Su Qingluan's running team had gradually become a common sight in Huaxi Village. Even if everyone couldn't follow the entire race, occasionally running a few steps together was still considered a way to join in the activity.
Or even if they can't run from beginning to end, there are those who are not as good as Sun Guixiang who is pregnant, those who are "difficult to walk" like Mu Xingzhi, and some others who are over 60 years old and can't even stand well. There are also many people who take advantage of the time when everyone is running to come out and bask in the sun.
If nothing else, just saying hello to familiar and friendly fellow villagers feels much better than staying in a cold house, as if it makes the house lively.
Later, everyone simply took advantage of this opportunity to exchange unwanted or surplus items at home, forming a not-too-large-scale but very lively "free trade" market. Of course, this effect is a later story, and even Su Qingluan herself did not expect such an effect.
However, fewer and fewer people can persist in running. One of the most important reasons is that not everyone has the perseverance and persistence to run for half an hour every day in the increasingly cold north wind.
What's more, as the weather grew colder at night, it became increasingly difficult to go to the town, because several small but long snowfalls had accumulated a layer of "snow shell" on the ground that was not too thick but hard enough.
As a serious northern child in her previous life, Su Qingluan understood that this thin layer of snow, where you could even vaguely see the soil underneath, was in some sense even more dangerous than the heavy snow that was often knee-deep.
It's not because of anything else, but because this kind of "light snow" can easily melt as soon as it hits the ground due to the slight friction caused by pedestrians passing by. However, this sub-freezing temperature causes the melted water droplets to freeze immediately, forming a layer of ice crust on the road.
This is different from the thin ice layer formed by rain before, because this kind of ice shell is likely to be quickly covered with a layer of snow before it melts to become a "snow shell", which looks like soft snow at first glance, but in fact, once you step on it, you will most likely fall on your face after a breakdance.
So Su Qingluan made a prompt decision and told Su Guangfu and Yang, who had gone to the town to "purchase goods" before, not to go to the town.
Because the rugged mountain road is not easy to walk on even when there is no rain or snow. Every time it rains and passes that section of road, tripping over an unexpected pothole is the least of the trouble. There are also people whose donkey carts have slipped and landed in the ravine nearby.
Fortunately, although the donkey broke its leg and could no longer work, someone got off and pushed the cart, so it escaped the disaster - of course, the donkey was turned into donkey meat BBQ to fill its stomach.
However, this incident is enough to show that the mountain road is really difficult to walk on.
However, there are always some people who don't believe in it or some people who want to do business in the town one more time, and they don't give up and take the mountain road. Some of them are lucky enough to come back safely.
However, some people were not so lucky. A broken leg was considered a minor injury, while others suffered even more serious injuries, falling directly into a ravine and hitting the back of their head, and died.
Su Qingluan was very sad when she heard the news - after all, the other party even worked with her until the end of the second round of jam making, and a while ago he happily came to her with the "consolation welfare award" and said with a smile that he wanted to work with her again next year.
In the blink of an eye, everything changed and he lost his life just to make one more business trip.
The children and daughter-in-law cried bitterly, but what was the use? The person was gone.
Perhaps because he saw that someone had died, the head of the village finally remembered to post the notice board at the entrance of the village to tell everyone that the road to the town was very difficult to travel and everyone must be extremely careful when passing by.
As for the saying "Don't go to the town unless necessary", there is no such thing - just kidding, if not forced to, who would want to go to the town where it takes more than half an hour to walk, and even longer now?
However, no matter what, life must go on, but everyone is more or less afraid and more careful when going out. Unless there is absolutely no need, they no longer go out to the town to exchange things.
Fortunately, Su Qingluan not only paid generous wages in the autumn, but also provided various benefits, so everyone was generally not short of clothes, at least it was much better than the previous winters.
However, the most important vegetables will be drastically reduced in winter, and the few vegetables available are just cabbage and radish, as well as some pickled dried vegetables.
Although Su Qingluan also tried to promote the cultivation methods of carrots, coriander and onions, these three vegetables always have a bunch of die-hard fans and black fans no matter what changes in time and space they have experienced. This small mountain village in this era is no exception. Many people feel that these three vegetables have an indescribable strange taste.
Cilantro and onions, in particular, were disliked by many people as smelly. Su Qingluan said that people who didn't understand the deliciousness of cilantro and onions were simply unreasonable—of course, she was just complaining in her heart. At the same time, she was somewhat fortunate that no one in the Su family was particularly picky about food; as long as she cooked something, almost everyone would eat it.
I even feel a little happy thinking this way!
Of course, all of these activities were done from the depths of her heart. On the surface, Su Qingluan was still very much promoting "potted vegetables" everywhere, and it was quite effective. Anyway, everyone's "potted gene" was completely activated, and quite a few people began to enjoy it - after all, the flowers would not survive, and growing some vegetables would fill their stomachs.
However, there is definitely a shortage of food in winter. Even though many families will not be short of the most basic food for their livelihoods this winter, Su Qingluan still hopes to have more fresh meat and vegetables to consume.
So Su Qingluan set her sights on the only river that passed through Huaxi Village.
As the temperature drops in winter, fishing in the river becomes increasingly difficult. Not only is it difficult to stay still for hours due to the biting wind, but also because the fish move to deeper waters when the weather gets colder, and they don't linger near the shore or in shallower waters.
...Or rather, winter is the dry season, and many areas with smaller flows and lower water levels have become dry season sections, exposing the bumpy riverbed beneath. Only some deeper sections of the river still have gurgling water—but now they are all covered with thick layers of ice.
Su Qingluan has been thinking about fishing on the ice or casting a net recently to see if she can catch some fish or shrimp from the river.
Fish in winter are not as plump as those in the breeding season, but because the water temperature is cooler and because fish eat less or not at all throughout the winter, the fish meat at this time is firm and does not have much earthy smell.
In a sense, it can be regarded as another kind of delicacy.
What's more, the small fish in the river at this time are also very delicious, but Su Qingluan herself is not really good at fishing, so she can only sigh and watch the "fish".
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