In June of Xia Province, Wen Qian was finally able to see a hint of green, so she dismantled the two sheds she had built earlier and planned to grow some vegetables in the yard.
She divided the seeds she had previously purchased into many portions, as well as the seeds she had saved later, which may not be as stable in characteristics as the ones she had bought before, but were still better than having none, and she divided them into quite a few portions as well.
Her idea was to plant them as soon as the temperature rose, so she could take advantage of the growing season.
Regardless of how the harvest turns out, she would not use any of the seeds reserved for the following years.
She was worried that if she planted all the seeds now, she would have nothing to sow in the future, like a clever woman with no rice to cook.
She chose seeds for vegetables that could be harvested and grown quickly. If it was a crop that required a long growing time, like a grain crop, Wen Qian had no plans to plant it this year.
When the greenery on the ground started sprouting, Wen Qian, as she had done in previous years, tried to dig up edible plants in the vicinity, even though the vegetation growth was not doing too well.
The whole world had to go through a year without summer, but the plateau region never really had a summer to begin with. It was just that the temperatures were even lower than usual.
After a long winter, it was uncertain how many wild animals had managed to survive. But seeing the traces of small animals gnawing on the radishes and greens planted outside, at least the mice in the vicinity were still alive.
She did not keep a dog or cat, even though they could have provided her some company, as they would also require a share of the food supply.
Wen Qian rationed her own food, and since there were fewer tasks to do, she did not eat to the point of fullness.
Snacks were also very limited, just enough to fill her stomach and maintain her strength.
However, the environment was gradually changing, perhaps due to the abnormal climate, causing the plants and animals to face unusual challenges.
This led to some issues within the ecosystem, with insects, microorganisms, and bacteria.
Although it was not to the extent described in "Silent Spring," the humans in the ecosystem were still aware of it.
Wen Qian fetched water from the pits by the stream, disinfected it, and stored it. Currently, the only things she could store from here were water, wild greens, and the trees on the mountain.
She could not even hunt here.
But on the other hand, if there were everything available here, there would probably be a lot of people as well.
As Wen Qian gradually had nothing to do, she decided to go and check out the nearby pasture.
The pasture had been completely cleared out, with even the gates taken down, leaving only the fences and barbed wire around the perimeter.
The common iron bars and wire fences were too extensive to be dismantled and taken away piece by piece.
The fences around the pasture area and the seemingly good iron mesh, which might have been a basketball or tennis court, in the living area - Wen Qian's first thought was to take whatever she could, so she started dismantling them.
The last remaining potentially useful items in the surrounding area, although not edible, brought her joy to have as a harvest, nonetheless.
Wen Qian spent a day dismantling the fences and wire, circling the entire pasture. As it grew late, she moved the prefabricated house and planned to sleep there overnight.
Her original intention was just to come and see what she could take.
After finishing the dismantling the next day, she did not plan to go back, but instead started digging for wild vegetables in this relatively lush vegetation area.
She had noticed this while taking down the fences - after the long winter and without the trampling of animals, the soil was more fertile, and the wild vegetables were growing more vigorously.
Wen Qian thought she could now forage for wild vegetables in the area between the pasture and her home.
So that night, she spent another night there, and by the third day, she felt she had to return home in the afternoon, as she was worried about her own belongings.
She had spent the entire morning digging for wild vegetables, her hands and nails caked with dirt.
Wen Qian decided to go to the river to wash her hands.
This river was not wide, but it meandered through the pasture, eventually joining a larger river that flowed towards Mangge City.
After washing her hands, Wen Qian stood on the riverbank, observing the small river within her view.
She wondered if there might be small fish in this river. Wen Qian had previously set up fishing nets in the small streams and rivers near her home, but never found any small fish or shrimp.
The rivers in the plateau region were often seasonal, and the perennial rivers had even fewer fish.
As for the lakes, many were salt lakes with basically no life, while the saline and freshwater lakes, although having some life, typically only had one or two fish species.
For example, Jade Lake - if someone wanted to fish there now, there would probably be a lot of people doing the same.
Wen Qian thought about it and took a drag net, dragging it upstream for a distance, and to her surprise, she caught some fish.
These fish were a bit smaller than the ones she had previously caught, but she was delighted, as it meant she had another food source to store.
However, she was puzzled as to why there were fish here. Upon further inspection, she realized this river ran through the entire pasture, with water gates and nets set up at the inlet and outlet.
There was also an artificial lake in the middle, so even if the river had seasonal floods, the fish could be retained.
These fish were likely not wild, but rather fingerlings that had been stocked by the pasture owners in the past for cultivation.
They might have even regularly harvested the fish last year before they left - Wen Qian did not know if they had done so.
In any case, since there were still fish here, Wen Qian did not dwell on such thoughts.
What she did not know was that the previous owners had indeed cleared out the fish from the artificial lake the previous winter before leaving. However, the smaller fish had remained in the river section.
So Wen Qian ended up catching quite a few small fish by dragging the net through the artificial lake.
The largest ones were about the size of her palm.
Wen Qian dragged the net through the artificial lake several times, eventually catching all the remaining small fish.
There were also some other fish species in the lake that were not native to the plateau, but could still survive there.
So Wen Qian surmised that the previous owners had stocked the lake with fingerlings of various species, as the native plateau fish grew very slowly and would take a long time to mature.
She then set up several gill nets at different points along the river in the pasture area, using drag nets in the river sections between the gill nets.
