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

Soon after planting pumpkins, cucumbers and other easy-to-grow vegetables, she planted Chinese cabbages, amaranth, and leeks. After a while, when she saw that the weather was good, she planted ginger, soybeans, peanuts, and peas.

She had reserved some sweet potatoes in the cellar for seeds, but she had resisted the urge to eat them. She picked out the bad ones and planted them all.

It’s a pity that all the potatoes and taro planted at the beginning of the year were destroyed by rain and we got nothing.

After the weather improved, the plants in the sinkhole grew very well. Purslane, dandelion and white lettuce grew a little. I could pick a handful of them every few days to cook.

Wild grasses grow better and better, and after being cut one crop comes another, they are all cut to feed poultry.

During the several months they have been in the tiankeng, the chickens have given birth to chicks four times, the ducks have given birth to chicks three times, and there have been several pregnant rabbits.

Up to now, most of the chickens and ducks are small ones weighing one or more than two kilograms, totaling sixty-three.

I ate some of the big chickens and ducks in the past few months, and kept a few of each for laying eggs, including two males.

The rabbits have goat milk to drink, and their food has greatly improved. They grow a little faster and now there are more than fifty of them. In addition to eating milk and grass, they also have to eat some soybean powder. If they don't go out and food is scarce, they also have to eat soybeans. After giving birth to several batches of rabbits, the female rabbits are deliberately raised separately to control breeding.

The ewe was brought back from Han Zhibai. It had just given birth. After a few months, the milk supply became less and less, and it could not be squeezed out in the past two days.

Xia Qingyue was thinking, it would be great if there was another ram, and he could pair it with a ewe, let them breed lambs, and then there would be a lot of lambs, and achieving mutton freedom would not be a problem.

After applying dry manure to all the vegetables and watering them, Xia Qingyue raised her hand to wipe the sweat off her face with her sleeve and put on a straw hat on her head, but it didn't help much as it was still hot.

She looked up at the dazzling, blazing sun that was emitting high temperatures.

Under the sunlight, the tiny dust particles in the air jumped and floated in the light.

"It's been so long, my uncle and aunt must be out of food, so they need to go out and look for something to eat."

There was not much food left in his hands. He had half a dou of brown rice, more than a dou of white flour, and more than three dou each of glutinous rice and beans.

All the oil, pickled sauerkraut, seasoned matsutake mushrooms and honey were eaten up, and there was also a little bit of brown sugar, soy sauce and white wine.

I didn't buy much coarse salt this year, and I've been relying on the leftover salt from last year to get by until now. There's only a shallow layer of salt in the salt jar. If I save it, it will probably be gone in three or four days.

There are several kilograms of starch that have been precipitated several months ago. I occasionally use it to make some jelly, or use flour to make pasta to change the taste and make it not so monotonous.

"Oh, there are not many supplies left." She lowered her head, picked up the hoe, picked up the wooden bucket used to hold water and walked back.

She went to the kitchen and put down her things. She was very thirsty, so she sat on a stool and drank two bowls of water.

After drinking, she stared into the pit filled with golden light and thought quietly.

Heihei was playing with his wooden disk in the open space next to him, making a lot of noises.

Finally, she decided to go out and take a look early tomorrow morning.

Firstly, we urgently need to replenish some supplies, and secondly, we had agreed with everyone that each of us would stay in the shelter for more than two months.

Three months had passed, and the Li family must have gone out to look for food, and Han Zhibai would certainly come out to wait for her in the pine forest.

She could imagine that if she didn't go out, Han Zhibai would be waiting there every day.

Thinking of him, Xia Qingyue's heart suddenly started beating faster and faster. She couldn't help but imagine the scene of the two meeting. Thinking of this, the corners of her mouth curled up.

At the same time, the cottage dungeon.

The dungeon is located under the village. It was dug and built by a group of bandits from the former Tianlang Village. It is dark and damp inside, and the passage is so narrow that only one person can pass through. The cells are low and cramped, and some insects crawl and run by from time to time.

In one of the several cells, Chen Youmao had his head drooped, his hands were tied tightly by two ropes at the top, and were forced to lift them up. His legs were bent weakly, and his whole body was pulled by ropes to keep him standing.

There was not a single intact part of the brown clothes he was wearing; they were all torn, and the skin underneath was covered in scars and blood.

At the corner outside the cell, Guan Jianshan and Zhao Gen talked in low voices:

"Haven't you opened your mouth yet?" Guan Jianshan asked.

"That kid is very cunning, but he's still stubborn. I beat him, stabbed him, and cut him with a knife, but he just won't open his mouth!" Zhao Gen said angrily. He then said, "Brother Shan, it seems that we have to be ruthless."

"You can do whatever you want, just don't kill him first."

The Fang family is nowhere to be found, so we can only start with Chen Youmao.

Guan Jianshan's face was as cold as ice and his eyes were dark.

Zhao Gen, his confidant, saw this and quickly looked around. He lowered his voice and said, "Brother Shan, what do you want from the Qian family?"

"They are still useful, so they are keeping quiet."

In the village, outside the Guanjian Mountain Gate, Qian Wentao was waiting here, sweat dripping down his forehead, and his heart was so anxious as if there were millions of ants crawling and gnawing at him.

According to the original plan, when they found Chen Youmao, they did not arrest him directly, but tracked him to find Li's family member Xia Qingyue and others. Everything was going according to plan, but Chen Youmao somehow discovered them and was wandering around in the woods. If they hadn't been accompanied by so many people, he would have almost escaped.

When Qian Wentao took Chen Youmao back to Fang's house, the Fang family members were gone, only Qian Yurou was there.

With things turning out like this, Qian Wentao was worried that Guan Jianshan would want to kill them. For a moment, he was very conflicted about whether he should escape before the other party made a move, or take a gamble and stay.

He was so focused on his thoughts that he didn't even notice Guan Jianshan approaching him until Guan Jianshan spoke softly:

"I heard that the portrait you asked someone to draw a while ago has been drawn?"

While out looking for people, Qian Wentao asked someone to draw a large number of portraits of Xia Qingyue and others based on what he had drawn.

"Yes, by last night, we had drawn hundreds of them on the straw paper."

A drop of sweat fell into his eyes, causing burning pain. Qian Wentao hurriedly raised his hand to wipe it off and said tentatively, "Brother Shan, I'm thinking of letting the refugees distribute the portraits to the people in the mountains today and offering a reward for finding the person. What do you think?"

Guan Jianshan stared at him for several seconds, making his scalp tingle.

After a moment, Guan Jianshan said expressionlessly: "Go ahead."

Qian Wentao took his leave as he was told. He was not sure what Guan Jianshan thought of him.

Unable to figure it out, he changed his route and went to Qian Yurou, hoping to cheer her up, to sound out the situation and stabilize Guan Jianshan.

On the day Chen Youmao was captured, Qian Yurou was locked up in a small storage room in the village. With the doors and windows closed, it was so dark inside that one could not see one's hand in front of one's face.

Asking someone to open the door, Qian Wentao slipped in. He started by playing the victim and then tried to persuade Qian Yurou with kind words about getting reinforcements back to the old residence. However, Qian Yurou remained unmoved and looked lifeless, like a still sculpture doll.

After repeated persuasion, Qian Wentao lost all his patience and threatened Qian Yurou with the lives of Xiaomei and Wang Gui before she responded.