Farming Beneath the Changbai Mountains

Several girls were picking mushrooms and chatting. Suddenly Jingxian heard a sound behind her and looked back. Wencheng was leading a boy over. The boy was about the same age as Wenxuan, and he was handsome. It was just that his slightly fat cheeks ruined his handsomeness, leaving only a fleshy feeling, which looked very cute. "Brother, who did you bring?" Jingxian asked Wencheng. Now Wencheng has been officially adopted by the third house, so Jingxian and Jingwan call him brother instead of second brother. "Mingyu said he wanted to get familiar with the mountain, so I brought him here to see." Wencheng spent some time with Mingyu and felt that this little boy was not arrogant at all. He smiled when he met people, which made people feel very comfortable, so he had a good impression of Mingyu. "Mingyu, this is my sister, Jingxian, one year younger than you. The one next to her is Jinghan, the daughter of my uncle, who is two years older than you. You have to call her sister."

Li Mingyu hurried to Jinghan and bowed to her, "Mingyu greets sister, thank you sister for saving my brother."

Jinghan wanted to ignore him, but she bowed as soon as she met him, and it was a great gift among peers. She smiled quickly, "No need to thank me, I didn't help at all. It's my uncle and my second brother who are good at medicine, not my credit."

Mingyu looked up at Jinghan and was secretly surprised. It turned out to be such a girl. No wonder my brother has been thinking about her all the time. The woman in front of him was not stunning, but she had a kind of bright and beautiful appearance like the sun. Compared with those gentle ladies, she was more distinctive.

Jinghan lowered her head and continued to pick mushrooms. Mingyu was also very interested in these things, so he rolled up his sleeves and came to help.

"You'd better go to the side and stop making trouble here." Jingxian couldn't help but speak up when she saw Li Mingyu's clumsy appearance. "If you pick mushrooms like this, the ones left behind will be too big, and they will rot and infect the mushroom wood." Mingyu looked at Jingxian, and saw Jingxian holding a small knife in her hand, cutting down the place where Mingyu picked the mushroom, and removing the white stuff left on it. "When picking mushrooms, there should be no residue, and you can't pick too hard to hurt the mycelium inside. Otherwise, it will affect the next mushroom production." Mingyu nodded, "I understand, thank you sister Jingxian." Jingxian handed Mingyu the small knife she used, "Then, I'll give it to you. Be careful not to hurt your hands." Jingxian took another small knife from Honglian's hand and continued to pick mushrooms. Mingyu kept watching Jingxian's movements, watching very carefully, and then followed Jingxian's way to pick mushrooms. Sure enough, after a few times, he got the hang of it. Jingxian looked back and couldn't help but praise him. "Not bad, you learn things quickly. This job is not difficult. You just need to be careful. It's rare for you to come and work with us."

Mingyu ignored the sarcasm in Jingxian's tone and smiled innocently. "My brother told me when I came here to experience the hardship of farmers so that I wouldn't become a useless person who doesn't work hard and doesn't know how to distinguish grains. Hehe, I think this job is okay and interesting. Can you call me for everything in the future? I'm either here to enjoy myself or to seek refuge."

Jinghan felt uncomfortable when he heard him say he was seeking refuge. When Li Mingrui was rescued that day, his injuries were serious enough, and now this little fat boy has come to Xu's house for refuge. Although I don't know what kind of family the Li family is, it is inevitable that their family background is prominent. Looking at this, I'm afraid that the person who hurt their brothers must be someone from the Li family, and it might be their brothers. Otherwise, why would they send a thirteen-year-old child to a farm family they had only met once? It must be that the people who hurt them were very familiar with their relatives, and there was no other place for them to go.

"You can follow me in the future. It just so happens that my two younger brothers are studying in the town, and there is no one to help me with the work. If you want to experience the life of a farmer, follow me, and I will let you know." Jinghan couldn't help but say.

"Hey, I listen to my sister." Mingyu, the little fat boy, happily agreed when he heard Jinghan say that. When the little fat boy smiled, there would be deep dimples on both cheeks, which looked cute no matter how you looked at it.

Wencheng saw that Mingyu and Jinghan got along well, so he left Mingyu here and went to help pinch ginseng seeds. "Jinghan, you guys take good care of Mingyu and don't bully him. I'll go help pick the ginseng seeds. Let's go to the river to wash the ginseng seeds later. We can also catch some fish or crickets."

Jinghan took Mingyu and the girls with them. They were still picking mushrooms and fungus. When they filled a basket, they asked the fat boy to carry it to a distant open space. There was a mat there, so they just poured it on the ground to dry in the sun.

The fat boy Li Mingyu didn't say anything. He just did whatever you asked him to do. He was sweating from fatigue after moving the fungus and mushrooms back and forth.

