Chapter 13 Summer Chicks, Solutions, Vegetable Garden
After the rainy season, the weather started to get hotter and hotter, and people often dared not go out in the afternoon sun.
The small mountain village is filled with colorful wildflowers, and the village girls often get together to pick flowers and play in the woods.
Lai carried the twelve pale yellow chicks home in a large basket. The red rockbird chicks had finally hatched after half a month of incubation.
He tentatively put the baby birds together with the adult birds in his house, and to his surprise, two of them actually treated them as their own chicks and took care of them on their own initiative.
Lai fenced off the area across from his house with a fence around the trees, letting the red wildebeest roam inside during the day and bringing them back home at night. Once the chicks are a bit bigger, their feathers will be clipped to prevent them from flying away.
Neil was overjoyed to see the extra baby birds in his house and would often dig up earthworms to feed them.
With the daily consumption of a grown man and a teenager about to enter puberty, the family's food supplies were running low, so Lai took the village's oxcart to town again.
As usual, I bought several dozen pounds of rye flour and wheat flour. Our salt shaker was almost empty, so I went and bought some more salt.
The price of salt wasn't as expensive as he had imagined. The salt here consisted of large blocks of rock, and its color wasn't the pure white of modern salt; it also had a slightly bitter taste.
Lai guessed that the salt stones had probably undergone some simple purification, but the technique wasn't very good, and some impurities were still mixed in.
The butcher's stall from last time was still there, but business wasn't as good as before. The stall owner was using a stick to swat away the small insects flying around the meat, while a dark brown bear lay asleep at his feet.
"Buying meat?"
The stall owner asked.
"Um."
Lai picked out a fresh piece of pork belly and bought some lard. The vendor quickly cut the meat and wrapped it in oil paper and twine.
"Want some skin?"
"want."
He then found a large piece of Gulu beast hide, folded it several times, tied it together with hemp rope.
Mu still remembered this strange human. The hides of the Gulu beast were troublesome to process, tasted mediocre, and were hard to chew. Only the extremely poor families in the tribe would pick up these unwanted Gulu beast hides to eat.
How do you eat this?
Mu asked. He was straightforward and disliked beating around the bush; he would ask questions directly.
"Make aspic."
Lai didn't hide anything and told him directly what to do, leaving Mu Yun completely confused. Lai felt something tugging at his trouser leg, looked down, and saw that it was the little bear clinging to his trouser leg and standing up.
"Ah! Ah!"
The little bear barked happily, and Mu squatted down and picked it up.
“This is my son, his name is Li, he was born last spring. He will be able to take human form this autumn.”
Li clearly didn't give her father any face, twisting and turning as she tried to get out of his arms, stretching out her two chubby little paws at Laiyi.
"Such a lively little guy."
Mu smiled kindly, like an old father, placed the little guy in the basket, and even gave him a piece of jerky. The little bear immediately began to happily nibble on it.
Lai paid the money, took the meat, and prepared to leave.
"Wait."
Mu called out to Laiyi, who was about to leave, and cut off another piece of meat for him under Laiyi's questioning gaze. He neatly wrapped it up and threw it into Laiyi's basket.
"This is for you, thank you for the recipe."
Lai was a little surprised; meat was quite expensive here, especially since Mu had cut him tenderloin.
It's only polite to reciprocate, and Lai didn't think the recipe for aspic was anything special. A simple online search would yield countless recipes for all sorts of delicious food. He felt he couldn't just leave like that.
"Mu, I have a way to make meat taste better. Would you like to hear it?"
Mu looked at Lai with some doubt. The meat tasted the same, how could it possibly get better? He was a little puzzled, but he still handed the stall over to the other orcs for the time being and followed Lai to a less crowded area.
"You really have a way?"
"Um."
Lei nodded.
The meat currently sold is from uncastrated Gulu Beasts. Gulu Beasts go into heat at a certain age, and due to the influence of hormones, the meat tastes very bad and has a fishy smell.
Modernly raised pigs are castrated at a very young age, so the pork doesn't have that gamey smell when it grows up.
Lai told Mu about this method, instructing him to cut off the two testicles of the Gulu Beast when it was young, leaving a few strong ones as breeding boars.
Mu felt a tightness in his crotch and was stunned.
Is this really okay?
The shepherd asked with a hint of doubt.
"You can try neutering one first, then kill it when it grows up and taste it, and then compare it with the others that weren't neutered."
"This is a method I saw in a book. It's just that you won't lose two pieces of meat if you take two fewer pieces."
Lei gestured with his hand as if making a scissor motion, and Mu nodded.
"good."
Mu expressed his sincere gratitude to Laiyi and cut off another piece of meat for him, but Laiyi hurriedly refused and left the meat stall quickly with his basket on his back.
Afterwards, Lai bought some mung beans and other odds and ends, then followed the oxcart back to the village. Passing Brian, who was working on the road, he greeted him.
The tunnel construction is progressing rapidly.
During the off-season when there was no work to do, helping with tunnel construction could save the family some grain and earn copper coins, so all the able-bodied young men and women in the villages were eager to do it.
