Chapter 81

Mr. Shen came to see Gu Ran because he wanted to buy red mushrooms.

The reason why they knew that Gu Er Niang had this rare red mushroom on hand was that someone from Village Chief Wu let the cat out of the bag and passed it on to the Shen family.

Shen Dalang's wife gave birth to a baby girl not long ago. The whole family treated her like a rare treasure. As the head of the family, Mr. Shen was smiling all day long.

He and his wife had two little boys, and they had been hoping for a good daughter, but now he had the girl he had been waiting for for a long time, so he was naturally very happy.

The whole village was invited to a full moon banquet.

At that time, Gu Ran and Pei Liu were in the mountains and did not attend the banquet, but they also received sesame candy and red eggs sent to the cottage by the Shen family.

However, Grandma Shen was weak and had traveled a long way to come to Xiaxi Village. After coming to the village, she spent a long time taking care of her body and pregnancy. She lived in the village chief's house for a long time and rarely showed up outside. The same was true after she moved to the Chen house.

Although the baby was born successfully, her bones were injured and she was weak. She had to stay at home to recuperate, and was served with abalone, shark's fin, and bird's nest.

I heard that the red mushroom is nutritious and especially beneficial for pregnant women before and after childbirth, so after knowing that Gu Er Niang had given the red mushroom to Lin Er Sao, Mr. Shen and Shen Dalang came to the house with a smug look on their faces.

"Gu Er Niang, just sell some to us. The price is negotiable." said Mr. Shen.

"That's right. As for Gu Er Niang, you can also call our daughter-in-law sister-in-law. She is kind and amiable, and can get along with everyone. When she recovers, she will treat you as a sister, just like Lin's second sister-in-law." Shen Dalang was also anxious and said from the side.

He was happy that his wife had worked so hard to raise a good girl, but he also felt bad that his wife was not feeling well for so long after giving birth.

"Just, since we're all from the same village, buy some red mushrooms for our wife!"

Gu Ran also guessed that the village chief's family had used the red mushrooms she had sent to make food, and someone in the village chief's family told others about it, and then the Shen family heard about it. She looked at the father and son and nodded: "Okay, I'll sell it to you, but if anyone asks about it in the future, don't say that the red mushrooms were taken from me, okay?"

"Yes, yes." The Shen family's father and son said in unison.

So Gu Ran asked the father and son to sit in the courtyard, and he pretended to go to the small warehouse to get mushrooms. In fact, in the small warehouse, he found the area where red mushrooms were stored in the space grid, selected some large mushrooms with good color, took them out, put them in a bamboo basket, and took it downstairs to give to Mr. Shen.

Mr. Shen looked at the big, red mushrooms and smiled. After asking the price, he paid Gu Ran fifteen taels of silver according to the market price.

After Gu Ran sent the Shen father and son away, he immediately admired the three silver ingots with great joy before putting them into the workshop.

When they came out of the workshop again, they saw the strange visitor leaving, and the big orange family, who had been hiding in their nest, started jumping around in the yard again.

The three little ones have started to shed their fur now. The originally fluffy fur has gradually faded away, and the newly grown cat fur is soft and smooth to the touch.

Before the little troublemakers grow stronger and can no longer cause trouble, Gu Ran will first fence off the cat yard he is going to build. If the cats don't have enough space to move around, he plans to fence off another area behind the house specifically for the three little ones to parkour.

She and Pei Liuniang had a lot of leftover bamboo from building the donkey shed, so she planned to use those bamboo poles.

The cat yard was chosen in the corner where the cat's nest was originally made. Now the cat's nest is where the four members of the Daju family live together. As long as the three little ones grow up and become cats, they will definitely have their own nests, but Gu Ran has already designed a cat's nest on the cat climbing frame, so the big nest for the mother and son to live together is retained, and no small nest is prepared.

It is also easy to fence off a cat yard, because it does not need to be as dense as the bamboo shed for raising donkeys. Just make a circle outside the eaves, leaving a small door for entry and exit, and make it loose and with gaps, so that you can see what is going on inside the cat yard from the outside.

