13

Chapter 13

After enduring hunger for so long, the sudden arrival of so much food seemed to lift everyone's spirits in the Li family. From top to bottom, they all seemed to forget their exhaustion, each person full of energy. Several children stayed up until midnight, not going to bed until the food they brought back had been properly stored.

Thinking about how the three elders in the family would still need to go out tomorrow to gather food, Guihua got up before dawn to make a pot of pancakes, steamed a pot of potatoes, and fried two eggs to make a fragrant egg sauce.

When Old Lady Li smelled the aroma and came into the kitchen, she showed a bit of concern: "Plain sauce is fine, but why are you frying egg sauce? If we use eggs, what will Zhenzhen eat during the day?"

Guihua quickly smiled and replied, "Three hens laid eggs yesterday, and I found five in total. There's enough for everyone. I thought since Dad and Grandma will be working hard outside, we should make something with eggs to nourish their bodies."

Old Lady Li's face softened a little with a smile: "We're old, eating whatever is fine, but you should be eating better." After taking a puff from her pipe, she reminded Guihua, "Today, let the four brothers peel corn cobs. You stay inside to watch Zhenzhen, and make sure she doesn't hurt herself."

Remembering the half basket of wild fruit they had picked yesterday, Old Lady Li took a basin and brought it back, washing the fruit with half a basin of water. When Guihua saw the fresh fruit, she was pleasantly surprised. "Where did you get these? I saw them yesterday while picking wild vegetables, and they were still under ripe."

Old Lady Li replied nonchalantly, "The driver who brought the big cart from Liaoning Province brought them. It's warmer there, so the fruits ripened earlier." The wild fruits in the mountain have different ripening times, some early, some late, and now it was even possible to find a few that were starting to get sweet. Guihua didn't think much of it. Old Lady Li placed the cleaned fruit into a small basin and told Guihua, "Zhenzhen is teething, let her gnaw on these fruits. It'll also give her something to taste. There isn't much, so don't let Mingnan and Mingbei see, or they'll want to eat everything."

Guihua laughed, saying, "I'll roast a few corncobs in the stove for them later. They love those."

Old Lady Li nodded. "Tell them this is the only batch. We still have to grind the cornmeal. We can't waste food like that. By the way, the driver also brought a few large pine cones. I saw they were even bigger than the ones from our mountain. You can roast some pine nuts and crush them for Zhenzhen's steamed egg cake."

Guihua nodded and quickly took down the pancakes, placing them into a basket. As the grandmother and granddaughter chatted, Li Mu Wu returned from outside, bringing back a small basin of braised loach.

"Where did this come from?" Old Lady Li couldn't help but ask as she smelled the fragrance.

"Mu Sen brought it. His daughter, Guangzi, picked a basin yesterday afternoon and saved this for us." Li Mu Wu set the basin down and drank half a bowl of water in one go. "I delivered some food to Mu Sen this morning. He didn't want to take it at first, but I told him we had enough at home, so he stopped trying to take more."

Old Lady Li nodded. "In the future, send them some food every now and then. Everyone's busy gathering food from the mountains and doesn't have time to visit."

After finishing their meal, Li Mu Wu drove the cart with Old Lady Li and Wang Sufen to continue gathering food from the mountains.

Although the Red Pine Mountain was full of tall trees, mushrooms, and wild vegetables, it wasn't an ideal place for farming. The Beicha area, a forest region, was surrounded by mountains. Their courtyard could only grow some seasonal crops, and there wasn't enough space for large-scale grain farming.

The mountain was shaded, cold, and damp. In previous years, the harvest was average, but this year, each corn stalk bore seven or eight cobs, all large and plump. The heavy sorghum heads bent down under their weight, and the cabbages were packed so closely that there was barely space to walk between them.

There was so much to harvest, but only Li Mu Wu was able to carry it all down the mountain. The three of them worked together for seven or eight days to finish gathering everything. The cellar was full of cabbages and potatoes, and the remaining produce was stored in a few empty rooms at the back. After peeling the corn, they spread it out in the yard, filling the whole courtyard with rows of corn cobs.

After using the neighbor's cart for so many days, it was time to return it. Old Lady Li opened the chest, took out a pile of money, counted out the agreed rent, and packed three pounds of sweet potato flour for Li Mu Wu to deliver.

At this time, money was not the most important thing—food was the rarest commodity. The woman from the family they borrowed the cart from was so happy with the sweet potato flour that she didn't even bother counting the money. "Well, Mu Wu, next time you need a cart, just come borrow it from us!"

Li Mu Wu grinned and nodded. He didn't chat much, thinking he would take advantage of the next two days off to rest.

