As spring turns to autumn, the climate here becomes dry and only one crop can be harvested per year. At this time every year, Qiu Yuling's school gives students a holiday in the name of work-study programs.
Qiu Yuling's family's food was not very good, but they were still alive because she had smuggled a few pheasants from Zhifubao Farm and brought them back.
This is really a virtuous cycle. Although her energy is very difficult to obtain, at this age everyone basically relies on walking for transportation and shouting for communication.
Even if she walked a lot, it didn't seem out of place, so gradually she felt less constrained.
Everyone was like this! Even the women in the team, who went back to their parents' homes, would walk for two or three hours, leading a group of people there and back.
Back to the topic, there were so many eggs on her farm that she couldn't eat them all, so she handed them over to the farm mall to exchange for points. The chickens in the space were also growing well, and she fattened up one batch after another.
She didn't touch the hens much, but exchanged the roosters for local pheasants in the mall, and then used her schoolbag to tie a string around their feet.
Ask her how she would explain the capture process? She learned to use a slingshot from her third brother, and her accuracy was quite good. She once even used a slingshot to shoot a rabbit in front of her three brothers. Of course, she also secretly exchanged the rabbit from the space and released it.
She used the same old method. She dug a hole, placed a thick red willow pole across it, hung the chicken upside down in it, covered it with branches, and filled it with loess. Then she ran back to find her three brothers. When the moon was above the willow trees, the brothers and sisters sneaked out and took the chicken back.
Some are alive, some are dead, but it’s all okay. The dead ones can be eaten right away. Just boil them with salt and ginger slices.
Her mother added chicken blood to the chicken, removed the hair, cleaned it, and fried it with salt and spices. Although it was called spices, there wasn't much in it. She just used whatever was available at home, including dried chilies, Sichuan peppercorns, fennel, licorice, and other things.
Then mix the processed pheasant with the marinade and marinate it for a day and a night. When the time is almost up, use a red willow stick with sharpened ends to poke open the chicken breast, pass a hemp rope through the chicken head, and hang it on the beam until the surface is dry and then you can put it away.
Fortunately, their place is big. Even though it is a village, the households are sparsely distributed. Neighbors have to walk for more than ten minutes to visit. Even in the middle of the night, when the whole family gathers in the kitchen to eat, no one will come looking for them by smelling the food.
There were also two nests of pheasant eggs, which were also "discovered" by Qiu Yuling, and Qiu's mother also marinated them.
Qiu Yuling almost swallowed her tongue while eating. There was meat to eat in her Zhifubao Farm, but it was clearly a year of famine and everyone was starving and skinny. It was not in a good position for her to eat a lot of fish and meat to replenish her delicate skin.
Apart from eating an egg, a cup of goat's milk, a few red dates and an apple a day, she didn't dare to eat or drink too much. As a result, she became more and more conspicuous among her classmates.
She was so scared that she stopped washing her face again. It turned out that Mother Qiu's skin was sunburned due to the plateau. She had grown taller in the past six months, and she was dressed neatly and looked more stylish for school. Her skin was not dark at all, and was considered fair in this remote area. One time, when Mother Qiu was in a good mood, she said it was up to her!
Qiu Yuling looked and saw that the areas of her mother's clothes that were not exposed to the sun were indeed quite white. She felt a little relieved.
But she was still hungry all the time. Although she was a child, she had the heart of an adult, so she still had some resistance.
Therefore, they often don't eat meat. Even though pheasant meat is tough and tasteless, it doesn't prevent all the members of the Qiu family, including Qiu Yuling, from eating it and feeling full and satisfied.
Qiu Yuling was lying on the kang in the middle of the night and thought that this was a good idea. She could exchange some wild rabbits for some time to get through this plague-ridden year.
Because of the bad weather, Qiu Yuling's work-study program in the county was on holiday for more than a month. By the time school resumes, the weather will probably be cold.
They originally grew cotton here, and Qiu Yuling's work-study program this year was used as a personal benefit. She followed Qiu's mother and others to pick cotton. An adult picked 40 kilograms of cotton a day, and was given 10 work points.
Because cotton husks are sharp and prickly, and when picking cotton, the leaves are basically dry, and you have to be careful not to bring too many broken leaves in. If the bag is too dirty, it will affect the delivery of the work, and half of it will be deducted, and everyone's work will be in vain.
Qiu Yuling stuffed all the cotton she picked into her mother's bag. People these days are so honest that no one would try to steal the wool of socialism. Qiu Yuling thought that with such a large cotton field, there must be someone who couldn't resist, but she was overthinking it.
The winter in the northwest is still long, dry and cold. She is still wearing single shoes, which are as thick as a swallow's nest. The big toe of her foot is completely free from soul to body!
She stood up straight and rubbed her waist. This shitty life was so damn hard. Even if she had something, she couldn't find the opportunity to give it away, especially since she was just a little kid. Did she earn it? Or did she pick it up?
She's almost eating dirt, how could there be so many things for her to pick up every day?
Now we are picking cotton. There is a large piece of land and one person stands in a row. These old women don't do much work, so they have to work hard. It's not like the more work they do, the more work points they get. Besides, they are so hungry that they don't have the energy to work hard.
While her hands were busy, her mouth was also busy. Qiu Yuling pricked up her ears to listen, as someone was proposing a marriage proposal to her elder brother.
"Aunt Qiu, your Dashan is eighteen this year, right? It's time for him to get married. Have you found someone?"
Qiu Yuling curled her lips inwardly. She had just heard her adoptive mother and adoptive father nagging the other day, saying that it was time for the eldest son to get married, but in this disaster year, if there was another couple, they might not be able to afford it.
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