"Oh, you can do it that way? That's a good idea," Fourth Brother said.
"The most important thing is that when neighbors ask us what we eat, we always tell them we are poor. For example, we eat sweet potato flour buns with boiled vegetables, or vegetable pancakes with pickled vegetables. We just say how hard it is. But there is one thing we must pay attention to: during festivals, we should say what we eat, otherwise people will be suspicious."
"So, you kids will have to work a bit harder. After school this afternoon, you can't just play; you have to go dig for wild vegetables when they're plentiful, otherwise people won't believe us," the older brother said.
"Don't worry, we understand, brother," we said.
"By the way, brother, I heard there are quite a few mountains near the military region. What will we do if we hunt something? We definitely can't just take it back and cook it," I asked again.
"This is also an issue. What do you guys think about it?" the older brother said.
"You can take it home and let it air dry," said Sister Nan.
"No way," the older brother said, "the house in the military compound is small. If we open the front door, everyone will see the meat hanging by the kitchen door. Then everyone will be watching to see when you're going to eat meat." He rejected the idea.
"Then let them bake outside, let them cool, and then bring them back," Third Brother said.
"It's a good idea, but if we hunt too much prey, we can't eat it all in one or two meals," the older brother said, somewhat disapprovingly.
"Mom or the master can leave it here," Fourth Brother said.
"Mom and Aunt Zhou don't have that much time," the older brother said.
After cleaning it thoroughly and removing the blood,
"I think we can take into account what Sister Nan, Third Brother, and Fourth Brother said," she quickly said, seeing me standing next to her.
"Mianmian, tell me in detail," the older brother said.
"Here's the thing, when we've hunted a lot of game, we can roast what we want to eat outside, and take the rest back. After processing and marinating it, we can have Mom or Aunt Zhou leave early the next morning to air-dry or make it into cured meat. Then, when you're on vacation, or when Mom and Aunt Zhou are resting, you can bring us over. When it's hot, we can take it home and eat it slowly; in winter, we can make it into sauce."
"That's a brilliant idea!" the older brother said.
"That's a good idea," said Sister Nan.
"Okay, okay," said the third brother.
"That's great! Now we can eat meat whenever we want, and no one else will be eyeing it," Fourth Brother said.
We all laughed when we heard that.
Seeing that it was still early, and looking around the courtyard where everyone had practiced for two years, they felt a little reluctant to leave. Suddenly, the thought of the "three years of natural disasters" that were expected around this time next year came flashed through their minds, so they quickly said:
"Brother, we don't need this yard or this empty space anymore. Why don't we cultivate it and grow crops?"
"But at this time of year, it's not too late to come back from planting sweet potatoes," said Sister Nan.
"We can grow potatoes. Potatoes have a short growing season, and the temperature is just right until October," the older brother said. He explained that after experiencing hunger once, he went to look up information about agriculture.
"That's fine," said Sister Nan.
"Then let's get started," the third brother said. He didn't want to go hungry, so his eldest brother and second sister would produce food for him.
"Come on," Fourth Brother said. He also knew the importance of food, so he never resisted doing such tiring work.
And so, led by our eldest brother, we cleared out the entire yard, leaving only a narrow path for walking. Once everything was done, I quickly went to the kitchen and retrieved the half-basket of potatoes we'd left over—actually, I'd traded some seeds from my spatial storage for them.
If you ask me why I did this, isn't it because potato yields are low at this time of year? The yield is only 300 jin per mu, which is nothing compared to sweet potato.
The older brother glanced at the potatoes in the basket and said, "Potatoes are the only vegetables we can grow now. Although the yield is low, they'll provide an extra dish in winter, or we can just steam them."
"Who can argue with that? Sweet potatoes have a high yield, but eating too many can cause heartburn," said Sister Nan.
"That's better than going hungry," said the third brother.
"As long as I'm full, that's fine," Fourth Brother said.
"Alright, alright, let's quickly see how to plant these potatoes," I quickly changed the subject.
"That's easy. I read it in a book. Just cut the potatoes into pieces along the sprouting part, then put some wood ash on them and mix it in. Nan Nan, you and Mian Mian cut the potatoes. Third Brother and Fourth Brother, you two help me clean up the ditch."
"yes"
So we planted the potatoes in the ground before dark. While we were planting them, my older brother was saying, "After next summer's harvest, we'll plant sweet potatoes all over the place."
"Why don't you plant them during the spring planting season? That way we can still plant a crop of potatoes, which will yield more than wheat!" I thought about starting next year and focusing on high-yield crops, so I quickly said...
"Yes, brother, Mianmian is right," Sister Nan said after thinking for a moment.
“Mianmian is right,” the older brother said. “One mu of sweet potatoes yields four to five thousand jin. Our yard has at least eight or nine fen of land, if not one mu. If we calculate it that way, one season of sweet potatoes would yield at least four thousand jin. Add to that a crop of potatoes, which would yield two hundred and seventy or eighty jin. If we planted wheat, the yield would only be a hundred or so jin per mu. There’s a difference.”
After listening to their elder brother's words, the others thought about it and realized it was true.
"Brother, how about we plant a few pumpkins in the corner?" I said from the side.
"That's not a good idea. We don't live here, so aren't we afraid someone will steal from us?" the third brother said before the eldest brother could even speak.
"What should we do then?" Fourth Brother said.
"It's not impossible," the older brother said. "We won't plant them in the south corner; we'll plant them in the north wall, and then let them grow towards the roof."
"That's not bad either," said Sister Nan.
In this way, we arranged all the open space in the yard very clearly.
"Brother, what about the yard where you live? Is the empty space just sitting there?" I thought to myself, after moving, the empty space in the yard shouldn't be left idle, so I said...
"Let's plant sweet potatoes too. They're drought-resistant. We won't be living there anymore. Usually, only Mom and Master will go over to rest at noon. If we plant vegetables, we'll have to water them all the time, which is not worth it. It's easier to plant sweet potatoes, and the leaves are edible too."
"When the time comes, we'll find a Sunday to come over together, blanch the sweet potato leaves, and dry them into dried vegetables to make steamed buns in the winter," the older brother said.
"This is delicious," Fourth Brother said.
On the way back, I was thinking that if this is the case, I can plant sweet potatoes in all my spaces next year and secretly mix them in.
Leaving aside the food stored in the space, the sweet potatoes harvested from the training ground, if eaten sparingly, would be enough to feed two families for a year. Besides, living in the military area means there's a mess hall; we can eat there for lunch regularly, and the food is plentiful.
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