When it was getting dark, light snow started to fall on the plateau.

After a while, the ground turned completely white.

Snow grains the size of salty salt hit the firewood stacks and the kiln surface outside, making a rustling sound, as if countless silkworms were chewing mulberry leaves, which made the night on the plateau seem even quieter.

Wang Manyin is already used to this.

Since the beginning of winter, there have been five or six snowfalls in succession. Except for the time when catching rabbits, the rest were not serious and it basically took two or three days to resolve.

But when he locked the door after dinner, he realized that it was going to snow heavily tonight. Within a few hours, the snow on the ground had already covered the backs of his shoes.

In order to keep the cave dwelling warm at night, Wang Manyin added a few pieces of hard firewood under the stove.

Most of the earthen kangs on the Loess Plateau are equipped with fire tunnels that connect the stoves and chimneys. In winter, you can actually heat the earthen kang while cooking a meal. But if you want to maintain the heat all night, you should add more firewood, etc.

After the temperature has completely come up, seal the stove with fine firewood foam.

This kind of fine firewood foam has a low ignition point but is resistant to burning, ensuring that the earthen kang will stay warm all night long.

Waiting for Lan Hua to finish grooming, Wang Manyin started to do important things in life again.

It’s great to have an aunt!

No wonder Xintian Youli sings like this: The double door comes and the single door opens, call brother, come in. Eye to eye, eyebrow to eyebrow, words are conveyed with a wink and a movement of the hair... Grab the arm, lift the hand, move the shoulder to kiss

Come on, grab your lover and kiss her, and the knot in your stomach turns to water.

Crickets crawled on the warm bed and screamed, and my brother's heart was beating loudly. The lambs knelt down to suck milk, hugging a relative without falling asleep. Pairs of hens flew south, pouring their lives on them to sleep with you. On the wall

Going to a horse race is too low, sleeping face to face still misses you.

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

Accompanied by the chirping of magpies, Wang Manyin turned his head and looked out the window.

It's hazy and white outside, and it obviously snowed a lot last night.

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

When Lan Hua woke up, the two of them chatted casually.

I really don't want to get up.

After a while, Lan Hua suddenly pushed her and said, "Man Yin, let's get up quickly. We have to go back to our parents' home today."

Isn't that right? According to the rules of the original West County, the day after the wedding, the new son-in-law must take his daughter-in-law to the father-in-law's house to recognize relatives. This is called "returning home."

In many places, the man has to be accompanied by a guest when he returns home.

It is relatively simple here in Yuanxi County. The man only needs to go to the new son-in-law, which saves a lot of trouble.

He opened the cave door, and a cold feeling suddenly hit his face.

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

Looking around, the entire Loess Plateau is shrouded in thick white. The sky and the earth are the same color and blend into one.

Hearing the owner's movement, Rhubarb immediately ran out of the hole and kept spinning.

After saying hello to Orchid, Wang Manyin took the local dog and walked down the cliff. Taking advantage of the snow in the morning, he wanted to see if he could catch pheasants, rabbits, etc. on the plateau.

After walking a certain distance, he suddenly remembered that he had been busy with important life events these past two days and had not paid attention to the poultry and livestock raised in the reception space. It was estimated that these guys were starving.

After finding a place with leeward wind, Wang Manyin quietly entered the space.

As expected, upon hearing any movement, the little piglets in the pit immediately began to squeak and jump up and down.

He cut several bundles of grass one after another and fed them, and finally settled these guys.

After he got out and walked not far forward, he saw a string of hare tracks in the snow. Looking in the direction of the tracks, he went straight to the rapeseed field on the plateau.

If nothing else, this should be a young hare with little experience of starvation.

It snowed heavily yesterday and it didn't get anything to eat at night, so it ran out to look for food at dawn. Now the winter wheat has just grown to four fingers high and has already been covered with thick snow.

However, the rapeseed seedlings grew tall and could sprout in the snow, so they naturally became this rabbit's first choice.

Really old rabbits are different. They are more resistant to hunger and more experienced. They usually hide in their nests when it snows heavily and cannot come out.

