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

"Jelly? Is it the kind of jelly made from pea flour and sweet potato flour?" Chen Yuzhen felt curious.

"It's a little different. It's called stinky gold, also called turtledove leaves, tofu chai. Crush the leaves or squeeze out the juice. It smells a little stinky at this time. Add some wood ash water to it and it can be made into jelly."

People in the previous life liked to call it turtledove leaf, and made it into jade tofu, which can be mixed with sugar or chili oil and eaten in various ways. Its leaves have the effect of clearing away heat and detoxifying.

Chen Yuzhen was surprised and smiled after hearing this: "This is really a good thing!"

The two of them gathered a full basket of turtledove leaves. During the process, Xia Qingyue told Chen Yuzhen the detailed process of making jade tofu.

Half an hour later, they went to collect the fish cages.

Due to the short time, we didn't catch many fish, mostly small fish, including seven or eight fish as long as chopsticks, and a few river shrimps, clams and snails.

There were many people outside in the afternoon, and they were afraid of meeting people from the village, so they didn't stay long and went back.

Halfway through the journey, Chen Yuzhen said, "Qingyue, we have some dried fish. Take some back with you."

"No, I'll just take the beehive and two iron rods back."

She brought the iron rod with her before she came out, so she wouldn't have to make another trip. "Uncle, aunt, I'll walk back from here, you guys go back."

"Can you do it alone?" Chen Yuzhen looked at Xia Qingyue, who was carrying one bucket of water and two buckets of water.

"You can take a break if you get tired."

Li Benfu said, "Qingyue, starting from tomorrow morning, you go to the cave we visited last time and I will fetch water for you so you don't have to run so far. I have to fetch water every morning anyway.

It was early, there were not many people outside, so it was safer.”

"That's a lot of trouble for you."

Xia Qingyue wanted to refuse, but Li Benfu and his wife kept trying to persuade her, and she couldn't find a chance to interrupt.

Finally, the matter was settled.

Before parting, Chen Yuzhen suddenly placed something covered with a blue cloth in front of Xia Qingyue, and then ran away quickly.

Xia Qingyue was confused.

She bent down and uncovered the blue cloth, revealing a slightly larger vegetable basket filled with two ceramic jars of honey. The rest of the empty space in the basket was filled with honeycombs, piled up like a small hill, and the top of the hill was filled with dried fish as long as chopsticks.

"Auntie!"

He called out and looked in the direction the couple had left, but they had already run far away.

The couple was afraid that Xia Qingyue would not accept these things, so they prepared them in advance. If they were not worried that she could not carry so many things by herself, all the beehives would have been brought to her.

After staring at the basket for a while, Xia Qingyue smiled and said, "Thank you."

She picked up the basket and slung it over her arm. It was a bit heavy.

I just took out the bucket of water from the backpack, put the vegetable basket in it, and carried two buckets of water in my hands.

And so she returned to the tiankeng with water and some sorrel leaves.

On the way, she walked very carefully for fear that the water would spill, which slowed her down.

There is a black warning. If you see people, hide and come out after they leave.

More than an hour later, the man and the dog returned to the tiankeng. It was already evening.

After she unloaded her things, she sat down on the ground and gasped, "Huh... I'm so tired, the living environment is getting more and more difficult!"

The sweat on my forehead kept flowing down. No matter how I wiped it, it kept flowing again. My face was red and hot.

After resting for five minutes, she ran to pick up the bamboo water cup on the dining table, gulped down the cup, and felt much better after that.

The two buckets of water she brought back had some spillage, so she put them over to the filter bucket and poured some dirty water into them to filter them.

Water filtering requires a process, so you have to come back from time to time to check and then refill the dirty water.

She chopped some wild grass to feed the chickens, ducks and rabbits, and took the opportunity to check on the hatching fertilized eggs.

Just wait a while for it to hatch.

It was still early, so she hurriedly made the beehive and filtered out the beeswax to make candles.

After being busy for a while, she was very hungry and didn't eat much at noon.

The turtledove leaf sorrel could not be left alone, so when she was by the river, she and Chen Yuzhen walked upstream and found a place where the water was relatively clean, and washed them all.

If there is water outside, use it immediately.

Place the sorrel leaves on the kitchen counter and stir-fry them later, and set the unwashed roots aside to dry tomorrow.

