Qingmu and Zhang Huai couldn’t hold it in any longer. They leaned on their shovels, laughing until they were out of breath. Then again, knowing how sharp Little Shitou was, they figured he probably really did act that way toward his father.
Big Mouth Zhao asked, "What does ’Zi Yue’ an? The moon? You scholars are always going on about the moon, flowers, and grass. Why not talk about rice for a change?"
Qingmu and Zhang Huai were taken aback. Before they could say anything, Zhao San lectured him, "It’s not the moon. The word you heard ans ’to speak.’ It’s a classical term. If you don’t believe , ask Qingmu and Huai Zi."
All eyes turned to Qingmu and Zhang Huai. Li Changxing said, "Huai Zi, you’d better just stick to the normal word for ’speak’ with from now on. If you use that fancy old word, I won’t know what you’re talking about and might just ignore you."
Qingmu and Zhang Huai felt helpless. They had only studied for half a year; how could they possibly explain the intricacies of the language to a crowd of villagers who couldn’t recognize a single character? They could only stamr that it was just what their teacher had said.
Zheng Changhe sighed. "Still, getting an education is a good thing. The village chief studied a bit, and look how capable he is. He’s completely different from us."
Everyone nodded repeatedly.
Big Mouth Zhao brought his rake down with all his might. *CLANG!* The blow threw up a few sparks. He quickly bent down to dig at the spot and saw that the ground below was full of stones and bricks. "Huh?" he grunted. "What are gray bricks doing here? And all these stones?"
The nearby Li Changming rushed over and asked, "What did you hit? It’s just stones, isn’t it? What’s so surprising about that?"
Big Mouth Zhao straightened up. "But there are bricks, too! Where would bricks co from in the middle of a wasteland? You don’t think there’s sothing buried here, do you? Oh man, Qingmu, if I dig up a gold ingot, you have to give a piece!"
The n, who were gathering around to see the commotion, broke into another round of laughter upon hearing this.
Huang Dagunzi chuckled. "You boy, you’re a real drear. It’s like they say, ’Eat five grains but dream of a sixth; lie in bed but dream of a wife.’ You’re just daydreaming. This place has always been wasteland; no one’s ever lived here. Who would bury gold ingots in a place like this?"
Li Changxing said teasingly, "You never know. Maybe so high-ranking official is buried down there, his coffin stuffed with gold ingots. Keep digging, Big Mouth! I’m sure you’ll find sothing."
Zheng Changhe laughed. "We checked this land carefully before buying it. There isn’t a single burial mound on it. If a high official were buried here, wouldn’t soone be looking after the grave?"
Big Mouth Zhao knew they were all joking and gave a simple-minded laugh. "I just thought it was strange seeing bricks, is all. Finding stones here is normal, but isn’t finding bricks a bit odd?"
Li Gengdi chuckled. "Soone was buried on this plot several decades ago. Their family moved away later on and relocated the ancestral tomb. These bricks must be what’s left of the old gravesite."
At that, understanding dawned on the n.
Li Changxing said with mock regret, "If they hadn’t moved it, Big Mouth might have actually dug up so gold ingots."
Li Gengdi laughed. "If they hadn’t moved it, we’d be digging up soone’s ancestral grave. Don’t you think they’d co after us, ready to fight to the death?"
While the n were hard at work in the fields, Juhua and the mistress from the Yang family were just as busy at ho.
Since it was still the first month of the lunar year, there wasn’t much farm work to be done. Liu Xiaoi told her mother she wanted to go help Juhua cook, just to be neighborly.
Her mother was happy for her to help the Zheng Family. Help soone today, and it will be easier to ask for their help tomorrow. So, after giving her a few words of advice, she let her go.
With her help, the mistress from the Yang family and Juhua felt a great sense of relief. Otherwise, cooking for more than a dozen n would have been truly frantic.
The mistress from the Yang family had said that around mid-morning, they should send so puffed rice candy and crispy rice crusts out to the fields. This would let the n have a snack and a short break, giving them the energy to continue working.
Juhua said, "We don’t have enough puffed rice candy to last them more than a few days as it is. I think it would be better to make so more of those savory pancakes we made last ti. They’re fragrant and spicy, full of flavor, and they really whet the appetite. A couple of those each should be enough to tide them over until lunch."
Liu Xiaoi agreed enthusiastically. "Those are delicious! I’ve made them several tis myself. They aren’t too fancy, either—just cornal, with a filling of pickled vegetables and hot peppers. If you want them to be extra fragrant, you just need to scramble an egg or two and mix it in."
The eyes of the mistress from the Yang family lit up. "Yes! Let’s make those. We don’t even need to add eggs. I rendered so fat from pork belly for cooking oil earlier, and the cracklings are delicious. We can just mix those in with the pickled vegetables. The filling will have plenty of flavor then."
Juhua and Liu Xiaoi shared a smile, rolled up their sleeves, and set to work kneading the dough, mincing the filling, and cooking the pancakes on the griddle.
It wasn’t the first ti for either of them, and they worked together seamlessly. They cooked the main dishes for the midday al on one stove while griddling the pancakes on another. Once the pancakes were ready, the mistress from the Yang family packed them in a jar to take out to the fields, leaving Juhua and Liu Xiaoi to keep busy at ho.
When the n in the field saw the mistress from the Yang family bringing hot pickled-vegetable pancakes, they all cheerfully washed their hands in a small ditch bordering the wasteland and began to eat, washing the savory pancakes down with big bowls of chrysanthemum tea.
Huang Dagunzi took a bite of a pickled-vegetable pancake and, noticing the pork cracklings mixed in with the filling, laughed. "Sister-in-law, you’re treating us so well, we’re almost embarrassed. We haven’t done that much work, but we’re still getting paid and eating and drinking so splendidly."
Li Gengdi added, "We’re all fellow villagers here. Aunt Zheng, you’re being so formal, it makes us feel a bit awkward."
The mistress from the Yang family glanced at the wasteland, saw that they had already cleared two *mu* of it, and said with a happy smile, "Nonsense. It’s the first month of the year, and instead of resting, you’ve all co out to help. Don’t be so formal over a few simple pancakes. What’s the big deal? It’s not like we can afford to treat you to anything fancy. The cornal is our own, the pickled vegetables are our own, and all we added was a bit of pork crackling. It’s just sothing to line your stomachs. In this cold, you won’t have any energy to work if you’re hungry."
Liu Xiaoi’s second-oldest brother, Liu Ershun, held up his pancake and said happily, "My little sister, i, makes these really well, too. She, Juhua, and the other young won are always fiddling around with new recipes, and they’ve invented a lot of delicious treats."
Old Cheng laughed. "Ain’t that the truth. Whenever those young ladies have a mont, they’re huddled together whispering, just like we are when we’re discussing how to plant the fields. They’re getting quite serious about their cooking now."
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