If he posted this video, his fans would probably think he'd sped it up, but this was actually Li Xiang's real speed.
Since his grandma didn't plant much rice, it wasn't cost-effective to hire machines for harvesting and threshing. It also wouldn't make for a good video, so Li Xiang planned to do it all by hand.
He would transport the rice to the backyard, lay it on the ground to dry a bit more, and then "thresh" it manually.
"Xiang'Er, come eat first. Look at you, all covered in sweat." Grandma's heart ached for him. She'd told him to use a small sickle, but he just had to insist on using such a heavy Chopping Knife. Who harvests rice with a thirty-kilogram Chopping Knife that has a blade half a meter long?
However, Li Xiang's Chopping Knife wasn't just for chopping wood. It had a sharpened, curved tip, making it quite versatile.
"Grandma, I'm not tired." Li Xiang set down the High-Density Blade, lifted his shirt to wipe away his sweat, and walked toward the small path.
In truth, the sweat covering his body wasn't from harvesting rice at all.
How could such a small patch of land possibly make a Tier One Transcendent break a sweat?
As he was harvesting, he had started incorporating his Body Techniques and Breathing Technique. He had entered a Selfless Realm while cutting his way through the field, causing the energy in his body to boil. The sweat and impurities he expelled were the result of his Spiritual Power tempering and cleansing his physical form.
If this continued, he might be able to achieve a "Pure True Form." His whole body would become "Crystal-clear and Flawless," exuding a "Misty Radiance." Add to that a physique of well-proportioned, beautifully defined muscles and perhaps even a natural fragrance, and girls would drool at the sight of him.
'This Breathing Technique and these Body Techniques I got in my past life must have been created by some master who was also a farmer,' Li Xiang thought, becoming more and more certain. Practicing while doing farm work was even more efficient than formal training, allowing him to grasp many knacks he had never understood before.
'Coming back to the countryside to farm was the right choice!'
Li Xiang rinsed off a bit in the irrigation ditch, then dug into his meal.
Today's menu was braised pork belly, water-boiled fish slices, and bottle gourd soup—two meat dishes and one vegetable dish, all cooked Sichuan style.
After strenuous work, the high-fat braised pork belly tasted exceptionally delicious.
The dish was made with skin-on pork belly with a good mix of fat and lean meat. The skin was de-haired, and the meat was washed, cut into chunks, blanched, rinsed with clean water, and drained.
A moderate amount of rapeseed oil was poured into a wok, along with a few pieces of rock sugar. Once the sugar turned a caramel color and started to foam, the pork belly was added and stir-fried continuously. When the pork began to render its fat, ginger slices, garlic cloves, Sichuan peppercorns, broad bean paste, and red chilies were added to the oil—with a generous amount of chilies being a good idea.
After stir-frying until fragrant, a suitable amount of water was added, followed by salt and a little vinegar. If available, some cooking wine could be added; if not, half a bottle of beer would work as a substitute. The heat was then turned down to low, and the pork was left to simmer slowly. It would be ready in about an hour.
The result was tender, savory, and fragrant—rich but not greasy.
It's worth noting that the vinegar enhances the savoriness of the braised pork, while the sugar is for caramelization and flavor enhancement. Neither the sour nor the sweet taste should be overpowering, so the amounts of vinegar and sugar must be carefully controlled.
Furthermore, using rock sugar instead of white sugar produces a brighter, more appealing color and a better texture.
Li Xiang polished off three bowls of the side dishes and two large bowls of rice before getting back to work. His grandma cleared the dishes and went home to wash them.
The heavy stalks of rice gave off the fresh, natural fragrance of the harvest. Li Xiang hauled them home, cartload by cartload, and laid them out in the backyard.
This yard was behind his house, hence the name "backyard." In reality, it was huge, about the size of half a soccer field, so Li Xiang had cleared a path along one side of the house to connect it to the front.
Because the backyard was so large, he hadn't gotten around to building a fence yet, mainly because he couldn't afford the cement, red bricks, and sand before.
'It actually looks quite nice without a fence,' he mused. He planned to tear down and rebuild the old family house first when he had the money.
Li Xiang's method of threshing was very primitive. He spread out a large tarp—the common kind made of striped, tricolor plastic sheeting—placed a stool on it, grabbed a handful of rice stalks, and threshed them by slamming them against the stool.
With Li Xiang's skillful force, the golden grains of rice were shaken loose, scattering all over the tarp.
The tarp was large enough that he didn't have to worry about the grains flying off it.
Seeing this, a flock of chickens and ducks came running over, flapping their wings. A few of the ducks, running slower with their rear ends waddling back and forth, squawked noisily from behind. Just as Li Xiang was about to get up and shoo them away, his two loyal, large yellow dogs started barking—WOOF WOOF!—and ran up to block the flock's path.
"Haha." Li Xiang couldn't help but laugh. He wasn't a stingy person, though. If his own chickens and ducks wanted to eat, he might as well feed them a handful.
He bent down, grabbed a handful of fresh grains, and tossed them with a flick of his wrist. The chickens and ducks went wild! This was freshly harvested rice, still moist and unsunned, which made it especially fragrant.
Li Xiang tossed three more handfuls, then pointed at his two dogs. "Dahuang, Er Huang, stand guard over there. Don't let them get on the tarp."
The main reason was that chickens and ducks have no control over their bowels and would poop and pee anywhere. If they got onto the tarp, eating a few grains would be a minor issue, but dropping their waste all over the harvest would ruin it.
The two dogs were highly Spiritual and immediately lay down on the dirt patch beside the tarp.
Li Xiang had a feeling these two dogs were definitely potential Exotic Beasts. 'Maybe I should redeem the Mutant Creature Identification Function and check them out?' he wondered. 'After all, I have a decent amount of Achievement Points now.'
But he was busy right now and didn't have time to mess with it. He went back to slamming the rice stalks.
Once they had their fill, the chickens and ducks left contentedly. Small birds from the mountain forest also tried to fly over for a meal, and the two dogs got busy chasing them away too.
An old tabby cat, dozing lazily on the rooftop, heard the chirping of the birds. It opened its eyes and looked up in their direction, a sharp glint in its gaze. It clearly wanted to go "play with the birds" too, but its large belly made it inconvenient, so it had to settle for letting out two soft meows.
By the afternoon, the threshing was complete. He moved the stool and picked out the stray bits of straw and larger impurities from the grain.
As evening fell, there was no need to specially gather the grain. He just lifted the corners of the tarp, folding them toward the center to form a pile, then used the rest of the tarp to cover it, weighing down the edges with rocks.
He left it right there in the yard.
With the dogs on guard at night, he wasn't worried about animals coming to steal the grain.
As for people?
Everyone in Li Family Village knew each other well; who would steal rice from their neighbor? Besides, the village was mostly made up of the elderly and children, who were already struggling to harvest their own crops.
The next day was bright and sunny. At around nine-thirty in the morning, Li Xiang unfolded the tarp and added two more, even larger ones, to create a big drying area.
The main issue was that the backyard wasn't paved, and the paved area in the front yard was too small. Otherwise, drying the grain directly on a concrete surface would have been much more effective.
Using a bamboo rake, he spread the pile of grain into a thin layer and began the drying process.
He had waited until a bit later in the morning because the air was too damp earlier, with dew still clinging to the grass.
For the same reason, he would also have to gather it up a bit earlier in the afternoon.
Drying the early rice crop in the summer wasn't an issue, because the temperature was high and the sun was scorching hot all day long.