grinding stone, filled a basin with water, placed a small stool by the kitchen door next to the drainage ditch, and started sharpening the rusty sickles.

The sound of sharpening made Liu Ji’s scalp tingle, as if filled with endless anger, like she was about to commit murder.

He could clearly feel her reluctance to go to the field.

And he felt the same way.

After some thought, Liu Ji gathered the courage to suggest again, "How about selling those two acres of land? If no one wants them for a high price, we can sell them cheaper."

"Anyway, you know how to hunt, wife. In the fall, we can go into the mountains and maybe hunt a bear. That would be enough for us to live comfortably for the whole year. What’s the point of all this hard work?"

"Liu Ji." The person at the door turned around, eyes sharp, without stopping her sharpening, as she coldly questioned, "So you’re really planning to live off me, huh?"

Before he could reply, she tossed the sickle into the water basin with a clang. "Tomorrow, you’re going to harvest those two acres of wheat by yourself. Dare to leave behind a single grain... and I’ll kill you!"

With that said, she strode to the middle of the courtyard, picked up a stick, and headed to the backyard training ground, spinning the stick in the air as thick as a man’s arm.

Thinking he could live off her, without even considering if he, this useless being, had the qualifications.

Liu Ji tightly gripped the spatula in his hand, not knowing if the smoke from the damp wood in the stove was making his eyes red, or if the sorrow in his heart was overflowing through his eyes.

Liu Ji threw the spatula into the hot iron pot in frustration. This life was unbearable!

Always talking about killing, might as well let him die!

The spatula scraping against the iron pot created a sharp, piercing noise, and Qin Yao thought to herself, so you think you’re funny, huh? She appeared at the kitchen door with the big wooden stick in a flash.

"Wife, are you hungry? It’s almost ready. Why don’t you go sit in the main room while I bring dinner out?"

In the kitchen, vegetables were already in the pot, and the man, wearing an apron and with a spatula in hand, skillfully stir-fried them, turning around to give her a gentle and kind smile.

As long as Liu Ji behaved, just his face alone could disarm people and dissipate their anger.

Qin Yao snorted, "Consider yourself smart."

She left with the stick.

The man in front of the stove wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, moving quickly, and soon a dish of stir-fried amaranth was served.

Then he stir-fried a bowl of eggs, balancing meat and vegetables, which his wife enjoyed~.

After dinner, before the sun had fully set, Qin Yao sent the four children to dig some wild vegetables from the mountainside to aid digestion.

Meanwhile, she took out the seeds Mrs. Zhang had given her last year, grabbed a hoe, and headed to the two patches of reserved garden soil in the front yard, pondering how to plant vegetables.

This everyday spending on vegetables was getting out of hand.

Worse yet, lately, villagers didn’t have any extra homegrown vegetables to sell, so they couldn’t buy any. They relied on the kindness of others to share any greens at all.

So, in the countryside, growing some yourself was essential.

Qin Yao tilled the two plots of land twice, breaking up all the soil clumps, ready to plant the seeds.

But as soon as she finished, it was completely dark.

Oil lamps were costly too, and the torch smoke would darken the house. The newly renovated place was too precious to ruin, so they called it a night.

The next day, at dawn, Liu Ji was already awake, though his body was reluctant to leave the warm bed.

It wasn’t until a warning cough echoed from Qin Yao’s room that he had no choice but to get up.

He put the dough he had prepared the night before into the steamer, and while it cooked, he grabbed a broom and swept the front and back yard, tidied up the main room and the washroom, just in time for the bread to be ready.

The family hadn’t risen yet, so he had the luck of being the first to taste a piping hot mantou.

After filling his stomach, he packed four mantous in a cloth, filled a bamboo tube with water, took the carrying pole and sickle, and set out for the fields with the expression of someone heading to battle.

He was gone all day, returning only when the sun was setting.

Qin Yao hadn’t been idle that day either; besides her daily training, she planted and watered the vegetable patches in the yard.

She even stuffed cloth strips in her nose and went to the privy to collect some "gold fertilizer," spreading it to give the seeds an extra boost, hoping they would sprout and grow quickly.

When Liu Ji returned, he caused quite a stir in the village; she could hear it from inside her home.

The four Da Lang Brothers and Sisters immediately ran out, and Qin Yao, putting down the manure scoop, followed them out.

The five of them stood at the door, watching as Liu Ji, with a sweaty rag wrapped around his head and no sense of dignity, carried a heavy load of wheat straw, gasping with each step, struggling up the slope towards their small courtyard.

The villagers working in the fields were stunned, talking among themselves, wondering if this was really the Liu Laosan they knew.

A closer look revealed that the two bundles of wheat straw had as much grass as wheat. No mistake, it was him.

Because no one else would make such an error, unable to tell wheat from weeds.