Traveling through the mountains and farming

When Li Chongshan heard that He Lizheng could help find a way to buy salt, he immediately said gratefully:

"That's great. With your help, we'll have a better chance of buying salt."

"But you have to be mentally prepared. You probably won't be able to buy a lot of salt. The sellers in the dark market will instruct their family or friends to buy the salt within the purchase limit and store it, and then take it out of the city to sell," He Lizheng added.

"I understand. Having something is better than having nothing." Lin Wan responded.

He Lizheng continued, "That makes sense. No matter what, we have to find a way to get through this difficult time. Just now you mentioned looking for Rhus chinensis. Did you find it?"

"We found quite a few. You can pick them if you want."

"We need to prepare to pick some for future use in case we can't buy salt," said He Lizheng.

Afterwards, He Lizheng told Lin Wan and the others what they could buy in the dark market.

Let them think about what they need to purchase in advance so that they can arrange the number of people going.

He said the dark market he had visited before was not large, with only seven or eight sellers, and like a small grocery stall, they mainly sold daily necessities.

Also, the price is three to four times higher than the market price, so they should be mentally prepared and try to consider buying only the urgently needed items.

After understanding the situation clearly, they thanked He Lizheng, left some kiwis and went back.

He Yunzheng saw his father coming hurriedly, put down the work at hand, walked over and asked:

"Dad, can we ask the people of Quanshui Village to help build the house?"

The escape and running around in the past month has turned this delicate scholar into a farm man with dark skin and rough hands.

Before, their Hejia Village was a relatively wealthy village. In addition, his grandfather was the head of the He family and his father was the head of the village, so he lived a smooth and worry-free life.

He only needed to concentrate on studying to obtain a good academic record, but he never expected that he would now have to worry about his livelihood.

Having to sleep in the open air for a month, he couldn't help but feel sad about the unpredictable fate. His former stable life seemed like an illusory dream.

He Lizheng shook his head and said, "The people in Quanshui Village are busy with their own affairs, so it's not easy for us to ask for help. After all, we don't have a deep friendship."

He Yunzheng sighed and said helplessly: "Then we still have to speed up the construction of the house, otherwise we will have no time to go to the mountains to find food."

"Yes, let's work harder and build the house as soon as possible so that we can have a place to live."

After that, the father and son went back to the busy work of building the house, not knowing that a surprise would come in the afternoon.

~

On the way back, Lin Wan mentioned to others whether they should consider helping He Lizheng and others repair their house.

She was thinking that if she helped He Lizheng and the others build the house as soon as possible, she could go buy salt earlier and avoid any more trouble.

And in this difficult time, if you lend a helping hand to others at the right time, you may be able to help each other in the future.

"I think we should help each other. After all, we are all in trouble now. Only by supporting each other can we better overcome the difficulties." Li Chongshan agreed.

"Let's go back and ask Uncle Li and the others, and then we can make a decision together." Li Chonghai suggested cautiously.

They returned to the secluded cave, and not long after, Luo Dashan and his team also came back.

Uncle Li once again gathered everyone together in the activity area at the entrance of the cave.

The two teams sent out to search for Rhus chinensis exchanged detailed information about their findings.

Then Lin Wan and the others told He Lizheng what he said about the secret market where salt and other necessities can be purchased.

When everyone heard that they could buy salt, they were all surprised. But then they heard that things in the dark market were very expensive, so they started to look worried and sigh again.

Seeing that everyone was worried about this, Uncle Li comforted them: "If the things are too expensive, everyone should think carefully and buy the ones that are urgently needed when the time comes."

He continued, "Okay, there's still plenty of time for everyone to discuss and decide. Now there's one more thing that needs to be discussed and decided by everyone."

Everyone fell silent and looked at Uncle Li, waiting for him to continue.

Uncle Li said, "He Lizheng and his family are repairing their house. Should we help them?"

After that, everyone discussed it one by one, and their opinions were different.

More people agreed to help He Lizheng and others. After all, escaping is not easy, and there is more hope only when we are in the same boat.

A small number of people feel that helping out will take up their family’s time to go out and look for food.

After some discussion, they decided to go and help. Without affecting the defense security and normal life of the secluded cave, they allocated half of the labor force to help.

They were divided into two groups and took turns going to He Lizheng to help build the house every other day.

Considering that He Lizheng and his men were short of food, they decided to eat at their own home so as not to add burden to He Lizheng and his men.

After breakfast the next day, a group of eight people took tools and went to He Lizheng to help build the house.

He Li was working hard when he suddenly heard someone shouting. He looked up and saw Li Changyi and his group walking towards him with tools for building a house.

When I saw these people carrying building tools, I knew they were coming to help build the house.

He Lizheng was stunned at first, then a smile of surprise and gratitude broke out on his face. He quickly put down the work in his hands and walked quickly to meet him.

"Hey, why are you here?"

Li Changyi smiled and said, "He Lizheng, we are here to help you build a house!"

He Lizheng's eyes were slightly red, and he was so excited that he was a little incoherent: "This... This is really great, thank you so much!"

He had experienced so many twists and turns during this period of time, and he was deeply moved by the sudden assistance, especially since they were people he didn't have much of a relationship with before. This kind of friendship was really rare.

Other people in the valley also gathered around and expressed their welcome and gratitude for Li Changyi and his group's arrival.

After a few pleasantries, everyone immediately started building the house.

Li Changyi and his team brought a complete range of tools and worked very efficiently. They soon developed a good coordination with He Lizheng's team.

He Lizheng's wife, Qin, and the ladies of several other families would prepare some wild fruits and water for everyone to eat and drink while they rested.

~

After Lin Wan finished her breakfast, she split the bamboo tubes outside the pig pancreas soap she made the day before and the chalk she made yesterday, cut the pig pancreas soap into pieces, put them in a winnowing basket and placed them outside the cave to dry.

Afterwards, she and Li Chongle hung the bacon in the special smoking room that had been built yesterday.

Because the design of the smokehouse avoids fire hazards as much as possible.

First, a sufficient safety distance is set between the charcoal fire pit dug below and the location where the bacon is hung.

Secondly, the bamboo pole on which the meat was hung was replaced with thick branches that were not easily burned.

In addition, there are several vents on the top of the smoking room to discharge smoke and heat in time and lower the indoor temperature.

Now the two smoking rooms are full of wild boar meat. People use different colored cloth strips or bamboo plates with special marks to distinguish the ownership of these bacon.

In this way, Li Chongle doesn't have to watch over him all the time.

This kid has been guarding the bacon all the time these past two days except for eating, sleeping and going to the toilet.

How nice!

After finishing all this, Lin Wan was thinking about the next arrangements when Li Ke ran over, grabbed the corner of Lin Wan's clothes and asked:

"Sister-in-law, Sister Tao wants to go with Second Aunt and the others to pick Rhus chinensis fruits. Shall we go?"

"Go, but we won't pick too much. We'll pick some wild vegetables and fruits as well."

After hearing his sister-in-law's answer, Li Ke ran home immediately.