The same is true for the cats at both ends of the eaves in the yard.

The bamboo poles are not inserted directly into the ground by digging up the ground. Instead, the base wall is built with the remaining floor bricks from the construction of the windmill tower, and then the bamboo poles are inserted into the gaps.

It's not cost-effective to hire someone to do this bricklaying job, so Gu Ran naturally did it himself.

The red bricks were moved from the windmill tower to the small house by donkey cart, and then the red bricks were stacked and glued together according to the predetermined structural drawing, and then built into bamboo poles of similar size.

After two days of hard work, I finally built a cat yard. Then I took apart the custom-made cat climbing frame, moved it into the cat yard, and assembled it.

Because it was built according to a planned cat yard, the cat climbing frame was made very large and immediately took up half of the space in the small yard.

But cats love climbing by nature, so they are not afraid of reducing their activity space.

The cat climbing frame is high and low, and is divided into five pillars. Wooden boards are fixed in an orderly manner on every two adjacent pillars. They serve as springboards for cats to climb up and also as partitions for cats to rest.

In order to make the three little ones feel comfortable after climbing up and have their own resting place, Gu Ran specially bought a wicker basket, which combined with the climbing frame to become a natural cat nest for the three little ones.

When the design drawings were shown to Master Huang, he knew that they were made for cats, so he complained about why he had to prepare these things for the little beasts. But despite his grumbling, he took the customer's money and still obediently made it according to the design drawings.

Gu Ran fixed the three wicker baskets and took a look. They looked pretty good.

"Big Orange, Little Orange, Little Flower, Little Black, this is your home from now on!"

While Gu Ran was busy, the big orange cat family was looking around curiously. Gu Ran stepped back at this time. At first, they were curious and patted here and bit there. When they saw the big orange cat mother jumping lightly on the climbing frame and climbing to the highest point, the three little ones became anxious and meowed as they tried to do the same. Unfortunately, they were still too small to jump up as easily as their mother, so they kept jumping on the ground and trying.

Gu Ran looked at Daju's family, smiled, stood up the last two logs, fixed them on the left and right, and then took out the prepared hemp rope and wrapped it around them in circles.

This is for sharpening the claws of the Daju family.

In the past, we could roll up cardboard to make cat scratching posts, but now that we can’t find cardboard, we can make a hemp rope pillar for them as a substitute.

After the two hemp rope pillars were wrapped, Gu Ran took another look and saw that Xiaoju and Xiaohei had already climbed up one level. Only Xiaohua tried to climb up, but her legs couldn't go up, so she fell to the ground and rolled over. She started to bite the pillars, bit for a while, and tried to jump up again. She was having a lot of fun. So Gu Ran ignored them, poured the dug loose soil into the basin, and covered it with a semi-circular lid made of wicker - this was the cat toilet for them to poop.

When the three little ones were playing in the courtyard, a big orange cat helped them go to the cat toilet.

Ever since Daju settled down in the small house, Gu Ran cleared out the land where he used to grow green onions and ginger. He didn't move the soil underneath, but just covered it with a layer of loosened soil. Then he taught Daju to poop there.

Every time Daju finishes pooping, he will clean it up and cover it up again by himself.

As the cat's poop scooper, Gu Ran is naturally responsible for replacing the soil that hides the cat poop in time, and then filling it with soil dug from the field behind the house.

As for the soil with poop, it was naturally poured into the compost pit behind the house.

Now that we have built a cat yard, we also built a cat toilet in case they need it when they are not let out.

After everything was settled, the cat yard was closed with the door closed.

In this way, I no longer have to worry about the three little ones taking the dried goods that I have dried in the courtyard to play with.

After Gu Ran cleaned up the remaining materials for building the cat yard and washed his hands, he sat on the corridor under the eaves, placed an iceberg beside him, looked at the cats playing and fighting in the cat yard, and half-lying down, leisurely eating candied bayberries.

She didn't pick many bayberries this year because some outsiders broke into the Dayu forest and discovered the two bayberry trees with fruits, so most of them were picked. When she found out, she could only regret that she went too late.

