At this time, Jiang Zhi was also picking sugar jars on the mountain.

Rosehip, also known as syrup, is a traditional Chinese medicine that can be used in medicine after the Frost's Descent solar term.

In spring, the mountains were once covered with fragrant thorny vines, and now in autumn, they bear sweet and delicious fruit.

Spring flowers

Because of its astringent and bowel-strengthening properties, as well as its ability to stop leukorrhea, Rosa laevigata can treat nocturnal emission, enuresis, leukorrhea, and metrorrhagia. It is hailed as a "gas station for men" and a "beauty salon for women."

Ripe rose hips, also known as lantern fruit, yellow tea bottle, or hanging golden hook.

However, the rosa-sinensis vines are covered in thorns, so you need to be careful not to prick your hands when picking them.

After picking the rose hips, Jiang Zhi first wrapped them in coarse linen, placed them on the ground, and rubbed them with a wooden stick to remove all the thorns from the fruit. Then he cut off the top few old petals, making each rose hip smooth and ready for medicinal use.

The root and fruit of Rosa laevigata have the same effect; stewing them with pork stomach can treat kidney deficiency, enuresis, and frequent urination.

Stewing meat with Polygonum multiflorum and prickly radish can treat spermatorrhea and premature ejaculation.

Prickly radish, also known as thistle or large thistle, has its roots used in traditional Chinese medicine for stopping bleeding and benefiting the spleen and kidneys.

Jiang Zhi picked some of the rose hips, made them into a rose hip paste for her own consumption, and prepared the rest to be used to make medicinal wine.

Rosehips can be boiled into sugar, which is to say, into a paste, and Qiaoyun has already learned how to do that.

Remove the thorns from fresh rose hips, mash them, and boil them in a pot for an hour until the syrup is extracted. Then filter out the dregs and continue to boil until the syrup is concentrated.

Besides its ability to strengthen sperm, the Rosa laevigata ointment can also darken hair, nourish the skin, and lower blood sugar.

Jiang Zhi then personally prepared the liquor.

Most people simply wash and dry mature rose hips, then put them directly into a wine jar and let them steep for a month before drinking.

Jiang Zhi's habit is to steam the clean rosehips thoroughly in a steamer, then dry them in the sun. This process of steaming and drying is repeated twice before the dried fruit is finally placed in a wine jar and sealed for a month.

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law spent several days picking rose hips to make a paste and soak them in alcohol. They were also busy picking and drying wild chrysanthemums.

Once Chunfeng and Xu Dazhu had dug out the vacant sloping land, everyone prepared to sow winter wheat.

Starting in summer, rotten leaves and grass roots from the ground were piled up in the mud pits by the field. Xiaoman's grandfather also gathered leaves from the nearby forest and, together with the manure from the three pigs, piled them up to make a large mound of fertile soil.

It has now been transported to the fields.

Another year, the mountains are covered in golden wild chrysanthemums, but the people working there are slightly different from last year.

Because the dozens of acres of land at the foot of the mountain also needed work, Errui and Xiaoman did not go up the mountain for several days.

Now, Xu Dazhu and Qiaoyun are working alongside Xiao Caixia, who is a little over one year old.

Nini, now the eldest sister, led Caixia to play by the field, stepping on stones to pick flowers and gathering bunches of red berries to play with.

These things were life-saving food last year, but this year no one prioritizes them anymore.

Peggy has grown up and dutifully guards her sisters to prevent other animals from coming and hurting them.

With Peiqi around, there are practically no other animals in this forest, especially snakes. Once you enter their territory, you'll dig three feet into the ground to find them.

Jiang Zhi and the others were working in the field.

The steep slopes were shallow, so animal power was not needed and everything had to be done manually. Jiang Zhi and Chun Feng dug small ditches with hoes, while Xiao Man Ye and Qiao Yun were responsible for sowing seeds and fertilizing the soil.

Xu Dazhu is still unable to stand, but he can sit and work by supporting himself with his arms.

He sat on the small wooden stool he carried with him, skillfully using a wooden rake to loosen the soil and cover the wheat furrows, then poured water around the area within his arm's reach.

The group of people weren't tired at all from working on this small plot of land, and they were happily discussing digging sweet potatoes.

The first year's sweet potatoes were planted in the cracks between rocks with soil. They were difficult to dig up, and the sweet potatoes were either squeezed out of shape and cracked, or grew into strings of tiny gourds, which became Peppa Pig's snacks.

