When Xiao's mother learned the truth, she felt relieved and smiled with joy.
Xiao Lanlan had also specifically told her to whet the appetite of her third sister-in-law, but not to tell her and make her feel itchy. Xiao's mother had just thought that her words at noon were not pleasant, so she thought it was time to play a trick on her.
Soon, the four members of the Xiao family packed up their things, took their tools and went up the mountain, with Xiao Lanlan leading the way.
Liu was still having a tantrum with her husband and refused to talk to him. She wanted to go out and ask but was held back by the heat, so she waited until they left before coming out and running to ask Zhou.
As a result, Zhou had just talked to Xiao's mother and wanted to tease her, so how could she tell her so easily?
Liu is usually the most gossipy. Whenever something happens, she is the first to rush forward and get to the bottom of everything. It is so annoying. If she can't get the answer clearly, she will feel itchy all over.
So, Zhou insisted that nothing was wrong and she just wouldn't tell her. She didn't dare ask Xiao's mother, and she was so anxious that she was going around in circles. The more she thought about it, the more she felt something was wrong. She felt that they were hiding something from her.
On the other side, the four Xiao family members, led by Xiao Lanlan, arrived at the ravine where they found the robe and wild boar as quickly as possible.
Jiang Sui had been watching the robe underneath and the movements of the wild boar, while Xiao Hechuan found a stick and squatted on the ground to dig.
Hearing someone coming, the two stood up vigilantly, and only breathed a sigh of relief when they found out it was one of their own family members.
"Where is the wild boar?" Xiao Laosan looked around. There was a hemp rope wrapped around his arm, which was as thick as a finger.
"Dad, Third Brother, the wild boar is down there, look quickly." Xiao Hechuan pointed down.
Father Xiao pulled aside the green plants, and the father and his sons looked down, all of them smiling.
"Wow, it looks quite fat. The robe is still alive. The wild boar looks like it weighs at least 250 kilograms." Boss Xiao made an estimate.
The robe weighed only about 100 pounds, and together with the wild boar, it weighed more than 300 pounds. The brothers were young and strong, so this weight was nothing to them.
Father Xiao nodded in agreement and began to think about how to get down. It was obvious that the wild boar and the robe had fallen down during a fight. If he looked carefully, he should be able to find the way down.
"Let's go down and take a look, tie them up, and then go down the mountain when it starts to get dark. We should take the small path back and try not to be seen by anyone."
Nowadays, if a family has something good, they have to hide it, let alone meat. If the villagers knew that they picked up a wild boar and a robe, every household would come to help, and each person would carry a piece of meat away. How would that be enough to share?
Making smoked meat, salted meat and air-fried meat is enough for the whole family to eat for a long time. It’s not selfish, every family does this.
Jiang Sui and Xiao Lanlan were unable to help, so they simply continued picking mushrooms. Xiao Hechuan still had some strength left, so he went down with them. With his brothers around, nothing would go wrong.
When we got down there, we confirmed that the two animals had indeed fallen from a fight. The boar had many bruises on its body and its two hind legs were broken. The wild boar was even worse off, because it was big and had fallen hard, and there was a sharp wooden stake underneath that had pierced directly into its stomach. Although it was not deep, the blood had almost drained out, and its stomach was still heaving. It was only breathing its last breath and was completely unable to resist.
Fortunately, I still have a breath, otherwise the meat will not be fresh.
The four of them, father and sons, happily tied up the wild boar, then tied up the robes, and tied them together tightly with a thick hemp rope.
He immediately cut down two sturdy wooden sticks to use to lift the wild boar.
The man in the robe was still looking at everyone with clear and stupid eyes, not realizing at all that he was about to become someone else's meal.
They went back and forth for a long time this afternoon. When they carried the wild boar and the robe up the ravine, the sun began to set. The father and his sons took a rest on the spot. Robe was so exhausted that he didn't have the strength to cry out.
Jiang Sui and Xiao Lanlan, the sister-in-law, had already filled their bamboo baskets and backpacks with mushrooms. Father Xiao asked the three of them to carry the mushrooms down the mountain first, otherwise the road would be difficult to walk on after dark.
The four of them carried the wild boar back along the path.
Jiang Sui naturally obeyed the arrangement. She couldn't help with such hard work, so she and Xiao Lanlan took Xiao Hechuan home first.
Xiao's mother and Zhou had already set up a big pot in the yard to boil water. Their Xiao family's yard was relatively remote, at the innermost part of the village, at the foot of the mountain, with only a few families nearby. Most of the people in the village were concentrated in the middle area, and the houses were built in rows, so that anyone with a loud voice could be heard.
They originally lived there, but later they thought that there were not enough rooms for the children in the family, and they were all boys, so they thought that when they got married, each of them would have a room. So they sold the rooms in their old house to a family from another family. They sold the land and the house for ten taels of silver, and built a new yard on the vegetable land they had reclaimed. There are three rooms on the east side, two rooms on the west side plus a small firewood room, one room in the main house, and a kitchen. It cost more than ten taels of silver to build it all. And that was all paid for by the whole family themselves without hiring a few more people to do the work.
Because the land is limited, the rooms are relatively small, just enough for people to live in. In the future, when the children get married and have children, they can find ways to work and save money. If they want to divide the family property, they can go out and rebuild it themselves.
The yard at home is made of mud. At that time, the idea was to make it higher to prevent thieves. Now it is convenient. They boil water and kill pigs and robes in their own home, and no one outside can see it.
Seeing how much of a fuss Xiao's mother and Zhou made, Liu wanted to know what they were going to do, but no one told her, which made her very anxious.
Jiang Sui and the other two came back first with mushrooms. Just like in the morning, they had a great harvest. Xiao's mother and Zhou had already processed the mushrooms in the morning, sorted them, and spread them on the ground to dry.
But I didn't expect that the mushrooms grew so well this year. It would be nice if I could save some and exchange them for more money to buy oil and noodles.
The meal was ready, so they could just eat it. When Xiao's mother saw them come back, she didn't ask where their father and brothers had gone, because she knew they would take the small path back, which was overgrown with weeds and difficult to walk on, and would take some time.
"You must be tired. Hurry up and wash your hands and eat. We'll eat first and your father and the others will eat later." Xiao's mother asked everyone to eat first as they were all hungry.
There was the leftover duck meat from the banquet tonight, and the cornmeal porridge, steamed buns made of two grains of flour, and pickled radish for dinner. Liu couldn't wait for the meal to start, as she had been thinking about the duck meat for a long time.
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