After that meal, it was obvious that Sister-in-law Cuihua's attitude towards Ouyang Zhenyu became much warmer.

My intimate moment with Ouyang Zhenyu yesterday was somewhat driven by self-interest.

They wanted to take advantage of Ouyang Zhenyu.

But starting from breakfast, Cuihua clearly treated Ouyang Zhenyu more like her own younger brother.

Ouyang Zhenyu went up the mountain to chop firewood again. After he brought back the firewood, he took a stroll on the mountain in the afternoon and pondered for a while.

On the one hand, hunting is a real necessity, as it allows one to demonstrate their strength to others, and on the other hand, it enables them to exchange their catch for goods.

There's nothing here, many things are scarce, especially rice, which we can't eat for long.

If he wants to get some useful information out of Sister Cuihua, then he will inevitably have to make his own sacrifices.

The main problem is that the people around him are very wary of him. Even when he goes up to greet them enthusiastically, no one pays him any attention.

Even if you offered your wild boar meat to anyone, nobody would want it.

Even Ouyang Zhenyu seriously doubted whether these people were truly without desires or wants. After all, he had seen the houses where these people lived, and the necessities of life were just so-so.

After all, this is a small mountain village, and judging from the condition of the mountain road we walked up, it would not be easy to bring supplies in.

Carrying on shoulders and by hand means only a limited number of things.

Although they may eat a little better than the villagers, with various fresh things that can be brought back from outside, it can't supply them for very long.

These people are not envious of pork at all, and they neither raise chickens nor pigs, so they have to trade with the villagers for their food.

Ouyang Zhenyu couldn't understand why these people wanted to live in this village.

Is it because of geographical conditions?

However, no matter what, he needs to make contact with these people first in order to gradually understand their plans; otherwise, his intelligence work will be completely useless.

More importantly, he is still struggling with how to contact the outside world.

Although he tried his best to leave marks along the way, so far there has been no indication that anyone has followed him into the village.

Ouyang Zhenyu went for another walk in the woods, but this time the harvest was not as plentiful.

After all, not everyone can encounter wild boars when they go out.

The good news was that he actually saw bamboo shoots on the mountain, and there were quite a lot of them.

To be precise, it can be seen everywhere, and it is obviously something that people use as a vegetable in their daily lives.

These things can be dug up and pickled into dried bamboo shoots or pickled into sour bamboo shoots, which can be used as a side dish.

Furthermore, they found a lot of wood ear fungus, mushrooms, and other similar things on the mountain.

These things are all wild, so they can at least be used as a side dish when we get back. Otherwise, we can't have braised pork every meal.

Ouyang Zhenyu returned to the house with a basket full of spoils, where he washed and cleaned.

Then he went to Sister Cuihua and asked for a small jar, and filled it with pickled bamboo shoots.

Sister-in-law Cuihua was somewhat surprised when she saw the shredded bamboo shoots he had made.

What are you doing?

"Pick some side dishes. Once they're pickled, you can eat them with rice porridge. They can be eaten as a pickle or as a side dish with rice."

It's also good with rice, and it's especially delicious when dried and stir-fried with meat.

Don't you usually pickle these bamboo shoots?

Ouyang Zhenyu felt that the geographical location here meant their cuisine should be closer to that of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan.

Sister-in-law Cuihua gave a bitter smile.

“There are plenty of bamboo shoots in this forest. We don’t usually eat these, you know?”

The bamboo shoots from our mountain are very astringent, much more so than bamboo shoots from other places. They make your tongue feel numb after eating them.

"Otherwise, who wouldn't enjoy making some pickles or something?"

Ouyang Zhenyu was taken aback. Wait a minute, he actually knew how to remove the bitterness from bamboo shoots.

However, we'll only know for sure in a few days whether the residue has been removed or not. We can't eat the freshly pickled bamboo shoots right now, but he can try it out and see how it goes when stir-frying the meat.

"Sister-in-law, we had braised pork for lunch."

There were fresh wood ear mushrooms, along with sliced ​​bamboo shoots and slices of wild boar meat. The courtyard entrance was where each family had their own plot of land, and the area along the wall was full of scallions, chives, and the like.

When these ingredients are put together, it makes a ready-made dish of deep-fried pork.

What is "guo you rou" (过油肉)?

Before Cuihua could answer, Chuwu, whom they hadn't seen for two days, suddenly appeared.

Not only was there Chuwu, but Chuwu was also followed by four or five young people, who all seemed to be young people from the village.

You could tell from his clothes and facial expression that he had never left the village, and his face still carried the innocence and curiosity of someone living in the secluded mountains.

The clothes worn by these young people were all made of homespun cloth; you could tell just by looking at the fabric and its quality.

These are all products of the villagers' self-sufficiency.

Yesterday, the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, I returned to the village and delivered rice to Jiangcheng. Actually, I've been worried about him the whole time.

The main reason for bringing Jiang Cheng back was that Jiang Cheng had saved his life.

But yesterday, the old man also gave himself a good scolding, since he and his friends had sneaked out in the first place.

But the outcome was so tragic.

Yesterday, he was punished by kneeling in the ancestral hall all night. When he got up today, the old man explained it to him very clearly.

Jiang Cheng can only stay here for a maximum of three days before he must be sent away.

When they go to buy goods, they should take Jiang Cheng with them. He absolutely cannot be left here.

I felt a little guilty on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year.

Jiang Cheng saved him, but now he wants to kick his benefactor out, even though the old man is the village elder.

He was also the clan chief of their village, and everyone in the village listened to him.

He had no say in the matter, and although he felt guilty, he could only come to Jiang Cheng to explain things to him.

"Oh, you've come at the perfect time."

I hunted a wild boar yesterday, and there's quite a bit of meat. I'll stay for lunch. I've made some braised pork for you to try."

Ouyang Zhenyu was thinking about how to make contact with the villagers, since he could tell that the village chief was very shrewd.

Preventing the young people in the village from contacting these people at the village entrance proves that the other party is quite farsighted.

If you have such foresight, why did you take in this group of desperados?

If I can get in touch with the village chief, I might be able to reach a cooperation agreement with him. If we cooperate and arrest these people, then it will be a permanent solution.

But how exactly do we discuss it? And what kind of person is the other party?

What kind of shady deals are involved here?

Ouyang Zhenyu hasn't figured it out yet, so he can only wait for an opportunity.

Unexpectedly, he appeared on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year with several young people from the village.

"Oh dear, isn't Xiao Jiang actually not a good person?"

"You hunted the wild boar, that's your skill. How can we just eat it for free?"

"What do you mean by 'eating for free'? You even brought me rice."

Actually, I'm the real idiot.

"Come, come, don't leave for a moment, try my cooking here."