Ye replied, "If I knew where he was, I would send that brat away even in the middle of the night. Sigh, Qiu Yan, I'll leave Xiao Ran to you for now. I'm going back to catch up on some sleep; I'm so tired."
Ye yawned, said goodbye to Qiu Yan, and returned to her own courtyard.
After saying goodbye to Madam Ye, Qiu Yan returned to her room. By then, Qiu Xu had already dressed Gu Xiaoran.
The moment Gu Xiaoran finished dressing, she lay down on the ground as if they were old friends and fell fast asleep.
"This little devil, he even knows how to sleep." Now that he's asleep, Qiu Yan finally has some peace and quiet, and her morning exercise shifts from the outside to the inside.
After breakfast, Qiu Xu went to the village school, and Qiu Yan asked Qiu Ling'er to look after Gu Xiaoran while she went to the village carpenter's house.
The village carpenter was a middle-aged man with a kind and honest appearance. Many villagers from other villages liked to have their furniture custom-made by him.
Therefore, they often have a lot of spare furniture at home.
Qiu Yan examined the furniture carefully. While it wasn't particularly beautiful, it was very practical.
In addition to buying Qiu Xu a desk, she also bought him a dining table and chairs, two wooden beds, and two small wardrobes.
The new house can't be built anytime soon, and the old house is really inconvenient to live in without furniture.
The dining table and chairs can be delivered now, but the rest of the furniture will take some time.
Before leaving, Qiu Yan paid a deposit of one hundred coins, and the remaining balance would be settled once the furniture arrived.
After the dining table and chairs were delivered home, Qiu Yan went to the village school.
At this moment, Qiu Xu and the other children were reading ancient poems with Master Wang, and from a distance, there was nothing unusual about them.
During recess, Qiu Xiaobao and others laughed and played, while Qiu Xu quietly read his book alone.
Qiu Yan watched for a long time, and when she found that her younger brother had not been bullied at the village school, she quietly left.
While out in the afternoon, Qiu Yan locked the courtyard gate from the inside, leaving Qiu Ling'er at home to keep Gu Xiaoran company, while she carried a basket on her back and took some homemade ropes to the mountains.
The rope was made by her own hands from rattan bark; it was sturdy and durable.
Besides gathering medicinal herbs, she also plans to set several snares in the mountains today, hoping to catch some prey.
Running along, Qiu Yan reached the depths of the forest. While searching for herbs, she began setting traps whenever she spotted signs of wild rabbits.
One end of the snare is tied to a tree, and the other end is tied with a slipknot to support the circle... If a wild rabbit happens to pass by, the snare will tighten, and the prey will be firmly tethered.
Right now, all she could think about was making money, and her movements unconsciously quickened. By the time she ran out of ropes, she had made seven or eight snares.
After finishing the hunting trap, Qiu Yan continued searching for herbs.
I had only dug up a few herbs when a chattering sound reached my ears from the jungle ahead.
At first, Qiu Yan thought it was just birdsong in the mountains and didn't take it seriously.
But as she approached, the voice grew clearer and clearer, as if it were right next to her.
Could it be that there's a bird's nest hidden in the bushes ahead?
Just as she was thinking this, she noticed a pheasant chick running out of the bushes. When it saw her, it flapped its wings and started to run away. Clearly, it couldn't fly yet.
From the moment Qiu Yan saw the pheasant chicks, she began to crouch down and tiptoe, moving forward quietly. Just as she got closer, she saw a pheasant catching insects in the grass.
This pheasant is quite plump.
She was secretly delighted; she had been in the mountains for a long time, and this was the first time she had had the chance to catch a pheasant.
Besides the pheasant, there was a group of baby pheasants beside it, all of them just learning to fly and none of them could run fast.
Qiu Yan slowed her movements, trying not to make a sound, then lunged forward suddenly...
Pheasants are very agile; when they sense someone approaching, they spread their wings to escape.
However, as soon as it started flying, Qiu Yan caught its tail.
It struggled desperately, but Qiu Yan had already stepped forward, firmly wrapped its entire body around it, tied it tightly with vines, and tossed it into the basket.
If the hen was caught, there was no reason not to let the wild pheasant chicks go.
The pheasant chicks were already terrified and scattered in all directions. Qiu Yan quickly put down her basket and began to catch them one by one.
Every time she caught a baby pheasant, she tied it with a vine and threw it into her basket so it could go find the adult pheasant.
Before long, eight pheasant chicks were safely placed in her basket. A few escaped and disappeared into the bushes.
Qiu Yan, after chasing for a while, was already covered in sweat.
After resting for a while and gathering some herbs, she prepared to go home.
Before going home, she met a robust elderly woman.
The old woman was wearing faded, patched clothes and carrying a burlap sack, walking forward step by step.
And the direction she was heading was deep into the mountains and forests.
Out of curiosity, Qiu Yan stepped forward and asked, "Grandma, where are you going?"
The old woman smiled kindly at Qiu Yan, "Go home."
Qiu Yan's heart skipped a beat. Could it be that she had encountered a ghost in broad daylight?
"All ahead is jungle, where is home?"
"Yes, you villagers from outside the mountains don't know. Just cross this forest and then climb over another mountain, and you'll be at my home." Hearing the chattering sounds coming from the basket on Qiu Yan's back, the old woman looked over curiously.
It turned out they were villagers from the mountainous area. After learning the situation, Qiu Yan didn't ask any more questions and prepared to go home.
She had intended to continue gathering medicinal herbs, but to her surprise, the old woman stepped forward and put down her sack, saying, "Young lady, would you like some mountain produce? It's all gathered by us mountain people ourselves in the forest."
This old lady was actually out doing business.
Qiu Yan couldn't help but chuckle as she recalled her experience selling wood ear mushrooms.
At this moment, the old woman had already untied the burlap sack, revealing the clean, authentic mountain produce inside.
These are also wild wood ear mushrooms and other fungi. The fungi include two types: shiitake and oyster mushrooms.
Seeing that Qiu Yan only smiled and didn't say anything, the old woman couldn't help but feel a little discouraged. Today, she had worked from dawn till dusk, making a big circle around the nearby mountain village, and only earned ten coins.
"Oh well, if you don't want it, then forget it."
She was carrying a sack and wanted to continue walking when Qiu Yan saw this and called out to her.
How much do you sell these mountain products for?
The old lady stopped and replied with a smile, "Wood ear fungus is ten coins a pound, dried mushrooms are eight coins, and fresh ones are two coins a pound."
So cheap?
Qiu Yan carefully examined the mountain produce the old lady had brought. The wood ear mushrooms were dried and a little larger than the ones she had picked last time. There were both dried and fresh mushrooms, and they all had a faint fragrance.
Hearing that the old lady wasn't charging a high price, Qiu Yan naturally wanted to buy it, but then she asked, "I went into the mountains to collect herbs and didn't bring any money. Can I trade your mountain produce for a pheasant?"
As Qiu Yan spoke, she put down the basket on her back, revealing a large pheasant flapping its wings inside, along with baby pheasants eager to jump out.
The old woman took a serious look at the plump pheasant; she was tempted.
Her family rarely eats meat, even though they live in the mountains. There are no hunters in her family, and few of them can catch prey.
If these mountain produce could be exchanged for pheasants, my family could have a good meal.
"Young lady, how would you like to change it?"
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