The road to wealth of a peasant widow

Now that they have a place to house the cows and don't have to build sheds, they must hurry up to cut trees in the mountains and try to store more wood for charcoal burning to avoid a shortage of subsequent materials.

After breakfast, Chen Cui, Chen Dahe and Changping went up the mountain, leaving Changan and Changfu at home.

They not only brought tools for cutting down trees, but also steamed buns and water. In order to save time, they did not plan to come back for lunch and just had one meal on the mountain.

In this early winter season, a group of people traveled through the mountains and forests, each holding a tool to clear the way.

Ever since she encountered a wolf in the woods last time, Chen Cui has been particularly alert in the mountains, fearing that some big creature would jump out and attack her unexpectedly.

It would be fine if she was alone, at least she could hide in the space. But if there were other people around, she wouldn't be able to perform the disappearance spell and would have to grit her teeth and fight.

Fortunately, everything went smoothly afterwards without any accidents.

She probably went astray that day, and the appearance of the wolf should be a low-probability event, an extremely accidental one.

Later, when they went up the mountain again, they no longer saw any wild animals. Even if there were pheasants or rabbits, they were very smart and would run away at the slightest noise. They could only see them but could not catch up with them, let alone catch them.

Although Chen Dahe is very big, he is still very flexible. He can climb up the big tree and cut the high branches.

Changping chose those slightly shorter trees and cut the low branches.

Chen Cui was assisting them from below and doing the initial decomposition of the branches they had cut down.

Chen Dahe was very strong and was much more efficient at chopping branches than they had been before. Soon the ground nearby was filled with branches.

Chen Cui discovered that many of the fruits of these iron oak trees had begun to turn yellow and were almost ripe.

She watched the fruits fall to the ground one by one and felt it was a pity.

The locals think these fruits are poisonous and won’t even look at them, and even think they’re a nuisance when stepped on.

But for her, if these fruits are used well, they can also be a way to make money.

But they had to chop trees and make charcoal first, so they didn't have time to do these things. She still understood the principle of biting off more than she could chew, so she had to finish the path she had already explored first.

It was almost noon and the sun was high in the sky. The three of them found an open space to sit down and rest and have lunch.

Chen Cui looked at the people's dirty hands and the pale yellow steamed buns, and told them not to rush to eat.

There was water in the bamboo tube, but it was brought from home and kept for drinking. The amount was not much and it definitely could not be used to wash hands.

She asked Changping: "Do you know if there is any water flowing nearby, such as a spring or a stream, so I can wash my hands before eating."

Changping shook his head. He was just a teenager and his knowledge of the mountains was limited. He seemed to have never been to this place before and didn't know the specific situation.

"Sister, you can just eat it. They are your own hands. What's there to be disgusted about?"

Chen Dahe had been working for the whole morning and was tired and hungry. Seeing the big steamed bun right in front of him but unable to eat it, he became a little anxious.

"Wait a moment. I'll go see if there's any water nearby. It's not far. I'll be back soon."

Chen Cui was unwilling to give up. It was already winter, and many plants along the way had turned yellow, even the iron oak tree was no exception.

But she saw that there were obviously more green plants nearby than in other places, and thought that there must be a water source, and it was not far away, so the moisture could be maintained so well.

Chen Cui stopped Chen Dahe and Changping from following her, and promised not to go far. She took the machete and walked around the area where the trees were to be cut down.

She paid close attention to the growth of nearby plants, searched carefully, and finally found a small stream in a gap filled with fallen leaves.

The water flow was really thin, making almost no sound, and was covered by a pile of fallen leaves. If she had not previously determined that there was water nearby and searched carefully, she probably would not have found it.

Chen Cui pushed aside the fallen leaves and surrounded the stream downstream to form a depression, allowing the flowing water to gather in it. After a while, a small puddle was formed.

"Dahe, Changping, come quickly." Chen Cui shouted.

This place was actually only twenty meters away from where they were resting. They could even see Chen Cui's figure the whole time, so they let her search here.

Chen Dahe and Pingchang hurried over and saw the clear water in the small pit. They were both very excited. They actually found water.

"Come on, wash your hands, let's have lunch here." Chen Cui said happily.

Who would like to be dirty if they can be clean? The three of them took turns to wash their hands in the small pit.

Although it cannot be washed very clean, it is much better than before when it was dirty. At least I can reach out and take food.

They ate steamed buns with the pickles and water they brought with them, which was their lunch.

After a short break after dinner, they started working again.

By mid-afternoon, seeing that there were enough branches on the ground, they stopped cutting trees and began to think of ways to put them together and drag them back.

Chen Dahe is even better at it. He can cover several large tree branches with as many branches and leaves as possible so that he can drag more back at a time.

There were so many branches cut down that it was impossible to drag them all in one go. It would take at least two or three tries.

On the way back home, Chen Dahe walked in front, Changping walked in the middle, and Chen Cui walked at the end. Each of them was dragging a large number of branches in their hands and walking on the mountain path.

While the two of them were not paying attention, Chen Cui collected some branches in the space. She planned to put them in the yard when she returned home at night when no one was paying attention.

In this way, the three people dragged the branches cut today twice, but still failed to drag home all the branches. However, there were not many left, so Chen Dahe said that he could do it alone and did not want Chen Cui and her son to go again.

Chen Cui was so tired that she was gasping for breath and unable to speak. She just nodded to show her agreement.

Chang'an and Changfu had brought warm water for them to wash their hands and faces. They had been in the mountains for a whole day and were covered in dust and dirt.

After washing her hands, Chen Cui went to cut vegetables and cook, because she wanted to cook meat for Chen Dahe today, and Changan couldn't get it.

Chen Cui fried half of the pound of meat and fried it with cabbage. When Chen Dahe came back, she served the meat to him and they ate the cabbage.

Although there was no meat in the cabbage, it was fried with the meat and had the aroma of the meat, sizzling with oil. The children ate it with great relish and didn't even bother to look at the meat in their uncle's bowl.

Chen Dahe felt a little embarrassed about eating meat alone, but his sister's family was in mourning and couldn't eat it, and he couldn't persuade them to do so.

After being persuaded by his sister and nephews, Chen Dahe finally picked up the chopsticks.

In the big bowl of food, only a small half was cabbage, and the rest was meat. He was extremely satisfied after eating it.