novelinnhs Chapter 137 137
Chapter 137 137
The inkstone is a thin piece about two fingers wide, with the edges sanded to prevent it from being prickly. The ink is the same one I used last year at my grandfather's house for Chinese New Year, and the inkstone is a cheap student inkstone I bought from a corner store, with a small crack on one corner.
She placed a bamboo strip on her lap, dipped her brush in ink, and scraped the excess ink off the edge of the inkstone twice. Then, the brush tip landed steadily on the bamboo surface. The two characters for "tomato" were written neatly, with clear strokes and no connecting strokes. After finishing, she set it aside to dry, the bamboo strip making a soft sound as it rested on the ground.
She picked up another bamboo strip and wrote "cucumber." Then another, "chili pepper." Her hand trembled slightly as she wrote "chili pepper," and the last stroke of the character "椒" (pepper) was a little too long. She glanced at it but didn't rewrite it. Next, she wrote "eggplant." Finally, she wrote "leafy vegetable." While writing "leafy vegetable," she drew a small leaf next to the character "叶" (leaf), depicting the veins with a single stroke. The five bamboo strips were finished and lined up to dry in the sunlight. Morning light shone through the thin mist onto the bamboo surface, slowly turning the ink from glossy to matte. The ink from the brush slightly spread across the bamboo, leaving the edges of the characters a little rough, but each character was written stroke by stroke, not carelessly.
After the ink dried, she picked up the "Tomato" sign and walked to the first row. She aligned the bamboo sign with the center of the row, pinched the top half of the sign with her fingers, and forcefully pushed it down. The sign made a dull thud as it entered the soil; the soil was pushed aside by the bamboo, then closed back up, gripping the sides of the sign. She pressed the soil around the sign firmly and shook it to make sure it was secure. Then she inserted the "Cucumber," "Pepper," "Eggplant," and "Leafy Vegetable" signs in sequence. When inserting the "Leafy Vegetable" sign, she tilted it slightly so that the small leaf drawn in the corner faced outwards. Each of the five rows had a small bamboo sign, the writing clear, and the signs lined up in the morning light, like five quiet little guards standing watch.
Next came watering. The wooden bucket, an old relic left by the previous tenant, sat beside the well. Its hoops were made of rusted iron, and the edges of the planks were worn smooth. She gripped the handle of the well pulley with both hands and turned it round and round. The pulley creaked and groaned as it turned, the chain dangling from the well opening, its clanging echoing against the well wall, amplified many times as it rose from the bottom. The sound changed when the bucket touched the water—not the crisp sound of the chain hitting the stone, but the muffled thud of a heavy object striking the water. The chain turned back, and the bucket, full of water, rose from the bottom of the well, each turn of the pulley handle heavier than the last. She held the handle with one hand to prevent it from tipping over, and with the other hand reached out to grab the bucket's handle, pulling it forcefully out of the well. The water surface rippled, creating circles of shimmering light. A few drops of water splashed onto the bluestone slab at the well's opening and immediately seeped into the cracks in the stone.
She carried the bucket to the edge of the field and scooped a ladleful of water from it. The ladle was a gourd ladle, its handle worn smooth by countless hands, and a small crack ran along the rim, but it didn't leak. She carried the ladle to the first furrow, tilted it, and the water spilled from the rim, splashing onto the soil with a soft, rustling sound. It didn't rush down directly, but rather spread into a fine curtain of water, each drop landing evenly on the surface. The water droplets made small dents in the soft soil before quickly seeping in, changing the soil's color from light brown to dark brown, leaving it moist and smooth.