Chapter 16: Caught a Pheasant

After the three men came down the mountain, they untied the ropes on the firewood and stacked them in the shed.

Shi Luo looked at the firewood he had dragged down the mountain with great effort and slowly asked, "I see the old educated youth have very little firewood. I wonder if they will take mine."

"I don't think so." Li Zhe said uncertainly.

Xie Chen said with certainty, "Don't worry. If they don't have enough, they will definitely secretly take what we need. Didn't you two see what kind of people they were during the meal yesterday?"

"Oh my god, I worked so hard to get this, I don't want to let anyone else take advantage of it."

Shi Luo was unwilling, extremely unwilling. He had gone through so much trouble to go up and down the mountain to collect firewood, and he absolutely could not let others use it.

"That can't be helped. Our house is too small. We definitely can't store firewood for the winter."

Xie Chen had no way to deal with this matter.

"Then I won't put it in the shed. I'll put it under the wall outside my house, put snakeskin bags underneath, and when it's high enough, I'll cover it with grass. Even if it snows in the future, it won't get wet, and I can still use it in winter.

If anyone tries to take my wood, I'll be able to hear the noise, and I'll come out to see who can be so shameless."

After saying that, Luo went into the house and rummaged through the bags.

Li Zhe saw Shi Luo busy at the wall and nudged Xie Chen with his arm. "Let's do this too. I think this is a good idea."

Xie Chen nodded, thinking that Shi Luo was truly a genius. If he had thought of this trick in his previous life, his firewood would not have been stolen in the winter, and he would not have had to brave the cold wind and walk on the snow to go up the mountain to look for firewood.

Seeing that Xie Chen agreed, Li Zhe quickly rummaged through the bags and stacked the firewood. After the three of them had finished, he took a few more bags and carried a backpack up the mountain.

Xie Chen looked at the two chestnut trees and the surrounding environment and nodded. He looked at Shi Luo and warned, "No wonder no one noticed. You went in a bit too deep. Next time, don't go so deep by yourself. It's not safe."

Shi Luo was not an ungrateful person. He knew that Xie Chen said this out of concern for him. "Don't worry, I only dared to go in because I saw that the three of us were not far away. I will definitely not go so deep in the future."

The three of them walked to the bottom of the chestnut tree and started knocking the chestnuts on the tree with sticks. Shi Luo filled three large bags before stopping.

"Ouch, I'm so tired." Shi Luo said as he sat on the empty bag on the ground.

Xie Chen looked at the bulging bags on the ground, thought for a moment and said,

"Let's not go down the mountain yet. I see there's a lot of firewood here. Let's get some and see if there's anything else around. We can go down the mountain after dark. The Youth Farm is close to the foot of the mountain. If we hide a little, no one should be able to see us."

"Okay, we can make a few more trips then. Fortunately, there is a door in the backyard of the educated youth, otherwise we can't escape the eyes of the old educated youth."

Li Zhe now avoids the old educated youth in the front yard as much as possible.

The three men rested for a while, packed some chestnuts, and then dispersed to get firewood from the surrounding area.

Shi Luo had just tied the rope in his hand when he heard Li Zhe's shout. He quickly put down the firewood, picked up the machete and ran towards the direction of the sound.

When Li Zhe was found, Xie Chen happened to come over.

"What's wrong? What happened?" Xie Chen asked as soon as he saw Li Zhe speak.

"Hahahahahahaha, I shot two pheasants, I'm so awesome. Let's eat together tonight, chicken stewed with chestnuts." Li Zhe raised the pheasant in his hand to show off.

"Okay, you are quite skilled, but I don't know how to stew chicken. Which of you two can do it?" Xie Chen really doesn't know how to make such a big dish. At most, Xie Chen can only cook noodles, porridge, and steamed steamed buns.

In his previous life, when he first lived with the educated youth, it was not his turn to cook. After they got married, Su Niannian cooked for them. They ate in the cafeteria after school and work. Later, when he was sick, he hired a nanny. It can be said that Xie Chen rarely cooked in that life.

"I, I can only cook simple meals. I really don't know how to cook such big dishes." Li Zhe doesn't know how to cook either. After all, he has his mother at home, so it's not his turn to cook such meat dishes.

"I can, but I can't kill a chicken."

Shi Luo actually knows how to do it. When he went abroad to study in his first life, the old man of the Shi family believed that men should endure hardships, so he gave Shi Luo little living expenses and did not allow him to bring a housekeeper or a nanny. The food abroad was both unpalatable and expensive, so Shi Luo finally developed good cooking skills.

Xie Chen said, "I can kill the chicken. I will do it when the time comes. You can catch the chicken. Shi Luo and I will provide the staple food and other necessities. We will be together for a long time, so in order to avoid conflicts, it is better to discuss these things in advance."

Li Zhe and Shi Luo had no objection to this and nodded in agreement.

Seeing that Li Zhe had nothing to do and they had already discussed what to eat in the evening, the three of them dispersed and went about their own business.

Shi Luo returned to the place where he had just been and dragged the bundle of firewood under the chestnut tree. After resting for a while, he saw Li Zhe and Xie Chen coming over.

"Hurry up and get the bags. I have two hazelnut trees over there. Let's go pick hazelnuts." Xie Chen said as he put the firewood in the fire.

Shi Luo picked up the bag beside him and sighed as he walked, "Fortunately, we have a lot of bags, otherwise we really wouldn't be able to take them away even if we saw them."

Li Zhe: "It's true, there are so many things in this mountain. Let's continue to go up the mountain in the next few days, so we don't have to worry about not having enough to eat."

Shi Luo and Xie Chen both agreed.

After the three of them had collected the hazelnuts, they got some firewood and it was already dark.

It was dark and it was not safe on the mountain, so the three of them hurriedly and secretly transported the things to the Youth League Home at the foot of the mountain. It took them three or four trips to finish the transportation, and by then it was completely dark.

Shi Luo and the other two stacked the firewood and went into Shi Luo's house together.

Xie Chen sat on a bench and killed a chicken, and asked Li Zhe to go back to the room to help him get the agreed food, which was not much, just three taels of white flour and one pound of cornmeal.

Shi Luo also took out a pound of cornmeal and three ounces of white flour.

Li Zhe didn't shirk responsibility and poured the noodles for three people into the basin. While kneading the noodles, he said, "I'm really starving."

Shi Luo: "I was hungry too. I finished shoveling firewood at noon and went into the house to eat two pieces of peach cake to fill my stomach. After that, I didn't eat anything else."

Xie Chen handed the slaughtered and plucked chicken to Shi Luo. "Everyone is like that. We've been doing hard labor all day and we're starving. Put more chestnuts in the stew later. Otherwise, I'm afraid the three of us won't have enough to eat."