Gu Jiaojiao cut the felled bamboo into several pieces of equal length, then pulled up so grass to weave into a rope.
Although Wu Cuizhi didn’t dare to make a bet, she still secretly kept an eye on the situation. Seeing Gu Jiaojiao go off to cut bamboo, she couldn’t help but mutter, "Just for show."
’It’s not like I haven’t seen her work on the threshing ground before. She can’t even keep up with a teenager.’
’This sack can hold two hundred catties of grain. Mushrooms aren’t as heavy, but I’d guess it’s still at least a hundred catties. Soone like Gu Jiaojiao, carry that down the mountain?’
’Impossible!’
’Absolutely impossible!’
Of course, Gu Jiaojiao had no idea what Wu Cuizhi was thinking.
She was already on the final two steps.
First, she used the grass rope to secure the bamboo pieces together, then tied a hemp rope to the front. A simple sled was complete.
Aunt Zhao watched, dumbfounded. ’What in the world is that?’
Gu Jiaojiao gave it a test drag. Seeing no issues, she turned to Aunt Zhao.
"Aunt Zhao, put your basket on here. I’ll help you pull it down."
Aunt Zhao placed her basket on the sled, and with Gu Jiaojiao’s help, they brought everything ho with hardly any effort. Aunt Zhao couldn’t help but exclaim in amazent.
"How on earth does your brain work? You’re so clever! This saves so much trouble. We should bring it again next ti."
Gu Jiaojiao shook her head. "It’s not exactly light itself. It’s easy to pull downhill, but dragging it uphill would be exhausting."
"We can just burn this bamboo for firewood later. The next ti we need to haul sothing, we’ll just make a new one."
"Besides, this is just a clever trick. I was on a downward slope, so it was easy to pull. On a rough, uneven mountain path, I wouldn’t have the strength to move it at all."
Gu Jiaojiao was quite self-aware!
But Aunt Zhao still thought Gu Jiaojiao was incredible. After all, among so many of them, how had no one else thought of such a clever trick?
’I used to think getting by was all about being frugal,’ she thought, ’but now I see it’s about using your head.’
’Look at her. One trip down the mountain and she’s got everything, and can even bring back so firewood.’
Gu Jiaojiao’s ho was just a short walk from the base of the mountain, while Aunt Zhao still had to continue on into the village.
Comparatively, her travel distance was cut in half.
This was why others could manage two trips up the mountain at most, while Gu Jiaojiao could manage three or four.
Gu Jiaojiao got ho, poured out the mushrooms, and was about halfway through cleaning them when...
A loud RUMBLE echoed from the sky!
「The next mont.」
Fat raindrops began to fall.
The rain was fast and dense.
In just a few monts, puddles had already begun to form in the low spots of the courtyard.
Gazing at the curtain of rain outside, Gu Jiaojiao couldn’t help but worry about the two people hunting on the mountain.
anwhile, Aunt Zhao, only slightly damp from the rain, also made it ho.
Zhao Tiezhu breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Aunt Zhao return.
"Mom, I’m so glad you’re back. Otherwise, I would have had to go look for you."
He had already grabbed a raincoat and was about to head out.
’I didn’t expect Mom to be so quick this ti!’
Aunt Zhao set down her basket and brushed off the raindrops, then spoke with a smile.
"It’s all thanks to Gu Zhiqing. She made a sort of fra that let get down the mountain much faster."
Zhao Tiezhu didn’t know what kind of fra she ant, but he understood that his mother’s quick descent was because Gu Jiaojiao had made sothing.
Watching the rain fall harder and harder outside, he couldn’t help but remark, "Gu Zhiqing is really amazing."
"It’s a good thing we had that thresher she invented this ti. Otherwise, our production brigade would have lost a lot of grain."
Aunt Zhao agreed wholeheartedly. "Jiaojiao saved our village’s life."
Grain is everything. Without it, you starve. That was the harsh reality.
Having lived through tis of hardship, they understood the terror of having no food better than anyone.
When people were truly starving, they would even eat other people.
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