Era: Started from raising livestock in the mountains

After entering the house to warm up for a while, the two took grain and bean dregs to feed the livestock.

Lin Heng fed the last bit of bean dregs to the female forest musk deer, and then returned to the house with a bundle of half-dried twigs. Although the wood is not completely dry, it is no problem for burning.

There are a lot of lotus roots that Xiulan has washed in the kitchen, and the lotus root powder he made yesterday has also precipitated. He only needs to dry it in the sun before drinking it.

The taste of lotus root starch is better than that of kudzu root starch, and the effects of drinking it are also different.

Xiulan started cooking. Lin Heng glanced at the snowflakes still flying outside, went to the back mountain and took two dry maple logs with a diameter of 30 and a half centimeters and brought them into the house.

Seeing him come back from getting wood, Xiulan, who was cooking in the kitchen, asked curiously: "What are you going to do?"

Lin Heng smiled slightly and said, "I probably won't be able to go out today. I just took the time to make a wooden horse out of wood for Xiaoxia to play with."

This thing is simple to make, and he can easily make it without drawings.

Hearing this, Xiulan smiled slightly: "Just pamper her."

Lin Heng placed the wood on the 'horse's foot' and peeled off the bark with a knife, revealing the light yellow wood inside.

After the tree bark was peeled off and Xiulan's rice was almost done, Lin Heng went to wake Xiaoxia up, dress her and wash her, and then the family of three had breakfast together.

Breakfast was relatively simple sauerkraut noodles, but it tasted good. After eating, the snow outside did not stop, and Lin Heng was ready to continue his work.

He ran to his father to borrow carpenter tools. When he saw his father and elder brother taking a chain saw and an ax and preparing to go up the mountain, he couldn't help but curious: "Dad, elder brother, what are you going to do?"

Lin Yue responded with a smile: "Go and burn charcoal. Even if you don't sell it, you can use it at home."

Father Lin also nodded: "Yes, there is nothing to do these days anyway. It just so happens that the previous charcoal kiln has not collapsed and can be used directly."

"You really can't take any time off."

When Lin Heng looked at his mother, he obviously wanted to go to the mountain to burn charcoal together.

In this era, the villagers here would burn charcoal every winter, not only for their own use, but also for selling it to make money, which was also a source of income.

Every morning you can see thick white smoke rising from some hills, which is the smoke coming from the charcoal kiln.

The Lin family is now rich, and there is no need to burn charcoal, but Lin's eldest brother is obviously someone who can't sit still.

"What did you come here for?" Lin's father asked. He knew that Lin Heng could not have come here to go up the mountain with them.

Lin Heng looked at his father and said, "When you go up the mountain, help me open some boards first, and then lend me the wood chisel and pusher."

Lin Heng told Xiaoxia everything about making a Trojan horse.

"That's okay."

Father Lin did not refuse. He turned around and got some tools for Lin Heng. He then took the chain saw to open some boards for Lin Heng and then took his eldest son Lin Yue and his wife Lu Hongmei up the mountain.

Lin Heng didn't come with him, and he really wasn't interested in such heavy snow.

After making a charcoal fire, Xiulan watched Xiaoxia knit a sweater while Xiaoxia played with Xiongba and Jinbao with toys.

Jinbao is now a bit bigger than the average civet cat, with golden-red hair. Sitting there slumped there, he is about the same size as Xiaoxia, giving him the feeling of a bobcat.

But it is too lazy. Apart from playing with Xiaoxia, it only takes naps and sleeps. It is only active when eating.

Jinbao has a pretty good personality. Although he doesn't cut his nails, he never stretches out his paws when playing with Xiaoxia. When he is teased, he puts his mouth around her little hand and has no intention of biting it.

It always had a very cold attitude toward Lin Heng. It would only come over and nuzzle Lin Heng when he had something to eat.

Xiulan is very obedient. Sometimes she will sleep on its lap and let her caress her. Sometimes when she is in a good mood, she will catch a mouse and bring it back to show off her skills.

Lin Heng was doing carpentry work with his head down, and would say a few words to Xiulan from time to time.

He used a wooden pusher to smooth out the boards cut by his father, then used fixed-point circles to make two lone guide rails, and made some rungs. He spent a morning working on the arc base and legs of the wooden horse. All made.

Originally, the body of the wooden horse could be made simply out of wooden boards, but Lin Heng felt that it would not demonstrate his skills, so he decided to use a section of maple wood to carve a horse body and head similar to the real one.

The snow fell less at noon, and not heavily in the afternoon, but the weather got a lot colder. The winter of this era was much colder than that of later generations.

It was already past five o'clock in the blink of an eye, and it was getting dark. Lin Heng felt a little embarrassed looking at the wooden horse that he had carved in front of him for a whole day.

