Chapter 10 Chapter 10 Letting Go
The next day, Fan Jing got up early before the rooster in the chicken coop crowed.
He got up earlier than any other time he went into the mountains, leaving Chen, who had gotten up on time to make breakfast, confused.
"It's still raining outside. Why did you get up so early? I haven't even had time to put the rice in the pot yet."
Fan Jing said, "I won't have breakfast."
Seeing him quickly packing his things and getting ready to leave, Chen said, "Why are you in such a hurry? It's raining outside and it's not even daylight yet. It would be safer to eat breakfast and then go up the mountain when it's daylight."
"I know."
After saying that, he threw the backpack onto his back and prepared to get his rain gear and go out.
At this moment, a bamboo hat was handed to him.
Fan Jing raised his eyes and saw Kang He standing in front of him. He didn't know when he got up.
His brows furrowed slightly.
Kang He saw Fan Jing's expression and thought he was still trying to trick him.
He is not a child, how could he be left behind secretly while others are still sleeping?
"What is Kanghe doing? Why is he getting up so early?"
"He wants to go up the mountain."
Fan Jing took the hat slowly and said something to Chen, intending to ask her to persuade Kang He to leave.
Unexpectedly, Chen was delighted to hear this and said, "It would be good if Kanghe could go up the mountain with you. The two of you can look after each other."
Fan Jing's brows furrowed even more tightly: "What can he do if he goes up the mountain?"
"People with good hands and feet can't do it."
Chen said, "There's not much work to do at home right now. It would be nice if he could just go to the mountains and collect some firewood. He can bring it back home when he comes down. Autumn is ending and winter is approaching, and every household needs a lot of firewood. All the firewood in the mountains outside has been picked up by the villagers, so it's hard to collect firewood."
He added, "You've been away in the mountains for quite some time, can you leave your servants behind? If someone from the village comes looking for a son-in-law, how can they handle it without you?"
When Fan Jing heard this and saw Kang He looking at him with a smile, he sighed helplessly and put the backpack down again.
In the end, I had breakfast at home and waited until it was bright outside before going up the mountain.
The autumn rain was cold, and the two of them each carried a backpack.
Fan Jing's backpack contained some food rations, while Kang He carried a tightly bundled quilt, a set of spare clothes and daily necessities.
When we reached the mountain, the rain was even heavier and the temperature was noticeably lower than in the village. The wind and rain blew towards us, and my legs were freezing in my trouser legs.
It was another hour or so after Kang He walked in the mountains that he saw a wooden house in the gray rain and fog.
They both quickened their pace in tacit understanding and got into the house before another gust of cold wind hit.
Although the wooden house in the mountains is not big, it has a small courtyard. It is made of thick wood hammered into the ground, which makes it sturdy.
When the door was opened, the room became a large open space.
There is a small bed made of wooden boards next to the corner of the wall. It is really small and only big enough for one person to sleep on.
In the middle of the wooden house was a clay pot with broken edges and corners, sitting on a simple earthenware stove, with a few bottles and jars lying on the side.
Apart from these, there are some earthen tools for hunting, such as a broken bow, broken arrows, and wind-dried wild hemp... These are all things that can be made from materials found in the mountains.
There is nothing worth a penny.
Things like knives, hoes, and other iron objects were all brought by Fan Jing temporarily.
This place is just a place to shelter from the wind and rain.
Kang He looked around the wooden house while taking off his dripping hat and raincoat.
There are two sets of raincoats in the house. One is kept at home for Fan Dad to use on weekdays, and the other is used by Fan Jing in the mountains.
When the two men went up the mountain, Fan Jing gave him his straw raincoat.
Kang He was still dry after taking off his straw raincoat. Fan Jing did not wear a straw raincoat, but a piece of waterproof animal skin, which protected his chest and abdomen from getting wet.
Part of the arm has become moist.
Seeing this, Kang He put down his things and went to the stove to light a fire.
