Chapter 52 Part 1

In the blink of an eye, the winter snows entirely melted away, replaced by the warm sunlight overhead.

Li Cunxin used the time she met Yan Baiyu to mark the years. This was already the third year’s spring.

When everyone had shed their furs and only needed to wear lined clothes—the weather exceedingly pleasant, neither too hot nor too cold—the team led by Xu Yin, tasked with exploring and heading west to fetch ore, set out.

Li Cunxin had originally wanted to guide them once more, fearing Xu Yin and the others weren’t familiar enough with the route. Xu Yin refused.

That path wasn’t hard to remember, as it mostly followed along the water’s flow. Xu Yin was ninety percent confident in his ability to navigate the path to the salt lake and open-pit iron mine.

Moreover, their team had other tasks this time and would inevitably stay out longer. Their current traveling conditions still weren’t optimal. The physiological difficulties women faced made long-term survival in the wild harder. When it wasn’t absolutely necessary for Li Cunxin and the other women to go, for convenience’s sake, they didn’t consider having them tag along.

Even Liu Cuo Jin didn’t need to go this time. Xu Yin had memorized the process of crude sponge iron smelting from last time. The furnace Yu Muyang built was probably still standing there. The crude smelting didn’t require precise temperature control—just burning. They could follow the same method. If it failed, now that they had the handcart, they could, at worst, haul a cartload of ore back to smelt slowly.

Mostly worried about being short-handed, before departure, Xu Yin added Wang Ran to the personnel list. Wang Ran’s talent was Toolmaking, and he had some knowledge of wilderness survival, which could be of great help.

Now, the livestock available in the village as labor, besides that one water buffalo, included four donkeys. Typically, penned animals not intended for breeding need castration—first, to avoid restlessness during their mating periods, and second, to reduce their energy expenditure and accumulate fat. The livestock they raised hadn’t been castrated, firstly for breeding purposes, and secondly because the optimal time had passed.

Now, the female donkey Wen Mi brought had successfully mated with the donkey the seven newcomers brought and was pregnant. Apart from this pregnant donkey and Mei Wenqin, who was kept back for farm work, the other two donkeys and the water buffalo were all used as draft animals for the five-person team.

This barely qualified as a cart team, their conditions vastly superior to their last westward journey. The ox pulled the cart, and two donkeys carried cargo, allowing them to bring quite a bit of luggage.

The provisions Yunxiu prepared for them were mostly fried rice and fried flour. Since no pig was slaughtered this time, the meat carried was largely salted fish and smoked chicken. They also brought some rice and flour so they could cook in the wild, along with a sack of potatoes and a small bag of salt. Food was ample, but traveling and rushing about was ultimately not as comfortable as home, with a roof, a bed, a sense of security, and meals with rich flavors—sweet and salty.

However, the fighting spirit of Xu Yin’s five-person team remained high. Perhaps deep down, everyone still harbored a yearning for adventure, a desire to explore this unknown universe.

It was different from wandering lost in the wilderness of this alien world at the very beginning. Back then, they hadn’t even solved food and clothing, suffering hunger and cold daily, burdened with fear and worry. Now, they were well-equipped, not alone, traveling in a group. And what comforted them most was not having to worry about logistics, knowing there was a home to return to.

They needed only to look ahead at the road.

The five set out in spring. For one thing, the weather was suitable, so the environment on the road wouldn’t be too harsh. For another, various plant seeds were sprouting one after another, allowing Taishi Huan to identify them, and the plants could easily be transported back.

Those remaining at home continued their daily lives as usual. House construction proceeded methodically. Potatoes, vegetables, and various crops were planted in succession. The ramie planted the previous year was harvested twice, and the top cuttings were still used for propagating seedlings.

Zhao Penglai had long planned the village layout, having a clear idea in his mind of what to build and where.

The village started from the Village Chief’s house as the origin point, radiating outwards. By the time the village took shape, the Village Chief’s house might not be at the exact center, but it wouldn’t be far off. At that time, the surrounding areas would be residential zones. Small-scale vegetable planting and tending a vegetable garden wouldn’t matter, but according to his plan, the nearby area wasn’t suitable for opening up large tracts of farmland.

So Li Cunxin chose another site, clearing a patch of land near where the potatoes and panax notoginseng were grown. Combined with the area behind the courtyard, they planted three mu of ramie.