But it had already come to this point, and he could only continue. Xiulan went to make dinner while he continued carving the wooden horse.

After dinner, he went to his father to get some carpenter tools and asked about their situation.

I learned that Father Lin and the others had sawed nearly a thousand acorn trees today and were preparing to burn charcoal tomorrow if the snow was not heavy.

Father Lin lamented: "Actually, I only wanted to burn charcoal with a chain saw. This thing is so fast. I can finish the work that took ten days in one day."

It takes him two or three minutes to chop down a tree, but it only takes five seconds with a chain saw, which is much more efficient. The originally tiring work of burning charcoal is now very easy with a chain saw.

"Then you burn slowly."

Lin Heng smiled slightly. He knew that his father was someone who couldn't take any time off.

After chatting for a few words, he went back home and continued making the wooden horse. He didn't stop to tell Xiaoxia a story until she was about to take a rest.

After going to bed, Xiulan rested close to him as usual. The two of them lingered for a while and then fell asleep slowly.

The next morning, there was no more snow, but it was white outside. There were more than ten centimeters of snow on the ground. It was obvious that it had snowed all night last night.

The morning of snow is always quiet, even the sparrows that always chirp are nowhere to be seen. Exercising with Xiulan in such a heavy snow feels like dancing together, as if every move is in response to each other.

After the exercise, Xiulan went to cook as usual, and Lin Heng continued his wooden horse carving.

After half a day of hard work yesterday, the general outline has now come out. It doesn't look beautiful, and it's even a little ugly, but at least it looks like a horse.

There is no way, this is also the first time for Lin Heng to do it, and it is unrealistic to expect him to do it like a master carver.

"Dad~"

Lin Heng was carving when he saw Xiaoxia rubbing her eyes and running out of the bedroom in pajamas.

"Why don't you wear any clothes!"

Lin Heng hurriedly carried her back to the house, fearing that she would catch a cold.

"I wet the bed, Dad!"

Xiaoxia said a little scared in Lin Heng's arms.

Lin Heng touched his daughter's pants and found them wet, and immediately understood why she woke up.

Xiaoxia looked very self-blaming, she knew that bedwetting was not good.

Lin Heng did not scold her, but smiled and kissed her: "It's okay, just try not to wet the bed next time, and when Xiaoxia doesn't wet the bed, she will be a little adult."

Lin Heng did not want to punish her for wetting the bed. He thought Xiaoxia didn't wet the bed because she didn't want to, not because she was afraid of being beaten and punished.

When changing Xiaoxia's clothes, Lin Heng told her about the hardship of Xiulan washing diapers, the benefits of not wetting the bed, etc.

After changing her clothes, Xiaoxia went to the kitchen by herself, lowered her head and apologized to Xiulan in a baby voice: "I'm sorry, mom, I won't wet the bed next time."

Xiulan looked at her and showed a bright smile: "I believe you."

Xiulan cooked, and Xiaoxia followed her all the time. When Xiulan washed clothes and quilts after dinner, Xiaoxia squatted beside her and wanted to help. She felt how cold the water was in winter and seemed to feel more guilty.

In the afternoon, Lin Heng finally made the wooden horse. Although it was ugly, it was completely rideable. Lin Heng tried it himself and there was no problem at all.

"Xiaoxia, I'll give you something."

Lin Heng called Xiaoxia over.

"What is this?"

Xiaoxia opened her eyes wide and looked at the ugly and silly wooden horse in front of her, and asked curiously.

"This is the horse I made for Xiaoxia. After riding it, Xiaoxia will not wet the bed anymore."

Lin Heng said with a smile and showed it to Xiaoxia.

Then he put Xiaoxia on it. When Xiaoxia grabbed the wooden handle on the horse's head and started shaking it, she soon laughed happily like a silver bell.

Seeing Xiaoxia having so much fun, Lin Heng couldn't help but smile and turned to look at Xiulan: "How is it, I did a good job, right?"

"Except that it's a little ugly, everything else is good. It's amazing that it succeeded the first time." Xiulan said with a smile, and her evaluation was very real.

This made Lin Heng grin and walk over to warm himself by the fire, watching Xiaoxia play the wooden horse.

After a short rest, Xiulan called Lin Heng to sweep the snow in the yard outside. She wanted to do this job with Lin Heng, so she didn't sweep it today.

"Just pile the swept snow into a snowman."

Lin Heng smiled slightly.

Xiulan looked at him and blinked: "Look at you!"

"Then do it."

Lin Heng shoveled the snow and piled it by the wall. Xiulan took the broom and swept it again, and the bluestone floor was exposed.

The snow gathered together, and Lin Heng simply piled up three snowmen, two large and one small, and used branches to make arms and five features.

"How is it, does it look good?" Lin Heng turned his head and asked with a smile.

