After breakfast, Gu Xiaoxia went to work, and Han Fang went to school as usual, while Li Long packed a big pile of egg-sized snowballs for Mingming and Haohao.
The two children had become hooked on snowball fights and wanted to play outside for a while every day. The snow in the front courtyard had already been cleared, so Li Long brought some clean snow from the back courtyard and packed it into loose snowballs for the two children to "fight" with.
Meanwhile, Sister Yang prepared food for Li Long to take on this trip.
"These mutton buns won't taste good cold. If you find somewhere suitable, heat them up before eating," Sister Yang reminded Li Long as she loaded things into the Jeep. "There aren't many vegetables in winter, so I've packed you some pickled carrots to eat with them."
The salted pickles were carrots. Cut into strips, they were crunchy and tasted very good.
Besides these, Sister Yang had sliced up a parcel of braised meat and packed several boiled eggs. The Li family lacked nothing in the way of food, but conditions outside were what they were. Whatever they took, unless they could light a fire or find a household willing to heat it up, it would be cold by the time it reached their mouths.
Li Long did not really mind. Although the heavy snow had buried most of the shrubs and dry grass, finding firewood and making a fire out in the wilderness was still easy for him. Of course, finding a suitable household and eating a hot meal there would be nice too.
There were also towns, townships, Corps companies, and regimental farms near the sand hollows to the north. If the opportunity arose, they could find food there as well.
There was nothing