Winter has come to an end unknowingly, and the footsteps of spring have quietly arrived.
In the cold winter, after ending the defensive battle and completing the suspended rope bridge project, the protagonist and his legions reduced the number of times they went out. But even in the nest, keen ants can feel the climate changing.
As time goes by, the frequency of snow becomes less and less, the thickness of the snow layer on the ground decreases instead of increasing, and the temperature is also getting warmer. All these indicate that spring is not far away and the cold winter is about to become a thing of the past.
The protagonist cat is in a warm lair in "Linshui City". There is plenty of food and fuel, and the temperature is very pleasant. But he is still looking forward to the arrival of spring. Only in spring can he go out to the free world, continue his struggle in this world, and suppress the loneliness that lingers all winter.
What time of year is it now? The protagonist without an almanac has no way to judge. He can only roughly estimate that it is probably past the beginning of spring, so he has the feeling that spring is approaching.
But it's not the awakening of hibernation yet, because the ants haven't started preparing to leave the nest yet, so other insects shouldn't have finished hibernating yet, and the eggs haven't started hatching yet.
The period between Beginning of Spring and Jingzhe is the time of rain. If it is the time of rain now, it will be the first month. Then, the Spring Festival has passed without the protagonist knowing.
The protagonist has no regrets about not being able to celebrate the Spring Festival. Although he wholeheartedly wants to live like a human being and works hard to make the ants change, this does not mean that he has to celebrate the Spring Festival.
It is even more sad to celebrate the New Year alone. Even if he ordered all the ants to celebrate together, the ants would not understand the meaning. There was no Spring Festival Gala, no fireworks and firecrackers, and no New Year's Eve dinner. The protagonist didn't know when he had passed the New Year's Eve.
Now, according to the season, it is already the second year since the protagonist traveled through time.
One day not long after, two days or three days, a drizzle began to fall in the sky.
The rain was not heavy, so it wetted the ground a layer, but the meaning was different. This was the first precipitation, not snow.
In the middle of the first month, water comes from the sky. The beginning of spring belongs to wood, but to grow wood there must be water, so the beginning of spring is followed by rain. And when the east wind thaws, it disperses and turns into rain. The east wind thaws and disperses into rain. Before and after the rain solar term, everything begins to sprout, which marks the official arrival of spring.
With this light rain, the snow on the land is dissolving at a faster pace, and the soil is saturated with water from the melted snow. Both plants and animals have received a precious water source that was not available in the dry winter.
The solar term after rain is Jingzhe.
On the second day of the lunar month, everything is shaken, and the earthquake is like thunder, so it is called the stinging insect, which means the stinging insects are frightened and run away. When the Waking of Insects arrives, the insects hibernating in the soil during the winter will be awakened by the spring thunder in the sky. At that time, the earth will be full of vitality again.
Therefore, during the Awakening of Insects, the stinging insects wake up, the weather becomes warmer, and there are spring thunders. Plants also began to bloom and sprout. In ancient times, the Waking of Insects was divided into three phases: the first phase when peaches bloom; the second phase when Canggeng orioles (orioles) sing; and the third phase when eagles turn into doves. The flower letters represented by the three seasons of Jingzhe include peach blossoms in the first place, apricot blossoms in the second season, and roses in the third season.
This day is also what the ants are most looking forward to. Around the time of the Waking of Insects, as the weather gets warmer, the ants can finally leave their nests and move around.
There are still more than ten days between the rain and the Waking of Insects, and the protagonist will come to a place not far outside the nest almost every day to observe the changes in spring.
On the south bank of the river, not far from "Linshui City", little yellow buds began to appear on the bare hanging branches of a shrub. After a few days, the buds bloom, highlighting the showy stamens. The protagonist seems to be able to smell the faint fragrance coming from there. This is a wintersweet, which is also the first plant to bloom in spring.
After some time, the humidity in the air increased significantly. The moss on the ground began to bloom with new green, and the clumps were full of spores.
The protagonist who comes to the wild can smell the fragrance of the smiling mountains from a distance. A large area of the smiling mountains blooms like crazy. The flowers on the branches are full of flowers, and the fragrance is like being drunk.
The magnolia is still about to bloom, and now is the time when the buds are as beautiful as lamp holders. Although the flowering period is long, once the magnolia fails to bloom, its large petals will fall to the ground unbearably.
Peach blossoms, pear blossoms, crabapples, cherry blossoms and apricot blossoms are things that the protagonist has never been able to distinguish. They all look very similar, but as long as they bear fruit, the protagonist must be the first to taste them. Thinking of those juicy and sweet fruits, the protagonist who has been chewing dried meat grass seeds all winter has saliva in his mouth.
The flowers of purple-leaf plum seem to burst out overnight, and the small petals are pitiful and beautiful. After another night rain, the flowering period will be short and the leaves will be overgrown and all the flowers will fall off.
This season, there are so many wild vegetables, and the protagonist took advantage of the good weather to come to the ground. Although the land was muddy and he did not dare to walk around, wherever he passed, field peas (small nest vegetables), chrysanthemum brains, grass heads, mugwort, wolfberry heads, and malan heads were everywhere. The protagonist picked some at will and took it back as a topping for cooking porridge and soup, and also to add some spring flavor to the food.
The wild vegetables that the protagonist picked back were too few and could not be eaten by all the ants in "Linshui City". But the ants also immediately ushered in a carnival of delicious food.
The day before and after leaving the nest and the day before the Waking of Insects are the "Spring Festival" and "New Year's Eve" for the ants.
On "New Year's Eve", the hungry and cold ants will eat as much as they want, no longer caring about the food reserves in the nest, and eat whatever they have until they can no longer eat or the food reserves are at the bottom. This is the New Year’s Eve dinner for the ants.
On the next day of the "Spring Festival", ants will rush to the wild to search for food in the New Year, so as to fill up the empty granaries after the winter.
On "New Year's Eve", the ants in "Linshui City" feasted. Even though this year the entire nest has a large amount of food supported by the protagonist, the ants do not have to survive the winter half-starved and half-fed like in previous years, so many ants died during this season.
However, the ants still have a strict quota of food. It takes three days to eat some dried meat, and honeydew is only reserved for the kings to enjoy.
But on New Year's Eve, even the humblest worker ants can feast on dried meat. Although honeydew is not as much as theirs, the hot soup made from dried meat and grass seeds is also a good drink. Grass seed porridge is still a staple food. Many dried fruits that have been treasured for a long time are moldy, but the rich sugar content in them still makes everyone flock to it. , and also brings a rare sense of pleasure to the ants.
That night, everyone was working hard to eat, and their stomachs felt like bottomless pits. There was no entertainment or other activities.
This is the "New Year's Eve" for ants, symbolizing the end of last year and the beginning of spring in the new year.
