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

It took Xia Qingyue about an hour to carry the water back to the tiankeng.

It’s still relatively fast. If you want to fetch water from the river, it will take at least two hours.

A few buckets of water were enough for a few days. She and Li Benfu agreed that the next meeting would be in the morning two days later.

After that, I went out to fetch water every two days.

She can have a good rest in the tiankeng these two days.

When she came back, she put the water in place first and let the dirty water filter.

The honeycomb could not be stored, so it was filtered out and made into beeswax, which was then put into a ceramic jar and stored in the coolest cellar.

Then she put on a straw hat, picked up a hoe and went to the vegetable field.

Passing by the paddy fields, the soil in the fields was dry and cracked, shaped like the lines on a tortoise shell, and the rice leaves turned even yellower.

Every time she saw this scene, she felt extremely sad.

"Ugh!"

Out of sight is pure.

The vegetable garden had not been well taken care of for several days. Most of the vines of cowpeas, cucumbers, loofahs and gourds had died. There were still a few fruits on them, but she picked them all.

Almost half of the eggplants were killed by the sun, so we picked the ones that still had fruits.

Some peppers have begun to turn red, including lantern peppers, pointed peppers, and chili peppers found in the wild.

The completely red peppers are picked and dried in the sun, and the green ones are not picked.

I didn’t plant many peppers this year, otherwise I could get some green peppers to dry.

She watered crops like pumpkin, pepper, peanut and sweet potato every day with the water she saved for washing vegetables and face.

She picked up the hoe and dug out more than four pounds of young ginger, which was tender ginger, and planned to soak it in a jar. She could use it to make meat dishes later after soaking it.

In the morning, she tidied up the vegetable garden and threw all the wild vegetables and dried and dead crops aside so that they could be burned when they were dry.

After clearing a piece of field, it was bare and she felt a little uncomfortable looking at it.

After she finished, she passed by the pond, wondering what to make for lunch, and did not notice that there was a patch of soil in the pond that was darker than other places.

In the afternoon, she took a rare nap, and when she woke up, she worked with bamboo.

The required bamboo materials have been prepared.

In the next few days, Xia Qingyue went out to fetch water every two days, and spent the rest of the time busy with bamboo.

During the incubation period, some fertilized eggs broke, three were damaged, and two died shortly after being born. In the end, eight chicks were hatched.

The newborn chicks were very fragile, so she built a square cage with bamboo rafts and placed it outside the pen, raising them separately from the hens.

The arrival of the little chicks makes the house lively. They chirp with soft and gentle voices.

Apart from eating, sleeping and taking care of personal problems, Heihei spends almost all of his time guarding the chicken coop.

Newly born chicks do not need to be fed in the first two days. Start feeding them after two days. Give them some water and cooked egg yolks. Crush the egg yolks a little and add some soil or sand to it.

Because chicks have no teeth, mixing some sand into their food can help them promote gastrointestinal motility and digest food.

After feeding like this for two or three days, add cooked egg whites, but don't feed too much at a time.

Xia Qingyue was busy taking care of the chicks. After a few days, the pregnant rabbit gave birth to five baby rabbits. She became even busier and took good care of these new lives.

The baby rabbit is fine, as it has its mother rabbit to feed it, but she has to prepare food for the chicks.

After feeding eggs for a week, you can feed them cooked rice. The chicks have grown a little bigger and their chirping sounds are more energetic.

After taking care of the chicks through the critical period, Xia Qingyue was able to take time off to work on the bamboo cabinet. All the materials were ready and they were put together according to what she had planned in advance.

The bamboo cabinet was large and contained a lot of materials, so it took her four hours to finish it. Fortunately, she had plenty of patience, otherwise she would have collapsed and given up.

After more than half a month, she finally made a bamboo cabinet and placed it in the room. It had two layers, was 1.7 meters long, 80 centimeters wide, and about two meters high.

There are partitions between every two floors. She originally wanted to make corresponding small doors, but due to her limited ability, she had to give up.

There are three compartments on the first floor, each of which is larger and can be used to store bedding, thick clothes, etc.

The second layer has five compartments, which are used to store thin clothes for the season, underwear, menstrual belts and other miscellaneous items.

It looks much neater after being categorized like this.

She had to go out to fetch water tomorrow, so she prepared dinner early and went to bed.

Around five in the morning of the next day, Xia Qingyue got up quickly, steamed some potatoes and a dried fish, fried some green peppers and eggplants, ate a simple meal, and then took the food and went out.

She was already very familiar with the route to the agreed location, and since she didn't bring anything with her, it was relatively easy and she arrived in just half an hour.

When they arrived at the place, strangely, Heihei did not run to find Li Benfu who was hiding in a secluded place as usual.

"Hey, uncle hasn't come yet?"

This is the first time this has happened.

After waiting for about fifteen minutes, Li Benfu still didn't show up.

For safety reasons, Li Benfu and his colleagues usually get up before dawn to work. Today, we have waited for such a long time and he still hasn't come, which means that there is a reason or something unexpected has happened.

Not knowing whether they were in danger or what, Xia Qingyue decided to go to the Li family’s shelter to take a look.

A man and a dog came to the Li family shelter and knocked on the door, but no one answered.

"To the river!"

At this moment, Xia Qingyue felt a little uneasy and prayed in her heart that nothing would happen.

She rushed as fast as she could to the middle and lower reaches of the river where she had previously been with the Li family.

When they were almost at the river, Heihei suddenly started running, and Xia Qingyue followed it, because it was very likely that it had found Li Benfu and his wife.

After running for five minutes, Heihei plunged into the slope under the lush dead grass and heard a soft cry coming from inside.

Xia Qingyue, who rushed over, saw Chen Yuzhen crouching on the slope with a nervous expression. Not far away was a backpack and some water.

Without saying a word, Chen Yuzhen stood up and pulled Xia Qingyue down.

As soon as he lay down, Xia Qingyue covered Heihei's mouth with her backhand, signaling him not to make any sound.

Although she is not very good at observing people's words and expressions, she still has some insight.

Why would Chen Yuzhen be lying in the grass for no reason and looking so nervous? There must be danger lurking nearby.

Chen Yuzhen pressed her hand on Xia Qingyue's back while listening carefully to the movements around her.

There was a sound of chaotic footsteps coming from the gravel path diagonally ahead.

"Damn it, we actually ran into them again! Quick, find a place to hide before they find us!"

"Sixth son, you are mistaken. Why should we hide? They are just some scums that have just appeared recently. How can they compare with our Tianlang Village!"

"If you miss, just stay here and don't hold me back!!"

After saying that, a sound of footsteps passed by the slope where Xia Qingyue and Chen Yuzhen were. They ran dozens of meters away and hid in the dry grass in panic.

calm down.

At the bottom of the slope, Chen Yuzhen and Xia Qingyue looked at each other, both with surprised expressions on their faces.

They recognized the two people who spoke just now. The first one to speak was Liuzi, and the one who took over was Zhu Sanbao.

Xia Qingyue thought that Chen Yuzhen was hiding here to avoid Liuzi and the others.

But Liuzi and the others just said that they met “them” again. Who are these “them”?