Xiulan blinked and smiled: "It's so ugly."

She walked over and adjusted it herself, but it was still ugly, but she insisted to herself: "It's much better than before."

Lin Heng laughed and found it interesting.

After watching the snowman for a while, the two went back to the house. After dinner, Xiaoxia still wanted to play with the wooden horse. She loved this new toy so much that she didn't play with the tumbler and the car.

The next day, the sun came out and the ice and snow melted. It was particularly cold. After lunch, Lin Heng went up the mountain to help pick charcoal.

Charcoal burning is very simple, just saw the firewood into short sections and place it vertically in the earthen kiln. After ignition, it will burn for a day and a night, releasing white smoke.

When the smoke gradually dissipates, it means that the wood has been burned and turned into charcoal.

There are two ways to make charcoal at this time. One is to seal all the smoke outlets of the earth kiln to isolate oxygen and wait for the charcoal to cool naturally.

But they generally do not use this method here. Instead, they directly bury the red-hot charcoal in the moist soil. It will be completely extinguished in one or two hours.

Because it absorbs moisture, it is more difficult for these charcoals to burn again, so it is not so easy to cause a fire.

Father Lin looked at Lin Heng and said, "Lin Heng, you can carry this basket of charcoal back and use it yourself."

"Okay!"

Lin Heng usually does not use charcoal fire, but he did not refuse. It is still very good for barbecue.

Back in the house, Lin Heng looked at the calendar. Tomorrow is January 10th, the ninth day of the twelfth lunar month.

Lin Heng remembered what Grandpa Gao said and told Xiulan that he would get up early tomorrow morning to go to Huangtan Town.

Xiulan thought she had no objection to this.

Lin Heng looked at Xiulan and her daughter, and said with a smile: "I will take you to the street on the ninth day of the first lunar month. The street should be very lively as the New Year approaches."

"Okay."

Xiulan agreed immediately. She hadn't been to the street for a long time.

At night, the three of them had a simple meal of cabbage, vermicelli and braised meat and went to rest.

"Knock, knock, knock! Open the door!"

The next morning, at around six o'clock before dawn, there was a knock on the door.

"What's going on?"

"It sounds like Liu Changgen, let's go out and take a look!"

Both Xiulan and Lin Heng were awakened. Both of them were a little unhappy, so they had to put on their clothes and go out to take a look.

When they opened the gate of the yard, they saw Liu Changgen, who was wearing mourning clothes, standing at the door. They were both shocked.

Without waiting for the two to speak, Liu Changgen knelt down and kowtowed three times: "Lin Heng, Chen Xiulan, my grandfather has passed away and I ask for your help!"

Liu Changgen is Liu Lan's husband, and his grandfather is Liu Sanye, who often smokes under the ginkgo tree in the village.

"Master Liu San is gone?"

Lin Heng was stunned, still a little bit unbelievable. He felt that the old man was very strong when he saw him a few days ago. How could he suddenly pass away?

Liu Changgen had a haggard look on his face: "He suddenly started vomiting in the middle of the night, and finally stopped at around five o'clock. He said he wanted to drink sweet wine. I got him a bowl of sweet wine, and he suddenly passed away after taking a sip."

Liu Changgen had not been very good to his grandfather before, and he felt lost because the old man suddenly passed away.

After understanding the situation, Lin Heng nodded and said, "I will go over to help later."

As the saying goes, the red lion will not come if not invited, and the funeral will come if not invited. No one in the village will refuse such a thing.

"Thank you very much." Liu Changgen said, and turned to invite people from other families.

"It's really unpredictable."

After the people left, Lin Heng sighed, and felt that people were too insignificant.

Xiulan held Lin Heng's hand, looked at him and asked: "Should we both go to help?"

"One person is enough, there are many people in the village, so there is no shortage of people. Let's do this, I will go to help, and you can take Xiaoxia to give a gift when the time comes."

Lin Heng looked at her and said.

Now it's just to invite people, the real business should be tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, there is no need to rush, and it won't delay him from going to town.

"Okay." Xiulan nodded.

After discussing it, Lin Heng went to tell his parents and eldest brother, and they were also invited.

After discussing it, Lin Heng and his eldest brother decided to help pour wine, Lin's father went to help boil water, and Lin's mother helped wash vegetables.

Lin's father said again: "For gifts, Lin Heng and your eldest brother can do it, we won't do it."

Although they are now divided into three families, there will definitely be only two families in the future.

"Okay." Lin Heng didn't care about it. In this era, gifts in rural areas are grain or sugar, and it was not until the 1990s that money was given.

A little grain is nothing to the current Lin family.

After finishing, Lin Heng rode his horse to Huangtan Town. He originally wanted to take Caiyun with him, but she said it was too early and wanted to go by herself, so Lin Heng did not force her.