Xu Lai felt he was being too unfair, so she reluctantly agreed.

She felt unwell when she woke up the next morning, and only went downstairs after a while.

Grandpa is going to buy wire mesh today. The mesh in the vegetable garden is the one her dad bought when he was home. It's a bit worn out, and other people's chickens keep running into their vegetable garden to eat their vegetables.

She drove her grandfather to the street, bought a net, and took him home. Her grandfather went straight there, while she went home to get a basket and scissors to go to the vegetable garden.

The cabbages in the field had all been pecked at, and the outer layers of the Chinese cabbages had been almost completely eaten.

She sighed, "These chickens are really something, treating this like a free farm, even serving up a buffet."

Xu Lai picked the cabbages and took them home. He held the cabbages by both sides, twisted them in one direction, and the cabbages came off.

She picked a whole basket full, and also picked a lot of mustard greens; the basket was overflowing.

She took the vegetables back first, then changed to a winnowing basket and went to the field to pick radishes.

The weather is alright now. Although it's a bit cold, it hasn't rained and the sun is out quite often.

Xu Lai planned to pick some radishes to take home, dry them, and make dried radish.

After she finished picking the radishes, her grandfather finished setting up the net, and Xu Lai went home with him.

When she got home, she wiped the mud off the radishes. Her family makes dried radishes, so they don't wash them after picking them; they just slice them and then cut them into strips without cutting all the way through at the ends.

Grandma also took a knife to cut them. Seeing that there weren't many left, Xu Lai took a winnowing basket to the garden and hung the radishes on the peach tree to dry.

She dried radishes on two trees before she finished drying them. Some of them were cut too much and broke, so she picked them up and kept them to make pickled radishes.

When she returned after drying the vegetables, her grandmother was washing mustard greens. This year, she had her grandfather plant quite a lot, planning to make them into dried mustard greens in the winter so that she wouldn't have to buy them herself if she wanted to eat steamed pork with dried mustard greens.

First, wash the mustard greens. Xu Lai also helped her grandmother wash them. After washing them clean, they were dried for a day. She directly set up a new pole for drying.

In the evening, Xu Lai went to collect the radishes. She didn't want to collect them, but her grandmother said that there would be dew at night, and they would easily become damp.

The next day, after the mustard greens had dried out considerably, Grandma began the actual preparation.

After the mustard greens are dried, they will become a little soft. Boil a pot of water, blanch the mustard greens for 2-3 minutes, then take them out and put them in a bucket. Cover the bucket and let them ferment overnight. The next day, the mustard greens will start to turn greenish-yellow.

Lay the mustard greens on bamboo poles and dry them for two days. Then, steam them in a steamer for 40-60 minutes and dry them again. After this process of steaming and drying three times, the mustard greens will turn golden yellow and become dried mustard greens. Pack them in sealed bags or hang them in a ventilated place.

Making dried plum vegetables requires careful attention to the weather; at least the weather must be sunny during the steaming and drying process. Xu Lai checked the weather forecast and found that the weather had been quite good recently, so she could dry the vegetables without worry.

She put the mustard greens away and then went to make pickled radishes. She had salted the radishes the night before, and when she checked on them today, they had released a lot of water. She poured out the water and added some soy sauce to soak them.

Adding only soy sauce was a bit monotonous, so Xu Lai also chopped some small red chilies and added them in to add some spiciness.

After finishing all that, she cooked the rice. For lunch, she planned to cook a sweet potato, which they call "iron potato" here. It has a black exterior and many small tendrils.

She put on gloves, peeled the skin clean, and found that the flesh was white, but there was also a purple one. She thought the white one tasted a bit softer.

Cut the potatoes into chunks, stir-fry them in a pan until they release their juices, then add boiling water, cover and bring to a boil.

The cooked potato soup was very thick. She ladled it out and sprinkled some chopped green onions on top.

When Grandma was eating, she scooped out a big bowlful, took a bite, and said, "It's delicious. This year's crop is especially glutinous."

Potatoes don't require much care; just plant a few seedlings and wait for them to grow.

After dinner, Grandpa said he was going to cut sugarcane. She had broken off a couple of stalks to eat before, but they certainly didn't taste as sweet as they did now.

Grandpa held the sugarcane root with a knife and then cut it off. Xu Lai took it, removed the leaves, and then cut off the leafy end to keep it as seeds for next year.

Grandpa cut all the sugarcane and tied it into three bundles, which can be kept until the New Year for Mom, Dad, and Xu Yan to eat when they come back.

We've finished cutting the sugarcane for our own consumption here, but we haven't cut the sugarcane for the sugar mill over there yet. We'll have to wait for news from the sugar mill about when they'll open before we can cut it. Judging by the timeline, it should be soon.

She carried a bundle home, and her grandfather carried it twice. Xu Lai took out a sugarcane, peeled it with a knife, had her grandmother hold one side, and then chopped it into sections.

She sent ten stalks to Xia Ning, but didn't send any to Xu Shen. He had several rows of them planted at his own home, and he was afraid he couldn't finish them all.

When Zhao Qingyun got home from get off work, she saw Xu Lai eating sugarcane. She spat the pulp into her hand, and Xiao Hei and Lai Fu came over to smell it.

She raised her hand, "You two greedy dogs, you can't eat this."

She threw the scraps into the trash can, and seeing the two dogs staring longingly at her, she bit off two pieces and fed them to them.

Unexpectedly, they sniffed it and walked away. Xu Lai was speechless. "You two dogs are really something. I gave it to you, but you didn't eat it."

Zhao Qingyun walked over and asked, "Is there any more sugarcane?"

Xu Zhou pointed to the table inside the room, "There are still a few left, go and eat them."

Almost no one eats sugarcane anymore; my grandparents have bad teeth and can't eat hard things.

She finished eating the sugarcane, clapped her hands, washed them, and went to cook.

Make a cold dish for dinner; just mix cucumber, wood ear mushrooms, and dried bean curd sticks together.

She ate too much sugarcane in the afternoon, and a blister appeared on the tip of her tongue. Xu Lai licked her teeth and felt a little pain on the tip of her tongue.

When Zhao Qingyun came over that evening, he wanted to kiss her, but Xu Lai covered her mouth and said, "Not now, I have a blister on my tongue, it hurts so much."

Zhao Qingyun pinched her chin. "Stick it out so I can see."

Xu Lai opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue a little. Zhao Qingyun observed it carefully and said, "There is indeed a small blister, but it's not a big problem."

Xu Lai pulled back, feeling that there was always something in her mouth, which made her uncomfortable.

Zhao Qingyun kissed her cheek, "Don't eat so much sugarcane at once next time."

Xu Lai couldn't help but smile when she thought of Xia Ning. "You know what? The person who can eat more sugarcane than me is Xia Ning. She can finish a whole sugarcane by herself while watching TV, and before she knows it, it's gone."

At this moment, Xia Ning was eating sugarcane. She had nothing to do after finishing her meal, so she peeled a sugarcane and ate it. She didn't chop it up, she just held it and gnawed on it.

Zhao Qingyun couldn't help but laugh, "You've ruined Xia Ning's reputation."

Xu Lai broke free from him to brush her teeth, and Zhao Qingyun squeezed in to brush his teeth with her.

Xu Lai couldn't help but glance at him, "You copycat, can't you wait until I'm done?"

After brushing her teeth and returning to bed, Xu Lai couldn't help but snuggle up to Zhao Qingyun. He was warm, but now that it was cold, her hands and feet were freezing. Before, when she slept alone, she would always use an electric blanket.