Chapter Fifty-Five Summary

  This snow is about to melt, and although the trees still haven't turned green, some buds can't help but stir with a restless, eager appearance, as if they want to jump out early to herald the arrival of spring.

  The kids have basically stopped all outdoor activities during this time, and it's naturally impossible to use the snowboard. The snow is almost gone, so it's naturally impossible to use it. Even thinking about going out for a run isn't possible, as the melting snow has turned everywhere into muddy water that's very dirty and still quite cold. So, over this period of time, they've been coming to Yang Heng's room every day to learn some new articles together.

  "The Master said, 'Is it not a pleasure, having learned something to practice it at once...' At this time, the old mother and aunt liked to do one thing most: open the window halfway, listen to the sound of children reading from outside, with a happy smile on their faces, then stroke their belly, 'Good son, grow up well, wait for the future to follow your brothers and sisters to read and write.'"

  The old man led the uncles to the mountain to hunt, they didn't care about the muddy outside. During this time, the younger uncle made a few bows for the uncles with some hardwood, and the bowstrings were made of animal tendons. Although the accuracy was not very good, it couldn't stop the enthusiasm of the uncles' hunting.

  The aunts were also gathered together chatting and doing some needlework, they had all agreed to go to someone's house today, only occasionally coming to Yang Heng's house to accompany his mother and younger aunt. Most of the time, they would wait for the men to return from hunting, then discuss whose house to eat at, after it was cooked, they would call the children together to eat. Also, they would cut off the best piece of meat from the hunted animal and give it to Lotus sister to cook for her mother and younger aunt, that is, Feng Bo and Da Ge were also following along to each household to eat. This scene was as harmonious as can be, mainly because most of those who went hunting wouldn't return empty-handed, generally Old Father wouldn't take action, only when they really couldn't catch anything would Old Father take action.

  This day passed very ordinarily and quietly, but Yang Heng has been feeling that there is something undone. After calculating, the spring awakening is approaching, after which all the insects in the fields will wake up, and then comes the spring equinox, when a new year of farming begins. But what's missing? Ah, yes, summary! Having been in this era for over a year now, with such a big household established, how can there be no summary?

  While the young lady led the children to read, Yang Heng took a piece of paper and pen and ink into his own bedroom. The place where the children studied was in the west wing of the house where Yang Heng lived. Inside, there was a simple bookshelf with several books on it: "Qianziwen", "Shi Jing", "Lun Yu" and "Qi Min Yao Shu". Although there were not many books, they still took up quite some space, as each book had several volumes.

  Where to start summarizing, people regard food as heaven, so let's start with food. In the past year or so, our family has opened up nearly 80 mu of land and planted over 50 mu last year. Although there are more than 20 mu of orchards, the remaining 30 mu yield is not small either, because some good planting methods were used. This food should not be worried about for a decade or so. Also, my father went to serve as a government soldier, so our family's taxes can be exempted, and we will have more grain. Another thing is the problem of winter vegetables. One is that there are dried vegetables to eat, and the other is that there are three kinds of sprouts to eat. Since Yang Heng let Da Ge grow sprouts, Uncle and Aunt were overjoyed. Now every household is growing sprouts, which can even be said to be a kind of fourth-level vegetable.

  Meat, this is the key point. Looking at the surrounding prey getting fewer and fewer, before Yang Heng's family arrived, the villagers often had to suffer from the harassment of wild beasts. Now it's safe, no more harassment by wild beasts, but Yang Heng's family has to go further and further away to hunt. Who knows what kind of people they will encounter when they go out? The best solution is to raise some livestock themselves. This must be remembered: "One of this year's tasks is to raise chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, etc. Oh, it would be great to have a few small dogs too. Next time, maybe there will be more children, but since the kids are still young, sleds won't work, we can make dog-pulled sleighs instead."

  The houses of the five families have all been framed, just waiting to be filled in and they'll be done. And with the kang and fire wall, there's no need to worry about it being cold in winter.

  The Yang family now has a cow and a cart, which makes traveling more convenient. However, the road out of the mountain is too difficult to walk on, and it's also troublesome to carry the cart out. So this year, they only used the cart once during the New Year to buy goods. This year, they want to try taking the water route, but Yang Heng has never checked it before. During the snowfall, he went out from the river and saw that the river is quite wide, but there are no boats or anything on it. It seems like this year they can make a bamboo raft for traveling outside if possible, even making a boat would be okay.

  "Alright, noted, make a bamboo raft, convenient for going out."

  "Brother Heng, what are you doing? Ha, you're still writing. What's this? Raising chickens? Ha, and there's a little dog too! Can I have one later?"

  "Young lady, aren't you supposed to be leading them in reading over there? Why come here?"

  "They've all memorized it, now they're just reinforcing their memory, so they don't need me anymore. And since I saw Brother Heng had left, I thought I'd come take a look at what you're doing."

  "Okay, okay, little girl, go play on one side first, brother is summarizing past events here." "Summarize past events? Little girl also wants to summarize. Little girl has already recognized over 2,000 characters and remembered the 'Legend of Deification' that brother told her. Right, Brother Yang, when will you finish telling the 'Legend of Deification'? Ah, never mind, besides Brother Yang, only little girl can tell it." "Also, our little girl's speech has become clear since last year, not like when we first met and she needed a translator to speak." "Brother Yang, little girl doesn't agree, little girl doesn't agree, you're teasing me," the little girl said while pulling on Yang's hand and acting coquettishly.

  "Alright, alright, don't make fun of little sister, this isn't a joke. Everyone has to go through the phase of not speaking clearly, believe me, just wait until your younger brothers are born and you'll understand."

  "Heng brother, is this true? You're not lying to me?"

  "I'm not lying to you, hurry up and go check if anyone is slacking off. Whoever is slacking off, you hit their palm."

  "Uh-huh, okay Heng brother, you summarize well, I'll go now, I want to find someone to hit their palm."

  "Clothing, food, shelter and transportation have all been discussed. Oh wait, clothing hasn't been mentioned yet. Clothing is not worth mentioning anyway, as it's not warm enough, and there isn't even cotton at this time. It seems like I need to go out and take a look later. I seem to recall reading in a book that during this era, there was still cotton, but it was grown by some families as flowers instead. The situation is far from ideal. For now, the only thing that needs improvement is the tanning of animal hides. Alright, I should also go check on the kids' studies."