With everything prepared, Jiang Xi asked Yan Zheng, "Should we wait for him?"
Yan Zheng untied the fawn tied to the side of the cave entrance and said, "Go and call him back for dinner."
Jiang Xi watched the deer's trotting away figure, pointed at it, and said with wide eyes, "It...it knows who to call?"
Yan Zheng laughed and replied, "That person keeps whispering to this little thing every night, and every now and then two sweet potatoes are missing from the pot. Do you think it's the reason it nudges me in the morning?"
Hearing her say that, Jiang Xi suddenly remembered that she had been so forgetful in the mornings lately. She had steamed ten sweet potatoes, but when she took them out, there were only eight.
Jiang Xi was both amused and exasperated, thinking how childish he was. He'd used her feelings to flatter someone else.
Sure enough, Yan Jing'an returned with the deer shortly afterward. However, he seemed to be in low spirits, keeping his head down and not looking at the two of them. Instead, his stomach let out a loud growl first.
Yan Jing'an's face flushed instantly, and he cursed himself for being so weak.
Yan Zheng didn't make things difficult, but simply told the three of them to sit down quickly, and Jiang Xi quickly poured a cup of chrysanthemum tea.
Outside the cave, the moon was bright and the stars were few; inside, the aroma of food filled the air. With a delicious and satisfying meal, even the hardest times didn't feel so bitter.
Jiang Xi greeted everyone with a smile: "Happy Mid-Autumn Festival. Cheers!"
Immediately after the Mid-Autumn Festival, the forest experienced another wave of temperature drop. When Jiang Xi woke up, she found that the basin she had forgotten to put away the night before had formed a thin layer of ice, which meant that the temperature must have reached zero degrees Celsius at the lowest point of the night.
The trees were bare of leaves, leaving only the mottled outlines of their branches.
The wild vegetables were either sparse or rotten after the frost and were no longer edible. Jiang Xi sighed. There would be no green vegetables to eat in the future. Her only worry was the health of the three of them. Long-term vitamin deficiency could lead to a series of diseases.
Moreover, they didn't even know how long the winter here would last.
Jiang Xi had no choice but to follow the method her grandmother had used in her vegetable garden: dig a ridge on the hillside, bury the wild scallions with roots that she had dug up, leaving only a few green leaves. This way, after it snowed, the thick snow and soil would protect the white parts of the scallions from freezing, and they could be dug up and eaten at any time.
Yan Jing'an and Jiang Xi were in charge of digging up wild scallions, while Yan Zheng, being strong, was in charge of digging the field ridges. The three of them worked together and spent two whole days burying four rows of wild scallions densely. Jiang Xi estimated that if they ate them sparingly, they should last for two or three months.
In the old society, digging a hole would not have been difficult, but nowadays, with limited tools, one can only use rattan rope to tie a polished stone slab and a wooden stick together to make a makeshift shovel. Even Yan Zheng would get blisters on his hands digging a ridge in a field with such a tool, let alone digging a cellar.
But in order to survive, one must do it, even if it is difficult.
Once winter arrives, when the temperature drops to just below -10 degrees Celsius, the surface of the soil freezes. At that time, let alone digging up sweet potatoes, even digging a hole becomes difficult. With cellars, sweet potatoes and radishes can be stored for a long time, which is the only fresh food they can eat in winter.
The lake water is too cold now, so Yan Zheng can't go in to catch fish at all; his fish traps can only catch small fish. If the temperature continues to drop in winter, the river will freeze over morning and evening, making fish even harder to catch.
In addition, many animals reduce their outdoor activities and food intake in winter, making hunting difficult. This is especially true for small-eared pigs, and even wild ducks are becoming increasingly rare; now, when you go to collect duck eggs, you can't find more than three eggs in ten nests.
Their rabbit traps are yielding fewer and fewer results these days, probably because the weather is cold and the rabbits have stopped reproducing. The situation is not optimistic.
Therefore, a cellar must be dug.
We still need to put in a lot of effort to dig a fairly large cellar, and it also needs to be deep enough, at least two to three meters deep. If it's too shallow, the sweet potatoes will freeze.
The upper part should be made of wood as beams, filled with branches, straw mats and soil. A one-meter-wide cellar entrance should be left in the corner, and a set of steps should be dug so that it is convenient to go up and down to retrieve things.
While the two were digging the cellar, Jiang Xi went to dig up sweet potatoes and yellow radishes. When digging for yellow radishes, Jiang Xi also took a liking to the radish greens. They looked bright green and, although they had been hit by frost, it did not affect their edibility at all.
Jiang Xi recalled the pickled radish greens her grandmother used to make when she was little. No extra seasoning was needed, just simple salt water and peppercorns. The pickled radish greens were sour and crunchy. They were stir-fried in hot oil and then mixed with minced meat. When she was seven or eight years old, she could eat two bowls of rice with it.
Following her memory, Jiang Xi collected all the radish greens, washed half of them, and soaked them in salt water in a jar. They would be ready to eat after a week.
The other half is tied with a rope and hung on a clothesline to dry. These can be used to steam pork belly in winter.
In addition, she collected a lot of wild vegetable seeds to plant next year, and also dried some sweet potato root. At first, she didn't think it was edible, but Yan Jing'an told her that they called this kind of sweet potato "mountain stick".
It is not only a high-quality whole grain, but also has the effect of strengthening the spleen and aiding digestion. The elderly here will slice it and dry it, and add some when stewing meat in winter, which makes it taste different.
Upon hearing this, Jiang Xi realized it was yam. After careful consideration, she also found the method of processing reasonable. In short, she wouldn't let go of anything that was said to have edible value.
Just kidding, there are four people to get through the winter, including two big men who can eat a lot. No matter how much she prepares, it's never enough.
The work of storing grain was not considered complete until the cellar was dug up and filled with two piles of sweet potatoes and yellow carrots.
After finishing her work during the day, Yan Zheng would sharpen his stone shovel at night, and Jiang Xi would prepare to make winter clothes. The rabbit skins she had made earlier were all neatly stored away, and now she took them out and sewed three rabbit fur cloaks.
She even sewed a sweater for the fawn to protect its belly, since its herd had all migrated, which meant it couldn't withstand the cold.
After the last batch of rattan fibers was completely degummed, Jiang Xi made another down comforter and bed sheet for Yan Jing'an.
Since the last conflict between Yan Zheng and him, he has been much more well-behaved. The two of them work together quite well, but every night when they lie in bed, Yan Zheng wants to throw him out, thinking that he must make him move out when spring comes.
Day 95.
The first snow has finally arrived.
The temperature had dropped to around minus ten degrees Celsius in the early morning. Jiang Xi put on her cloak, hid her hands in her sleeves, lifted the straw curtain, and pushed open the wooden door.
The snow dazzled her eyes, and Jiang Xi suddenly closed her eyes for a moment before she could see that there was already ankle-deep snow outside the door.
The surrounding trees were covered with frost and ice crystals, the mountains and the earth were all white, and even the river at the door was covered with a thick layer of snow. Some of the snow had melted and left ice holes in the river. The world was covered in silver.
Yan Jing'an woke up at the sound, lifted his straw curtain, and was clearly taken aback when he saw the snow outside the window.
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