So I calculated the time for the second crop of red bayberries and picked some in time.

Fortunately, I am cooperating with the He family to make a living by selling roasted grass jelly this year and do not plan to sell bayberry drinks, otherwise my livelihood will definitely be affected this year.

These bayberries are still as bright red as they were last year, and they taste just as good as they did last year.

Gu Ran also made a lot of bayberry jam and bayberry water, which he chilled and placed in the workshop so he could take them and eat them whenever he wanted.

She lazily watched the sky gradually turn yellow before she got up and thought about today's dinner.

Eating duck meat in summer is better than eating nutritious meat, so I decided to eat duck.

We eat radishes in winter and ginger in summer to dispel heat and dampness and relieve lung dryness. The natural choice is to cook ginger duck with ginger.

The first thing to choose for ginger duck is old ginger, also known as mother ginger. The main thing we want is the calmness and spiciness of old ginger, which can remove the fishy smell of duck meat and add a unique flavor to the duck meat.

After transplanting the ginger pieces to the land behind the house last year, a large area of ​​land has been planted, and the young ginger that could be buried in the ground without being dug up has now become one-year-old ginger.

But because what was wanted was ginger mother and not old ginger, the ginger that can be called ginger mother must be at least three years old, so Gu Ran still chose the purchased ginger mother, among which he selected a few thick pieces, washed them, and sliced ​​them for later use.

Then take half a spoonful of sesame oil, a little red yeast rice, rice wine, green sauce and salt, and simply make a sauce.

Finally, choose a whole tender duck, cut it into pieces, and mix it evenly with the sauce.

When cooking, first put a layer of ginger slices on the bottom of the clay pot, and then put a piece of ginger slices and a piece of duck meat into the stewing pot tightly. This will ensure that during the stewing process, the spiciness and aroma of the ginger stew can fully penetrate into the duck meat, making the taste more delicious.

After adding water, close the lid and simmer for half an hour, until the water inside is dry and the duck meat is slightly scorched and changes color.

Before turning off the heat, pour in some duck sauce.

Duck dew is the essence collected in a pot without adding water after dry steaming for several hours. It contains some moisture left after evaporation, but more of it is the freshest and sweetest oily juice that seeps out of the duck meat. It is usually used to make sauces or to enhance the flavor.

The duck meat made in this way has golden skin, and the fresh aroma of the meat is blended with the spicy aroma of ginger, which is fragrant but not greasy. It tastes thin-skinned and soft, salty and spicy, and is especially suitable for mixing with rice.

Gu Ran has a good appetite.

I finished a bowl of rice and half a duck in one go, and finally enjoyed a pot of tea to help me feel better.

The remaining half of the duck was naturally put away and placed in the space to be eaten slowly.

After washing up, he drank a cup of bayberry drink and checked that the Daju family was staying well in the cat yard before climbing onto the couch to sleep.

Outside, the moon is low and the stars are bright, a cool breeze is blowing, and frogs are croaking.

Although there is no lake in Xiaxi Village, there are many paddy fields, so there are many frogs croaking.

Especially in July, after the last filling of the paddy fields, the rice ears are ripe, and the area around and behind the house is all covered with rice waves that have turned from green to gold. The paddy fields after filling gradually become dry and muddy, and the field frogs can find it easier to hunt in the fields and are more active.

These days, Gu Ran fell asleep amid the fragrance of rice and the croaking of frogs.

But tonight, among the frog sounds, there are other subtle sounds.

In the darkness of the night, under the starlight, two dark shadows, hiding their whereabouts in the darkness, slowly approached the cottage.

Gu Ran was originally sleeping in a daze, but when he heard a loud bang outside, he suddenly woke up, and then heard a scream.

Then he could clearly hear the frightened meows of the big orange family coming from the outer yard, as well as unfamiliar curses and wails, and the sound of hurried footsteps, which sounded getting closer and closer. Then, with a thud, something heavy fell to the ground, and it was obvious that someone had fallen to the ground and was cursing loudly.

