A literacy class with a competition between students has officially begun.
During the day, everyone is busy with their own work.
The rice in the terraced fields is looked after by Grandpa Xiaoman and Chunfeng, who also take time to slowly build the terraces.
Xu Errui and Jiang Zhi collected tree leaves for fertilizer, and also looked for suitable soil and stones, and also picked some herbs along the way.
Xiaoman is responsible for patrolling the mountains to prevent refugees from sneaking over; if they are encountered, they will be chased away.
He set traps to catch more pheasants and rabbits, and he also noticed that the wild boars were showing signs of returning.
However, the ditch across the pass clearly left an indelible impression on the wild boars, deterring them from ever crossing it.
Xu Dazhu stayed at home, and Xiaoman made him a simple wooden chair.
She can sit up with the help of the bedding, but her waist is too weak to support her for long, so she needs to tie a cloth band around her body to stabilize it.
Xu Dazhu was already very satisfied with the results. He could sit up, soak hemp and spin yarn, make straw sandals, and do many other things.
In the evening, Grandpa Xiaoman lit a bonfire in the yard early, and everyone gathered together to chat and laugh for a while.
Jiang Zhi brought back the herbs, and everyone learned to identify one herb each day and its name.
Among those who learned to write, Qiaoyun achieved the best and fastest results. Apart from Xiaoman, she was also the youngest. Chunfeng was second.
It is said that motherhood makes one strong, and fearing that it would hinder their children in the future, both mothers are doing their best to remember.
Moreover, being praised by her mother-in-law every day, Qiaoyun walks with her head held high and chest out while carrying Xiao Caixia, and even dares to speak loudly to Xu Errui, who is always making mistakes.
Next were Xu Dazhu and Xu Errui, while Xiaoman made mistakes for several days in a row, saying that she had forgotten to study while alone on the mountain.
He wasn't annoyed by Xiaoman's scolding; he just chuckled and said he'd take it seriously next time.
Jiang Zhi quickly learned the names of more than a dozen medicines. Without making a sound, she secretly wrote other medicine names on the back of the paper with charcoal and mixed them in.
The days passed peacefully, and before long, the autumn colors began to appear in the mountains.
The mountains are still lush and green, but some of the trees are beginning to turn yellow, leaves are falling and fluttering, and the forest is ablaze with color.
The melons and vegetables on the hillside are gone, leaving only some old leaves and withered vines. The cotton stalks in the field are also bare, with some leaves withered and yellow, and others knocked down by the branches.
Jiang Zhi has been managing the cotton planting, and now there are only a few cotton bolls left on the stalks.
Before the autumn rains arrive, harvest the last batch of cotton.
Jiang Zhi picked all the cotton bolls and prepared to uproot the stalks and clear the land.
Pulling up cotton stalks is a skill-intensive task. The roots are deep and the stalks are thick. If you are not strong enough, you can't pull them up. If you are too strong, you can't stand steadily. Moreover, this is on a sloping slope. If you are not careful, you will fall down the mountain.
Sloping land also has its advantages.
Jiang Zhi didn't use her strength for hard work. She tied a rope to a wooden stick, placed one end on a high part of the slope, and used the lever principle to lift it up by the roots. It was effortless and perfect for lazy people.
The little wild boar followed beside him, grunting and squealing.
Whenever Jiangzhi pulls up a cotton stalk, exposing the loose soil underneath, it quickly uses its long beak to rummage around, turning over a large patch of soil in a few moments to search for snails, insects, and tender grass stems.
But as it was eating, the little wild boar got distracted and saw something more attractive to it.
Actually, wild boars also like cotton bolls, specifically the tender ones that haven't yet developed cotton inside. They're juicy and sweet when you pinch them.
They also eat the opened cotton, chewing the cottonseeds inside until they are mushy.
Jiang Zhi wouldn't let the little wild boar eat the cotton bolls. Although the cotton hadn't fully grown, it already had fibers, which would help with digestion; it would eat as much as it would excrete.
When I was a child, I saw badgers eating cotton bolls. Every day, I would find a large pile of droppings by the mountain spring stream, which were full of undigested cotton.
Now that wild boars are also being eaten, Jiang Zhi is afraid that they will also produce excrement in the same way.
"Pork belly! Don't you dare steal a bite!"
