Chapter 19: He worked hard to make money in the mountains, while she enjoyed the favor at the foot of the mountains...
Qi Fang must have asked someone in advance, and he knew exactly where to register for the family team and what materials were required.
The forest farm does recruit family teams, which are mainly divided into agricultural teams and seasonal workers.
The agricultural team is responsible for a large piece of land south of the forest farm, about 600 to 700 acres. They mainly grow vegetables to supply the forest farm canteen, and also grow grain to sell to forest farm employees.
After all, the forest farm lacked private plots, and since houses were close together and individual vegetable gardens were small, the monthly food distribution wasn't always enough. Selling food to forest farm workers not only solved the food shortage problem but also provided income for the workers' families.
The only difference is that you earn less, and you have to wait until the goods are sold before you can get paid based on the work you've done. The forest farm is close to the mountains, and wild animals often come down to harm the crops. In the autumn, you need to take turns watching over the crops (keeping them from being eaten or stolen before they are fully ripe).
Yan Xue concluded that it takes a long time and has a low rate of return, not much different from the rural areas inside the pass.
As for seasonal workers, they do the hard work, mainly clearing and protecting forests at forest farms. They earn more than agricultural workers, but there's not always work.
However, there is not always work, which means there is more spare time, which makes it convenient to go up the mountain to do side jobs. Most real forest elders choose this.
Yan Xue thought about it and decided to choose seasonal work based on her own situation, which came with greater risks and potentially higher returns.
She had to support her younger brother, and the agricultural team's income was really limited, so she might as well give it a try and go hiking in the mountains with Huang Fengying and the others every year.
Of course, it was only the end of February, and the family team wouldn't have work until March at the earliest, so she went there mainly to sign up.
The captain of the family team was a thin man in his forties, surnamed Lin. He had probably caught a cold recently and had been coughing since Yan Xue entered the door.
His wife, on the other hand, was quite young, about thirty-four or thirty-five, and was pretty, with upturned eyes and a smile that entered her eyes whenever she saw someone.
After hearing Yan Xue's purpose, Captain Lin put on his clothes and got down from the kang, and took out a notebook from the desk drawer.
Yan Xue showed her household registration and marriage certificate to the other party and registered her information. Captain Lin then coughed and told her to go back and wait for news, and he would notify her if there was work.
Captain Lin's wife personally escorted her to the door. "So you are Xiao Qi's wife. I was wondering if he was going to find someone to match his good looks."
From the sound of his voice, it seemed like he knew Qi Fang and had known that Qi Fang was married. I don’t know if it was because of Yu Yongzhi’s fuss.
Yan Xue maintained her character as a new bride and smiled shyly without saying much. But when she looked up, she met Yu Cuiyun who was about to enter the room.
Yu Cuiyun also saw her and frowned, but Captain Lin's wife smiled and said, "What brings you here?"
In addition to the enthusiasm in their tone, there was also a bit of familiar banter, which seemed to indicate that the two had a good relationship.
Yu Cuiyun stopped looking at Yan Xue. "Aren't you close to Master Jia? My son Jianjun wants a pair of roller skates. I went to borrow the blueprints from someone, but couldn't find any. So I wanted you to go to Master Jia's and see if he has someone who can make them. If so, you can make a pair for my son Jianjun. You happen to know his shoe size."
It was not known whether he was speaking to Captain Lin's wife or deliberately telling Yan Xue that she could find a way to get the shoes even if she didn't give him the blueprints.
Captain Lin's wife agreed immediately, "Okay, I'll go check it out for you later. I just don't know if he has done it."
"Of course there is. We don't have another carpenter in our forest farm. If not him, who else can we ask to do it?"
As Yu Cuiyun spoke, she deliberately glanced at Yan Xue again.
Yan Xue was not angry at all. Not to mention that the thing was not researched by her, even if it was, patents were not protected in this era, and sooner or later someone would learn it.
If the other party has the ability, he can do it himself. Anyway, she won't give him the drawings if he asks for them with that attitude.
Her expression did not change at all. She smiled and said goodbye to Captain Lin's wife, then pulled her scarf up and prepared to go to Master Jia to see if her things were ready.
It’s not a big thing. She sent the blueprints over the day before yesterday, so it should be finished today.
Yan Xue's reaction was like a punch on cotton, making Yu Cuiyun feel like a clown jumping around, and she couldn't help but feel angry.
