Who knows! As soon as I returned to the mountains to farm, I encountered a natural disaster.

"This is Motherwort." After Mu Xi answered, he pointed to the herbs nearby and introduced them one by one, "These are Andrographis paniculata, Prunella vulgaris and Datura datura."

"Mandala?" Zhao Yeqing became interested. It was the first time for her to see one of the most common plants in ancient online literature.

Mu Xi reminded, "You've seen it, and you'll know it when it blooms."

She was still looking forward to it, "You want to grow it at home?"

Mu Xi was also thinking about it and said hesitantly,

"It's not the time for it to produce seeds yet, and the entire plant of this herb is poisonous. Recently, chickens have been roaming free in the yard. It's not safe to grow this herb. But it's okay to plant it outside, and the flowers are quite pretty."

"So poisonous? What is this cure for?"

"The most obvious one is cough and analgesia, which can suppress neuralgia. However, if the medicine is used carelessly, the mild symptoms will be abdominal pain and diarrhea, the severe ones will lead to coma, and the more serious ones will lead to death in coma."

Zhao Yeqing held his chin up and did not dare to take action. He used a wooden stick to stir the stems and leaves of the mandala, "It's quite scary."

Medicinal materials are somewhat toxic, and the toxicity will be reduced after processing.

After Mu Xi washed the various medicinal materials, he chopped the roots, stems and leaves separately and put them on a dustpan to dry.

Either put a plastic sheet on the dustpan for drying medicinal materials, or use a special dustpan to dry them to avoid being poisoned by accidental ingestion when drying other foods.

The dustpan was placed in the original main house. In addition to stacks of grains, rice and noodles, there are also all the household tools.

Zhao Yeqing squeezed in sideways and took down the dustpan from the nail on the wall.

When he handed it to Mu Xi, he said, "The space in the house is almost full. When the food at home is harvested, I probably won't be able to put it in."

If I had known that the small garden at home would not be located in the original tool room, otherwise there would be an extra place to build a house and store things.

"There are places next to the bathroom and next to the stables, so it can be built there."

The original tool room is not big, so it is not impossible to rebuild it in these two places. I am afraid that if the cattle and sheep pen needs to be expanded later, there will not be enough space.

Zhao Yeqing muttered, "It would be nice if it could be disassembled and assembled at any time."

The cement board used to build the wall last time can be disassembled, but after all, it is too heavy and will crack if accidentally dropped.

Disassembly and assembly?

Mu Xi thought of something and stopped moving his hands, "There seems to be another way."

-

Early the next morning, Mu Xi led the cow and stood outside the yard, while Zhao Yeqing spread a soft mat on the cow's back.

Mu Xi held the cow's back, kicked his legs and sat on the cow's back. He turned around and said, "If everything goes well, I'll be back in the middle of the night. If it's later, I'll be back tomorrow."

He shook the shotgun on his back again, "Don't worry."

Zhao Yeqing nodded and carefully checked the things prepared for him.

Rope, kettle, steamed buns and dried meat...

Mu Xi planned to go to the place where he found the cow before. The family's house was a removable board house, and he wanted to take the house back.

The riding speed is fast, but the load is too small, and it is too forced to carry people on their backs while pulling things.

Oxen are different. Although they move slower, they have strong pulling power and great endurance.

I fed grass in advance in the morning, and also added night grass last night to prevent the cows from eating while walking and slowing down the progress.

I hope the wooden house can withstand the weight of the previous snow and not collapse.

After Zhao Yeqing finished his instructions, he sighed softly, "If we didn't have to feed sheep and chickens at home and look at the fields, I would have followed."

When Mu Xi went out this time, besides himself, there were also Xiao Hei and Xiao Huang following him.

He reassured, "We will go there after the first crop is harvested. I will visit some places first to confirm whether it is safe there now."

After waving goodbye, Zhao Yeqing was not in the mood to sit outside and bask in the sun, so he returned to his room and sat on a rocking chair reading a novel to pass the time.

Let's eat something casual at noon. She is at home alone and has a lot to do. The rhubarb went out to graze and didn't come back. The cow didn't go with it today, so she had to milk it.

There is a lot of butter stored at home now, and I am tired of chewing milk and tofu.

In contrast, drinking milk directly after cooking consumes the most.

In the evening, light rain began to fall from the sky. Zhao Yeqing stood by the window holding a cup of warm milk, feeling a little worried.

Mu Xi wore a jacket when he went out. It rained occasionally recently. There were cumulus clouds in the sky this morning. In addition to the jacket, he also wore a straw hat.

I hope I don't get wet and catch a cold.

But as long as it rains, it means that we won't be able to come back tonight.

Unlike horses, cows sometimes won’t move no matter how hard they are driven, let alone on rainy days.

At midnight, Zhao Yeqing didn't have a watch. Looking out the window, it must have been past midnight. As expected, Mu Xi didn't come back.

She waited for another hour before drifting off to sleep.

When I woke up the next day, the rain outside the window had not stopped. It was not too big or too small. It dissipated some of the sultry heat and the temperature returned to 20 degrees.

I got up wearing short-sleeved pajamas, and there was still a slight chill on my arms.

He put on his thin coat, fed the cattle, sheep, chickens and horses, and then returned to the room.

The raindrops hit the glass and made a "tapping" sound. Normally the sun should have filled the yard by this time.

The sky was covered with dark clouds, and the entire meadow looked dim, and oil lamps had to be lit in the house.

The warm yellow light swayed slightly, and Zhao Yeqing sat in the rocking chair staring at the firelight in trance.

When Guodu and Xuebing came back from outside, they jumped over the courtyard wall and opened the door.

The cold wind behind her came in, bringing her back to her senses. She saw two leopards soaked in water at the door.

He took down the towels for bathing them from the shelf. Seeing the two leopards' movements, Zhao Yeqing hurriedly stretched out his hand to stop them, "Don't come over and throw the water away!"

The two obedient ones shook each other at the door before walking in. She took a towel and wiped the water stains off their bodies.

After wiping it, I felt the leopard's belly and found that both of them were bulging.

In the past, when two leopards went out, they would often fail to catch food.

But after spring this year, the two of them came back with basically full stomachs.

Leopards like to go to pine forests and cedar forests where hyenas have been encountered before, both of which she has not been to for a long time.

I don’t know if the hunting ability of the two has improved, or if the number of animals has increased recently.

Zhao Yeqing thought of Mu Xi who hadn't come back yet, and hoped it wasn't the latter.

If it's the latter, the road may not be safe.

By the afternoon, Mu Xi had not returned yet.

She could only comfort herself by saying that this was normal, after all, it hadn't stopped raining now.

There was already accumulated water on the meadow, and the stream became so fast that the water flowing to the fish pond almost collapsed the bamboo channel.

The water in the fish pond gurgled out along the water outlet. The flow rate was too slow and the water outlet was too small. It was likely to overflow directly.

When it was about to turn completely dark, the sound of rain outside the window seemed to become more obvious. The rainy night increased the loneliness, so Zhao Yeqing lit the second oil lamp.