Gu Ran understood immediately.

Some scoundrel broke into the house.

To make money?

Gu Ran jumped up from the bed, put on his coat, and then took out a hunting knife from the workshop.

He quietly pushed the door open and saw a person caught in a net bag that fell in front of the hallway. At the gate of the courtyard, there was also a person trapped in a trap, crying and wailing. He breathed a sigh of relief.

As early as the beginning of the year, after Uncle Ying's unexpected night attack almost caught her and Pei Liu off guard, she had already been considering the safety of the cottage.

After all, it is a small house where two women live alone. Although because of the miasma, the villagers of Xiaxi Village live far away from each other and usually do not visit each other casually, so there is no need to worry about the villagers having bad intentions, but because the distance between their houses is far, if something happens, it will be difficult to detect and it will be inconvenient for them to take care of each other.

So after that, she and Pei Liuniang dug a groove at the gate of the yard, just like the traps they dug in the Dayu forest, and set up tripwires and ropes. But unlike the traps in the forest which had no mechanisms and knife grooves, the grooves dug in the yard were equipped with iron thorns and spikes.

This is because the thieves or robbers who sneak into the cottage are different from the big and small animals in the mountains.

The big and small animals in the mountains are unlikely to climb up the trap after their hooves are trapped, but humans are smart and if they fall into the trap, they will escape from it as soon as possible.

If we treat the bad guys who break into the house the same as wild beasts, even if they escape from the trap unharmed, they may still harm the people inside the house.

That's why Gu Ran would not be polite to those who broke into the house at night. He put the mechanism in and placed iron spikes in the pit. When the bad guys fell in, first of all, the iron spikes would pierce their bodies, which would be painful for them. Secondly, if they stepped on the mechanism, they would not be able to escape easily. There was no need to worry that the bad guys would get up and do evil.

The pit is reinforced with two layers of thick wooden boards. When family members are at home, they are lowered to ensure safe entry and exit. At night, the two layers of thick wooden boards are removed and replaced with a thin layer of board that will fall down when stepped on by heavy objects.

Needless to say, this useful wooden mechanism was naturally based on the self-defense trap that Gu Ran improved based on his many years of experience in hunting rare animals, and then he asked Master Huang to help make it custom-made.

If the criminal is clever and avoids the first self-defense mechanism at the door, it doesn’t matter, there is still a second one.

The bad guys entered the house, most of them were after money and supplies. Even if they avoided the first mechanism, once the mechanism set by Gu Ran was opened, it would make a loud noise, which could easily wake up the people in the house.

Just like tonight, when the bad guys triggered the mechanism, it would first emit a metallic clanging sound as a warning, and she would wake up immediately.

Therefore, if the criminals are just trying to make money, they will definitely give up and run away, and there will be no need for the second trap.

But if the villains are determined to hurt people and steal money, the second trap will be prepared for them: a net trap will be spread before resting at night. If a villain rushes into the courtyard and steps on the mechanism, the trap will retract and trap the villain.

At the moment, it can be seen that there are two people who broke into the small house tonight.

One was still howling and crying in the pit at the entrance of the yard, while the other was caught in a net in the courtyard.

Gu Ran lit a lamp and went out to check: the person caught by the net was a young man whom he did not recognize.

Seeing Gu Ran show up, the man cursed: "Fuckin' bitch, let us go quickly, or you will be in trouble."

"Hey, you broke into my house for no reason and spoke so filthy words. Who gave you the courage?"

Gu Ran glanced at him coldly, then casually picked up a hoe and smashed it on the man. The man kept swearing, "Bitch!"

"You bitch! You're lucky this time! Otherwise, we would have gone to your room and had a good time."

"We failed this time. Let's see if we can figure it out next time..."

"I'll make you talk dirty!"

Gu Ran put down the lantern, raised the hoe and hit the man hard again and again. He even said that next time, he would hit him on both legs with the hoe.

The man stopped cursing and began to scream and wail, "Legs, legs, my legs."

"Aren't you going to come next time? I'll break your legs and see if you still have the guts to come over here again next time."

