The matter of hitting Huang's mother was over, and Qin Xiaoxiao quickly lay down next to Old Mrs. Qin to sleep, which made Old Mrs. Qin laugh.
The next morning, Qin Xiaoxiao didn't go back to the educated youth compound. Instead, she had breakfast at the Qin family home. The old lady doted on her granddaughter and, in addition to the daily staple of eggs, cooked meat porridge, this time with pork.
"Go to work, Grandma will cook you meat for lunch."
Qin Xiaoxiao's eyes lit up at the thought of fatty braised pork. "Grandma, I want to eat braised pork."
Grandma Qin shook her head in disapproval, "That won't do. I'll make braised pork for you in a few days. Today, I'll just boil two pieces of lean meat for you."
The light in Qin Xiaoxiao's eyes vanished instantly, and she nodded listlessly, "Okay, lean meat is fine too."
She's not picky about meat; it's fine as long as it's meat.
Qin Xiaoxiao carried a bamboo basket up the mountain and met Qin Gouzi at the foot of the mountain.
Qin Gouzi rushed over happily when he saw Qin Xiaoxiao, "Sister, you're here?"
Qin Xiaoxiao nodded, "Yeah, Gouzi came pretty early today."
Qin Gouzi nodded with a smile, "Yeah, tomorrow the team will be adding a few more people to cut pig feed, so I want to work harder today and earn more work points."
Qin Xiaoxiao blinked. "Really? How come I didn't know?"
Qin Gouzi proudly raised his chin, "Every year at this time, we add more people to cut pig feed together, otherwise the pig feed will turn yellow in a few days and the pigs won't like to eat it."
Qin Xiaoxiao seemed to understand, "I get it. It means to gather more pig feed now before it turns yellow, so that we won't go hungry in a few days."
Qin Gouzi shook his head. "It's no use hitting it more. This stuff doesn't last long anyway. It's just a matter of eating one more meal if we can. It's free anyway."
It's all about saving money.
Qin Xiaoxiao spent the whole day on the mountain with Qin Gouzi cutting pig feed. She didn't slack off at all today and cut two extra baskets, which made Qin Ye, who was passing by, stare in amazement.
My little sister is amazing; she's managed to gather so much pig feed in such a short time.
The same goes for weeding in the past. I started by weeding five meters a day, then increased to more than ten meters a day, making progress every day.
Well, although we're still a bit distant from the villagers, our attitude is great, and this never-give-up spirit is something we should all learn from and encourage.
Qinjiagou was busy for three more days, and the fruit on the mountain was finally harvested. Qin Feng did not delay and used a tractor to leave some of the fruit for the villagers, and sent the rest to the purchasing station to exchange for money.
The medicinal herbs planted under the tree were all processed and sent over together. Qin Feng didn't have to worry about these things; Qin Ye took care of them all.
After the autumn harvest, the hardworking people of Qinjiagou worked tirelessly. At noon, tractors went into town, and in the afternoon, people carried bamboo baskets up the mountain.
At this time, the mountain produce such as hazelnuts, chestnuts, walnuts, goji berries, clams, red mushrooms, and wood ear fungus are ready to be picked. Villagers flock to Mao'er Mountain, and as far as the eye can see, there are more people than trees on the mountain.
Qin Xiaoxiao couldn't help but complain.
With so many people scrambling to pick them, how much can each family manage? She's too small to compete with them!
Qin Xiaoxiao felt utterly powerless.
It seems that bringing more things into her space won't be so easy; she'll have to find another way.
Qin Xiaoxiao managed to bring back quite a lot of things, even though it was just a superficial matter. It took her ten days to tirelessly run up and down the mountain, carrying basket after basket of things down. She was even more diligent than when she was cutting pig feed and pulling weeds to earn work points. When the people of Qin Family Village saw this, they all gave Qin Xiaoxiao a thumbs up and praised her.
"Xiaoxiao is really capable. She has become so well-trained in just a few days."
