"It's alright. The mountains to the north are open, and all kinds of trees are of the same species, so they are easy to identify and you won't get snow blindness."
As Lin Mo responded with a grin, he noticed that her nose was red from the cold and she was shivering, so he took off his own military overcoat.
An unyielding, domineering aura draped over her.
"Hey, this is a military overcoat, it's very precious. It will get dirty if you wear it while doing rough work."
Su Xiaoxiao quickly took it off and then tiptoed to put it back on him.
Even at such close range, I could smell the fragrance of her hair.
For a moment, I was lost in thought when I heard Su Xiaoxiao's beautiful, gentle voice say again:
“The military overcoat you gave my dad before, he didn’t even wear it to do rough work, just because he was afraid of getting it dirty.”
Material resources were scarce during those years, and Lin Mo knew that he couldn't change the minds of people who cherished resources with just a few words.
After exchanging a few words with Lin Mo, she turned back to assist Su the carpenter.
The "auditorium" is currently having its four walls stacked.
Since Su the carpenter's legs weren't suited for climbing, it was Su's mother who did the heavy lifting while he handed her bricks.
Despite being a young woman, Su Xiaoxiao is capable of handling extremely physically demanding tasks such as mixing adhesives.
Lin Mo didn't buy cement, so the glue used to build the wall was also made of clay.
Right now, a large pot of thick rice porridge is being cooked next to the pile of clay. After it's cooked to a sticky consistency, it's then mixed into the clay in a specific ratio.
Meanwhile, the earthen stove didn't burn coal, but various kinds of grass and wood. This stuff could be used as fuel and was also one of the ingredients in the glue.
Wood ash should also be mixed into the clay in the correct proportions.
Although the walls built this way are not as aesthetically pleasing as those built with cement, their sturdiness is comparable to that of the Great Wall, which is said to have also used this ancient technique.
Silently watching from the side for a while, Su Xiaoxiao stirred the rice paste, mixed the glue with an iron shovel, and added grass and wood to the earthen stove.
Very busy, but also very skilled.
Where can you find such a hardworking and dedicated wife?
Oh wait, she's not my wife yet; we haven't settled down yet.
Uncle Su and Aunt Su's attitude towards him changed back and forth, sometimes liking him and sometimes criticizing him.
I can't figure it out.
"Let's go!"
Lin Mo bid a solemn and heartfelt farewell to Su Xiaoxiao, then roared his sidecar motorcycle northward.
I was a little worried about riding my bike in the mountains, but I was confident about Old Bald Mountain, since the village had already cleared the mountain of trees long ago.
After passing Old Bald Mountain, you'll reach Old Father Mountain, where the trees are much denser.
In the past, when people walked in, they felt that there wasn't much space between the trees; at least a donkey cart couldn't pass through.
The sidecar was slightly narrower than a donkey cart, and it made it relatively easy to travel from the front slope of the mountain to the back slope.
The white snow fell to the ground, obscuring any obstacles and making the journey bumpy for Lin Mo.
We passed Old Man Mountain in a daze, and then it was all uphill all the way up.
When I was a child, my short-lived father told me that north of Old Man Mountain was Rooster Crest Mountain.
Because the slope of Jiguanshan Mountain is steep, exceeding 15 degrees, and it is almost all uphill, but the slope is relatively flat. It only becomes steep and turbulent at the top of the mountain, so my father named it Jiguanshan.
The sidecar motorcycle twisted the accelerator to its full speed and rumbled up the mountaintop. After a few more minutes of rumbling, Lin Mo arrived at a mountaintop depression that looked like a rooster's comb. It looked like a valley between two mountains, but it was actually the unique shape of a mountain, which is why Jiguanshan (Rooster Comb Mountain) got its name.
The ditch was very large and deep, and the slope was even steeper, exceeding 45 degrees. The sidecar couldn't go down; if it did, it probably wouldn't be able to get back up.
Lin Mo could only turn east and follow the edge of the ditch to find a way to continue north.
The snow was still falling, but the snowfall had lessened considerably. The east-west oriented ditch was somewhat sloping, so not much snow had accumulated at the bottom, and the soil layer was still visible.
Lin Mo suddenly noticed that the ditch in front of him had no snow but was covered in a blanket of white, the color of which was different from snow, but it was almost indistinguishable from the distance.
The color was very similar to the silver shaded kittens that were popular in later generations; it was silvery-gray.
Slowing down the tricycle until it came to a steady stop, Lin Mo got off and used the ramp to descend into the ditch.
"What the hell..."
"Oh my god! Frozen mushrooms!"
It's grayish-brown, short and slender, shaped like a fan, and also somewhat like a heart.
It's a wild frozen mushroom!
Lin Mo knew that the Greater Khingan Mountains were rich in mountain products, but he knew he couldn't come up with anything just by thinking about it.
But once you see the actual object, you can recognize it immediately.
Although there are few mountain products in the Greater Khingan Mountains during winter, there are still some. Frozen mushrooms are one of the few wild mushrooms in the mountains that can withstand the severe cold.
The ditch is cleverly designed; its east-west orientation allows sunlight to scatter rather than shine directly into the ground. In addition, the ditch can trap moisture, creating a humid environment.
These are the growing conditions for frozen mushrooms!
Decades later, even fresh frozen mushrooms will retail for 60 or 70 yuan per kilogram, and large-scale supply will cost at least 20 or 30 yuan.
These mushrooms, which are only available in winter, are even more precious when dried; a pound of them can easily cost several hundred yuan.
Even back then, dried mushrooms could sell for 100 yuan per kilogram.
The prerequisite is that you can find a sales channel yourself.
Jiguanshan is quite far from the village, dozens of kilometers away, which is nearly a hundred miles. The villagers cannot easily get there on foot.
Lin Mo gripped the ditch wall, stepped on the shallow protrusions of the wall, and pushed hard, finally managing to climb out of the nearly three-meter-deep Jiguan Ditch with great effort.
Grab the sack and throw it down!
Then, grab a hemp rope and tie it to the nearby sturdy eucalyptus tree. After picking frozen mushrooms in the ditch, you can pull yourself up diagonally by the rope.
Winter is cold, and it's even colder in the mountains. The wind feels like knives cutting your face, not to mention the snow.
Picking frozen mushrooms is no easy task. We must pick all the mushrooms in this area this time. This ditch is so long, there must be more ahead!
Although it's difficult for humans to survive in such an environment, with snow covering everything, winter is also a good time for hunting.
By following the footprints left by wild animals such as deer and roe deer on the snow, it is easy to trace their hometown.
About two hours later, Lin Mo had picked a full twenty sacks of frozen mushrooms.
This thing is fragile, let's leave it like this for now.
The frozen mushrooms in front of us seem to be as plentiful as ever; there's still a huge pile left, enough to fill hundreds more sacks!
The narrow Jiguan Gully blocked Lin Mo from continuing north across Jiguan Mountain; the sun was already high in the sky.
Let's go home first!
Tomorrow we'll explore northwards along the foot of Jiguanshan Mountain, bypassing it!
On the way back, Lin Mo paid a little attention to the surrounding ground.
Sure enough, I spotted quite a few clear two-toed footprints, with two small dots behind the big toes. These were definitely from a deer.
It's not good to dig traps in winter because the ground is frozen solid.
However, it's possible to set a trigger to activate the function!
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