Chapter 14 Cang Li walked over suspiciously again…
Cang Li walked to the cave entrance again with suspicion, looking at the sky. Just now, she was cursing the heavens in anger, and then suddenly there was thunder in broad daylight. She came out to curse again, but this time nothing happened... Cang Li frowned. There was no sun outside, but the sky did not look like it was going to rain. There were no dark clouds, only large clusters of white clouds floating by, blocking the sun.
So why did the thunder suddenly explode out of nowhere?
Could it really be a coincidence?
Cang Li stared at the sky; everything outside was quiet, as if yesterday's heavy rain was just a dream.
After staring at it for a while, Cang Li looked away. She was probably really confused from anger. It was broad daylight; she couldn't have seen a ghost.
Cang Li vented her anger, then felt hungry. She pulled out a nice piece of pork belly, intending to make a pot of braised pork to calm her nerves after being frightened by the news that "the two kids were running around and almost got swept away by the water." She wasn't made of wood or stone; she had raised these kids for almost two months, and they were usually well-behaved. They had grown up together, and Cang Li couldn't bear the thought of her children possibly being gone overnight.
Jihejie didn't dare to move, but after smelling the delicious aroma of meat, his stomach started to rumble.
As the youngest child, Yu had no idea what was going on. He smelled the aroma and staggered toward Cang Li, making "jie" sounds as he walked. Then he grabbed Cang Li's leg and drooled.
Cang Li dragged Yu away and said coldly, "Ji, take Yu over there."
Ji's eyes lit up. His older sister had called him, and she hadn't ignored him! Ji rushed over and hugged Yu, saying earnestly, "Sister! I will take good care of Yu!"
Cang Li twitched the corner of his mouth, intending to make Ji Hejie realize the seriousness of the matter. He couldn't let this kid think that almost being swept away by the water was no big deal. So Cang Li snorted coldly and didn't respond to Ji.
The man lowered his head in disappointment, hugged Yu, and went back to stand still.
He whispered to the person:
“Hey, is Sister still angry? I don’t think she’s angry. She’s just worried about us. We shouldn’t have gone out behind her back.”
The man nodded and said, "Yes, I know. I can't let my older sister worry anymore..."
The little brats whispered amongst themselves. Cang Li finished cooking and turned to call a few of the kids:
"Come and eat."
Ji and Jie looked at each other, then obediently led their younger siblings to sit down and eat.
After the meal, Cang Li felt much better. Her cooking skills were truly excellent; the braised pork made with wild boar was incredibly delicious. It's true that eating something always helps when you're in a bad mood.
After everyone had finished eating, they quickly cleared away the dishes and went to the door to wash the pots. Then they returned to the cave and stood hesitantly in front of Cang Li.
Cang Li pointed to the stone beside him and said:
"Sit down and tell me how you got to the river."
Ji looked at Cang Li cautiously: "Sister, you're not angry anymore?"
Cang Li rolled her eyes at Ji, annoyed: "If I were angry, I would have died of anger long ago. You're awake. How did you and Jie get into the river?"
Jie then snuggled into Cang Li's arms and said:
“My partner and I went to find the wood that my sister had cut down. We wanted to get it back. We searched for a long time but couldn’t find it. Then, we accidentally stepped into a hole and floated into the river. The river was very fast, and my partner and I were about to be swept away. Suddenly, some vines floated over from the river, and my partner and I grabbed onto the vines so that we wouldn’t be swept away.”
The explanation is very clear.
Cang Li tapped Jie on the forehead: "Consider yourselves lucky. The vines stopped you today. If you dare to go out like this again next time, you can expect to be swept away!"
The man slowly moved over and squatted down in front of Cang Li, saying, "No more, sister, we will never sneak out again and make you worry."
Cang Li's lips curled up unconsciously, but he still kept a straight face and said, "Remember this lesson. I won't go out to look for you again next time!"
Ji Hejie nodded vigorously, then diligently massaged Cang Li's legs and shoulders.
Cang Li let out a breath and pointed to the gradually darkening area outside, saying, "Tomorrow, after the floodwaters recede, we'll replant the rice. We also need to collect more stones to reinforce the steps at the cave entrance in case it collapses next time it rains. Once it's a bit drier over there, we'll have to turn the soil over again. We'll be busy..."
As he spoke, Cang Li's expression turned rather unpleasant.
The next day, Cang Li took the remaining weeds and wove them into a straw dragon. He set it up outside and muttered to himself while looking at the blazing sun, "I'll let you get sunburned, I'll let you get sunburned, I'll let you get sunburned..."
Clearly, they were blaming the dragon for all the resentment that their hard-earned fruits of labor had been washed away by the torrential rain.
Watching the grass dragon being scorched by the blazing sun, Cang Li's mood gradually eased. The ancients were indeed wise. The losses caused by natural disasters were irreparable, but they still had to vent their anger. Whether it was a form of spiritual victory or not, someone had to take the blame.
The floodwaters outside had receded, revealing the damp ground. Cang Li went over to check on what she had planted. The rice was in even worse condition than before the floodwaters receded, with only two or three seedlings left in the field. The bok choy and scallions in the vegetable patch next to it had all been wiped out. After digging through the mud, she saw that there wasn't much ginger, sweet potatoes, or potatoes left either.
The ridges in the fields of Cangliqi were also washed away by the flood and leveled out, which is great for people with OCD, but not so great for Cangliqi.
Cang Li angrily threw the hoe aside; her month's hard work was gone.
