Chapter 24
Shu Shouyi sat by the fire, idly warming himself for most of the day, until it got dark, at which point Shu Wanxiu finally stopped working.
"aunt!"
Shu Wanxiu carried her hoe to the woodshed and pile of firewood. Before she could even sit down and catch her breath, Shu Shouyi came running over and hugged her leg.
This child is not usually this spoiled. Shu Wanxiu knew he must be extremely bored, so she bent down, scooped him up, and picked him up.
"Hey? How did you turn into a clown? Your face is covered in black marks."
The dark marks on his face, probably from adding firewood, made Shu Wanxiu unable to suppress a smile.
Shu Shouyi wasn't annoyed when his aunt laughed at him; he just awkwardly raised his hand to wipe it.
"No need, let Auntie help you." Shu Wanxiu easily wiped his smeared face clean with her index finger in a few strokes, and then discussed with him, "It's time to make dinner. Today is the Winter Solstice, and Auntie plans to make something lavish. Shouyi, would you like some dried small fish and shrimp, or some salted fish?"
Without hesitation, Shu Shouyi chose between the two: "Salted fish!"
When Shu Shouyi was initially cleaning the fish, he disliked the fishy smell. However, after helping to gut the small fish, he got used to the smell and not only no longer felt uncomfortable with the fishy smell of raw fish, but also craved the salted fish that Shu Wanxiu had smoked with pine wood.
"good!"
Shu Wanxiu pinched Shu Shouyi's slightly plumper cheek, put him down, and went to the main room to get the salted fish hanging from the roof beam.
It's been almost two months since Shu Wanxiu moved into this house. She's never seen a mouse before, but that doesn't stop her from taking precautions.
Straw ropes were swung from the roof beams and hung down, with a bamboo basket tied to them, suspending them in mid-air. This was a common method used by households to prevent rats.
Because the basket is high off the ground, it can sometimes be used to hide snacks to prevent children from stealing them.
The Shu family didn't have any snacks; the hanging basket, which was off the ground, only contained a few packets of dried small fish and shrimp and two large salted fish.
She went straight for the salted fish, and without much hesitation between two fish of similar size, she picked the one that was easier to handle. Without using a knife, she used both hands to forcefully tear it in half, starting from the middle of the mouth.
To be honest, it's a bit of a hassle to do this.
However, she was no longer the helpless woman she had been when she first fled the famine. After doing manual labor for a while, her arm strength and hand strength had both increased.
She tore off half of the fish, rinsed it briefly with a ladle of water, put it in a pot, added cold water to cover the fish, and started a fire.
The dried fish softens considerably after being boiled once. Then, use chopsticks to pick it out, tear it into strips by hand, add a little softened dried perilla leaves and some freshly picked scallions, mix well, put it in a bowl, and steam it.
To save time and fuel, Shu Wanxiu cooked porridge in the bottom of the pot and used three chopsticks to build a steamer rack on top to steam fish, cooking porridge while steaming the fish.
She entrusted the task of starting the fire to Shu Shouyi with peace of mind, and then went to the vegetable garden.
At first, she only planned to cook a fish, but after the fish was in the pot, she suddenly thought: We already have meat, why not add a vegetable?
Standing in front of the Shu family's house now, it looks completely different from what it did two months ago.
The spot that was once overgrown with weeds has been neatly cultivated into six rectangular plots of vegetable soil, and the man-made vegetables have completely replaced the tangled weeds.
Look, this plot of land is planted with winter mallow and flat vegetables, and over there are green onions and coriander. Even the radishes and cabbages, which take a long time to grow roots and form buds, have grown to maturity without us even noticing.
Shu Wanxiu can stand in front of her house every day and do nothing but look at the few plots of vegetable soil that she has cultivated with her own hands, and she will feel happy and content.
Walking to the vegetable patch where cabbages were planted, she carefully selected the largest one and twisted it off.
Unlike the north, the snow falls later in the south. Shu Wanxiu carried the vegetables back to the wooden shed and found that the cabbage had been eaten by caterpillars.
What could be done? We could only grit our teeth, pry up the big bug that was gnawing on the outer green leaves with a small stick, and put it into the fire.
She had to pretend to be an adult who could handle everything, but four-year-old Shu Shouyi didn't need to. He cried and ran far away, only sneaking over after the insect had perished in the fire, huffing and puffing as he added, "Bad insect, stealing my vegetables! Humph."
The insects left behind after being sawed by insects were annoying to look at, so Shu Wanxiu simply peeled off a few old outer leaves and threw them into the silt pile she had dug up a few days ago, saving them to be put into the pit for composting next time.
Once the fish is steamed and the porridge is cooked, put a small amount of water and salt into a clean pot, bring the water to a boil, add the washed and broken cabbage pieces, and simmer for a few minutes. The second boiled dish is now ready.
There were only two of them, and they were too lazy to move to the main room to eat. So they took a small stool, put the bowls of food on it, and sat around the fire pit, each holding their own bowl of rice to enjoy this sumptuous evening meal.
The leaping flames dispelled the cold, and a gentle breeze blew outside, causing tiny snowflakes to 'pitter-patter' as they fell.
"It's snowing..." Shu Wanxiu looked up while biting into a salted fish.
The sky grew darker, and it seemed that today's snowfall would be much more than just a few flakes.
Either there will be heavy rain later, or these small snowflakes are paving the way for a large snowfall.
The pit behind the house was almost finished. After eating, Shu Wanxiu took a winnowing basket and scooped up the silt and other materials, rushing to pour them into the pit. She then took some dried wild grass that she had cut from the mountains and covered the vegetables in the vegetable garden that were not so frost-resistant.
As she predicted, just as she finished everything and began to wash up, snowflakes, as fine as goose feathers, slowly drifted down from the sky.
This kind of snow is what excites children. Shu Shouyi jumped outside to catch a few snowflakes. In the village at the foot of the mountain, some children shouted, "It's snowing!" and ran to other people's houses to call their playmates to watch the snow together.
After Shu Shouyi had finished playing around, Shu Wanxiu watched him warm up by the fire, then sent him to the bedroom. She followed a little behind, carefully extinguishing the embers before leaving.
At night, the two of them slept wearing padded jackets, covered with a thin reed quilt, and then weighed down with a layer of straw.
There were no blankets or quilts under them, but straw was laid out for warmth.
When we first moved into this house, there was only a straw curtain hanging over the windows. It was fine for keeping out mosquitoes in the summer and autumn, but it couldn't keep out the cold wind in winter.
In her spare time, Shu Wanxiu wove two more layers of straw curtains and hung them up, which solved the ventilation problem.
Several nights later, strong winds blew, and the light north wind blew open the three layers of straw curtains. She then used straw ropes to tie two fist-sized stones behind the straw curtains to weigh them down.
Now, no matter how fiercely the north wind rages outside the window, it cannot blow into the house and cause trouble.
The aunt and niece slept soundly all night. When they saw the snow piled up on the ground the next morning and showed no signs of stopping, Shu Wanxiu, the scholar, began to feel a sense of panic.
A note from the author:
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I bought a new cover, and I'll be changing it up in the next few days [Let me see!]. Remember the title, everyone~ so you don't miss it on your bookshelf! [Shrug]
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