The weather has been lovely lately, sunny and breezy, with a gentle spring breeze occasionally blowing.

This allowed their house renovation work to proceed steadily.

Yesterday, the two men went into the forest and sawed wood back up. Today, all three of them have been processing the timber.

Because of the time crunch, many details of the last brick house were not properly handled.

Now that they had the time, the three of them wanted to do things in a better way.

A rope ruler is used to measure the wood so that the saw can cut it into the appropriate size. The outer shell of the wood is also removed, and the surface of the wood is smoothed with a special grass called "horsegrass".

This grass is hard and has longitudinal ridges on its surface, which can grind off wood shavings, making it the best material for polishing furniture in ancient times.

These are all time-consuming and laborious tasks, but fortunately, once you master the skills, they become much easier to do.

Nevertheless, it still took the three of them a whole day to clean all the wood.

After the wooden beams were completed, they did not choose to use them immediately.

According to construction experience, it is best to use dry wood for beams, as this can greatly avoid problems such as cracking and brittleness that could lead to load-bearing imbalance later on.

Last time, the wood was used before it was dried properly, but this time Yan Zheng insisted that it must be dried.

Fortunately, a few more days wouldn't make a difference, so we simply threw all the sanded wood into the yard and let the sun dry it naturally.

By the end of the day, Jiang Xi's hands were trembling from exerting too much force.

Yan Zheng and Yan Jing'an weren't much better off; luckily, they still had some leftover duck meat from yesterday.

We heated up the meat and steamed a few sweet potatoes. We were too tired to prepare any wild vegetables, so the three of us didn't care. We were exhausted after a long day and hungry, so everything tasted delicious.

After the meal, Yan Jing'an discussed with them: "The danger of the wild bear has been basically eliminated, and we can't delay going into the forest any longer. This wood needs to be dried for two more days, so I think we should go to the forest tomorrow."

As he spoke, he picked up the two grapefruit-sized fruits on the table, cut them in half with a dagger, and then cut out two pieces of flesh from them, handing them to Yan Zheng and Jiang Xi.

This was the first time Jiang Xi had ever seen such a fruit. It had a brown shell on the outside, but the flesh inside was creamy yellow, somewhat like chiffon bread, and it was very soft in her hand.

Jiang Xi asked in disbelief, "Is this really edible?"

"Eat without worry." Under the watchful eyes of the two, Yan Jing'an took a bite first.

Jiang Xi then pinched off a small piece to eat. It did have a bit of a bread texture, and it was quite soft. It had a mixed aroma of matcha and wheat, and it wasn't very sweet.

She chewed it carefully for a couple more bites and said, "It's a bit like the sponge cake I used to eat in the countryside, but it's not as sweet or as fragrant."

Then she changed the subject: "It's actually quite good as a staple food."

It has no sweetness, is easy to store, and provides carbohydrates; there is no more ideal food.

Yan Jing'an cut off another piece and handed it to her, saying, "When this is freshly picked, it will be more moist than it is now. As the seasons change, some of the moisture inside will be lost, and it will become drier when you eat it."

He knows this food quite well.

This was also the main source of food for everyone in the two years before the cold wave.

Because it is durable and easy to store and transport. When rice and flour are unavailable, this is the only thing that can fill one's stomach. Most of the food is reserved for rescue and search teams that are out on missions, and only one or two of these are available to them.

He broke off a piece for Yan Zheng as well, and then said, "My goal is to get a few of these small trees from the forest and plant them in the ground. In less than two years, the fruit they bear should be enough for us to eat for a winter."

Jiang Xi was also tempted. Where else could she find such a perfect natural product that could completely replace bread and toast?

This time, Yan Zheng did not object as he had before. He simply said in a deep voice, "I'll go with you tomorrow."

"No need, brother. I'll go find it myself first. Once I find the exact location, you can come with me."

