This Aunt Wu is quite remarkable; she has extensive connections and associates with people from several forest farms, including Shuguang, Kaifeng, Shengli, and Ma'anshan. She has facilitated the marriages of many young men from Qianchuan Forest Farm.

Originally, Aunt Wu thought highly of Sheng Xiping and wanted to introduce him to a potential partner.

Before she could even speak, Sheng Xiping found a girlfriend and married Zhou Qinglan. Wu Da Niang never received a matchmaking gift from the Sheng family and kept thinking about it.

Finally, Sheng Xi'an grew up and turned twenty. Then, Aunt Wu remembered that she wanted to arrange a marriage for Sheng Xi'an.

"Auntie, there's no rush. Let's wait until things calm down before discussing it with my mom."

The three of us brothers were exhausted after a day's hike up the mountain, and we really couldn't chat with the aunties and grandmas.

Sheng Xiping smiled at the people around him, and quickly followed his two younger brothers, dragging the sled back home.

The dog ran fast and got home first. When Zhang Shuzhen saw that her dog had injuries and a swollen belly, she knew that the children must have encountered something on the mountain today.

Zhang Shuzhen was anxious, so she rushed out to check on Sheng Xinhua while he was still asleep inside.

As soon as she stepped outside, she saw her three sons dragging something from the west end of the road. Zhang Shuzhen hurriedly went to greet them.

“Didn’t you say you were going to take your son for a walk? What did you bring back this time?” Zhang Shuzhen said, glancing behind her son.

"Oh my god, why are there two black bears here?"

No wonder the dogs were injured; those two black bears were so troublesome. It's a miracle the dogs didn't die on the mountain.

"Yes, Zhuojiao trapped a deer. When we went to walk Zhuojiao elsewhere, these two bears went to steal venison, and Erlang Shen and his companions happened to come back and caught them."

"After a lot of effort, we finally managed to get two things. This time, just the deer antlers and bear bile should fetch some money."

Sheng Xiping simply told his mother what had happened.

After hearing this, Zhang Shuzhen breathed a sigh of relief, "Luckily, your dad said something this morning that made you bring the dog."

Otherwise, what you did today would have been quite a close call.

Mother bears with cubs are the most likely to injure people; if things go wrong, Sheng Xiping and his two brothers could die in the mountains.

"It's not as scary as you make it out to be. The three of us brought two guns."

Sheng Xiping laughed when he heard this. It was just a female bear. He had killed large brown bears before. What was there to be afraid of?

Of course, hunting in the mountains is very dangerous, and no one knows what accidents might happen, so bringing a dog is the right choice.

If danger is encountered, dogs can give early warnings and are willing to sacrifice themselves to protect their owners.

"Mom, we also picked some celery leaves. With so much meat, shall we make some steamed buns for tomorrow?"

Sheng Xiping didn't want his mother to dwell on these matters, so he changed the subject.

"Why wait until tomorrow? I just made the dough this noon."

"Come on, let's hurry home. You guys prepare the meat, and I'll quickly pick the vegetables and chop the filling. We'll have steamed buns for dinner tonight."

There really wasn't much good food at home during this period, and Zhang Shuzhen was worried every day about what to cook.

I was originally planning to make steamed flatbreads, but since we have vegetables and meat, I'll just make steamed buns instead.

And so, the mother and her children entered the yard. Sheng Xiping and his two brothers were outside skinning and cleaning the meat, while Zhang Shuzhen quickly took the large celery leaves from the sack to the doorway and picked out the grass, branches, and other debris.

Men can't be as meticulous as women when it comes to work. The three brothers just grabbed whatever they could find, and there were a lot of wild grasses and large-leaf celery mixed in.

After carefully selecting the celery leaves, Zhang Shuzhen put them into a basin and washed them with clean water.

Boil water in a pot, and once it boils, blanch the celery leaves in it. Then take them out, rinse them with cold water, squeeze out the excess water, and chop them into filling.

While they were chopping the filling, Sheng Xinhua, who was sleeping on the kang (a heated brick bed), woke up.

The little guy has become quite capable; he can slide down from the kang (a heated brick bed) by himself. He doesn't even wear shoes; he just runs to the outer room.

"grandmother."

Zhang Shuzhen turned around and saw that this was terrible. She quickly took her grandson back into the house, put on his shoes, and then led him to the yard to urinate.

"Xinhua, you play with your third uncle. Grandma will go chop the filling. How about we make big steamed buns for dinner tonight? We'll put lots of meat in them."

Zhang Shuzhen gently coaxed her grandson, telling him to go find Sheng Xikang.

The little guy's eyes lit up at the mention of meat, "Right, right, seven."

"Yes, we're having meat for dinner, so don't bother Grandma, okay? Grandma's going to do some chores."

Zhang Shuzhen gave the children instructions, then turned around and went back into the house to continue chopping the filling.

Over here, the three Sheng brothers had already skinned the deer and removed the bones from the bear.

As soon as he saw that the child was awake, Sheng Xiping asked his third son to take Sheng Xinhua back to the house to play, while he cut the meat into large pieces and put it into a basin.

They then cleaned up the deer and bear hides, turned them inside out, and nailed them to the wooden planks of the barn, waiting for them to dry completely before processing them. They could keep them for their own use or give them away.

"Mom, this bowl is venison, and these are bear meat. I think there's quite a lot. Maybe we should send some to Uncle Wang and the others later."

It got hot at this time of year, and since we didn't have a refrigerator or anything, fresh meat couldn't be stored for long.

Sheng Xiping's idea was that since they couldn't finish all the meat themselves, they might as well share some of it to avoid wasting it.

"Okay, you can arrange it as you see fit. Right now, every household is starving and there's hardly any oil or fat to be found."

Some of this meat should be given away.

They've helped us a lot, and we don't have anything else to give them. Since you have this skill, why don't you all eat some too?

Zhang Shuzhen did not object.

That's how life is. No one can have a stove, a pit, a well, or a door on the roof. Everyone lives in their own separate house, without interacting with others.

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