In the second winter after the volcanic eruption, Wen Qian was mending her roof.
Before the winter, she had thoroughly checked her house and the surrounding walls, and fortunately there were no major issues. The time for her to spend the winter alone had come again.
Every day, Wen Qian would either clean the vegetables or process firewood. Previously, she would dry an entire tree until it was almost done, then store it in her space.
Now, instead of taking the firewood she had previously stored, she would periodically fell a few trees and leave them in the yard, processing them into a suitable size before stacking them.
In the winter, she couldn't go anywhere or grow anything, so she had to find things to keep herself occupied.
Aside from reading and studying, she would do physical activities, with martial arts training being a fixed routine, while chopping firewood became an irregular task.
For Wen Qian, chopping firewood was an extremely stress-relieving activity. After processing a tree from branches to trunk, the sound of the axe splitting wood would make her feel like the anxiety accumulated within had been vented.
Wen Qian felt that this life was neither good nor bad. Having less interaction with people was actually one of her wishes before quitting her job.
However, occasional worries about the future or thoughts about unexpected situations, or perhaps just mood swings caused by her upcoming period, were all things she needed to process and digest on her own.
In this place, the only human voices one could hear throughout the year were from the radio and her own self-talk.
Although time flew by quickly, Wen Qian realized that she might have changed from her former self.
For over half a year, Wen Qian had not visited the spring again. She knew that the people there were still around, but she still had no intention of talking to strangers.
She didn't know if the next time she talked to someone, she might forget how to speak or become socially awkward and shy when seeing people.
After a year of adaptation, many people in the country had gradually become accustomed to life after the volcanic eruption, with many migrating from the north to the south.
Some people moved from their own houses to underground shelters, as the difficulty of keeping warm at home was different from that in the shelters.
In cold weather, it was hard for both adults and children to endure.
In rural areas with denser vegetation, many people had stockpiled a lot of firewood, which would not be consumed so quickly.
During this period, Wen Qian heard an interesting news report about White Bear Country and White Elephant Country making a deal. One would be responsible for farming, and the other for energy. One of the conditions was to arrange for a portion of White Bear Country's people to come to White Elephant Country for farming.
The farther north, the longer the winter, and without alcohol, the people of White Bear Country would suffer even more. However, in this era, it was not easy to produce alcohol, as even food was scarce, which led to this plan of periodically sending people south to farm.
It was unknown how the two sides reached an agreement, but reaching a written agreement was better than resorting to warfare. After all, in some places, they didn't reason at all and directly used force to occupy territory, which couldn't be helped.
So far, the good news reported in the media was that the mushroom industry was developing quite smoothly, and the breeding of small white mice was also going well. Various regions had prepared some centralized heating and shelters.
Therefore, the heating conditions this winter might be better than previous years.
However, whether it was the northwest wind turning into starch or controlled nuclear fusion, there were still no signs of progress.
As time passed, the variety and nutritional quality of people's food became worse.
Although the news also wanted to inform people of some optimistic things, the reality was not optimistic. Reasoning couldn't lead to much, and early planning for the future could only be described as wishful thinking.
Perhaps due to the cold weather, some places were still experiencing sporadic outbreaks of the super virus.
This was also a major obstacle preventing people from moving towards a normal life. However, at this time, its mortality rate had decreased, while its transmission rate had increased.
Against the backdrop of lack of food and clothing, resistance was also declining. At this time, catching a cold was already annoying, not to mention that some symptoms were still very similar to the super virus.
This winter, in addition to regularly chopping firewood and training, Wen Qian also scheduled tasks for weaving fishing nets and knitting sweaters.
She planned to visit the ranch after the New Year, or go further to try the river. She also wanted to take a trip to Xia Province when the temperature rose later, not necessarily to harvest anything, but just to go farther away from home for a change of scenery.
Living alone, aside from executing her own schedule on time, sometimes Wen Qian even forgot to look at the calendar.
Living alone, one could easily slip into repeating the same day over and over. Therefore, Wen Qian scheduled various activities for herself, even arranging activities that might not be immediately useful.
It was like making a class schedule.
If she did the same things every day, she wouldn't be able to tell if she was repeating the same day or if time was moving forward, which would give her the illusion that time had stopped.
During the winter, she was looking forward to her plans for going out after the winter ended.
She grew a sweet potato in a glass bottle, and the sweet potato sprouted green leaves.
Wen Qian treated it as an ornamental plant, occasionally trimming the leaves to allow it to keep growing.
She would also change the plush toys by her pillow, as well as the curtains and other decorations in her home, just to give her home a fresh feel.
Of course, sometimes she would also schedule something like a weekend break, lying in bed all day, eating just two meals, and doing nothing but sleeping.
When she was working, she could take a single day off, but there was no need for her to work 365 days a year without a break now that she had quit her job.
Although she needed to find things to do, she wouldn't fill her days too full, as winter was supposed to be a time for rest.
One morning, Wen Qian woke up to see that it was still snowing heavily outside. She hadn't drawn the curtains when she went to bed, so she woke up whenever it got bright, but she didn't necessarily get up right away.
Since the snow hadn't stopped, Wen Qian didn't plan to go out. After leisurely finishing her breakfast, she put on a raincoat and went outside to clear the accumulated snow from the roof.
Whenever there was a bit of snow on the roof, Wen Qian would want to clear it, because she didn't know when it might snow heavily at night. If the snow on the roof became too thick, she was worried it might collapse the roof, so she would climb a ladder to check every day.
After clearing the roof, Wen Qian came down and stored the snow in her space, then went inside to drink something warm.