As Gu Ran spoke, he raised the hoe and hit it several times.

"No, no, I was wrong, I was wrong."

"We won't dare to do it again next time, Gu Erniang, please stop smashing it, stop smashing it!"

Immediately, the two people in front and behind began to scream for mercy.

Since they dared to have such evil intentions, she naturally had to beat them up first. Otherwise, if word got out, people would think her little house was easy to break into!

After Gu Ran had vented enough of his anger, he stopped smashing things and tied up the man he had caught in the net and stuffed a cloth in his mouth. Then he looked at the man in the pit. His foot was bitten by the mechanism and his body was pierced by iron thorns. He was covered in blood and it seemed that he had no way of climbing out.

She felt relieved, closed the door, and then closed the wooden board, locking the man in the pit.

There were still a few hours until dawn, so she planned to go back and take a nap before dealing with these two people.

Then he went into the cat yard and carried the frightened big orange family into his own room to let them sleep for a night.

The next day, when he saw the gangster tied up in the well and dying, Gu Ran felt particularly refreshed.

She deserved it for letting them come to her cottage and set their sights on her.

He opened the wooden board at the gate of the courtyard, looked at the person inside who also had a pale face, snorted coldly, and went to find Village Chief Wu.

Hearing that someone broke into the small house last night, Village Chief Wu and his family were shocked, and then followed to the small house to arrest the person. On the way, they alarmed many people, and they followed after hearing the news.

Gu Ran didn't say anything either.

The more people know about this, the better. It would be best to publicize it to demonstrate to those who want to do bad things to her, and let others know that she, Gu Er Niang, is not someone to be trifled with.

When they arrived at the cottage, they were surprised to see the injured people in the pits and some who were beaten so badly that they couldn't stand up.

"Mrs. Gu, you actually have this at home. What is it called?"

"trap."

"organ!"

"This mechanism is amazing! It actually caught someone!"

"Tsk, tsk, look at it, it's so miserable."

"I tried to steal a chicken but nearly lost my life!"

When Village Chief Wu asked Wu Erlang and Wu Sanbo to move the man out of the pit, the man was still crying out in pain. As for the other man, Mr. Shen and Shen Dalang also removed the net under Gu Ran's instructions and lifted him up.

When Gu Ran was untying the mechanism stuck on one of them's feet, did anyone recognize who these two were?

"Hey, isn't this the guy from Donglin Township?"

"who?"

“Ah, yes…”

"The eldest son of the old Cao family, and this is Li Cao from Banyun Village!"

"Aren't these two families hunters?"

"He came to our village a while ago to inquire about Dayu Lin!"

"So you're actually doing these sneaky things behind my back?"

"Should we report it to the police?"

"No, Village Chief, we know we were wrong. Please don't report it to the police."

"Yes, we were wrong. We won't dare to do it again. Village chief, please, for the sake of our father, forgive us this time."

"If we really report it to the police, how will we live as human beings in the future?"

"We're all so injured, Village Chief Wu, please be kind and let us go!"

Village Chief Wu looked back at Gu Ran and said, "Second Lady Gu, they stole it from your head. Do you see?"

"Of course we have to report it to the police." Gu Ran thought for a moment, but insisted, "They came prepared. Since they dared to rob my house once, they might have robbed other houses many times before. They are repeat offenders and we can't tolerate them. Reporting it to the police will first teach them a lesson, and secondly, let other people know about their behavior so that they can be on guard against them in the future. Otherwise, if we let them rob once, they will dare to do it again next time."

"We don't dare anymore, we don't dare anymore, Gu Erniang, we don't dare anymore, please let us go!"

"You're begging for mercy now, but that's not what you said last night." Gu Ran ignored him and looked at Village Chief Wu. "Village Chief, unless you have other considerations and want me to deal with you, I'm going to report this to the police."

Village chief Wu looked embarrassed, but he nodded in front of everyone and said, "Okay, I'll take care of them." Then he took the two away from the house.

