Traveling through the mountains and farming

The group returned to their secluded cave, placed the cypress branches in the corner of the cave, and then went home to do their own work.

Lin Wan had just put the cypress branch away when Xiaobai grabbed the corner of her clothes and pulled her home.

As soon as he entered the house, Xiaobai ran straight to the backyard.

Lin Wan immediately understood the little girl's intention, which was to ask her to help roast the pigeons.

Ever since it was fed roasted pheasant once, it never eats raw meat again and is particularly fond of roasted meat.

I saw it put the little pigeon in front of the bread kiln, and then patted the bread kiln with its claws.

Lin Wan smiled helplessly and said, "You little greedy guy, you only know how to eat."

Xiaobai tilted his head, staring at Lin Wan with his eyes, and made a humming sound from his mouth, as if urging her to act quickly.

Lin Wan squatted down and touched the little fox's head. "Wait a minute, I'll ask Sister Xiaoke to help you bake it. I want to make lunch."

After saying that, Lin Wan went to the kitchen to find Li Ke, who was helping to wash the vegetables at that time.

When she heard her sister-in-law ask her to help Xiaobai roast the pigeon, she went to the backyard with a smile, picked up the pigeon and prepared to deal with it.

When Xiaobai saw Li Ke coming, he turned around excitedly and followed her closely.

Li Ke first boils hot water, puts the pigeon in after the water boils, scalds the feathers, cleans the pigeon, and then marinates the pigeon.

Then she lit the bread oven and placed the marinated pigeons on stone slabs to roast.

Xiaobai squatted aside, staring at the bread kiln without blinking.

Half a minute later, a faint fragrance wafted out, and Xiaobai, who was squatting beside him, was almost drooling.

Li Ke walked into the kitchen to help Lin Wan make lunch.

After another half a quarter of an hour, the roasted pigeon was finally ready. Li Ke took the pigeon out of the bread oven and the fragrance immediately filled the air.

When Xiaobai saw this, he kept circling around Li Ke.

Li Ke smiled and handed the roasted pigeon to Xiao Bai, "Eat slowly, it's a little hot, little foodie."

She is no longer the only one called a little foodie by her sister-in-law. Now Xiaobai is the real little foodie.

Xiaobai couldn't wait to pick up the pigeon and ran to the side to enjoy the delicious food.

On Lin Wan's side, she had already called Doctor Zhong, Lin Jing, and Li Chongle, who had been guarding the smoked bacon, back for dinner.

Everyone sat together, eating and chatting happily.

While they were eating, Xiaobai came over with an unfinished pigeon in his mouth. He squatted on his special chair and ate with everyone.

Li Ke said with a smile: "Xiaobai, you come and join in the fun!"

Everyone laughed out loud at Xiaobai's cute appearance.

After lunch, Li Chongle immediately ran to watch over the smoked bacon. This kid has a really strong sense of responsibility.

Li Ke went to the vegetable garden to catch insects, or went to the gentle slope to dig earthworms.

She is responsible for taking care of all the small animals at home.

The five pheasants had grown a lot, and Lin Wan cut the feathers on their wings to prevent them from flying away.

The wild duck eats wild vegetables, bran and earthworms every day, and now lays an egg every day.

The family has saved up nearly twenty duck eggs. Because Lin Wan exclaimed one day that salted duck eggs were delicious, Li Ke stopped her from frying duck eggs on a regular basis and said that she would make salted duck eggs when she had saved up thirty.

After dinner, Doctor Zhong took Lin Jing back home.

Every day he was either outside collecting herbs, or preparing medicinal materials at home, or developing new medicines.

Lin Jing had been studying beside her, so Lin Wan could only see them at meals three times a day and rarely saw them at other times.

After a short rest, Lin Wan began to study how to make chalk using quicklime.

She first cut the finger-thick bamboo she had chopped on the way back into small bamboo tubes and put them aside for later use.

