CHAPTER 92: CHAPTER 92: PREPARING FOR THE NEW YEAR

Knowing that the eldest child would watch over Xiaomi, Jiang Hu still picked up the bamboo basket and hurried after them.

Their home was quite close to the river, only about two or three hundred meters away in a straight line.

This river started from the back end of the village, winding through all of Fu’an Village, flowing toward the distance.

The Jiang family lived at the end of the village. Behind their house was a gentle slope, divided into plots of land. Most of them were planted with wheat, while some were left bare, waiting to be planted with something else the following year.

Beyond the fields, the terrain rose into rolling mountains, and there were many other villages among the mountains.

In the fall, people in the village would go up the mountain to chop firewood, cutting down dead saplings or some overly crowded branches.

They would also gather the dried leaves on the ground with a rake, bag them in burlap sacks, and take them home for kindling — very convenient.

There were quite a few small wild animals on the mountain. Wild rabbits and pheasants were the most common, while wild boars were rare. There were also roe deer, hedgehogs, and a goat-like animal.

However, up till now, Jiang Hu had only been lucky enough to catch a wild boar once. Other animals he had only heard about from Master Zhang.

The river split the mountain range in half. Its surface was quite wide, but due to the winter season, the water level had dropped significantly, even exposing the riverbed.

The eldest child was busy pulling Xiaomi along and watching over Erni.

The riverbed was full of stones, smoothed clean by the water. Because of the gaps between the stones, Xiaomi climbed directly over them.

Until the last stone was too far, Xiaomi hesitated for a moment, suddenly feeling weightless and then being picked up.

"You ran fast; I almost couldn’t catch up with you." It was Jiang Hu.

Xiaomi immediately beamed sweetly, "Daddy!"

"Good girl." Jiang Hu then set Xiaomi down, as well as Tiedan: "Alright, you all stay here well-behaved, Daddy is going to set up the bamboo trap."

He also instructed the eldest child, "Keep an eye on Tiedan, don’t let him run off."

Xiaomi needed no worrying, having been here many times; she was always very obedient and sat on the big stone.

Only Tiedan would slide off in the blink of an eye and try to run.

The eldest immediately grabbed Tiedan by the waistband, "Don’t worry, Daddy, I’m watching him."

Erni came over now too, standing next to Xiaomi without moving forward.

The stone was large but not high. The eldest and Erni stood beside, while Xiaomi and Tiedan sat on it. This way, all four siblings could see their daddy.

Jiang Hu’s usual fishing spot was a deep pool. In summer, when the water rose, it looked dark and eerie.

Now, with the water level lowered, the pool was partly exposed, and the bottom could be seen.

Though it seemed clear and shallow, it was actually very deep.

Jiang Hu took out the bamboo container from his waist, poured some various bugs into the bamboo trap, and then tied it with a rope to submerge it in the water.

He had specially modified this bamboo trap, adding a hat-like inverted lid, resembling a larger fish basket.

The entrance faced inward and was in the center, about the size of a rice bowl. Once fish entered, it wasn’t easy for them to leave.

To retrieve the fish, one had to untie the added lid.

The fish weren’t easily caught either, and any noise on the riverbank would scare them away quickly.

So Jiang Hu set the trap and secured the rope with a large stone.

"Let’s go, we’ll head home first and come back in the afternoon to check."

Jiang Hu picked up Tiedan and reached out to Xiaomi, "Do you want Daddy to carry you?"

Xiaomi quickly got to the ground, "Thank you, Daddy, Xiaomi can walk herself."

But she still extended her hand for Daddy to hold. If they came across stones a bit further apart, as long as her daddy held her wrist and gave a slight lift, she could leap across effortlessly.

The round trip took less than a quarter of an hour, but with kids, it was never a bother.

When they got home, Ernian was already tidying up the things Jiang Hu had bought.

Aside from the pork, there were cheap candies, sunflower seeds, and peanuts; tomorrow was New Year’s Eve, and they wouldn’t go to town for the next few days.

Seeing one adult and four children, Ernian smiled, "Back already?"

"Yeah, we’ll go collect it this afternoon. How’s the pig feed cooking? I’ll go check the fire."

Jiang Hu had already put Xiaomi and Tiedan down and turned to head out back.

The eldest went into the kitchen, "Mom, should we start cooking? I’ll make the fire."

"Let’s just have something simple for lunch today. Tomorrow, we’ll have something good."

By simple, she really meant simple.

Ernian had soaked sorghum since morning. Sorghum is hard, so soaking it an hour earlier made it cook faster.

Sorghum mixed with a handful of crushed corn, add a sweet potato, and boil a pot of sweet potato porridge, then slice some pickled radish and cook a pot of cabbage with pork cracklings.

Not just lunch, dinner was cooked together. Only Xiaomi and Tiedan had an extra steamed egg each in the afternoon.

But no one complained; even those pork cracklings were considered a treat. In the past, that little bit of cracklings could last a family of over ten for at least two meals!

After lunch, Jiang Hu had Ernian take the kids to rest, while he went to the mountain to dig pigweed.

If he gathered plenty, they wouldn’t need to work in the fields till after the New Year’s celebration for a few days.

Xiaomi didn’t need an adult to coax her to sleep anymore—she was exceptionally obedient, falling asleep as soon as she lay down. Only Tiedan needed Ernian to sit beside him, patting his back until he slept.

When all the kids were asleep, Ernian quietly got out of bed to feed the pigs out back. They had been fed warm water earlier, and now it was time to give them food.

The pig feed had been cooked with quite a bit of dry pigweed; one pot could last until the next afternoon.

She scooped out half a bucket of pig feed; it was freshly cooked and scalding hot. She added a few ladles of cool water until it reached an ideal temperature, then poured it into the trough.

Even if moved to a different place, it didn’t bother the piglets—who, upon hearing the sound, quickly scurried over to eat, slurping away.

The wash water was heavy with oil, so she’d purposely added more dry pigweed and water during cooking, making it quite diluted now.

Beside the pot for cooking pig feed was a ceramic pot embedded in the stove for boiling water simultaneously.

Ernian watched intently until the piglets finished eating, then refilled the bucket with warm water before finally leaving.

In this cold weather, whether for humans or little piglets, consuming anything cold was inadvisable—it would easily cause illness and diarrhea.

After all this, Ernian checked on the children, found them sleeping soundly, then went into the kitchen to prepare the meat Jiang Hu had bought.

She set aside the portions for the next day’s meal, then salted the rest for curing, storing them in a cool place to last longer.