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

At the same time, on the small hill behind the village, four men were running up the hill in panic.

One of them was a man with broad shoulders and a thick waist, thick eyebrows and big eyes, a black mole at the end of his left eyebrow. He stood on the edge of the hillside, looking at the village below that was shrouded in smoke and looming, with a sinister and crazy look in his eyes.

The man lowered his eyes and looked at his arms and abdomen. The clothes in these areas were torn by a sharp weapon, and there were several bloody wounds on the exposed flesh. A lot of blood was flowing, but he didn't even frown.

The three men behind were also injured. They fell to the ground exhausted and gasped for breath.

"Let's go!" The square-faced man turned around and walked away with big strides.

A man stood up unsteadily, his eyes following the square-faced man, "Where else can we go now?

Everything is gone, my brothers are all dead!"

The square-faced man didn't even turn his head, and said in a deep and cold voice, "Wildfires can't be extinguished, spring breezes will bring new life!"

-

Xia Qingyue, who lived in seclusion in the tiankeng, had no idea what was happening in the mountain village and just lived her life day after day.

In mid-to-late February, the long-awaited sun came out. After several days of strong sunshine, the ice and snow gradually melted. The daytime temperature was slightly better, but it was colder in the morning and evening than when it snowed.

As the saying goes, snow is a sign of a good harvest. I wonder if we can have a good harvest this year?

Xia Qingyue was full of longing. She looked up at the pit mouth and saw the blue sky and white clouds. "Spring has finally arrived."

In order to melt the snow in the tiankeng faster, she boiled some hot water, cleared the snow near several water outlets, and splashed the hot water back and forth at the outlets.

After pouring water more than ten times, two water outlets were unblocked, but the rest were still blocked.

After trying for a while, with little effect, she sighed and said, "Let's just wait for it to melt on its own."

The door to the outside world was still blocked.

It was already noon when she finished. She cooked a pot of sweet potato rice and used the bamboo fungus and chicken soup that she had stewed in the morning, which she boiled on a small stove and ate some vegetables.

After dinner, when she was washing the dishes, she saw a pair of red hands soaking in warm water, and suddenly remembered that the honey lard ointment she had made before was used up.

The camellia facial cream I made in the summer was sold out by the end of last year.

Throughout the winter, she used the honey and lard ointment to rub her face, lips, and body to prevent her skin from becoming dry and cracked.

If you keep warm properly, you won’t even get frostbite.

During the more than three months of winter, she led a comfortable and peaceful hibernation life. She even gained weight to over 110 kilograms, and her face was visibly rosy and radiant.

She quickly cleaned up the kitchen and took out honey and lard to make the facial cream.

The lard is refined in advance, put into a ceramic jar, and then put into the pot. Honey is poured on it in a one-to-one ratio, and it is steamed in water for about twenty minutes before being taken out.

When you see it is half solidified, stir the lard and honey thoroughly to blend them together, otherwise the water and oil will separate into layers after solidification.

The finished honey lard cream is light yellow in color, has a light honey scent, and is a bit oily when applied to the body, so it is best to use it in small amounts.

She made two jars at a time, and then went to the mountains to find some flowers in the spring. Later, when the camellia flowers bloomed, they could also be used to make facial cream.

In the afternoon, she practiced archery as usual. After practicing for several months, she gradually gained some experience. She aimed at inanimate objects, and she could hit the target seven or eight times out of ten.

If it were a living thing, the chances of hitting it would be even lower.

She doesn't think she is a talented player and doesn't want to work in isolation. She can ask the Li family or Han Zhibai for advice later.

Time flies, it is early March.

The snow in the tiankeng has almost melted, and the snow water flows through the canals to various outlets and is discharged outside.

The ice in the pond and the well melted, and the cave door leading to the outside world could be opened.

It was one morning. Xia Qingyue tentatively moved the cave door and saw it shaking. As the strength in her hands increased, the gap widened.

She let Heihei smell whether there was anything else outside before she opened the cave door and went out.

Originally, there was a large patch of wild grass taller than a person growing outside the cave entrance. Due to the accumulation of snow in winter, the grass was pressed down. At this time, a layer of wet dead grass was covered on the ground. In some places, the snow had not melted completely, forming a small white puddle.

Without the cover of weeds, the outside of the cave was empty and it was hard to adapt to it all of a sudden, just like being without clothes.

She stepped into the cave and looked out at the door. Fortunately, the sand and clay covering the door did not fall off, so it looked the same color as the mountain. She could not see anything unusual when it was closed.

"It will be easy to leave traces when we go out now!"

She closed the cave door, thinking of waiting for the grass outside to grow taller before going out, and during this time she would stay in the tiankeng and busy herself with spring plowing.

Before the spring plowing began, she went to the vegetable garden to check on some garlic peas that had been confiscated previously, and as expected, they were all frozen to death.

The leaves of the fruit tree that was wearing warm clothes have all fallen off, leaving only bare branches, which looks desolate and sad. I don’t know if it can survive.

The leaves of the yam vines are nowhere to be found, and I wonder if the roots underneath are still safe.

After looking around, she decided to ignore all these for the time being. What was important was this year's crops and harvest.

In the next few days, she used a hoe to turn the soil. The snow melted and the soil was wet, making it easy to turn. After turning the soil, she let it air dry, sprinkled wood ash and dry manure on it and covered it with fertile fertilizer.

Then I decided what vegetables to grow.

Before doing so, she looked at the supplies in the cellar.

I didn't eat much potatoes and taro, but I consumed a lot of pumpkin, cabbage and radish. I had twenty cabbages left, thirteen pumpkins, and about ten pounds of radishes, and I picked out a few rotten ones.

There are more than 80 kilograms of sweet potatoes, and most of them should be reserved for seeds.

After a winter, she killed chickens, ducks and rabbits to eat. Some of them froze to death. She still had thirteen chickens, eight ducks, and the most rabbits, twenty-two.

After much thought, she decided not to go out to look for weeds for safety reasons.

The cabbage, pumpkin and radish in the cellar are enough for them to eat for more than ten days. Wild grass will grow in the sinkhole later, which should be enough to sustain them until then.

After taking inventory, she found out the vegetable seeds, including cucumber, cowpea, pumpkin, loofah, gourd, eggplant, pepper, deer ear, leek and amaranth.

The legumes include soybeans, mung beans, peas, and peanuts.

It took two days of hard work to plant the vegetables, and then to dig the sand on the slope and turn the soil into fertilizer.

Cut the potatoes into pieces, coat both sides with wood ash, throw them into the hole, cover with soil, and plant in eight rows.

For taro and sweet potato, we selected those with plump tubers and no worm holes, and placed them in the cellar in a cool environment. We covered them with a layer of dry straw and sprinkled water on them in the morning and evening to promote germination.

After a few days, sprouts come out. Cut into large pieces, make sure there is a sprout on each piece. Dip the cut side with wood ash for sterilization, and throw it into the nest like planting sweet potatoes, with the sprouts facing up, and cover with soil.

It took two days to plant the sweet potatoes and taro.

Many green plants gradually grew out of the soil in the tiankeng. The soil was moist and fertile, so they grew wildly and became very tall in just a few days.

The vegetable seeds that were planted first have sprouted. She pulled out the weeds in the field and selected a piece of prime land to grow rice seedlings.