Chapter 92 Springtime, Logging, An Encounter
For a while at the beginning, the snow melted when the sun was out during the day, but it would freeze again when the temperature dropped in the evening.
As the temperature rose, the melted snow flowed onto the ground, and the ground remained wet the next day.
Later, the ground dried completely, and there was no more snow in the village.
A spring breeze blows, and all things come back to life.
The forsythia's tiny yellow flowers cascade down, wild grasses sprout tender buds, and tree branches turn green.
Spring has truly arrived.
"Brother, the Red Wild Bird has laid eggs again, and so many!"
Neil carefully carried the six bird eggs into the house in his clothes, and then placed them in the egg basket.
"1, 2, 3..."
Wow, there are 27 now!
In just one week, Neil collected nearly thirty bird eggs, which greatly surprised him.
Even the money that Lai spent on buying the baby birds and the broken wheat he fed to the livestock didn't bother him anymore; he felt it was all worth it.
"Put them away first. Once you've saved enough, I'll take you to town to sell them. All the money from selling these eggs is yours."
"Thank you, brother."
Neil gave a shy smile.
A whole winter has passed, and he looks very different now than when Ray first saw him.
His cheeks were no longer sallow and withered; his complexion was rosy and fleshy, and he looked very healthy.
Perhaps because of improved nutrition, Neil has grown quite a bit. Ray roughly estimated that Neil has grown more than five centimeters in the past six months, and even he himself seems to have grown taller.
If he keeps growing like this, he should have no problem reaching 1.8 meters tall. Neil doesn't look like he'll ever be short. We can't afford to skimp on food and drink for ourselves and Neil in the future.
The soil in the farmland is still a bit damp. After a while, when the soil dries out completely, Lai will go to the field to loosen the soil and do some work.
At present, his main task is to go into the forest to cut down trees and chop firewood. Most of the firewood at home has been burned away over the winter, leaving only a small amount, which can last for at most half a month.
Neil has been back in class for a while now, and usually it's Rye who drives the mule cart to the woods to chop wood.
There were quite a few villagers chopping wood with us, and we could chat while we worked, so it wasn't too boring.
Early spring is the coldest time of year, and it's easy to catch a cold if you're not careful. Many children in the village have already started to have runny noses. Neil has to go to school, and he will inevitably come into contact with them, so Ray has to make extra ginger soup for him to take with him.
Lamb caught a cold because he was dressed lightly and wandered around aimlessly, so Linda kept him in his room and wouldn't let him go out. To prevent him from infecting Farah, she even had his meals delivered to his room every day.
Besides Ray and Neil, other items in the house have also undergone significant changes.
First, there's a small, unidentified tree in the vegetable garden in the backyard. Guge gave it to Laiyi, saying it's a very precious variety and it's best not to let it die.
Gu Ge spoke mysteriously without revealing anything, and Lai Yi assumed it was agarwood or a valuable tree like Phoebe zhennan, so he surrounded it with wood but didn't pay much attention to it after that.
The vegetable patch in the backyard has already been turned over, and Lai plans to clear more land for growing vegetables. Even if they don't grow vegetables, they can plant more potatoes and sweet potatoes to store in the winter, or make them into vermicelli.
There are no other houses around, so there won't be any unpleasantness over who occupies more or less land.
The wooden planks nailed to the small building during the wild animal scare in the village have been removed by Lai. With the weather getting warmer, it's good to ventilate the house more.
There's just one downside: for some reason, a lot of the paint on the stairs and doors inside the house has chipped off, making it look unsightly and prone to insect infestation, so it needs repair.
Lai plans to go to town sometime when he has some free time to buy some paint and fix it up.
"Brother, why did you hitch up the mule cart? What are you going to do later?"
Neil looked at Ray with confusion. If they were going to the market in town, Ray would have told him beforehand.
"Go to the other side of the mountain and chop some firewood."
As soon as Ray explained it, Neil understood.
In the spring, it's generally not allowed to cut down too many trees in the forests near the village. When there's a high demand, the villagers will go to other places to cut down trees and bring them back.
Recently, there have been more people cutting firewood. Unlike in the fall when we needed to clear away dead and dead trees for fire prevention, Barnett has asked the villagers who cut the most firewood, as well as the young and strong ones, to go into the mountains to cut trees.
"Brother, I'll go with you!"
"Okay, come on up."
Neil happily helped put all the tools into the car.
How long will we stay there?
"It's hard to say. Take two more loaves of bread and a bag of water. You probably won't be back by noon."
"good."
With everything ready, Ray drove his mule cart astray, and Neil and Tata, who had sneaked aboard, were sitting in the back of the cart.
They fed and cared for the best, and the little mule grew quickly, now resembling a fully grown mule. It's just that its personality is still a bit carefree, but that's not a problem.
When they arrived, Lai tied his mule cart to the edge of the woods. There were few people coming and going on this side of the mountain; they were all villagers from nearby villages whom he knew well. He was quite at ease knowing that no one would take the mule cart away.
After securing the tree, he took his tools and went into the forest to start cutting down trees, choosing the dead ones as always.
