Chapter 32 Beggar's Chicken
"Sister Tong, Sister Tong, I'm here. I'm leaving to pick mushrooms."
Lin Xiaotong and Hu Tou went to the foot of the mountain together with a small basket.
The terrain here is relatively flat, and the outer edge of the woods has been cut down by nearby villagers or hunters, revealing a series of short tree stumps.
Several short tree stumps are connected together, and the shady side is often covered with white grass mushrooms and wood ear mushrooms after the rain.
"Wow, that's a lot of mushrooms."
They looked at each other, their eyes shining, and they squatted down to pick mushrooms.
A flower here, a flower there, a cluster here, a cluster there.
At this moment, the two of them were like little mice that had fallen into a rice jar, so happy that they didn't know what to do.
"Tiger Head, what delicious food are you thinking about? Your mouth is watering."
"Sister Tong, I want to eat chicken stewed with mushrooms. My grandma made it last Chinese New Year and it was delicious. The mushrooms tasted like meat."
Hu Tou's eyes were shining as he said this.
"I want to eat chicken stewed with mushrooms, too. Fried mushrooms are delicious too. They are coated in flour and fried, so crispy and delicious!"
Lin Xiaotong remembered that she used to often see cooking tutorials on a certain website where a blogger taught people how to stew chicken with mushrooms and fried mushrooms.
Although she watched a lot, she still didn't learn it.
"Slurp, slurp."
After hearing what Lin Xiaotong said, Hu Tou also wanted to eat fried mushrooms. They both felt hungry.
The two men had picked all the mushrooms on the poplar stumps, leaving only the smaller ones.
"This is enough, it's a full basket. Come on, Tiger Head, let's go back."
"Okay, Sister Tong, there's something running towards you."
Hu Tou patted his butt and picked up the basket full of mushrooms. He turned around and saw a hairy creature rushing towards Lin Xiaotong's feet.
"What?"
“Aaaaaaaaaaa——!”
She was almost scared to death. She jumped three feet high and waved the bamboo stick in her hand vigorously with her eyes closed.
"Cluck, cluck, cluck—ga—"
He realized that he had accidentally killed something with a stick, but he still closed his eyes and dared not look.
"Sister Tong, stop hitting it, it's a chicken, a pheasant!"
Hu Tou bravely stepped forward to take a look, and found that it was a pheasant. The chicken's neck had been broken by sticks, and it had died with its head tilted and its eyes closed.
"The chicken is actually a pheasant!"
She felt that the sky was clear and the rain had stopped, and she was fine again.
I poked the pheasant a few more times with the stick, but found that the pheasant didn't react at all.
Lin Xiaotong and Hu Tou only breathed a sigh of relief after they were sure that the pheasant was dead. After all, a living pheasant can still be very lethal.
"Tiger Head, take the pheasant and we'll go find you and the others."
"Alright, Sister Tong, you're amazing! You even managed to catch the pheasant!"
Hu Tou held a pheasant in his left hand and a basket of mushrooms in his right hand, and walked with a step that showed no regard for his relatives.
"That's it, don't you see who I am!"
"Sister Tong, how about we have pheasant stewed with mushrooms?"
"We won't do it anyway."
"It would be great if you brought an iron pot, so we can have chicken stewed with mushrooms for lunch."
…
"Xiaotong, you're back. Why are your shoes covered in mud? Did you go into the mountains?"
Gao Xiulan and the other two were tired from digging and were sitting down to rest, with hay spread under their buttocks.
They were sitting together and chatting when they saw Lin Xiaotong and Hu Tou, one big and one small, coming back.
"Granny! Look at the pheasant Sister Tong caught! It's amazing!"
"Sister Tong killed the pheasant in a few quick swipes."
Hu Tou puffed out his little chest and held up the pheasant with a broken neck to show it to Zhang Dazui and the other three as if it were a treasure.
Lin Xiaotong also raised her fair little face, looking at Gao Xiulan expectantly, ready to receive praise.
"What? Pheasant! Xiaotong Hutou, you two went into the mountains?"
Gao Xiulan was surprised and happy at the same time.
"No, we were picking mushrooms when the chicken bumped into Sister Tong's feet and was beaten to death with sticks."