The man took the last pear, washed it, and handed it to Cang Li, saying:
"Sister, don't be angry. Jie and I both know how to build those ridges. We'll build them back. We recognize ginger and scallions. After we finish building the ridges, Jie and I will go up the mountain to find them for you, and also some bok choy... Sister, don't worry, we'll get everything!"
Cang Li took a big bite of the pear, picked up the hoe, returned to the cave entrance, sat down, and said:
“Hey, let me ask you, does it rain this hard all the time here?” She remembered that it was raining heavily when she first arrived, only a little less so than the day before yesterday. The puddles on the ground were exactly the same. If it rains this hard every month, she would have to consider moving.
This place is not suitable for farming; it would be a waste of time to farm here. No matter how hard Cang Li works, he is unwilling to do it for nothing.
The man thought for a moment, rummaged through his memories, and shook his head, saying:
"No, I remember downloading it..."
The man counted on his fingers and held up four in front of Cang Li:
"Only four times, each time with a long interval, and I was able to eat cantaloupe for so long."
After saying that, Ji emphasized, "This time is different; it never happened so quickly before."
Cang Li was a little confused. According to Ren, this rain only comes once a year, and is similar to the heavy rain of the rainy season. After that, it will not rain again. So why was it raining heavily when she transmigrated, and then there was another heavy rain less than two months later?
The person is old enough to remember things, and besides, with such heavy rain, it's unlikely they would misremember.
Jie nodded and said, "It never used to rain twice. After such a heavy rain, it would get colder after a while, and then it would drizzle a little, but most of the time it would be sunny."
Cang Li decided to try again. The cave was ready-made, and there was food and water on the mountain. If she moved, she might not be able to find such a suitable place in a short time. In addition, the food in her mouth would get cold after a while. Cang Li made up her mind: she would plant it again. If it didn't work this time, she would store more food and try to get through the winter. After the spring, she would find a place with high ground that would not be flooded or leave this place to find people.
"Okay, I understand. I'll feed the paddy fields today, then I'll soak the rice seeds. We'll plant them tomorrow depending on how dry the ground is, and then I'll go up the mountain to dig up some bok choy to plant."
After Cang Li gave a brief explanation, Ji led Jie and Er to dig mud and build ridges in the field with wooden sticks. They had seen Cang Li build ridges before and knew how to do it.
The others were too young to be of much help, so they stayed with Yu at the entrance of the cave.
Cang Li exchanged for the last batch of rice seeds, but not potatoes or sweet potatoes. She had to keep them in case they couldn't be grown here, so she wouldn't be left with nothing.
The rice seeds need to be soaked and germinated before being sown in the field. Cang Li took out a ceramic jar that was marked specifically for soaking the seeds, poured in a bag of rice seeds, filled it with water to cover the seeds, and then covered it with a lid. After the seeds were thoroughly soaked, he poured out the water and covered it again.
Ideally, the seeds should be covered with cloth or burlap sacks to maintain humidity and temperature so that the rice seeds can germinate as soon as possible, but there are no such conditions, so we can only simply cover them and then move the earthenware pot to a sunny place to dry them.
After finishing with the rice seeds, Cang Li called his three sons back to drink water and rest. He then took out the dried mushrooms and vegetables to continue drying them in the sun, as they needed to be dried to preserve them.
Cang Li wiped away his sweat and saw that the place where the wood used to be was empty. He couldn't help but tear the straw dragon, which was exposed to the scorching sun, into two pieces.
That's what she said, but the tree she had painstakingly cut down over three days and soaked for a month until it was finally usable was gone just like that. Cang Li was very upset and hoped that God would have some self-awareness and return the tree to her.
Cang Li knew that God had no self-awareness; she would have to cut down another tree later, preferably a bamboo forest, since bamboo was easier to cut than trees.
It took two days to clean up the entrance to the cave, remove the silt, and wait for the ground to dry. In the morning, we turned over the soil, and in the afternoon, when the sun wasn't so strong, we went up the mountain to dig for wild vegetables.
After working for five or six days, Cang Li finally restored the cave entrance to its original state. He replanted cabbages, scallions, and ginger, and sowed the sprouted rice seeds in the fields.
Cang Li looked seriously at the two fields, turned over the millet that was drying, grabbed a handful and rubbed it between his fingers. It was very dry and almost ready to be pounded.
The man gathered up the dried mushrooms and continued drying the fresh ones he had just picked. Seeing Cang Li bring out the tree stump with the hole carved in it, he immediately ran over and asked:
"Sister, what are you going to do?"
Cang Li pointed to the millet drying on the straw mat and said, "Pour the millet in, I'll husk it, and we'll cook millet porridge for dinner tonight."
Without saying a word, he put the millet into the rice pounding tool that Cang Li had made.
Cang Li found his large wooden hammer, the kind used for pounding glutinous rice cakes, and tried pounding it down. After taking a look and adjusting the force, he began pounding the rice one stroke at a time.
Dried millet is still easy to pound, but it's a bit laborious. Cang Li divided the 60-70 jin of millet into three portions, with the hands of the person and the mortar being switched in the middle.
Before the pounded rice and husks were separated, Cang Li took out a straw sieve, put the millet mixed with the husks on it, found a vent, and held the large sieve with both hands to toss the millet out. The lighter husks were blown away by the wind. In no time, only the golden millet was left in the straw sieve.
After processing all the millet, Cang Li weighed it and found it was less than she had expected, probably only about 60 jin, but it would still be enough to eat for a while.
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