novelaction Chapter 185: River in the Mountains
Chapter 185: River in the Mountains
I built a simple small pond on the shore, poured all the wild vegetables in the basket into it, rinsed the basket in the water, walked to the middle of the pond, buried my face in the water and soaked it.
The stream water in the forest in early autumn was very cold, but Zhou Guo had made great progress in his internal strength recently, so he could bear it.
She lay on her stomach on the water and looked intently beneath the surface. She saw transparent shrimps swimming around in the cracks between the rocks and in the sand. Some were as long as a finger, some were as long as two fingers. She could also see small fish that were two or three inches long.
Sure enough, there were. The shrimps in the forest were probably rarely caught by people, and they were much larger than those in the river outside.
She brought the basket over, concentrated silently and sank the basket into the water, waiting for a few shrimps to swim in. She quickly picked up the basket, and the fat shrimps jumping around in the basket were very adorable.
He picked up the shrimps one by one and put them into the bamboo tube beside him, then put the basket back into the water.
It’s good to have a basket now. Unlike before, we could only scoop them up with our hands, and we couldn’t catch many even after scooping for a long time.
When the shrimps in this pond became less easy to catch, she went up to another place where there was a larger pool with shallower water, and the shrimps were easier to catch.
She didn't know how long she had been catching, but her waist was sore, her eyes were blurry, and her hands and feet were frozen. She looked at the bamboo tube and saw that it was already filled with wild vegetables. Only then did she reluctantly withdraw from the water and walked downstream to collect all the wild vegetables on the shore. The water in the forest was too cold, so she went outside to wash them.
The sun is shining brightly outside, which is nothing compared to the coolness in the woods.
She walked back carrying the basket, digging up one or two wild vegetables she saw on the way. She dug as she walked. When she reached a place not far from home, she picked up a handful of wild vegetables and washed them in the river before going back.
When I returned to the yard, I found that all the holes in the wall had been patched up, and even the yellow mud outside had been freshly plastered, making it look like a newly built building. "So quickly, the wall has been plastered, so doesn't it mean that all we have to do tomorrow is put up the beams?"
Zhou Xing was picking vegetable seeds. Hearing this, she smiled and said, "It's not fast. The master said when he came back that if we work fast, we can finish the work tomorrow. When we finish, each family will receive a wild game as a gift. When everyone heard this, they went crazy. They were still talking excitedly during the first half of the day, but now there is no more unnecessary words. All we hear is people asking for this and that, and then they run out of this and that."
"Where's the gentleman?" She looked around but couldn't find him.
"He's in the mountains again. It's still early, you're not here, and everyone is busy. I guess he can't sit here alone, so I don't know where he has gone. Look, the things he brought back are in that shed over there. You can go and take a look. I haven't seen it yet." After saying that, he continued to pick vegetable seeds.
Zhou Guo walked over and took a look. There were two sacks of matsutake mushrooms, but there were three badgers on the ground. Each of them must have weighed more than 20 kilograms. When she saw the badgers, it was as if she saw a lot of oil waving to her. She could make matsutake mushroom oil in the evening.
It was cooked last night and everyone thought it was very fragrant. This morning she tried to use chopsticks to dip a little bit into the porridge bowl and stir it. The tasteless porridge immediately became fragrant. After a sip, the fragrance lingered on the lips, teeth and tongue. The old man drank several bowls of porridge in one breath, then turned back and went into the mountains to hunt three badgers. I'm afraid that this much oil can be eaten for half a year.
She took advantage of this time to take out the three badgers, intending to process them before dinner so that she could make oil after dinner. She also fried the sack of matsutake mushrooms that were left over from yesterday in the evening.
Zhou Xing paused while picking out the seeds. "You've already processed the meat now? Where are you going to put it? There's still one and a half pieces of meat left from last night."
There was no way to finish all the meat. "Will the old man bring out more meat tonight?"
Zhou Guo felt that having too much meat was not a problem at all. "Then you can make more tonight and cook the other half. There are so many people anyway. They have worked all day, so they will definitely eat a lot. Make these ones tomorrow."
They have so many family members and meat is essential for every meal. This little bit of meat is nothing. If they really can't finish it later, they can just rub it with salt and smoke it to make bacon. In winter, if they can't find fresh meat, they can still eat bacon. With this in mind, it's better to have more meat.
The subordinates cut the meat into pieces, rolled the straw into a rope, poked a hole in the meat, passed the rope through the hole, and hung it right above the stove, which was just the right size for smoking. The shed was not very high.
I just didn’t put any salt on it. There’s not much salt left at home, so I’ll go to town to buy some.
"Oh, it looks like bacon when hung like this, except that it still needs to be rubbed with salt. It will go bad easily if smoked like this." Zhou Xing saw her hanging pieces of meat above, all of which were almost the same size. There were twelve pieces in total when she counted them. It looked really spectacular. Who would not say that this was a wealthy family? How could an ordinary family afford a piece of meat?
"There is not much salt left at home. I heard that there will be a market in the next town tomorrow, so I will go buy some tomorrow, and also buy some oil." Zhou Guo looked at the meat on his head and imagined what it would look like when it turned into bacon, but the most delicious bacon is still made of pork.
She used to eat it every year before she went to college in her previous life. After her grandmother passed away, no one in her family raised pigs or made bacon anymore. So she hasn't eaten it for many years.
Zhou Xing was puzzled. "Why buy oil? Why spend that money? The master brings a few badgers out from the mountains every day. Each badger can make several kilograms of oil. The oil is fragrant and delicious. It is enough for us to eat for a long time."
Zhou Guo said, "Mr. Master's badger oil is used to fry pine mushrooms. He brings back two sacks of pine mushrooms every day, but they are not allowed to be sold, and they cannot be kept for too long, so they can only be fried. One badger oil can't make much, and we can't guarantee that Mr. Master can bring back a badger from the mountains every day. What if he catches one day?"
Of course there must be some. The mountain is so big. Mr. Saw said that although the badgers in the mountain are not rampant, there are still many of them. They only catch one or two a day, and the number they catch is far less than the number that are born.
But how many can the master catch by himself? The oil he brings out every day is not enough to fry the mushrooms, so how can we eat them?
Zhou Xing nodded and said nothing more. She didn't care about money or these things. She just needed to take care of the housework every day.
All of the leftover pork and a half from dinner were fried. It was such a big pot that Zhou Xing couldn’t even shovel it.
Zhou Guo took over, stirring the food with a spatula, which made Zhou Xing look envious. "If I had your strength, I wouldn't be afraid of anything."
Zhou Guo asked curiously, "What are you afraid of?"
Zhou Xing said: "There are so many things to be afraid of, such as bandits, wild animals, and being bullied. What should I do if I marry a man from a bad family and who beats his wife?"