Traveling through the mountains and farming

After settling the little pheasants, the sky outside was gradually getting dark.

The three of them hurriedly started to prepare dinner while there was still some light.

While cooking and fetching water, Lin Wan saw the wooden barrel and suddenly remembered that there was one thing she had not done today.

The indigo grass soaked three days ago has been fermented, and it’s time to proceed to the next step of making indigo mud.

But she did not tell the brother and sister immediately, but continued to prepare the meal with them.

While eating, Lin Wancai said, "After we finish eating, we can make indigo mud."

After hearing this, the brother and sister smiled happily while holding their bowls.

Then, Li Ke asked curiously: "Can this indigo mud be used to dye cloth directly?"

"Indigo mud cannot be used to dye cloth directly, but it can be used to mix blue dye liquid at any time, and then it can be used to dye cloth." Lin Wan explained.

Li Chongle then asked, "Oh, what can we make later?" He did not forget that his sister-in-law had promised him to learn how to make it.

"After dinner, Xiaoke, please help fetch half a basin of water to the wooden barrel where the indigo grass is soaked. Xiaole, go get a stick ready. You will be responsible for stirring it later."

After hearing this, the two kids ate faster and couldn't wait to run and prepare.

Because it was already dark, Li Chongle held a torch in one hand and a stick in the other, while Li Ke carried a half-basin of water that he had prepared, and they went to the wooden barrel in the yard where the indigo was soaked with Lin Wan.

They all bent over and looked closely at the wooden barrel, and could vaguely see that the water in the barrel had become a little turbid.

Since the light from the torch is not very bright, the color cannot be seen clearly. Logically, what we should see at this time is a light blue liquid.

Lin Wan ordered the two siblings to pick up the indigo grass inside.

She squatted beside and put the prepared lime into the basin of water that Li Ke had brought. After the lime entered the water, it made a slight "sizzling" sound and some tiny bubbles kept coming out.

She immediately picked up a wooden stick and stirred it gently, gradually dissolving the lime in the water.

At this time, the two siblings quickly scooped out the indigo grass soaked in the wooden barrel.

Lin Wan picked up the lime water, turned to look at the brother and sister, and said:

"Now I'm going to add this lime water, and then, Xiaole, you keep stirring it with a wooden stick."

After that, she carefully poured the lime water into the wooden barrel containing the indigo grass that had been soaked previously.

Then, Li Chongle picked up the prepared stick, inserted it into the bucket, and began to stir it quickly.

Lin Wan held a torch and carefully identified the liquid in the bucket. Due to the limited brightness of the torch, she could not see whether the color had turned dark blue, but she could see that it was darker than before, which meant it should be ready, so she asked Li Chongle to stop stirring.

She turned and went into the house and took out a piece of old linen. Then the three of them filtered the liquid in the bucket, and the solid substance on the linen was indigo mud.

Finally, they carefully scraped off the indigo mud and placed it on wide bamboo strips in a ventilated part of the room to dry in the shade.

The two siblings were very happy looking at the indigo mud they made by themselves, and they wanted to see beautiful cloth dyed with it immediately.

After Lin Wan agreed to dye their hair once every two days, he finally felt at ease to take a shower and go to bed.

~

In the early morning of the next day, Li Chongle had not slept since Lin Wan got up to make ice jelly. He was full of anticipation for dawn. He wanted to go early to see whether the trap he set up yesterday could really catch the pheasant.

While waiting for dawn, he got up and helped Lin Wan make ice jelly.

Afterwards, he opened the door alone and handed the ice jelly to his second aunt and others who came to pick up the goods. After finishing these things, his eyes looked out the window eagerly, hoping that the day would lighten soon.

After waiting for a long time until the daybreak, Lin Wan was still asleep. He did not wake Lin Wan up, nor did he enter the mountain without permission.

Because Lin Wan had told them before that although Uncle Dashan said there were no ferocious wild beasts in the back mountain, for their safety they were not allowed to enter the mountain without an adult, so they could only wander around the periphery.

Li Chongle kept Lin Wan's words in mind. Even though he was eager to check the condition of the leg hanging sleeves, he still held back.

While waiting for Lin Wan to wake up, Li Chongle carried a hoe to the backyard and began to open up the vegetable garden.

Fortunately, Lin Wan didn't make him wait too long.

