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

"uncle?"

Mu Xi's eyes were dark, a sneer curled up at the corner of his mouth, and he spat out two words in a strange tone, "Very good."

After saying that, he grabbed the two cubs by the scruff of their necks and walked out, "Let's go, uncle will take you out to play."

Zhao Yeqing was confused, wondering if he didn't sleep well last night and was acting weird now.

The storage cellar dug last night was now full of sweet potatoes and potatoes. Zhao Yeqing couldn't help but take another look. When he heard Mu Xi calling her, he turned around and walked out of the storage cellar.

Mu Xi was climbing a tree with two cubs in the forest outside the yard. He pointed at the two cubs under the tree and said, "They have been eating meat for the past two days without any problem. You can give them a rabbit to try."

He was referring to the live rabbits in the rabbit pen.

Zhao Yeqing: "The rabbits at home have been taught not to bite. Is it okay to take them out like this?"

Mu Xi didn't answer, just called the names of the two cubs. When he saw them coming down from the tree, he picked up a branch and gave them the command, "Bite!"

Snow Cake reacted one step faster and bit the branch directly.

Zhao Yeqing let out a small exclamation, "When did you teach them?"

"Just yesterday when you were sleeping, and when you brought them back to my place every night before." Mu Xi handed her the branch, "You can try it, but don't give instructions with your hands. It's easy for them to accidentally injure themselves if they don't distinguish between them. It’s a rule not to use your hands when teasing a cat.”

Zhao Yeqing nodded and tried it once with a branch. This time the snow cake did not move, and Guoguo bit it after a moment's delay.

The experience of taming animals is very novel, and Zhao Yeqing can't wait to catch rabbits.

The two little leopards had no branches to play with, so one jumped up onto the branch again.

She asked thoughtfully: "Are they jumping higher than before?"

Mu Xi nodded, "Yes, clouded leopards can reach more than one meter in one leap. They like to run back and forth between tree trunks and are very flexible."

"Is it possible that they are still hunting in the trees?"

Mu Xi had a complicated look on his face, "Well...it will prey on birds, pheasants, civets and...monkeys."

Zhao Yeqing was shocked. She could not imagine the two cubs she had raised with one hand, holding a monkey and chewing them until their flesh was bloody.

"From now on...you should take them out to hunt, uncle."

"..."

-

In October, the sun is still scorching.

The little leopard's growth rate is amazing. In just two months since it was first hunted, it no longer needs to be taken outside.

From time to time, he would bring some birds back home and give them to Zhao Yeqing. Once, Snow Cake even brought back a lizard.

Zhao Yeqing was almost killed by filial piety.

During the recent period, Mu Xi's watch showed that the temperature had stopped at 42 degrees and had not risen for more than days. The water flow at home was getting smaller and smaller. The shallow water near the pool had dried up, leaving only the deep water in the middle. The area has not changed much yet.

In just one month, the deep water area will probably disappear.

Their homes will also face complete water cuts.

When the last batch of vegetables in the vegetable garden was harvested in September, most of them died in the high temperature.

The current water flow is no longer enough to support the activation of her water curtain equipment.

The chickens at home also began to have problems. She released the three little pheasants into the wild early when she saw that they were not in good condition. Now their lives are unknown.

The remaining old hens and chicks in the chicken shed all suffered from heatstroke.

Two of them died from the heat, and the geese didn't survive.

Zhao Yeqing made soup all night with tears in his eyes, and ate the goose stewed in an iron pot for three whole days.

Almost all the rabbits in the rabbit pen were killed by Mu Xi, the rabbit meat was smoked and dried, the rabbit skins were preserved, and a few smaller rabbits were released back into the wild.

They can no longer raise rabbits because there are almost no wild vegetables and fresh forages in the forest. Most of the weak vegetation has died of drought, and the trees that are not very heat-resistant have also declined.

The only ones still growing well are okra, cucumber, water spinach and rice and corn fields.

Mu Xi would go to the deep water area of ​​the pool to collect water every day to ensure the growth of rice. Zhao Yeqing also moved the greenhouse cloth from the original leafy vegetable area to the rice to keep it in an environment that is not as hot as possible. Fortunately, it is about to enter its final stage. stage.

Zhao Yeqing had never felt that the sun was so dazzling. At noon in the day, the whole world seemed to have been exposed through an exposure filter, making it difficult to open his eyes.

I had to stay in the cellar almost the entire day, and it was quite cool to have a basin of ice in the cellar.

At least, you don’t have to worry about using electricity.

The battery was replenished quickly, allowing her to use the small refrigerator again.

The only remaining vegetables are still in it now, and the stock can last for a week.

At noon, Zhao Yeqing was lying on the bed in the cellar blowing the fan, while Mu Xi was catching up on his sleep.

Their work now has become very simple. Apart from fetching water once before dawn, watering the remaining crops, and cooking once in the morning and evening, there are almost no other activities.

The fan made her feel sleepy, and when she was thinking about getting some sleep, Mu Xi spoke.

"I want to find a way out. I can go to a nearby village to find some supplies. Do you want to come with me or stay home?"

He thought about it for several days. It was not safe to stay at home. He might be attacked by wild animals at any time, or he might suffer from heatstroke without care.

The same goes for going to the woods with him. Walking in the woods under high temperatures can easily overwhelm your body, and you may also encounter threats from animals.

Zhao Yeqing's drowsiness was knocked out by these words, "Of course we will go together."

It’s not a good idea to go now. They have to wait until the rice reaches maturity in more than ten days, and the corn is almost ready. They will set off after harvesting.

People can't sleep when they have thoughts in their mind.

Mu Xi got up and made a list of the supplies he would need to bring into the mountain.

The food at home must be processed first. The sweet potatoes and potatoes in the storage cellar are not spoiled yet. Now that carrots have been added, it is best to turn most of them into by-products for storage first, so as not to let all the food spoil when they come back. .

At six o'clock in the afternoon, when the sun turned westward, the two came out of the cellar and began to prepare.

Today we need to process the potatoes first.

It takes about seven kilograms of potatoes to make one kilogram of potato starch, so Zhao Yeqing plans to make ten kilograms first.

She threw out two-thirds of the potatoes from the cellar, which weighed about seventy or eighty kilograms, and carried them all home in a backpack to clean them.

Mu Xi took the washed potatoes to the chopping board and chopped them into pieces.

To make potato starch, you need to chop the potatoes as finely as possible. Seventy or eighty kilograms of potatoes will be useless if they are chopped purely by hand.

Zhao Yeqing rolled an oversized stone mortar from the tool room, which was a large stone with the center hollowed out. It was a custom in his hometown to use it to beat glutinous rice cakes every Chinese New Year.

It is equipped with two long wooden sticks with a thin top and a thick bottom. Put roughly chopped potatoes into it and mash it with the wooden stick until the potatoes inside become puree.