Inside the house, Xiaoman knelt on the ground and stammered, "Grandpa, I don't know how to take care of him."
At that moment, he himself couldn't be sure whether, had it really been other people from the village, he would have impulsively brought them back...
Grandpa Xiaoman said earnestly, "Xiaoman, you must remember, it wasn't easy for us to hide in this mountain."
When we were fleeing the famine, the villagers avoided us. If it weren't for Aunt Jiang coming to our house to persuade me, and us finding something to eat on the mountain, we would have died long ago.”
He still remembers the despair he and his companions felt when they were abandoned, a feeling that Xiaomanye could never forget.
Hearing her grandfather bring up the past, Xiaoman's face turned pale, and she lowered her head: "Grandpa, I know I was wrong. I won't bring people back casually in the future."
"Okay, just remember that. Even if you remember it, I still want to say something about it."
When you're working, don't treat everyone as a nice person or try to get along with everyone. Don't argue with anyone casually, and definitely don't take advantage of your knowledge to humiliate others.
"Be more alert, observe and listen more, and don't talk too much or too quickly..."
Grandpa Xiaoman patiently and meticulously taught him, wanting to share all his life experiences.
Xiaoman knelt on the ground, listening obediently and repeatedly agreeing.
Just like the education system in every household, there is a bewildered teenager on one side and an elderly person on the other, and the illusory understanding leads to inefficient communication between the two.
Xiaoman and Errui really need to thank those wounded soldiers for making money. If Xiang Junhan hadn't suggested it to Zhang Juntou, they wouldn't have been able to do this job.
During the meal, Jiang Zhi delivered a pot of stew to several wounded soldiers at the foot of the cliff.
These people came up the mountain to recuperate from their injuries. Although they brought their own food, Jiang Zhi would send them meat soup with medicinal herbs every now and then to express her gratitude for their help in the village.
This time is no exception.
Upon hearing that it was about building a kang (heated brick bed), Xiang Dejin said, "Aunt Jiang, don't be so polite. I was just saying it for a moment. It's all thanks to your soup, pot after pot, that we're feeling much better."
Most of these people were injured on their upper bodies. After staying in the medical tent for half a month, the surface of their wounds had already healed, but the injuries to their muscles and bones would not heal for a while.
During the time I was on the mountain, the food was better than the communal meals at the medical clinic, and I also received herbal medicine to nourish my body, which significantly accelerated my recovery.
The others also said they felt much better.
Jiang Zhi didn't do anything more about their injuries. Xiang Dejin and the others had wound medicine from the medical tent, and Li Laoshi washed and took care of them.
As an ordinary peasant woman, it's understandable that she knows some common herbs, but it's a bit strange that she can treat knife and arrow wounds so skillfully.
Xiaoman and Errui went down the mountain the next day to help build the kang (heated brick bed). Since it would take several hours to go back and forth, they agreed not to go home every day.
…………………………
After the rice in the terraced fields was harvested, there was no rush to plant the next season's crops.
The fields need rest!
The thin soil and lack of fertility cannot sustain continuous planting, so the land needs to be maintained.
Of course, the fields can't be left completely barren. Xiaoman Grandpa sows peas in the terraced fields, which can yield a season of pea sprouts and also fertilize the fields.
The bedding soil in the chicken coop is constantly being changed. It is mixed with the ash from burned leaves and dry grass and piled up in the field to decompose over the winter. Next year's corn harvest should be good.
With Xiaoman and Errui gone, and no longer needing to farm, the people on the mountain should have entered a rare period of agricultural leisure, but instead, they became busy.
As the weather gets cooler, Xiaoman and Qiaoyun start making clothes from the new cloth they've woven.
Jiang Zhi and Xu Errui's padded jackets were tattered in the summer, so they simply took them apart to make clothes for Xiao Caixia. Now the two of them are still wearing their autumn jackets and need new ones.
Little Caixia also needs a small blanket and a jacket, and Nini, who is a year older, also needs to add clothes.
Chunfeng's winter clothes are also a problem; the clothes she's wearing now are either Dazhu's or Xiaoman's.
Chunfeng and Jiangzhi were busy every day.
The collected wood ear sticks have been sent into the repaired and sealed charcoal kiln. Instead of sweet potatoes, straw was piled up inside, making it warm and humid, and I thought wood ear mushrooms would grow there.