She put a handful of wood ash into a large bowl and added an appropriate amount of water to let it settle.

Pour some boiled water into a wooden basin, and use clean hands to rub the turtledove leaves vigorously to extract the juice. The more you rub, the thicker the juice will become.

Slowly pour the settled wood ash water into the turtledove leaf juice, stir it evenly in a clockwise direction with chopsticks, and set it aside to solidify naturally.

The main course in the evening was jade jelly. She steamed potatoes and chicken and duck eggs for Heihei, and also steamed a dried fish and a handful of dried shrimps as a dish.

The setting sun sets and night falls quietly.

She sautéed a dish of sorrel leaves in lard.

It's time to eat dinner.

The finished jelly is emerald green in color, which makes people hungry just by looking at it. She added a little basil sauce to mix it, which made it spicy and delicious.

The mountain pepper sauce was finished a few days ago.

There is honey that can be mixed to make it sweet, but today she wants to eat something with a strong flavor. It may be because the lunch she had at Chen Yuzhen's house was too bland. Even the stir-fried sorrel leaves are very delicious and appetizing.

The jelly tastes refreshing and is a good food for relieving summer heat. She ate it all up with the dish.

After eating, it was completely dark.

The amount of water dripping out of the filter bucket was getting smaller and smaller, and the dirty water inside was almost filtered out, so she poured some more in to filter it.

It was still early, so she started to tinker with the bamboo. With the iron stick she brought from Li's house, it was much more convenient. She used the axe, controlled the force of the strike, and made a hole.

If the hole you need is larger, continue drilling along the existing hole to widen the area.

It looks simple, but it requires a lot of strength in the hands.

After filtering out a bucket of clean water, Xia Qingyue tidied up and went to bed as she had to get up early the next day.

-

The next day.

Xia Qingyue got up before dawn, steamed eggs for breakfast, boiled a pot of water and let it cool, fed the chickens and ducks, and then she took everything she had and went out.

She came near the cave, and Heihei suddenly jumped into the grass in front.

"Heihei." Li Benfu stood up from the bushes. He had just heard the noise and thought it was someone else, so he hid himself vigilantly.

He came out carrying one bucket of water on his back and two buckets of water in his hands, with a vegetable basket hanging on one wrist.

Xia Qingyue stepped forward and greeted him, "Uncle, you're here really early!"

"Go to bed early and get up early at night. Qingyue, take these things back and eat them." Li Benfu handed over a basket of vegetables and a wooden barrel with a smile.

In the basket there were several long dried fish wrapped in large leaves and some washed wild vegetables.

There is a beehive in the wooden barrel.

Xia Qingyue saw the beehive and asked in surprise, "Uncle, why did you give all this to me?"

"It's not something valuable. Use it if you can use it, otherwise it will be wasted."

"It can be used to light candles. I'll teach you how to make it..."

Li Benfu smiled and said, "I can make torches. Torches are brighter. Qingyue, you can use this without any worries."

Seeing him say that, Xia Qingyue accepted it with gratitude.

"I have something to give you too." She took off her backpack, which contained more than 20 kilograms of yams. "I have some yams here, you can take them and eat them."

Although she had salt, it was difficult for her to give it to them because it was refined salt.

At a time like this, it would be a great fortune to have coarse salt to eat. If you take out refined salt, they would be shocked.

"Keep it for yourself, we have food."

"If you don't accept them, then I won't accept these fish and wild vegetables either."

The two looked at each other, trying to see who would give in first.

Li Benfu said anxiously, "You can't even eat enough of this good stuff yourself, how can you give us so much? Qingyue, I appreciate your kindness, you can take the Jiaoban potato back with you."

"I still have some, uncle, you can take it."

"By the way, Qingyue, Yuzhen used some leaves to make jelly yesterday. It tastes refreshing and cool, and it's delicious!"

"No matter how delicious it is, you can't eat too much in a short period of time." Xia Qingyue took the basket with one hand and took the opportunity to push the backpack towards Li Benfu.

Unable to keep the stalemate going, Li Benfu compromised.

The two chatted for a few minutes and then parted ways. They agreed on a new meeting place, which was closer to the cave as they were afraid of encountering bandits in the village one day.