"Xiao Xiao is much better than those educated youth in the educated youth compound. She is indeed worthy of being a Qinjiagou native. She is just different from those city people."
"Look at all these baskets, you must have made three trips today already!"
"More than that, I saw her running up the mountain just as dawn broke. This must be the fourth time."
"Why is this child making so much food? She can't possibly finish it all by herself."
"What are you saying? If she can't finish it, there's still the Qin family to take care of. I think it should be prepared for Old Mrs. Qin and her husband."
"Xiaoxiao is so filial. I've heard Grandma Qin praise her more than once."
"I've heard it too. Grandma Qin praised Xiao Xiao so happily that she smiled so much that she got two more wrinkles on her face."
"The Qin family doesn't discriminate against girls, and Old Mrs. Qin treats her eldest granddaughter very well."
"That's right. The Qin family is a well-known military family throughout the county, with very high moral standards."
"..."
...
Qin Xiaoxiao responded to the villagers' kind conversation with a smile. Her smiling face was so endearing that it made everyone want to smile along with her.
After passing through the crowd, Qin Xiaoxiao secretly breathed a sigh of relief and quickly walked towards the educated youth compound.
I took the basket off my back, poured all the hawthorns into a wooden bucket, soaked them in water, and then went to check on the wild pears I had picked yesterday.
The pears were a bit hard when they were first picked, so Qin Xiaoxiao stored them all in a jar, covered it tightly, and sealed it. She would open the jar every day to let it breathe and check if any wild pears were ripe enough to take out and store in her space.
In the small backyard, there were dried jujubes, goji berries, and wild dates drying on the ground. Qin Xiaoxiao also found a persimmon tree on the back of Mao'er Mountain. While people were picking mountain products on the front mountain, she went to the persimmon tree on the first day and picked all the persimmons to dry.
Qin Xiaoxiao plans to make persimmon cakes from over a hundred persimmons of various sizes. She doesn't know how to make them, but that's okay, there are ready-made tutorials in her space, so she can learn as she goes.
After drying for two days, the persimmons were almost dry. Qin Xiaoxiao took out a large wooden bucket, put them all in, added salt, and washed them. After washing, she peeled them, but the peels couldn't be thrown away, as they would be used later.
After everything was done, Qin Xiaoxiao laid a white cloth on the ground in the yard, arranged the peeled persimmons, covered them with another layer of gauze, and left them to dry in the sun for three or four days. Once the persimmons softened, she gently squeezed and kneaded them. She repeated this squeezing and kneading process every two days, then turned them over to dry again. After half a month, they could be collected.
After preparing the persimmons, Qin Xiaoxiao spread the washed hawthorns on a cloth to dry in the sun. She stored some of them in her space to make candied hawthorns in the winter, and planned to make the rest into hawthorn preserves in a couple of days, which would be easier to store.
After finishing, Qin Xiaoxiao saw that it was still early, so she carried her bamboo basket up the mountain again, this time heading for the apples.
More than a month ago, when she was getting familiar with Mao'er Mountain, she found an apple tree. A few days ago, she went to check on it and found that the apples were ripe. However, she didn't have time then because she had to go collect wild apples, so she left them aside. Today and tomorrow, she will transport all the apples back.
She couldn't carry that many apples by herself, so Qin Xiaoxiao planned to bring Qin Ye along tomorrow. She would keep a small portion for herself and leave the rest at the Qin family's place to entertain guests during the New Year.
After harvesting the mountain produce, the weather turned cool. When she went out in the morning, her hands were freezing. Qin Xiaoxiao quickly went into her space to find some woolen gloves and put them on before starting to heat the kang (a traditional heated bed).
Half a month ago, Qin Xiaoxiao stopped letting the stove for heating the kang (a traditional heated bed) go out. Every day when she went in, she would put in a thick piece of firewood so that it could burn longer. She would add more firewood when she returned from the mountain.
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