On the first night sleeping in the shack, Gu Yan turned on a desk lamp without any hesitation. This thing is solar-powered. You just need to put the charging panel in the sun during the day. Just like the flashlight you used before, you don’t have to worry about subsequent power issues.
"Mom, it's so bright, will people outside see it?"
"No. The shack is sealed tightly on three sides, and there is a wooden door at the entrance. Mom also used blackout cloth as the lining of the door curtain, so even if there is light coming through the crack in the door, it will be blocked out completely."
Upon hearing that it was so safe and secure, the two children clapped their hands happily. "It's great that we have our own home. With such bright lights, it's so comfortable to do homework at night."
"Well, I can write more at night and practice my calligraphy more. The teacher said that the more I write, the better I will write." Xiaohua said as she almost filled up a page. Grid paper, pencils, and pencil sharpeners are what my mother will produce when no one is around at night. "Sister, you should write too. Don't be lazy all the time. You are so efficient when working, but you dawdle when you are told to write."
"Oh, you can just write it yourself. I have to wash diapers for my younger brother and sister, so I can't take care of it."
Gu Yan looked at the older girl who was afraid of studying and laughed speechlessly. As long as the children have learned what they should learn in school, she will not force them. Just learn to read and write. As for what to do in the future, with a mother like her who knows things a hundred years later, and the child being so hardworking and capable, how can he starve?
The bed board, which is more than two meters long, is very sturdy and covered with a thick mattress, which is much more comfortable than the bare mat in other people's houses. Before going to bed, Gu Yan removed the blackout cloth in the triangular area. The tiny gaps allowed for ventilation, so the space didn't feel stuffy even though it was small.
After a good sleep, Gu Yan went to work early the next day, while the two children dug wild vegetables and took care of their younger siblings. When she came back, she saw the two children leaning their heads together, whispering about something.
"Mom, you're back. Look what my sister found. Do you think this mushroom is edible?"
"Of course you can eat it. Aunt Xu's two brothers have picked some, and they said they are not poisonous and can be eaten. I picked less, and they picked more. We traveled a long way to find this rare stuff today."
Before Gu Yan could speak, Dahua explained eagerly. I was a little angry at my sister's suspicion, as if she was a fool for bringing everything back to eat.
"Where did you pick it?" Gu Yan picked up a piece and rubbed it carefully. She was not very familiar with mushrooms and did not know what kind it was. We have no idea whether it is poisonous or how toxic it is.
"It's in the riverbed to the east. There are a lot of mushrooms there. Some grow on mulberry trees. We've eaten that kind before. This kind grows under the tree. Brother Gang and Brother Wa both said it's edible. They picked a lot."
After Dahua finished speaking, she looked at her eagerly. She had already washed the mushrooms, and if her mother agreed, she could put them in the porridge. It would taste better with some salt.
"Do you want to eat mushrooms?" Gu Yan did not refuse directly, but asked the child. She has seen many cases of mushroom poisoning in the news, so it is better to be cautious if she is unfamiliar with them.
"Mmm, mushrooms are delicious. Mom, this... can't be eaten?"
"If you don't recognize it, don't eat it. It will be troublesome if you get poisoned. You have to take it to the county town for gastric lavage, which is very uncomfortable." Seeing her eldest daughter pouting, she quickly took out a bag of pickled shiitake mushrooms. "This is also mushrooms, and it tastes great. Wash them and pour them into the pot."
"Oh, mom, is this mushroom poisonous?" Xiaohua was very cautious. She was so scared that she had sequelae when she heard about mushrooms being poisonous. As soon as she heard about mushrooms, she immediately asked whether they were poisonous or not.
"I guarantee it's not poisonous."
"Okay, then eat this."
Xiaohua cleaned the shiitake mushrooms skillfully, while Dahua looked at the mushrooms she had picked with a look of regret on her face. "Mom, since we're not going to eat it, why not give it to Aunt Xu and the others. Xu Wa said it's delicious, and he will definitely be happy if we give it to him."
"Let's find a place to dry it and talk about it later." Gu Yan said as he handed the full little girl to her, "I'll go to your aunt Xu's house to see what's going on." It's better to persuade them not to eat it. The cost is too high and it's not worth the risk. Invite them to eat rabbit tonight, stew a pot of wild rabbit with potatoes and carrots, and add more oil to satisfy everyone's cravings.
"Mom, what's going on?" Gu Yan didn't hear Dahua's shout, and the girl didn't chase after her. I held my younger brother and sister and played on the bed, waiting for mom to come back and ask her what she was going to see at Aunt Xu's house.