Xiaxi Village is a small village. Normally, because people live far away from each other, there are no conflicts at all. The relationship between neighbors is more harmonious than that of other villages where people live close together. Today, someone came to the village to steal chickens and dogs, and everyone immediately regarded it as a big news. They talked about it after dinner.

Originally, because Xiaxi Village had erected five windmill towers, many people from other villages had come to see what was going on. Later, as more and more people came in and out of Dayu Forest, even more people came.

So, on this day, the story that Cao Jia Dalang from Donglin Township and Li Cao from Banyun Village broke into the Gu family's small house in Xiaxi Village at night, but was ambushed and seriously injured by a trap and was caught red-handed spread.

In particular, Village Chief Wu moved the two criminals caught on camera to Donglin Township and asked the village head to deal with them. This has to do with an unwritten rule in the surrounding area. For the villagers, reporting to the police is something that has a very negative impact on the village atmosphere. Therefore, unless it is a big incident like a loss of life, generally trivial matters of stealing and cheating are handled by the village head under their jurisdiction, so as to avoid the case being reported to the county government and completely ruining their reputation.

When he was on his way to Donglin Township, someone saw him and asked him questions again.

Village chief Wu did not hide anything and told the truth directly, so more people knew about it.

In fact, this was also what Village Chief Wu intended.

She knew that if this matter was reported to the village head, it would only make a big thing small, or a small thing disappear.

Especially since the eldest son of the Cao family is from Donglin Township, the village head would never let his fellow Donglin people escort him to the county government to report the case. To him, this was not only a matter of corrupting the village morals, but also a shameful thing caused by his own lax governance.

However, these two people were let off. For the sake of Gu Er Niang, Village Chief Wu also hoped to use this incident to establish Gu Er Niang's prestige.

Village chief Wu is aware that many people from other villages have recently come to the miasma forest in his village.

She had also heard that the hunters who ventured into the miasma forest suffered many casualties and little gain.

These two people are also hunters.

When the village chief took over the case and asked the reason in a rage, he found out that the two men had heard that there were many wild animals in the miasma forest, but they saw that many hunters who entered the miasma forest suffered casualties, so they dared not enter. However, they were unwilling to let others get the benefit, so they wanted to take advantage of them.

The reason why so many hunters wanted to enter the miasma forest was because of the rumor that Gu Erniang from Xiaxi Village had hunted a big beast in the forest and sold it for a lot of money, right?

I heard that she also went into the mountains and picked many other wild delicacies that could be sold for a lot of money.

So after asking around in Xiaxi Village and finding out that Gu Erniang was currently living alone in a small house near Dayu Forest, they began to set their sights on the Gu family: although they did not dare to enter the miasma forest, they dared to go to the Gu family's small house.

Since Gu Erniang found so many wild animals in the miasma forest and sold them for so much money, there must be a lot of leather and wild animals in the house. If she steals some, she can make a lot of money.

It would be even better if we could directly steal Gu Er Niang's money.

So after the two of them discussed it, they boldly went.

But who would have thought that there were traps set up in the Gu family's house?

Yesterday, we finally pried open the door of the cottage, but one by one, we fell into the trap and were seriously injured. Not only did we not get a penny, we also had to pay for the medicine for our injuries.

The two of them regretted it deeply.

The head of Donglin Township notified the families of the two men, gave them a severe scolding, and then negotiated with the village chief Wu to calm the matter down. Finally, the village chief came back with two taels of silver as compensation to Gu Ran, and the matter was dropped.

There is no way to not give up.

After listening to the explanation of Village Chief Wu, Gu Ran was not very satisfied, but as he was a higher-ranking official, he was worried that if he really pushed the two families into a corner, they would become enemies, so he had no choice but to accept the treatment from the village chief.

However, after the news that the Gu family's small house in Xiaxi Village was full of traps and caused the two thieves to suffer a lot was spread, it frightened many people who came to the miasma forest in Xiaxi Village to hunt, and many of them gave up the idea of ​​eyeing Gu Er Niang, either openly or secretly.

Gu Ran finally let go of his anger after seeing that the trap he had set was effective and had achieved the purpose of establishing his authority.