CH 74.2

Lu Gu took the hemp rope and long branches and came out, he took a few sips from the bowl in Ji Qiuyue's hand, the sweet honey water made his smile even sweeter.

He saw that Ji Qiuyue was wearing a hairpin with a phoenix tail inlaid with silver beads on his head. The silver hairpin was new, so it was very bright.

In the past two days, he ran up and down the mountain, and he was reluctant to wear his hairpin. He was afraid that he would drop it, so he put it in the room for peace of mind.

Beside, women were okay, some hairpins on their heads were customary, but shuang’ers in their country always wrapped their hair with cloth, which was similar to men. How could anyone wear such silver hairpins? If he thought about it, if someone looked at him because of his hairpin, he would back off a bit.

Ji Qiuyue didn't know what he was thinking, and said with a smile: "It's cold, and I think there are still a lot of pears. In the evening, grab some goji berries, add some red dates, and boil them with brown sugar. I listened to others people eating, so let's eat it today."

The people in town called brown sugar as rock sugar. People in the countryside often saw brown sugar. When they see lumps of brown sweet sugar, they called it according to the color. The brown sugar at home was bought by Shen Yaoqing, thinking that his wife wanted to eat it too.

Most of the meat at home was bought by Shen Xuanqing, and this year they kept the badger skin, and made a fur collar to protect their neck.

Well, Ji Qiuyue usually had a little selfishness, but she never said it. Wei Lanxiang, a mother-in-law, couldn't be too partial in her work or words, otherwise she would think about it in her heart, but her family had always been good to her, so if she had good things for her family to taste, she would let them taste it, and it was nothing to hide it.

"Okay." Lu Gu agreed with a smile, and went out to pick firewood after drinking the honey water.

The whole family was busy on the mountain for three days. On the afternoon of the third day, Wei Lanxiang knew where the third house of the Shen family was cutting trees, so she went to call Shen Shunwang and Shen Yuping, and met Shi Dachen's family on the way, she joked a few words, and also dragged Shi Dachen to work as a laborer.

"Yuping needs to practice more. If the skill in chopping firewood is good, his father-in-law and mother-in-law will praise him in the future." Shen Yaoqing said with a smile when he saw his cousin coming over.

Shen Shunwang and Zhou Xiangjun had been showing Shen Yuping  some girls and Shuang'ers in the past few days. They came to the second room of Shen's house to talk twice, and asked Wei Lanxiang to help find out more, that was why he said so.

Shen Yuping was younger, and the third room of the Shen family had always had a good life, so he had never experienced any hardships. He looked more immature, and when he thought of marrying a wife, he scratched his head and smiled innocently, showing his white teeth. His father, Shen Shunwang, saw his silly son like this. He laughed out loud and patted his son on the back of the head, he scolded: "How old is he, he doesn't have any maturity, don't be silly, go to work!"

Shen Shunwang and Shen Shunfu were somewhat alike, they were able to work hard, they were good at farm work, they could also drive cart, and they even drove carts for others. It was no problem to earn some driving money, and the family could eat a lot of oil and meat every few days, and they still could save some money.

Almost everyone in the countryside had a good hand at work. It was already afternoon, without wasting time, the man tied up several trunks and carried them home. Lu Gu and Shen Yan couldn't carry much, so they picked up a thinner piece of wood and lifted one.

"Brother Guzi, why don't we get two." Shen Yan felt that the wood wasn't too heavy after lifting it up.

She was only eleven years old, not even as tall as Lu Gu, thin and short, and before Lu Gu could speak, Wei Lanxiang smiled and said, "You and your brother Guzi can just carry one."

"Okay , mother, we will go back first." Shen Yan nodded, they didn't need to tie up the wood, they were faster than a few men, Lu Gu was in the front and she was behind, and the two of them went down the mountain first.

After the firewood was cut, it needed to be sawn off section by section, so that it could be stuffed into the woodshed, so as not to pile it up in the yard and get wet when it rained or snowed.

they saw the wood in the yard, they didn’t need to run outside, there was only one big saw at home, Shen Xuanqing and Shen Yaoqing took turns to saw. Sometimes they were not there, they helped the Chen family and the third uncle to carry the wood, so Lu Gu and Wei Lanxiang sawed the wood in the yard. If one person couldn't handle it, it would be easier for two people to pull the big saw.

There were sawdust in the courtyard for several days, and these sawdust were not thrown away. They were light and dry in the sun, and they could be used as fire starters with igniter grass.

After lunch, Lu Gu finished washing the dishes and saw Shen Xuanqing sawing wood in the courtyard, so he went over and carried the wood pieces to the woodshed, put down and then raised his hand, his hand was accidentally scratched by the rough bark on the back of his hand and fingers , the skin was broken but only a little blood oozed out, and the blood stopped after a while.

This was the case when doing rough work, Lu Gu took a look and didn't pay attention to it. After going out, Shen Xuanqing caught a glimpse of the broken skin on the back of his hand, stopped what he was doing and asked, "Scratched?"

"Well, there's no bleeding, it's okay." Lu Gu replied, seeing a lot of sawdust on the ground, he went to get the broom again.

In winter, frostbite was easy to develop, and it was dry, and the hands were prone to get chapped. In the past two years, Shen Yan had frostbite on her hands, which was painful and itchy, her fingers were red and swollen, and the scabs looked even more miserable.

So last year when he hunted badgers, he left some badger oil for his family to wipe their hands and feet. He also bought some cotton and asked Wei Lanxiang to sew a tube sleeve for Shen Yan. You could put it in your arms and, you could stuff your hands into it when you didn’t work in winter to keep you warmed.

It was easy to get frostbite in winter every year, and if it was not treated promptly it would leave behind some permanent problems, especially when you got older. He didn't know if Lu Gu had it.