Xiaomi tended the fire while observing the others. She had been quite busy lately, either secretly releasing the Spiritual Spring water or busy boiling and storing water, leaving her no ti to go to the village.
Only now did she realize that the villagers’ spirits were noticeably low, with almost everyone frowning and full of worry.
The vitality she had maintained with the Spiritual Spring water had all but faded away.
After all, not every household had plenty of food, nor did every family have the nourishnt of the Spiritual Spring water every day.
Coupled with the worry about the drought, these differences naturally beca more pronounced over ti.
Fortunately, the rice yield was decent this year, and people hadn’t sold much, leaving them with more grain than they could eat for the ti being. But having grain without water was futile.
Xiaomi withdrew her gaze, her brows slightly furrowed. She still had a lot of water in her space; when she first noticed signs of drought, she had stored a great deal of river water.
It must be dozens of tons.
However, there wasn’t a need to take it out just yet.
But eventually, when the situation becos dire, she’ll have no choice but to figure out how to bring it out.
Before that, she had to carefully think about finding a proper and unobtrusive thod to bring out the water.
She didn’t mind using up all the stored river water, after all, she still had the Spiritual Spring water and plenty of bottled mineral water saved from her previous life.
As long as the drought didn’t last too long, she wasn’t short on water. The only problem was she couldn’t take it out openly.
The trouble was compounded by her young age, being kept at ho all day; if she stayed out a bit too long, her parents would worry, let alone do anything else.
"Xiaomi, that’s enough. You don’t need to boil any more water."
Erniang’s voice snapped Xiaomi out of her reverie. She quickly extinguished the fire and covered it back up with soil.
By this ti, there were already many people near the pond, all busy dealing with chickens, ducks, and rabbits, with several fires going.
Not every family had as many chickens and rabbits as the Jiang family, so people almost individually used a fire to avoid spreading danger.
Fortunately, everyone knew that the weather was dry, so they’d rather be a bit exhausted, chopping a few small trees to clear space rather than being careless.
"Erniang, you’re not boiling water now, right? Can I borrow it?" An old aunty ca over carrying a chicken still dripping with blood.
Without plucking the feathers, she’d have to wait to boil water before she could scald it for plucking.
Before Erniang could respond, Xiaomi stirred the fire with tongs, getting it going again: "Grandma Liu, I’ll boil water for you. The water will be ready soon anyway."
Grandma Liu was Liu Yang’s mother and familiar with their family.
Speaking of which, when Erniang gave birth, she was the one present to assist.
Erniang also asked, "Aunty, why aren’t Liu Yang and Wang Xiang here? Are you by yourself?"
Grandma Liu praised Xiaomi a bit before explaining, "The old man is hauling water, Liu Yang went to town with the village head to sell coarse salt; didn’t he just co to borrow your family’s ox cart?"
Xiaomi nodded beside her, "Yes, I heard."
Erniang smiled apologetically, "I was busy just now and didn’t notice."
"Grandma Liu, the water is ready, do you need it now?"
Grandma Liu quickly ladled out so water, and Erniang wanted to help but had her own tasks, so she kept on with her work.
Not long after, Wang Xiang arrived. She had been busy with other things at ho, and only just now had the ti. As for the youngest son, Liu Hai was looking after him at ho.
By the ti the Jiang family finished, it was almost dark. They had arrived the earliest but were not the first to leave; even Grandma Liu and Wang Xiang left first.
Initially, Wang Xiang had offered to help for a bit, but Erniang declined, telling her to go ho first since the Jiang family had enough people and didn’t need help then.
Returning ho, everyone felt utterly exhausted, but they had to muster the energy to put the salted chickens, ducks, geese, and rabbits into a large jar.
They’d be left in the jar for about ten days before being hung in a ventilated place to dry. If conditions allowed, they could also be smoked with cypress leaves for better flavor and color, plus extended preservation.
Speaking of which, except for bamboo and cypress pine, there’s no greenery visible on the mountains now.
"Mom, what are we having for dinner?" As the adults were busy, Jiang Yu and Xiao Xue went to the kitchen.
"Stead buns again, make plenty. Tonight, we’re slaughtering a pig. Let your dad take so to the mountain."
If they got hungry midway through the work, they could at least nibble on a bun or two.
"Okay, I’ll make the dough. Mom, can we have corn buns tonight? We had buckwheat at noon."
"Anything is fine, just make plenty, and also stew so chicken soup."
They killed so many chickens today, stewing a couple wouldn’t hurt. Besides, with others helping slaughter the pig, they couldn’t let them go ho hungry after helping.
But as it was an evening pig slaughter, there probably wouldn’t be ti to make pig slaughter als; circumstances were special this year, so everything had to be simplified.
Jiang Yu agreed and went with his siblings to cook. Recently, everyone had been very busy and tired, especially the adults, leaving little ti for anything, so cooking was mostly up to the kids.
However, no one complained about it, not even Liu Ze who, like the rural kids now, knew how to cook, and while not effortlessly, he could at least cook sothing edible.
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