Everyone spun and twisted hemp fibers into yarn. Accumulating it bit by bit over half a year, the linen cloth Jiang Beibei wove grew longer and longer. The replacement of everyone’s clothing was no longer so strained. While winter clothes were still out of the question, summer clothes, towels, and window screens now had material to be made from.

By the start of spring, Taishi Huan’s single-person house was nearly finished. The three houses for the seven newcomers were also completed at the transition between spring and summer.

At this point, the work of replacing everyone’s bamboo huts was officially over. In front of the adobe houses stood a row of beautiful brick houses, and a closer look revealed differences in their styles.

The evening sunlight coated the roof tiles with a layer of golden light. Cooking smoke drifted lazily upward. Over a dozen buildings, spaced appropriately, finally gave this place the true atmosphere of a village.

Every time they saw that row of houses from afar, their hearts surged with emotion. Every brick and tile had been laid by their own hands; they had developed feelings for them. This place no longer felt like a foreign object stabbed into their bodies, causing constant pain. It was gradually merging with them, becoming a part of them, bringing everyone a sense of peace.

But the infrastructure work hadn’t stopped. The power of the builders’ bloodline seemed fully awakened. The increasingly adept bricklaying work left them wanting more.

Zhao Penglai began planning to build the nearby oil pressing workshop, and at a distance east of the village, to construct factory buildings for a chicken and pig breeding farm.

It was early summer, and some time had passed since Xu Yin’s team left. They had no calendars and couldn’t remember the exact number of days. Only Li Cunxin, who kept track of farming matters, estimated they’d been gone for two or three months.

Compared to the duration of their last westward trip, this was more than double. With no sign of the five returning, saying she wasn’t worried would be a lie. But all they could do was wait.

Fortunately, their ambitions had been unleashed, so there were many things they wanted to accomplish. Every day was chaotic and busy; they couldn’t sit idle, so they didn’t have the luxury of letting their imaginations run wild about the five’s fate. No one pinned their hopes on the five bringing back anything good or any good news; deep in their hearts, they only prayed for the five to return home safely and soon.

The weather gradually warmed up. After Li Cunxin harvested the wheat, she set a fire beside the field. The smell of burning vegetation and ash enveloped the village for several days, making the early summer even more sweltering.

The group decided to reclaim more wasteland, increasing the farmland once again. The area planned for expansion was considerable.

The land was mostly overgrown with weeds, with a patch of forest. Hoeing the weeds bit by bit was too troublesome. Felling the trees there to clear the forest was an even more roundabout, labor-intensive undertaking.

The ancients, without modern machinery, found the most convenient way to reclaim land in areas of dense vegetation was to burn the forests. Hence the term slash-and-burn farming. The burnt vegetation falling to the ground also served as fertilizer.

Here, with vast stretches of woods, shrubs, and wild grass, the fastest way to carve out a living space was simply to toss in a spark.

It was just that in summer, the grass and trees were green and lush, making the fire hard to start. Fortunately, the weather was hot, and Li Cunxin had piled up plenty of forage. The leaping flames swept the vegetation in. Before long, a plume of black smoke rose from the tip of the fire’s tongue.

This was the first time they burned forest to clear land. There would have to be another one in autumn.

Li Cunxin wanted to plant more cotton so that this year, the cloth could be stuffed with cotton to make winter coats. The planting of late-season rice in the summer also needed to increase.

Even before planting the late-season rice the previous year, when Wen Mi and the other three arrived, the group had already considered the population increase and reclaimed more land again. They even budgeted extra grain for potential newcomers before the next rice planting round, opening up several more mu of fields.

They had bet correctly. They met those seven people. Because of the extra grain planted last year, this year they could add seven more mouths to feed and still have enough to eat.

But in Li Cunxin’s eyes, this was still insufficient. Careful calculation showed that by the deep autumn harvest, they might have less than two piculs of grain left.

They had no grain reserves. This was fatal. If a crisis struck, if the population suddenly swelled, everyone would have to ration food. In extreme situations, they might even return to the days of starvation.

Therefore, even though the fields Li Cunxin wanted to open far exceeded the group’s immediate needs—and the subsequent tasks of clearing, transplanting seedlings, irrigation, harvesting, transportation, and grain processing would multiply the agricultural workload—they might suffer as much or more as they did building the houses. Even though the group had a few questions, no one objected.

They hadn’t lived a stable life for many days yet. Preparing for danger in times of peace, they all understood in their hearts.