Chapter 190 Snake Eggs

When Lin Yue and Zhang Yuandong got home, they saw Brother Zhang working on a pile of adobe bricks on the roadside outside the yard. He didn't bring any extra shoes, so he just walked barefoot in the mud, and his hands were covered in mud.

He saw Lin Yue and his wife from a distance and said with a smile: "I see you have piled up a lot of adobe bricks. Do you want to build a house? Let me know in advance, and your second and third brothers and I will come!"

Zhang Yuandong was not polite and readily agreed. He handed the military jacket on his shoulders to Lin Yue, walked over to join him, and said with a smile: "But it's still early. We don't have enough manpower right now. We have to wait until the new family area is built before we can start construction here."

Brother Zhang said, "It's not that troublesome. It's just two small houses. It's not the busy farming season. We brothers can just work for a few days and it will be finished!"

Zhang Yuandong smiled and said, "Don't worry, I'll let you know in advance when the time comes."

In addition to daily border patrols and training, the troops' main task is the construction of a new family area, and they may also have to build staff dormitories for the military hospital in the future.

It was not the right time for him to build a house. So he built the adobe bricks slowly, thinking that he would find someone to help build it after the family quarters were completed.

These two people were bound to be covered in mud, so Lin Yue simply prepared some hot water before cooking.

This season is rather awkward. Although the weather has warmed up, the vegetables we planted do not mature that quickly. What we eat now are mainly wild vegetables and mushrooms.

The tomatoes planted by Lin Yue on the kang are not yet ripe. Although they were planted quite early, the temperature is low and they have just set fruit. The children in the family come over every day to check on them to see if they have turned red.

However, leeks and rapeseed are edible. Lin Yue made scrambled eggs with leeks, minced meat and vermicelli with rapeseed, and braised roe deer meat at noon.

After she finished cooking, she went out to the yard and saw the five children had come back from playing around and were squatting in the mud playing. Lin Yue called them home for dinner, but the children were reluctant to go, even the youngest Sisi was reluctant to leave.

She pulled out the straws from the adobe bricks made by her uncle and her father one by one and put them all aside. When Lin Yue went to see, he heard the little person sighing. He wondered if it was because the workload was too large and she was having a hard time.

Lin Yue reached out and picked up the little girl. Her feet were covered in mud, but she was still struggling and refused to leave, insisting on continuing her great cause.

This little girl has a babyish voice, and her words are very easy to make people soft-hearted. Lin Yue coaxed this little girl into the house, but he almost got persuaded by a child who was not even two years old, even though she didn't know how to reason with others.

Lin Yue knew that he was particularly soft-hearted towards this little guy, so he simply stopped listening to what she said, dragged the child into the house, and yelled to the children behind him: "You better hurry up, don't wait for me to get angry!"

When the children heard this, they dared not continue to resist and rushed home with their shoes in their hands.

Sisi's feet were covered in mud. She was too small to wear straw sandals, so she and Xiao Mushroom always wore cloth shoes. Her father was very considerate and took off her shoes, otherwise it would be more troublesome to clean them.

Little Mushroom didn't come in. He was outside having his feet washed by his father. After Lin Yue finished washing Little Sisi's feet, he also ran in from outside the door.

The young man mysteriously pulled Lin Yue aside, took out a few things from his pocket like treasures, shrank his head, and whispered: "Mom, look at the bird eggs I took out!"

Lin Yue looked down and almost cried out.

There were four milky white eggs lying quietly in the child's hands. The eggs were not big, not even as big as her thumb, but it was not difficult to guess from their shape that they were snake eggs.

Lin Yue stretched out his hand tremblingly, wanting to take the snake eggs. Little Mushroom was reluctant to part with them, so he retracted his hand reflexively, then quickly passed it over and gave Lin Yue a flattering smile.

Lin Yue's heart was trembling. She didn't understand the habits of snakes, and she didn't know whether these snake eggs would suddenly hatch. If they were poisonous snakes, it would be terrible.

