Chapter 120 Chestnut

Zhao Yeqing ate the chestnuts and clapped his hands. Seeing Mu Xi going to find a stick to hit the chestnuts, he tried his luck on the ground.

She frowned as she saw that many of the thorn balls on the ground were empty.

At this time, no one in the village comes up to pick chestnuts, so how come so many of these chestnut balls are empty?

Are there still people living in the mountains?

Before she could even ask her question, she saw Mu Xi find a stick that suited him and climb up the tree in two moves.

"Open it a little further first, be careful not to get hit."

When he saw her walking away, he knocked the thorn balls off the tree one by one.

The thorn ball fell down slowly, and only when half of the chestnuts on the tree were knocked down did Mu Xi prepare to change direction and continue.

Most of the chestnut thorn balls that fell to the ground have turned dark brown, and only those knocked off the trees still have a hint of green.

While Mu Xi was changing positions, she walked over and picked up the green thorny ball and put it into the backpack.

Only after hearing Mu Xi's call did he move away and wait for him to finish knocking.

When the chestnut thorn balls were all over the ground, Mu Xi jumped down from the tree and the two of them bent down to pick them up together.

The thorns of the chestnut ball are very hard and prickly, like sea urchins. In the past, we would take the chestnuts out from under the tree and discard the thorn balls.

Now that my family is going to smoke bacon, the chestnut thorn balls can be used as firewood, so it’s a good opportunity to pick them up so they don’t go to waste.

When the two were almost filling the backpack, Mu Xi also found the empty shell on the ground. At first he thought it was Zhao Yeqing who opened it, but now he realized that the color was wrong.

Zhao Yeqing also asked. As the two were guessing, a thorn ball suddenly fell on their heads.

Mu Xi caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of his eye and pulled Zhao Yeqing to hide.

Her expression was stern. Could it be that someone else was plotting against her?

The two men looked up at the tree and saw a monkey pointing at them with an angry look on its face, squeaking non-stop.

Zhao Yeqing naturally didn't understand what it was saying, but he always felt that the curse was very unpleasant.

"I guess we have entered its territory."

Mu Xi took Zhao Yeqing's hand and was about to leave, when suddenly the leaves on the tree next to them moved and five or six monkeys appeared. After the monkeys' previous screams, they collectively glared at them.

Zhao Yeqing thought to himself that something was wrong, so he grabbed Mu Xi’s hand and ran back!

The monkeys behind them chased them for two trees, and stopped when they saw that they had indeed left their territory. However, their cursing could still be heard clearly from a distance.

I had seen news reports before where someone was disfigured by a monkey's scratches, so she had to run away.

Mu Xi looked at Zhao Yeqing who did not let go of his hand and was in a good mood. He just held his hand and walked slowly towards home.

Monkeys are social animals, and that area is probably their territory.

"Generally speaking, the monkeys' territories are rich in resources."

Hearing this, Mu Xi recalled the old man's notes, "I think I have seen it before. I will go and check it out myself some other day. I can run fast."

Zhao Yeqing smacked her lips. She hadn't eaten real fruit for a long time.

When she got home, she had to process the tobacco leaves first. Mu Xi had not finished peeling the ramie yet, so the two of them chatted casually in the yard.

Tobacco used to prevent pests can be fresh or sun-dried, with the latter having a higher concentration.

Zhao Yeqing kept the ones that would be used fresh today, and strung the rest together and hung them on a rope to dry.

Chop the fresh tobacco leaves with a knife, soak them in water, and mix them according to the proportions recorded in the notebook.

Because he couldn't tell whether it was used fresh or dried, Zhao Yeqing mixed the mixture according to the lightest concentration. He would rather have no effect and then mix it again for spraying, rather than make it too concentrated and the wheat seedlings couldn't bear it.

Pour the prepared water into the blue pesticide spray bottle.

The watering can is a large square plastic bucket carried on the back, with a tube extending from the bottom connected to the nozzle.

Zhao Yeqing carried a spray bottle and went out to spread tobacco water. He had to spread it on both the barley field and the wheat field. It was used to treat diseases and to protect himself when he was healthy. One bottle was definitely not enough. He had to go back and forth two or three times to finish spreading it.

Mu Xi processed all the ramie fibers, hung them up to dry, and when the tender green fibers turned yellow, they could be made into ropes.

I plan to continue eating wild boar meat for dinner tonight.

Zhao Yeqing was too tired to move. Mu Xi washed her hands and came in to cook. She sat beside them and picked beans.

Mu Xi had cut up the wild boar meat and marinated it with salt, pepper and star anise yesterday. Now he had put it on a rope and hung it from the top.

There was not much fresh meat left, just a rib and a pig's trotter, and some for the dog and the leopard as a snack.

Both meat dishes require a long time to stew, but fortunately it is still early.

Mu Xi blanched the meat, added star anise and soy sauce to the pig's trotters, and stewed them in a pot to make braised pig's trotters.

The ribs are chopped into sections and made into sweet and sour ribs.

Sweet comfort after hard work is always popular.

Zhao Yeqing put the beans he picked aside and asked for stir-fried beans with minced meat, which is the best dish to go with rice.

There was no work arrangement in the afternoon, so Zhao Yeqing took a shower early and sat on a recliner eating chestnuts.

I moved the recliner to the yard outside the kitchen door. I ate chestnuts and looked at the sky. I could hear the gurgling sound of boiling water in the kitchen. Before I knew it, I fell asleep.

Until awakened by the fragrance.

She glanced at the time and it was already past seven in the evening.

Maybe she was too tired from running around carrying water while doing insect control and wandering around the woods looking for tobacco, so she slept so well that she was not woken up even when Dahuang came back with the sheep.

She propped herself up and walked into the kitchen. Mu Xi opened the lid of the pot when he saw her come in and cooked the sweet and sour pork ribs over high heat until the soup was dry.

She sat on a bench, and Mu Xi brought her the meal, along with a small plate of peeled chestnuts.

"Eat less." Mu Xi teased.

Eating too many raw chestnuts will cause you to fart.

Zhao Yeqing rolled his eyes at him and said, "You stink."

Maybe it’s because the two of them grew up together, and apart from being shy about more intimate actions, they seem to have no other burdens.

Zhao Yeqing ate the chestnuts happily. After the meal, he also ate a lot of sweet and sour pork ribs and braised pig's trotters.

The wild boar's trotters are stewed long enough, and they have a strong gelatinous texture when bitten, and the lean meat is also stewed very soft.

The two leopards came back from eating outside. Zhao Yeqing put a piece of wild boar meat in their small food bowls, and they both ate it.

The dogs have been well cared for recently. Their fur is fluffy and shiny. They are growing bigger and bigger, and their appetite has increased significantly.

It seems that we need to get more meat to eat in winter.

I lay in bed in a daze after dinner. The consequence of sleeping too long in the afternoon was that I couldn’t fall asleep at night.

She wanted to talk to Mu Xi, but when she thought about last night, she felt her face burning and tossed and turned in bed.

Mu Xi finally finished weaving the straw mat.

I spread them on the ground piece by piece and touched them and found no burrs. I heard some noise and knew she was not asleep yet, so I woke her up and tried.

The straw mat is smooth, and each piece is a one-meter-by-one-meter square. It is spread out on the ground and can be simply lifted up when it needs to be replaced.

This took an inordinate amount of time and effort to complete.

Knowing that he did it for her, Zhao Yeqing walked up to him with a red face and touched his face on tiptoe.

"Well, reward me."

Mu Xi was used to pushing things further, so he leaned his other face closer and said seriously:

"This side says it wants one too."