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

Xia Qingyue went to the stream to collect the fish cage. On the way back to the tiankeng, she looked back frequently, fearing that someone was following her. She felt as if she was being watched from behind the whole time.

Heihei didn't show any wary reaction, which made her feel a little relieved.

Back in the tiankeng, her own little world and small home, her nervousness and anxiety were relieved.

She sat on a big rock to take a breath, recalling the scenes of seeing the white dog and hearing the whistle.

Gusts of wind came with a cool breeze, blowing her hair into disarray, and she felt cold in her long-sleeved, thin shirt.

"Clap clap clap."

Raindrops fell from the mouth of the tiankeng.

Xia Qingyue hurried to collect the half-dried bamboo shoots, bamboo fungus, mushrooms, and water celery.

She had just put those things away when the rain suddenly got heavier. The rain pouring down from the tiankeng mouth was like beads falling off a string, and the mountain tiankeng was shrouded in misty rain and water vapor.

Drops of crystal rain hit the ground, splashing water.

The wind was chilly. Xia Qingyue crossed her arms and rubbed her hands through her sleeves. She turned around to pour out the small fish and shrimps from the fish cage, and chopped some reed shoots to feed the chickens and ducks.

Heihei eats slightly larger fish, as long as chopsticks.

We didn't catch any big fish weighing two or three pounds today, so they ate them all.

It was a rainy day and it was getting dark quickly, so Xia Qingyue hastily cooked some noodle dumplings for dinner.

After washing up, she lay on the bed. Although the two windows of the room were closed tightly, wind still came in through the tiny gaps. She was so cold that she wrapped herself tightly in the thick quilt.

The weather was good the past two days, so she took the bedding outside to dry in the sun for a few days and prepared to put it away.

This quilt was made by the original owner's mother herself. It was filled with reed fluff and sewn together with linen stitch by stitch.

It is definitely not warm enough to cover yourself with this quilt in winter, but it can still keep you warm in this weather. After being exposed to the sun, you can smell the scent of the sunshine.

There were gusts of cold wind outside, making the trees growing on the slope inside the pit rustle, like the howling of ghosts and wolves, which seemed very scary in the quiet night.

All he could see was pitch black. Xia Qingyue lay flat on the bed, thinking about how to make defensive weapons.

In her previous life, when she was a child, she lived with her grandmother in the countryside. Her parents were not around. In the eyes of children of the same age, she was a wild child without parents. The little children already knew how to pick on the weak, and they often bullied and beat her verbally and physically.

After a while, her grandmother found out and was so angry that she took her to find the children who bullied her and said on the spot:

"Yue'er is also a child who is loved, protected and supported by others. Yue'er, if someone hits you, scolds you or bullies you, you should go back now. If someone dares to bully you again in the future, don't tolerate it or you will indulge them in bad habits!"

Since then, she always remembered what her grandmother said. It was those words that gave her courage and confidence. In the days that followed, whenever someone dared to bully her, she would fight back without hesitation.

In the process, she developed a love for slingshot shooting, initially using dead objects such as trees and bottles as targets, and later at those who bullied her.

Gradually, her slingshot accuracy became better and better, and no children in that area of ​​the countryside dared to mess with her anymore and they would hide when they saw her.

Thinking of those things, Xia Qingyue choked up and called out "Grandma" several times, tears streaming down her face.

That night, she dreamed of her grandmother.

Grandma still smiled at her lovingly and tenderly as before: "Yue'er, come on, you are the best!"

At dawn, Xia Qingyue woke up from a beautiful dream with a smile.

I got up a little late. It was already light outside and there was a drizzle.

She walked out of the cave, a cool breeze blew, the air was fresh and pleasant, she could smell the scent of grass, trees and soil.

The grass and trees washed by rain are particularly green and pleasing to the eye.

She stood there looking at the plants and grass for a while, then turned around to chop reed shoots and mix them with wood bran to feed the chickens and ducks. Three new eggs had been added to the straw in the pen, two of which were still warm to the touch.

For breakfast she had steamed eggs and cassava.

After breakfast, she went to the utility room and found the bow and arrow that Xia Dasong used for hunting.

The bows and arrows were made by Xia Dasong using oak and cow tendon, one new and one old.

Xia Qingyue picked up one of the bows and put a sharp arrow on it. She had to use a lot of force to pull the bowstring, and the bowstring had to be stretched to its maximum limit in a short period of time, which was a great test of the archer's physical fitness, such as the strength of the back, waist and arms.

An arrow was shot out and flew several meters away, then fell down like a kite with a broken string.

No, her strength is limited and she has no professional training.

Xia Qingyue has self-awareness and knows that archery is a technical job that cannot be mastered in a day or two. She disassembled the old bow and arrow and selected a piece of unworn tendon.

Beef tendon is tough and elastic, making it very suitable for making slingshots.

She remembered that after moving into the tiankeng, Xia Dasong cut down wood to make furniture. Some of the wood was not used up, and there were also some scattered scraps, which were all piled up in the utility room.

After searching for a while, she actually found three Y-shaped wooden stakes that Xia Dasong had made to support the bamboo water pipes. These three were defective products and the exterior details were not so good.

Xia Qingyue measured the size of the slingshot with her hands, chopped off the extra long wooden stakes at the bottom with an axe, and then tied the beef tendon to the Y-shaped wood with a rope. She found a stone, tightened the beef tendon, and aimed at a green plant not far away that was swaying in the wind.

call out--

There was a sound of breaking through the air, and the stone was as powerful as a bamboo, hitting the target directly, and the green plants were broken into pieces.

Still a familiar feel.

She couldn't put the new slingshot down.

The drizzle had not stopped yet, and Xia Qingyue put on her straw raincoat and straw hat and went out. Although the weather was bad, mushrooms and bamboo shoots would grow more easily on the mountain at this time, so she had to hurry up and stock up on mountain products. Now she was not the only one there, and she was also responsible for feeding the poultry every day.

I also have to go out and find some cypress leaves to smoke the bacon. On rainy days, there is a lot of moisture, and if the moisture in the meat is not evaporated, it will easily deteriorate.

She went to the stream and put a fish cage. Thinking that it was a rainy day and the water in the stream would flow faster, she also put a small backpack in it and still used lard residue as bait.

She had come to the stream to pick mushrooms and black fungus yesterday. After one night, the mushrooms were still small, so she walked towards the woods upstream of the stream, as she had not been there yet.

After walking a long way, I saw shepherd's purse and wild onions on the road, as well as some medicinal herbs, such as Polygonum multiflorum, Astragalus, Licorice, Lobelia, and Viburnum, and I picked them all.

She looked back and was attracted by the green and purple things growing on the opposite hillside.

"It's bracken!"

I guess there are quite a few.

Xia Qingyue ran over and broke the ferns. They were all tender and easy to break.

After picking all the ferns on a hillside, I harvested two full baskets of ferns.

She secretly took note of this place so that she could come here to dig fern roots and make fern root powder in the future.

Climbing up the hillside, Xia Qingyue looked around as she walked, and soon she found a nest of gray-white things in the grass in front of her.

She looks a bit like a chicken mushroom.

I walked over and took a look, and it was true.

There were so many weeds growing on the grass that she couldn't even see them all.

Xia Qingyue happily took a shovel and dug a nest at a time, which was bigger than her head.

As she dug, she smelled a familiar fragrance.