When it was almost dark, there was a light snow on the hill.

After a while, the ground was completely white.

The salty and salt-sized snow particles rustle on the firewood stacks and kiln surfaces outside, as if countless silkworms are chewing mulberry leaves, making the night on the plateau seem even quieter.

Wang Manyin is used to this.

Since the beginning of winter, there have been five or six snowfalls in succession. Except for the time when I caught the rabbit, the rest was not big, and it was basically finished in two or three days.

However, when he locked the door after dinner, he realized that the snow should be heavy tonight. After an hour's work, the snow on the ground was enough to cover the backs of my shoes.

In order to keep warm in the cave at night, Wang Manyin added a few hard firewood to the pot stove.

Most of the ondols on this side of the Loess Plateau are equipped with fire channels, connecting the pot stove and the chimney. The effort of cooking a meal in winter can actually warm the clay kang. However, if you want to maintain the heat all night, you should add some firewood, and when the temperature is completely up, you can seal the stove with fine wood foam.

This fine firewood foam has a low ignition point, but it is resistant to burning, which can ensure that the soil kang is warm all night.

Waiting for the orchid to finish freshening up, Wang Manyin started to do the big things in life again.

It's good to have an aunt!

No wonder Xintianyou sings like this: Double doors come and single doors open, call brother, you come in. Eyebrow to eyebrow, eye to eye, blink and move to spread the word...... Grab your arm and hold your hand, move your shoulder and kiss it. grabbed his lover and kissed him, and the pimple in his stomach turned into water.

The cricket crawled on the warm kang and screamed, and my brother's heart was pounding. The lamb knelt down on his knees and hugged a loved one and did not fall asleep. A pair of hens fly south, splashing their lives to sleep with you. It's too low to run a horse on the wall, and I still miss you when I sleep face to face.

This rustic wild tune, full of the unique wildness of highland people, is the most primitive and straightforward emotional catharsis of human beings......

With the chirping of magpies, Wang Manyin turned his head to look out the window.

Outside, it was hazy and white, and it was clear that there was a lot of snow last night.

It's rare that he didn't hear anyone shouting to buy something in the morning, so he simply lay on the kang and slept for a while.

When Orchid woke up, the two chatted casually.

I really don't want to get up.

After a while, Orchid suddenly pushed and said, "Man Yin, let's get up quickly, we have to go back to my parents' house today." ”

But isn't it, according to the rules of the original West County, the day after the happy event, the new son-in-law will take his daughter-in-law to the father-in-law's house to recognize relatives, which is called "returning to the door".

In many places, the man has to go with a companion when he returns to the door.

The original Xixian side is relatively simple, and the man only needs to go to the new son-in-law, which saves a lot of trouble.

He opened the door of the cave, and suddenly a chill came over his face.

The snow still didn't stop, and the cave door was more than half a foot thick.

As far as the eye can see, the entire Loess Plateau is shrouded in a thick layer of white. Heaven and earth are the same color, and they are one.

Hearing the master's movement, Rhubarb immediately ran out of the dirt hole and spun around.

After saying hello to the orchid, Wang Manyin took the earth dog and walked down the cliff. Take advantage of the snow in the morning to see if you can catch pheasants and rabbits on the plateau.

After walking a distance, he suddenly remembered that he had been busy with life events in the past two days, and he didn't care about the poultry and livestock raised in the greeting space, and it was estimated that these guys should be hungry.

Finding a leeward place, Wang Manyin quietly entered the space.

As expected, when I heard movement, the little piglets in the pit immediately squeaked and jumped up and down.

He cut several sheaves of grass one after another and fed them, and finally settled the fellows.

When he came out, he didn't go far before he saw a string of hare footprints in the snow. Look in the direction of the trace, and go straight to the rape field on the plateau.

If nothing else, this is supposed to be a young hare, with little experience of starvation.

Yesterday it was snowing so hard that it didn't eat at night, so it ran out to find food just after dawn. Now the winter wheat is just four fingers tall and has long been covered with snow.

However, the rape seedlings grow tall and can also emerge in the snow, so they naturally become the first choice of this rabbit.

The real old rabbits are different, they are more resistant to hunger, and they are more experienced, and they will generally hide in the nest when it has just snowed heavily.

Only after waiting for three or four days, I will come out when I am really hungry and anxious.

A man and a dog followed the traces to the rape field, and sure enough, they saw scattered traces of gnawing, which were particularly conspicuous in the snow. There are still a lot of footprints on the ground, and after running out for a while, they suddenly disappear in the snow.

