Wen Qian's family's yard used to be under a grove of trees, which like the big trees around were all willows. Later they were chopped down and sold, and the land was made into dry cropland.
After that, nobody planted there anymore since they had all gone out to work, and now willows were replanted in the fields.
Originally they were saplings as thick as thumbs, but now they had grown to be as thick as calves.
Wen Qian only knew this after randomly scanning with her phone. She found out that the trees they called willows locally were actually called poplars elsewhere.
Their scientific name was acer negundo, and their leaves used to commonly be rubbed and put between toes to cure foot odor. It was a folk remedy, but now it's discovered the leaves are toxic. They really can kill germs and mold, which is scientifically proven.
Further down from the grove was Wen Qian's family's two plots of vegetable gardens, now overgrown with weeds.
Below the vegetable gardens was a small D-shaped pond dam.
Looking down from the dam, there were terraced fields of various shapes, extending all the way to Xiaochenwa, where there was a slightly bigger pond dam. Further down were more terraced fields.
Standing in the middle of the dam, Wen Qian could already see the corner of Auntie Chen's house.
The terraced fields here were different from scenic terraced fields in other places. The vertical drop of the fields here was only 2-3 meters, and the widths of the fields were also much wider.
In the mountain valleys, it was difficult for harvesting machines and such to go up and down the terraces, so it could only be done manually. Only fields along rivers and roads were suitable for machinery.
Planting just a small area, a small machine was not very cost effective, so 3-4 families would share an ox for plowing.
In recent years, some who had picked up and planted others' fallow fields bought small machinery for those fields, but that was only along the creeks.
Wen Qian had boiled the two pots in the kitchen several times, using the hot water to soak clothes, sheets, adding laundry detergent to make more bubbles, then putting them into the washing machine to wash.
A water pipe from the kitchen wall went to the washing machine, so after putting the clothes in, Wen Qian didn't have to do anything else for the laundry.
Wen Qian tore up old clothes into strips, nailed them onto a wooden handle to make a mop, and mopped the cement floors all over the house.
After finishing cleaning, Wen Qian wiped the dust off herself, changed into pajamas, and started her afternoon nap.
Cleaning is so tiring!
The weather was hot, so Wen Qian slept on a blanket and mat on the floor, with an electric fan blowing on her. She thought to herself that in the future she should store some ice in her space, otherwise summertime would be so unbearable.
After her nap, Wen Qian ate an ice cream, then took out a bit of meat and dumplings from her space and put them in the fridge.
Although she had space, she still needed to keep some food in the house, in case someone came and saw there was no food, which would arouse suspicion.
Thinking this, she also took out the leftovers she had - a small bag of rice, half a bag of instant noodles, half a pot of oil - all stuff left over from when she was in the city, and brought back here.
Now all these were placed on the big table in the central room, as if she had brought them back herself in small boxes.
Wencai's fields were all near the house. The dry fields above the pond dam had long been overgrown with weeds, and the nearby bamboo grove was flourishing, with bamboo shoots sprouting along the surrounding paths and growing into bamboo stalks.
Wen Qian was too lazy to deal with it all. As for the good fields, they were all below the pond dam, three plots big and small in total. These three plots had always been planted by nearby families, originally for growing rice.
Later when granny was alone, she only planted a small area for self subsistence, using the rest to grow other crops.
After that, granny no longer had the strength to farm, so she asked people to help plow, and planted some peanuts, vegetables, radish herself.
After granny passed away, Auntie Chen's family from Xiaochenwa came to plant the fields.
But they grew their rice right by their own house. Wen Qian's fields were generally used to plant rapeseed, beans, sesame and such.
Wen Qian felt that if her family's fields were left fallow, they would just grow more weeds year after year, and be hard to plant again in the future.
It was better to have others planting things there, at least keeping the soil loose.
This year Auntie Chen's family planted sesame. After they harvested it, Wen Qian planned to plant some herself - pay Uncle Chen to plow the field, then plant some radish, cabbage to get through winter.
Having been away from the countryside for so long, Wen Qian could no longer remember the specific planting and harvesting times for crops, just the general seasons. She would follow Auntie Chen's lead when the time came.
But she should still study the farming calendar and solar terms well in private. She may have to do everything herself in the future, without anyone to ask.
On the way home Wen Qian saw the golden rice paddies, and the neat rows of corn and sweet potato fields.
In a while she planned to go to nearby villages to buy some produce to store.
The corn and sweet potatoes from her hometown were mostly used to feed pigs.
She still clearly remembered what pigs ate - originally it was pigweed foraged from the mountains, mixed with bran and wheat husks cooked together.
Later pigs were also fed pumpkin vines, sweet potato vines, corn and sweet potatoes. In short, the meat of these homemade pigs was very good. Auntie Chen's family raised two pigs.
In Wen Qian's hometown, most of what was grown was for people to eat a bit, and more to feed pigs. This was not a joke.
In Wen Qian's hometown, only rice, wheat and sweet potatoes would be sold. Some people came to the village to buy produce too.
Rice prices didn't fluctuate much, and sweet potato prices were even lower.
Corn was only planted more later on. While young and tender it could be boiled for people to eat. When old, it was harvested and taken home to be processed into pig feed, cobs and all.
Only large scale farms on flat plains could earn more money. In hilly regions like Wen Qian's village, with small family plots, you could avoid starving, but forget about saving money.
When not busy, Auntie Chen and Uncle Chen would go out to do odd jobs - transplanting rice seedlings, planting, building houses, chopping trees, collecting pine mushrooms and herbs in the mountains, catching river prawns, eels and loaches.
These were also sources of income, an inseparable part of life in their rural village.
That's how it was - in years of bad harvests, income would be even less.
In the countryside, tiny bits of money were earned bit by bit like this. So many people went out for migrant work.
To get rich in rural areas, you had to get involved in business. Just farming would definitely not lead to diligence and wealth.
Wen Qian had also seen on TV that planting one specialty crop in a region - such as scallions, Sichuan pepper, kiwifruit - then building roads and opening markets, with unified planting, transportation and sales, required someone to lead, invest money and technology, and unite people, spending years to build up scale.
Things like this Wen Qian could only watch on TV.
