The next morning.

The sunlight shines through the gap in the curtains and gently falls on Zhang Qiurui's face as she lies on the bed, adding a touch of warmth to the quiet morning.

"Qiu Rui, Qiu Rui, wake up. Let's get up and go to bed." Xie Lin caught a cold yesterday and it felt like he had drunk sweet and bitter water in his mouth. After getting up early this morning, his fever had subsided and he felt extremely energetic.

Seeing his sister-in-law sleeping on the side of the bed, Xie Lin felt a warm feeling in his heart when he knew that she must have stayed with him all night.

Zhang Qiurui slowly opened his eyes, adapting to the sudden light, and the corners of his mouth unconsciously rose, as if even the morning light carried a hint of sweetness.

She stretched gently, feeling the stretching of her bones all over her body. Yesterday's fatigue seemed to disappear with this movement.

"Sister-in-law, are you awake? Do you feel better?" Zhang Qiurui looked at her sister-in-law and asked with concern. She reached out and touched her sister-in-law's forehead, then touched her own forehead. Seeing that the temperatures were almost the same, it seemed that after taking the cold medicine and Xiao Chaihu yesterday, the fever had completely subsided.

Xie Lin smiled and nodded, his eyes gleaming with gratitude and happiness. "Yeah, much better, thanks to you watching over me. Look at you, your eyes are red from staying up all night. Go wash your face, have breakfast, and then go to sleep."

"Okay, sister-in-law, don't go out and get caught in the wind. I'll bring you breakfast later." Zhang Qiurui nodded, walked out of the room and went to the backyard to wash up.

When she finished washing up, breakfast was already served, and she was the only one left.

"Minghua, your mother was sick again last night. Bring the porridge and this bowl of steamed eggs to your mother later.

Everyone else should go and work in the mountains. Qiurui, you must be tired after taking care of your second sister-in-law all night. Get some sleep this morning. If you want to work in the mountains this afternoon, it's up to you." Zhou Guihua instructed everyone as she distributed breakfast to the Zhang family.

For breakfast today, the Zhang family had white porridge, which was cooked thickly and served with a few plates of homemade pickled vegetables. In addition to a bowl of white porridge per person, Minghua, Mingduo and Mingxia also received a steamed bun.

Zhang Mingren, Zhang Mingqi and Zhang Qiurui each received two steamed buns.

Gao Erping, Zhou Guihua, Zhang Ercheng, Zhang Wenguo, Zhang Wenfu, and Zhang Wenmin were given three steamed buns each. It seemed that because they had to work hard in the mountains, today's breakfast was particularly rich.

But this simple and rustic breakfast is full of the taste of home and is particularly warm and satisfying.

Zhang Qiurui originally wanted to say that she didn’t need to make up for the sleep this morning and could go up the mountain with you guys to work, but when she thought about working in the mountains with the other members of the Zhang family, it would be inconvenient for her to take out the things in the trading supermarket to supplement the family’s expenses.

She simply waited until the other members of the Zhang family went up the mountain, and then she went up the mountain alone.

After dinner, Zhang Qiurui’s three brothers picked up their tools and went to meet up with the group under the banyan tree, ready to go up the mountain.

Yesterday, the team harvested a lot of good things while hunting in the mountains, including a wild boar, two roe deer, more than a dozen pheasants and rabbits, four bamboo rats, two wild goats, and three porcupines.

They harvested over a thousand kilograms of meat. Their brigade had less than a thousand people, which was considered a very large brigade among production brigades.

Yesterday, the team hunted prey in the mountains, and almost everyone was able to get a pound of meat. If they can get this much every day in the next six days, families with a large number of people who go hunting in the mountains can get about 30 to 40 pounds of meat.

In this era, thirty or forty kilograms of meat is undoubtedly a huge fortune for an ordinary family.

Whether it is used to improve the food at home or sold on the black market, it is all something obtained for free.

As for their harvest from hunting yesterday, it was even more amazing. They harvested five wild boar cubs, and after removing the mess, there were 60 kilograms of pure meat.

In addition, they harvested more than 20 kilograms of vine pears, and her sister-in-law dug more than 10 kilograms of konjac and more than 10 kilograms of wild taro.

Her mother, second sister-in-law, and Mingqi also picked about ten pounds of chestnuts, three pounds of mushrooms, and seven or eight pounds of wild persimmons yesterday.

..........

"Why is this porridge a little sweet and dark red?" When Zhang Qiurui finished her breakfast and brought Xie Lin's breakfast to her room, she added a packet of cold medicine and Bupleurum chinense into it. The white porridge turned into a strange dark red color and exuded a faint sweetness, so Xie Lin felt a little strange.

"Oh! I thought that your cold had just recovered, and I was worried that your mouth would have no taste, so I put a little brown sugar in it, that's why it happened!" Zhang Qiurui had already thought of the wording.

"Is that so? Maybe my cold hasn't fully recovered yet, so the food doesn't taste like brown sugar." Xie Lin no longer had any doubts after hearing what Zhang Qiurui said.

Zhang Qiurui watched his second sister-in-law finish drinking the white porridge with added ingredients, then went back to his room to catch up on some sleep.

She slept until about ten o'clock, then took two steamed buns and a pot of water, a backpack and an axe and walked into the mountains.

This time when Zhang Qiurui entered the mountains, he deliberately avoided people and walked along a random path, avoiding other people. Then he could take things out of the trading supermarket at will.

While walking and stopping along the way, Zhang Qiurui found some wild fruits, such as wild persimmons, chestnuts, wild pears, and wild apples. Zhang Qiurui picked some and took them back.

In two or three months, it will be the Chinese New Year.

In this era, when visiting other people's homes to pay New Year's greetings, the New Year's fruits we eat are all New Year's goods brought back from the mountains to entertain the people who come to pay New Year's greetings, and some melon seeds and peanuts are enough.

We walked and stopped along the way. When we passed a narrow path, two black and white porcupines covered with thorns suddenly jumped out from the side.

The two porcupines seemed to be startled by Zhang Qiurui's sudden appearance. They were stunned for a moment, and then one of the porcupines quickly took a defensive posture, with the sharp spines on its back standing upright, as if ready to attack at any time.

I don't know if the other one was timid, but after seeing Zhang Qiurui, it just ran away with a "grunt", leaving its companion behind. It was running quite fast.

Zhang Qiurui was startled when she saw the porcupine, but she quickly calmed down.

Although porcupines look ferocious in appearance, they actually only rely on the quills on their backs to attack and passively defend themselves. Therefore, even ferocious carnivores dare not provoke them, for fear that they will be accidentally pierced by the dense and extremely sharp quills and be covered in wounds, causing unbearable pain.

These porcupine quills are not only as hard as iron, but also have barbs. Once they penetrate the skin, they are difficult to pull out, often leaving deep wounds and even causing infection. Therefore, even cunning foxes, ferocious lions, and agile cheetahs will be extremely cautious when facing porcupines and dare not easily attack.

As long as you avoid the porcupine quills or pull them out completely, they will not be able to pose a real threat.

Zhang Qiurui's heart moved slightly, maybe he could catch this porcupine today.

Looking at the size of this porcupine, excluding the mess, there are at least 27 or 28 kilograms of pure meat.

If they can get this porcupine back, their family can have a good New Year this year.