Chapter 1514 - 1037: Civilian Girl Hero 11
The dog was picked up in the county’s drainage ditch, nearly drowned, seemingly just past the full moon stage, looking truly pitiful. She took it home and nurtured it carefully for a month before it recovered. It was a small brown-haired wolfdog, and she named it Nut because it was female.
Her house was located at the western end of the village, in a relatively remote area. Next to it stood a hundred-year-old locust tree, revered as the sacred tree of Liujiatun. Many opposed her building there, but the government made the decision, and the village measured the dimensions, allowing a five-meter gap, which led to a compromise.
Liujiatun used to be a big village with hundreds of people, but during the war, young men went to fight, women were taken away, and those who survived were elderly, weak, sick, or disabled. Now, there are hardly a hundred people altogether, and restoring its former vitality will probably take another twenty years or so.
There weren’t many women in the village like Yishui, mostly those between fifteen and under forty were either deceased or incapacitated. It would take another ten years for a new generation to grow up. Not just this village, but other regions faced similar circumstances, given the three northeastern provinces were under pirate occupation for the longest time.
If Yishui hadn’t spoken those words, even if she were unattractive, countless people would still come to look. Progeny is a traditional belief of the people.
No matter how downcast things are now, it won’t be long before the people of Liujiatun rise again, with families having five, six, seven, or eight children becoming common.
The 60s and 70s were periods of rapid population growth. In the early years after New China was founded, perhaps people were still recovering. By the mid-to-late Fifties, people gradually emerged from sorrow, mourning the lost while planning their future.
Unlike others who had large families, Yishui, now renamed An Yi, was alone, with just enough for herself and no hunger for the family.
Her space stored plenty of supplies prepared for herself—fabric, cotton, grain, medicine, canned goods, side food, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and more. These were trophies she gathered, giving away 80%, leaving 20% for herself. So even if she stayed home all year, she wouldn’t lack food or drink.
Her three rooms were actually too spacious to use. The middle was the hall, she lived in the east room, and the west room was used for storing miscellaneous items like firewood, grain, and agricultural tools. She cooked in the hall, with a large Earth Pot in the corner connected to the bed in the east room. When it was cold, she cooked inside, and when hot, she cooked in the yard, already setting up a makeshift canopy because the yard was big enough, making the left side a kitchen and the right corner a toilet.
Feeling a bit lonely, she also set up a chicken coop and raised six chickens.
When she first arrived at Liujiatun, it was April spring. She spent over three months building a house, farming, catching chicks, raising her dog, making furniture. Initially, she stayed with locals but did her cooking in her space and didn’t eat with them, partly due to discomfort and partly to avoid trouble—it involved calculating money and grain, which felt tedious. She ended up paying 1000 yuan as lodging fee (a set of RMB) for three months.
When the house was completed, the weather warmed up. At that time, there was no need for painting or decorating, nor airing out the house. As summer arrived it naturally dried, so once the house was built, she moved in without delay.
She was already raising chicks in her space before the house was built, keeping only six outside while having over sixty chickens, ducks, and geese inside. These eggs might become most of her future income. Additionally, there were three cows and two pigs in the space. She disliked lamb, so she didn’t raise sheep. As for the cows, they consisted of a family of three—the mother could be milked, and when the calf matured, she planned to keep it to till land and reproduce, but not let it out.
Because in a few years, land, stoves, cattle, and sheep would no longer be hers, only keeping two or three chickens would be allowed. She must transfer the cows elsewhere before the document arrives. In the meantime, they would work for her for a few years; still, once policy arrives, her cows might become old oxen unable to work.
Liujiatun was thirty li from the nearest town. Just thinking about it made her feet sore, and there wasn’t much to buy, nor did she have the interest to go to markets.