Chapter 208 Mowing the Lawn
Xiao Gua's illness is not serious; it's just a sore throat with inflammation. After applying saline solution for three days, the swelling has mostly subsided, and he will be fully recovered soon.
Now he's full of energy again, jumping and playing around with his mistresses.
After the accidental illness of Xiaogua, life returned to normal, and the extremely cold, comfortable life became more and more pleasant.
Not only is there plenty of food, but because Mancang goes up the mountain to chop firewood every day, there is also no shortage of firewood at home, so there is no need to worry at all.
Now I don't need to light the stove or the kang (heated brick bed) anymore. Apart from cooking and feeding the livestock every day, I can practically say I'm just loafing around and waiting to die.
When people are bored, they want to find something to do, and I focused my attention on Mancang.
This child can't read.
"Mancang, do you want to learn to read?"
Mancang tilted his head and thought for a moment: "What's the use of being literate? Can I exchange it for meat?"
Well……
"You can't read now, so you can only read comic books. Aren't you curious about what the words are written next to the comic books?"
Upon hearing that it was a comic book, Mancang immediately became interested: "I want to! I want to!"
"From then on, you studied with me for an hour every day to learn to read and recognize characters."
Mancang was now filled with anticipation for understanding the comic book, and nodded eagerly.
The first step to learning to read and write is to have textbooks. I flipped through the bookshelf and found that there were no elementary school Chinese textbooks, but I did find a book of 300 Tang poems.
Let's just use this book for now and learn from it.
Having previously stockpiled a lot of notebooks, Mancang picked out his favorite one from among the various exquisite notebooks to use as his study notes.
From then on, the first thing I did every afternoon after waking up from my nap was to go to class.
My goal isn't big; I just want him to learn three characters a day. I don't expect him to become a top student; I just want him to be able to recognize the characters he uses in daily life.
Mancang is quite clever; three words a day are no problem for him at all, and he even becomes more and more interested in learning them.
The study time after waking up from my afternoon nap inexplicably turned into a unique form of entertainment for Mancang and me.
Two more months passed peacefully, while the extreme cold lasted for more than a year.
Mancang came to our home exactly one year ago. In that year, Mancang grew taller, stronger, and fatter.
No longer the skinny, pitiful creature he once was, he has become more cheerful, knows many words, and is now plump and healthy.
However, this is good news, but there is also bad news that comes with it.
The bad news is that there's not much hay left for the rabbits at home.
The fodder was prepared for a whole year, but we never expected that the extreme cold would continue for a year without stopping.
In addition, rabbits have a very high reproductive rate. Even though I killed nearly 20 rabbits in succession, there were still 40 rabbits in the rabbit burrow.
These plump, white rabbits have a great appetite and are quickly consuming all the hay I've stockpiled; it's almost gone.
I've decided to break my habit of feeling dizzy after breakfast starting today, and I'll go up the mountain with Mancang.
The mountains are now covered in snow, so when you go up the mountain to cut grass, you need to bring both a sickle and a shovel.
Mancang and I dressed neatly and pulled the cart up the mountain.
Once we reached the mountain, Mancang continued chopping firewood, while I studied how to cut hay for the rabbits.
Choose a patch of ground that looks like it has lots of dry grass underneath, and use a shovel to remove all the thick layer of snow on top.
Sure enough, there was a thick layer of dry grass inside. I took out a sickle and started cutting it in large clumps.
This handful is enough for one meal, that handful is also enough for another meal. Never before has I felt that hay is so precious.
Shovels are extremely tiring to break through thick layers of snow, and even if the dry grass underneath is thick, it's impossible to collect much in a short time.
It took all morning to cut a truckload of hay, but that should be enough for the rabbits to eat for a few days.
After piling the two bundles of firewood that Mancang had chopped onto the cart, we could finally call it a day and go home.
When I went inside and took off my thick cotton-padded coat, my hands, feet and face were ice cold, but I was sweating a lot on my forehead and back.
I quickly washed my face and took out the hot cabbage stew with potatoes and millet rice from the pot.
I anticipated that cutting grass on the mountain would be a big undertaking in the morning. After breakfast, I steamed the leftovers in a pot. Since there was still some embers in the stove, the food would be just the right temperature when I came back at noon.
After lunch, we fed the rabbits the freshly cut hay, and they ate it with great relish without any complaints.
I can finally relax. As long as the little rabbits keep eating, that's fine.
The next morning, Mancang and I were having breakfast when we vaguely heard the sound of a loudspeaker broadcasting.
But even after listening carefully, you can't quite make out what it is.
Not long after, there was a knock on the door. When Mancang heard the knock, his face changed and he looked very scared.
"It's okay, you keep eating, I'll go out and take a look."
After comforting Mancang, I put on thick clothes, fastened a small silver coin around my waist, and went outside to check on things.
Peeking through the crack in the door, I was surprised to see Taozi and Brother Liu outside the courtyard.
The two had just gotten out of the car, their faces red from the cold, their hands in their pockets, as they peered into the yard.
He quickly opened the door and beckoned Taozi and Brother Liu to come in.
"What brings you here? Come in quickly."
After locking the gate, I led Taozi and Brother Liu into the house.
The two of them didn't stand on ceremony and squatted down by the stove to warm themselves. After warming themselves by the fire for a while, they seemed to finally feel warm.
Brother Liu then explained, "There aren't many people left in the base right now. It's been over a year since we entered the extreme cold. The base commander sent us out to see if there were any people who couldn't survive, so we could bring them back to the base. It's a way to save people and also to increase the base's population."
Are they expanding their recruitment efforts during this extremely cold weather?
"Huh? Recruiting so many people, will the base have enough food?"
"Enough, enough. The base has stored a lot of grain. The main thing is that the base manager has built a big greenhouse and hired some people so that there will be more people to help grow vegetables. There are too few people at the base right now, not enough to meet the needs."
Hearing about the recruitment plan, I picked up the kettle next to me and poured two cups of hot tea.
"Drink some water to warm yourself up."
After the two had cooked for a while, they sat down on the sofa and looked up to see Mancang eating at the kang table.
Brother Liu's eyes widened in surprise: "Ah! How come there's a child here? You, you gave birth to him?"
When Taozi heard Brother Liu say that I was the one who gave birth to him, he suddenly turned to look at me, his face full of shock and disbelief.
“How could it be my child? This is Mancang. She was sick before and recuperated here. Now she lives with me.”
To avoid making things too complicated for Mancang's sensitive little mind, I don't plan to reveal too much of Mancang's privacy, I'll just say that he was sick before.
Brother Liu chuckled sheepishly, "Oh, I knew it, hehe."
Mancang stopped eating at this point, sat properly on the kang (a heated brick bed), and smiled shyly.
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