In the following days, they made seven or eight more trips back to pick up the goods.
The remaining cured meat, along with the previously prepared jarred meat, honey, and pickled vegetables in earthenware jars, were all divided into four cartloads and hauled away.
The pottery kiln house they are living in now is not very spacious, and nearly half of the space is occupied by the kiln. So Yan Zheng has set aside meat for the next few days, and the rest is stored in the northwest corner of the room along with dried goods, and all of it is locked up tightly.
Jiang Xi placed the jars containing honey and pickles at the very bottom of the wall shelf for easy access while cooking.
On the last day, they made three more trips, removing all the straw curtains from the original cave, the bed, and the wooden door, rolling them up, and transporting them to the stone house where they now lived, to use as bedding and to hang on the door for wind protection.
Last night, Yan Zheng and Yan Jing'an thought that they only had one more trip to move all their things, and they wanted to finish the move as soon as possible so they could start renovating the brick house.
The space there is large, and it will be much more comfortable for several people to live there after moving in.
So, around dusk, they pulled the cart around again, and Yan Zheng even dug up a quarter of the wild onions from the back hillside in the dark, tied them to the straw mat, and brought them back.
After all that commotion, it was already past midnight when I got back, tidied up, and lay down.
Unexpectedly, just the day after the move, the forest experienced a second major drop in temperature.
When Jiang Xi woke up in the morning, Yan Zheng and Yan Jing'an were still asleep. The room was a bit cold, so she put on another sweater.
The fire in the stove had gone out, and the room was not as warm as it had been in the first half of the night. Jiang Xi heard Yan Jing'an coughing from time to time, so she lit the fire in the stove and added a few more pieces of firewood to make it as warm as possible.
His cough sounds quite frequent. He's been going out every day these past few days, so I'm afraid he's caught a chill again. I'll have to keep making the tangerine peel water.
Jiang Xi casually tied her long hair into a bun with a wooden hairpin before taking a basin to collect snow. The little deer next to the door even deliberately rubbed against her arm.
Before she could even step outside, as soon as she lifted the straw curtain at the door, Jiang Xi felt a bone-chilling cold.
The howling wind blew in through the crack in the door. She tried to open the door, but the bright snow light stung her eyes, and Jiang Xi quickly closed them.
When she opened her eyes again, the scene she saw made her fingertips feel cold. It was snowing heavily outside, and the snow was already more than half a meter high. A third of the door was blocked by snow.
The silence of the world was unsettling; she even thought she could hear the sound of falling snow.
Jiang Xi had no choice but to make do. She scooped up a basin of snow from nearby and immediately closed the wooden door and lowered the curtain.
The snow was too heavy. Having experienced several days and nights of snow disaster, she was terrified every time she saw such a scene; the memory of her near-death experience was still there.
Jiang Xi touched her pounding heart, trying her best to calm herself down.
It's okay, you're safe now.
You have a lover and a partner now, so this little bit of snow is nothing to worry about. Everything is fine now.
About five minutes later, Jiang Xi finally recovered from her panic. Holding onto the stove, she poured the snow into the pot and then put the pot on the stove to heat it.
In the past, because of the high air pollution in the city, I always felt that snow was not clean, but here, snow has become a relatively safe water source.
There's no need to worry about the river plague in Bell's Dream, nor about getting an upset stomach from drinking polluted water. As long as you boil it, snow water is the cleanest option.
Moreover, compared to river water, snow water has a crisper taste after boiling, and it has a slightly sweet flavor when used for cooking rice or brewing chrysanthemum tea.
The fire in the stove was big enough that the snow melted quickly. In just a few minutes, a basin of snow had melted down to only a little over half a pot of water.
Jiang Xi poured these into the kettle, intending to use them for drinking later.
She took two more basins and filled them with snow water to boil. She boiled the water for washing her hands, face, and vegetables before starting to make breakfast.
This is such a hassle. I'll definitely put a water tank here sometime and just pour snow into it to let it melt naturally, so that there's always melted water available whenever I need it.
For breakfast, Jiang Xi steamed red dates and a dried rabbit, and also cooked a fragrant mushroom and root porridge.
She soaked the dried rabbit and dried mushrooms last night.
After the rabbit meat is steamed, shred it into strips about the width of your little finger by hand, and then mix it with the previously fried Sichuan peppercorn oil and hawthorn vinegar.
Rabbit meat is naturally salty, so adding some sesame oil and hawthorn vinegar simply adds a unique flavor, which pairs well with savory mushroom porridge.
Just thinking about it made Jiang Xi feel hungry.
While the meat was steaming, she soaked a bowl of soybeans, planning to sprout them again tomorrow. They still needed vitamins, and bean sprouts were their only fresh vegetable at the moment.
About an hour later, Yan Zheng also woke up, though he looked slightly tired.
Jiang Xi heard Yan Zheng sit up, looked up and saw his dark circles, and asked, "Didn't you sleep well?"
Yan Zheng wasn't fully awake yet. He hummed in response and looked at her with bleary eyes.
Jiang Xi noticed that his half-length hair was tucked to his ears, and because he had just woken up, he looked much less sharp than during the day.
She washed her hands and went over. Yan Zheng sat on the bed and subconsciously pulled her into his arms, hugging her waist and pressing his head against Jiang Xi's soft belly.
Jiang Xi placed her hand on his head and rubbed it. It felt nice; his hair had grown long and become soft, and it didn't feel prickly at all.
She said softly, "Get up and eat. I made hand-shredded rabbit meat."
Yan Zheng hummed in agreement, but his arms around her didn't loosen; instead, they tightened even more.
Jiang Xi was both amused and exasperated. This was completely different from his usual demeanor. She never expected Yan Zheng, who had just woken up, to have such an adorable side.
That's really rare.
No one knew that Yan Zheng had such a side.
She glanced at Yan Jing'an and saw that he was still fast asleep with his back to her. She quickly turned around, bent down, and gave Yan Zheng a light peck on the forehead. Then she giggled mischievously and immediately got up.
This time Yan Zheng finally came to his senses, but he didn't let her off easily. He grabbed the back of her neck with one hand and pulled her down.
Jiang Xi was caught off guard and before she could react, Yan Zheng kissed her on the side of the lips.
This made Jiang Xi blush deeply.
She covered her mouth and whispered, "Comrade Yan Zheng, can't you be a little more reserved?"
Although she said she was disgusted, her eyes were already smiling like crescent moons.
Yan Zheng smiled and pulled Jiang Xi down, whispering in her ear, "I have even less reserved things to do. I'll show you later."
His voice was very soft, tickling Jiang Xi's ear like a current flowing from her ear to her heart, making her feel tingly and numb.
Yan Zheng was different today; he rarely spoke so frankly and passionately.
Jiang Xi felt a little overwhelmed, but said awkwardly, "Get up, it's time to eat."
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