Chapter 27 Digging Shepherd's Purse Together
When Zhou Shengnan and Zheng Fanghua heard this, they immediately said, "We are going to go to the foot of the mountain to pick shepherd's purse. Are there a lot of shepherd's purse by the river? Can we go there too?"
Although Zhou Shengnan and Zheng Fanghua have good family conditions, they are girls after all and cannot be compared with boys.
Their families asked them to go to the countryside simply because they didn't want boys to go there.
Although the family did not want the resettlement allowance for the educated youth and gave it all to them, it was such a small amount of money that they would not be able to last long if they did not spend it frugally.
Now that they have just arrived in the countryside, they can get only a few work points, so when the grain is distributed they will certainly not get much, and they will have to spend money to buy it. This means they will have even less money to spend.
In addition, the winter in Northeast China lasts a very long time. They don't have to go to work for more than five months. If they don't come out to store some food for the winter, they will probably starve once winter is over.
Moreover, the winters in Northeast China are extremely cold. In addition to storing food for the winter, they also have to store firewood. Otherwise, without firewood, the kang cannot be lit, and they will definitely freeze to death.
Li Ruolan said, "There are quite a lot of shepherd's purse growing by the river."
Zhou Shengnan and Zheng Fanghua came over immediately: "Then the three of us will go together."
Before Li Ruolan nodded, the door of Qin Wan's house next door opened: "Are you going to pick shepherd's purse? I'll go with you."
The houses of Li Ruolan and her three families were built at the same time. Li Ruolan's house was next to the Youth League Courtyard, Qin Wan's house was in the middle, and on the other side was Xu Tao's house.
"Okay, then let's go together." Li Ruolan said with a smile, and then took them to the upper reaches of the river north of the village.
There are indeed more shepherd's purse here than downstream, and Deng Minghao is fishing downstream, so he is not afraid of being seen fishing. Li Ruolan is just afraid that they will discover the four traps, so it is better not to take them there.
Looking at the fields of shepherd's purse, the four of them put their backpacks on the ground and started digging.
“When we have time in the next few days, we will come here to dig shepherd’s purse, and then walk around the foot of the mountain to see if we can find mushrooms or something.
If we don’t store more food, we probably won’t be able to survive this winter.” Zheng Fanghua said dejectedly while digging wild vegetables.
The old educated youth in the Youth Home said that the winters here are extremely cold, and they told them to store more food, which shows that life here is very difficult.
"I don't know when I can return to the city." Zheng Fanghua said finally. Although his voice was low, all three of them heard it.
Li Ruolan and Qin Wan didn't say anything because they knew when they could return to the city.
It is now 1970, and these educated youth will have to wait another seven or eight years before they have the opportunity to return to the city. Seven or eight years is a very long time.
Many people may not survive until that time and will choose to settle down here.
Qin Wan said: "I have been wandering in the mountains for a while and found a lot of wild yams, which can also be eaten as food. When I have free time in a while, I will take you to dig them.
Dig more, and you won’t be afraid during the winter.”
Zhou Shengnan and Zheng Fanghua are both good people, and Qin Wan is willing to help them.
She dug a lot of yams from the mountain. Every time she found a pile of yams, she would dig away the big ones, leaving a lot of small yams.
It only takes three or four days for her to ripen those small yams into big yams. It is not troublesome at all for her.
When Zhou Shengnan and Zheng Fanghua heard this, they hurriedly thanked her, and Li Ruolan also said that she would go with them when the time came.
The four of them dug a lot of shepherd's purse, but as it was getting late, they all went back.
When Li Ruolan came back, she found that Deng Minghao had already returned and was sitting in the yard killing fish.
"How many fish did you catch?" Li Ruolan put down the backpack and went to look at Deng Minghao's bucket. There were five or six fish, all of which were palm-sized crucian carp, just enough to make soup.
"It will be killed soon. I'll make you crucian carp soup later." Deng Minghao said.
Li Ruolan nodded. Deng Minghao likes fishing and eating fish. Li Ruolan likes to eat fish but doesn’t know how to cook. Usually, Deng Minghao cooks the fish and she just has to eat it.
"Tomorrow I'll go to Carpenter Zhao and buy two racks. I'll put them in the yard and put a winnowing basket on them to dry things. I've dug up a lot of shepherd's purse. After it's dried, I can make shepherd's purse dumplings to eat in the winter."
Deng Minghao nodded: "Okay, I'll go buy it tomorrow."
Li Ruolan took out the dead wood that they had collected in the space during this period of time and placed it on the open space in the yard.
“Let’s chop the firewood when we have time. We can’t keep the fire burning. It would be bad if someone noticed that the chimney wasn’t smoking.
In winter, we need firewood to heat the kang. You can build a shed in the yard to store firewood there."
"I understand. I'll do it tomorrow."
Then one of them processed the fish while the other picked some shepherd's purse and prepared to steam it for later.
After everything was done, the two locked the door and entered the space. Deng Minghao started to make fish soup, then knead the dough and put a few pancakes next to the fish soup pot.
Li Ruolan washed and cut the shepherd's purse into sections, added some oil and salt, and coated it with flour. She boiled a pot of water, put two corn cobs and two eggs in it, and steamed the shepherd's purse.
After the shepherd's purse is out of the pot, mix it with crushed garlic and chili peppers and you can eat it.
After a sumptuous dinner, the two of them went to add some food to the pigs, cattle and sheep, and threw some cabbage and greens into the pens for chickens, ducks and geese. They then washed up in the space before going out.
It was already dark outside. Deng Minghao turned on the flashlight, made the bed, and then stared at Li Ruolan with his eyes glowing green.
He has been a layman ever since he came here. Now the time, place and people are all right, and they are also certified to work.
Li Ruolan's face felt a little hot when he stared at her. Although they had been married for so many years, they had two new bodies and this was the first time for the girls to get into a bridal sedan.
"Take that out. I don't want to have a baby so early." Li Ruolan did not hesitate and said to Deng Minghao after getting on the kang.
When she knew she was going to travel to this era, Li Ruolan not only stored a lot of sanitary napkins, but also bought a lot of human cub blockers.
She had to have a baby, but she was only eighteen in this body, so she didn't want to have one so early.
Deng Minghao nodded randomly and said he understood, then pounced on him.
The young and strong guy has a strong appetite and can't stop eating meat once he starts.
"You have to get up early tomorrow to go to town to buy things. If I can't get up, I will strangle you to death." Li Ruolan threatened with tears in her eyes.
Deng Minghao pretended not to hear and covered Li Ruolan's mouth to prevent her from speaking.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