And this Yan Xue's eyes...
The person was almost gone when Yu Cuiyun finally remembered, "I was wondering why he looked so familiar. Turns out he was the one who spoke to Lao Liang the other day."
"Who talked to Xiao Liang?" Captain Lin's wife immediately looked over and asked.
"Just now, Yan Xue kept asking if my old Liang was sick. It's obvious she's not a good person."
"Xiao Liang knows her?" Captain Lin's wife was surprised. "She's only been at the forest farm for a few days?"
"Who knows? Anyway, I feel sick when I see her like that. Why did she come to your house? She came to see your Captain Lin..."
Master Jia's house was not far from Captain Lin's house. Yan Xue went over to ask and found out that the things were really ready.
Master Jia worked meticulously, sanding the entire surface twice, inside and out. "If you're not in a hurry to use it, go back and apply a layer of clear varnish."
Then I asked her, "What the hell is this? It doesn't look like a stick, and it doesn't look like a scratcher."
"For massage." Yan Xue checked and found no problems, so she paid the price agreed upon before.
Master Jia took it and looked at it a few more times in confusion. "Is this thing for massage? Why are you using all these weird things lately?"
Yan Xue guessed that he was talking about roller skates. She had already seen that Master Jia had finished half of the shoe soles, and she estimated that there would be more of them in the forest farm soon.
She didn't plan to go back and varnish the massager she had just received. Firstly, it was unnecessary, and secondly, varnish not only had a smell but was also bad for the body. So she took it directly to Liu's house.
She happened to go there, and Mr. Liu happened to be at home, feeding the dog in the yard. He smiled when he saw her and said, "You're here."
"Grandpa Liu." Yan Xue greeted him with a smile, "Just in time for you to be at home, I brought you something." She shook the massager in her hand.
"What are you talking about?" Old Master Liu already knew that she had given Liu Chuncai roller skates, and he came over with his hands behind his back to take a look.
"It's a massager." Yan Xue urged him into the house. "Try it. I guarantee it'll make you feel good. If not, you can ask me for compensation."
"You're not going to sell it to me, are you? I'm going to ask you for compensation."
The old man asked with a fierce look on his face, but was still urged by her to go in and sit on the edge of the kang.
The thing Yan Xue asked Master Jia to make was actually quite simple: a dolphin-shaped massager. It just didn't vibrate, and only had a ball bearing in the middle.
After the old man rolled around a few times with her, he immediately noticed something different and took over and continued rolling.
Huang Fengying watched from the side, "Xiao Yan, this thing is good. Dad, don't you always say that the back of your shoulder hurts? You can't reach it yourself, and you refuse when others want to massage it for you. Now it's being massaged."
Mr. Liu kept silent for a long time with a fierce look on his face. "The clothes are a bit thick."
"If it's thick, go back to your room at night and take off your cotton clothes to massage it." Huang Fengying laughed and asked Yan Xue, "Is this something you've seen before?"
Yan Xue could only say yes, "I also saw Grandpa Liu always massaging his shoulders, especially the side with the wooden warehouse on his back. I thought I'd seen someone do it before, so I asked Master Jia to give it a try."
He smiled again and said, "Don't be polite to me. Your family has helped us a lot and even shared a lot of prey with us."
"You gave me money, but you're talking like it was free." Huang Fengying laughed and scolded her, "After all, it's you who's willing to think about us."
Old Master Liu didn't interrupt until the two of them finished talking. Then he suddenly asked Yan Xue, "When it snows in a couple of days, I'll go up the mountain to set up traps. Do you want to go?"
"Me?" Yan Xue showed surprise on her face without hiding it.
Even Huang Fengying was a little surprised. There were people in the forest farm who were interested in the old man's craft and brought gifts to learn it, but the old man refused all of them. He actually offered to bring Yan Xue along.
What Mr. Liu saw was Yan Xue's surprise. At least she was just thinking about what kind of massager was suitable for him, and not having any other purpose.
The old man pressed his shoulder and glanced at Yan Xue. "Last time when we went to the mountains to blow up pine cones, didn't you ask me a lot about hunting?"
Yan Xue did ask. Firstly, the old man was carrying the wooden barn at the time, and she was really curious; secondly, she wanted to find out all the ways the forest farm could make money, just in case there was something she could use.
The old man put down the massager and said, "If you want to go, go back and prepare your things. I'll call you when it's ready."