Gu Yan entered the village and walked up the hill along the road. Her health is much better now than before, and she walked so fast that she reached Sister Xu's residence in less than ten minutes.
Outside the gate, the five members of the Xu family sat on the stone steps, holding their bowls, eating and chatting with their neighbors. Sister Xu saw her stand up and come towards her, and with a look of surprise she pulled her inside.
"Girl, what do you want from me?" the woman asked carefully from the side of the doorway facing away from others.
Seeing the mushroom porridge in her bowl, Gu Yan sighed helplessly. It was too late to say anything now. She was not sure whether the mushrooms were poisonous or not. It was impossible for her to persuade them not to eat them. The food for a meal cannot be given up based on her guess. Brother-in-law Xu outside seemed to have finished a bowl of food, and the children were almost done too, and Sister Xu only had half a bowl left.
"I'm worried about the mushrooms..." I might as well mention it, since I'm already here. Saying nothing seems like a psycho.
"Haha... sister, you are so suspicious." She pointed outside and said, "Your brother-in-law and a few brats have already finished eating, but you are still alive and well. Don't worry, this thing is very fresh and adds flavor. How about I scoop you a spoonful of mine to try."
"No, no." Gu Yan waved his hand and walked out. "I'm just worried. Since you are all okay, I will leave."
Before she finished speaking she turned and walked away quickly. What else can she do after she has already eaten it? Should she just pick it out for someone else? Then others really think she is crazy.
I also put mushrooms in my homemade porridge, but they are absolutely safe nameko mushrooms. The taste is actually not that great, but it is still a big temptation for people who eat whole grains without oil or salt every day.
I had just fed the two children when the bell rang in the team. Gu Yan helped the two children tie up their younger brother and sister, and secretly brought them some roasted chestnut kernels.
"If he cries, just chew it up and feed him some. He'll probably be better behaved if he's full."
"The little brother is very well behaved, he slept most of the morning. The little sister is lively, she can't stay in the classroom, and wants to bite anything she gets." Xiaohua patted the little girl on her back and reported to her mother with a smile, "But she doesn't cry, she just distracts me by playing. Don't worry, mom, it won't affect my studies. I can do two things at the same time, I listen to everything the teacher says."
"Well, if it doesn't work out, you two can take turns attending the class, and then come back in the evening to teach the other one. Mom will follow along, too."
Thank you for your hard work. At this age when you should be playing in your mother's arms, you have to take your younger brothers and sisters to school. But there is really no other way. If it were the free era twenty years from now, Mom would take you to work somewhere else. No one knows each other, so you can live the way you want. It’s not possible now. Even if you go to the city to work, it’s still a problem for the mother to go to work and take care of the children. You can only go to daycare after you are three years old...
She was feeling depressed and felt wronged and helpless about taking care of her younger siblings to school. On the other side, Dahua clapped her hands happily when she heard the suggestion.
"That's good, that's good, let Xiaohua listen to the class, and I'll take my younger brothers and sisters out to play."
"Sister, what's wrong with that nail on your butt? It hurts your butt when you sit on the stool during class, right?"
Dahua was scolded by her sister again, and her little face suddenly fell. "You like going to school, of course you don't feel that way, but I feel like sitting there is a pain in the ass!"
"You have to finish elementary school." Gu Yan smiled helplessly and reached out to touch Xiaohua's hair. "It depends on the situation. If the brothers and sisters make a big fuss, let your sister take them out. But you will be responsible for teaching your sister when you come back at night."
"Well, I'll listen carefully and come back to teach my sister and mother."
After sending two, no, four children to school, she picked up the hoe and prepared to go to work. We had not walked far when we suddenly received news that Sister Xu and her family were vomiting and having diarrhea, as if they had eaten something up.
Gu Yan was startled and dropped his hoe and ran to Sister Xu's house. These symptoms are not caused by stomach upset, they are definitely caused by mushroom poisoning.
As soon as I entered the door, the noisy sounds inside penetrated my eardrums. She had already opened a bag of salt on the way, went into the east room to take a look at the situation, and without saying a word turned around to go to the shed outside and use a scoop to scoop up a scoop of light salt water.
"Stop crowding around, make some space for them. Give them some water to induce vomiting."
Brother Xu's husband's eldest brother also lives in this courtyard. At this time, the couple was supporting Sister Xu's three boys, and they were so anxious that they didn't know what to do. After hearing Gu Yan's words, he was stunned for a moment before reaching out to take the bowl from her hand.
"Han family, what kind of water is this? What's the point of feeding them? They are disgusting. Can they drink it?"
