After cleaning the chicken and duck coop, Lu Chuan went to the kitchen to help start the fire and cook.

I had just sat down and was about to start a fire when I heard Peanut running off to the backyard to wreak havoc on the chickens and ducks again...

Peanut was born to a black-spotted puppy.

The house is so lively now, Black Wind has given birth to four puppies, one female and three males.

Xu Han named them edamame, peanut, glutinous rice ball, and rice ball respectively.

Maodou was the first to hatch, and like its mother, Heidian, it has a very stable personality and is very good at taking care of its younger siblings.

The first thing it does every morning is to take its little legs and patrol the house, showing how protective it is of its home.

Peanut is the second oldest, and like Black Wind, he's incredibly mischievous. He's often even more troublesome than Black Wind. He's bursting with energy, constantly running around and roaming the world!

Tangyuan is the third little sister. She's chubby and round, a lively and adorable girl. Sometimes she can be naughty, but she's very obedient. When she's being naughty, she'll stop immediately when called.

The smallest rice ball is a complete little foodie. It eats all day long, and when it's full, it lies down in a shady place to sleep. From a slightly chubby little baby when it was born, it has now eaten itself into a triangular rice ball.

To avoid mixing them up, Xu Han immediately put a tag around their necks after they were born.

During that period, I distinguished between them by the numbers on my clothes.

Later, we made collars of different colors for them, and embroidered their names on them.

As they've grown over the past two months, their personalities have become more distinct, and it's easy to tell them apart at a glance. Under normal circumstances, you wouldn't mix them up.

Although the puppies are all black like their parents, they have already shown obvious changes in size and can be easily distinguished.

The puppies are still too young, and they usually play in the yard. Occasionally, Xu Han will take them for a walk around the neighborhood or let them play outside with their mother in the yard.

When it's time to eat, Black Spot will take them home for dinner.

The yard is very lively every day now. Peanut is very naughty, just like his father, and often sneaks out to the backyard to scare the chickens and ducks.

Later, Lu Chuan tied it up and gave it a lesson, and it behaved itself for a few days, but it still couldn't be stopped! It often sneaked out to the backyard.

It doesn't bite chickens or ducks, it just scares them. It's very mischievous and even harder to discipline than its father!

Lu Chuan had just sat down when he got up again to go to the backyard to discipline Maodou. He carried Maodou back to the front yard and tied it up with a rope to prevent it from running around.

"I'm not giving you dinner tonight. I told you not to go to the backyard. You scared the chickens so much they stopped laying eggs. Didn't you learn your lesson last time? This time you'll go hungry for a few more days!"

Lu Chuan grabbed Peanut by the scruff of its neck and pointed at its head.

Black Wind, meanwhile, was jumping around gleefully nearby, which infuriated Lu Chuan, who then said...

"It's all your fault for leading your son astray. You don't even discipline your son properly. You won't eat dinner tonight either. You can eat dinner when you teach him to stop harming the chickens and ducks in the backyard."

Upon hearing this, Black Wind immediately stopped jumping around and turned to discipline his dog son.

Xu Han came out just in time to see this scene and couldn't help but laugh, "Maodou is really too naughty, he needs to be disciplined! Otherwise, he'll be even harder to control when he grows up."

"Even when Black Wind was little, it wasn't as naughty as Edamame. This Edamame is something else! Only Blackie can control it!"

"When Maodou makes a mistake, Heidian really disciplines it, making it howl loudly, unlike Heifeng! He only scares it a bit."

Hei Feng, who was standing to the side preparing to deal with Mao Dou, seemed to understand Xu Han's words. He had only meant to scare Mao Dou, but now he started fighting.

Xu Han burst out laughing, "Black Wind must have understood what I just said! It was just scaring Maodou, but now it's biting him!"

Lu Chuan also laughed and said, "It's probably afraid that it will really go hungry for a few meals!"

Faced with this scene, Black Spot lay motionless on the ground, silently watching Black Wind beat Peanut. It wasn't time for him to do it himself yet! He'd deal with it later!

The two ignored the puppies in the yard and went back to the kitchen to cook.

Rice balls are the best! You can eat your fill and then sleep. You can eat whatever you want as long as there's food. I'm sitting right next to the stove waiting for dinner!

It has to be said that the five dogs, big and small, have an enormous appetite. The daily food intake of an average farming family is only enough to feed them for one day.

Xu Han couldn't help but worry about whether she could support them.

Now Black Wind and Black Spot can hunt for themselves to fill their stomachs. Sometimes they will hunt some prey and bring it back for Xu Han to cook and feed them.

For this reason, Lu Chuan even bought a large iron pot and placed it in the corner of the yard, specifically for cooking food for them.

The leftover food from daily meals is no longer enough to feed all the dogs, so we have to prepare separate food for them...

Tonight, Xu Han made beef noodles. The noodles were made with mixed grain flour, and she made a big pot of them. It was dinner for Lu Chuan, Xu Han, and their dogs.

After Xu Han ladled out the noodles for the two of them, she added some water and dark steamed buns to the pot, otherwise there wouldn't be enough to eat.

Then they started serving food to the dogs, one food bowl for each one, while Lu Chuan carried a wooden bucket to distribute the food to the dogs.

Xu Han felt bad about feeding them so much food every day, but these were her own dogs, and she couldn't bear to give them away. Besides, she was counting on them to guard the house during the famine years to come!

The only thing we can do is save up more money with Lu Chuan and buy more food to store. We don't need to feed them the best food, but we definitely need to make sure they're well-fed.

After finishing their meal, the two sat together in the courtyard to cool off, watching the dogs frolicking around and discussing what to do the next day.

"We've almost finished picking the termite mushrooms. Let's go into the mountains to pick wild fruits tomorrow! We should also plant potatoes in the open space outside! There's so much to do!"

"Alright, I won't be hunting for a while. Let's pick some wild fruit together, then plant the potatoes, and I'll head to the mountains to prepare for the autumn hunt!"

"Okay, let's store up some more. We'll need to buy more grain after the autumn harvest!"

"By then, the mountain produce should be ready for harvest, and we're so busy every day! If only we had more people to do it!"

"Want more people? That's easy! We can just have more kids then, right?" Lu Chuan teased.