Trees have a long growth cycle to reach maturity, and it's springtime, a time of renewal. Even if the living trees are cut down, they can't be burned. They need to be dried for a long time, otherwise they'll produce a lot of smoke when burned.
Once Ray had chosen his tree, he started cutting it down. Neil gathered branches around him, while Tata followed behind Neil, wandering aimlessly at sunrise.
It's a rare opportunity to get out, so it wants to run around and stretch its muscles.
There were many dead branches in the woodland at the foot of the mountain. Neil laid out a rope on the ground and then arranged the branches he had collected on it. When he had collected enough, he tied the branches into a bundle with the rope and transported them to the mule cart.
The forest was located at the foot of the mountain, and the terrain was not high, so it wouldn't be too difficult for Neil to drag the branches down by himself.
Neil was picking up the second bundle of branches when Tata suddenly let out a warning howl.
"What's wrong?"
Neil looked at Tata strangely. At home, Tata usually wouldn't bark unless she was hungry or had some need. This made him a little uneasy.
Tata crouched on the ground in an attacking stance, staring angrily at a certain spot and barking. Neil looked for a long time but couldn't find anything wrong there.
He knew he couldn't dismiss Tata just because he hadn't seen anything; beasts' intuition was far more acute than humans'.
"Tata, is there something over there?"
Neil lowered his voice and asked Tata in a low voice, slowly squatting down.
"Aww!"
Tata was still barking. Neil glanced around out of the corner of his eye, grabbed Tata, and ran off.
My brother said that if you encounter danger, don't confront it head-on; if you can run, run away as fast as you can.
Neil remembered what Ray had said perfectly and ran to Ray's side in a flash. Tata, with her wind-blown fur ruffled, looked speechlessly at the panting Neil.
Foolish human cub, such a weak creature, I could have easily driven you away with a single swipe of my claw. Why did you run so fast? It tarnishes my image of bravery.
"What's wrong, Neil?"
Lai stopped what he was doing and looked at the man and the beast with a puzzled expression.
"Brother, there seems to be something over there. Tata was acting strangely just now, breathing into the woods, but I didn't see anything."
Ray frowned and took a dagger from his waist, handing it to Neil.
"Be careful to protect yourself. Don't go over there for now. Stay with me."
"good."
Lai searched the surrounding bushes but found nothing. Tata didn't give any further warnings, so he picked up his axe and continued chopping down the tree.
The sound of chopping wood echoed for a while, and the dead tree began to sway. Lai chased Neil and Tata to a more distant place before continuing to chop wood.
One, two, three...
With a loud crack, the sapling, about ten meters tall, collapsed, sending up a cloud of dust and startling the birds that were perched nearby.
After felling the sapling, Ray took an axe and saw to the canopy to deal with the side branches, and Neil followed Ray with an axe as well.
"Neil, you can just stay here."
"No, brother, I'll help you."
While Ray and Neil were still talking, Tata suddenly adopted a wary stance again.
The tall grass not far away began to tremble irregularly, and something was coming from that direction.
Ray shielded Neil, who was holding Tata, behind him.
The commotion from the bushes grew louder, and two dark-skinned goblins emerged.
"Mr. Victor?"
Iru looked at the group of people who were on guard with a puzzled expression.
Had they encountered some wild beast? No, he had already scouted this area over the past few weeks. More dangerous wild animals usually only appear on the mountains; at the foot of the mountain, one might only occasionally spot a few Gulu beasts.
Seeing that it was Iru and his son Kai, Lai was finally relieved.
"What are you all doing here?"
"food……"
Before Kai could finish speaking, he was stopped by a look from Iru.
"We came here to hunt and also to dig up some wild vegetables to refresh our palates."
"I see."
"Mr. Victor, are you here to chop wood?"
“Yes, this is my younger brother Neil. Neil, this is Iru and his eldest son Kai.”
Lai introduced the two goblins to Neil, who did not show any disgust or fear, and greeted Iru and Kai very politely.
This made the two goblins both happy and somewhat uneasy.
"How long would it take you to finish this all by yourself? Let us help you with the work!"
Before Lai could refuse, Iru and Kai took turns using iron saws and started sawing, working very hard.
"Uncle Yiru, did you go to the east just now?"
Neil hesitated for a moment, then asked Iru anyway. He had a feeling that he had just encountered a goblin father and son.
"You mean over there?"
Iru paused his work and pointed in a direction, and Neil nodded vigorously.
"We came from over there."
Hearing this, Neil felt relieved, greeted Ray, and went to carry over the half-bundle of firewood that Ray had left behind.
The sapling that Lai chose was only a few sizes bigger than his head. Iru and Kai worked hard and cut off a section in just half an hour.
"Let's take a break first."
Lai told Iru and the others to rest, while he continued to process the branches with a small saw.
“Mr. Victor, there’s something I’d like to ask for your opinion on.”
Yilu nervously rubbed his hands together.
"Just tell me what it is, and you can just call me Lai."
“Lay, the elders and a few young men came to Mount Beka to look for us a few days ago.”
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Author's Note: Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 2023-10-25 23:03:33 and 2023-10-30 23:09:55!
Thank you to the little angel who watered the nutrient solution: 17 bottles of Custard Pig Buns;
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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