Gu Yan pinched Sister Xu's mouth and started feeding her water. Hearing this, he ignored her name and replied, "It's light salt water. After they drink it, find a way to make them vomit it out. This will clear the poisoning substance in their stomach and reduce the symptoms of poisoning. Find a way to find a car to take them to the hospital. I'm afraid inducing vomiting alone won't work. We need a doctor to check them out to know what's going on."
The couple nodded when they heard this. The eldest brother asked the neighbors in the yard who had a good relationship with him to help borrow a carriage from the brigade. He brought a bowl of light salt water to feed his younger brother. Several neighbors also came up to help. For a while, Sister Xu and her family of five were surrounded and forced to drink water.
After two scoops of water were empty, Gu Yan went to get two more scoops of water, came over to distribute them and continued feeding. The five of them had been drinking so much that their bellies were full. This time, when their throats were poked, they all started vomiting out of nausea.
The porridge that was eaten with salt water for breakfast was spit out, and everyone seemed to feel a little relieved. Boss Xu couldn't help but complain to his brother's family: "Will you still be greedy in the future? Many mushrooms are poisonous. Don't eat them easily if you don't know them. Even if food is scarce, you can't eat anything carelessly. Luckily, these are mushrooms. You can spit them out. If you ate Guanyin soil, you would be bloated to death. You can't even spit it out."
His wife turned around and glanced at him and said, "Okay, stop talking. Who knew this was poisonous? If they knew, would they still eat it?" Fortunately, I didn't take it when it was given to me, otherwise many people would be poisoned by now.
"Stop talking nonsense and send him to the hospital immediately."
After vomiting, Brother-in-law Xu felt better. He shook his head and waved his hands: "Don't go...to the hospital. It's a waste of money."
His elder brother was very angry at his stingy behavior and slapped him on the back angrily. “Which is more important, life or money?”
Human life was at stake, so the brigade quickly borrowed a horse-drawn carriage. The neighbors helped to lift the things onto the cart and then went back to work. Gu Yan poured the salt and sugar water that he had secretly prepared into a kettle and handed it to the eldest brother of the Xu family. There was limited space in the carriage, so she couldn't follow. But judging from Brother-in-law Xu's condition, his life should not be in danger.
"Feed them water on the way. Vomiting and diarrhea like this can easily lead to dehydration, so they need to be properly replenished with water."
"Hey." Brother Xu took the kettle, his eyes full of gratitude towards Gu Yan. This woman is so calm. She was able to think through everything in an orderly manner even when such a big thing happened. He knows a lot, no wonder he doesn't want Han Laoer anymore and wants to live on his own. Han Laoer, that lazy coward, is really not worthy of such a good woman.
Sister Xu and her family stayed in the county hospital for a day, and went home quickly after they were fine after getting an IV drip. You have to spend money every day even if you don't earn any money outside, and the few work points you earn in a year are not enough to sustain this.
After the woman came back, she held Gu Yan's hand and nodded repeatedly: "Sister, this time it's all thanks to you. The doctor said that if we hadn't all been induced to vomit by the saline solution and had not been supplemented with salt and sugar water on the way, we would never have been so lucky. We might not have been able to save him. You are the lifesaver of our family..."
"It's not that exaggerated. He was fine after a few IV drips, which means the mushroom wasn't very poisonous. If it was really poisonous, no one would be able to save him."
"That's not what I meant. Look how confused we all were that day. If you hadn't suggested inducing vomiting and then told us to drink water, who would have known all this? If the toxins stay in the body for too long, who knows what might happen."
Sister Xu thanked him wholeheartedly, and Gu Yan smiled and stopped arguing. If you wanted to save me, it should be you who saved me first. If I had died during childbirth, there would be no follow-up. This passage doesn’t seem to be in the original book. Could it be that it was fanned by her butterfly wings?
"I picked up a fat rabbit yesterday. It's just right for us to stew it and eat together. Come to my place tonight."
"What are you eating? Take it and exchange it for food. It will last you a few more days."
"I've already killed it and chopped it into pieces. No one wants to exchange it. Stop nagging me. Let's eat meat together tonight."
"You are such a bad woman. You ate a chicken, and then you finally found a rabbit and killed it to eat..."
Sister Xu kept nagging as she walked, but Gu Yan just smiled and said nothing. I invited her to eat meat, but she still refused. Only someone who truly cares about you would do this.
After work in the evening, Sister Xu came to Gu Yan with food rations for the family's dinner. The three children could smell the aroma of meat from a long distance away and their mouths watered with greed. Sister Xu and her husband also sniffed violently.
