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

She doesn't want the chickens, ducks, and rabbits, so she leaves them here as a signal of rejection. When the man comes the next day and sees that they are still there, he will understand her choice.

However, Xia Qingyue did not believe that the pheasants and rabbits could be kept here safely until tomorrow. Any refugees or ferocious beasts in the mountains could take them away.

When leaving the signal behind is equivalent to giving others a bargain, at other times, she would leave it behind without hesitation, not caring whether the pheasants or rabbits are eaten by others or ferocious beasts.

But times now are different from the past. With natural disasters, wars, and food shortages, many people have starved to death because they have nothing to eat.

Wasting food is a sin!

Xia Qingyue, Chen Yuzhen and Heihei hid in the dark and waited for nearly an hour and a half, but the man did not come back.

Under the scorching sun, the pheasants and rabbits placed under the shade of the wild grass became increasingly listless.

"Qingyue, it seems that man is really gone."

Xia Qingyue stood up from the bushes, picked up the pheasants and rabbits, divided half of them and handed them to Chen Yuzhen, "Aunt, take these back with you."

"I can't accept it, Qingyue, have you thought it through?" Chen Yuzhen looked at Xia Qingyue with concern.

"No matter what you think, your own safety should be the first priority."

"Aunt, I understand. You should take all these back, otherwise they will be wasted." She forced the pheasant and rabbit into Chen Yuzhen's hands.

The two of them were deadlocked and argued for a long time.

In the end, Chen Yuzhen was defeated. She only accepted two pheasants and two rabbits. Before leaving, she asked Xia Qingyue to be careful and to find them in the cave if there was any problem.

Xia Qingyue told Chen Yuzhen not to bring her any more water.

On the way back to the tiankeng, Xia Qingyue thought about what the man had said, especially the sentence "Actions speak louder than words." Although it wasn't completely true, a little bit of it touched her heart.

How should I put it? It’s not that I was moved, but I felt a sense of identification.

"How about asking him to bring me some water as a deal?"

This problem troubled Xia Qingyue for a whole day and night, and she couldn't even sleep well at night.

Early in the morning, Xia Qingyue came to the pen to look at the pheasants and rabbits she brought back yesterday, thinking about killing one and eating fresh meat today.

Which one to kill?

After a brief thought, she grabbed a pheasant.

"Today we have chicken for lunch, and tomorrow we have roasted rabbit for lunch!"

Boil water to remove the chicken feathers, boil part of it, and chop the rest into pieces to make braised chicken.

While Xia Qingyue was busy working in the tiankeng, outside, a man carried a sika deer to the same place as yesterday. He stood under a tree waiting, his posture as straight as a pine tree, and time passed by every second.

Drops of glistening sweat flowed down the man's wheat-colored face and slid down along the edges of his chin. He looked around with the same calm gaze as always.

Xia Qingyue stayed in the tiankeng the whole day without going out. There were four buckets of water, enough for two days.

The next day, the man arrived at the place on time just like yesterday. Today he brought another sika deer, which was about the same size as yesterday.

He waited and waited.

Finally, a familiar figure appeared in his sight.

The man's pupils shrank.

Xia Qingyue walked up to the man and asked, "Can you carry at least four buckets of water here every day?"

The man said without hesitation: "Yes, but the water is not very clean."

"Okay, we'll start delivering it tomorrow."

The man did what he said and delivered water on time every morning. He carried an extra-large backpack with three buckets in it and held two buckets in his hands. When he arrived at the destination, he had exactly four buckets, excluding the water that spilled.

Every time Xia Qingyue came, he would wait there with water, and it was unknown how early he arrived.

Two days later.

Xia Qingyue asked the man a question: "If I tell you that method now, will you still bring water like this in the future?"

The man looked at her and said solemnly: "If you need it, I will definitely send it to you!"

Everyone knows what to say, but Xia Qingyue knows that only if she holds the bargaining chips in her hands can she tie down the other party.

In other words, she had never told the man how to filter water, thinking that it was safest to have him deliver water to her, but this was obviously not a long-term solution.

She thought that she needed water from the man, but she didn't know what his character was like.

A person's character is more important than anything else.

She wanted to tell the man the water filtration method to see if he would keep his promise.

If a man breaks his promise, she will suffer certain losses, but she will see him clearly and stay away from villains. Long-term dealings with villains are always full of unknown risks.

On the contrary, the man keeps his promise, neither party suffers a loss, and the transaction is successful.

"Take this wooden barrel home, hang it somewhere high, pour the dirty water into it, and put a clean basin or bucket underneath to catch the water. The water that comes out will naturally become clean."

Xia Qingyue handed the man a filtered water bucket.

The man held out his hands to take it, and said sincerely, "Thank you."

Xia Qingyue's gaze paused on the man's clean and slender fingers for two seconds, and she said lightly: "Remember to continue to bring water."

When Xia Qingyue returned home that day, she felt very complicated. She had always known that human nature was complicated, especially during such a special period, everyone would put themselves first.

After thinking for a long time, she realized that she was the only one who was distressed. It was just a waste of time, so she put everything aside and stopped thinking about it.

There’s no point in thinking about it, you’ll know after seeing the result later.

The next day, Xia Qingyue arrived at the place just like the previous few days, and the man was already waiting for her with water.

The moment he saw her, a bright light lit up in the man's eyes, with a gentle smile in his eyes, "It really works, the water has become clean, there is no sand or dirt anymore!

Thank you! "

Xia Qingyue secretly suppressed the shock in her heart. She had never thought that the man would really come. She nodded, her face calm, "Thank you for your hard work."

She had to make two trips to deliver the four buckets of water. When she went back the first time, the man stayed there to help her watch the water.

In the following days, Xia Qingyue brought water back from the man.

For Xia Qingyue, it was already great that she could bring back four buckets of water a day without having to go through the dangerous forest.

If we save some water, there is enough water for drinking, but the amount of water for watering vegetables is pitifully small, so we can only use the accumulated dirty water.

The vegetable garden is too dry, many vegetables have died, and half of the peanuts are dead.

Half of the rice leaves have turned yellow and the flowers have faded.

Even so, she would go to the vegetable fields to check on them every day.

Early that morning, while it was still cool, she went to the field to weed the weeds. After she finished, she walked back with the hoe on her shoulder. When she reached the vicinity of the pond, she caught a glimpse of a patch of green grass growing in a spot in the big pit.

"Hey, why is there grass growing there?"

She looked at it curiously and discovered that the place where the grass grew was different from other places. The color of the soil there was darker, black, while the color of the soil elsewhere was lighter and looked drier.

Realizing something was wrong, she slowly slid down the slope, ran to the grassy area, squatted down, grabbed a handful of black soil, and rubbed it with her fingertips.

Her eyes widened. The soil was wet!