0p0 Chapter 201 Trivia in Life
Chapter 201 Trivia in Life
On the way out of the mountain village, Xia Qingyue happily admired the beautiful scenery of the mountains and forests, her eyes curved into crescent shapes as she smiled.
All the bandits were wiped out, and we no longer had to worry about bad guys lurking around.
The two walked to the stream near the sinkhole and said goodbye, each going back to their own home, where they had a lot of things to do.
When Xia Qingyue returned to the tiankeng, she first fed the poultry. The house had not been lived in for a while, and there was dust in many places. She cleaned them one by one, taking out the straw mat on the bed, the clothes in the closet, and all the pots and pans in the kitchen to wash and dry.
It rained heavily that night when we returned to the tiankeng, and it turned into a light rain in the morning.
The rain fell on and off for three days.
After the rain, in order to avoid carrying water to water the vegetables, she went to the vegetable garden to weed, loosen the soil and apply fertilizer, and then harvested the cowpeas, cucumbers, peppers and other vegetables.
She came back to harvest the vegetables a few days ago, and either pickled them in jars or made them into dried goods.
Turn over the sweet potato vines and cut off any extra branches.
After cutting them, there were quite a few branches. Apart from those used to feed poultry, she peeled the remaining rhizomes, cut them into long sections, added salt to drain out the water, put in sliced garlic and dried red peppers, and pickled them in cans. They would be ready to eat in a few days.
Another method is to peel the rhizomes and blanch them in water, then spread them out to dry in the sun, just like drying cowpeas.
I got some sweet potato leaves and dried them into vegetables.
She was busy until past noon and was starving, so she just picked up some sweet potato leaves, sprinkled the little remaining flour on them, and steamed a large bowl of egg liquid in a pot.
While waiting for the food to be cooked, she sat in front of the stove, lighting the fire and thinking, "The dried fish and dried shrimp I made last year were pretty good. When I was busy, I could just wash them, steam them, and eat them. They are also durable. Now that the mountain is less chaotic and it's not so hot in the afternoon, I'll go to the stream and take a look."
It was already mid-September, and she was thinking about preparing for winter.
The steamed sweet potato leaves had no taste, so she poured some soy sauce, sprinkled some chili powder, added appropriate amounts of salt and rice vinegar and mixed them together as a dipping sauce.
It tasted great with the dip, and she finished the simple meal with great pleasure.
After waking up from a nap that lasted more than half an hour, she washed her face with cold water to wake herself up, and then went to turn over the things that were drying in the sun.
After finishing her work, she practiced shooting arrows at the target.
After practicing until about five o'clock, she packed her things and went to the stream with Heihei.
It was very hot outside and there was no wind. After being outside for ten minutes, she was sweating profusely. She went to the middle of the stream and found a shady place shaded by trees. She found two good spots and put the fish cage down.
Heihei happily jumped into the stream to play, and she let it play while she moved stones to touch crabs.
After searching for a long time, I only found three small crabs, two crayfish, and most of them were small river shrimps, clams and snails. Now I didn't mind their small size anymore. I collected them all, poured them into a wooden barrel, and took them back to feed the chickens and ducks.
The water celery and watercress on the banks of the stream are gone, and they will probably have to wait until next spring for them to sprout again.
As it was getting dark, she put away the two fish cages. They were very light. Through the gaps, she saw a few fish as long as chopsticks, and the rest were small fish, shrimps, snails and clams.
"That won't work. It's too small."
She thought of the big river in the valley and how nice it would be if the big fish and shrimps in the river could be dried.
In the evening, Xia Qingyue killed several chopstick-length fish and stir-fried them to make fish soup, made jelly with starch, and mixed it with some shredded cucumber.
While eating, she thought of Han Zhibai and smiled, "I don't know if he likes jelly. I'll make it for him to try some other day."
After tidying up and lying on the bed, she thought about going to the forest where she found konjac last year tomorrow. If there was any, she could dig some and plant it, and then look for some mountain products.
In the next three days, Xia Qingyue went out every day to look for mountain products, but the results were not satisfactory. She did not find many mountain products. She found more than ten konjac plants and planted them, and five yams, which could be eaten as staple food in the short term.