After working so many days, the entire family finally felt the fatigue when they lay down on their kang beds for a long rest. Old Lady Li had been busy picking wild vegetables and mushrooms at the foot of the mountain and hadn't had time to relax. Her legs were swollen from the exertion. Li Mu Wu usually worked at the grain shop carrying sacks, so his legs were sore, but the rest of him was fine. The hardest work fell to Wang Sufen, who had been bending over all day to harvest potatoes, soybeans, and pull cabbages. Now, lying on the kang bed, she felt like her waist wasn't even her own. After breakfast, she lay down for a nap.

Zhenzhen knew her mother had been working hard, so she quietly sat on the kang bed, eating some wild grapes. The sour-sweet taste made her squint her eyes in pleasure. When Wang Sufen woke up from her nap and saw Zhenzhen still eating, she couldn't help but sit up and gently touch her little belly. "Don't eat too much, or your stomach will hurt."

Zhenzhen smiled and held a blueberry up to Wang Sufen's mouth. "Mom, eat!"

Wang Sufen, touched, quickly pulled Zhenzhen into her arms, kissing her a few times. Her face was full of smiles. "Good girl, Mom won't eat, I'll leave them all for you."

Zhenzhen stubbornly placed the blueberry in Wang Sufen's mouth. "Eat!"

Wang Sufen, seeing the serious little face, finally ate the blueberry, rubbing Zhenzhen's soft black hair. "Our Zhenzhen is so clever. She's already talking after just a few days."

Zhenzhen, of course, had been able to speak for a while, but with everyone busy gathering food in the mountains, no one had time to teach her. It was only in the past couple of days, while Guihua had been taking care of her, that she casually taught her to speak. Zhenzhen mimicked her with a lisp, and after a few days, words started to come out clearly, one after another.

Wang Sufen didn't know the backstory and just thought her daughter was exceptionally smart. Taking advantage of these two days of rest, she half-lay on the neatly folded blankets, coaxing Zhenzhen to learn to speak.

The two of them, one teaching and one learning with a lisp, burst into laughter from time to time. Old Lady Li, feeling bored in the next room, heard the commotion and came over to see what was going on.

When the door opened, Zhenzhen looked up and immediately smiled, her big eyes turning into crescent moons. "Grandma!"

"Oh, good treasure!" Old Lady Li came over, sat on the kang, and looked at the half-eaten fruit. She couldn't help but ask, "Why is there still so much left? You haven't eaten much?"

Wang Sufen casually replied, "She can nibble on one fruit for half the day. With such a small belly, she can't eat much." Zhenzhen, feeling guilty, touched her nose and glanced at the floor, where a few small green sprouts could still be seen.

In Beicha, the houses were made of wood with thick mud walls. The ground inside the house was the same as the yard outside. People usually just sprinkled some water on the ground to keep the dust down, and it wasn't unusual to find grass or small sprouts growing.

After playing with her granddaughter for a while, Old Lady Li chatted with Wang Sufen about family matters. "This year, we harvested food early, and the crops are looking good. Once the corn dries and the flour is ground, we should be able to get through the winter."

Wang Sufen, recalling the heavy snowstorms that sealed off the mountain during winter, still felt some worry. "Winter is much harder than summer. If there's no food at home, living off mushrooms and wild vegetables from the mountains won't be enough to survive. Though it won't starve us, it won't fill our stomachs. When the cold sets in a couple of months from now, the vegetables and mushrooms will be gone. What will those without food do?"

Old Lady Li couldn't help but sigh, "We've dried some mushrooms. There are still some crops in the fields, even though they're sparse due to the drought. They'll last through the winter. Maybe next year will be better. I heard from Dongzi that the northeast has been suffering a drought, and here in the mountains, we don't notice it much. But those places that rely on farming are struggling with the harvest."

Wang Sufen quickly put on her shoes and went outside. "I need to remind Guihua not to do too much dry work right now. I suspect the food supply will be tight this year."

At about seven months old, Zhenzhen had roughly figured out the era she was in. It was 1961, a time she had heard about from the elders even without actively seeking it out. She put down the fruit she was eating, climbed up to the window sill, and peered outside.

The open space between the front and back houses was crowded with corn, and on either side of the house were rows of sweet potato vines, a favorite crop of Beicha people. Although the flour made from sweet potatoes wasn't very tasty, it was very filling, and everyone planted plenty of it.

"Maybe I should do something, even though it's not as dramatic as what happens on the mountain, but making some small moves in secret should be fine. I just don't know how much I can control in terms of the crops," Zhenzhen thought, her small face showing a surprising amount of contemplation for her age. After thinking for a while, she climbed down from the window sill, lay back down on her little mattress, and closed her eyes.

"Are you sleepy?" Old Lady Li asked with a smile, taking a thin blanket and covering Zhenzhen. "Good treasure, go to sleep."

Zhenzhen closed her eyes, but her consciousness stretched outward, walking farther and farther away...