An orphan girl from a farming family: Everyday farming in the mountains during natural disasters

She went to the lower reaches of the stream to look for firewood. She searched for four days and met two groups of people who were out looking for food. They both hid away at the warning of Heihei.

In the middle of the night, Xia Qingyue, who was sleeping soundly, fell into an absurd and bizarre dream.

She dreamed that she was alone in a snowy world with heavy snow falling all over the sky. She was wearing thin clothes and barefoot. She was extremely cold. There was a thin layer of white ice and snow on her face and even her eyelashes were frozen.

She was cold and scared, and ran to escape from here...

However, after running a few steps, she broke the ice with her foot and fell into the freezing cold lake, falling like a falling meteor.

"what--"

Xia Qingyue woke up with her eyes wide open, gasping for breath, staring at the top of the cave. She touched her body with her hands under the quilt and found it was dry and warm.

It turned out to be a nightmare.

As she moved, cold wind blew into the quilt, making her sneeze three times.

White mist floated up, and she slowly felt the bone-chilling cold, especially on her face and neck, which were not covered by the quilt.

Even with two quilts I couldn't keep out the cold.

Her nose felt damp, and she sniffed, smelling a humid smell of water vapor.

She turned over and faced the window. "Is it raining?"

It was pitch black outside the window gap and I couldn't see clearly. The room in the cave was soundproof and I couldn't hear the sound of rain.

Xia Qingyue grabbed the clothes on the edge of the bed and put them on in a few seconds. When she was putting on her pants, her legs touched the cold fabric and she shivered with cold.

The most painful thing every day in winter is definitely getting out of the warm bed and putting on pants early in the morning.

"It's so cold, I have to cover myself with a down quilt at night!"

Today is noticeably colder than yesterday.

After getting dressed, she opened the door of her room and walked out, passing the utility room and opening the door to the cave.

call--

The cold wind howled, bringing with it a damp and humid feeling.

slam-la-

The sound of running water never stops.

"It's raining!" The wind blew her long black hair, which was just below her shoulders, flying wildly. She squinted her eyes and walked forward, walked to the kitchen, and looked up at the pit mouth.

At this time, the light was dim, and the heavy dark clouds were hanging very low, as if they would fall down at any time. The rain was like beads, one after another, and the grass and crops in the vegetable fields on the slope were swaying in the wind and rain.

The whole world seemed to be shrouded in a storm as if the end of the world was coming.

Rainwater falls from the tiankeng, and the water flows like a stream, from high to low, and converges into the canal.

Xia Qingyue was worried that the water level in the canal was getting higher and higher and would overflow and flood the tiankeng, so she turned around and ran back to the utility room, put on a straw raincoat, put on a bamboo hat, and ran towards the canal.

When I ran over to take a look, I saw that the water in the canal was muddy yellow and flowing rapidly, and the water level was about one meter deep from the ground.

Fortunately, she saw that the weather was bad a few days ago and opened several blocked water outlets, otherwise the rain would have flooded the sinkhole.

The raindrops hit her straw hat and raincoat. She checked a few water outlets, and went back after making sure there were no problems.

She cooked breakfast and woke Heihei up to eat.

It was raining outside and the temperature dropped sharply. Xia Qingyue lit the stove in the kitchen for lighting, cleaned, washed and dried the dining table, and prepared to make duck down clothes.

I measured my size with a rope and drew the shape of the clothes and pants on the cotton cloth with charcoal. Taking into account the sewing and filling with duck down, the size was slightly larger.

This is my second time making clothes. The first time was a vest and shorts I made a few months ago in the summer. That one was simple and easy to make.

However, the process of making duck down jackets is long and complicated. What she thought of was to turn the finished clothes inside out according to her own size, then put another layer of cloth on it and sew it up, leaving a gap to fill it with duck down.

In order to verify the feasibility, she chose to start with pants which were not so troublesome. She first cut out two pieces of cloth in the shape of pants, folded them neatly, and sewed them together at the waist and crotch with needle and thread, leaving the trouser legs unsewn.

At this point, the pants have taken shape.

Then turn it over, sew another piece of cloth on the inside layer, fill it with duck down, and finally sew the trouser legs.

After finishing a pair of velvet pants, she picked them up and took a look. They had a strange shape, messy stitching, and were not very beautiful, but they had everything that ordinary pants have.

I tried it on and found it's quite loose and doesn't squeeze my flesh. It's just the right size to wear with a pair of leggings underneath.

"Well, that's it. I'm not a skilled craftsman, but I know my trade well. It's enough to wear it through the winter. If things are stable outside next year, I'll spend some money to hire someone to make it."

After making one pair of velvet pants, she gained confidence. She made the second pair in the same way. It was smoother than the first one, but her technique did not improve.

Velvet jackets are also made in the same way as velvet pants. First, an inner lining is made and then they are sewn together.

It took her several hours to finish making all her winter clothes. There was not much duck down left, but she did not stop and continued to make black winter bedding.

In the summer, Heihei slept on a relatively small straw mat. After autumn, she found a piece of dry straw and rolled it into a round nest with a diameter of about one meter, and covered it with a linen quilt.

The weather was cold these past two days, so she pieced together some of Xia Dasong's smaller furs that had been nitrated and used them as a blanket to spread in her dark nest.

Just make a small quilt for Heihei with duck down mixed with reed down.

Cut the cotton cloth and make it like a quilt to make a small quilt that is slightly larger than the nest.

"Heihei, come on, go back and try your quilt."

Xia Qingyue walked in front holding her quilt, and Heihei followed closely behind.

Entering the room, she lit a candle for illumination, walked to Heihei's nest, and patted it gently with her hands, "Come on, Heihei, come on and lie down."

Heihei was very smart. He understood what his owner meant and lay down on the nest obediently.

She covered Heihei with the quilt and tucked it in.

Heihei had only his head exposed. Perhaps he felt the softness and warmth of the quilt, his eyes lit up, and he kept calling out, his voice full of joy and excitement.

Seeing Heihei so happy, she was in a good mood too.

After dinner, Xia Qingyue washed up early, took out the duck down quilt, and went to bed.

The duck down quilt was soft and comfortable. The bed quickly warmed up, and the warmth enveloped her whole body, and she fell asleep unknowingly.

It rained all night long.

The next morning, Xia Qingyue woke up and was surprised to find a thin layer of transparent ice on the ground under the sinkhole. She squatted down and touched the ice with her fingers, feeling chilled to the bone.

Looking up, there are no raindrops, but instead tiny white particles floating in the wind.

She stretched out her palm, and white particles fell into it, melting into water when they encountered the heat.

"Snowing!"

She looked up at the vegetable field. There were still some crops that had not been harvested, and the fruit trees had not yet been kept warm!