After breakfast, once the pots and pans are cleaned up, the children can't sit still.
Li Lanzhen told them to go and play by themselves, reminding them to rest and stay safe.
The older children led the younger ones to the reed beds to catch fish and collect wild duck eggs. Xue Bao also went over, wanting to catch a wild duck.
Seeing that Li Lanzhen didn't move, Shan Xing'er also sat on the grass without going over.
She thought Li Lanzhen must have something to ask her.
After watching the children leave, Li Lanzhen wanted to discuss with Shanxing the idea of living in this valley.
"Shanxing, I want to discuss something with you. This valley was discovered by your grandfather."
So, I'd like to discuss this with you. I'd like to settle down here.
The land here is fertile, the climate is mild, and most importantly, it is very safe.
In these chaotic times, having a safe place to live is very important!
In fact, Shanxing already knew what Li Lanzhen wanted to ask her.
When they arrived at the valley, Shan Xing'er noticed Li Lanzhen's eager and fond gaze towards the land.
Just now, she started talking about discussing things with me.
Shanxing understood; Li Lanzhen probably wanted to live here.
Although this place was discovered by Grandpa, it is also Grandpa's and his secret base.
This place also holds both the hardships and joys of her life with her grandfather.
However, since Li Lanzhen and the others want to live here, of course they can. With more people here, there will be more vitality, and they won't be lonely. They can also keep their memories of their grandfather.
She smiled and said to Li Lanzhen, "Of course you can. Although my grandfather discovered this place, it belongs to nature, to the sky, and to the earth!"
However, Aunt Lanzhen, you must carefully vet everyone who comes here. You absolutely cannot bring ungrateful people or those with malicious intentions here!
Li Lanzhen was surprised that Shanxing would agree so readily and even call her aunt.
Nodding, he smiled and said to Shanxing.
"Don't worry, everyone who comes here is my closest relative, and they are all kind and hardworking people."
However, I haven't decided yet. Let's decide when we return to Forget-Worry Valley.
Shanxing asked Li Lanzhen, "Aunt Lanzhen, is Forget-Worry Valley where you live? Is it as nice as here?"
Li Lanzhen smiled and said, "Yes, it was a valley we found after we fled into the mountains during the famine, but it was much smaller than this one."
There were fewer than a hundred of us who fled there, enough to live and work there.
Moreover, there are many caves in the mountainside, so we can live in the caves temporarily before winter arrives, since we don't have time to build houses then, and we can build houses next spring.”
Shanxing looked around the canyon.
“Aunt Lanzhen, there are no caves here. If you come here to live, you can only build a shack first. However, the climate here is warm, much warmer than outside.”
Li Lanzhen chuckled.
"Yes, this is indeed a good place to live. Look, the area over the reed marshes is relatively low-lying, and those fields can be reclaimed and used as paddy fields to grow rice, so that we can have rice to eat."
The mountains here are quite high, and they're used to growing wheat, corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes.
When Shan Xing'er heard about sweet potatoes and potatoes, she asked her in confusion.
"Aunt Lanzhen, sweet potatoes, potatoes, what are those? We've never seen them in our village before."
Li Lanzhen smiled and said, "This is from a silver shop called Jinfulai in our county. The young owner of the silver shop gave it to me. It has a high yield, tastes good, and is very easy to grow."
If you come to live here, you can plant more crops, enough to eat during the winter. Then, next spring, you can plant rice, wheat, and corn.
That way we won't have to worry about food.
Shanxing's eyes lit up at Li Lanzhen's words; that was the life they longed for.
We can grow grain! With so much grain, everyone in Pear Tree Village will have enough to eat.
Thinking this, she looked at Li Lanzhen with bright, sparkling eyes.
"Auntie, let's hurry back to Forget-Worry Valley. You go and move your things. We'll settle down here and start planting crops."
Li Lanzhen glanced back at the narrow gate through which she entered the valley.
Shanxing seemed to have guessed what was on her mind.
“Aunt Lanzhen, there is another door in this valley that leads out, but once you go out, you are still in the mountains, and it is a long way from the Forget-Worry Valley you mentioned.”
Li Lanzhen was even happier when she heard that there was another door in the valley.
With opportunities to advance and retreat, to attack and to defend, it's truly a wonderful place!
She quickly said, "Shanxing, take us there. Since there's another door, let's go out through that door. No matter how far it is, we'll always be able to circle back to Forget-Worry Valley."
"It's not good for us to stay in this valley."
Shanxing stood up happily and said eagerly.
"Aunt Lanzhen, let's go!"
After saying that, she waved her hand and called for her friends to come over quickly.
A short while later, Xue Bao and his men came over carrying a basket of cleaned fish.
Then a few more stones came carrying half a basket of wild duck eggs.
Their little faces lit up with joy.
Sanwang led Douhua and Datou by the hand. Douhua waved her little fists, her face flushed with excitement, and her big eyes sparkling.
"Grandma, fish, duck eggs, so many!"
Big Head quickly added, "Grandma's grilling fish!"
Li Lanzhen burst into laughter.
"Big Head, you just ate, but you're hungry again. Why does your little belly still look so round?"
Big Head patted his round little belly and chuckled sheepishly.
Xue Bao asked, "Auntie, shall we go out?"
Li Lanzhen nodded and said, "Yes, Shanxing said there is another door here. We will go out through that door and return to Forget-Worry Valley!"
"Xue Bao, I'd like to bring our families here to live. What do you think?"
Upon hearing this, Xue Bao smiled happily and nodded repeatedly.
"Great, great, this place is wonderful. I love this reed marsh the most. Now that I'm here, I must catch a few wild ducks to eat."
Moreover, the land here is fertile; rice can be grown near the reed beds, while wheat, corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes can be grown here.
"We'll plant some as soon as we get here. It's warmer here than outside, so we should be able to harvest another crop of sweet potatoes and potatoes. Even in winter, we won't go hungry."
As he spoke, he frowned again.
"Aunt Lanzhen, should I bring the whole village here?"
Li Lanzhen didn't respond to him and shook her head.
“I don’t want to bring so many people, I only want to bring a few families. But we still need to discuss this when we get home. If they all want to come, I can’t stop them.”
Xue Bao rolled his eyes and said.
“Aunt Lanzhen, this time when we go back, we’re taking 20 children with us. The 20 children in Forget-Worry Valley need to be allocated land, and they need to come here. There aren’t any ready-made caves for them to stay in.”
Upon hearing his words, Li Lanzhen immediately knew what he was up to.
He patted him on the shoulder and said, "You're quick-witted, kid. Let's go back to Forget-Worry Valley and discuss it with your dad and Uncle Zhang."
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