Crossing the Unknown Country

The children followed them down the mountain, laughing and playing. One of them was the chubby-looking Gousheng, who was about ten years old from the widow Zhang's family. He looked at Su He, walked over and pulled her braids, and said with a smile: "Little Su He, you are so young and you have entered the mountains. We can't see you when the grass is tall."

Su He rolled her eyes at him. What does it have to do with you that I am short? He picked Su He up from Su Pei's arms and carried her down the mountain. Su He didn't want him to hold her, but she couldn't struggle, for fear that he would drop her. Gou Sheng carried her all the way to the foot of the mountain, handed her to Su Pei, and said with a smile, "Little Su He is too thin. She doesn't have enough weight to hold."

Su Pei also smiled and said, "Originally there was still some weight left, but now the meat is gone."

Su He hugged his brother's neck and ignored him. He hated this man. Gou Sheng was the only child in his family, so he envied his peers who had sisters. Seeing Su He's obedient appearance, he wanted to tease her and hug her. Su He didn't know the reason. He had just arrived here and had never played with the children in the village. He was very unfamiliar with them.

After they left, Su He asked her brother to put her down. They were carrying things and had to walk a long way, so it was better for her to get down and walk. Su He took her own firm steps and followed her brothers home.

They went to the river to wash the kudzu roots and took them home. Su He told Su Pei and his brother that they could peel and cut them into pieces to cook porridge, or grind them into powder to make porridge. Su Pei and Su Che happily went home with a basket of kudzu roots and a basket of firewood and grass. Su Pei had to go home to make a straw hat today.

Su He and her two brothers also went home. They cooked in the stove, burning limestone in the firebox until it turned red, then adding water to it to turn it into powder. Su He asked her second brother to take out a kudzu root, peel it, cut it into pieces, and put it into the rice soup. Su He felt that the porridge at home could only be soup, because there was not enough rice and the soup was watery.

Su He planned to mash all the millet into porridge, which would be thicker. When he had more money, he could plant more millet and drink real rice porridge. The three of them were busy doing their own things. They fed the chickens all day and piled up the firewood they had chopped. The remaining kudzu root was peeled and ground into wet powder, then dried and rolled into powder.

Su He's family didn't have a stone mill, so he had to go to the stone mill outside the village stonemason's house to grind it. He paid one penny to grind it. A stone mill cost about five hundred coins, and not many people used it. No one would put a stone mill in their home, and it took up a lot of space.

Su Che peeled all the kudzu roots and waited for his parents to come back before grinding them into powder. Su He followed his elder brother to burn the limestone in the firebox, put it in a newly dug pit, and laid a few bluestones around the pit. When the white limestone cooled down, he poured water on it and watched the white stone crackle and turn into powder with white smoke. In the future, he had to build a proper furnace to burn limestone, otherwise it would be very difficult to burn these few pieces today, and he had to keep turning these stones with a stick.

Su He put a piece of it in the house for later use. He scooped out the rest with something, put it in an old wooden barrel, and added water to boil it into a white paste. Su He suddenly thought of the later generations' hot packs and self-heating rice, which the ancient people could do with a piece of firewood. He asked his eldest brother to take the broom he made of grass, dip it in the white paste and brush it on the wall, slowly brushing it evenly. The eldest brother was very capable, and he got the feeling after a few brushes. Because there was not much white lime, he brushed half of the wall first, and only brushed the bottom of the two rooms. He used the remaining little to brush the front wall of the main room, and the room instantly became much brighter.

The eldest and second brothers have decided to carry some more stones back tomorrow to continue making limestone. Su He suggested that they make a fire on the mountain and bring it back. The two brothers thought it was okay. Tomorrow, two of them will carry the stones, and the other two will take Su He to make the fire. It will be very convenient to burn the stones directly and bring them home. However, the children in the village cannot follow them. Let Su Pei and Su Feng take them directly to the mountain, and they must not make mistakes with the stones. Su He and Su Run will be left to make the fire. The three of them discussed what to do tomorrow. Today, they still have to grind the kudzu root into powder. The three of them did not wait for their parents. They took a penny and took the things to grind.

There were already quite a few people in the village at this time. Someone saw the three siblings carrying a basket and asked, "What are you three doing?"

Su Feng said: "Let's go to grandma's house to find big brother."

In order to save money, they asked their eldest brother to grind it together, so that they could save a penny. It's not that they are thrifty, but their family is not rich! When they arrived at their uncle's house, there was no one else but the two of them. Su Che was cutting the peeled kudzu root into pieces for later use. He had already cut a lot of pieces.

Su Feng said to the two of them, "Let's go grind the flour! Grinding together can save a penny."

Su Pei and Su Che quickly packed up, put the cut kudzu roots in a basket and went to the stonemason's house with them.