Thinking that he was indeed fast on his own and that the danger of the wild bear had been resolved, Yan Zheng did not insist any further.

After a long day, her body was covered in sawdust, so she took a shower, changed her clothes, and lay down. Jiang Xi had never felt so smooth before bed.

I slept soundly through the night, accompanied by the chirping of cicadas in the yard.

**

Jiang Xi was woken up by the sunlight filtering through the cracks in the wooden window in the morning. All three of them were too tired yesterday and slept in today.

Jiang Xi pushed open the wooden window. The thin mist lingering in the mountain forest had not yet dissipated. She stretched, but Yan Zheng pulled her back into bed.

The two cuddled and dozed off for a while before getting out of bed.

After breakfast, they escorted Yan Jing'an into the woods, and then Jiang Xi and Yan Zheng carried hoes to the fields.

The fields and countryside are vast and open.

The weeds in the cornfield were indeed affecting the corn's growth. After weeding them last time, the corn started to grow rapidly.

In just three or four days, Jiang Xi felt that the cornfield had grown at least ten centimeters taller.

A breeze blew by, and the wheat field rippled like waves. The fresh air was cool and refreshing, and Jiang Xi even felt that she could smell the fragrance of wheat.

Seeing the weeds in the wheat field, I went along the ridge and pulled them out as I pleased.

Standing on the edge of the field and looking out, Jiang Xi felt as if she had become an old man in the dream of bells, her eyes filled with the joy of the upcoming harvest.

I'm in a really good mood.

Perhaps because she had been weeding diligently recently, her vegetable garden was much cleaner than before, no longer overgrown with weeds, which saved them a lot of trouble.

After gathering some firewood and digging up a basket of grass, the two returned to the courtyard.

The afternoon was spent digging clay.

The wooden beams of the house are complete, but some tiles and bricks still need to be fired, which is expected to require five or six truckloads of clay.

Later, Yan Zheng and Xiao Lu went to haul clay, while Jiang Xi stayed in the yard to remove impurities and dead branches from the clay and press it into bricks and tiles using molds.

Around mid-afternoon, Jiang Xi put on a straw hat and hummed "A great river with wide waves".

His hands weren't idle either; he held the mold handles with both hands, gave it a hard tap, and a square brick fell out of the mold.

While stretching her waist, she spotted a gray-brown figure coming down the hillside in the distance.

Jiang Xi's eyes lit up. She quickly washed her hands and peered over the wall. The wall was about the same height as her, and by standing on tiptoe, she could see outside the courtyard.

It really was that child.

A few minutes later, he was carrying something in his arms. When he arrived at the gate of the courtyard, he did not see Jiang Xi, who was perched on the wall.

Jiang Xi watched as he withdrew his hand, and after a long while, he seemed about to knock on the door but then put it down again.

She chuckled softly, startling the people at the door.

When the child realized it was Jiang Xi, he reached out and scratched his head, looking a little embarrassed.

Jiang Xi hurriedly went to open the courtyard gate.

"Why are you here again?" she asked, her eyes sparkling as she looked at him.

The man smiled sheepishly, handed her the fur bundle he was holding, and said, "Here...is yours."

Jiang Xi feigned surprise and asked, "Is it for me?"

The man quickly nodded.

Jiang Xi opened the fur bundle, and inside was a kind of bright yellow wild fruit.

"Champagne fruit".

She had picked this fruit on the mountain when she was little; she and Dazhuang would always go to the mountains to pick it.

It tastes slightly sour and sweet.

I haven't eaten it for many years. Judging by the time, this should be the perfect time for it to ripen.

There were also two large breadfruits placed next to it.

Jiang Xi quickly shook her head, indicating that she could not accept it: "We have food, you can eat this."

She was touched; there weren't many fruits in the forest in spring. She wondered how long the child had searched to find all these things.

She insisted on refusing, but to her surprise, he stubbornly left the fur package at the gate of the courtyard and was about to leave.