"Delicious, the meat cooked by Aunt Gu is so delicious." After the second brother said this, the others all nodded in agreement. Gu Yan is really good at cooking, and her food is much more delicious than those women in the team.
The rabbit meat was marinated with seasoning in advance and filled a large pot. In order to prevent them from discovering that there was more than one, Gu Yan threw away the head and chopped the rest into small pieces. When they arrived, the food had just started to cook and the aroma spread from ten miles away, attracting many people's attention and saliva.
"So many! Sister, your rabbit is too fat." Sister Xu lifted the lid of the pot and took a look. Seeing a few little boys coming over greedily, she raised her hand and quickly put the lid back in place. I didn't even want to give it a look.
"I got you a white radish. I'll wash it and put it in there later."
"Okay. Let Dahua wash them. I also need to wash the carrots, so we can wash them together."
"Dahua, please look after your sister. Let my brat go wash. How could you forget about these three? The brat is strong. If you want to eat meat, you must do some work. Let them fill the water tank for you, and pick up some firewood, and then..."
"Okay, Sister Xu, you're using your own child as free labor. Just wash the vegetables, I can fetch the water myself."
"It's okay, Aunt Gu, let my dad carry it." The eldest and third sons carried the radishes to wash, and brother-in-law Xu carried the bucket to fetch water. It seems that you don't have to do anything.
Gu Yan was amused by Xu Wa's talkative behavior. You two can just bully those who are not good at talking. The honest man was betrayed by his wife and son but he was still happy, not realizing that he had become the younger brother. These two people would point fingers at others with their mouths instead of their hands.
There was only one pot for stewing meat. Gu Yan lit another fire and placed a smooth stone slab on top. Sister Xu was puzzled and pointed at the shiny stone slab and asked her what she was doing.
"Pancakes."
"It's not enough to drink porridge, and you want to eat dry food?"
"Yesterday I peeled off some old, rough elm bark and ground it into a lot of flour. It's just right for making pancakes with cornmeal. I made it into a paste before, but it seems to be a whole. I can't cut it with a shovel. I tried to scoop it into the bowl for a long time but couldn't."
"Haha... this thing is like this, it's the same at my place, everyone holds the bowl but can't separate them, and when they scoop it up, it slips right back into the pot. Scooping a meal is more laborious than working."
The two women complained about the unpalatable bark. Gu Yan said that this time the pancake would definitely not be scooped into the bowl. In fact, she only mixed a little bit of bark, and the amount of cornmeal was much more than the bark.
"It's delicious." When the meal was ready, the group of people who were waiting were already drooling. Holding their portion of meat and pancakes, they didn't care about anything else and just lowered their heads like starving ghosts and focused on putting the food into their mouths.
For three years, the food rations have become less and less, and the life has become more and more difficult every year. Not to mention the meat, even the oil is hard to see. The meat came out of nowhere and it was so delicious that I wanted to swallow the entire bowl.
Each person gets half a bowl of food and a pancake, no more. Xu Gang and Xu Wa, who were in the growth period, licked the bowl clean after eating. Xu Gang was a simple and honest man and didn't say anything. After Xu Wa finished eating, he shook his head and praised the meal.
"For the first time in my life, I am almost full. I am so happy. If I can live like this in the future, I will do anything."
"Is it okay to carry manure to the fields?" The one who teased him must be Sister Xu. His personality is like that of Sister Xu's family. The two people of the same sex repel each other and take pleasure in sabotaging each other. It is euphemistically called to pull some provinces to fly to the sky.
"Okay." In order to eat meat, Xu Wa was willing to give it his all. Who cares what you pick? As long as there is meat to eat, you can pick whatever you are asked to pick.
"Come on, you don't even want to be the captain. With your small body, you will be crushed to the ground by the carrying pole."
"I...my brother can provoke, and he will give it to me in exchange for meat."
"Do you want to be ashamed? Why should I give you my brother's things?"
"We are brothers and sisters, can't we help each other?" Xu Wa said to his mother proudly, and then asked the eldest brother Xu Gang, "Brother, will you give it to me?"
Xu Gang, the silly boy, nodded and said, "Here. Let's share it."
Sister Xu lost the argument, but her face was full of smiles. As parents, what we probably want to see most is our children being united and loving.
Dahua and Xiaohua looked at each other happily. Dahua gently held her sister's hand and whispered to her. Then Xiaohua smiled back at her. "Me too."
A simple meal in the eyes of later generations will be remembered by people of this era for the rest of their lives. Sharing and mutual assistance also make these two families, who have no blood relationship, as close as one family. They helped take care of the twins during class, and after class they helped to dig wild vegetables and collect sheep dung, forming a gang.
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