My best friend is living a famine-stricken life; you're going crazy, I'm farming.

Zhou Jingyi had seen girls climb trees before.

I've never seen a girl climb so well.

In particular, she was once a pampered young lady.

In the dead of winter, Xu Yingying naturally failed to find any bird eggs and jumped down from the tree with a disappointed look on her face.

Zhou Jingyi was worried that she would fall, so he subconsciously raised his hand to help her, but then he remembered her impetuous words and silently withdrew his hand.

Xu Yingying clearly saw him reach out, and when she jumped down, she instinctively reached out to help him, but he suddenly pulled back, causing her to lose her balance and fall forward.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Zhou Jingyi felt a little guilty and hesitated for a while before reaching out to pull her, "There are no bird eggs this season. Let's just go find some prey instead."

Xu Yingying snorted and didn't want him to pull her.

Zhou Jingyi awkwardly touched his nose: The young lady is really hard to please.

It was freezing cold, and there was very little prey. The two searched two hilltops but found nothing.

However, from a distance, I could see wolves roaming on the other side of the mountain.

Zhou Jingyi hurriedly pulled Xu Yingying back.

For more than ten days in a row, she went into the mountains to hunt, searching for prey and lying in wait for it. All of this required a lot of patience. Xu Yingying gradually found it boring and stopped going into the forest.

It wasn't until around February that the weather cleared up.

It was sunny for a few days, then it started to get cool again.

A thick fog descended upon the mountains.

The thick fog drifted with the wind, and before long, it blanketed the entire world.

I can't see anything clearly in front of me.

After lunch, Yang Fenglan and her group went into their room.

A little while later, a light rain began to fall outside.

Xu Yingying jumped out of bed. "The spring rain is here, Fenglan. Is this the spring rain from the book?"

Looking at the gloomy weather and the thick fog, Yang Fenglan said, "It must be."

"Then we can go down the mountain!"

"We'll have to wait a little longer."

When the spring rains come, those who have fled famine will be sent back to their villages by the government to continue farming.

They need to wait a little longer until everyone else has gone back, then they will have a proper reason to return to the village.

The rain came on and off for five days.

After the rain stopped, the weather became gloomy.

But unlike before, tiny specks of green have appeared on the treetops.

I believe the wild vegetables will grow back soon, but that will only be enough to get through the immediate period.

The wheat planting season has long passed – the wheat variety now is winter wheat, which can only be planted in winter.

At this time of year, it's too early to plant rice; we can only plant vegetables, beans, sorghum, and the like.

It will take two months before the vegetables are ready to eat.

Even when the spring rains come and farmers have hope, they still can't survive.

Most importantly, the imperial court had to step in and bring down grain prices.

After being cold for more than ten days, the weather finally cleared up.

In the past two weeks, there have been more green leaves on the trees.

Yang Fenglan also started going down the mountain to find wild vegetables, adding a touch of green to the dinner table every day, which was really heartwarming to see.

That evening, after dinner, Yang Fenglan said, "I reckon it's almost time to go down the mountain. Jingyi, Xiao Yuanshan, you two should go ahead tomorrow and inquire whether any of the refugees in the county or outside the prefecture have been repatriated."

"Also, let's see if any of the people who left Qingshui Village have returned."

“Hmm,” Zhou Jingyi replied.

Xiao Yuanshan simply nodded in response.

Having spent the past six months on the mountain, although I had no shortage of food and drink, I always felt a sense of detachment from the world and a desire to live in seclusion.

It's novel at first, but it gets boring after a while.

Living in the village, although it's also about eating and drinking, occasionally watching others argue, listening to gossip, or seeing other families doing well makes me determined to work hard and earn money—these are all things to look forward to in life.