To be honest, Qingyan had never seen such a simple house even when she and her parents returned to their hometown in the countryside.
Especially since my hometown is not far from the capital, it has long been filled with red brick houses.
Of course, she had seen some photos of the impoverished mountain villages funded by the Mother Foundation, where there were still many adobe houses.
But even the adobe houses are built with adobe bricks of the same size. Most of them have three or four rooms, with bedrooms and a main room. They look sturdier and more upright than this one, and are larger and more spacious than this one.
Unlike this one, which is simply smeared with grass mud on the wooden frame.
There are also windows, not to mention small ones, but they are covered with sparse straw curtains. Only a little light can shine through the gaps in the straw curtains. If the door is not opened, it will be completely dark inside.
That's right, it's just a straw curtain. You can't even use the kind of window paper shown on TV. This shows how poor the people in this village are.
When the little girl Lanhua took out a few pieces of clothing from the wooden box that was already somewhat infested with insects, Jiayin had a more intuitive understanding of the poverty level of this village.
Before, she saw that the clothes on these people were in tatters, and she thought they were torn by the Khitan soldiers.
Unexpectedly, the clothes they put in the box were not much better. At most, they were cleaner than the clothes they were wearing, and they were also covered in patches.
Put it there, you couldn't tell it was a piece of clothing, you thought it was just a pile of dusty rags.
how to say? It's not even comparable to modern rags, at least their rags don't have patches on them.
Qingyan thought of something and reached out to touch the quilt on the bed.
At the first touch, his whole body felt bad.
She had thought before that the quilt looked a little thin and hard, and she thought it might be due to the low cotton yield in ancient times. After all, there were no chemical fertilizers or pesticides like modern times.
Cotton plants are prone to insects. Without pesticides, there won’t be much yield, especially since cotton is afraid of rainy weather...
I heard my mother tell my father before that a poor village funded by her charity fund grew the most cotton, and my parents asked researchers from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences for help.
As a result, when I touched the quilt, I realized it was not cotton, it was simply straw!
That's right, it's straw, crushed straw.
Although it is quite crumbly after being kneaded, it feels completely different from cotton!
The fabrics were all hand-woven linen, which looked like coarse sandpaper to her touch. Wouldn't this wear on her skin really not wear it out?
Didn’t it mean that cotton had been introduced to China in the Southern and Northern Dynasties? Why are there no cotton cloths and quilts? Is it because the quantity is scarce and the price is too expensive?
If this was the case, she could not imagine how these poor people survived the winter.
Especially in the north, it is really cold, with temperatures reaching minus ten or twenty degrees at any time, and heavy snowfall.
Qingyan stroked her thin summer sportswear, feeling somewhat grateful that she was born in a good era.
But she had given up hope that she could get a set of clothes, and even if she did, she wouldn't be able to wear them.
None of these villagers have much money to spare, so they only have one thin set on them, and the remaining set should be worn in winter.
The layers of patches, I don’t know how many layers were applied, seemed quite thick.
She always heard her grandma say that ten layers of sheets are not as good as one layer of cotton, which probably won't be of much use in winter.
Qingyan sat on the bench to one side a little decadently, watching Lanhua and her grandmother put the few belongings in the family into two rattan baskets, not even the cracked pottery jars were left behind.
I looked at the two big baskets and the poles next to them. Isn’t that just going to carry them around like this?
One is older and the other is younger, how can they pick it off?
She stepped forward and picked up a basket to try. It weighed dozens of kilograms.
"Don't you have a cart like that at home? It's so heavy that I won't be able to walk for a while."
And these are just daily necessities, don’t forget there is also food.
While looking for anything else to take away, Grandma Lanhua replied: "Only the village chief and Yang Shancai have something as valuable as a trolley. We can't afford it."
He walked to the door and patted the dirt on his body, and then said: "The carts of their two families are also handed down from their ancestors. They used to be merchants, otherwise they would not be able to afford them. The pulleys of the carts need copper nails..."
What happened to the copper nails? Wait, Qingyan thought, in ancient times, copper was currency, and using those copper nails was like using money.
Well, she was still thinking about getting a donkey cart or a horse-drawn carriage in the future. She didn't even have a cart. It seemed like she was just having a wild dream.
It doesn't matter to her. Her strength is there. Even if she carries heavy objects on her shoulders, it won't hinder her on her way.
But in this way, the already unpleasant traveling speed she had previously imagined would probably have to be compromised.
If that doesn't work, see if you can meet those Khitan people on the road again, and you can rob them again.
I guess they also need to transport food and supplies. They must have a car and they can get it for him to use.
After the grandma and grandson were sure that there was nothing left to deal with, Grandma Lanhua said to Qingyan: "It's getting dark now, so I'll go outside to pick some vegetables and make rice as soon as it gets dark. After I finish eating, I can go collect the grain." "
They had agreed before that in order to avoid the smoke from attracting enemies, they would pack up their things first and then cook over the fire after dark.
After dinner, I went to collect the food while it was dark, and left before dawn.
Qingyan looked at the small bag of wheat grains placed next to the stove and thought to herself, this hasn't been ground into flour, so it can't just be cooked and eaten, right?
When it got dark and the room was dimly lit, Qingyan realized that she had guessed correctly.
Grandma Lanhua put the wheat grains and water into the clay pot and boiled it directly. When the wheat grains were almost cooked, she added chopped vegetables and salt and cooked for a while. In this way, a jar of vegetable porridge was ready. .
First, he filled a bowl and handed it to Qingyan, and then the grandfather and grandson each filled a bowl.
Explained to Qingyan: "Yang Shancai's house used to have a stone mill, and we all went there to grind flour. When they left, they unloaded it and hid it in the cellar, so we had no place to grind flour. During this time, This is how it is cooked and eaten.”
Qingyan picked it up with chopsticks and took a bite. She didn't know if it was because she was hungry. The aroma of wheat combined with the aroma of green vegetables was quite delicious with just a little salt for seasoning.
She took out two pieces of dried meat from her bag and stuffed one piece for each of her grandfather and grandson. "Have a try. This is made by my dad, uh, my parents. It's delicious."
When Grandma Lanhua saw what was in her hand clearly, she quickly refused and said, "No, no, no, no, it's such a precious thing. Just keep it for yourself, my benefactor..."
"Eat, I still have some. Besides, we can still hunt when we get into the mountains, so we can make some more then. And there is no need to call me benefactor. Just call me Yanyan from now on."
After resisting for a long time, Grandma Lanhua couldn't resist Qingyan, so she stuffed the dried meat into her mouth and had no choice but to eat it.
I thought to myself, how can hunting be so easy? The most they can do here is dig a few traps in the mountains, with little harvest. If they can hunt wild animals so easily, they won’t be so poor...
