"It's alright, this is just the beginning. Look how big the lake is, there must be a lot of wild ducks there. Stay calm. When we start again, remember what your master taught you: stay calm and keep going." After giving Tianquan a simple reassurance, Hong Xiaoduo led everyone to continue walking forward.

The young men were still caught up in their excitement, only thinking about shooting down a few more later, completely forgetting about the wild ducks they had just shot down.

Feiyan stood there, looking at the wild ducks scattered all over the ground, and muttered to herself helplessly, "So you just keep shooting down there, huh?"

The eight wild ducks were quite heavy. I put them in my large bamboo basket, and it felt heavy when I carried it. I glanced ahead, turned around and went back to the tent. I took the wild ducks out and put them away, then carried the empty basket to find them again.

"Brother, Xiao Si'er was the only one who missed. Do you want to go over and give him some pointers?" Fei Yan stopped and turned around to ask after they had already passed Quan Jinghuai.

Quan Jinghuai looked at her, then pointed to the tents and the carriage road not far away: "Who will look after our belongings if I go?"

Hearing him say that, Feiyan realized what he meant, said "Oh," and continued walking forward with her bamboo basket.

Watching Fei Yan's departing figure, Quan Jinghuai muttered, "What do you mean by 'giving advice to Xiao Si'er'? You're clearly just trying to trick me into becoming a laborer."

After muttering to himself, Quan Jinghuai suddenly shook his head and smiled wryly. When Feiyan first started following him, she was very careful in her actions and words. But look at her now, she's started to become cunning!

Hearing the excited screams and cheers in the distance, Quan Jinghuai continued fishing absentmindedly, muttering to himself, "Such a loud commotion, you've scared away all the wild ducks, let's see what you're doing now."

The screams came from Tianquan and Yaoguang. Tianquan was happy because he had hit a wild duck, and Yaoguang was happy because her fourth brother had hit a wild duck, and she was happy for him too.

Tian Shu, Tian Xuan, Tian Ji, and Yu Heng were quite helpless but didn't say anything to remind them to keep their voices down.

I don't know if the wild ducks are stupid or what, but even when they were startled, they didn't fly away into the reeds by the lake.

The children were getting more and more into it, and within an hour they had hunted around the lake.

They themselves lost count of how many wild ducks they had shot down. Fei Yan later learned her lesson and instead of immediately carrying them back to camp, she carefully placed them in piles, intending to have everyone collect them together after the hunt.

After retrieving all the wild ducks they had shot down, Tianxuan was a little worried when she saw the pile of ducks in front of her. It wasn't that she found it troublesome or that she was afraid of the trouble of plucking the ducks and cleaning them.

Instead, they were worried about how to store all the ducks they had caught. Should they all be salted?

"Tianxuan, what's with that expression? Are you tired of it now?" Hong Xiaoduo teased as she sat on a recliner basking in the sun.

"Mother, which town can we go to tomorrow to sell some of these?" Yao Guang suggested after hearing Hong Xiaoduo's words.

Tianxuan also came over and explained the reason for her worry. Hong Xiaoduo laughed as soon as she heard it: "What's the big deal? You guys just pack all these things up first and let me think about it."

After saying that, he pulled Yaoguang into his arms and told her, "We picked them ourselves. They're easy to process and store now that it's the right season, so we won't sell them. I'll think of a few more ways to pickle them later, and when you find them delicious, you'll wish there were more."

Hearing her words, Tianxuan felt reassured and called to her older and younger brothers to fetch water from the lake, start a fire, and boil water to prepare for cleaning the ducks.

Hong Xiaoduo thought for a moment, then walked over to them and said, "Wait a minute, the duck hearts, gizzards, and intestines are all cleaned and put away separately. Now I'll go think about the marinating recipe."

"Xiao Duo, while you're at it, think about how to marinate and dry these fish to make them taste better," Quan Jinghuai said as he walked over carrying several large fish strung together on reeds.

Each of those fish weighed several kilograms; there were grass carp and common carp.

Quan Jinghuai wasn't just saying this to her casually; he knew she was genuinely capable of thinking of such things, because even the bait recipe he uses for fishing was taught to him by her.

They even spoke with great expertise, describing what kind of fish to fish in what season, what kind of water, what kind of weather, what time of day, and what kind of bait to use.

She seems to know everything, yet she can't fish herself. Ask her to fish? All she knows is to poke the fish with a sharpened stick.

Hong Xiaoduo nodded, went into the tent, took out a pen, ink, and paper, and placed them on the small table next to the recliner. To others, it looked like she was thinking with her eyes closed, but in reality, she had already entered her spatial dimension and turned on the computer to do some research.

A short while later, he opened his eyes, sat up, and began scribbling something on a piece of paper.

Then take a break, and then write some more.

After doing this several times, he had filled several pages with writing. He figured that was enough, so he walked over to Tian Shu and the others and handed the paper to Tian Xuan, saying, "Here you go. The recipes and steps for pickling wild duck and fish are all here."

Tianxuan was about to reach out to take it when she saw the duck feathers on her hands. She quickly turned around, washed and dried her hands carefully before taking the paper and reading it attentively.

"Mother, we don't have some of these spices listed here." Tianxuan was in charge of the food, so she knew exactly what they were.

"Which kinds?" Hong Xiaoduo asked.

After Tianxuan pointed them out to her, she said, "These things? How come we don't have them? We have them."

"Really? But I don't remember buying any." Tianxuan thought hard, but still had no recollection of it.

"We didn't buy them together. I saw them for sale in the capital and bought some, but I forgot to tell you. Wait here, I'll go look for them in the carriage," Hong Xiaoduo said without batting an eye.

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