She pretended to be envious and asked, "You are so amazing to find so many eggs. Did you find them all by yourself? I really like them so much. Why don't you give them to me?"

Little Mushroom was very proud all of a sudden: "Mom, these eggs are for you! My brothers and sisters wouldn't let me take the eggs, so I found them secretly without telling them."

Lin Yue forced a smile on his face and confirmed: "This little mushroom is really amazing. Where did you find it?"

"In the grass!"

Yes, it was definitely a snake egg. I wonder if the snake that lost its eggs is looking for its children.

She put the snake eggs away, called Wanli over and asked him about the bird eggs he had collected that morning.

When Wanli heard her ask this, he was afraid that she would teach him to climb trees, so he emphasized, "We only climbed very short trees. We would not climb trees that were slightly higher. And there were always people watching Sisi and Little Mushroom to prevent them from running around or climbing trees."

Lin Yue nodded and asked, "How many bird eggs did you get?"

"We didn't find many trees with bird nests, and Dabao didn't let us take out all the eggs, so there weren't many left, not enough for each of us to share."

Lin Yue nodded, fortunately those little birds were not too unlucky. She asked around for a long time and found that the child didn't know that his good brother had picked up the snake eggs, so she couldn't help but sigh in her heart.

Little Mushroom stood aside, staring at the two people talking with his big eyes, as if he was worried that Lin Yue would reveal his secret. Lin Yue smiled at him soothingly and kept the little guy's secret tightly.

After Zhang Yuandong finished cleaning, he heard the conversation between the mother and son and said with a smile: "Why didn't you tell me that you were digging for bird eggs? I would have taken you there!"

His voice was quite loud and all the children in the room heard it. They immediately turned their heads and looked at him eagerly with their eyes shining.

Brother Zhang smiled and said, "Yes, go find your father. When he was a child, he was very good at taking bird eggs. He was very thin and small at that time, but he looked like a monkey. He could climb up any tree, no matter how high it was. He always took the most eggs."

The children cheered and gathered around Zhang Yuandong, begging him, "Dad/Uncle, please take us to get bird eggs this afternoon!"

Zhang Yuandong responded happily and said with a smile: "Okay, I'll take you there when I get back from work today!"

A few children cheered, and nice words came out as if they were free.

While everyone was eating, Lin Yue dragged Zhang Yuandong into the room. She took out the snake eggs and handed them to Zhang Yuandong, "Here, these are the eggs that your little son took out."

Zhang Yuandong's eyes widened, and he asked incredulously, "Where did he pick up the snake eggs?"

"It was in the grass. He thought it was a bird egg, so he picked it up and gave it to me."

Zhang Yuandong's facial expression was a little chapped. He looked outside at a few children. The little mushroom was fluttering its little feet and seemed to be in a good mood.

Brother Zhang called out, "Far East, Xiao Lin, what are you doing? Come over and have dinner!"

The two agreed, but were both worried about how to deal with these snake eggs.

Zhang Yuandong whispered, "It's okay. I'll find a few more bird nests this afternoon and replace these eggs." After that, he hurried out.

Lin Yue was really afraid that this method would not work in time. Sure enough, after Little Mushroom finished his nap, the first thing he did when he woke up was to look for his "bird eggs", regardless of whether he had wanted to hide them from his brothers and sisters before.

Seeing that diverting attention was useless, Lin Yue had no choice but to take out the eggs, and tremblingly held them in his hands to show him, deliberately saying: "Didn't you say that you had given these eggs to mother? Why, are you reluctant to part with them now?"

Little Mushroom rubbed his eyes and nodded, "I'll give it to my mother!"

After getting a positive answer, Lin Yue quickly wanted to put the egg away, but his conversation was overheard by several children.

Ling Ling came up and asked curiously, "Mom, who got these bird eggs? There are so many!"

The little mushroom puffed out his chest proudly and said loudly, "I got this!"

