Looking at the rabbits scattered all over the ground, some big and some small, some with bulging bellies, like pregnant female rabbits.
Seeing Sui Sui touching this rabbit and hugging that rabbit, Lan'er said to Mei'er, "If we had known there were so many rabbits, we should have brought baskets up the mountain."
Mei'er lifted the bamboo basket in her hand slightly, afraid that the rabbit might accidentally knock the Ganoderma lucidum away.
Qiuju said, "Miss, this thing reproduces too much. It will be a headache for the head of the village to take it back. Let Suisui take a few back to play with, and leave the rest on the mountain."
In Wanling Kingdom, only hunters would make dried rabbit meat from the wild rabbits they hunted. Other families had never tasted rabbit meat and did not know that there were other ways to eat it.
Even restaurants in the capital city don't sell rabbit meat.
Jiang Shuyue looked at the rabbits hopping around on the ground and said, "Take these meat rabbits back and distribute them to the villagers to raise and eat. We just got through the famine years, so even if the rabbit meat has a strong gamey smell, everyone is willing to eat it."
Sui Sui stroked the little rabbit in her arms and said, "Mother, can you not give them all away? I want to keep a pair to give back to Brother Xie."
"Okay, keep a pair."
A short while later, Gao Mu returned carrying a wooden stick as thick as an arm on his shoulder. Several pheasants were hanging from one end of the stick, and a heavy string of wild chestnuts was hanging from the other end.
Before Gao Mu could speak, Qiu Ju stepped forward to complain, "Oh! I don't know who did this, throwing the rabbits they raised into the mountains. The rabbits had nowhere to go, so they hid in the caves and gave birth to more than a hundred of them."
“I think there are more than that. There are over a hundred here and outside, and there might be more in the cave,” Jiang Shuyue said seriously.
She didn't know exactly how many rabbits were in the cave; the cave wasn't big, and she hadn't moved them all out at once.
Cangyun led a group of people from the village up the mountain and didn't bring all the rabbits down until sunset.
Following Jiang Shuyue's instructions, the head of the village distributed all the rabbits to the nearby villagers.
While Zhang Yuanshan was outside sending someone to deliver a message across the river, Jiang Shuyue took out all the rabbits from her spatial storage.
Looking at the rabbits hopping around in the yard, no one knew exactly how many there were.
As night fell, the villagers took the rabbits and left.
A man who used to hunt in the mountains was walking back with a woman, each carrying a load of rabbit meat.
The man said, "Honey, when we get back, we'll make these big rabbits into dried meat. We don't have any money to buy New Year's goods this year, but with this rabbit meat, we'll have meat to eat during the New Year."
The woman glared at the man fiercely. "What are you going to eat? Zhang Zhuangtou said his boss will buy back the rabbits at twice the price of pork. It's such a good deal, are you really willing to eat them?"
"Really? Such a good thing? I'm not eating anymore." The man's eyes widened in disbelief.
He was so focused on asking the villagers about Zhang Yuanshan hiring people that he didn't hear a word his wife said about picking up the rabbits.
In an instant, the woman's eyes and brows were filled with smiles. "Husband, I'll take good care of the rabbits at home. You take our son to the farm to help out. Soon we'll be able to eat meat every day."
Every household received free meat rabbits, and the villagers were able to go to the farm to work and earn cash. Along the way, one could hear the villagers' joyful chatter.
Aunt Cao and Zhang Qiu cooked the hand-pulled noodles and brought them into the main courtyard.
While taking a bath and changing clothes, Jiang Shuyue went into her space and planted the small Ganoderma lucidum in the spiritual soil.
As she stepped out of the room, she saw Aunt Cao talking to Qiuju and the others.
"Miss didn't see it just now, but everyone got several loads of rabbits without spending any money. And when they heard that the rabbits would be bought back at twice the price of pork, they couldn't stop smiling."
Mei smiled and said, "Our young lady has the heart of a bodhisattva; she helps wherever she goes."