Around mealtimes, villagers would occasionally carry chilled barley tea and sell it near the construction site. A large bowl could be bought for two copper coins, and the villagers didn't sell more than that, just to earn some snack money for their children.
In the height of summer, a fruit called Camellia melon ripens.
Neal’s neighbor, Old Gug, gave him a basket when he got out of school, so he could take it home and eat it with Rye.
Old Guge is over a hundred years old now, and his hair has long since turned white.
His wife passed away from illness more than a decade ago. His daughter married a businessman and has been out of contact for several years. His son worked as an apprentice in the city in his early years, later married the boss's daughter, and settled in Eton. He has also not visited him for a long time.
He lived a lonely life in a small mountain village.
Neil told Ray about what Old Gug had given him and handed him the melon. Suddenly, a child's shout came from outside the yard.
"Neil, pack your things and let's go! Everyone's waiting for you!"
Ray looked out the door and saw four children, about Neil's age, waving a net around their necks. Neil wasn't in a hurry to leave and was still helping Ray wash the vegetables.
"They're calling you, why aren't you going?"
“I’m a big kid now, I need to help with chores at home.”
Neil spoke seriously, like a little adult, and Ray couldn't help but chuckle.
“Neil!”
The sound of children shouting came from outside, and Leihu paused, looking at Neil's short buzz cut.
"Go out and have some fun. There's nothing I need your help with right now, but I'll call you if I need anything."
Ray rummaged through the storage room and pulled out a small net and bucket, forcefully shoving them into Neil's arms. These were the tools Neil used when he was a child, going to the river with the village kids to catch shrimp.
Every year at this time of year, the village stream teems with small shrimp and crabs. In this era with limited entertainment, catching shrimp and fish in the river is a rare pastime for children.
Ray pushed Neil out of the house, and the boys were overjoyed to see him come out.
Of all the children in the village, Neil was the best at catching shrimp.
"Be careful not to go into deep water."
"Okay, brother."
"good!"
The children chased each other and strolled leisurely towards the river.
People often wash clothes by the river. As long as you don't go too far out, there's no need to worry about safety.
Meat spoils easily in this weather, so Lai spent some time rendering all the pork fat into lard. He cut the pork belly into finger-thick strips to make braised pork belly for dinner, which was fatty but not greasy.
The pork tenderloin that Mu Song delivered was wrapped tightly in waterproof oil paper by Lai Yi and suspended in the well water with a thin rope several meters long. The well water was cool and running water, so the meat wouldn't spoil even after several days in it, which could be considered a special preservation method.
After finishing these tasks, Lai went to the garden.
He planted a few watermelon seedlings near the edge. He had seen them by chance while hunting in the mountains and transplanted them into his own vegetable garden.
Lei watered the precious watermelon vines and infused them with some wood-based magic. Several small flowers had already sprouted, and he believed that soon they would be able to enjoy large, round watermelons.
Lai hasn't yet discovered any other uses for his wood-based magic, so he's simply been using it all in the ground. It's very useful for everyday breeding and accumulating seedlings, saving a lot of time.
Lai and Neil have already eaten one batch of radish leaves; they'll be ready to dig up and eat them in a little while. There's another type of radish that won't be planted for another two months; this one can be stored for a longer time and can be eaten in winter. Lai plans to plant more of those then.
He pulled up the weeds next to the cucumbers and plucked some insect-infested leaves from the greens. Lai tossed them all into the enclosure of the red rockbirds, where the chicks happily began to peck at the food.
Lai went back inside and soaked the mung beans he had bought at the market in water. He planned to try making some mung bean soup and carry it to the construction site to see if he could sell it.
After playing for only a few hours, Neil returned happily with his little bucket.
"Brother, look what I caught!"
He lifted the leaves covering the bucket, revealing river shrimp and several small crabs that were scrambling to eat them.
"Ah, my shrimp!"
Neil put down the bucket and hurriedly grabbed a small basin, pinching the crab shells and catching them in the basin.
"Brother, I caught even more than these; they were all stolen and eaten by these few along the way."
Neil was somewhat annoyed.
"You caught all of these?"
"Ray asked," Neil proudly raised his head.
"Mmm!"
"Did you go to any deep water areas?"
No.
Neil shook his head. He was always obedient and sensible, making things very easy for Ray.
I'll cook you something delicious tonight.
"Very good!"
Neil cheered up again.
With Lay's constant feeding, Neil finally gained some weight and no longer looked like a little chick. Lay urged Neil to wash his hands and feet, and the two of them sat in the shade of the yard and ate two watermelons.
"This melon is so sweet!"
Neil first took a small bite, carefully sucking up a mouthful of juice, before chewing the melon pulp in large mouthfuls.
"It is quite sweet."
Lai agreed and took a big bite of the melon pulp.
"I don't know how Uncle Guge managed to grow it. Brother, let's plant some next year too."
Neil said to Ray, "Kids always just say whatever comes to mind."
"OK."
Ray readily agreed to Neil's request.
It's not just the Camellia melons; we need to plan for other vegetables and fruits too. Our vegetable garden is still a bit small; we'll have to cultivate more next year.
The forest is full of treasures; perhaps we can find species we have today...
While eating the melon seeds heartily, Lei secretly pondered what would happen next.
A note from the author:
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