1940s: I supported my wife and sister-in-law by hunting.

At this moment, Chen Gaoshan carried a basket on his back and held a sickle in his hand, heading up the back mountain.

The snow in the village has all melted away, and the weather has become completely warm; everything changes every day.

The dirt roads in the village were ruined by the melted snow, and muddy water flowed everywhere. When you stepped on it, the soft mud would stick to the soles of your shoes.

After walking only a few steps, the soles of his shoes were covered in a thick layer of dirt, making it increasingly difficult to walk. He had to stop frequently and scrape the soles with the handle of his sickle, doing this several times.

Before long, we arrived at the foot of the mountain.

As the weather warmed up, more insects appeared. He took out a strip of coarse cloth that he had prepared in advance from his pocket and tied the trouser legs starting from the ankles.

It's not that I'm afraid of anything else, it's just that I'm afraid of those long, small insects that crawl around everywhere this season, crawling up my pants leg.

In early spring, wild vegetables grow wildly, including tender shoots of prickly ash, small root vegetables, monkey's foot, and dandelion.

Two days ago, his mother specially led Xinghua and Lianhua to pick a lot of wild vegetables at the foot of this mountain. The three of them picked off the old leaves and shook off the soil in the yard, and after cleaning them up, they spread them all out in the yard to dry.

Once completely dried, put them in a basket and place them in a well-ventilated area. Save them for when it's freezing cold in winter and there are no vegetables to eat. Take them out and cook them into salted vegetables, which can last for a while when eaten with coarse grain rice.

Freshly picked dandelions can be washed clean and dipped in homemade soybean paste to eat. They taste a bit bitter, but they not only help to reduce internal heat, but they also go very well with cornbread or flatbread.

The wild vegetable leaves were still covered with dew in the morning.

There were hardly any people around at the foot of the mountain. It was springtime and time to go to work in the fields. Everyone in the village was busy taking hoes to work in the fields, turning over the soil and clearing out the corn stubble.

If he hadn't been worried about Lianhua's morning sickness and hadn't come up the mountain to find wild chives, he would have been working in the fields with his father, clearing land and planting crops.

Their village, Nangou, has few people but lots of land, and plenty of wasteland.

These fields were all painstakingly reclaimed by generations of villagers, hoe by hoe. In this village, it was considered a small amount of land for a family to have even one hectare. If a family only had one hectare, people would secretly say that their ancestors were lazy and unwilling to work hard to reclaim the land.

If the family members are diligent and hardworking, it's perfectly normal for a family to cultivate two or three hectares of land.

Nowadays, land is measured in acres, with one hectare being ten acres. As long as you have the ability and are willing to put in the effort, you can cultivate as much wasteland as you can.

Some landlords had many servants and owned a lot of land; their lives were truly luxurious.

However, when the dog was around, life was hard. Every household had to plant half rice and half corn. All the good rice they harvested had to be given to those dogs, while the villagers themselves couldn't get a single bite. They could only eat cornbread and go hungry.

Now we've finally made it through! Those bastards and blondies have all slunk away, and everyone can finally eat rice and flour again. There's finally hope for the future.

However, we still need to be careful for now. The only thing we need to be wary of is the bearded man who roams the deep mountains and forests and the roads. He comes down from the mountains from time to time to steal food and cause trouble, which makes people feel uneasy.

In the short time that he was busy with his head down, Chen Gaoshan searched for a long time but couldn't find any wild chives. Instead, he broke off quite a few tender shoots of wild thorns.

This stuff is delicious stir-fried with eggs, blanched, or dipped in sauce. These tender shoots of the prickly ash are a local favorite among wild vegetables.

Before I knew it, the sun in the east slowly climbed higher and gradually moved to its zenith, and sweat began to bead on my forehead.

He bent over, searching carefully in the grass, his eyes fixed on the ground.

Just then, a rustling sound suddenly came from the bushes not far ahead.

Chen Gaoshan's first thought was, could it be that a weasel from the mountains came down to forage for food?

He tensed up, instinctively gripping the sickle tightly, ready to deal with any unexpected situation.

"Is it a green-skinned cat?"

He straightened up, his eyes fixed on the direction from which the sound came, and carefully moved in that direction little by little.

Strangely enough, he now has the body of a twenty-year-old. In the past, he had a chaotic lifestyle and would often reward himself.

My body is starting to feel completely drained. I'm only twenty years old, but I feel as weak as a fifty-year-old man. When I stand up after squatting for a while, my vision goes completely black and I see stars.

Since arriving here, although he still has the same body, he has become strong and powerful. He works tirelessly and doesn't feel dizzy when he stands up after squatting for a long time. He has inexhaustible strength. This good physique is the best reward for him coming here.

The noise ahead grew closer and closer. The next second, Chen Gaoshan took out a Mauser pistol from his spatial storage, loaded it with bullets, and pointed it directly at the direction from which the sound was coming.

"who!"

Just as he finished speaking, he saw a figure swaying and staggering to his feet behind an old locust tree not far away.

It was a woman. When she saw the dark muzzle of the gun pointed at her, she was instantly terrified. Her legs went weak, and she screamed. The basket she was carrying fell to the ground, scattering the wild vegetables inside.

"Don't shoot! Don't shoot, Brother Gaoshan! It's me! It's me, Qiuyan!"

The woman waved her hands frantically, tears welling up in her eyes.

Chen Gaoshan squinted and recognized Qiu Yan, the village's sister-in-law, and quickly lowered the gun barrel.

He looked at Qiu Yan's outfit and the small shovel she was using to dig vegetables.

Once he confirmed that the man was from the village, he tucked the Mauser pistol into his waistband and covered it with the hem of his shirt before relaxing and starting a conversation.

"Hey, Sister Qiuyan, why aren't you at home tending to the land this early in the morning? You're out here digging for wild vegetables at the foot of the mountain. Aren't you taking care of your own land?"

As soon as he said it, he remembered that not long after Sanpangzi left, Qiuyan became a widow. It was really difficult for a woman to raise two girls on her own, managing everything inside and outside the home.

"That's true, I forgot. Fatty San is gone, and it's really not easy for you, a widow, to raise two little girls alone."

Sister Qiuyan bent down, picked up the basket from the ground, and squatted down again to put the dandelions and wild vegetables back into the basket. The basket was full of wild vegetables, and it was clear that she had been busy for quite some time.

After picking the wild vegetables, she stood up.

"Brother Gaoshan, I am so grateful to you for saving my daughter Dani a while ago. I should have taken the child to your door to thank you for this great kindness long ago. But Dani was frightened and developed a high fever when she came back. She fell seriously ill and we only had a little food that we got from Uncle Changfa."

"I used it all to buy medicine and make soup for Da Ni. I'm so poor I can't afford anything decent to thank you. You're such a kind person. I'll remember this kindness forever."

Looking at her haggard appearance, Chen Gaoshan felt quite sorry for Sister Qiuyan. After all, her grain bag was the most outstanding he had ever seen, without exception.

"We all live in the same village, we see each other all the time, no need to thank me! It's just a small favor, not worth mentioning." "How's Da Ni feeling now?"

"After drinking this herbal medicine, my fever subsided and I survived, but I'm still weak and cough from time to time."

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