Hu Tou scratched his head and told the truth.
Gao Xiulan's mouth twitched when she heard that the pheasant died so tragically.
Before she could think of how to praise him, she opened her mouth wide and spoke quickly.
"Good shot! Xiaotong, your aim is pretty good!"
"Yeah, yeah, this chicken is pretty fat, it weighs at least three pounds."
Yu Afen looked at the pheasant with a sharp gaze, and saw that it was quite big.
“Gurgle—”
Hu Tou and Lin Xiaotong's stomachs started growling.
"It's almost eleven o'clock. It's too late to go home and cook. Let's just have lunch here today."
It would take at least one or two hours to go back by bike.
"Xiu Lan, I didn't bring a pot, what are we having for lunch?"
I originally thought there weren't many wild vegetables, so I picked them up just in time to go home for lunch.
Who knew there were so many wild vegetables here? I forgot the time while picking them.
"I brought four cornmeal cakes. Let's each have one to fill our stomachs."
Before leaving, Gao Xiulan thought about it and decided to take the cornmeal cakes left over from breakfast with her.
"Mom, I get it. Let's have beggar's chicken for lunch! This doesn't require a pot."
Lin Xiaotong looked at the pheasant and began to imagine how delicious it would be after being roasted.
"Isn't beggar's chicken just a chicken roasted in mud?"
Gao Xiulan can also make it. After all, this dish is simple and only requires a little skill.
"It's fine to eat this, too. Big Mouth, you go make a fire. Hutou and Xiaotong go collect firewood. Afen and I will go to the waterside to deal with the pheasant."
There is a small pond not far from the place Gao Xiulan found, but the water is not deep. It looks clear and is enough for washing.
Everyone listened to Gao Xiulan's instructions, divided the work clearly, and went to work separately.
Hutou picked up some dry branches at the foot of the mountain to take back and use as firewood.
Lin Xiaotong stood on tiptoe and reached out to pluck a few large leaves, washed them and prepared to take them back to wrap the pheasant.
Gao Xiulan carried a small box of almost empty matches with her. She struck it a few times and threw it onto the pile of firewood that Hutou had picked up, and the fire was instantly lit.
The naked pheasant was plucked and simply marinated with wild onions, wild garlic and the salt we had with us, then wrapped in a few large leaves.
Seeing that the firewood was almost burned out, Gao Xiulan quickly threw the wrapped pheasant onto the fire and quickly covered the fire with the dirt on the ground.
Finally, use a stick to flatten it so that the pheasant will not be burnt black and will be slowly cooked with the residual heat.
"Mom, how long will it take before we can eat?"
Lin Xiaotong and Hu Tou were squatting beside the fire with pancakes in their hands.
"It will probably take more than an hour. Eat some bread first."
Gao Xiulan estimated the time. After all, it was a pheasant, so she could cook it longer to make it safer to eat.
After saying that, he sat down on the straw mat, took a pancake and started eating.
“Okay!”
A faint aroma of meat wafted out from the mound, becoming more and more alluring.
"Why do I feel like the more I eat this pancake, the hungrier I get."
Zhang Dazui swallowed unconsciously and said something.
Several adults couldn't bear it anymore. They finished the pancakes in a few bites and went outside with baskets to continue digging wild vegetables. If they couldn't see them, they wouldn't be greedy.
Gao Xiulan and the other two were thinking about eating pheasants soon, so they were all very motivated.
Soon the basket was filled again and then transferred to the snakeskin bag.
After working for a morning, each family had a good harvest. The wild vegetables they dug filled half a bag, and the basket was now empty.
"Xiu Lan, lend me a bag."
"Give!"
"Let's go inside and take a look. Pick some more mushrooms to take with you."
Gao Xiulan wiped the sweat from her forehead and said after taking a breath.
Yu Afen turned around and looked at the two children who were leaning against each other with squinting eyes.
"I think it's okay. It's not easy to come out."
Zhang Dazui thought to himself that maybe he could meet the blind pheasant again.
"Walk."
A few people took baskets and went to look for Yangshudun again.
After waiting for so long, Lin Xiaotong and Hu Tou almost fell asleep while squatting.
Gao Xiulan and the other two finally returned with the mushrooms they had picked, and their baskets were full.
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