"Why not? Brother Zhang is so good to me. Don't just ask for a painting from my family. Even if you want a few acres of forest from my family, I will be happy to do it. My family has a lot of mountains. The mountain in the painting and the surrounding mountains are all ours. It's a pity that there are only miscellaneous trees on the mountain. We can only chop wood, pick mushrooms, and grow some wild vegetables. Sigh..."

Xiaoshan sighed when he said this, feeling very frustrated.

Their village has few people but much land and even more mountains. Every household has contracted a lot of mountains. In fact, no one takes it seriously. To them, the contracted mountains make them feel like a forest ranger.

The key point is that forest rangers like them have no money!

Even if we cut some firewood to sell, every household has a mountain, so who would buy the firewood?

There are people who want to transport it to the county town, but one trip takes several hours, and it cannot be made back and forth once a day. The wasted time and the fuel cost are not a small amount.

The firewood that was obtained with great effort could not be sold for much money.

After all, it seems that every household in the city uses a gas stove now, so who would use their firewood?

People in the village like to pick mushrooms, dry them, and then take them to the county town to sell. Everyone in the village comes to pick mushrooms, and all they pick can be sold. They can save up mushrooms for half a month or a month and sell them once, at least they can make some money.

This money is the biggest source of income for their village. At this time, those who have forests at home pick mushrooms in their own forests.

But it’s no big deal to occasionally run into other people’s forests. There are so many of them anyway, and they just seem to be of no use.

Only the hills would say such heroic words and give Zhang Fan a few acres of forest.

"Hahaha, do you have a lot of forests here? Are they all contracted out? Can they be resold or transferred to others for contracting?"

"There are too many, too many. Who wants the forests here? Who has the brains to sell or contract them? This place is too remote. Even if we go to the county town to see a doctor or buy vegetables, you can see that it takes six or seven hours for an RV, and it takes a whole day for our tractor. Who would come to this poor place..."

Xiaoshan smiled bitterly.

This place is really too remote and transportation is very inconvenient.

People like Zhang Fan and his friends have probably had several guests coming at once in the past three or four years. As the two were talking about this, they heard Aunt Xiaoshan talking outside.

"Xiaoshan, Xiaoshan, the clan leader heard that you have guests, so he must come to see you and let us have lunch at the clan leader's house..."

In this village, the village chief is also the clan leader.

He is also a more cheerful person in the village, a person who often goes to the county town and is knowledgeable. Because many people in this village will only go to the county town once or twice in their lives, once to buy some things when they get married, and once to buy some things when their son gets married.

Then I will never go to the county town again in my life.

"Let's go to the clan leader's house. The clan leader is my uncle and I haven't seen him for many years. Let's go together..."

Xiaoshan did not refuse when he heard this and called Zhang Fan and the others to go together. He thought about it and realized that he did not bring any gifts, so he simply took out two pieces of bacon and sausage from home and took them with him.

The clan leader's house was half a mile away from Xiaoshan's house. The mountain road was not easy to walk on. It was the kind of road that could only be walked on a motorcycle. Several people walked one step at a time. Fortunately, it was not too far, and they soon arrived at a house with four bungalows.

A man in his fifties or sixties, who looked very energetic, was standing at the door of that house. The man was holding a child of two or three years old in his arms, and was looking out the door.

When he saw Xiaoshan, he kept waving at him.

"Xiaoshan, uncle is here, here..."

The man had a face somewhat similar to Xiaoshan's, and he was extremely warm to Zhang Fan and the others. After Zhang Fan and the others walked into the house, they smelled bursts of fragrance wafting from the kitchen.

Later I found out that the child the old man was holding was not his granddaughter, but his daughter, who was in very good health.

The patriarch was very concerned about Xiaoshan's well-being and expressed his envy for Xiaoshan's life in the big city.

He even boasted about Xiaoshan to Zhang Fan again and again.

"My eldest nephew is very capable. He is the only child in our mountain village who has passed the college entrance examination in the past 20 years, and he is also the only one who stayed in the big city. The rest of the children are not as good as him. They can't even get into high school. In the past ten years, no one has been admitted to high school in our county..."

When the patriarch said this, he did not forget to praise Xiaoshan.

"I heard from his father that Xiaoshan has been doing very well outside these years. He has made a lot of money and sent it back home. This kid is really good after studying. Even his friends are not ordinary. You can tell at a glance that you are rich and educated people in the city..."

"Don't despise our poor house. Just make do with some food and drinks. I know Xiaoshan came back too late, otherwise I would have stewed the old hen last night. Today I can only kill a rooster born that year..."

The patriarch was humble and asked his wife to bring a large table of food.

The bacon is served with dried bamboo shoots. The dried bamboo shoots are the bamboo shoots that have not been unearthed in the mountains in early spring. They are dried and paired with bacon. A large pot of local roosters born that year, the meat of this kind of chicken is very delicious, is paired with the special seasonings of this mountain and is placed in the middle of the table.

Because here, chicken is the best food that farmers can get. Of course, most of these chickens are raised in the woods and bamboo forests, catching insects to eat, which is a world of difference from the feed-grade chickens.

But there were more wild vegetables on the table that Zhang Fan couldn’t even name.

He didn't know the names of any of them. He just listened to Xiaoshan introducing them: this one was bitter vegetable, that one was cotton vegetable, and that one was fern, and there was even some lard flower.

Zhang Fan had never seen them before. Not only had he never seen them before, but Xu Zijun also kept asking questions about the wild vegetables on the table. He just wondered why Zhang Fan didn't recognize most of the wild vegetables here and had never seen them before?

"Chief, do you have a lot of wild vegetables? I don't recognize any of these..."

"A lot. We don't grow vegetables here. If you want to eat green vegetables, you can find them everywhere on the hillside or on the roadside. There are so many wild vegetables. It's normal that you don't know them all. Ask Xiaoshan. He was born and raised here, and he probably can't recognize them all. We have hundreds of wild vegetables here, so you can eat whatever you want..."

The patriarch was very proud to see that the foreign guests were interested in their wild vegetables.

There are so many wild vegetables in their mountains.

Most farmers do not need to plant their own vegetable gardens. If they want to eat vegetables, there are plenty in the mountains. Moreover, they have been eating wild vegetables for many years. Many wild vegetables that cannot be seen outside are common meals for them.

"Come, come, guests, please try these wild vegetables..."

The clan leader shouted enthusiastically. Zhang Fan stared at the wild vegetables in front of him, picked up a piece with chopsticks and put it into his mouth. His face changed immediately! ?