Chapter 26: Grinding Grain

The Qi family consisted of three brothers supporting an elderly mother.

In her youth, Mother Qi had worked tirelessly by lamplight, damaging her eyes. Now, her vision was a blur; she could only walk freely within their own courtyard and rarely ventured out.

The Qi family had not always consisted of only three brothers; they were originally five.

The second and third brothers had not survived.

Their family had little land, but Qi Da could manage the work alone. Qi Si worked as a hand in a coffin shop in town, and Qi Wu, through Qi Si's introduction, was apprenticing under Carpenter Liao, a specialist in coffin making.

The whole family were honest folk, quiet and unassuming in their daily lives.

The villagers knew they were dutiful, but because Qi Si and Qi Wu worked in a trade that carried a certain stigma, people rarely socialized with them, and they gradually became "invisible" members of the village.

Scholar Yan sought laborers every year for his fields. In previous years, Qi Da never made the cut, but this year, amidst the great drought, everyone was preoccupied with their own small plots, which worked in his favor.

When the Yan family announced they would use grain in lieu of labor, many people envied them.

There was a reason Village Chief Luo had chosen their family: first, the Qi family had little land, and since Qi Si and Qi Wu were home, they had surplus labor.

Second, the Qi brothers had sturdy builds, tall frames, and great strength.

Otherwise, the owner of the coffin shop wouldn't have hired Qi Si; he was worth two men, making lifting and carrying incredibly efficient.

The same applied to Qi Wu. Carpenter Liao was different from other carpenters; he only made coffins.

They were made of large, thick planks of solid wood and high-quality materials, which an ordinary person could not handle.

Qi Da was a simple, honest man. Aside from the single sentence he shouted outside the courtyard gate, he remained silent as he unloaded stacks of bundled wheat from the handcart, carried them into the courtyard, and stacked them neatly.

Qi Si came with him. Being a shop hand in town, even though it was a coffin shop with little social interaction, he knew how to exchange a few polite words.

"Brother Yan, I see your wheat is ready for drying. When do you plan to mill it? Just give us brothers a call."

"Don't mention it, it's actually quite urgent. I plan to head over this afternoon. It just so happens we've added an ox to the family..."

Yan Er wanted to suggest letting the ox pull the mill, as the speed would surely be excellent.

Unexpectedly, his eldest brother cut in, saying, "Since we have an ox now, we can take the wheat along with it to save trips. We'll trouble you two Qi brothers with the milling, but it doesn't need to be fine; just enough to be edible will do."

Qi Si looked delighted. "Rest assured, Scholar Yan, leave it to us brothers."

Qi Da also grinned widely, looking very happy.

Once the two brothers left the courtyard, the space seemed much more spacious.

"Brother, our own ox could pull the mill too," Yan Er said somewhat reluctantly. Using San Bao to grind flour cost nothing, but using the Qi brothers meant they had to give them grain.

"If you save that little bit of wheat and the ox works itself to death, are you going to carry me to Guanzhou?!" Yan Huaiven particularly looked down on Yan Er's stinginess.

"Our San Bao has great stamina; pulling a mill is nothing," Yan Er retorted in a low voice.

To be honest, if Old Yan didn't glare at him, he would speak quite fluently, but once the glare came, he felt inexplicably guilty.

"Everyone go back and pack. Once our wheat is milled, we'll wait a bit for the villagers, and then we depart in a day or two," Yan Huaiven instructed before returning to his room.

Yan Xiangheng leaned in and whispered, "Uncle, are we really leaving? Why the north?"

"Didn't your father tell you?" Yan Er asked.

"Dad just said we can't survive this drought and that we're taking the villagers north to Guanzhou. But Uncle, we haven't reached that point yet, have we?"

"Go fetch some water in a moment and look at the old village well—it's empty!" Yan Er certainly cooperated with Old Yan's stance, making things sound as dire as possible: "You stay in the academy and don't go out, so you don't know the situation in town. The wealthy families have already fled. We're the only fools still lingering here. If it stays like this for a while longer and not a single drop of rain falls, can you imagine what it will be like?"