This was really a pleasant surprise. Originally, there was no work in the family team, and Yan Xue had nothing to do. She went up the mountain to learn how to make condoms. Even if she couldn't exchange it for money, at least she could have something to eat in the future.
She went back and prepared thin wire and rope according to Mr. Liu's requirements, as well as a water bottle, dry food and the equipment she used to blow up pine cones last time.
The old man waited patiently for a few days, and only after a light snow fell on the forest farm did he notify Yan Xue to set off. Huang Fengying, who helped the old man carry his tools, also accompanied them. "The children have gone to school, so I asked them to bring their own lunch and come out with them to help Dad."
The so-called trapping is actually setting traps in places where prey often pass by, mainly using various rope snares and wire snares.
As the saying goes, "A rabbit turns around the hillside and comes back to its nest." This refers to a habit of wild animals, that is, they will keep taking the path they think is safe.
There will naturally be traces left on the road that animals often walk on, especially after it snows in winter. Experienced hunters can tell at a glance what animal left the traces and how long ago they left them.
It would be much more troublesome in the summer. What you mainly look for is not footprints, but feces on the ground, teeth marks on the grass, and where the grass is trampled down or stretched.
Not long after entering the mountain, the old man found the traces of wild rabbits and called Huang Fengying: "Wire."
Huang Fengying hurriedly took it out of her bag and handed it over.
The old man took it and, using the help of nearby branches, he coiled the wire into a circle to make a pig's hoof buckle, which he placed right in the middle of the rabbit trail. At the same time, he explained to Yan Xue how to distinguish rabbit footprints.
There is a lot of knowledge involved here, mainly because you have to judge the size of the rabbit based on the size of the footprints, and then determine the height and size of the trap.
If it is too big, it will easily get stuck on the belly; if it is too small, even the head cannot fit in; if it is too high or too low, the condom will not work.
Yan Xue listened and learned along the way. When she found some suspected animal footprints on the road, she also tried to make two sets.
I don't know if the footprints were right, but the condom looked decent. Old Master Liu stood by with his hands behind his back, watching, giving a few pointers before nodding, "Not bad."
"It means you did a good job." Huang Fengying translated for her father-in-law, "When I first followed the old man up the mountain, he never said I was okay."
In the end, he made a lot of rabbit traps and pheasant traps. The old man also found a few roe deer footprints and made a hanging trap using branches and ropes.
This type of snare is mainly used to snare larger animals such as roe deer and deer. The branches must be elastic enough and the snare is tied with a rope. Once the animal touches the mechanism, the elasticity will be used to snare the animal's hooves and hang it up.
In order to do this, the old man dug some snow and found some lichens that roe deer like to eat and spread them on the noose as bait.
Then they waited for the next day to walk the sets, and the group went home. Yan Xue was very careful in her work and even drew several sets of sets that she had learned in a notebook.
As a result, when they went up the mountain the next day, the old man brought a dog with him to prevent wild animals from coveting the prey in the trap. The first trap they set was empty, and the prey in the trap had been eaten by wild animals.
I went to see the second one, and there were only some wreckage left. This was the case with three or four more.
The old man was so angry that he laughed, "Are you targeting me specifically to pick up bargains?"
In fact, it is common for prey in traps to be eaten by wild beasts. The key point is that the old man encountered one the first time he took Yan Xue up the mountain to trap, which really slapped him in the face.
Yan Xue didn't particularly care about the result. "At least you got the traps right? I see these traps are quite far away. Maybe it wasn't done by a wild animal."
Her attitude was quite good. Old Master Liu glanced at her and said, "Go check on your guys."
Yan Xue's group had a rather dismal harvest. They had two rabbit traps and one pheasant trap, but they didn't hit any of them.
She was not annoyed, and said to Mr. Liu with a smile: "I just say that your skills are better."
"How many years have I been doing this?" Mr. Liu pointed to the last rabbit trap. "I think this one is fine. Come and take a look tomorrow."
Even if the condom is put on, there will not be immediate harvest, Yan Xue nodded.
Mr. Liu held the dog and said, "That's all for today. I said I'd bring you here to set a trap, but you failed miserably."
After everyone walked out, they found that Yan Xue was still standing there without moving, and even took a few steps back.
"Grandpa Liu," Yan Xue stared at a small mark near the rabbit trap, "Do you think this looks like a roe deer's footprint?"
