Grandpa Gu Bei is almost eighty years old, but apart from not being as fast as a young person, he doesn't look old at all.
He straightened up and started digging with a shovel in the backyard where the bluestone wall had been torn down. The backyard was quite large, and if he could successfully grow winter wheat, he would have enough food after May next year: "I see that everyone in the opposite community is resting, except for one person who is resting on the roof. There should be no danger. I want to take advantage of this time to turn over the soil. The weather is getting colder every day, and if we don't plant wheat now, it will be too late. Everyone across the community has returned, and it would be too conspicuous to work during the day. I think I don't need much sleep, so I might as well strike while the iron is hot."
With such a big courtyard, how long will it take Grandpa Gu Bei to search it?
Qiao An'an went back to the yard and got a shovel to help turn the soil with Grandpa Gu Bei. Gu Bei wanted to help too, but he was only a twelve-year-old and was too sleepy to keep his eyes open. Qiao An'an couldn't bear to make a child laborer like that, so she gestured for him not to come along: "You're so sleepy you can't even keep your eyes open, why don't you go upstairs and go to sleep? You can also help keep an eye on the road."
Gu Bei was quite stubborn: "No, I want to help."
The sound of the two talking woke up Chi Xiaoyu, who was putting Yaya to sleep. She took the hoe from Gu Beishou and said, "Be careful not to stay up too late and you won't grow tall."
Gu Bei was quite bothered when he heard that he wasn't tall enough. After all, Xiao Yu was already 1.7 meters tall, so he should be at least 1.8 meters tall, right?
He reluctantly went upstairs, grumbling and complaining.
Grandpa Gu Bei is getting old, and the corn in the backyard had only yielded ears of corn, with the stalks still in the ground, making it especially difficult to dig them up.
After Qiao An'an and Chi Xiaoyu joined, the progress immediately accelerated.
Qiao An'an and Grandpa Gu Bei were in charge of digging the ground, digging out the corn stalks and soil together. Chi Xiaoyu was in charge of using a hoe to break up the soil at the base of the corn stalks and neatly stacking the corn stalks aside to be used as firewood later.
The three of them worked until dawn before they finally finished turning over the soil in the small courtyard.
If there were machines, the seeds could be sown simply by having the machines run through the field once. But now it's the apocalypse and there are no large agricultural machines, so we can only sow seeds by hand.
Grandpa Gu Bei then instructed everyone to remove the large stones from the turned-up ground, break up the large clumps of soil, and dig holes in the ground to facilitate manual sowing.
Seeing that the planting holes were almost finished, Grandpa Gu Bei called Chi Xiaoyu to get the wheat seeds he had soaked in the kitchen.
Chi Xiaoyu reluctantly handed the soaked seeds to Grandpa Gu Bei: "What is this? It smells awful!"
Qiao An'an took a sniff and also said it smelled bad.
Grandpa Gu Bei took the seeds and explained to Qiao An'an and Chi Xiaoyu, "These wheat seeds need to be buried 3-5 centimeters deep in the ground. To prevent insects in the ground from eating the wheat seeds, normally the seeds are soaked in pesticide before sowing. But we don't have pesticides, so I used the tobacco from the pack of cigarettes that Gu Bei gave me to soak them. It smells a bit bad, but the effect is the same, both can repel insects."
Qiao An'an remembered that Gu Bei had given his grandfather a pack of cigarettes.
Grandpa Gu only smoked it on the first night he arrived, and never again after that. He treasured the cigarette so much, yet he was willing to use it to kill pests on the wheat: "This is Grandpa's most treasured possession..."
Grandpa Gu Bei laughed: "What treasure? The ginseng and wolfberry wine you gave me last time was even more precious."
The group evenly scattered the soaked wheat seeds into the planting hole and then backfilled it with soil.
After finishing all this, Grandpa Gu Bei prepared to go back to his courtyard to rest.
Qiao An'an asked, puzzled, "Don't we need to water it?"
Chi Xiaoyu was also very puzzled. Although she had never grown wheat, the vegetables and even sweet potatoes in the small yard all needed to be watered after being planted.
Why did Grandpa Gu Bei tell them to go back and rest instead of watering the wheat?
Grandpa Gu smiled at the two girls who had never done farm work before: "Winter wheat doesn't need to be watered after it's planted. When winter really comes, just pour a layer of water on top of the soil to freeze it completely."
Qiao An'an and Chi Xiaoyu exchanged a glance. It's amazing that they don't need to water the plants.
However, Grandpa Gu Bei was, after all, an experienced old man.
Listening to him is definitely the right thing to do.
The two followed Grandpa Gu Bei back to the small courtyard. After weighing down the entrance with heavy objects, they boiled water and took a bath in the bathroom of the second bedroom on the second floor. After Qiao An'an finished bathing and changed into clean clothes, she called Chi Xiaoyu to take a bath.
Grandpa Gu Bei was also sweating, but the weather was already quite cold, so he didn't dare to take a bath so early in the morning. He just fetched some hot water to wipe his hands, face, and body, and changed into clean clothes.
Upstairs in the master bedroom, Gu Bei was asleep by the window, clutching the unloaded gun. He probably had planned to stand guard, but he was too tired yesterday and fell asleep.
In the second bedroom, Ya Ya was sleeping soundly with her pillow in her arms, drooling all over.
Qiao An'an planned to let the two children sleep a little longer, and while Chi Xiaoyu and Grandpa Gu Bei were washing up, she went to the kitchen to boil water and cook.
Instead of going downstairs, she went up to the top floor and picked a few Shanghai bok choy plants. When she got to the first floor, she picked off the leaves with yellow spots and threw them to a few chickens. The little piglet next to her, which had a swollen baby pig, grunted unhappily, as if to say that it was pregnant and why the chickens got to eat while it didn't.
Qiao An'an had no choice but to break off a few vegetable leaves and throw them into the pigsty's feeding trough.
Wash the Shanghai bok choy and take it to the kitchen to prepare breakfast.
Yesterday, we slaughtered a pig and left a lot of tenderloin; it just won't sit long if we don't eat it.
It must be eaten as soon as possible.
For breakfast, I'll just make a simple tomato, lean pork, and vegetable noodle soup.
Qiao An'an cut a piece of pork tenderloin into small slices, washed away the blood, mixed it with some cornstarch and soy sauce, and then washed the last two tomatoes she had picked from the cabin and sliced them.
Next, heat oil in a wok, add diced tomatoes and stir-fry until they release their moisture, then add water. Once the water boils, add the lean meat slices that have been marinated with cornstarch and soy sauce. The meat must be thoroughly cooked before eating. Qiao An'an let the water boil in the wok a few times to make sure the lean meat was cooked before adding the noodles.
When the noodles were almost cooked, Qiao An'an added some greens, salt, light soy sauce, and MSG.
When the noodles were ready, Chi Xiaoyu had also finished showering and come downstairs. As she ladled out the noodles with bowls and chopsticks, she called for the people upstairs to come down and eat.
While Chi Xiaoyu was serving noodles, Qiao An'an took out some of the first batch of pickled vegetables they had made after harvesting the vegetables in the small courtyard to prevent them from being discovered. The pickled vegetables had already turned from bright green to a bright yellow color.
It also has a faint salty aroma.
It should be pickled by now.
Qiao An'an rinsed it with water, chopped it into small pieces, and stir-fried it with scallions, ginger, and garlic in oil.
Since it's pickled, no salt needs to be added.
But you must add enough oil.
It was oily and super delicious. When it was done cooking, Qiao An'an drizzled some soy sauce on top. The aroma alone made it perfect for eating with rice.
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