Chapter 1643 - 1073: Heroine of the Republic 47 (5000+)_3

Chapter 1643: Chapter 1073: Heroine of the Republic 47 (5000+)_3

With the tuition paid, and if he sweetens his words, wouldn’t they let him venture into the mountains?

Moreover, this winter, the production team plans to organize strong laborers to dive into the river to fish under the ice. It’s a physically demanding job, especially in the harsh conditions of minus tens of degrees. It’s almost a form of suffering, but the harvest is bountiful. If it weren’t for Hu Zi mingling with those guys who roam the grove daily, they wouldn’t have known about it!

"Why, do you want to go too?"

Hu Zi chuckled, "I intend to. In our family, I’m the only young man. If I don’t go, who will? If I go, I can get us dozens of jin of fish, enough for a prosperous year. So Mommy An, please let me go. It won’t take long, a month at most, and I’ll definitely study hard when I return."

"But it’s very tough out there, in such cold weather, standing all day on the windless lake. If you’re not careful and fall into the river, you have no idea how damaging it is to the body in the winter. Why not wait? A couple more years, when you’re a bit older, you can go. Your health hasn’t fully recovered this year!"

But An Hu persisted in wanting to go. Seeing his determination, An Yi couldn’t help but sigh.

"Child, we don’t lack these things, truly. You can see that."

"But Mommy An, I want to contribute to this family, even if it’s just a little. I want to try. It’s better than staying cooped up at home all winter."

An Hu was determined, even planning to uphold the family name. He knew he was far from qualified, but as long as he was willing to work and take risks, even as an assistant, it was better than lying comfortably on the warm bed at home.

Eventually, An Yi couldn’t persuade An Hu, so she quietly started making him some winter clothes for his trip. Since she couldn’t stop him, she made sure he was warmly dressed.

At this time, the duck and goose down from the space played a crucial role, along with the cotton, and the high-quality animal skins previously confiscated from Japan. These skins were tanned, and using them to make vests provided better insulation.

Fortunately, her skills remained sharp. After noting Hu Zi’s measurements, she made the clothes slightly larger for him to layer under in winter.

Of course, she didn’t have time to make these clothes daily; she did them in her spare time while in the space.

After September, the weather grew colder day by day. After National Day, they began to harvest in earnest. Their land was limited, and this year they hadn’t fully utilized it yet. Hu Zi had taken care of most of it.

They stored harvested corn, potatoes, peanuts, sesame, sweet potatoes separately. Vines and branches were piled in the yard to dry, then chopped with a chopper, fully dried, ground into powder, and stored in cloth bags.

She certainly didn’t plan to eat these things, but every family stored them, and they couldn’t fall behind.

They shelled the corn and piled it under the eaves to dry in the wind. Peanuts were the earliest to be harvested, already fully dried, amounting to just over half a sack because they weren’t planted much. Even less sesame, yielding around three jin when dried and threshed. They gathered about five to six hundred jin of sweet potatoes, potatoes were harvested earlier, not exceeding five hundred jin. Corn was more abundant, nearing eight hundred jin, including the cobs. After threshing and drying, seven hundred jin would be considered good.

The soybeans planted over there weren’t harvested, which was a pity. Otherwise, making sauce would have been great, wouldn’t it?

However, the Liu Family’s private plot was indeed large, at least larger than the one she originally had in mind. This house had been around for decades, housing multiple generations. Back then, they relied on their ancestors to buy and farm land. So the bigger the private plot, the better, right?

By mid to late October, the house and its surroundings were tidied up. An Yi stood in the yard, discussing with the family about planting a patch of chives next year, and maybe building a grapevine trellis in the yard...

Additionally, the winter melons and pumpkins in the county also had a bountiful harvest, with just pumpkins yielding five to six hundred jin alone. Although winter melons were slightly less, they still had about a hundred jin. The radishes and cabbages planted in the yard were enough to pickle two vats of salted vegetables, perfect for winter stews; quite remarkable.

While they didn’t make much sauce this year, what was stored from last year still remained. Their family’s sauce consumption wasn’t frequent, as there were many varieties to choose from, slowing down the consumption. Given time, she thought of making her own soy sauce and vinegar.

The two children were born in nearly the same month, so whenever new clothes were made for An Ran, the younger one could wear them seamlessly the next year. They originally chose good cotton for An Ran, new cotton, which was very warm, maintaining its warmth even after a year.

Therefore, new clothes weren’t made for the little one this year. With An Ran growing quickly, the clothes were always kept up to date.

In an era without cloth tickets, whenever she saw something suitable, she wanted to buy it. But every time didn’t necessarily mean success; without cloth tickets, a work certificate was also needed. You had to be a formal worker, otherwise, you couldn’t buy it. So she simply used the cloth seized from the space and transformed it. Luckily, its quality wasn’t inferior to what they had here, just the colors were a bit plain and not resistant to dirt.

After the weather in the Northeast turned colder, floral cotton jackets and pants were worn in rotation, even by An Yi and her two sisters.

For An Hu, it was simpler. Inside was new cotton, outside were those old clothes she found earlier, since matching colors were hard to find and he didn’t like new clothes, feeling they lacked spirit. So An Yi sought relatively clean and newer long robes and soldier shirts from the old society in the space to modify.

Those military uniforms were stripped from National Army and Japanese Army soldiers, and while some could be used, others couldn’t. She always checked them several times before making anything.

An Yi, born in 1920, was 35 this year. She had long forgotten her own birth date and had no intention of celebrating it.

Born in 1940, An Hu was 15 this year, exactly twenty years younger than her, quite eligible to be a mother.

She took great care of the children, as the cotton produced in the space was even warmer than ordinary cotton.

She also used duck and goose down to make vests and super-thin down pants for their chests and backs. Thus, even as the temperature kept dropping, they didn’t need to dress overly bulky. An Hu couldn’t help but exclaim how long it had been since he felt this happy, knowing even his birth mother couldn’t guarantee him a winter without freezing.

Every year, his hands, feet, ears, and face would get frostbitten. Since he mentioned it to Mommy An this year, the whole family had been using the frostbite ointment she prepared from October. And the ointment was sourced from Mommy An through connections. The effect was excellent once they used it.

"You all must protect yourselves. Apply this medication continuously for two months, and when the extreme cold hits, you won’t get sores."

The frostbite treatment was made by her personally, selecting precious Chinese Herbal Medicine from the space, boiling it for over a week to produce a single course. To completely cure it required eight courses, a painstaking effort. ℯℯ𝑙.

Whenever someone at home had headaches or fevers, she would independently administer medication without needing to go to the county hospital.

Anna and Angel had become accustomed to the all-capable An Yi.