Some children didn't believe it, and Little Stone even asked, "Auntie, who took Little Mushroom to get bird eggs again?"

The little mushroom shouted back: "No, I found it myself!"

Lin Yue quickly put the bird eggs away again and nodded, "Yes, the little mushroom found it himself. All right, when you wake up, go pee. I just fried some dried meat. Wash your hands and come over to eat!"

In order to find the tiger some time ago, they patrolled the mountains more frequently and hunted a lot of game. This time, Brother Zhang brought so much meat. The family couldn't finish the meat, so she boiled the fat into oil and made the lean meat into fried jerky to give to the children as snacks.

When the children heard that there was dried meat, they were very happy and rushed to the toilet.

There was only one toilet, so if you went late you had to queue. Little Stone, relying on his agility, rushed left and right, leaving Lingling and Wanli behind, and rushed into the toilet first.

Ling Ling was just one step away from catching up with him. She stamped her feet in anger and urged him at the door: "Hurry up, you're dawdling. The dried meat won't taste good if it gets cold!"

Lin Yue listened to the children's noise and felt relieved. She quickly put the snake eggs back into the room and took Xiao Mushroom and Sisi to wash their hands.

Brother Zhang didn't stay long and went home with the little stone the next day.

Although the children would sometimes fight, when they really had to separate, they were reluctant to leave each other and hugged each other tightly, crying louder than the other, but almost all of them were howling, trying to make the adults feel sorry for them and not let them go.

Seeing that the truck was about to leave for the city, Lin Yue had no choice but to persuade him, "Little Stone, don't you always want to see the military uncle holding a gun? If you don't leave now, you will miss the chance to ride in the truck with them!"

Little Shitou's crying stopped, and even his tears seemed to have stopped all of a sudden. He sniffed the big snot that was about to flow out, and patted Lingling and Wanli's shoulders in a mature manner: "It's okay, that's it, stop crying, I'll be back in a while!"

Lingling and Wanli stopped crying, and only Little Mushroom was left hugging Little Stone's waist, crying loudly. He was probably the only child who really cried tears.

Lin Yue said to Lingling and Wanli, "Little Stone will go home to live for a while and will be back soon. When he goes back, you must help me move all the vegetables on the kang to the vegetable garden. I will clean up that room for you, and when Little Stone comes back, you can live in that room together."

Lingling and Wanli held back their tears and asked, "Mom, will that room belong to us from now on?"

Lin Yue nodded, "Of course, you are grown up now, you should have your own house in the future!"

The two siblings cheered and patted Little Stone on the shoulder, saying earnestly, "You haven't been home for a long time. Grandpa and Grandma must miss you very much. Go back soon, the sooner you go, the sooner you come back!"

Lin Yue couldn't help laughing, and he forced a smile as he separated the children and pushed the small stone to his father.

Seeing that he was still dragging his feet, Brother Zhang was about to lose control of his anger and wanted to hit the child. But when he saw that Little Shitou finally followed him obediently, he glared at his son unhappily. If he hadn't been holding the things Lin Yue had prepared in both hands, he would have dragged the child over.

Lin Yue sent the two to the car. Brother Zhang waved to her and reminded her, "Sister-in-law, you must remind Yuandong to let us know when you build the maisonette. Your second and third brothers and I will come to help!"

Lin Yue nodded in agreement. Zhang Yuandong didn't come today, he was called away early in the morning. In recent years, the relationship between Huaguo and the big brother next door has become increasingly bad, and recently there have been many conflicts because of a small island.

Zhang Yuandong was suddenly called to a meeting the day before yesterday, and he has been worried for the past few days. Lin Yue guessed that something might have happened on the other side of the river. However, she heard from Zhou Aixiang next door that now that the weather is warmer, it is not the time when conflicts are most likely to occur. In winter, the river freezes, making it easier for the other side to come here, and there are more cases of people deliberately looking for trouble.

