Towards the end of March, Wen Qian began to select planting spots near her home.
Behind the small hill where she lived was a forest, and in front was a gentle slope. She planned to grow crops on the gentle slope near her home.
She couldn't plant near the streams, as those streams might rise during the next wave of warming and flood the nearby grasslands.
So Wen Qian planned her fields a bit higher up, while inside the fence she planned to cultivate seedlings and plant vegetables that needed daily attention.
The seedlings would need plastic covers for insulation, as the temperature difference between day and night was still quite large. As for the outdoor fields, Wen Qian had to start from scratch.
This meant she had to clear the land, using an iron shovel to scrape away the turf from the gentle slopes, and then build ridges around the fields, mainly on the lower side.
She was worried that if it rained, the soil might erode too quickly, so she wanted to create barriers to slow it down.
After stripping away the turf and exposing the soil, which looked quite fertile, Wen Qian scattered a little fertilizer and left the seeds to dry for two days before starting to plant the crops first.
In the plateau region, plant growth was very slow, and the crops wouldn't be ready for harvest until August or September. But the upside was that they would require less tending during that time.
At this point, she planned to go out and dig for wild vegetables based on the descriptions she had.
Originally she had planned to buy a sheep to raise, but then realized people might not want to encounter each other at this time.
Just to be safe, Wen Qian decided not to buy a sheep after all. Since the plan to raise sheep was cancelled, she figured she would spend the upcoming time foraging for wild vegetables.
Not many wild vegetables had sprouted in March, but April would be just right. As temperatures rose, the water network around the basin became relatively dense.
Water flowed down from the mountains, and Wen Qian's planted seeds slowly began to sprout. She patrolled her small planting areas every day, as this hill wasn't very large and she had only cleared two plots, with the remaining area being the small vegetable patch in her yard.
There were quite a few varieties of wild vegetables. She would only harvest one type at a time, just as she had always been obsessed with doing. She gathered a lot of wild vegetables just from the grasslands.
Later, looking at the distant mountains, she thought it should be fine to explore a little at the foothills.
But she wouldn't go any higher or deeper into the mountains for her own safety.
She was quite afraid of encountering wild animals. There were many wild vegetables up in the mountains, as well as some medicinal herbs.
Thinking about the local medicinal herbs unique to the area, Wen Qian decided to collect them too, thinking they could be useful for herself or sold for money later.
She worked even harder than Wang Baochuan digging for wild vegetables every day, covered in dirt. The fresh vegetables went straight into her spatial storage. At one point she even made dumplings stuffed with wild vegetables, which turned out quite tasty.
The rest of the time she spent foraging for wild vegetables, not even having time to cook, so she just took ready-made meals from her spatial storage.
In April, the situation in the cities was still not very good.
Fang Ya had started planting things at home, and her whole family was living a rural life. People in surrounding areas were also gradually starting to cultivate the fields in the villages again.
Among those fields were the ones previously farmed by the Chen Family that they were still cultivating.
The villagers were returning to their lively, nitpicky way of life, just like before.
Previously it was arguments over water, now it was over whose pine needles were stolen from whose woods - in any case, with more people around, the old squabbles had resumed.
The situation in the big cities was still not very good, but at least it was under control. The only change was that instead of single cremations, mass cremations were now taking place due to necessity.
Those who had previously lived quietly in the cities realized that even if life returned to normal, their mentalities would never recover to how they were before.
Many people developed psychological disorders that might take a very long time to heal.
Wen Qian spent the entire month of April foraging for wild vegetables. Her crops had grown quite a bit, but the speed was truly slow.
Just thinking about how she wouldn't be able to harvest until September gave her a headache. In some valley regions with higher temperatures, crops could even last through winter, so they would harvest earlier in August.
Wen Qian thought she might as well spend the remaining summer months wandering around the basin.
From Mangge City heading west, there was a highway cutting across the basin in this Gobi desert toward the northwestern edge of another uninhabited area in Xin Province.
Wen Qian figured she could get on the highway near Mangge City. Inter-regional transportation hadn't really resumed yet, so she thought it should be safe to move around the basin as long as she didn't encounter anyone.
At this time, people were afraid of the virus, so they were also afraid of strangers.
By May, temperatures outside the plateau region would start rising rapidly, and perhaps with the rising heat, the virus might not survive as easily.
Temperatures in the plateau region were still fine, though the sunlight was indeed very intense. At this point, Wen Qian's flushed cheeks were no different from the locals'.
When the light was too strong, she would wear sunglasses while checking on her crops near home.
She planned to venture out further from home toward the west in June and July.
At the end of April, Wen Qian got overly excited while foraging for wild vegetables and ventured up into the mountains. While using binoculars to scout routes along a river valley slope, she noticed some movement.
There were bears, a large one and a small one, appearing to be a mother bear and her cub out foraging for food.
Wen Qian gave a thumbs up after confirming they were at a safe distance, then she fled back home as fast as she could.
Along the way, she kept surveying her surroundings, afraid that if she panicked and lost her way, she might stumble into the territory of another ferocious wild animal, which would be disastrous.
This was her first time seeing wild animals that could threaten human life.
Wen Qian had never been to a zoo, nor had she seen any in her hometown, so all her knowledge came from books or the internet.
Although she had set up a fence around her home as a precaution, she knew that if wolves or bears did come, being inside wouldn't make it any less terrifying.
After returning home, she specifically searched for books about wild animals from her spatial storage, finding information on the type of bear she had just seen.
It was a species unique to the plateau region, with fur coloring different from bears elsewhere. She also recalled some news reports about border stations and herders' homes being visited by bears.
Generally they only came looking for food, but if there was a direct encounter in the wild, instead of foraging for vegetables, it would be serving vegetables to the bears.
