Before reaching the cabin, she inspected the surroundings with binoculars first, ensuring no issues before approaching.
The house was fine; opening the door revealed only a damp, chilly wooden scent.
Wen Qian had previously sealed two additional layers of boards on the windows, totaling three layers, but she didn't bother opening them today since she didn't plan to stay.
She opened the door for ventilation and took a cursory look around.
Not lingering long, she closed the door and returned home. If conditions permitted this year, she would build a second cabin in another direction.
This would expand her activity range, allowing her to hunt and forage in different areas, potentially increasing her yields.
After returning home, Wen Qian began preparing for spring plowing, turning the soil and fertilizing, cultivating various seeds.
With spring's arrival, wild animals also needed substantial nourishment to replenish their nutritional reserves.
During this period, Wen Qian rarely hunted, unlike her neighbors who, except for the Old Lady, ventured out whenever possible to procure food.
Due to the extended winter, they believed stockpiling food was prudent.
Spring was an ideal planting season, and Wen Qian not only cultivated various seedlings in her greenhouse but also expanded her planting outwards.
For instance, she propagated raspberries and blueberries in distant forests and buried pumpkin seeds on sloping grassy areas without trees.
It was quite random, casually planting things within her designated range.
Without meticulous cultivation or care, she didn't expect abundant yields.
If wild animals consumed these crops, it didn't matter; if any remained ripe, Wen Qian could harvest the fruits.
She also planned to plant lotus roots in the shallow downstream waters with gentle currents, sprouting lotus roots at home using water cultivation and growing lotus seeds.
Additionally, she buried lotus roots and seeds along the riverbank, employing a two-pronged approach to increase the chances of successful germination.
Once successfully grown, she would have an additional food source. Fearing others might harvest everything, Wen Qian dispersed her plantings across several locations.
Currently, people neither hunted nor foraged with the intention of complete eradication as in the past, but she still chose to distribute the risk.
Humans truly relied on nature for sustenance, with most unwilling to "kill the goose that lays the golden eggs." However, a few shortsighted individuals might uproot everything, unconcerned about the following year's growth.
When collecting bird eggs in spring, Wen Qian only took half, leaving the rest for reproduction.
Initially, she had dug up lotus roots and gathered lotus seeds from her hometown, but most of the lotus leaves she took were immature, with few viable as seeds.
The lotus seeds she had as seeds were purchased when buying other seeds like cherry, peach, apricot, and elm.
As her space couldn't accommodate trees with roots, she bought seeds capable of sprouting seedlings.
This meant the varieties and yields were unclear, but Wen Qian had no lofty expectations, content as long as they could grow and bear fruit.
Especially for seeds that could grow into trees, she didn't expect immediate flowering and fruiting, willing to wait several years.
According to the information, many edible aquatic plants thrived primarily in the southern regions of the past, with the northern regions being less suitable for their growth.
If the lotus roots germinated, Wen Qian would be very satisfied.
Other plants like arrowhead, taro, or water caltrops might not be suited to grow here due to the temperature.
Particularly in the northern forests, many of the seeds she planted were not originally from the northern regions and might not thrive initially. She only planted them experimentally.
As long as she could see abundant edible things in her surroundings, it was reassuring.
After the spring agricultural work ended, Wen Qian went to the place her distant neighbor mentioned to dig up fruit trees.
Reportedly, it was a jujube orchard. Although Wen Qian had jujube seeds, she hoped to find larger, established seedlings to transplant.
This trip was farther, heading southward.
Before finding the jujube orchard, she encountered hawthorn trees.
Orchard trees were generally not very tall, and after years of neglect, the surviving ones were not particularly robust, allowing Wen Qian to transport several at once.
Continuing forward, she came across jujube trees, not in an orchard but two trees planted near the road by a former resident. The house was now abandoned, but the fruit trees continued growing.
These two jujube trees were leaning crookedly, with new tender leaves sprouting and rotting blackened jujubes on the ground.
Around them grew several young jujube trees about two fingers thick and some seedlings under a meter tall.
Wen Qian dug up the small jujube trees and seedlings, then returned to the hawthorn trees and dug up two smaller ones, ending her first trip.
She planted the hawthorn trees near her home and the jujube trees at the tree farm.
On her second trip, she dug up many hawthorn seedlings that had sprouted in the orchard.
After transplanting the jujube seedlings, she suddenly remembered she had sea buckthorn and wolfberry cuttings.
With their thorns, could she plant a ring or two around the tree farm to prevent wild animal intrusions?
The more she considered it, the more plausible it seemed, so she planned to clear a ring of trees around the farm. Before the thorny hedge grew tall, she would dig traps to deter prey.
Once the sea buckthorn and wolfberry matured, she could feel secure.
After digging up these trees, Wen Qian hurried back to propagate the thorny cuttings she had retained in her space.
As she was busy propagating the thorny cuttings, the grapevines in her yard began flowering, and those planted outside also survived.
It seemed she might be able to eat self-grown grapes this year. Observing the fruit trees and berry bushes around her home, she planned to plant them around her hunter's cabin too.
So she found time to dig up over a dozen small potted seedlings to carry in a basket to plant near the cabin.
It was now June, and as Wen Qian carried the basket toward the cabin, the brief month since the late spring had infused the woodlands with vibrant life.
However, Wen Qian noticed that some trees had been crushed by the snow, and some branches were broken. Among the new green leaves on the branches, they were still bare.
Some were broken at the waist, with one side of the bark still attached, and the upper half lying on the ground was still stubbornly alive.
While others had fallen to the ground, no longer able to revive, but it didn't matter, as their seeds around them would surely sprout into new seedlings.
Likewise, she stopped in the distance and used a telescope to examine the situation near the cottage. Then she discovered something that shouldn't have been there.
A trail of smoke rose in the distance, and Wen Qian didn't know if it was coming from inside the house or just near the house.
Since the cottage was completely hidden in the woods from her angle, she had to go further to see.
