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

She shuddered and trembled all over, regaining most of her consciousness. "Heihei, what are you doing? It's so hot, be careful not to get a heat stroke!"

Heihei seemed not to hear what she said. He ran straight into the area on the slope where pumpkins, gourds, and loofahs were planted and vines were running rampant without looking back.

Xia Qingyue suddenly felt something was wrong, so she stood up, picked up the machete beside the stove, and ran over.

Halfway through my run, I was so hot in the sun that I remembered I forgot to wear a straw hat.

But she couldn't care about that at the moment, so she quickened her pace and ran over. Heihei dived into the vines and moved around, as if she was fighting with something.

When she arrived, a silver ring snake with an injured neck just emerged from the vines. The moment she saw it, her mind went blank and buzzed.

The sound of Heihei jumping a few times in the vines brought her back to her wandering thoughts.

While she was distracted, the coral snake was about to come to her, and behind it was a slightly thinner snake of the same kind.

Xia Qingyue grasped the machete with both hands, gathered all her strength in her hands, and swung the machete at the injured neck of the silver ring snake in front of her.

With one cut, blood splattered and the snake's head fell to the ground.

The thin silver ring snake at the back was entangled by Heihei.

While the snake was dodging backwards, Heihei leaned forward to bite the snake. However, as soon as he passed by, the snake stretched its head forward, opened its mouth and showed its fangs, wanting to bite Heihei.

Xia Qingyue, who was standing aside, was frightened and thought to herself, "You stinky snake, you are playing dirty tricks, right? Then I will give you a sneak attack."

While thinking, she reached into the cloth bag and took out the slingshot stone.

A stone was thrown and hit the side of the snake's face. Blood gushed out and its head tilted to the side. Heihei seized the opportunity and bit off its neck.

"Heihei, come here quickly and let me see!"

Heihei ran over obediently and let her check his whole body.

Xia Qingyue breathed a sigh of relief only after confirming that there were no tooth marks on Heihei's body. She looked at the mess on the ground and felt a little scared.

If Heihei hadn't discovered these snakes, what would she have done if the snakes had slipped in through the window gaps when she fell asleep at night.

Just imagining this gave her goosebumps.

Heihei moved around in the vines for a long time just now, so there must be snakes in there.

She picked up a long wooden stick and poked the vines, and sure enough, she found two dead snakes underneath, both with their heads cut off.

A fishy smell filled the air. She dozed off for two seconds, then ran back to the cave to find an old burlap bag and realgar powder. She used a wooden stick to push the dead snake into the bag, and shoveled in the blood-stained soil as well.

She sprinkled more realgar powder on those places because she was afraid that the snake's fellow snakes would smell the scent and come over to seek revenge.

She absolutely could not tolerate a dead snake left in the tiankeng, even if it was buried in the soil.

She carried a hoe, a backpack with a wooden barrel in it, and the machete and carried them out of the sinkhole.

She didn't expect it to come out again so soon.

Plans really can’t keep up with changes!

Walking to the woods beside the stream, she dug a hole, threw the sack of dead snakes into it, and quickly buried it.

The machete was covered in blood, and she wanted to wash it in the stream.

Heihei saw that she was going to the stream, so he ran ahead with his tail wagging, and reached the stream in a few jumps.

Xia Qingyue walked over on the big rocks in the stream and saw Heihei standing in the middle of the stream. He lowered his head and looked down, as if he was curious about the water that was just above his calves.

In the past, the water in this area was enough to cover most of its body.

She laughed and said, "Heihei, let's get some more water to take a bath later. The water flow here is too small and we can't wash well."

The smile was full of helplessness.

There is no rain yet and the weather is hot, so the water in the tiankeng pool will become less and less.

Nowadays, she saves water every day. She saves the water for washing vegetables and taking a bath to water the vegetables. She takes a bath every two days, washes her hair every three days, and scrubs her body in between.

Don’t use water unless it is necessary. Try every possible way to save water, hoping to hold out until the day it rains.

Even if this is achieved, the amount of water used in vegetable fields and paddy fields is still too great.

The blood on the machete was washed away completely. During this time, Xia Qingyue bent down to pick up snails. She had to bring something back after going out.

She picked up a bucket full of snails and saw a few small fish and shrimps. As the water volume decreased, the fresh water in the stream was not as abundant as before.

At the moment, she had neither the energy nor the mood to catch river shrimps and crabs, so she planned to collect more stream water and store it in a large water tank. She could use it to water the vegetables, which was better than using only the spring water in the pond.

Before, we were worried that the water would deteriorate and we couldn’t store it. But now that it hasn’t rained, the water level is getting lower and lower, so we have to take some measures and use water from the stream outside to water the vegetables.

Xia Qingyue also found some dry firewood along the way, chopped it into six bundles and tied them into a backpack.

Back at the tiankeng, she emptied out the two large water jars used for drinking.

The water jar is about 60 centimeters high and 30 centimeters in diameter. It is a pottery jar that was made by Xia Dasong and his wife using clay.

In order to make such a large pottery jar, the couple experienced many failures and setbacks, and constantly learned from experience to make it.

That time, they fired a total of three large pottery jars, one of which had a minor flaw and was placed in the utility room.

Xia Qingyue used all her strength to push the vat out little by little.

The jar was heavy and it wasn't smooth at all when pushed on the muddy ground. She had to rely entirely on brute force to move it. By the time she got it out of the cave, it felt like it took her half her life.

After stopping to rest for a few minutes, she continued to move, and finally reached a shaded area several hundred meters behind the paddy field. The closer she got to the paddy field, the closer she was to the bottom of the tiankeng, and the more exposed she was to the scorching sun.

After moving the two large vats and finding three old but still usable wooden barrels, Xia Qingyue did not rest. Instead, she found a shoulder pole, carried the two wooden barrels and went out to the stream to fetch water.

Because the water flow was small, it took a while to get enough water to fill a bucket after putting the wooden barrel down. She fetched two buckets of water at a time and poured them into the vat.

They fought back and forth until it was dark, and the jars and barrels were filled with water. Xia Qingyue felt that her hands and legs were almost broken.

She was so tired that she sat down on the ground, gasping for air, her throat wheezing so hard that it seemed like smoking was about to come out.

It was dark and the vision was unclear, so Xia Qingyue sat down to rest for a while, returned to the kitchen to light a candle, and then gulped down a glass of honey water.

Drinking the cool water not only moistened the throat, but also extinguished most of the heat in the body.

The water is so sweet! I can’t believe how we could live without water.

It was getting late, so she cooked a bowl of vegetarian noodle soup and added a lot of bok choy, as she couldn’t go a day without vegetarian dishes.

In fact, she wanted to eat jelly, but when she thought about the fact that the jelly had to be rinsed with cold water, she immediately didn't want to eat it anymore.

There were still two pancakes on the kang at noon. She kept them in a cool place, took them out, looked at them and smelled them. They were not bad and could be eaten. She put them in the pan and stir-fried them twice to heat them up.

The pot in the back stove was boiling with water fetched from the stream. It was water for Heihei to take a bath.

Heihei had a fight with a snake today, and she couldn't accept it if she didn't wash it.