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

One person and one dog walked along the tracks into the rapeseed field, and sure enough they saw scattered gnawing marks, which were particularly conspicuous in the snow. There were many tracks at the edge of the field, but after running for a while, they suddenly disappeared in the snow.

Seeing this situation, Wang Manyin became excited.

This is the fascination circle left by the hare, indicating that the hiding place is nearby.

This kind of thing is very cunning, knowing that snow will leave footprints. So when approaching the nest, they often jump with all their strength, and can jump two or three meters away each time, and in different directions.

It looks disorganized and has no trace.

In fact, when it jumped for the last time, this thing had quietly hid in the nest.

If an inexperienced hunter sees this situation, he will often become confused and easily lose the final trace of the hare.

But for Wang Manyin, it was completely useless.

There is a motto for finding rabbits here on the Loess Plateau: "Lie high, lie low, lie low, lie high. Lie on the grass, lie on the grass, and lie on the grass."

The meaning is very simple. If the surrounding area is surrounded by high ground, the hare will tend to hide its nest in the lowest place. If the surrounding area is surrounded by low-lying terrain, it will place its nest in a high place.

If most of the surrounding environment is covered with weeds, it will hide in the shrubs and sagebrush. Otherwise, it will hide in the grass...

Not far from where the hare tracks disappeared, Wang Manyin saw a leeward depression with some sparse weeds around it.

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

In fact, I’m not afraid if I lose my trace. There’s Dahuang following me.

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

Before the native dog could get closer, he saw a grayish-grey figure leaping out from the roots of the withered grass and jumping away into the distance. Due to the obstruction of the thick snow, this guy's speed was much slower.

Dahuang jumped out of the way and gave chase, and quickly caught him back.

It takes just one cigarette to catch a hare, which is a record-breaking speed.

It's really not big, almost weighing three kilograms.

Wang Manyin was just worried about what gift to give to his father-in-law, so he happened to sneak up on this hare.

With the prey in hand, he had no intention of continuing to hunt for it with Rhubarb.

After a while, I guess Lanhua has prepared the meal. Seeing that the snow is getting heavier, I'd better go back early.

Anyway, this heavy snow is expected to take a few days to thaw, so there will be plenty of time to catch hares.

Lan Hua was standing on the edge of the field looking around, and saw a man returning carrying something from a distance. When he got closer, he realized it was a hare.

She said excitedly: "Man Yin, did Dahuang catch a hare?"

"Well, let's go to Shuangshui Village later and let Shaoan and the others have a try." Wang Manyin said and handed it over and began to pat the snow off his body.

"Rhubarb is so powerful. Shaoan said last time that I have never seen such a good local dog in ten miles and eight villages." Lanhua originally had objections to the man feeding rhubarb every day, but now she doesn't say anything.

You know, in this era, the native dogs in rural areas basically find their own food, and at most they feed them some pot water.

There is no one like Wang Manyin who can eat whatever the dog eats.

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

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

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

"I'm resting at home. I haven't done much work. I'm not hungry. Just drink some corn grits." Lanhua shook her head and replied.

Wang Manyin stood up and looked into the small pot. It was empty. Apparently, he had cooked all the vegetables he had fried for himself in the morning.

He was extremely speechless and put half of it into the other party's bowl, and then persuaded: "Lanhua, didn't I say that our family is not short of food. From now on, you can eat whatever I eat. If you say anything about eating bran-throated vegetables, be careful with me."

Press me on the kang and beat you!"

Lan Hua said with a guilty conscience: "Man Yin, we are eating every day, it feels like a dream. The days are still long, what if there is no food next spring?"

She was really frightened of hunger when she was a child, and this memory is almost engraved in her bones. From the time she can remember, the family never really had enough to eat. Every year when the spring season failed, they ran out of food and became an overrun household for the production team.

How many times did Lan Hua go into the mountains to collect firewood? She felt dizzy and dizzy from hunger for a while, and almost fell down on the cliff.

She endured all this silently.

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

It was as if a beam of light appeared in front of him.

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

Therefore, Lan Hua has already made up her mind, even if she lives her whole life eating chaffy vegetables, she will still be satisfied.
Chapter completed!