Afraid that she didn't remember it correctly, she took out a notebook from her bag to compare it. "It is indeed forked in the middle like a cow's hoof, but it is smaller than a cow's hoof." This was what the old man taught her yesterday when he was making a hanging leg sleeve.
Herbivores like roe deer and deer basically have hard hooves, unlike carnivores that need to hunt with pads under their claws.
The old man didn't pay much attention at first. He came over to take a look, but then squatted down. "It seems so. I'm afraid there are more than one."
"Did you run into a herd of roe deer?" Huang Fengying also came over to see. "I remember there weren't any yesterday, right?"
Yan Xue thought about it carefully and said, "I don't remember seeing it yesterday either."
"Those might be fresh footprints," Old Man Liu said after carefully examining them. He looked in the direction where the footprints disappeared. "Let's catch up and see. Maybe they haven't gone far."
Perhaps their bad luck had all run out before, and this time they actually caught something.
A group of animals that looked like deer but were smaller than deer appeared in their sight. There were about seven or eight of them, with grass-yellow fur, short tails with a tuft of white hair on their tails. They were digging the snow with their hooves, looking for something to eat under the snow.
"It's a group of roe deer." Huang Fengying said in a low voice, "Roe deer usually move around with one male leading two or three females and a few young ones."
After walking a little closer, Mr. Liu raised his hand, and Huang Fengying and Yan Xue stopped moving. Only he approached quietly, looking for the angle to hold the wooden warehouse while letting out the dog leash.
With a crack of a wooden sack, the two hunting dogs, which had been waiting for a long time, rushed out and bit their prey fiercely. The remaining roe deer were frightened, the white hair on their tails stood up, and they spread their hooves and ran away. Their speed on the snow was incredible, and in the blink of an eye, they were dozens of meters away.
"So fast?" Yan Xue was really surprised.
"The roe deer is nicknamed 'flying on snow,'" Huang Fengying said. "It's very fast and it specifically chooses places with ice or slippery conditions."
"Wouldn't that be difficult to catch up?"
"Not necessarily. Just watch for yourself."
As soon as Huang Fengying finished speaking, the group of roe deer that were walking briskly in front suddenly stopped, stood still and began to look back.
"You're not running anymore?" Yan Xue estimated that they had only run more than a mile, which was not safe at all.
As a result, the group of roe deer not only stopped moving forward, but also started running back...
Yan Xue was completely speechless. "Don't these roe deer fear death? Why are they running back?"
"Otherwise, why would it be called a silly roe deer?" Huang Fengying said, "This creature is incredibly curious and has to turn around to see what's going on."
Mr. Liu didn't say anything, but picked up the mucang and chased over there. Soon, he opened the mucang and knocked down another one.
This time the roe deer finally knew to run far away, and they ran in one breath until they became several small black dots flying in the sight.
"That's enough, I can't catch up." Old Master Liu put down the wooden basket in his hand.
Continuing Huang Fengying's previous words, she said, "We brought the dogs today. Otherwise, if you hit one, they sometimes won't run away. They'll just gather around and see what happens."
"Then this thing must be very fertile, otherwise it would have been killed long ago." Yan Xue commented.
Huang Fengying laughed out loud when she heard this and went to her bag to find a knife. "Okay, since we can't hit them, let's deal with these first."
Seeing Yan Xue looking at her in confusion, she explained, "In the winter, the temperature in the mountains is low, and the surface of the prey will freeze in a short time. If the internal organs are not processed, they will easily become stuffy and the meat will become smelly."
Yan Xue heard this and hurried over to help. There were four roe deer in total: one male, two females, and one young one. All the internal organs were taken out and fed to the hunting dogs first.
What the hunting dogs don’t eat is hung on trees as an offering to the mountain god.
No matter how much they tried to eliminate the four olds, people in mountainous areas still depended on the mountains for their livelihood and had many things to pay attention to, and respecting the mountain gods was the most important thing.
For example, the wooden stakes left over from logging in the mountains are the altars for the mountain god. You cannot sit on them. You can only sit on fallen wood or stones. Liu Chuncai told Yan Xue about this the first time he entered the mountains.
If you want to go into the mountains to pick ginseng, there are more rules. Yan Xue had heard about this when she was selling mountain products in her previous life.
