"Yes, I saw a shack under a broken wall today... that's my home!"
Xiaoman frowned deeply.
Their own house was burned down, but the courtyard wall and bricks were still there. They never expected that someone would pick up the broken bricks and tiles and build a shack against the courtyard wall.
Although there are still two or three such shacks in the village, he still cares about the location of his former home.
From a distance, he could only see half a corner of the thatched hut and couldn't see the people inside clearly.
Xiaoman was still hoping that she could return home after the chaos of war subsided.
He felt terrible seeing someone else take it.
The village was burned for three months. After being battered by rain and wind, the ashes seeped into the mud, and green grass grew in the corners and ditches.
The green leaves have covered the former ruins and attracted new life. Perhaps in the near future, a new village will be formed.
People are living in the village now!
However, thinking about the tragic situation of Zhao Li's family, Jiang Zhi still dared not bring people back to the village now.
She thought for a moment and said, "We still need to be careful and avoid meeting with those refugees. The harvest on the mountain will begin in another month, and we can't afford to cause trouble during this time!"
Xiaoman and Xu Errui nodded repeatedly: "Yes, I didn't repair the road that was destroyed by the last rainstorm, so those refugees have no way to get to this mountain."
The last rainstorm washed away several sections of the mountain road, and Xiaoman has been climbing the cliff with ropes all this time.
Although it was a bit troublesome, it was effective. For example, people don't need to panic too much when they hear about the migrants entering the village today.
Jiang Zhi still felt uneasy; she felt she needed to make some more preparations.
"Xiaoman, make the rabbit trap a little bigger, and set it up in the woods that can be bypassed and come towards us."
Xiaoman was taken aback: "Auntie, are you going to deal with those refugees?"
Jiang Zhi nodded: "You know I've been rock climbing, but what if others know too? It's better to be safe than sorry, I can't afford to take the risk!"
The elderly, the infirm, and the disabled gather here; we should think the worst.
Qiaoyun was able to get up and do some simple housework, and Jiangzhi also had more time to do her own things.
The next day, she carried her basket into the forest again.
This time, Jiang Zhi needs to find a special drug, a poisonous yet life-saving medicine.
But she had been searching in the mountains for so long and still hadn't seen a trace of it, after all, this mountain was quite ordinary.
Thinking about where the medicine usually grows, Jiang Zhi searched again.
It resembles mugwort in shape and has roots similar to Jerusalem artichokes. It is hailed as the most poisonous plant in the world, but also as the most effective medicine for saving lives.
The flowers, leaves, stems, and roots are all poisonous, and the sap contains toxins. It needs to be boiled for more than 2 hours before it can be taken as medicine.
This medicine embodies the core principles of the Yang-supporting school of Traditional Chinese Medicine!
In ancient times, people liked to crush this substance into juice and then apply it to arrowheads to kill wild animals and enemies.
Li Shizhen once said, "**The juice is extracted, dried, and used as poison to shoot birds and beasts, hence the name 'shooting net'!"
Farmers can also use it to make homemade pesticides to kill pests, which work by using toxins to paralyze the nerves and cause arrhythmia.
The search lasted another five days, covering almost every corner of the mountain, and finally they found it near the foot of the mountain.
Jiang Zhi was overjoyed and quickly dug up the tubers below.
Cut a dozen or so oak branches, sharpen them to make javelins, and then manipulate them a bit more to create a deadly weapon that can kill instantly.
To prevent others from accidentally taking and injuring her, Jiang Zhi hid the poisoned javelin in the wooden attic where she dried her medicinal herbs.
During this time, she went to change Xu Dazhu's dressing again.
No miracle occurred immediately.
But Xu Dazhu said that the area where the medicine was applied felt comfortable and numb, and the bloating and pain that made him feel uncomfortable every day was relieved.
Whether it's the effect of the medicine or the psychological aspect, any reaction is a good thing; these things can't be rushed.
People have hope and patience, and they are not afraid of a long time as long as it works.
