The Ladder of Love (Part II) Zhang Baotong 2017.10.10

"In the first few days at the top of the mountain, the children were very happy, talking and laughing together all day long. After Xiugu and I cleaned up the cave, we began to chop weeds with machetes and dig the ground with shovels. If you want to live here, you have to grow crops and vegetables, because I only brought about 30 catties of rice and a piece of bacon and some sweet potatoes from the bottom of the mountain. These things will be eaten up quickly. So, we have to prepare for the rest of our lives.

The grass on the top of the mountain was half a man's depth, and it was necessary to cut down all the grass to open up the wasteland, but there were too many weeds to cut them all, and it was very laborious to cut the grass, so I simply set a fire and burned a large area of the weed. Then I started digging with a shovel. There was a lot of wasteland on the top of the hill, and we carved out a large area closer to where we lived. The ground blossomed, but there was no seed. We're going to leave the ground empty so that we can go down and get some seeds.

However, the worrying thing soon appeared. In the first two days, we ate rice and bacon, but the bacon was just one piece, and we could only eat it for two days. When it came time to dinner the next day, there was only rice, and there were no vegetables, so I had to eat dry rice. Xiu Gu didn't say anything, but the children were holding bowls one by one, showing a crying face. At the foot of the mountain, no matter how hard it is, you have to have food and vegetables. But where is there any food on this mountain? Xiu Gu coaxed the children to eat.

There's no way, so we'll find a way to find something to eat. Not far from our accommodation, there was a green meadow by the stream. In the meadows, patches of wild rape and camelina grow. So, Xiugu took the children to dig some wild vegetables by the creek to serve as vegetables. There are a lot of wild vegetables, and you can dig a small pot in a while. Take it to the stream and wash it, and pour it into the iron pot, because there is no oil, you can only put a little salt, which is a big dish.

But, to the worst of all, the rice I brought was quickly eaten. When there was no food, Xiugu and I immediately panicked, thinking about what to do and where to find food all day long. Xiugu and her children continued to dig wild vegetables. With a machete in one hand and a long pole in the other, and a basket with ropes and hooks for climbing, I began to look around the woods for food.

At first, I found some wild walnut trees at the edge of the nearby forest, so I cut a very long branch with a machete, made a long pole, and went up to the tree all day to shoot walnuts, and after beating the walnuts, I went down to the bottom of the tree to pick up the walnuts that had just fallen and those that had long fallen to the ground. In those days, I got up early and returned late every day, and I could carry back two or three baskets of wild walnuts a day. The wild walnuts here are not big, but after peeling and drying, they still taste quite fragrant.

We smashed the wild walnuts, peeled the kernels, and fried them in wild vegetables. The children were very happy to eat, and looking at the happy smiling faces of the children, Xiu Gu also had a smile on her face, and I also felt happy in my heart.

However, the children are accustomed to eating rice for three meals a day, so they can only eat this kind of meal fresh, not too much, and once they eat too much, they don't want to eat it anymore. As you can imagine, there is neither oil nor rice, but just boiled wild vegetables with a little salt, which no one is used to eating. So, after two meals, the children said they didn't want to eat anything. Moreover, because of eating a lot of wild vegetables, the children began to have diarrhea, and their faces turned blue like the color of wild vegetables.

So, I tried to find a way to give the children some oil, water and nutrients. I followed the stream down to a small pond a few miles away. The water in the small pond is clear and some fish can be seen flowing in the water. I dug a big hole with a shovel and covered it with branches and leaves, and let out the water from the small pond. The water in the small pond had been flowing all day, and in the evening the water was very shallow, so I pulled my trouser legs down into the water, and touched all the larger fish in the small pond and put them in the basket behind me. Then, plug the gap again.

When I got back inside that day, it was already dark. Xiu Gu and the children were very happy to see that I had brought back a basket full of fresh fish. I asked Xiugu to cut the fish, and I dug a small pit by the creek with a shovel, and then I poured the water from the creek into the pit and poured the rest of the fish into the pit. In the evening, everyone eats fresh fish cooked in salted water, which is very delicious.

After beating wild walnuts, I started to hunt wild dates again. Wild jujube is actually not delicious, a little sour, and a little bitter, but it can satisfy hunger. There is so little to eat in the mountains. The wild dates were already ripe, and when they were beaten with a long pole, they fell to the ground one after another. There are a lot of wild dates in the mountains below our mountain, but none of us used to eat them because they were really not delicious. However, at the moment, I have carefully picked up every date, for fear that I will miss one.

The ripening season of wild dates is very short, and after a rain, the wild dates are almost gone. If the wild dates that fall on the ground are not picked up immediately, they will rot quickly in the field. So, after a few days, there were not many leaves on the wild date tree, and the wild date was no longer visible.

Two adults and four children eat a lot in a day. However, the food in the mountains is pitiful. The wild walnuts went down, the wild dates were gone, and the wild vegetables were almost gone. Our eyes are always black patches in front of our eyes, and we don't know tomorrow or even what to eat for our next meal.

One day, I found a large patch of pulp trees on the side of the slope two or three kilometers from the top of the mountain. Wood pulp leaves are a very good condiment, and many wealthy people are very particular about cooking fish, and they should put some wood pulp leaves in the fish, so that the cooked fish tastes very delicious. When I was working as a carpenter for a large family, I used to eat fish roasted in wood pulp leaves.

So, I asked Xiu Gu to come with the children to pick the leaves of the pulp tree. They pick three or four baskets of leaves every day. I dried the pulp leaves, smashed them into powder in a stone nest made of stone troughs, and stored them in a dry place for consumption. Moreover, this powdered wood pulp leaf powder can also be sold in the market.

The days went by day by day, and I really don't know how these two months passed, and it felt like two or even twenty years had passed.

That day, I was going down the mountain and going home. Actually, I really didn't want to go down the mountain, I was afraid to meet my parents and family, and I was afraid to meet the villagers, but I couldn't go back, the surrounding land had been blooming for many days, but there were no seeds. Also, working and living in the mountains requires some furniture and items. You have to go down the mountain and get it. I mustered up my courage for several days, and under the repeated persuasion of Xiugu, I decided to go down the mountain and go home.