Qiuju served a bowl of noodles and placed it in front of Suisui. Perhaps because she had exercised too much today, the little one didn't pick at her food and ate it in big mouthfuls.
"Miss, come and eat quickly, the noodles will get soggy in a moment."
When Qiuju saw the young lady come out, she served her another bowl of noodles and placed it on the seat of honor.
Seeing that Qiuju had finished dividing the noodles in the bowl, Aunt Cao smiled and said, "There's still some in the kitchen. This old servant will go and cook some more."
“One bowl is enough for each of us, Aunt Cao, you should go down and eat too.”
After Aunt Cao left, Qiuju asked impatiently, "Miss, are we really going to pay a high price to buy back the meat rabbits?"
Jiang Shuyue knew what Qiuju was worried about, so she smiled and said, "What? Are you afraid that your young lady won't have any use for it after taking it back?"
"I think that stuff doesn't taste as good as pork, so I don't know what use it is."
Jiang Shuyue raised her eyebrows slightly, "Who says it's not as delicious as pork? Nobody has ever done it right."
“Miss, even if it’s delicious, we don’t need that many. Aunt Cao said that a female rabbit can give birth to seven litters a year, with several kittens in each litter. If we buy them all, we won’t be able to finish them even if we eat them every day.”
Lan'er and Mei'er chimed in, "Sister Qiuju is right, there are too many."
Jiang Shuyue smiled without saying a word.
In the kitchen, Zhang Yuanshan's family sat around a table.
After eating a bowl of noodles, Zhang Cai stared blankly at the bowl.
Zhang Yuanshan said to Aunt Cao, "Old woman, our boss is a capable man. We don't need to scrimp and save anymore. Give the eldest son another bowl of noodles."
The eldest son is the pillar of the family, and Zhang Yuanshan would never let his eldest son go hungry. Tomorrow, his eldest son will lead everyone up the mountain to cut down trees in preparation for building a greenhouse.
Zhang Cai shook his head: "Mother, I'm full. I'm just wondering why we've never seen a white rabbit when we pass by there every few days, but today Miss saw a whole bunch of them?"
Zhang Yuanshan put down his chopsticks and thought for a moment, "Could it be that the rabbit came out of its burrow to forage for food today and was seen by Miss?"
“No, when I was picking mushrooms in the summer, I rested by the big rock at the entrance of the cave. If rabbits came out often, there should be rabbit droppings on the ground.” Zhang Cai was completely puzzled.
“Brother is right. With hundreds of rabbits, we should be able to spot some traces of them as we pass by.” Zhang Man was also puzzled. He had seen the rabbits running all over the place; it was truly a spectacular sight.
Zhang Qiu finished the last mouthful of noodle soup in his bowl and smacked his lips with lingering satisfaction.
He picked up a wild apple, took a bite, and said nonchalantly, "Don't bother thinking about it. Miss isn't Chang'e, she doesn't have that many rabbits to share with everyone."
Zhang Yuanshan picked up some tobacco leaves from the side and rolled them up, his rough fingers moving with practiced ease.
After rolling it up, he stuffed it into one end of a bamboo tube, stretched his neck to get close to the candle flame, lit it, and took a deep breath.
He squinted and exhaled a puff of smoke, saying, "I don't think that's a wild rabbit. It's probably a rabbit that the noblemen at the villa up ahead were playing with. Maybe they got tired of it and left it on the mountain."
“Dad is right. Those things are cheap. There’s so much grass on the mountain, and they’re not short of food. They can reproduce a lot in a year or two. If we weren’t worried about tiring Mom and my sister-in-law, we would keep a few to raise.”
Thinking that there were more important things to do tomorrow, the Zhang father and son went to bed early.
The back mountain was shrouded in thick fog in the early morning.
"Mother, are we going up the mountain again today?"
Jiang Shuyue stood outside the courtyard gazing into the distance. Hearing her son's voice, she turned around, and her soft, cuddly son, like a ball, bumped into her arms.
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