The Lantern Festival had arrived, and it was a clear day.
After washing up in the morning, Wen Qian's first task was still shoveling snow, her daily routine. Once she had cleared some of the snow, she would have breakfast.
It was a bowl of portioned congee and a boiled egg, plus an apple.
After finishing the disposable bowl, Wen Qian would wash it clean with snow and put it away. Although she had bought many plastic bowls, she would never throw them away after just one use.
She kept them in her space, ready for whenever needed.
Similarly, even when throwing away trash, she would never dispose of more than she had used. An outsider could deduce the owner's living situation from the trash.
As for the many paper boxes from her online purchases, she would store anything that could be stored in them. Those that couldn't be used for storage, she had previously taken apart and sold for money when she was in Anshi City.
After finishing her breakfast, Wen Qian went to shovel snow behind the house, and then heard someone calling her name.
It turned out to be Auntie Chen. Having stayed indoors all day, she was feeling cooped up, so she took advantage of the clear day and brought a shovel to clear a path to visit Wen Qian and chat with her.
She hadn't had much to do lately, and she felt like she was going silly. Apart from her husband and son occasionally going up the mountain to try hunting wild chickens, they had spent most of their time at home playing cards and mahjong.
She just hoped the snow would melt soon so it wouldn't be so difficult to walk around. The boredom was driving her to want to go up the mountain to collect firewood.
Of course, Auntie Chen had another reason for visiting her. Everyone knew that the Chen Lin family raised sheep, and after selling some, they still had some left over, but they didn't expect the winter to last this long.
Auntie Chen wanted to see if Wen Qian needed any, and suggested going together to buy sheep from them.
Most people would have some cash on hand for the New Year, and since they weren't going to visit relatives, buy gifts, or gamble, the money was in their own pockets.
She wanted to buy from the Chen Lin family, and they would probably be willing to sell since the cold weather might make it difficult to keep raising the sheep.
So Wen Qian went with them, as it was better to walk together than alone.
Auntie Chen was quite clever. She took a basin and two bamboo poles, and on the gentle slopes, she would just sit in the basin and use the poles to move herself along.
If they had to shovel snow or walk on their own, it would take forever.
They also approached from the side of the village and went uphill, crossing a small hill to see the Chen Lin family's home on the other side of the valley.
Then they shouted to ask if they were selling any sheep.
Chen Lin happened to be worried about this issue. He would kill a few sheep every so often, and while some were taken by people in the village, the rest were frozen at home.
So after some negotiation, Auntie Chen paid for two sheep.
Previously, Wen Qian had bought one whole sheep, so this time she bought half a sheep. The Chen family simply sold two and a half sheep in total.
Three sheep in all. Chen Lin and his family came out of their home, crossed the fields, and went down to the bottom of the slope, where Wen Qian's group lowered a basket tied with ropes down the slope, and they put the sheep in.
The transaction was complete with the exchange of money and goods.
The snow was just too deep to climb up, otherwise they would have at least greeted each other in person.
This transaction took quite a long time, and both parties hadn't been out for a while, so it felt good to be able to go out and buy something.
Wen Qian didn't buy too much, as she still had some money left, but she didn't dare spend it all yet, so buying half a sheep was just a symbolic purchase.
It made sense, too – half a sheep would be enough for her since she lived alone and wouldn't be eating it as a main dish.
The group returned the same way, and Auntie Chen insisted that Wen Qian stay for lunch before leaving.
Fang Ya also asked her to stay and chat for a while, as the entire village had been snowed in for too long.
Everyone wanted to talk to someone, to learn what the outside world was like, something they could only imagine.
Only occasionally could they see the scenes reported by TV stations, and Fang Ya couldn't help but worry.
In the north, the snow had even buried one-story buildings, and some people had died in their sleep during this winter.
The situation in the cities wasn't much better either, and as a pregnant woman, Fang Ya was naturally concerned.
She felt that being pregnant at this time wasn't ideal, but spring would come eventually, right?
After all, they had four seasons here, so even if spring came a little late, it would still come, wouldn't it?
However, this time Wen Qian didn't even need to recommend anything to her – Fang Ya herself was thinking that once transportation and delivery services resumed, she would definitely stock up on more supplies at home, including items for the baby.
The Chen family agreed on this point – the worse the situation, the more they needed to stock up at home.
The distant signal tower was still standing, and when they received calls, they could check online news on their phones.
It's just that the news they received from friends and colleagues wasn't very good.
The snow had trapped people, and at the same time made them feel hopeless and depressed.
Although the signal was intermittent, they also had a radio, and the news from the cities wasn't good either.
No one had expected the snow to last this long, and many cities had already established centralized shelters.
Everyone hoped the snow would disappear soon and not continue, and that as long as the snowfall didn't increase, the current situation wouldn't worsen.
The remaining half of the first lunar month would still have two days of snowfall and two days of clear weather. In previous years around this time, the temperature in their area would gradually rise, and clear days would become more frequent.
But now it was still just endless white snow, with no sign of winter passing.
There was no telling when spring would arrive, and January had passed like this.
However, Wen Qian kept her space tidy, never neglecting her daily tasks, and she also had a rough idea of what she owned.
But she felt she should prepare more cold-weather gear. The amount she had was enough for staying at home, but if she had to live outdoors in the future, she would need to prepare more.
Fortunately, Wen Qian had learned some tailoring skills at home. Now, she could follow the examples she had, taking apart old clothes she had scavenged, and cutting fabric to her size and measurements. She had grasped the simple techniques for now, but she hadn't quite figured out how to work with thick winter clothing yet.
With winter not over yet, Wen Qian didn't plan to stay at home every day. Whenever it was clear, she would try to go out.
If the snow was too deep, she would use skis. She had never used them before, so she practiced on the slopes near her home first.
With skis, walking was difficult but at least she wouldn't get buried in the deep snow.
In some areas, the snow was so deep that at her height, she could have been completely buried if she fell in.
So she only walked on the more gentle slopes she had taken before, going along the slope behind her house for a stretch, and all she could see below was just white snow and bare tree branches.
She rarely even saw sparrows. This winter must have been extremely difficult for small animals trying to survive.
Before the New Year, she would occasionally hear the flapping and calls of wild chickens.
Now the entire mountain village was silent, with only the smoke coming from the chimneys in the Yangou valley behind her.
With such deep snow, Wen Qian wondered if the wheat underneath in the terraced fields would survive.