About a quarter of an hour later, Lin Wan woke up slowly and saw that it was dawn outside the window. Li Ke was still sleeping next to her. She knew that it was Li Chongle who had handed over the ice jelly to his second cousin and the others alone.

She got up and went out, and heard a noise coming from the backyard. When she walked to the backyard, she saw Li Chongle digging hard.

I saw that before digging new soil every time, he would squat down and pick up stones carefully, then stand up and take the hoe to turn the soil, and squat up repeatedly, and check the hoe from time to time to avoid being damaged by stones.

It's so adorable to see the way the child cherishes the farm tools.

Lin Wan smiled and said, "Xiao Le, stop it now, we'll do it together this afternoon."

When Li Chongle heard his sister-in-law's voice, he immediately turned around, ran over with a hoe in his arms, and said with a bright smile:

"Sister-in-law, you're awake. Let's go to the back hill and see if the trap has caught the pheasant."

"Okay, while it's still early, let's go get the pheasant, cook it in the morning and send it to my great-uncle's house. They can eat it early." Lin Wan said with a smile.

"Then let my younger sister boil some hot water at home, and we can kill and pluck the chicken when she comes back," Li Chongle suggested.

The two of them didn't consider at all the possibility of not being able to catch the pheasant.

Afterwards, the two of them finished their preparations, explained everything to Li Ke, and set off.

Their steps were brisk and eager, as they walked towards the back mountain with full anticipation.

Li Chongle chatted with Lin Wan all the way, imagining the scene after catching the pheasant.

Lin Wan listened with a smile, responding from time to time, and there was a relaxed and happy atmosphere between the two.

Soon, they disappeared on the path leading to the back mountain, leaving Li Ke at home diligently boiling water, waiting for them to return with the pheasants.

The two men found the place where the trap was set yesterday and saw a large pheasant hanging by one foot with a rope, flapping its wings continuously.

After seeing this, Li Chongle ran towards the pheasant excitedly, "Sister-in-law, we really caught a pheasant!"

Lin Wan took the hemp rope and walked over, saying with a smile: "Be careful, you catch him, I will tie him up and take him home."

The two of them quickly untied the pheasant from the rope, tied it up with a hemp rope as Lin Wan instructed, and Li Chongle carried it and prepared to go home.

Looking at his sister-in-law who was about to go home, Li Chongle asked hurriedly, "Sister-in-law, should we not set up another foot trap?"

"We can't set the trap here. Pheasants are quite alert. It's been difficult to catch them in this area recently. Besides, we are in a hurry today. Let's set the trap somewhere else next time." Lin Wan turned around and explained patiently.

So Li Chongle carried the pheasant and followed his sister-in-law back home happily.

After they quickly got home, they celebrated with Li Ke for a while, and then began to prepare to slaughter the chicken.

At this time, Li Chongle was squatting in the yard, watching his sister-in-law holding a knife and a chicken. She had been gesturing for a while, but she still didn't see the next step of killing the chicken.

So he opened his mouth and said, "Sister-in-law, let me do it. I have killed chickens before."

In fact, he had never had the opportunity to kill a chicken before. He just said that because he saw the conflicted expression on his sister-in-law's face and understood that she didn't dare to kill a chicken.

"You can? That's great. I'll leave it to you." After hearing that she didn't have to kill the chicken herself, Lin Wan breathed a sigh of relief and quickly handed over the chicken and knife. For a moment, she didn't notice Li Chongle's white lie.

In this way, Li Chongle gritted his teeth and started to kill a chicken for the first time. Two people cooperated to scald the chicken feathers, and the three of them plucked the feathers together. They worked together to clean the chicken, chopped it into pieces and put it in the pot. Not long after, the fragrant pheasant meat came out of the pot steaming hot.

They kept a bowl of chicken for their own breakfast and prepared to send a large bowl to Uncle Li's family.

Lin Wan roughly calculated based on the amount of white rice they ate and found that three adults would consume about 30 kilograms of rice a week, which is a little more than two and a half dou when converted into the local measurement. So she went into the house and filled two wooden barrels with three dou of rice.

She and Li Chongle each carried a bucket of rice, and Li Ke carried the bowl of pheasant, and the three of them delivered it to Uncle Li's house together.

When the three of them arrived at Uncle Li's house, they happened to see the whole family eating breakfast in the yard. After Lin Wan entered the yard, she put down the rice and chicken directly, and before they had a chance to refuse, she quickly ran away with the two siblings.