Xiaoman's face lit up with smiles. Every day she diligently went to find crabs, catch snails, and trap rabbits. She even brought dry food with her when she went out to eat, and didn't return until dark.
The weather in the mountains is like a child's face; when the clouds disperse, the sun shines brightly, and when the clouds gather, there are thunderstorms and strong winds.
But compared to the thunderstorm when Xiao Caixia was born, the subsequent rains were nothing; in fact, they caused Jiang Zhi to catch thunder fungus a few more times.
The wood ear mushrooms in the forest have grown up, covering the oak trees, and a single harvest can fill half a basket.
Oak wood ear mushrooms have always been considered a top-grade food due to their tender, elastic texture and unique flavor, and this is no exception.
Xiaoman and her friends used to go up the mountain to pick wood ear mushrooms and sell them in the city.
However, everyone in Xujia Village has to pick them. The mountain is so big that each household can only pick them once at most, and there aren't many dried.
Jiang Zhi was eager to grow the dried wood ear mushrooms, thinking how wonderful it would be if she could grow them herself. A pound of dried wood ear mushrooms could fetch one tael of silver.
The most crucial element in growing wood ear mushrooms is the seedlings. Temperature and humidity, if controlled properly, can be sold year-round. It's easier than making dried bamboo shoots, which I figured out on my own, and it's also more profitable.
After all, the dried bamboo shoots still need to be picked from the mountain, and it's easy to learn the method if someone is right under your nose.
Jiang Zhi wasn't exactly an expert in wood ear mushroom cultivation; he had only seen farmers growing them before when he was collecting medicinal herbs, and out of curiosity, he learned about it.
The farmer grows these crops because he is selling them himself and wants to ensure that the food is safe to eat.
So instead of preparing a special room for the wood ear mushrooms, they simply dug a pit in their own yard that was one meter wide and one meter deep.
A frame was built on top using bamboo strips, and branches were laid on top to block the sunlight.
A narrow ditch was dug on both sides of the bottom of the pit, with the middle serving as a walkway for management. Wooden sticks containing fungi were placed against the pit walls on both sides of the path.
This method of growing wood ear mushrooms is less affected by external climate and the humidity is easier to maintain, but the yield is low.
If we plant here, even if the yield is lower, it will still be more than what we harvest from the mountains.
Jiang Zhi picked the wood ear mushrooms and went back. Xiao Caixia was still sleeping. Qiaoyun was squatting at the door, washing diapers with warm water from the sun.
Qiaoyun gained weight during her postpartum confinement, and her complexion became rosy and fair as she breastfed her baby.
She saw that her mother-in-law had brought back another basket of dried black fungus, so she quickly stood up to take it: "Mom, the dried black fungus from yesterday was just dried, so there's room to dry some new ones."
Jiang Zhi saw her squatting lazily and immediately frowned, saying scarely, "I've told you several times, sit when you're going to sit, stand when you're going to stand, you can't work squatting like this, it'll cause you health problems later."
When she was a child, she went to the mountains with her grandfather to collect herbs and saw an elderly woman in her eighties or nineties asking for a prescription for her uterine prolapse.
I learned from my grandfather that medical conditions in the mountains are poor, and these old women have been sick since they were young. For decades, they have been walking around with a lump of flesh between their legs, and it is not good for them to live.
Qiaoyun is still in her postpartum period. Although squatting for a short time will not cause any problems, if she takes advantage of her youth and squats for a long time without any regard for the consequences, or does heavy work, it will increase abdominal pressure and there is a risk of uterine prolapse.
This is an era without surgical repairs, and there will be multiple births in the future. Not having this concept in mind will be a disadvantage.
Qiaoyun knew she had been scolded by her mother-in-law again, so she replied with an embarrassed smile, "I didn't squat for long, I just squatted down."
Jiang Zhi glanced at the row of diapers hanging out to dry beside her and couldn't bear to expose her lie. She decided that she and Er Rui should wash the diapers themselves more often during this time.
The diapers were moved to a new location. There were just too many things that needed to be dried on the mountain, and there was almost no open space in the small courtyard, so we had to rotate them.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com