A cold stove is not easy to light, and the wood is damp, so it takes a quarter of an hour to start burning.
"fire."
Kang He saw Fan Jingdong going back and forth in the house looking for things, and he didn't come over to warm his clothes to get rid of the cold.
The mountains already have the feel of winter, and it's very cold even inside the wooden house.
It was raining all the way up the mountain, and the two of them didn't talk much, they were just focused on getting on their way.
Seeing him like this, Kang He wondered if he was angry because he insisted on coming to the mountains.
Fan Jing didn't respond and came out with a few pieces of wood.
Spread it out on the other side of the cot and put some hay on top.
Only then did Kang He realize that he was making the bed.
He suddenly remembered something, glanced at Fan Jing, and touched his nose with embarrassment.
Although I know that there are boys here, they can get married and have children just like girls.
But after all, he was not very experienced, and Fan Jing was not as spoiled as the brothers he met outside, so he ignored this matter.
Kang He scratched his face. He had insisted on coming to the mountains because he wanted to see if he could find some way to make money. The Fan family had so many people around, and it would be inconvenient for him to do anything.
I was so busy going up the mountain that I didn't think about how a single man and a single woman would cope in the mountains.
Instead of letting him have too many wild thoughts, Fan Jing quickly prepared a small bed.
He took out a steamed bun of mixed grains from his backpack, put it on his body, and held a longbow.
".......go out?"
Kang He came back to his senses.
Fan Jing nodded and put on his hat, which was still dripping with water.
Seeing this, Kang He quickly pointed outside, meaning that the rain was still heavy.
Fan Jing disagreed. Although it was inconvenient to enter and exit the forest on rainy days, the feathers of the chickens and rabbits in the forest were wet and became duller than on sunny days, making them easier to hunt.
Also, he set a new trap before going down the mountain, so I have to go check it out.
Fan Jing didn't want to say more. It was too complicated and Kang He couldn't understand it either. He was just talking to himself.
So he pointed to the door latch and taught Kanghe to close the door when he was not around.
Seeing that Fan Jing insisted on going out, Kang He also stood up and wanted to go with him.
Fan Jing snatched his hat, frowned, and then walked into the rain alone, disappearing in a moment.
Kang He stood at the door and saw the heavy rain and fog in the forest. It was a chaos ten meters away.
The raindrops in the woods were big and they were falling with a clanging sound. It was cold and difficult to tell the direction when going out in such weather.
If they were not veterans in the mountains, I'm afraid they would have disappeared without a trace after turning around.
In the cold and rainy autumn weather, even if you are lucky enough not to encounter any ferocious wild animals, you will still lose your warmth and most of your life.
Not to mention outside, even in the wooden house, after Fan Jing left, the already deserted house became even colder and quieter. The only sounds that could be heard were the sound of wind blowing through leaves and the sound of rain.
The fire on the stove in the house is not only the only thing that can provide people with warmth, but also the only comfort.
In this corner of the deep mountains where you can't see the sky when you look up, it is so cold and lonely that it is terrifying.
Kang He was not the only one who was afraid. He just felt more deeply the difficulty of making a living in the mountains.
It's not easy to hear it from others, and it's completely different to actually see it and feel it personally.
The only thing that was not easy was that he had to admire Fan Jing for making a living alone in the mountains.
While admiring each other, there is also a sense of sympathy.
He had a miserable life before, having to make a living outside when he was still young. He had experienced the warmth and coldness of human nature, but at least if one person was well fed, the whole family would not be hungry, and he could do anything on his own.
But Fan Jing is different. He has to take care of his whole family and dare not be lazy even on a rainy day like this.
If we can't get money, not only will there be chaos at home, but the whole family will actually starve.
Although I have only been at the Fan family for two days, I cannot know much about them, but I can still make some guesses about how much they eat and use.
The only time the table had meat was at noon, the day he came.
