The next morning, Zhou Huaian came back from the forest farm empty-handed. He found the gate of the courtyard was closed. He went to the back mountain and saw Zhou Xiaolin sitting on a mat with her two children playing with toys, and Yang Chunyan was helping Zhou Huairong's family collect Cistanche deserticola and Polygonum multiflorum.

He opened the fence gate, picked up his son and kissed him, "Do you miss your dad?"

The little guy pouted, "Daddy is bad, he won't play with Jiuer!"

Zhou Xiaolin pulled his trouser leg and said, "Dad, where are all the meaty wild animals you hunted?"

"Little greedy cat!" Zhou Huaian pulled her little hair, "It's on the mountain, I'll bring it back later."

"You're back!" Yang Chunyan walked towards him with a smile.

"I thought you were harvesting the grain!"

"We'll start harvesting tomorrow." Yang Chunyan looked at him with a smile, "Are you hungry? Do you want me to cook you a bowl of noodles?"

"I'm not hungry. I'll come back and drive the tractor to the mountain to pull things." Zhou Huaian said with a smile, "The day you left, Ding Dingmao and I hunted a few wild boars, and in the afternoon we hunted three badgers.

The next day we went up the mountain and killed three more black goats, picked up more than ten kilograms of matsutake mushrooms, and some mushrooms. Once we took them down and dried them in the sun, they would be completely dry. "

Zhou's mother was so happy that she couldn't close her mouth after hearing this. "Thank you for the blessing of the mountain god! When you come down the mountain, I will leave a goat and a wild boar for the mountain god."

She felt that her family had been reported twice, but both times they were able to turn danger into safety. There must be a god protecting the second branch. Now that the family conditions are better, of course she has to offer good things to the mountain god.

Zhou Huaian didn't expect that his mother would be willing to use a wild boar to pay respect to the mountain god. Hearing this, he happily agreed, "Okay, I'll go back and drive the tractor and bring one down the mountain. You cook it, and wait for Ding Ding Cat and I to come back and pay respect to the mountain god."

"Don't worry, Mom will prepare everything for you."

"Yiding is still waiting for me on the mountain. I'll leave first!" Zhou Huaian handed the child to Yang Chunyan, took the key and left in a hurry.

"Dad..." Little Jiuer left when he saw him coming back, his mouth pouted as he was about to cry, Zhou Xiaolin held his hand obediently, "Jiuer brother, don't cry, Daddy is going to get some meat."

"Don't cry, Rougaga..." The little dragon lying on the mat tilted his head back and imitated her speech.

Yang Chunyan thought of Zhou Huaian driving a tractor, which took more than four hours to go back and forth from the forest farm, and said to Zhou's mother: "I'll go back and pack some cakes for him to eat on the road."

"Go!" Mother Zhou thought about it and called her back, admonishing her, "The youngest is impatient, and the report has already been made, so don't tell him yet."

"I understand."

When Yang Chunyan got home, she saw him carrying the oil barrel to refuel the tractor. Wangcai, Lai Fu and Xiaogouzi were lying there with their tongues sticking out, looking at him.

She turned around and went to the backyard to wash her hands, then went to the main room to pick up some cloud cakes and rice candies, and filled a pot of boiling water and put it in her bag and gave it to him, "Huaian, that road is very steep, drive slowly."

"I'm an old hand, don't worry." Zhou Huaian put the oil drum in the truck bed with a smile, "We also checked that ditch, and that's where we killed the badger.

We didn't find the grass with a bead on top that you mentioned, but we found a large patch of golden thread vine when we walked up. It took Ding Ding Cat and I more than two hours to harvest it all."

"You guys have made a great harvest this time!"

"That's right!" Zhou Huaian hugged her and turned to get the crank. "Let's go directly to Ning'an from the main road over there. You and sister-in-law will go to the Huangjiaoshu intersection in three hours and bring back the tripe and meat."

Yang Chunyan nodded, "The golden thread lotus is dried?"

"We picked them in the afternoon of the day you left. With such a strong sun, they dried up in just one day." Zhou Huaian started the tractor with the crank, got on the driving seat, and slowly drove out of the yard.

Yang Chunyan and Gou Zi sent him out of the yard. Only when they saw him walking far away did they close the gate and go to the back mountain. They told Zhang Xiuxiang about going to the intersection of Fangtian asphalt road to get something.

Over there, when Zhou Huaian drove his tractor to the sunbathing area, he met Xu Erchun with his child, "Youngest, when did you come back?"

"I just came back. I have something else to do. I'll come back to have a drink with you." Zhou Huaian drove away on the tractor.

When the tractor drove to the Guanyin intersection, Zhou Huaixing was coming towards him with a tractor full of yellow bricks. Seeing Zhou Huaian coming, he stepped on the accelerator and the tractor rumbled with black smoke and turned towards the mechanized farming road of Guanyin Brigade.

Zhou Huaian, whose face was covered in black smoke, spat angrily, "What kind of person is this? Driving a broken tractor like me, what's so great about that?"

The road that the tractor takes to the forest farm is halfway through Baima Town. It is a winding and bumpy dirt road that is just wide enough for a large Liberation truck to pass through.

The road up the mountain was a bit steep, and it took more than two hours to reach the forest farm. As soon as the tractor drove into the yard, Zhou Daqing had already set out the food.

"Youngest, come and eat quickly. Yiding and I will load the goods."

"Okay!" Zhou Huaian washed his face which was blackened by the tractor fumes, went to the kitchen to get the bowl and started eating.

Badger pork fried with green peppers, Chinese cabbage soup, and shredded potatoes. He and Ding Ding Cat were tired of eating chicken stewed with mushrooms in the mountains these days, and only got to eat stir-fried dishes when Zhou Daqing came.

