After taking a bath, Chen Xiaolin finally felt like exploring her space. The corn and sweet potatoes she had planted earlier were ripe, so she would need to find time to harvest them.
Following the small river, Chen Xiaolin made her way to the orchard. She had filled it with various fruit trees, many of which were now in bloom. It seemed that achieving “fruit freedom” was no longer far off.
The little chickens, ducks, and geese she had stocked earlier had grown significantly. The hens were already laying eggs.
After just a few steps, Chen Xiaolin found a whole clutch of eggs. She quickly summoned several large bamboo baskets from the storage space and collected all the eggs into them.
After a while, seeing three full bamboo baskets of eggs, Chen Xiaolin grinned from ear to ear.
Once she finished collecting the eggs, it was time for martial arts training. By now, practicing had become one of her daily essentials.
After an hour of training, her clothes were soaked through with sweat.
Chen Xiaolin then took a bath in the space villa and went to sleep. Tonight she planned to sleep in the space, and when she woke, she would head outside to harvest the corn and sweet potatoes.
After all, ten days in the space was only equivalent to one day outside. One night would be more than enough for her to harvest all the corn.
That night, Chen Xiaolin worked hard in the space collecting food, while Shen Jiaojiao, staying at the educated-youth dormitory, had a restless night. Her dorm was filled with snoring, and the annoying mosquitoes bit her face, hands, and feet multiple times.
Shen Jiaojiao increasingly regretted acting on impulse; now she understood how truly harsh life in the countryside could be.
In the middle of the night, Liu Zhaodi was awakened by Shen Jiaojiao tossing and turning.
“Jiaojiao, why aren’t you asleep yet?”
“So many mosquitoes… they’ve bitten me several times,” Shen Jiaojiao said, nearly in tears. The buzzing wouldn’t stop, making it impossible to sleep.
“Come sleep with me. I have a mosquito net, so you won’t get bitten,” Liu Zhaodi said, grateful that she had brought her net when she went to the countryside. Otherwise, with so many mosquitoes, sleep would be impossible.
“Thank you, Zhaodi.”
“Go to sleep! We still have one more day of holiday tomorrow. Then you can go to town and buy your own mosquito net.”
“Mm! Good night.”
“Good night.”
The next day, Chen Xiaolin emerged from the space before dawn. Using the time difference in the space last night, she had already harvested all the corn and sweet potatoes. After this harvest, she didn’t plan to plant crops for a while; it was just too exhausting.
She planned to plant medicinal herbs in the space instead. As for the seeds, she would have to go up the mountain to dig them herself. Luckily, before going to the countryside, she had found a pictorial “Compendium of Materia Medica” at the scrap collection station.
Chen Xiaolin took a bucket to fetch water from the backyard well, then washed up. She planned to go for a run outside first.
Da Qing Mountain was quite large, and her run took more than half an hour.
Back home, Chen Xiaolin cooked a pot of corn porridge and brought out two sesame flatbreads from the space. Corn porridge with flatbread made a satisfying meal.
Although Chen Xiaolin wasn’t particularly fond of corn porridge, there was no other choice. Her family’s flour and grain supply was low, and the cornmeal had been brought by Chen Mu yesterday.
Yesterday, she had been busy settling in and hadn’t yet completed her household registration. So today, she planned to finalize it and then ask her uncle to assign her a lighter task. Even if the work contributed few labor points, it didn’t matter; she had plenty of supplies and her translation work.
At the brigade office, only Uncle Chen and Accountant Liu were present.
“Uncle, I need to see you about something.”
Hearing her voice, Uncle Chen looked up and saw Chen Xiaolin at the office door.
“Xiaolin, what brings you here? Are you out of food at home?” He had planned to bring her some food later; after all, she was small and didn’t eat much.
“No, I’m here to settle my household registration,” Chen Xiaolin said, handing over her documentation.
“Just leave these here. After I finish, I’ll need to go to the commune to get a stamp for you.” Uncle Chen put her documents in a drawer and locked it, letting her leave first.
After leaving the brigade, Chen Xiaolin went straight up the mountain. She planned to tell Uncle Chen about starting work in a couple of days.
Today, she intended to explore deeper into the mountains to dig up some medicinal herbs for planting in the space.
She deliberately avoided crowds, choosing a path few people traveled. After walking for over an hour, she finally stopped moving forward.
Along the way, she collected many stones of different sizes, planning to use them to hunt wild chickens for food.
This skill of hunting with stones had been learned by the original owner from Chen Dazhu. Every time he returned, he would take Chen Xiaolin up the mountain to catch wild chickens and rabbits.
The original owner had practiced secretly at home for a long time to impress Chen Dazhu.
Chen Xiaolin finally found a small lake, knowing that water sources usually attracted game. She climbed a large tree nearby.
Soon, a dozen wild chickens approached the lakeside. She threw her stones at them, hitting only two.
Her aim needed improvement. She collected the chickens she had hit and climbed the tree again.
By the lake, she spent about an hour, hunting ten wild chickens, eight wild rabbits, and one foolish pheasant.
Afterward, she planned to stop hunting and search nearby for medicinal herbs.
While digging up plenty of Polygonatum and Gastrodia to take back, she suddenly spotted a familiar plant ahead.
Her main goal was valuable medicinal herbs, so she had carefully studied the “Compendium of Materia Medica” last night.
Cautiously, she approached, sprinkling some realgar around to drive away soft-bodied creatures.
It was ginseng! Chen Xiaolin compared it with the book and confirmed it.
She tied a red string from the space to the ginseng and then used a spade to dig it up.
Planning to plant it in the space, she dug out the surrounding soil as well, which sped up the process considerably.