The other meals consisted of thin porridge with pickles, and the staple food for the meal that filled the stomach was the coarse red sorghum steamed buns that were sore in the throat.
Comparing the two, the Fan family's life is not as good as the Kang family's.
Not to mention the Kang family, the porridge on the table during the day is thick, the steamed buns are white flour, and meat can be seen on the table once every three days.
Uncle Kang is the cook, and sometimes he would send a big ceramic bowl of delicious meat to satisfy our hunger.
How can we not count the good and the bad?
Kang He felt a little complicated, thinking that no matter in ancient times or today, or even in future generations, it is not easy for ordinary people at the bottom to get some money and live a decent life.
With nothing to do, he found some work to do and cleaned the cabin.
He took out some more rice, thinking that Fan Jing probably wouldn't come back for lunch, but he would have to go home in the evening.
He wanted to wait until the rain subsided and then walk around the cabin to see if he could find some wild vegetables to eat.
Who would have thought that after he cleaned the cabin inside and out, even clearing the cobwebs on the walls, the rain outside was still pouring down.
When I opened the door, the wind made me feel even colder.
He looked around and saw that the fog seemed to be getting thicker and the sky was getting darker. Even if it wasn't dark yet, it was already late.
I looked around, but didn't see Fan Jing coming back.
Kang He couldn't help but feel worried. Even experienced hunters make mistakes sometimes, so he hoped nothing would happen.
He tried to call Fan Jing a few times in his broken dialect, but his voice was lost in the sound of rain and had no echo.
Kang Heshi couldn't wait any longer, so he took a stone gun for self-defense, put on a hat, locked the door and went out.
A thick layer of rotten leaves from the forest covered the ground, and after being soaked by a day of rain, there was a rotten puddle where one stepped.
Kang He followed the footprints and went out. He was smart enough to leave footprints on the trees as he walked, fearing he would get lost.
I didn't know how long I walked, but I still couldn't find Fan Jing, so I called out a few more times.
“Puff!”
In response to Kang He, a group of birds on the branches were frightened and flew away.
“Chirp.”
When Kang He heard the sound and looked over, he saw a bold flower bird jumping down from a branch, which was quite nice to see.
But he didn't know what kind of bird it was. His feet suddenly slipped and he fell out with a bang.
Kang He was still in shock, and he quickly grabbed the grass beside him to stop rolling down.
But he was on a slope. The mud had become soft and wet from the rain, and the moss on top was slippery with water. The more he climbed, the more slippery it became. He struggled until his face turned red but he still couldn't climb up.
As he fluttered around, he pushed open a gap in the dense ferns beneath his feet, and found a dark, hollow area below, so deep that he couldn't see the bottom!
Looking at the flat green ferns, one would think that there was a dense open space below, and even if one rolled down further, it would not be higher than a person.
Who would have thought that these ferns actually grew horizontally, with their branches and leaves wide and overlapping, blocking the height below.
Kang He was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat.
If you climb up in a hurry, you might fall. I'm afraid the sound of your landing will take a while to be heard back.
But the grass growing on the slope could not withstand the pull of his body, and was pulled out by the roots with a thud.
Kang He felt his body lighten and he began to fall downwards, but in just a moment, his hand was grabbed tightly again.
When he looked up, he saw Fan Jing, whose hat was tilted, grabbing his hand.
In an instant, Kang He felt like he had come back to life from the dead.
He couldn't help but wonder how Fan Jing found him here, and he quickly used the force to climb up.
When people look up, they feel that the rain is particularly heavy.
He looked at the raindrops running down the back of his hand, which had turned bright red overnight, and he suspected several times that his eyes had been pricked by the raindrops.
It was not until I saw that the red water was flowing out of Fan Jing's arm that I realized that his arm was on the slope and a wooden stake hidden under the fallen leaves had pierced into his flesh.
Kang He was shocked. Wouldn’t such pulling be enough to cripple the man’s arm?
He ignored the others and shouted, "Fan Jing, let go!"
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