Chapter 102 Wang Tieniu's Tracking

Hearing Liu Ye's sighs and grumbling, Wang Tieniu felt smug. Afraid of being discovered by Liu Ye, he turned around and quietly went down the mountain to go home.

As soon as Wang Tieniu left, Liu Ye stood up from the ground. "Hmph, he actually came to spy on me. I'd like to see what you're up to." But since she was already here, she decided to go for a walk in the mountains. She had almost finished eating the wild duck eggs in her space, with more than 20 left. She wondered if wild pheasants and ducks would lay eggs in winter.

Liu Ye trudged through the thick snow, strolling leisurely into the mountains. As she walked, she came to the place where she had collected wild boar last time. Oh dear, how did she end up here? She had collected wild boar from here last time. She couldn't possibly run into it again, could she?

She looked around; the forest was quiet. Maybe she should walk a little further; the ground was covered with her footprints, so she wouldn't get lost.

She continued walking forward for about an hour, and then a frozen pond appeared in front of her. The pond was about several dozen square meters in size, not very big. She didn't expect there to be a pond here. There should be fish in it, right?

Where there is water, there are fish. As the old saying goes, "A thousand-year-old grass seed is a ten-thousand-year-old fish roe." However, the pond was frozen over. She saw a large stone on the ground, picked it up, and threw it into the pond, immediately creating a large hole.

Liu Ye stuck a finger into the water. The pool was icy cold. She was thinking about catching big fish when she felt something being stored in her spatial storage. She quickly pulled her finger out. "Holy crap, the water is so cold!" she exclaimed. "If there were any fish in the pool, I think I'd stored them in my space. I'll check when I get home. It's about time I headed down the mountain."

As soon as she turned around, she saw a silly-looking deer standing behind her. She quickly waved her hand and put the deer into her spatial storage. What an unexpected bonus! She thought she had wasted her trip to the mountain today. Okay, let's go home.

Liu Ye happily went down the mountain and returned home. She put the basket in the kitchen, went back into the house, closed the door, and slipped into the space. As soon as she entered the space, she saw fish and shrimp all over the ground, weighing several hundred pounds, all lying motionless.

Good heavens! There are so many fish in that little pond! She saw a big fish that must have weighed over 20 pounds, which looked like a grass carp. There were also many large carp, weighing seven or eight pounds, five or six pounds, and smaller ones weighing two or three pounds. There were also crucian carp the size of a palm. There were also many small shrimp and fish, as well as many river crabs, some as big as a bowl and some as big as an egg. She quickly went to get a basin to put the fish in, and she put the small fish and shrimp into a half-sized vat.

She filled more than a dozen basins with big fish. With so many fish and shrimp, wouldn't she have caught the whole pond? Oh well, the fish and shrimp are all dead, and she can't put them back. She should just think about how to eat them.

Big fish can be stewed, small fish can be made into fish sauce, small shrimp can be fried, and river crabs are delicious no matter how they are cooked. She went to the side, found a basin, picked out more than 20 larger river crabs, carried them out of the space, went to the kitchen, and steamed them in no time.

After the river crabs were steamed, Liu Ye picked out the biggest one, lifted the lid, and saw a lot of meat and a large amount of roe inside. The aroma was so enticing that she quickly started eating, devouring six river crabs in one go. She then stored the rest in her spatial storage to save for dinner, thus saving herself the trouble of eating rice.

After feeding the cows in the backyard, she went back to the house and lay down on the kang (heated brick bed). Hibernating in ancient times was so nice; she didn't have to go to work, and could just stay home after feeding herself. Wang Tieniu probably wouldn't be coming tonight, but who knows? That dog might be a pervert; maybe he'd see her digging for grass roots on the mountain and would come to steal them. No, she still needed to make some arrangements.

Liu Ye immediately got off the kang (a heated brick bed), took out five animal traps from her spatial storage, buried them in the snowdrifts along the backyard wall, and then went back inside to continue lying down.

In Old Liu's house in Sandaohe Village, the two brothers, Liu the Elder and Liu the Younger, returned home dejectedly. They went straight to their father's room. The elder brother placed a sack of flour on the kang (a heated brick bed): "Dad, the grain shops in town are out of grain. Rice and wheat flour are ridiculously expensive. The money you gave me was only enough to buy two jin (a unit of weight) of rice. I didn't dare buy any. I wanted to come back and ask you, Dad, if we're out of grain, how about we buy a few jin of rice?"

Old Man Liu was extremely worried. After finishing the house repairs, he had spent more than ten taels of silver on various expenses. He still had 50 taels of silver left. The village had allocated his family ten mu of land, and he needed to buy seeds to plant in the spring. He also wanted to buy an ox, but grain was so expensive: "You've all been to the grain stores in town, but they don't have any mixed grains for sale."

Liu Lao Er sat down on the kang and said, "My elder brother and I have been there, but none of the shops have any grains. There are only three grain shops open in town now, and the others are closed. Dad, please give me some more money so my elder brother and I can go to town again. If we go too late, we won't even be able to buy white rice."

"I heard that people have already started to starve to death. Bai Wangshi from our village is said to be dying soon. She broke her leg when she came back from Erdaogou Village last time, but Bai Shuisheng didn't call a doctor for her or give her any food. I heard she's about to die."

"My older brother and I just passed by their house and saw Bai Zimei squatting at the door crying."

Sitting on the kang (heated brick bed), Old Mrs. Liu pouted and said, "Whose children are we to die? Old man, hurry up and give them the money so they can go buy grain. We've already made the last bowl of mixed grains left over this morning. If we don't buy grain, we won't have anything to eat tonight."

Old Man Liu reluctantly pulled out his money pouch from his pocket, took out ten taels of silver from it, and handed it to Liu the eldest: "Adding the five taels I gave you this morning, it's a total of 15 taels of silver. Use it all to buy wheat flour. A handful of wheat flour can cook a whole pot. White rice doesn't last long enough."

The eldest Liu took the silver and put it in his pocket. He then went to town with the second Liu to buy grain. They spent 15 taels of silver and bought 17 catties of white flour. As soon as they got back, they handed it to Old Lady Liu and asked her to lock it in the cupboard. With a large family of more than ten people, they had to carefully plan how to eat more than ten catties of flour. Old Lady Liu would throw a handful into the hot water for each meal, and after eating it, it was as if they hadn't eaten anything. After urinating a couple of times, the whole family would be starving again.

When people are hungry, their minds are particularly sharp. Take Aunt Liu, for example. She lay on the kang (heated brick bed), too hungry to move, but her mind was racing. She nudged Liu Lao Er and said, "Husband, I've been thinking about this and that, and I think the idiot isn't dead. That Liu Ye might be the idiot. Bai Zilin lied to us. The idiot went with him and stayed with him the whole time. How could he have become someone else?"

"When Bai Zimei first came to our house, she said that Liu Ye admitted that she was a big fool. Liu Ye is a name she gave herself. Think about it carefully, have you ever seen what a big fool looks like? If she cleaned herself up, combed her hair, and showed her face, would you recognize her if you met her?"

Uncle Liu shook his head: "I don't know her. Not to mention I don't know her, even my parents don't know her, and my elder brother and sister-in-law might not know her either. Big Fool has been dirty and smelly since she was a child. She was always covered in pig manure or excrement. Who would give her a second glance?"

"But if Liu Ye is really a complete idiot, why isn't she an idiot anymore?"