She poured the slaked lime into a bowl, and then tried to add water little by little until the slaked lime could be stirred into a paste with a certain viscosity.

Then carefully pour the prepared lime paste into a small bamboo tube, hold the bamboo tube and gently tap the ground to compact the lime paste in the bamboo tube.

Afterwards, Lin Wan placed the finished bamboo tubes in a well-ventilated place so that the chalk could take shape faster.

She washed her hands and was about to sit down to rest for a while.

Li Ke's clear voice came from outside the house:

"Sister-in-law, my great-uncle wants you to go to the activity area at the entrance of the cave to discuss something."

Lin Wan was a little confused, but she immediately got up and walked towards the cave entrance.

When we got there, we saw all the adults in the cave sitting around a table in the activity area.

She walked over, sat next to Luo Fang, and asked softly, "What's going on?"

"Everyone is running out of salt." Luo Fang said with a worried look on his face, "I'm currently worrying about this and discussing it."

It turned out that except for Lin Wan, several other families were facing the dilemma of running out of salt. Recently, people have been asking Uncle Li whether he would send someone out to inquire about the news and think of ways to buy salt.

Seeing that everyone was present, Uncle Li explained everyone's demands.

When Li Changli heard this, he immediately objected: "Last time I went there, the city gates were strictly checked and anyone they saw was arrested, so this route to buy salt in the city is not feasible."

"Doesn't that mean the county is now in a state where people can only leave but not come in?"

"That's probably right. Anyway, farm kids like us can't get in. We might get caught."

"What should I do? If I don't eat salt for a long time, my body will be in trouble and I won't have the energy to work."

Everyone sighed and discussed anxiously.

At this moment, Lin Wan was calculating in her mind how much salt she had at home and how much she could take out for emergency use. She also had to think about how to get the salt.

There are many ways to obtain salt, including salt mines, salt wells and seawater drying, but these methods are not feasible here.

"Lin Wan, what do you say we can't buy salt? Do you have enough salt at home?"

Lin Wan's thoughts were interrupted by Luo Fang's question next to her. Seeing the sad faces of the people around her, she had already made a decision.

"Oh, I have enough salt at home. I bought some before the purchase limit."

"You are so foresighted that you thought of buying more salt and storing it at home." Luo Fang looked envious.

She thought about the salt jar at home that was almost empty, and wanted to ask Lin Wan to borrow some. But then she remembered that salt was almost impossible to buy now, so she was too embarrassed to ask.

Seeing her troubled expression, Lin Wan knew that the family must be running out of salt, so she took the initiative to speak:

"I can share the salt I have at home with everyone for emergency relief, but we still have to find a way to get salt."

When Luo Fang heard this, he immediately smiled and prepared to tell everyone this good news.

Then I heard Doctor Zhong say loudly: "Do you know Rhus chinensis?"

Seeing no response, he continued, "It is also called gallnut or mountain sycamore. The fruit of this tree can condense a layer of salty white frost, which can be scraped off and used as salt."

When everyone heard this, they were surprised that the fruit of the gallnut could actually be used as salt.

"Really? There should be quite a few in this mountain. We used to cut them down and use them as firewood." Someone asked anxiously.

Doctor Zhong nodded and said, "There should be some on this mountain. Now is the season when the fruits of Rhus chinensis are ripe."

When Lin Wan heard the word Rhus chinensis, she remembered that she had read an article before introducing plant salt, and the article was about Rhus chinensis.

She remembered that there was white frost on the fruit of the Rhus chinensis, which could be scraped off and used as salt. However, it could only make food saltier and could not replace table salt because it was not a mineral and could not provide the sodium needed by the human body.

Lin Wan hurriedly said, "The fruit tastes salty, but it does not contain the sodium element needed by the human body. It cannot be used as a long-term substitute for salt."

She remembered that they didn't know what sodium was, so she immediately explained, "It's something that makes people strong when eaten. There's no sodium in this Rhus chinensis."