After the internal organs were processed and snow was stuffed into the chamber, the temperature soon dropped. Several people also grabbed snow to wash their hands.
The Northeast is cold in winter, and it is often difficult to get water in the mountains. The snow that can be seen everywhere becomes the most convenient source of water.
When you mop the floor at home, you don’t need to wash the mop. Just shovel some snow onto the ground and sweep it with a broom and there will be no dust.
If you don’t have enough water to cook at home, you don’t need to get more water. Just put the snow into the pot and heat it up, then throw in the cabbage, frozen tofu, and it will be ready in no time.
In the past, the older generation would simply drink snow when they went up the mountain to save time, which led to many people suffering from bad teeth as they aged. Mr. Liu was quite particular, always bringing an aluminum kettle with him when he went up the mountain. When he sat down to rest, he would build a fire and boil the snow before drinking it.
Thanks to this group of silly roe deer, Yan Xue and his friends finally did not return empty-handed from their trip into the mountains this time.
After removing the entrails from the male, the remaining weight was about 50 to 60 kilograms. The female was slightly smaller, but even the smaller one weighed about 30 kilograms. In those days, during festivals and holidays, each person was only given a kilogram of meat, which was enough to provide a comfortable life for the whole family for a long time.
Huang Fengying directly gave Yan Xue a female and said, "Your family is small, so I won't give you more."
Without waiting for Yan Xue to say anything, she started to instruct, "This thing has parasites under the skin. You must clean it after peeling it."
Looking at Yan Xue's petite figure and watery eyes, he said, "Forget it, I'll get it done for you when we get back."
"Auntie, I'm not that timid." Yan Xue was at a loss whether to laugh or cry.
But since things had come to this, she didn't refuse anymore and followed the two of them back to the Liu family.
"I'm going up the mountain tomorrow to bring some meat to Weiguo and his father. Do you want to go?" Huang Fengying asked Yan Xue on the way.
Yan Xue then remembered that she had a husband. "Okay, when are you planning to leave?"
If it weren't for Qi Fang, she wouldn't have married into this forest farm. It's impossible for others to work hard in the mountains to earn a living while she lives a comfortable life at the foot of the mountain, right?
When she returned home that day, Yan Xue first gave a few pounds of roe deer meat to Aunt Guo next door to thank her for her help in her wedding.
She used the remaining ingredients to make herself a stir-fried meat, using a pan hot with dried chilies. When she was cutting the meat, she discovered that the roe deer meat was much more tender than wild boar meat.
It tasted better than wild boar meat, a bit like venison, and was mainly lean meat. When Yan Xue opened the door to let out the smell of chili peppers, she heard the little grandson of the Guo family next door cheering.
The next day, she made two dishes for Qi Fang, one was stir-fried thin slices, and the other was braised short ribs.
She used up half a rack of spare ribs, stuffed the aluminum lunch box to the brim, and then took it to Liu's house, and together with Huang Fengying, she took advantage of the internal combustion engine that went up the mountain to deliver things.
The carriage of the internal combustion engine was much smaller than that of the small train, and had fewer seats. It was filled with items purchased collectively by the forest farm, as well as radishes, cabbages, and potatoes that had just been dug out from the large cellar.
There are hundreds of people on the mountain who need to feed themselves, and the amount of food and vegetables consumed every day is a huge number.
When they arrived at the camp on the mountain, the person in charge of logistics came over to unload the things. Huang Fengying and Yan Xue got out of the car and headed towards the work area where the sound of machinery was coming from.
"Isn't it a bad idea for us to go over here like this?" Yan Xue reminded Huang Fengying, "The last time I came here, Director Yu scolded me."
"What's wrong with him?" Huang Fengying was speechless.
Thinking that Qi Fang and Yan Xue were young people from other places and had no roots in the forest farm, she said, "Then you wait here for me. I'll go ask them when they'll stop for dinner."
Afraid that Yan Xue would worry, he added: "It's okay, I can just shout when I get there, no need to go closer."
Yan Xue didn't say anything else and found a sheltered place outside the camp to wait.
Compared to the last time she came, there were fewer trees on the mountain, and it looked bare from a distance.
I don’t know how many years it will take to recover after this logging. It seems that logging has been stopped in the Changbai Mountain area and the Greater and Lesser Khingan Mountains since 2000.
Yan Xue was thinking, and suddenly someone shouted without warning -
"Don't move! There's a black blind man behind you!"
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