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

She began to worry about Han Zhibai. She wondered how far his home was. It was getting dark. She wondered if the journey home was safe and whether he had arrived home.

If she hadn't met Han Zhibai in the pine forest today, she wouldn't dare to imagine what would happen in the future.

After a long journey, Heihei was so tired that he fell asleep at her feet. She raised her hand and gently stroked the hair on his belly, feeling the warmth of his body between her fingertips.

With tears in her eyes, she said, "Don't do this again, I'm afraid..."

Heihei is a close relative and a close friend to her. She cannot imagine what would happen to her if something happened to him.

After a busy day, she had no appetite, so she cooked fish and eggs for Heihei, and made a bowl of dumpling soup with the dough herself.

After eating, she found the few remaining matsutake mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms that had been dried last year, put them in a pan and fried them until they changed color, making matsutake mushroom delicacy.

This was intended to be a gift for Han Zhibai. She didn't have anything good on hand, so she prepared a can of fresh matsutake mushrooms, some dried ground ear vegetables, pickled mustard greens and other special foods and put them in the vegetable basket.

Finally, she stuffed a five-ounce silver ingot into the bottom of the basket.

Take a shower, and go to bed.

She did not sleep well that night and dreamed of Han Zhibai fighting with bandits in the afternoon and him falling into a trap.

The trap in the dream was pitch black, like a bottomless abyss. Han Zhibai fell down like a leaf, with no end. She reached out her hand to pull him up, but she couldn't reach him.

"Ah, Han Zhibai!"

Xia Qingyue woke up with a start and opened her eyes. The room was dimly lit. She was gasping for air and her body was covered in sweat, which made her feel sticky and uncomfortable.

Hei Hei, who was sleeping in his nest, stood at the edge of the bed worriedly, "Mmmmm!"

"Heihei, I'm fine, I just had a nightmare, go to sleep."

It should be two or three in the morning. She tucked the quilt between her legs, turned over, adjusted her breathing, and tried to fall asleep again.

A few minutes later, she was lying flat on her back.

After a while, he turned over again.

She tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep. She kept thinking about the scenes in her dream, and her heart felt inexplicably flustered, as if being bitten by a bug, making her feel anxious and restless.

"Have you treated his wound?"

At five in the morning, Xia Qingyue, who couldn't sleep, got up early. "Today is the day we agreed to go down the mountain. I will see him later. I hope he is okay."

She put on her clothes, combed her hair and tied it up with a cloth ribbon, went outside the cave, used a wooden bucket to scoop up dry feces for fertilizer, and fetched water to water the vegetables.

The vegetables in the vegetable garden are growing well, and the rice seedlings have grown to the length of a palm. In a few days, we will use bamboo pipes to bring water to the paddy fields to plow the land.

The fruit trees that she thought had been frozen to death began to sprout green buds.

Her joy was like a dead tree coming back to life in spring. She fertilized them and took good care of them.

She bought a lot of ginger and garlic, and she planned to plant half of them on the sandy soil on the slope in a few days.

After finishing the work, I fetched some water to wash my face and hands, and I felt much more refreshed.

For breakfast, I cooked red bean and peanut porridge, and the beans were the ones I bought last year but didn’t finish.

We have caught a lot of fish recently, so the dish is cooked a few fish, added some pickled mustard greens and dried chilies, and it tastes fresh and spicy.

I also fried a dish of scrambled eggs with deer ears and leeks.

After breakfast, when it was just getting light, she remembered that there were several bundles of firewood she had found yesterday that were left in the woods. Since there was still some time, she went out and carried them back.

At around eight o'clock in the morning, Xia Qingyue brought gifts and Heihei to the raspberry field. They came early, so she ran to check out the plum trees. The flowers were almost falling, and they would bear fruit in a while.

May and June last year were the seasons for eating fruits such as raspberries, mulberries and loquats.

She didn't want to miss it this year, so she would wait for a few days when she was not so busy, go out to the mountains to collect and catch more fish, just like last year, pickling and air-drying the big ones.

The water celery needs to be cut and dried.

Come to think of it, there is still a lot to do.

She returned to her original place to wait for Han Zhibai, craning her neck to look around, eagerly anticipating.

Time passed minute by minute.

The sun, which had been half-penetrating from under the dark clouds, shrank back shyly. The thick, gloomy clouds, together with the towering mountains in the distance, gave people a sense of oppressive urgency.

"Why hasn't he arrived yet? This shouldn't happen. He is always punctual and almost always arrives early."

The longer she waited, the more uneasy she felt.

"Mmmm!" Heihei called out twice without any warning.

After distinguishing from the enemy beast by the sound, she smiled and said, "Finally they are here!"

Two or three minutes later, Xiaobai came running over.

"Mmmm!" Xiaobai circled around Xia Qingyue and called out, wagging his tail.

"Good boy, Xiaobai."

Xiaobai was overly enthusiastic and kept jumping on her. She thought it wanted to play with her.

She touched Xiaobai's head and was about to play with it, but she could tell something was wrong from its anxious expression. She turned around and looked in the direction Xiaobai came from, but did not see Han Zhibai.

"Han Zhibai? Xiaobai, where is your master?"

"Mmmm!" Xiaobai's voice was filled with tears.

"Oh no, something happened, Xiaobai, you want to take me to find your master, right? Come on, lead the way!" She pushed Xiaobai.

Seeing that she finally reacted, Xiaobai ran to the front to lead the way.

The route was very familiar, running towards the dense forest, and then heading towards the back where he had parted with Han Zhibai before.

After that, she didn't know the way.

She stopped to rest several times along the way. She knew that Han Zhibai was in a dangerous position, so she didn't dare to stay for long. She only rested for a while and then continued running.

She didn't know how long they ran before Xiaobai brought her through another more lush forest. The trees here all looked the same, and it was dazzling to look at.

Xia Qingyue's legs felt like they were filled with lead. The more she ran, the heavier and weaker they became. Her speed slowed down uncontrollably, and her face was covered in sweat, as if she had just been pulled out of the water.

Xiaobai was running in front of her. Her eyes gradually became blurred as she stared at it, and her ears began to buzz.

She was like a numb robot, moving mechanically and only knew how to run forward.

"No no no!"

Finally Xiaobai stopped.

The sound was like the sound of nature, and it reached Xia Qingyue's ears. She could no longer bear it, and she leaned back and fell on the grass.

She opened her mouth and gasped for air like a fish that had left the water and was losing its vitality due to lack of oxygen.

My whole body feels like it's falling apart!

Although she didn't know where this place was, the distance she ran here was at least twice the distance she ran yesterday to find Han Zhibai and then ran back to find Heihei!

"Mmmm!" Xiaobai's voice was heard again.

"I'll get up right away, right away!" She supported herself on the ground with her hands, using the force to stand up, her body trembling.

Xiaobai was standing more than ten meters away, with an ancient wooden door in front of it.

The wooden door blends in with a mountain covered with green plants, as if it were embedded in the mountain.

door?

"Is this your home?"

She thought Han Zhibai was in danger in the wild.

Xiaobai raised his front paws and pushed hard, and the wooden door slowly opened. He dodged and ran in.

Rescuing Han Zhibai was urgent. Xia Qingyue didn't look or think too much and ran into the wooden door.