The Soviet Union's activities on the border of the Flower Kingdom have been increasingly frequent recently, which clearly shows the other party's attitude. Therefore, even though Wu Balao Island is not under the jurisdiction of this unit, Zhang Yuandong and his team have still stepped up patrol efforts.

Lin Yue didn't know about this part of history. She knew that the relationship between Hua Kingdom and the big brother next door had been hostile, but she didn't expect it to be so serious.

Less than a month later, a fight broke out between the two parties, and there were casualties in the Flower Kingdom.

Seeing the situation getting more and more serious, even Lin Yue began to get nervous. However, other military wives did not think so. Zhou Aixiang comforted Lin Yue: "Don't be so nervous. You have been here for a short time and don't know. In fact, such frictions often occur between the two countries and will be fine soon."

Lin Yue was not comforted. Although she didn't understand this history, she still felt inexplicably anxious.

Zhang Yuandong spent more and more time away from the camp. He began to patrol the border more frequently, and was always nervous when he came back.

Lin Yue believed in his intuition. As a man who had fought on the battlefield, his foresight about war and danger was always different from others.

After the family quarters were built, the higher authorities issued a notice to postpone the arrival of military wives. Now, even Zhou Aixiang began to feel that something was wrong.

Time seemed to be accelerated, and Sisi's second birthday passed quietly. Not long after, Little Mushroom also celebrated his third birthday.

In November, there were several heavy snowfalls, and the weather seemed to have turned cold all of a sudden. Aunt Hua instructed Lin Yue to store the cabbages and radishes in the cellar, and also pickled several jars of sauerkraut.

The black market does not produce rice, so they rely on wheat, corn and sweet potatoes harvested from their own fields throughout the long winter. Fortunately, they have a lot of land, and the taxes they pay to the army are not that much. If they eat frugally, they can survive until the beginning of next spring. They rarely use bills, so they need to go out to buy them.

In fact, many families have already taken their children back to their hometowns before the mountains were closed due to heavy snow, and will not return until the ice and snow melt next year.

Xiao Shitou would come to stay for a few days sometimes, and Lingling and Wanli would also go to Luohe Brigade to stay for a while sometimes.

But Brother Zhang took Xiao Shitou home a few days ago, saying that he would not come back before the New Year. Lin Yue wanted to stay, but she also knew that the weather would only get worse in the future. If she didn't leave now, the mountain would be blocked by heavy snow, and Xiao Shitou might not be able to go back for the New Year.

Although Lingling and Wanli were reluctant, they knew this was the truth and did not make a fuss.

The two of them have been getting close to Dongkai recently, and often call the three kids from Aunt Hua's family to go out and play together. No one knows what they are going to play, not even Little Mushroom.

Lin Yue knew that Dongkai and Dabao were both stable people and would not take them to dangerous places, so he did not interfere.

In fact, she really didn't have the energy to care too much because the troops began to prepare for war.

Lin Yue has hardly seen Zhang Yuandong recently. She is worried. Unlike the Flower Kingdom which pays more attention to people's livelihood construction, the development of the Su Kingdom is deformed. However, it is undeniable that its military strength is incomparable to that of the current Flower Kingdom.

As the weather gets colder, fewer and fewer military families go out, which makes the atmosphere in the family area even more solemn.

But at this time, Zhang Yulan changed her previous timid and cowardly character and her unwillingness to deal with others, and frequently ran out of the military camp.

It is said that Instructor Li's younger brother in his hometown is getting married, and Zhang Yulan has been going to department stores frequently recently to buy clothes for him.

It was freezing outside, not to mention the heavy snow. It would be very difficult to go out at this time. But Zhang Yulan was not afraid. She even learned how to drive a carriage.

Zhang Yulan hasn't been bothering Wang Tingting recently, but what she did has long been spread out. Now everyone knows that she and her husband are worried because they don't have children. They are all wondering whether Instructor Li will adopt the child to raise after his younger brother gets married and has children.