In the second year, they finally found a way to grow it on the mountain.

It was impractical to reclaim the land again, so they collected fertile topsoil from various places and piled it up in flat areas to form mounds about half a meter high.

First plant corn on the mound, then plant sweet potato vines on top.

Now that the corn has been harvested, all you need to do is dig up the mounds of earth to find the sweet potatoes.

"Auntie, I looked over a row of plants the day before yesterday, and they're growing really well," Chunfeng said happily.

Jiang Zhi also liked it: "Taking advantage of the good sunshine these days, we'll dig up the sweet potatoes after planting the wheat. Oh dear, what are we going to do about the sweet potato cellar?"

Autumn is always a happy time to talk about the harvest, but after two years on the mountain, some facilities are still not fully in place.

For example, sweet potato cellars and silage pits.

There are three pigs on the mountain that need feed, so the sweet potato vines need to be stored for winter use, which is an important matter.

As Xu Dazhu moved along, supporting himself, he said, "We've already dug that pit for storing silage. It's about a person's height now, so we can store the sweet potato vines in it anytime after harvesting."

Jiang Zhi asked in surprise, "You guys fought? Just you and Chang Gengbo?"

She had previously mentioned digging a pit at the foot of the mountain to store corn husks for silage, and Xu Dazhu and Xiaomanye said they wanted to harvest one on the mountain as well.

The soil layer on the mountain is shallow, mostly hard loess and gravel. It is not easy to dig a large pit. In addition to hoes, iron chisels are often needed, making it a big project.

From the start of construction, Errui and Xiaoman had to manage the area down the mountain, so their work was intermittent. Up on the mountain, it was Xiaoman's grandfather, Dazhu, Chunfeng, and Qiaoyun who took turns digging.

Chunfeng and Qiaoyun had to manage the fields and the chickens and pigs, but it was Xu Dazhu and Xiaoman who truly persevered.

Apart from making mosquito coils, this old man and the disabled man spent most of their time in the pit, and they actually managed to dig them out.

What I didn't expect was that things would be even more difficult.

Xu Dazhu said, "These past few months, while we were digging the pit, I figured I had nothing better to do, so I helped my grandfather clean out the stones from the excavated yellow soil, crushed them, and made some mud bricks."

It wasn't much done, just enough to replace one wall, and it's been drying for three months now.

When Xiaoman and Errui have some free time, they'll rebuild Errui's house.

After living on the mountain for more than a year, Errui's room was the same one that had been converted from a charcoal shed when they first arrived, in order to make it habitable as soon as possible.

The wall was originally built with loess and stone slabs. Although it was plastered with yellow mud, it was not reinforced with straw, and now it is cracked.

Jiang Zhi was thinking that once the village was building houses, she would also build one for her own family, and then transport some materials up the mountain to renovate the house here.

Unbeknownst to them, Xu Dazhu had already been preparing for this.

“Well… you’re all exhausted from digging holes every day, where would you find the time to make bricks? Uncle Chang Geng, your house also needs repairs.”

Jiang Zhi hurriedly refused, saying that as long as the post station was under construction, she could pay a mule team to deliver materials from the foot of the mountain.

She really hadn't thought about it; she wondered when Xu Dazhu had made the bricks.

Qiaoyun was also confused. When she saw the bricks, she assumed they belonged to Chunfeng's sister-in-law.

Uncle Xiaoman rarely speaks out anymore; he always works quietly, listening with a smile to the conversation of the young people.

Now that Jiang Zhi had pointed it out to him, he said, "Er Rui's mother, these bricks were made by Da Zhu in his spare time. He does them for a while each day, so it doesn't take up much time."

We don't do much work on the mountain to begin with, and you even pay us for helping to make mosquito coils.

Xiaoman needs money to settle down, so we can't refuse, but you must accept these mud bricks we made.”

Chunfeng also said, "Auntie, my house has been renovated a lot now, and it's more convenient to live in. You can keep these bricks."

Her family has two busy and capable people, and everything has been getting better since they decided to settle down.

Regardless of whether it's sunny or rainy, whenever he has free time, Grandpa Xiaoman will hammer the stone shards he collects into neat stone bricks, and he'll be busy until midnight before he can go to sleep.

Several months later, the walls of Xu Dazhu's room had been replaced again.