Yan Xiangheng followed his logic: "In a while, the grain tax will be due. Half of our wheat will go to the tax. If it still doesn't rain... Huh? Wait, Uncle! If Dad is taking all the wheat to be milled, what will we use to pay the tax!"

Yan Er gave him a fierce glare and muttered, "Shut up, nephew! Is all that studying for nothing? How can you ask such a stupid question? What did your father say about when we leave?"

"In a day or two..."

"Then hurry up and pack!"

"Ah? Oh... Oh!"

Yan Xiangheng had an epiphany, slapped his forehead, and went back to his room to pack.

Yan Yu stood with her hands tucked into her sleeves, squatting to one side, and called out, "Dad!"

Yan Er turned around to see his daughter looking at him with a very serious, small face.

"Dabao! Can you stop squatting like that? And with your hands tucked in? Why don't you learn something better from your Great-Uncle?"

She looked like an old farmer...

"It feels comfortable!" Yan Yu replied.

In a land of barbarians, one might not even be able to squat if they wanted to!

Hmph! Was she being proud?

"Dad, don't always discourage Big Brother. He asks because he doesn't know. There's something wrong with the attitude of you and Big Uncle. Big Uncle doesn't say everything, and you just told Big Brother to shut up instead of teaching him properly," Yan Yu offered her father some advice.

"He's a brat; he needs to learn through setbacks and figure things out himself. That's the only way to become a man of character," Yan Er had his own set of twisted logic.

He had raised all his nephews and cousins this way since they were small. Who could blame him? His relatives always used the fact that he had a daughter to mock him, so he doted on his daughter. He was a girl-slave, so what if he was!

"Big Brother is quite good to me. Just now, when he asked if you bought me snacks in town, I said no, and he tucked two copper coins into my hand, telling me to wait for the peddler to come to the village so I could have something sweet."

Yan Yu opened her palm to show her father the two golden-yellow copper coins glinting in the sunlight.

Yan Er raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised.

His nephews and cousins were usually lucky if they didn't squeeze money out of his daughter.

Yan Yu continued her accusation: "I also heard Sister Daya say she wants to sew me a cloth pouch to play with. Dad, as an uncle, you should show some initiative and give something to Big Brother and Sister Daya!"

Yan Er was amused by his daughter.

"Alright, I'll remember. Don't worry, I won't let you down!"

"But daughter, can you stop using your age as an excuse to squat by the door and eavesdrop? It's not good if people see you," Yan Er added. "You're a big girl now; you should act like one."

Yan Yu's eyes darted around, and she suddenly raised her voice: "Dad! I'm hungry! I want meat! I want meat soup! I want meat porridge!"

Yan Er:...

Is this kid growing up too fast?!

Yan Er used the dough made last night to steam buns and made egg drop soup.

Meat? What meat? What kind of family eats meat every day!

As usual, San Bao helped with the timing. The freshly steamed black buns smelled delicious.

Yan Yu didn't wait for them to cool before taking a bite.

*Crunch?* What was this texture in her mouth?

She looked at her father in astonishment.

Yan Er sighed. "Does it scratch your throat? There's bran in here—that's the outer layer of the wheat. It wasn't milled fine enough. You heard your uncle just now; from now on, our family will be eating this. Get used to it."

"What about our white flour?" Yan Yu asked aggrievedly.

"I weighed it. There are ten catties each of rice and white flour. That's twenty catties in half a month, and only forty catties in a month. It won't be enough."

Yan Er stroked his daughter's soft hair and comforted her gently

"Didn't you say I should 'show some initiative'? Do you think my initiative is grand enough? We'll eat together; it's not just Old Yan anymore, we'll bring him along.

The reason I've been so careful about where our food comes from is so it's easy to distribute. The grain Old Yan bought looks like a lot, but if you calculate carefully, if we travel for a month or two with so many people...

When that time comes, it won't matter whose family it is; we're neighbors, and we can't just watch people starve to death..."

Yan Yu took another large bite, chewing vigorously. "You're right, Dad. We are still struggling on the poverty line. We have to find ways to make money and buy more food!"