Zhou Yiding and his son lifted the wooden stakes onto the tractor, took out a few straw mats from the cave and spread them in the truck bed, and then moved the black goat meat, badger pig, wild boar, and the meat of the four-legged beast, and carried them all out and placed them in the truck bed.

The autumn heat was so severe that the cave was like an ice cave and the meat that was taken out was frozen hard.

Zhou Daqing and his son rubbed their arms, which were covered with goose bumps from the cold, and strode back to the cave. They put the sacks and straw mats that had been soaked and left inside for the whole morning into a basket and carried them out.

Zhou Yiding climbed onto the tractor and covered the meat with icy sacks and straw mats, one layer after another. "Okay, it won't go bad until we get to Ning'an."

After Zhou Huaian had eaten and drunk his fill, he went out and loaded all the things onto the tractor with Zhou Yiding and his son. Without wasting a moment, he picked up the crank, walked to the engine head and started the tractor.

Zhou Yiding got on the driving seat, released the brake, and waved to Zhou Daqing who was standing beside him, "Old man, we're leaving!"

"The road down the mountain is steep, so don't panic and drive slowly." Zhou Daqing nodded and warned loudly.

"Okay!" Zhou Huaian put down the crank, sat next to Zhou Yiding, and the two slowly walked out of the yard.

Dahuang and Dahei followed the tractor for a few minutes before stopping and going back.

Zhou Yiding drove the tractor carefully on the winding mountain road. It was much faster to pull the things than to go up the mountain. It took only two hours to reach the intersection of Fangtian asphalt road.

Yang Chunyan and Zhang Xiuxiang had been waiting there for a while. When they saw them coming, they hurriedly pushed their bicycles to the side of the road. When they got closer, they smelled a faint fragrance.

"This smell is the same as the stump in your house." Zhang Xiuxiang laughed, "Why do you have so many agarwood stumps?"

Zhou Yiding smiled and said, "Second sister-in-law, there are fewer and fewer agarwood trees on the mountain now. In a few years, it will be impossible to dig up tree stumps as big as this one."

Zhang Xiuxiang: "You're right. This thing grows slowly. It will probably take decades for something like this to grow."

Zhou Yiding took the offal out of the urea bag and put it in the basket on the back seat of Yang Chunyan's bicycle. "There is another bag. The small one contains badger lard, and the big one contains sheep fat and lard."

Yang Chunyan nodded and said, "Okay, I'll go back and get some ready and send some to Xuejiao."

"Just send some of the wild boar stomach and intestines. I got some badger lard last time. I'll leave it with you this time. Don't send it over."

Zhou Huaian took the four-legged beast, the wild goat and the little wild boar down and put them in Zhang Xiuxiang's backpack. After giving clear instructions, the two of them drove away on the tractor.

"Youngest, the wild boar we hunted last year was sold for $2.50 per pound, I remember, right?"

"Yes! How much do you want to sell it for this year?" Zhou Huaian thought that the price of meat has increased this year, so the price of wild boars should have increased as well, right?

"The big ones still weigh about 70 to 80 kilograms after being slaughtered. How about we keep the same price as last year? What do you think?"

"Let's go there and see what Brother Huang and Master Li say. If they raise the price, we'll take it. If they don't, we'll keep the old price."

"You are the one who knows how to do business!"

Zhou Huaian rolled his eyes at him, "Go to hell, you almost called me a profiteer."

Zhou Yiding chuckled, "Be a little more cunning, I'll get more money!"

"I don't want to bother with you!" Zhou Huaian thought for a moment, "Give Brother Huang three wild goats, Master Li one, and the same for the wild boar."

"The smaller ones are easy to sell, but the larger one has over 200 kilograms of meat, and I'm worried I won't be able to sell it all."

"After removing the 50 to 60 kilograms from Brother Huang and Master Li, there are still more than 100 kilograms left. Go ask a few other restaurants and they should be able to sell them."

"Who cares? We'll sell what we can. If we can't, we'll just take it back to another store and it'll be gone."

"Send a few pounds to my third sister-in-law's youngest sister. They helped clean my yard."

"I'm going to take a look at your yard. If it's good, I'll do it the way you want."

"I guarantee you'll like it." Zhou Huai said happily, "I like the curtains that Wang Zhen bought the most. Even if I sleep until the afternoon, the sun won't be able to shine in."

Zhou Yiding curled his lips, "There's no time to sleep in now. Even if I cover the windows and doors with newspapers, I still have to wake up when the time comes."

"We are diligent people now!" Zhou Huaian yawned and leaned back against the carriage board. "I'll take a nap. Call me when we get there."

"Yes."

An hour later, the tractor stopped at the entrance of Douhua Village. Zhou Huaian walked down to the door and shouted inside, "Brother Huang, we are here!"

"I'm here!" Huang Yongcai ran out from the kitchen. He looked very nimble and didn't look like a fat man at all. "Finally, I'm here. I've been waiting for you for two days. What good stuff did you get?"

"Hares, pheasants, wild... they are all on the truck bed, go and have a look for yourself. There is also a good thing that you have never eaten before, so I have left two kilograms for you to taste!"

"What good stuff? You two prodigal sons, you won't leave some for yourself to eat, will you?" Huang Yongcai quickly ran to the door and said, "Look, what's so rare?"

Zhou Yiding lifted the thick straw curtain and handed him a piece of cold meat. "It's a weird thing. Come try some!"

Zhou Huaian pointed at the fur and skeleton of the four-legged beast and said, "Brother Huang, have you seen it?"

"Hey, my goodness!" Huang Yongcai punched the two men, "You spendthrifts! You are willing to eat something that costs only a few dollars a pound. Go back and sell it for money." (End of this chapter)