Song Yun picked up the kettle and walked out. "Qinghe Village is still relatively easy now. The hardest time is winter. I heard it's extremely cold here. Once it snows, it'll keep falling for days. The mountains and roads are completely blocked, making it difficult to even leave the house, let alone the village. If you don't have enough food or firewood stored, it's very difficult to survive the winter. I heard that every year there are elderly people who don't survive the cold winter. Even a cold can be fatal."
Zhang Hongmei was horrified by what she heard, and recalled the data she'd seen when she'd arranged for Song Yun to go to the countryside. Indeed, the death and injury rate among the educated youth sent to the countryside was very high, and most of it occurred during the harsh winter. She didn't quite understand how so many people could die from illness in just one winter. Why didn't they go to the hospital if they were sick?
Only now did she realize that winter conditions here were far harsher than she had imagined. Imagine spending several months in seclusion, how much food and firewood would she need to stockpile? Heavy snow blocked the mountains and roads, and even if she was sick, she couldn't get medical help. Minor ailments spiraled into major illnesses, and without family around to care for her, she could only imagine the consequences.
Zhang Hongmei hurriedly looked at her son and said, "Wenbing, you have to help your sister chop more firewood these two days. Let's go to the town tomorrow and collect some food coupons so that we can store more food for your sister."
Yang Wenbing immediately responded, "Okay, I'll go chop wood as soon as we get into the mountains."
Song Yun looked at Lifen and smiled. She was really happy for her. It was a great blessing to have someone who loved her so wholeheartedly.
Song Yun took Zhang Hongmei and the others into the mountains. Instead of going to the forest that she and Ziyi often went to, they went to the chestnut forest where everyone in Tian Village went to pick chestnuts.
In order to pick chestnuts, Song Yun took the bamboo pole she had prepared before going out. This was also what Fangfang told her. The shells covering the chestnuts were full of thorns, so no one climbed the tree to pick them. They were knocked with bamboo poles, and then picked up from the ground. After removing the thorns, they peeled them and dried the shells to roast.
There were many of them that day, so they let the strong Yang Wenbing be responsible for picking the chestnuts, Ziyi and Lifen would be responsible for picking them up, and she and Aunt Zhang would just peel them on the side. They would not want the shells, but only take the chestnuts. This way they could save space and bring more chestnuts down the mountain. Otherwise, with just them carrying baskets and sacks, they would fill them up in a short time, which was a waste of time and space.
Later, when more people from the village saw Song Yun doing this, they followed suit, and efficiency improved significantly. Those with fewer people were helpless and could only envy her.
Zhang Hongmei had never seen so many chestnuts before. The whole chestnut forest was filled with chestnuts. No wonder the whole village came to pick chestnuts, but there was no fighting. There was really no need for that. They came at any time of the day and could always find an unoccupied chestnut tree.
She was so excited. There were so many chestnuts that she could pick and carry as many as she wanted down the mountain and they would be hers without spending a penny. It was so cool.
Unfortunately, the pleasure did not last long. Peeling chestnuts was not an easy job, especially for her who had never done heavy work. After a while, she felt uncomfortable all over, with pain in her hands, waist and back.
Even though there are abundant resources in the mountains, one needs to be resourceful to get them. For a useless person like her, how much can she take away even if she is given a chestnut forest?
Yang Wenbing picked all the chestnuts he could from the two nearby trees, and the prickly balls piled up into a small hill. Yang Lifen and Ziyi also joined in peeling chestnuts. Yang Wenbing put down his bamboo pole and began to look around. He was itching to get some game since he had entered the mountains, but he had been observing for a while and didn't see a single pheasant or rabbit.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
