He Tiantian was preoccupied with something; even after returning home, she was still thinking about Qi Xiaoyan and Niu Dajun!

Sigh, I must have never had children in my past life! After spending time with Qi Xiaoyan, why does she feel like she's picking out a son-in-law?

I don't want to think about it anymore; if I don't sleep now, I'll have dark circles under my eyes tomorrow.

The next day, He Tiantian heard the commotion outside and quickly got up. She set aside some meat to make braised pork and dumplings, and used the rest to make cured pork. Cured pork can be stored for a long time and tastes very good.

Since she had nothing else to do, He Tiantian stayed home and cooked something delicious instead of going to the livestock team.

Now, with Zuo Li, Xiang Rong, Sun Sihao, Qian Shikun, and others at the livestock team, they can do the job well even if He Tiantian and Aunt Liu don't go.

Seeing that He Tiantian wasn't leaving, Grandma Qi made breakfast together, kneaded some dough, and made dumplings.

Grandma Qi built a simple, low greenhouse herself, about three square meters in size, and planted several rows of chives. Now they've grown to maturity, and we can harvest enough to make chive dumplings.

Since there were only two people eating, we only needed to prepare small portions of everything, which made the process quite quick. In just over an hour, steaming hot dumplings with chives and pork were served.

He Tiantian sniffled; she hadn't eaten such delicious dumplings in a long time.

"Grandma Qi, time to eat dumplings!" He Tiantian said excitedly. "Sit down, I'll peel two big cloves of garlic, mash them into minced garlic, add some vinegar, oh my, that will make them even tastier."

Seeing He Tiantian's greedy look, Grandma Qi smiled gently and said, "I've already peeled it, you just need to mash it."

He Tiantian made minced garlic and vinegar, and put them in two small bowls, one for each person.

He Tiantian picked up a chopstick, took a bite of the dumpling, and exclaimed, "It smells good... Ouch... It's so hot!"

"Eat slowly!" Grandma Qi said with a smile. "No one's going to take it from you, it's all here!"

"Hehe, it's so delicious, Grandma Qi, you should have some too. After I'm full, I'm going to the mountain to pick pine nuts. I told you yesterday to pick some more, roast them, and send some to my family," He Tiantian said. Others might not dare to go to the back mountain, but with the Snake King's help, she wasn't afraid at all.

"You're such a restless child. All the good stuff over there has already been picked up. If you want to find anything, you have to go deep into the mountains and forests, which is very dangerous. If you encounter a wild boar, you won't be as lucky as you were yesterday." Grandma Qi didn't want He Tiantian to take such a risk. If something happened, she could be seriously injured or even killed!

“It’s okay, Grandma Qi, I’m very capable,” He Tiantian said. “I can run fast, wild boars can’t catch me, and I can climb trees, so if there’s danger, I can climb a tree.”

He Tiantian used to be most afraid of snakes, but now that she has a snake tattoo on her ankle, snakes are the thing she's least afraid of.

“Sigh, you never listen to me, but be careful. You are your parents’ only daughter. If you are gone, they will be heartbroken.” Grandma Qi said with emotion. After her son went missing, she cried every day and couldn’t sleep at night. The pain was so excruciating that even now, thinking about it still hurts her deeply.

Upon hearing this, He Tiantian knew that Grandma Qi was thinking about her son again.

"Yes, Grandma Qi, I know. So, as long as I can protect myself, I will take good care of my parents. And Uncle Zuo and Uncle Xiang have a kind of powder that, it is said, will keep any animal away if you carry it with you." He Tiantian made up a few excuses to comfort Grandma Qi and tell her not to worry.

Upon hearing He Tiantian's words, Grandma Qi hurriedly said, "When you go up the mountain, you must ask that person for some food. If you don't have any, then don't go up the mountain. It's winter, and the livestock won't have anything to eat, so they'll come out and wander around."

“I’ll remember Grandma Qi,” He Tiantian said. “If I don’t have time to come back for lunch, make yourself something to eat. Don’t take it for granted just because you’re eating alone.”

"Alright, you can go without worry." Grandma Qi watched He Tiantian leave.

He Tiantian, carrying her beloved little basket, happily called Qi Xiaoyan to the livestock team.

When Zuo Li and Xiang Rong heard that He Tiantian was going to the back mountain, they didn't ask any questions and just followed her with their bamboo baskets on their backs.

"I'm just going to collect pine nuts today, not to hunt," He Tiantian said. These two are probably addicted to hunting; they can't stay still. They'd rather go for a walk than do those mundane tasks!

"Hehe, we're also going up the mountain. I'll show you something good. This is a bow I made myself. It'll be perfect for hunting rabbits and pheasants," Zuo Li said. "Come on, if you're lucky, you might even find some prey!"

In fact, He Tiantian did want to get some wild rabbits, pheasants and other game, and then have Niu Dajun bring them to Niu Lili so she could make some money to spend.

Now that someone's following her, He Tiantian can't do it anymore; she'll just have to obediently pick pine nuts.

With the help of Zuo Li and Xiang Rong, they had filled almost a basket by noon, and the three of them chatted and laughed as they went down the mountain.

On the way, Zuo Li asked in a low voice, "Sweetie, look, as long as we're not afraid of hard work, we can get a lot of good things on the mountain. If we can't finish them all, can we sell them?"

He Tiantian was taken aback, and quickly advised, "Uncle Zuo, speculation is wrong."

Zuo Li didn't treat He Tiantian like an outsider and said directly to her, "You're right, speculation is wrong, but... but we don't have winter clothes. We can't just stay indoors by the fire all winter! We're okay, our bodies can handle it, but Brother Bai is older than us and suffered so much persecution before. If he doesn't have warm cotton-padded clothes, I guess... I guess this winter will be very hard for him!"

He Tiantian felt a pang of sadness upon hearing this. "Sigh, they really have it tough on me."

“I have eight or nine hides that can be used to make fur coats. I’ll ask Aunt Liu for help another day and see if I can make one for each of you,” He Tiantian said. She didn’t need them and couldn’t sell them for the time being, so she decided to give them to them.

“No, that won’t do. That’s money you’ve worked so hard to save. It might come in very useful. If we want it, we’ll hunt for it ourselves. If we can’t sell it, then we’ll eat the meat and keep the hides to make clothes and get through this winter,” Zuo Li said. “Sigh, I don’t know how things are at home now. They can’t send letters or clothes to us.”

"Alright, we've been through thick and thin together. I don't need those things for now, you guys can take them. Besides, hunting isn't guaranteed, and it's very dangerous. How about this, if we can tell where there's a lot of prey by the animal tracks, we can dig traps," He Tiantian suggested. It was a bit clumsy, but at least it was safe!

Moreover, this way, when she cheats through the Snake King, she doesn't have to use herself as bait every time, getting chased all over the mountain by the wild boar. (To be continued.)