Winter passed as usual, and the children of the Big Jin Family couldn't wait to visit Wen Qian's family to play.
Since they hadn't spoken to anyone outside their family all winter, their nearest neighbor Wen Qian became their first choice for conversation.
The passing of winter didn't mean that all the snow had melted, but rather that it had stopped snowing. The weather was still cold, but they could walk to each other's homes.
Only when it was safe would their parents let them go out, and Wen Qian was happy to chat with them.
They talked about topics like what to plant in the spring, and as the two children grew older each year, Wen Qian sometimes wondered how they would find romance in the future.
With age came a gossipy heart, but this was indeed a dilemma in their situation.
Not everyone could live alone their entire life like Wen Qian chose to, and she wasn't sure how people found romance after the disaster.
She had never seen it, nor did she know how these children would manage in the future.
The children here would hardly meet anyone to date, and it was unknown if there were others with the same concerns.
This was certainly an issue, but like other animals, wouldn't those with the ability to travel far go elsewhere when they came of age and wanted a mate? Wen Qian felt she was worrying unnecessarily.
Their parents Big Jin and Big Ning could also foresee this, so Big Ning often urged her husband to venture out.
To see if there were any new families around the former village and surrounding areas.
There were more people there with more arable land, and Big Ning felt her children would have the greatest chance of finding a partner from that direction if needed.
In truth, she wasn't too concerned about carrying on their lineage, but simply wanted her children to find companionship.
If they preferred to live alone like Wen Qian, that was fine, but she feared they would be forced into solitude with no choice.
So she could only keep an eye out early with her husband, as getting acquainted sooner might increase their chances.
As temperatures rose, the snow melted rapidly, leaving the ground muddy, though it would freeze over night and morning.
During this damp warming period, many things were prone to mold, so Wen Qian basically didn't leave food outside.
She set up a heated tent in her yard, as spring had arrived and she needed to start cultivating seeds.
The tent used plastic sheets from last year, with a reed mat covering it at night, as the sheets could still be reused this year.
Including the seedling trays from before, she cherished all her materials and tools until they were completely unusable before replacing them.
The earlier she started seedlings, the sooner she could harvest, and she wouldn't feel at ease until the food was in her stomach.
Of course, Wen Qian also feared late spring cold snaps, as tree leaves began sprouting and some plants started flowering.
If temperatures plummeted at this stage, everything would have to start over, resulting in lower yields.
To address this, Wen Qian could only practice low-temperature seedling cultivation, gradually increasing ventilation once the seedlings emerged.
With no way to forecast weather now, Wen Qian could only rely on her experience combined with the sayings of their forebears.
Apparently, experienced farmers used to predict the weather themselves, but most people followed weather forecasts when they became available.
Another issue was that later societal development greatly damaged the environment.
So some of the traditional sayings may no longer match the climate changes.
And now, emerging from the aftermath of the volcanic winter, the climate was even harder to predict, so Wen Qian could only take it one step at a time.
Fortunately, there was no late spring cold that year, and Lisa came to Wen Qian's family as expected to get seedlings of various kinds, as she had planted a little of everything.
Lisa was surprised that Wen Qian even had three varieties of tomatoes, none of which were the common ones Lisa had, so she traded some fresh game for them.
Since the pots turned out well, Lisa planned to make more large ones whenever she had time.
Because she realized Wen Qian's seed reserve was quite diverse, which could allow her to trade for game from others.
Lisa also thought about using ceramics to trade with people in the future. This year they planned to grow wheat, so barring any mishaps, they wouldn't need to trade grains with neighbors anymore.
The strawberry runners of the Big Jin Family started spreading, with the Old Lady placing pots of soil nearby to allow the runners to take root, after which they could be separated into individual strawberry plant pots.
Everyone was busy that spring, rarely meeting after the initial seedling exchanges, especially the more distant Lisa's family.
However, when Big Jin ventured out following his wife's instructions, he heard some news that a group of bandits had arrived from the south the previous year.
Some villagers had returned from the small town, bringing news that this group of bandits was still fleeing northward.
The villagers' intent was to warn their own village, though the whole winter had passed without any strange people being seen.
So when Big Jin came to trade game and inquire about people, they were especially cautious, but someone recognized Big Jin and vouched for him.
Although the news was a winter late, they figured the cold had driven the bandits to hole up somewhere for the season.
Now that spring had arrived, the bandits might start causing trouble again, and combining this with the news from town, it meant either murder or arson.
Big Jin hurried home with this news, figuring a concentrated settlement might not have an issue with bandits.
But their remote mountain families might, so he rushed back to first relay the news to the other two households.
After dropping off his traded goods at home and informing his family, he went to Wen Qian's home next.
As Big Jin was about to head to Lisa's family after relaying the news, Wen Qian stopped him, knowing he had rushed back from afar, and said she would go notify them instead.
Although Ni Sha's home was far away, Wen Qian had never been there, but it was easy to find by following the river upstream, so she had no problem going.
After Big Jin left, Wen Qian returned home and packed her belongings, putting all the new items into her spatial storage, and changed into the most tattered clothes.
She even replaced her pot with a more broken one; if she had another broken pot, she would have replaced both.