With a loud shout, the little wild boar, who was secretly eating cotton bolls from the basket next to it, was startled. The basket overturned and rolled far away, spilling its white cotton bolls all over the ground.
The little wild boar realized it had caused trouble and tried to run away, but it was too late.
Jiang Zhi grabbed its ear, put a big hand on its left cheek and a hand on its right cheek, making it scream. It shook its head, pulled its ear back, and ran away.
The wild boar, weighing several dozen kilograms, was very strong. Jiang Zhi couldn't grab it and was instead pulled off balance.
The wild boar ran a few steps, then turned back and grunted, as if mocking Jiang Zhi for not being able to catch it.
As if overnight, the little wild boar's markings disappeared, its short snout grew longer, and it became a long-snout, brownish-yellow monster.
Even his once bright and sparkling eyes are gone, replaced by a rebellious teenager who rolls his eyes at any moment.
Nini can no longer braid Peppa's hair; Peppa is growing too fast, and when she's happy, she gets wild and doesn't know her own strength.
With the slightest touch, Nini would be knocked over and fall flat on her face, crying loudly every now and then.
Despite being disliked, the little wild boar didn't care at all; it still liked to follow Jiang Zhi around.
Even if they had just been beaten, they forgot about it in half a minute and started clinging to people begging for food, turning from cute and innocent pork belly into tough and shrewish meat.
Seeing the thick-skinned little wild boar acting so cheeky, Jiang Zhi cursed, "Pork belly, I'll eat you when we get back!"
She didn't have time to argue with the wild boar; she had to hurry and gather the cotton stalks.
In the spring, seeds were sown on large areas of hillsides burned by wildfires, but after more than half a year, it was found that most of these areas were not suitable for crop growth.
After careful selection, only this cotton boll field and vegetable garden were chosen, as the slope was relatively gentle and the soil was slightly thicker, and they planned to take good care of it.
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This piece of land is about two acres in size, with slightly thicker soil and a relatively gentle slope.
Because winter wheat will be planted on the slope next, the land will be burned again before that.
One reason was to increase fertility, so they burned the leaves collected from the nearby forest.
Secondly, it is also for weeding and pest control, to clean up the grass roots and seeds in the soil.
There are no shortcuts to reclaiming wasteland. Only through repeated labor year after year, turning raw soil into fertile soil, and pouring our hearts and sweat into the land, can barren slopes be transformed into fertile land.
Xu Errui and Xiaomanye were digging sweet potatoes nearby.
This year's sweet potatoes are barely growing, but fortunately the area is large enough that vines have been planted wherever possible, so now we have to break through the cracks in the rocks to find them.
Grandpa Xiaoman finally managed to pull a sweet potato as thick as his arm out of a crack in the rock, his face crinkling with a smile: "It's really rare to be able to harvest something from this rocky mountain."
The little grain grown on the mountain was definitely not enough to eat, so we ate mostly melons and vegetables all summer.
Wheat and corn were also ground into powder and cooked into porridge to be eaten sparingly.
Now we have rice and flour from the downhill trade, as well as these sweet potatoes and dried vegetables, and the oak powder we can collect soon, so we have enough food to get through the rest of the winter.
After harvesting the cotton, these cotton stalks need to be taken back to be used as firewood, so they are temporarily piled up on the side of the ground to dry.
The withered grass in the field was all gathered up, just waiting to be dried before being burned to ashes.
The wild boar that was just stealing cotton bolls ran up to Grandpa Xiaoman and started eating sweet potato vines.
Grandpa Xiaoman didn't chase it away, but just patted its back and said regretfully, "How could I forget to castrate it earlier? Let's see who can control you when you grow up!"
Just thinking about a wild boar weighing over 100 pounds walking around is terrifying. If it doesn't obey, it can only be eaten as meat, and it'll be pork belly.
The little wild boar was unmoved by Grandpa Xiaoman's words; it only focused on eating. Of all the people here, it was only afraid of one person's slap.
By the time we finished work and went home, the little wild boar that had been eating for free had already eaten its fill.
After eating, it was time to get back to work. The little wild boar picked up its bag and carried it to Jiang Zhi.
This time, the two bags of cotton bolls filled the backpack, which the little wild boar carried effortlessly. When everyone else walked together, it strolled leisurely behind with its short legs.
I did some work today, so I'll definitely get a reward of some cooked porridge, or at least some sweet potato roots that I can eat until they're soft and full.
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