She quickly handed two steamed buns to Grandpa Huang, saying, "Grandpa Huang, these buns are still warm. Please eat them quickly. We can't leave them for Shi Tou and the other two. It's so cold; they need to eat something."
"Alright, I'll listen to you, I won't give it to them." He also felt that it was too cold, and he really couldn't stand it without eating. He had been staying here until now only because of the wine in his arms.
Grandpa Huang quickly finished his large steamed bun, took a sip of wine, and said, "We need to hurry back; it might snow."
"Really?"
"You can't be wrong."
"Then let's hurry up and go."
Grandpa Huang was right. When we were about five or six miles away from the brigade, it really started to snow, and it snowed harder and harder. When we got home, from a distance, it looked like a snowman.
Chen Junjie and the other man helped him put his things down and then hurried back home. Once inside, the kang (heated brick bed) was cold, and a cold kang made the whole house cold. What could he do? He quickly lit a fire to heat the kang and sat down in front of the stove to warm himself up.
When the stove was built, two openings were left, one large and one small. The large one was for a large iron pot, and the small one was for a clay pot or earthenware pot. Both were always filled with two-thirds water. In summer, there was always cool boiled water to drink, and in winter, it could be used for washing. The large pot wasn't needed when not in use; the small opening was sufficient.
After it warmed up, I started to organize the things I bought from the city. Items that I didn't need for the time being were put into my space and sorted by category so I could take them out whenever I needed them.
My older brother left, and I felt a little lonely for a while, but I quickly forgot about it by keeping busy. I spent all day tidying up things, or dealing with the apples, peaches, and persimmons in my storage space.
Keep enough to eat, and process the rest into semi-finished products, store them in the space warehouse, and take them out to dry when spring comes and it gets warmer.
Also, while shoveling snow, I put most of the grain stored in the cellar into my spatial storage, leaving only a little sweet potato and a little cabbage and radish.
Just processing apples, peaches, and dried persimmons took about half a month. I never thought it would take so long. The key is that there are too many things to do every day. In the morning, I still do what I used to do in the military region: first, I go for a run, but instead of running in the village, I run in the open space, and then I practice my boxing to hone my skills.
Then I started making and eating breakfast. Why not eat what's prepared in advance? It's because I'm worried there won't be enough to eat during the busy farming season. Also, I realized I only made noodles and meat dishes before the New Year, and didn't stir-fry any vegetables, so now I always make extra when I cook. Anyway, I have plenty of pots and pans in my storage space, I'll just use them.
After breakfast, I would sit on the kang (a heated brick bed) and process apples and other things. After lunch, I would continue processing them. After dinner, I would stop processing these things and start studying. My plan for this year is to start learning a foreign language.
I studied Russian in school and did quite well, but I'm worried I'll forget it over time. I've planned it out: first, memorize vocabulary, then memorize a Russian article. Finally, I'll listen to Russian audio or watch a Russian movie.
Then memorize English words. After you've finished studying the English textbooks from elementary to high school that you downloaded in your previous life, and you've memorized them and have an impression of them in your mind, then start memorizing CET-4 and CET-6 vocabulary, reading articles, listening to audio, or watching movies.
Anyway, we have to make good use of the evenings. Not to mention the long nights in Northeast China during winter, even in summer there aren't many other activities at night, so we can use them for studying, right?
Looking back now, it's such a waste of time, from the end of May last year until now.
In order to study better, he didn't dare to sit on the kang (a heated brick bed) and study under the covers, for fear that Chen Enpeng in the next room would hear him. Practicing spoken language required making sounds, so he would sit in front of the stove and study by the light of several candles.
Why not in the space? But it's cold in the space too. Although the temperature in the kitchen and storeroom is constant, I still feel cold inside, not as warm as sitting on the kang (heated brick bed) or in front of the stove.
I always wear headphones when listening to audio materials or watching foreign language movies and TV shows.
Besides learning foreign languages, I also spend some time in the evenings reading books about medicinal herbs. Now that I'm near the mountains, there are countless medicinal herbs on the mountains. I feel that selling medicinal herbs at the purchasing station is more reliable than selling eggs in the county town. In addition, it requires no capital and can earn quite a lot, so I want to learn more about it.
Another important thing is practicing calligraphy. Not much, just one sheet of paper a day. I like the calligraphy of Chu Suiliang; his calligraphy is known for its delicate beauty. For example, the "Preface to the Sacred Teachings of the Wild Goose Pagoda" is particularly suitable for girls to practice.
So it took a while to process the Apple stuff, but everything else is fine now, right?
After finishing all that, I still looked around the space and felt that there wasn't enough food, so I kept two pounds of each of the beans I had prepared before the New Year and soaked them in water, planning to make bean buns from them.
I really can't stand eating bean cakes. Bean porridge is alright, but it's a waste of time. I really don't like bean cakes. I'd rather make bean buns, which taste pretty good.
After doing all this, remove the corn cobs that were planted in the space last year.
I don't plan to grind them into flour now, but I will grind the corn kernels I received last year into flour, so that it will be more convenient to eat them on a regular basis.
Also, I used to like eating dried sweet potatoes, so I cleaned the sweet potatoes in my storage space, peeled them, steamed them, sliced them, and put them in a winnowing basket to dry in the sun in the morning, although it took longer than when the weather was hot. I didn't waste the sweet potato peels either; I cooked them and fed them to the chickens.
Actually, what I really want to do when I see sweet potato peels right now is raise a few more pigs. But I can write this down and go to the black market to see if I can get any when I can go to the city in a few days.
Anyway, we have space and land to feed the pigs, so we don't have to worry about food. Besides, weren't we all planning to earn a couple of work points for pig feed when we have nothing to do this year? We can work together then, so it's settled.
There's only one month left before construction starts. There's still a lot of frozen fish in the space, which needs to be dealt with. I plan to make a lot of fish balls to add to noodles later, along with some pickled cabbage—it'll be absolutely delicious.
I'm making some braised fish. Actually, compared to sauerkraut fish, I still think braised fish tastes better. However, there are many delicious ways to cook fish, but I don't eat it much and I'm not very good at cooking it.
Time passed day by day until my neighbor Chen Enpeng came to tell me that work would resume on the tenth day of the third lunar month. I calculated that there weren't many days left, so I thought...
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