Seeing this, Wang Manyin became excited.

This is the maze left behind by the hare, indicating that the hiding place is nearby.

This kind of thing is very cunning and knows that snow will leave footprints. Therefore, when approaching the nest, they tend to jump several times with all their might, each time they can jump two or three meters away, and the direction is different.

It looks disorganized and nowhere to be found.

In fact, on its last jump, the thing had already snuck into its lair.

Inexperienced hunters tend to be confused when they see this situation, and it is easy to lose the final trace of the hare.

However, for Wang Manyin, it is completely useless.

There is a mantra for looking for rabbits on the Loess Plateau called "high lying low, low lying high." Artemisia recumbency, Artemisia vulgaris. ”

The simple implication is that if the surroundings are full of high ground, hares tend to hide their nests in the lowest places. If the surrounding area is all low-lying terrain, it will press its nest to a higher place.

If most of the surrounding environment is weeds, it hides in the shrubs and artemisia grass. Otherwise, they hide in the grass......

Not far from the disappearance of the hare's footprints, Wang Manyin saw a leeward pit, and there were still some sparse weeds around it.

Nine times out of ten, this guy is hiding inside.

In fact, I'm not afraid to lose my trace, and there is rhubarb next to me.

Sure enough, the rhubarb followed the smell all the way to the pit.

Before the earth dog could get closer, he saw an earthy gray figure emerge from the root of the withered grass and run away into the distance. Due to the thick snow, this guy slowed down a lot.

Rhubarb dodged in hot pursuit, and soon came back.

The kung fu of a cigarette catches a hare, and this speed is also a record-breaking.

It's really not big, almost three catties.

Wang Manyin was just worried about what gift to give to his father-in-law's house, and he happened to slip on this hare.

With the prey in hand, he didn't plan to continue the search with the rhubarb.

This will be kung fu, and it is estimated that the orchid has made the rice. Seeing that the snow is getting heavier, it's better to go back early.

Anyway, this heavy snow is estimated to take a few days to thaw, and there is time to catch hares.

Orchid was standing on the edge of the field and looking, and saw the man returning with something from a distance. When I got closer, I realized that it was a hare.

She said excitedly: "Full of silver, rhubarb caught a hare?" ”

"Well, let's mention Shuangshui Village later, and let Shao'an and them taste it too." Wang Manyin said and handed it over, and began to pat the snow on his body.

"Rhubarb is so powerful, last time Shao'an also said that he had never seen such a good earth dog in ten miles and eight villages." Orchid originally had an opinion about how men feed rhubarb every day, but now she doesn't say anything.

You must know that in this era, the native dogs in the countryside basically find food by themselves, and at most feed some water for brushing pots.

Like Wang Manyin, what he eats and what dogs eat, he is unique.

By the time the man finished shaking off the snow and entered the house, Orchid had already handed it to him with half a bowl of vegetables and two nests.

Then she also served a bowl of corn grits and drank it.

"Why don't you eat nests and vegetables?" Wang Manyin asked strangely.

"I'm resting at home, I'm not doing any work, I'm not hungry, just drink some corn grits." Orchid shook her head and replied.

Wang Manyin got up and looked into the small pot, it was empty, obviously he had given himself all the dishes fried in the morning.

He was extremely speechless and pulled half of it into the other party's bowl, and then persuaded: "Orchid, didn't I say it, our family is not short of a bite to eat." In the future, you will eat whatever I eat, and then say what to eat bran vegetables, be careful that I press on the kang and beat you! ”

Orchid said with a little weakness: "Full silver, we eat every day, I feel like a dream." The days are still long, what if there is no food in the spring next year? ”

She was really hungry and scared when she was a child, and this memory was almost engraved in her bones. For as long as I can remember, the family hasn't really had enough to eat. Every year, the grain is cut off when the yellow is not received, and it has become an overrun of the production team.

How many times did the orchid go into the mountains to collect firewood, she was dizzy from hunger for a while, and almost fell on the cliffside.

She endured all of this silently.

Until...... I met the man in front of me.

He was like a beam of light in front of him.

In the years of suffering youth, for the first time, it brought her the joy of love.

So Orchid has already made up her mind, even if she lives with the bran for the rest of her life, she is satisfied.

The man used to have no one in charge of the house, and he didn't know how to store food, but he couldn't do it himself, so he had to save it.