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

The dragonflies spread their wings, and three of them landed on Li Weisheng's shoulders. He looked at them with surprise in his eyes. He stretched out a trembling hand, and a dragonfly landed on his palm. Then he stretched out his other hand, and the remaining two fell down.

When Xia Qingyue saw it, her eyes turned red and her slightly pursed lips trembled constantly.

She said those words entirely out of her own thoughts and from the bottom of her heart.

The death of her grandmother in her previous life dealt her a great blow. During that time, she lived in a daze, gave up on herself, and had no interest in life.

One day, a butterfly suddenly appeared, landed on her, and stayed with her for several days, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't drive it away.

She realized that the butterfly might be her grandmother who came back to see her, so she cheered herself up, got on with her daily routine, ate on time, and lived a normal life. Butterfly left and she never saw him again.

It was because her grandmother was worried about her that she came back to stay with her. Only when she saw that she was living a good life did she leave peacefully.

Thinking of her grandmother, she was inspired to say, "Love is pure and precious. It gives people courage and the power to move forward. We cannot live with hatred in the name of love and let down those who love us."

"Sister Qingyue, this, this..." Li Weisheng's eyes were red and tears welled up in his eyes. He was stiff and at a loss.

"They are worried, so they come back to see you."

Looking at the dragonflies, Li Weisheng was deeply moved. He cried like a child, "Grandpa, grandma, grandpa, grandma, aunt, sister Xiaolan, is that you?"

The dragonfly landed on him and didn't move.

He cried even louder, his snot and tears flowing non-stop as if they were worthless.

The crying was mournful.

After a while, Li Weisheng took a few deep breaths and showed a relieved smile on his face, "I will listen to Sister Qingyue. We will live a good life in the future and won't let you worry!"

After saying this, the dragonflies flapped their wings, circled around Li Weisheng several times, and flew away gracefully.

-

After returning from Li's house, Xia Qingyue went out to collect firewood. The firewood was dry and easy to collect. After ten days of collecting, the kitchen was filled with rows of neatly stacked firewood.

Enough for a few months.

By mid-to-late September, many crops had grown old, so she harvested them and kept the seeds.

There were a lot of old pumpkins in the vegetable garden, which she had kept on purpose. Seeing that the sun was shining brightly, she suddenly had the idea of ​​making dried pumpkins.

After finishing the pork jerky and pork jerky I made earlier, it would be nice to make some dried pumpkin as a snack.

The pumpkins are well cared for and the fruits they produce are long and big, and each one is big and good. I broke off seven old pumpkins, weighing more than 60 or 70 kilograms.

The cucumber is peeled, the flesh is bright yellow and has a unique sweet fragrance.

Take out the pumpkin naan and feed it to chickens, ducks and rabbits, and keep the pumpkin seeds. They can be used as seeds or fried and eaten. Add some salt and they will be as fragrant as fried melon seeds.

Cut the pumpkin into round thick slices, hang them on bamboo poles to dry until they are 80% dry and wrinkled on the surface. After drying, cut them into pieces of appropriate size, wash them with water, dry them out, and put them in a grate to steam in batches.

After it is steamed, take it out and spread it out in a winnowing basket to dry in the sun. After it is dry, continue steaming it and take it out to dry in the sun.

This process is repeated three times, and the pumpkin finally comes out dried orange. When you take a bite, you will find that the skin is chewy, the inside is soft and glutinous, sweet and delicious, without adding sugar, it is its original flavor.

The dried pumpkin has shrunk a lot after drying, weighing only about twelve or thirteen pounds.

It is made of fresh vegetables without any added seasoning. Both she and Heihei can eat it and can’t stop eating it once they start.

After a few days, they finished eating all the dried pumpkin.

There were many old pumpkins in the field, at least a hundred or so. Taking advantage of the good weather, she broke off fifteen more pumpkins and dried them. This time she made a lot and it took her a day and a half to finish them.

A few days after the pumpkin was made, one night in early October, Xia Qingyue and Heihei were sleeping soundly, when suddenly, loud thunders were heard.

She woke up with a start and saw through the crack in the window that there was something bright outside, with occasional flashes of purple light.

"It's thundering! Is it going to rain?"

She got out of bed excitedly and ran out in her slippers.

Heihei chased after her.

She ran to the corridor outside the utility room. Rumbling sounds came from the room. Light as bright as daylight shone in, shining on her face and causing her to close her eyes slightly.

"With such a big noise, it looks like it's really going to rain!"

The thunder was loud and she was afraid of getting electrocuted, so she slowly walked to the entrance of the cave and tilted her head to look towards the pit. There were lightning and thunder, and thick, dense black clouds rolling in the night sky.

Under the electric light, the interior of the tiankeng was half illuminated.

Huhu——

The wind howled violently, causing leaves to fly everywhere, uprooting small weeds and causing sand to fly everywhere.

She wasn't paying attention and some sand blew into her eyes. She squinted her eyes and rubbed them with her hands. The hot wind blew her hair and clothes into all directions.

"Boom!" Another purple thunder sounded, and the next second, "哗哗", the wind wrapped in raindrops blew on her face, warm.

She raised her hand to wipe the water off her face, which was wet, and jumped up in joy, "Wuhu, it's finally raining!"

It was moderate rain at first, but after half an hour it turned into heavy rain. The thunder subsided, and dense rain fell, moistening all things on earth.

A smell of mud mixed with water vapor diffused. Xia Qingyue sniffed. She quite liked this smell.

Because of the rain, she was so excited that she couldn't sleep. She lay on the bed listening to the sound of the raindrops.

"It will be fine if it rains, but I don't know how long it will last."

The rain lasted for two days without stopping. Sometimes it was heavy rain and sometimes it was light rain. It seemed as if God wanted to bring down all the rain that had accumulated before.

It rained for three days. On the morning of the fourth day, Xia Qingyue came out wearing a thin shirt. The cool breeze made her feel cold.

At first she didn't take it seriously, thinking it was because of the dampness from the rain. Later, after she lit a fire to make breakfast, she was still cold. She didn't dare to be careless and ran back to her room to find a long-sleeved shirt to put on.

"How come it's so cold after it rained?"

After thinking about it, she seemed to understand, "Yes, this is deep in the mountains, the temperature difference between morning and night is more obvious than outside."

After more than two hours, it was not that cold anymore and the temperature dropped slightly compared to before, so I just needed to wear a thin shirt.

There are many things that are inconvenient to do on rainy days, such as being unable to go out or tend to the vegetable garden. She thought it would be a good opportunity to dig a cave.

After determining the location of the cave, use charcoal to draw the approximate size and shape on the earth wall about 300 meters past the kitchen.

It is oval in shape and about three meters in diameter.

She first drew a small hole on the earth wall that was large enough for her to enter and exit, then dug the hole and continued digging deeper.

If you dig a big hole, it will be difficult to seal it tightly after firing. The disadvantage of digging in this way is that the area is narrow and difficult to dig at the beginning, and the excavated soil is difficult to get out. It will be convenient only when the hole is dug wider later.

The rain was pouring down as she concentrated on digging the cave.

After three days of digging, the rain subsided and it became much cooler in the mornings and evenings.

Two days later, the weather cleared up. Early in the morning, the sky above the pit was clear and there were white clouds.

Greenery is emerging on the hillside below the sinkhole.

The crops washed by rain are free of dirt and dust, and their roots and stems become greener.

"That's great! I can plant radishes, cabbages, garlic and other vegetables. Oh, and I have to go out and find some clay. Fall is coming, and I have to start preparing for the winter!"