After Tian Tian and the others came back, the family ate a quick meal, then lit a lamp and picked out all the mushrooms they brought back. They also burned the kang in the small house (which was the room where Tian Yuan lived now) and sorted the mushrooms on the kang to dry.
It has been drizzling these past few days and it won't stop for a moment. If the mushrooms are left there, they will easily rot, so we have to heat the kang to dry them.
Tian Yuan will live with Lin Meiyu and others for the time being.
They went up the mountain to pick mushrooms for a whole day. There were quite a few people there, and the mushrooms they picked filled two kangs.
They were still not satisfied, and got up early the next day to go up the mountain.
The mushrooms on the kang were dried in batches without stopping until the dried mushrooms filled several large sacks and the sky cleared up.
"Now that the weather is clear, I can only go up the mountain to pick mushrooms for one more day. It will be harder to find mushrooms after that." Lin Meiyu said as she went up the mountain with a backpack on her back, looking at the sun in the sky.
It’s not that mushrooms are harder to find after the sun comes out, but it’s not like when the weather is gloomy, there will be a lot of hazel mushrooms growing under any pine tree, and you can squat there and pick mushrooms for a long time.
After the sun comes out, mushrooms no longer grow in some sunny places, so they have to hide in the bushes to pick mushrooms, or go deep into the mountains. Everyone is afraid of encountering wild animals and snakes, so they generally don't go up the mountain to pick mushrooms after the sun comes out. Occasionally, when they go up the mountain to pick chestnuts, they will see mushrooms and pick some back.
"Your grandma asked your dad to go out this morning, but I don't know what she asked him to do?" Lin Meiyu said.
"My dad is so old now, Mom, are you still worried that something might happen to him when he goes out?" Tian Tian said with a smile.
Lin Meiyu rolled her eyes at Tian Tian and said, "I'm not worried about your dad. I was thinking that today is the last day to pick mushrooms, but your dad is not here yet. I don't know how many less mushrooms we will pick! I'm worried about those mushrooms!"
Tian Tian immediately shut up and stopped talking. It was her fault for talking too much.
After holding it in for a while, Tian Tian couldn't help but speak up: "In fact, we have picked enough mushrooms these days. We can't eat more if we pick more."
They have been picking mushrooms for nearly half a month. After soaking these mushrooms, they will be enough for them to eat three times a day for half a year.
"It doesn't matter if there are too many or too few of these. They can be stored after being dried. They will be good to eat in the future when there is no time to go to the mountains to pick mushrooms, or when there is not as much rain as this year."
People at this time are used to hoarding food, especially people like them in rural areas. The things they can eat throughout the year can be counted, and the weather is too cold in winter. If you don’t dry some vegetables in spring and autumn, you can only eat sauerkraut, radishes and potatoes in winter.
"I also wanted to send some mushrooms to Shen Lingling today. Shen Lingling told me yesterday that the mushrooms that Fang Siwen picked were either poisonous or had been broken into pieces. There were not many that were edible."
"You picked the mushrooms yourself, so you decide for yourself. I don't care." Lin Meiyu had no opinion on these. She never cared who Tian Tian gave her things to.
By the afternoon, there were not many mushrooms left on the mountain, so they went down the mountain and went home early.
Lin Meiyu and the others went straight home. Tian Tian took the mushrooms she picked and went straight to Shen Lingling's house. Although there were fewer mushrooms, she picked a lot today. She planned to give half of them to Shen Lingling.
Niu Niu already has a formal name, Fang Wenxin. Shen Lingling dislikes this name because it sounds fancy and feels weird when she calls it that, so she keeps calling her Fang Wenxin Niu Niu, and as a result, no one in the family calls her by her real name.
And Niu Niu has grown up now, and is getting more and more beautiful.
Originally, confinement should make the mother feel relaxed and happy, but Shen Lingling has not been in a very good mood these two days.
It is already late August. In two or three days, Tian Tian and her classmates will go to college one after another, including Fang Siwen.
Shen Lingling was in a bad mood not because Fang Siwen was leaving, but because Fang Siwen wanted Shen Lingling to go to the capital with him, saying that the child could not get a good education here, and he was also worried about leaving the mother and daughter at home. If they went to the capital, at least Mr. and Mrs. Fang would take care of the child, and when the school was on vacation, Fang Siwen could go back to help, so that Shen Lingling could feel more relaxed.
But for Shen Lingling, the home that Fang Siwen thought could provide her with great help could not give Shen Lingling that much sense of security. She did not want to face the strange looks from Fang Siwen's family every day, nor did she want to have long-term contact with them. Although Fang Siwen was there, Shen Lingling also knew that there were only two days off a week, and she could only be with Fang Siwen eight days a month, and even then she could not completely relax.
Although it is a little difficult to take care of the children alone at home and do all the chores at home and outside, her parents are here, and this is where Shen Lingling grew up. Even if she is tired, she feels at ease and she is willing to do it.
In the past few days, they have had no less than five quarrels, big and small, over this matter. Shen Lingling's mother is very sad being caught in the middle. On the one hand, she is reluctant to let her daughter go to Beijing, which is so far away. On the other hand, she feels that since she is married, it is natural for her to live with the man's family.
What Fang Siwen said did make sense. It was not right for the child to be born without even seeing his grandparents. She also felt from the bottom of her heart that after her daughter got married, she would be someone else's child. This thought overwhelmed her reluctance to let go of her daughter, and she followed Fang Siwen to persuade Shen Lingling.
No one understood the pressure Shen Lingling faced in Fang Siwen's home. Everyone thought that Shen Lingling was too sensitive. As long as she did her duty as a daughter-in-law conscientiously, she would not have to worry about being rejected. Moreover, she had given birth to a precious granddaughter for the Fang family.
Shen Lingling had no words to express her pain. She had been in a very low mood during this period. Only when Tian Tian and Tian Yun came over could she feel relieved and relaxed.
But now Tian Tian and Tian Yun are about to leave home. Shen Lingling feels reluctant and depressed. She feels that she is all alone and no one can understand her.
"Are you going back to school?" Tian Tian handed the mushrooms to Shen Lingling's mother. Shen Lingling asked as she sat on the edge of the kang.
"Yes! I'm leaving on August 27th. Fang Siwen should be leaving soon, right? His school is farther away than ours, and it takes a while to get there by car." Tian Tian said.
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