The oak berries in the mountains are ripe.
Jiang Zhi both loved and hated this food that had helped her survive the famine; she had certainly had enough of it over the past few months.
But wasting food is shameful, and now I feel uneasy if I don't pick up the oak leaves.
Besides Jiang Zhi and Chun Feng, Peppa Pig was also out collecting oak seeds.
People carried baskets on their backs, pigs hung bags on their heads—no one was idle.
Scattered throughout the oak forest were oak berries with their shells still attached. There was no need to search far and wide; Jiang Zhi used a bamboo rake to gather the oak berries, shells and leaves together, into a pile. Chun Feng squatted beside her, quickly prying aside the leaves to reveal the oak berries underneath, and then simply put them into the basket.
Even if it has a shell, just leave it alone. You only need to take it home and rub it a few times when you have some free time and the shell will come off.
Peppa was also busy in the woods, her long beak rummaging through the leaves to eat the fern roots.
Originally, oak seeds, which are rich in starch, were on the wild boar's diet, but now the young wild boars are picky eaters, only eating the inner seeds after the hard shell has been removed.
After filling both baskets, Jiang Zhi packed the bag for the little wild boar, and then everyone headed back.
Over the course of several days, the oak leaves next to the small attic piled up into a small mountain.
During this period, Xiaoman and Xu Errui, who had come down from the mountain to rest on the heated brick bed, returned once.
Xiaoman brought back a bag of candy, which was given to her by the wounded soldiers in the medical shed.
"Master, those wounded soldiers asked if we could have some dried meat to eat?" Xiaoman asked.
Before he could finish speaking, Master Xiaoman got angry: "You've been bragging about your family again?"
Xiaoman shook her head repeatedly in protest, saying aggrievedly, "No, no, sir, how could I say that? It was... that honest man who came down the mountain last time. He said we were eating meat in the clinic!"
The wounded soldiers wanted to trade sugar for meat to satisfy their cravings, so I told them I'd found a wild boar that had been burned to death, and there was still a little bit of dried meat left, just enough for my older brother and the others.
Li Laoshi is an honest man.
No one on the mountain believes he's an honest man now; his reputation has long been ruined. But others will still believe him.
Every day, the mountain dwellers would stew medicinal soup for the wounded soldiers, and Li Laoshi told everyone about it.
Grandpa Xiaoman remained silent for a moment before Xu Dazhu said, "Xiaoman, you said there's no pork, but we can trade the rabbits in the pen for them."
It's no secret that they raise rabbits on the mountain; they use them to replace wounded soldiers without offending anyone.
Xiaoman agreed and then started talking about how she had built a kang (a heated brick bed) in the medical shed.
"My brother Errui and I only needed to teach him how to do it; moving mud bricks and mixing yellow mud were the work of the odd jobs."
The work isn't tiring, and with so many people, it'll be done quickly. It looks like it won't last long, maybe seven or eight days at most.
"Seven or eight days at most, no wonder Commander Zhang dared to pay such high wages!"
Grandpa Xiaoman suddenly realized, but was also somewhat disappointed.
The two of them earned a total of 160 coins a day, and only a little over one tael of silver every seven or eight days, which wasn't even enough to buy ten more quilts for the medical shed.
On the cliff, Xu Errui played with his giggling daughter in his arms. He hadn't been home or seen his child for three days, and he felt empty inside.
Qiaoyun served him a large bowl of oily noodles, with two poached eggs lying in the bowl.
"Eat quickly, or the noodles will clump together!" Qiaoyun picked up her daughter, unbuttoned her clothes, and began breastfeeding.
Xu Errui stared intently at her fair, plump chest for a few moments, then turned to look outside: "Where's Mother?"
Qiaoyun was looking down at the child and didn't notice Xu Errui's actions. She casually said, "Mother has been going to the forest with Wuhua to pick oak berries these past few days and hasn't been home!"
"oh!"
Xu Errui pushed the bowl aside, took out a small cloth bag from his bosom, which was wrapped tightly. He turned it over several times before opening it, revealing a pair of small silver earrings inside.
"Qiaoyun, this is for you, take a look!" Xu Errui handed the silver earrings to Qiaoyun, urging her happily.
"What is that?"
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