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

After successfully catching a chicken, Xia Qingyue became more confident. She tied the chicken with thin vines, moved to another place and set up a new trap, doing the same thing.

However, things did not go smoothly afterwards. The wild ducks were very smart and only poked their heads out to eat the bait. Finally one of them ran under the basket. She pulled the rope and the duck reacted quickly and nimbly and ran away immediately.

She didn't believe it and moved to a new place, but the result was still not satisfactory.

There was no way, it was already noon. She thought about looking for eggs again to see if she could get any. But before she started looking, Heihei showed up.

Heihei stood not too far from her, raised his head towards her, his brown eyes flashing with determination.

"Heihei, do you want to take me somewhere?"

Heihei raised his head again.

Xia Qingyue followed Heihei and was led around left and right by it.

After walking for about ten minutes, Heihei stopped moving. The weeds around its hind legs were in a mess, and some white could be seen at a glance.

"Are those eggs?" Xia Qingyue went to pull away the weeds with excitement, and saw three chicken eggs and two duck eggs lying there.

"Heihei, you are awesome. I will cook eggs for you at noon."

She put the eggs away.

The sun grew brighter at noon, and the light hurt my eyes.

The man and the dog hurried to the tiankeng. When they returned to their home, Xia Qingyue sat for a while and drank boiled water.

Heihei also ran to drink water as soon as he came back.

After resting for a while, she threw the captured hen into the pen where chickens, ducks and rabbits were raised.

There was some rice bran left over from raising chickens and ducks. She saw it in the utility room yesterday, dug it out, cut some reed shoots, mixed them well, and poured them into the food trough for the chickens, and added water to a groove on the side.

I was starving to death, so I ate my meal and went to the reed marsh to fight again.

Based on the experience she just summarized, she came to a conclusion.

First, the basket is too small and the space is narrow, which makes the pheasants and ducks feel a sense of crisis.

Secondly, they live in reed marshes all year round and are most familiar with the environment there. After all, the traps look quite conspicuous, making them on guard.

Third, pheasants and wild ducks grow in reed marshes and usually eat insects, reed shoots or wild grass. Their diet is monotonous, so sweet potatoes are quite tempting to them.

So she decided to find a basket specifically for storing grain and decorate it with reeds.

Thinking about the plan to be implemented, Xia Qingyue quickly dealt with the dead pheasant that she had not finished eating yesterday. Fortunately, the weather was not hot, so there was no peculiar smell and it was not spoiled.

Steam the washed and cut yam in a pot.

Keep the fat from the chicken separately, pour all the meat pieces into the pot and stir-fry, when the oil comes out, add mountain spring water and stew.

No ginger, garlic or spices, everything is kept simple.

Even so, the fragrance is everywhere.

After stewing the chicken for half an hour, add the half-dried bamboo shoots from yesterday and continue cooking.

It cooked in a total of an hour.

She boiled a duck egg and a chicken egg specially for Heihei, and poured some vegetables and yam into his bowl.

She doesn't like boiled eggs or poached eggs, but she can accept fried, stir-fried or steamed eggs, so she saved the eggs to steam for the next morning.

The chicken was still as delicious as always, the bamboo shoots absorbed the flavor of the gravy, and were stewed for just the right amount of time, making them crispy and tender when you bite into them.

It will be more delicious if the bamboo shoots are dried thoroughly and stewed with meat.

She peeled off the thin skin of the yam, revealing the white flesh. She took a bite and found it soft and slightly sweet. She squinted her eyes in surprise.

Finally the food has improved.

As usual, I ate until I was 80% full for lunch, and left half of the food in the pot.

She washed a bowl of raspberries and sat on a big rock by the canal and ate them slowly as a fruit after dinner.

After eating and drinking, Xia Qingyue rested for half an hour and went to the utility room to get a straw hat and put it on. The sun was strong at noon and she didn't want to get tanned.

"Heihei, let's go to the reed marsh."

With the experience of the previous two times, this time, Xia Qingyue arrived at the reed marsh. She first used a sickle to cut some reeds to decorate the basket, and then carefully found a location under the reeds.

Getting ready, she hid in the dark, holding the rope.

The afternoon sun was warm, the breeze was cool, and the rustling of reed leaves was in her ears. After waiting for ten minutes, Xia Qingyue's eyelids began to droop.

Suddenly, a chirping sound was heard.

A group of seven little pheasants limped towards the basket. They must have smelled the fragrance of food.

Xia Qingyue held her breath and watched without blinking as the chicks pecked at the sweet potato grains and earthworm paste under the basket. She saw the right moment and pulled the rope hard with her hand.

With a clang, the basket fell to the ground.

The chirping was louder than before and filled with fear.

"Haha, it's done!" Xia Qingyue stood up and ran to put the chicks into the backpack, then covered it with a vegetable basket to prevent them from running out.

Xia Qingyue hid the basket containing the chicks deep in the reeds and asked Heihei to guard it.

She took all the effort, changed location and continued to wait.

After waiting for about twenty minutes, a cackling sound was heard.

Two wild ducks were walking in front, followed closely by a few ducklings.

They look like a family.

The two big ducks were very mature. They sniffed the scent under the basket and poked their heads out cautiously.

When the little duck saw the food, it quacked and ran over to eat it, enjoying it very much.

Seeing that the little ones were fine after eating for a while, the big duck slowly relaxed and walked over to eat. At first, it stuck its head out to peck at the food, and then it got so addicted to eating that it ate all the bait on the edge and walked in unconsciously, completely unaware that it had walked into a trap.

The timing was just right. Xia Qingyue pulled the rope with her hand, and when she heard the basket fall to the ground, she ran out and did not see any ducks escape.

There was a rattling sound in the basket.

Xia Qingyue was overjoyed. She turned around and ran to get the basket containing the chicks. There were two big ducks in the basket. She did not dare to slack off. She just lifted a corner of the basket slightly, reached in and groped to grab the ducklings first, and then grabbed the two big ones.

With the last two big ducks stuffed into the backpack, the space seemed cramped.

Afraid that the big duck would be so strong that it would push the basket open, she tied a rope around it tightly.

She just counted them and there are five ducklings.

Today was a great day, but it also took a lot of time. She looked at the sky and guessed that it was already around four o'clock in the afternoon.

It was getting late, so she looked for some reed shoots and, with Heihei's guidance, also found three large duck eggs.

"Heihei, let's go home."

Xia Qingyue walked in front carrying a backpack, and Heihei followed closely behind.

Back at the tiankeng, she released the wild duck chicks and ducklings from the basket. They were in a strange environment and cried out in fear and nervousness.

The big wild duck spread its wings and tried to fly, but crashed into the bamboo fence. After trying several times without success, they huddled in a corner with their ducklings.

The pheasant had already eaten the rice bran mixed with reed shoots that she had prepared earlier, and also drank some water.

Xia Qingyue prepared food and water and put them in the pen. She didn't stay there for long. She hoped that the pheasants and ducks would get familiar with the environment after a while.

When the chickens and ducklings grow up, they can lay eggs, which then hatch into chicks and ducklings, and the cycle repeats itself over and over again.

As she thought about the beautiful vision, she thought of another problem at the same time.