The New Year has arrived.
Jiang Xiaoxiao and her companions welcod their first year at Kenqing Farm amidst the heavy snowfall.
This year, the snow is exceptionally heavy, trapping them on the mountain.
It has snowed five tis consecutively, and each snowfall was substantial.
Tomorrow is New Year’s Day.
For them, it’s the first New Year spent away from ho, but also a New Year in isolation.
After the heavy snow blocked the mountains, communication between outsiders and insiders was cut off.
The telephone line was snapped by the initial strong wind and heavy snow, and no one has co to repair it.
According to the forest farm manager, such storms are common for them, so it’s okay if the phone line is disconnected.
As long as there’s food and drink, and they can survive, that’s all that matters.
The biggest impact of consecutive heavy snowstorms is that they can’t go up the mountain, can’t hunt, and certainly can’t chop wood.
Fortunately, everyone was prepared in advance.
The firewood is enough to burn until spring; according to manager Guo Dongjun, once the snow lts after spring, there’s plenty of wood to chop here.
Anyway, there’s no strenuous physical labor every day, so they eat less to save on food, determined to last until after spring.
Jiang Xiaoxiao and her friends are living better than expected.
Everyone now greatly admires the wise decision Song Moting made back then.
The rabbits they raised give birth in batches, each batch has at least six, and sotis more than ten.
Everyone is amazed at these rabbits; they’ve never raised animals before and have no idea how Jiang Xiaoxiao managed to raise them so well, as the rabbits are fully grown in just a month.
And they grow fat and strong.
Looking at these rabbits, each weighs at least ten pounds.
They all grew up in cities and are inexperienced with raising animals, so no one has a clear concept.
No one knows how long it takes for rabbits to mature.
Only Jiang Xiaoxiao knows that the rabbits she raised grow exceptionally fast.
Although they’re not raised in her special space, they are fed with bok choy and cornal from her space, which greatly accelerates their growth.
In less than a month, they beco adult rabbits.
So you see, the male and female rabbits continue to reproduce, their place is almost like a rabbit farm.
Batch after batch leap out.
Ever since they started raising rabbits, they haven’t really lacked at; they have roasted rabbit, stir-fried rabbit cubes, stir-fried rabbit slices, stewed rabbit at... switching to various flavors.
For them, whether they go up the mountain or not really doesn’t matter.
Eating rabbit at not only saves on food but also keeps the educated youths physically strong.
Moreover, with Jiang Xiaoxiao and Jia Shu’s culinary skills, they keep changing up the rabbit at recipes.
Now everyone has gained at least ten pounds.
And it’s not just the rabbit at, the hens they raised each lay two eggs a day.
People usually know hens lay one egg a day at most.
But their hens grow stronger than others’, laying one egg in the morning and one at night.
Even they are surprised; who would’ve thought the wild chickens they caught are like the champions among wild chickens!
Everyone enjoys a wild chicken egg daily.
You can imagine how good their als are.
Furthermore, the wild chickens occasionally hatch chicks, making their place resemble a chicken and rabbit farm.
The surplus rabbit at and wild chicken eggs are exchanged with the forest farm employees for other items or food at low prices, mainly to care for everyone.
Giving them away for free might spoil people; charging too much feels heartless.
Everyone is trapped on the mountain.
Considered brothers in hardship.
Helping each other is expected.
However, their quality of life has greatly improved.
Unfortunately, all ten pigs froze to death; mainly because there’s no place to raise pigs.
Jiang Xiaoxiao was asleep at the ti, missing the chance to perform miracles for the pigs.
Jiang Xiaoxiao and Jia Shu also used the rabbits’ skins to make each person a rabbit fur coat.
The rabbit fur coats were more windproof than any military jackets.
Of course, the two of them didn’t tan the hides; that job was figured out by Song Moting and He Aiguo.
No one knows what those two are thinking; they’ve mastered tanning naturally.
Not only rabbit fur coats, but rabbit fur mattress pads, rabbit fur quilts, they’ve developed many rabbit fur products.
So their little days really aren’t bad.
Over the past month, forest farm manager Guo Dongjun never entered their yard when visiting; he always shouted just outside to inform them when to shovel snow.
Everyone is busy shoveling and sweeping snow; this forest farm house can’t withstand the snow buildup.
They are huddled indoors, learning, working, eating, and drinking.
Now, everyone discussed that tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, their first New Year spent outside their hos.
Making dumplings is sowhat troubleso.
Mainly due to differing tastes; among ten-plus people, they co from everywhere—southern and northern regions. Southerners eat rice cakes for New Year, and northerners eat dumplings; how can they eat together?
Jiang Xiaoxiao ca up with an idea: why not all eat hot pot?
After all, there are 13 of them.
They have small clay stoves.
There are plenty of small charcoal pans at the forest farm.
However, there’s no coal here; everyone burns wood.
Two pots are placed over the fire.
When they were assigned to the forest farm, they were given one big pot and two small pots, and the small pots are handy now.
The ingredients aren’t abundant, but everyone is still enthusiastic.
Jiang Xiaoxiao directly stir-fried the hot pot base; the seasonings aren’t complete, but they make do here.
There’s no beef fat, but they do have chicken fat, rabbit fat, and pork fat.
Because there are people from different regions, each brought so seasoning of their preferred taste, and when combined, Jiang Xiaoxiao actually stir-fried the base for a spicy hot pot.
The rabbit at is sliced, marinated, including chicken at also sliced, all marinated for direct cooking. Of course, Jiang Xiaoxiao also made chicken atballs, rabbit atballs, and pork atballs.
They have stored so potatoes and cabbage in their cellar.
Washed, sliced, and diced, directly served in bowls, along with noodles and tofu—all produced by the farm workers.
They still have these, but the tofu has long turned into frozen tofu; eating fresh tofu in this weather isn’t easy.
Anyway, they managed to fill a whole table.
Jiang Xiaoxiao doesn’t dare bring out bok choy, nor the cucumbers and tomatoes she grows. If she did, it’d be shocking!
However, inside her space, she has sesa oil and sesa paste.
She herself is a little foodie; her mother Fan Xiuying, fearing she wouldn’t eat well, brought her large bags of these items.
Now, all are put to use.
Mixed the condints, gathered around the table and started eating, steaming hot.
Sipping the unique liquor here at the farm, nowhere else has it.
This is homade liquor by the farm workers; every year after harvest, the workers make so of their own.
They can exchange for so alcohol from the workers.
It’s inappropriate to ask for liquor for free; usually, they exchange for eggs or rabbits, wild chickens—for sure, workers welco exchanges with rabbits and wild chickens.
Everyone benefits mutually.
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