In addition, following her memory from last year, she found a large patch of fern roots, picked up a hoe and started digging, which took her two days.
The fern roots she dug back were very dirty, so she took them to the stream to wash off the sand and soil, then carried them back to the tiankeng one trip at a time and crushed them in a large stone mortar.
Put the crushed fern roots into a large bucket of water to soak, then filter them out to filter out the starch.
It took a whole day to filter the starch. It was tiring, but the reward was worth it. I got 12 kilograms of starch.
After being busy for so many days, she missed Han Zhibai very much and wondered how he was doing with the farm work alone.
Early in the morning that day, she and Heihei went to the dense forest and whistled at the crooked tree.
After waiting for a while, Han Zhibai came running over with Xiaobai.
When he saw her, he smiled happily, "Qingyue!"
Xia Qingyue saw that his sleeves were rolled up, his collar was slightly open, he was sweating profusely, and there was some mud on his shoes and trouser legs. It was clear that he had been doing farm work in the fields not long ago.
On the way to the valley, the two told each other about their recent situations.
When they arrived at the valley, it was already past noon and the sun was high. Han Zhibai asked her to rest at home while he went to plant the last few sweet potatoes.
She was surprised and asked, "You also want to grow sweet potatoes?"
"It's safer to plant more. We didn't plant millet this year, so there's not much rice left in the barn."
"How much is a little?" She had never opened the barn to check while living in the valley.
"They are all old rice from last year, about three stone or so."
"Three stones." This number was a lot for her.
"I'll go with you to plant the cuttings. We can get the job done faster if we work together."
She walked out of the main room, put on the straw hat hanging under the eaves, and walked down the stairs.
"It's very hot outside." Han Zhibai chased after him.
She laughed and joked: "I do a lot of work at home. Can I not do it if I move to another place?"
Half an hour later, the sunlight became increasingly scorching. Han Zhibai pushed Xia Qingyue home and worked in the fields for another half an hour.
After finishing his work, he went to the well in the front yard to fetch water to wash his hands and face. As he was washing, he smelled a fragrance.
He followed the smell into the main room, where several dishes were placed on the dining table.
Xia Qingyue came over from the utility room carrying the last bowl of loofah and egg soup. "I picked out the dishes in the kitchen and made stir-fried eggplant with cowpea, stir-fried tiger skin green pepper, and a bowl of loofah soup. I also made two servings of jelly with the fern root powder I brought. I wonder if you like it."
"It smells delicious and must be delicious. Qingyue, thank you for your hard work." Han Zhibai walked forward, took the hot soup from her hand and placed it in the middle of the table.
After lunch, Han Zhibai collected the dishes, washed them, and cleaned the kitchen.
After washing, he returned to the main room and saw Xia Qingyue sleeping on the table. He pursed his lips and smiled, his eyes full of affection.
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Xia Qingyue woke up and looked at the room she was in. She was dazed for a moment. She sat up and scratched her head. "Wasn't I in the main room? How did I fall asleep in this room?"
She put on her shoes, fixed her hair and walked out of the room.
Han Zhibai sat at the door of the main room, weaving straw sandals with hay.
The two sat together, weaving straw sandals and chatting.
Seeing that it was getting late, Xia Qingyue woke up Heihei who was sleeping beside her and prepared to go home.
Han Zhibai and Xiaobai walked them to the outskirts of the dense forest.
As they were about to part, Xia Qingyue lowered her head, feeling an indescribable feeling in her heart. She found that every time she went to the valley, she didn't do anything and time passed by in a flash.
Han Zhibai looked at her and said, "Qingyue, how about we go hunting in the forest where we found the spices tomorrow and see if the apples are ripe?"
She looked up suddenly, her eyebrows dancing with joy, "Okay!"
In the days that followed, Xia Qingyue and Han Zhibai went to the woods every day to hunt for mountain products.
In the blink of an eye, it is mid-October.
Reinforcements were dispatched from two counties in the neighboring counties, numbering about 500 people. They went to the villages and towns at the foot of the mountain, led the people to build houses, and distributed fields and seeds.
On this day at the end of October, Xia Qingyue and Han Zhibai went down the mountain together to visit the Li family and to take a look at the situation down the mountain.