Jinghan looked back at Mingyu and couldn't help laughing, "Mingyu, you don't have to work so fast. Let's move over there together later. Take a break." This child had never worked at home before. Don't let him get tired all of a sudden.

After hearing this, Mingyu quickly found a cooler place to sit down and wiped his sweat with a handkerchief. Jinghan and the others also stopped, and everyone found a place to sit and rest. Honglian brought a kettle and a bowl, and poured a bowl of cold boiled water for everyone, "Master Li, you should drink some water too." Honglian handed the water to Mingyu.

"Thank you, sister." Mingyu was not polite, took the bowl and drank it in one go. Now I feel more comfortable. "Sister Jinghan, do you have to work in this sunny field every day?" Only then did Mingyu realize that farmers are really working hard.

"Yeah, otherwise how could I be so tanned?" Jinghan said jokingly.

"Then why doesn't sister wear a curtain hat? Wouldn't that be able to block the sun?" Mingyu asked.

Jinghan smiled and said, "It's too troublesome. There are branches and other things everywhere in the forest. If you can't fix it, just scrape it off. How can a farm girl be so particular?"

Everyone sat and talked for a while and then continued working. Jinghan was afraid that the little fat boy would get tired, so she would always work for a while and then let him rest.

In one morning, everyone picked everything that needed to be picked, and Mingyu also put all the picked mushrooms and fungus over there to dry in the sun. When Jinghan saw that they were almost done, she led everyone back to rest.

It happened that Ms. Xue and the others had also prepared the rice, so they asked everyone to wash their hands and eat. At this time, it was still very hot at noon, so the tables were placed in the shed outside. The shed is covered with wooden boards and grass, and there are only a few pillars around it, making it easier to eat in a shady place.

What we eat at noon is rice with rice made from large rice flour, which is made from dry rice made from rice flour and washed with cold water. This way it tastes cool and refreshing. Northerners like to eat it this way in summer. Jinghan thinks this is unhealthy, but everyone eats this way, and no one has any trouble. Just follow the locals, and gradually she got used to it.

The dishes at this time are beans, eggplant and the like. On the table is a pot of stewed beans with a lot of meat, and another is steamed eggplant, with egg sauce steamed with eggs and miso next to it. Xue's steamed egg sauce is very good. The steamed egg sauce is very tender, and some chopped chili peppers are placed on it. It is very delicious to dip the eggplant in the egg sauce.

Mrs. Xue was afraid that Li Mingyu might not be able to adapt to it since he had never eaten rice and water, so he specially left some dry rice and placed it in front of Mingyu. "Maybe you haven't eaten our big rice dumplings, come and try it. I'll cook some rice for you alone tonight, so let's just have a meal first." The big rice dumplings are cooked in the morning and cannot be changed temporarily. . In addition, the weather was too hot, and Mr. Xue was unwilling to light more fires, so this was the only meal at noon.

Mingyu picked up the bowl and shoveled the rice into his mouth. "It sounds delicious. Auntie won't have to cook for me alone. I can get used to it. I'm not here to enjoy myself. Auntie, don't bother me." As he said, He picked up the chopsticks and picked some beans, "Well, this dish is not bad. It's freshly picked at home, so it's good to eat." The little fat man ate the beans, and then followed everyone else's example, picked up an eggplant, and dipped it in it. Take some egg sauce and put it in your mouth. "Hmm, delicious."

Jinghan understood that this little fat man was trying to make everyone happy. You can tell at a glance that his family background is not ordinary. He has not been supported by fine clothes and fine food since he was a child? I didn’t expect that when I came here, I could actually swallow the food from this farmhouse. Just like this, Jinghan's view of him changed a lot. She thought that when she came here, she was still a little uncomfortable with these meals. Although the conditions are better now, it is still difficult for a child who has not eaten since childhood.

"Mingyu, if you can't eat it, don't eat it. I'll roll out noodles for you in the afternoon. We don't have anything else at home, so we can still afford white noodles." Jinghan was afraid that the child would be injured.

"It's okay, sister, I can eat it. Everyone is the same, I'm not that delicate." Mingyu held the bowl and ate deliciously, adding eggplants for dipping. "To be honest, I've never seen anyone eat eggplant like this. It's delicious."

"Okay, then let's go catch crickets in the afternoon and make cricket tofu for you in the evening. We'll take the dock with us and we'll go fishing." There was nothing to do in the afternoon, so Jinghan decided to take them to the river to play.

"Is there a river here? Can I catch fish? Cricket, what is that?" Mingyu asked quickly, not understanding what Jinghan was talking about.

"It's not a river, it's a big river. There are many kinds of fish in this river. When you get up early tomorrow morning, we will take you to see it. Crickets are a very delicious thing. They can be made into crickets and tofu, and they can also be used as a living room. You'll know when the time comes." Jingxian said with a proud look on her face.