He made a fire to stew sweet potatoes while Jane Ning cleaned the well. Their special police force often carried out missions in the deep mountains and forests, sometimes staying there for several months, so she kept a lot of tools in the herb room, including a sewage well cleaner with a retractable handle and a curved scraper, as well as a hand pump and a sewage well cleaning bucket.
Erniu was watching over Ding Youtian stewing sweet potatoes in the kitchen, while Daniu and Dabao came to help Jian Ning. Jian Ning asked Daniu to lead Dabao to clear the weeds around the well, and told them not to get close to the wellhead. Then she went down to the bottom of the well to work, and tied a layer of silent net at the wellhead. No sound from the well could be heard outside, but she could hear the movement outside.
With the tools, it was quick to clean the well. Jane Ning poured the accumulated silt bucket by bucket directly onto the medicinal field among the herbs. She didn't come up until the water became completely clear, then she took the bucket to squeeze out the water.
What Jian Ning didn't expect was that Dabao could easily lift a full bucket of water, even though he was sick. He was much better than his useless father.
"Baoer is so capable." Jian Ning praised with a smile.
After being praised, Dabao hugged Jian Ning's thighs with both hands and laughed. Because his brain couldn't keep up, it affected his language expression, so most of the time he was more accustomed to using body language.
"The eldest sister is more capable. Not only can she take care of her brothers and sisters, she also knows how to care for mother." When Jian Ning was working underground, the eldest girl would call out to her mother every once in a while. She was relieved only when she knew that she was safe. "You are all my darlings. I will raise you all to be fat and healthy..."
Well, white is fine, but fat is not.
"Mom!" Erniu poked her head out of the kitchen and called, "The sweet potatoes are roasting and smell good. Daddy wants Mom to check if they're ready to eat."
The aroma of roasted sweet potatoes woke Sanniu up.
She wrinkled her nose and called out "Mom" weakly.
Jian Ning held her in her arms, first fed her a bowl of spiritual spring water, and then broke off a sweet potato and fed it to her mouth.
It felt so happy to be held and fed by her mother. Sanniu smiled at Jian Ning from time to time, and her smile showed her satisfaction.
Dabao sat on a small stool holding a sweet potato, imitating his father and Da Niu and Er Niu, blowing on it a few times and taking a bite, his mouth watering as he ate.
Ding Youtian looked at the heartwarming scene in front of him and smiled at first. Then his eyes became sore and he quickly got up and walked out.
The lady hated people who cried all the time, so he decided to do something that the lady liked. He washed his hands first and then brought in a basin of water.
Jian Ning washed the hands and faces of the four little ones and asked Ding Youtian to look after them at home. She was going to go up the mountain to hunt some game to make a delicious meal for everyone in the evening. She also had to deal with the roof problem.
Ding Youtian insisted on going with him. There were wild beasts on the mountain and he was worried about his wife going up the mountain alone.
Jian Ning thought about it and agreed readily, then told the eldest girl to keep an eye on her brothers and sisters.
The eldest girl nodded heavily. When she found that the second girl was missing, she felt very guilty. She felt that she was not a good sister and did not take good care of the second girl.
Ding Youtian followed Jian Ning up the mountain. In the blink of an eye, Jian Ning disappeared. He was so anxious that he shouted, "Bao'er's mother!" Just as he shouted, Jian Ning's voice came over: "Stop screaming and focus on cutting grass. We have to build the roof before dark."
Hearing his wife's voice nearby, Ding Youtian felt relieved and began to concentrate on mowing the grass.
"Bao'er's father, come over and take a look."
After a while, he heard Jane Ning calling him, and he followed the sound to find her. Jane Ning was holding a military tent that she had taken out of the herb room. He took it, looked at it, and then shook it open and asked Jane Ning to help him level it.
As a special police officer, Jian Ning was always cautious and careful in her work, a requirement that Wu Yanxu, the team's captain, required of every officer. Even the smallest mistake could be devastating to both the individual and the entire team. So, even though Ding Youtian was a poor student who had failed the Tongsheng exam for three consecutive years, she had already used chemicals to remove the text and patterns from the tent beforehand, then deliberately scratched a few areas, then reattached them with traceless tape.
"Sure enough, there are some damages. We are lucky. This should be the camp cloth. It can keep out the rain and can be used to cover the roof."
"What camp cloth?" Jian Ning didn't expect that he knew about camp cloth, and was happy to pretend to be a treasure.
Seeing that she didn't understand, Ding Youtian unconsciously straightened his back. "It's used by soldiers to set up camp. A few months ago, there was a camp at the foot of the mountain behind. It was the soldiers under the command of Prince Pingnan. Occasionally, soldiers would go up the mountain to hunt prey, so most of the time, someone had set up camp on the mountain, and this is what they threw away."
He looked at it again and said, "That's all right. Just use your needle and thread to make a few stitches and put them on the roof. Then cover it tightly with straw. That would be perfect."
"Then hurry up and cut the grass. Let's split up and meet back here later."
Ding Youtian, feeling energized by the treasure he had found and the chance to show his face to his wife, set to work mowing the grass. He was hard at work when he heard a noise and, turning back, saw a hare lying at the foot of a tree.
He went forward to pick up the rabbit, looked left and right, but saw no wounds. Could it have been killed by a collision? He was a little confused, but with the facts before him, he just thought he was lucky.
"Bao'er's mother! Bao'er's mother!" He was eager to share such good news with his wife.
Jane Ning came over in response and handed over the rabbit like a treasure. Jane Ning squinted her eyes and smiled. The rabbit was hit by her flying needle and was thrown by her.
"Let's dig a trap. This rabbit is quite fat. We can use the rabbit's head as bait and take the rest back home. We can give half to Sister Tian and eat the other half ourselves."
Rabbit heads are also meat, and Ding Youtian was reluctant to give them up. In the past, during the slack season, his father often took him and his brothers to the mountains to dig traps. But nine out of ten times, they came up empty-handed, as the wild animals in the mountains were very cunning. Later, his father felt sorry for the meat bait he saved from eating, so he stopped wasting time.
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