Chapter 159 Frozen to Death
There is an old saying, 'When thunder and snow fall, people eat iron.'
In other words, if heavy snow is accompanied by thunder, the grain production will decrease next year, and there may even be no harvest at all.
Zhao Yeqing thought of her field of wheat and sighed deeply.
Mu Xi stirred the porridge in the pot. The weather had been too bad recently, so the two of them brought the necessary seasonings and kitchen utensils into the house and simply cooked in the room.
It’s not good if the smoke is too heavy, most of the time it’s used for eating out of a soup pot or cooking porridge or noodles.
Now there is a pot of highland barley and pig bone porridge in the pot. The pig bone is from wild boar, pickled with salt, and it smells salty and fresh when cooked in the porridge.
There was another small pot next to the fire, containing bean sprout soup.
Bean sprouts soup has a slight sweetness and is very refreshing. Bean sprouts are sweet and crisp, and it would be even better if they could be put in spicy soup.
While eating bean sprouts, Zhao Yeqing thought of boiled fish again. He had been eating bland soup for nearly a week and it was really unbearable.
At most you can add a chili dip, so it still tastes good and there won’t be any odor in the room.
Now that ventilation is impossible, if you cook heavy-tasting food like hot pot in the room, your clothes and quilts will be stained with the smell.
The mung bean sprouts grew very successfully this time. After dinner, Zhao Yeqing went to get some more mung beans to soak, intending to grow another pot.
Suddenly there was a sudden roar from outside.
Zhao Yeqing's hand holding the basket shook subconsciously.
The roar of winter thunder is not a good thing. Mu Xi looked out the window and saw that the lightning was caught in the clouds, making the dark clouds flicker.
The unfinished highland barley porridge on the stove became thicker and thicker. Zhao Yeqing added some hot water into it, wrapped the handle with a towel, took it off the fire, and placed it next to the fire.
After a burst of lightning and thunder, the wind and snow outside the window seemed to have finally subsided a little.
Not knowing if it would continue to grow, Mu Xi took this opportunity to go out and prepare food for dinner.
The water in the room was almost used up. When I went to the back of the yard to fetch water, I found that the firewood shed behind the rabbit pen had collapsed at some point.
Maybe it was because the wind and snow were so strong that the whimpering of the wind covered it up, and I couldn't see clearly through the window, so I didn't notice it.
Zhao Yeqing also changed his clothes and came out to help. Seeing that the firewood shed had collapsed, he could only go forward and carry more firewood back to the room to prevent it from getting wet.
After Mu Xi brought the water into the room, he turned and went to the chicken coop.
The charcoal fire inside looked like it was about to go out, so he lit a handful of oily sawdust on top and opened the door of the inner chicken coop to check the situation.
Chickens are the least resistant to cold among all the animals in the house, and the current environment is too harsh.
The door of the chicken coop opened, and a clucking sound was heard from inside. The dark clouds had not dispersed, and the light was not very good. One could only vaguely see that after the door was opened, the chickens retreated in fear and huddled in a corner.
Two of them did not move.
Mu Xi reached out and poked the two bodies, but found no movement and their body temperature was not particularly normal.
I dragged the chicken out by its tail feathers and found that it was dead. They were fine in the morning, but now two of them were frozen to death.
These two chickens are less than two months old and weigh just over one pound. The chicken coop is full of chickens that are three months old. He cuts the chickens' beaks to prevent them from fighting and being pecked to death.
He took the chicken to the kitchen. The stove had not been heated recently and was cold. He lit the fire again and boiled water to pluck the chicken.
The chicken was small and tender. Thinking about what Zhao Yeqing said about having a bland diet recently, he did not use it to make soup. Instead, he plucked the feathers off the chickens and marinated both chickens with seasonings.
The cabbages that had been stored had been frozen hard, and so had the few green onions. They felt icy when picked up, and were crunchy when broken.
Put two pieces of green onion and ginger slices in a bowl, then put three full tablespoons of salt in it, add water to make a concentrated brine, and then put the chicken in to soak.
Cover it with a cloth and place it next to the stove which has not been completely extinguished to prevent the water from freezing when the pickling is done.
Back in the room, Zhao Yeqing was scooping out the ashes from the fireplace and putting them in a wooden basin. This was the dogs' poop basin. After they defecated, they could just bury the area with the ashes. The two leopards could also use this.
It’s just that the animals at home are all quite large and they gnaw a lot, so I have to change the dustbin several times a day.
Wait until the wind and snow are less severe before letting them go out to poop. Zhao Yeqing could only hold his breath and bury them all with ashes.
"I haven't eaten much recently, how come I can still poop so much?"
Zhao Yeqing is a bit of a germaphobe, so most of the poop-scavenging work is done by Mu Xi.
He stepped forward and took the wooden basin from her hand, "Two meals a day, and you feed me dried meat from time to time, can this be omitted?"
Xiaohua and Xiaohei lay at her feet. Zhao Yeqing sat in the rocking chair, raised her feet and gently stepped on their bellies, rubbing them back and forth.
"How can we survive this winter without putting on weight?"
After saying that, she remembered what she said about not gaining weight, looked down at the fat gradually piling up on her belly, and took a deep breath.
It’s okay. I can’t see it anymore after I suck in my stomach. I can still eat.
Mu Xi was amused and scooped some water to wash his hands. He warmed his hands by the fireplace and walked over to say, "Don't suck. Let me touch it."
"My belly, I can suck it if I want, I just restore it to its original state."
The two of them sat in front of the fireplace, chatting idly, and only continued their work when it was almost time for dinner.
Mu Xi went back to the kitchen to prepare food, and Zhao Yeqing took out the soaked mung beans to sprout.
The temperature for bean sprouts to sprout must be warm enough, at least above 15 degrees.
Soak a towel and place it on the basket, then put the mung beans in it. The environment needs to be moist enough for the germination process, but there should not be any stagnant water, as this will rot the beans.
In order to maintain the temperature, the bean sprout basket was placed next to the fireplace. The moisture evaporated quickly, so the towel wrapped around the mung beans had to be rehydrated several times a day.
Zhao Yeqing processed the mung beans and put them aside. Her stomach growled. Drinking porridge makes one hungry quickly. She looked at the snow outside which had not stopped yet. She did not want to go out to the kitchen to check on the progress, so she could only lie in the rocking chair and eat some dried meat.
There are two kinds of smoked jerky. One is the one that is usually fed to dogs and has no seasoning. The other is smoked after being cooked and has salt and spices added.
It smells delicious when you chew it, a bit like eating Mongolian air-dried beef jerky, but it's a bit hard and a little bit difficult to chew.
The dogs looked at her eating the dried meat as if they were condemning her for stealing their snacks, and Xiaohua had the most glaring eyes.
Zhao Yeqing stepped on Xiaohua's belly and tapped it lightly on the head, then scolded with a smile, "Are you petty?"
We have delicious food and drinks every day, so even if we eat your jerky, you can't look at us like that, right?
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