Chapter 67 Travel Preparation
"uncle?"
Mu Xi's eyes were dark, and a sneer appeared on the corner of his mouth. He uttered two words in a sarcastic tone, "Very good."
After saying that, he grabbed the two kids by the scruff of their necks and walked out, "Come on, uncle will take you out to play."
Zhao Yeqing was puzzled and wondered if he didn't sleep well last night, which was why he was acting weird now.
The storage cellar dug last night is now full of sweet potatoes and potatoes. Zhao Yeqing couldn't help but take another look. When she heard Mu Xi calling her, she walked out of the storage cellar, looking back every few steps.
Mu Xi was leading the two dogs to climb a tree in the woods outside the yard. He pointed at the two cubs under the tree and said, "There's no problem eating meat these two days. You can give them a rabbit to try."
He was referring to the live rabbits in the rabbit pen.
Zhao Yeqing: "We teach our rabbits at home not to bite, so is it okay to take it out like this?"
Mu Xi didn't answer, but called the two cubs' names, and when they came down from the tree, he picked up a branch and gave them an order, "Bite!"
Xuebing reacted faster and bit the branch directly.
Zhao Yeqing let out a small exclamation, "When did you teach them?"
"Just yesterday when you were sleeping, and every night before when I brought them back to my place." Mu Xi handed her the branch, "You can try, but don't use your hands to issue commands. They can't tell the difference and easily get hurt by mistake. It's the same reason why you shouldn't use your hands when teasing a cat."
Zhao Yeqing nodded and tried again with a branch. This time the snow cake didn't move, but Huhu was a beat slower and still managed to bite it.
The experience of taming animals was very novel, and Zhao Yeqing was already impatient to catch the rabbit.
The two little leopards had no branches to play with, so they jumped onto the branches again.
She asked thoughtfully, "Are they jumping higher than before?"
Mu Xi nodded, "Yes, clouded leopards can reach more than one meter in height with a single leap. They like to run back and forth between tree trunks and are very flexible."
"Is it still hunting in the tree?"
Mu Xi had a complicated expression, "Well... they prey on birds, pheasants, civets and... monkeys."
Zhao Yeqing was shocked. She couldn't imagine the scene of the two cubs she had raised holding a monkey and biting them until they were bloody.
"From now on...it's better for you to take them out hunting, uncle."
"......"
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In October, the sun remains scorching.
The little leopard is growing at an astonishing rate. In just two months since its first hunt, it no longer needs to be taken out.
He would often bring some birds back home and give them to Zhao Yeqing. Once, Xue Bing even brought back a lizard.
Zhao Yeqing was almost killed by filial piety.
Recently, Mu Xi's watch showed that the temperature had stopped at 42 degrees and had not risen for more than 20 days. The water flow in the house was getting smaller and smaller, and the shallow water area beside the pond had dried up, leaving only the deep water area in the middle, which had not changed much for the time being.
In just another month, the deep water area will probably disappear.
Their family will also face a complete water outage.
After the last batch of vegetables in the vegetable garden was harvested in September, most of them died due to the high temperature.
The current water flow is no longer sufficient to support the activation of her water curtain equipment.
Problems also started to arise with the chickens at home. Seeing that three little pheasants were not in good condition, she released them back into the wild early, and now their life or death is unknown.
The remaining hens and chicks in the chicken coop all suffered from heatstroke.
Two of them died of heatstroke, and the goose did not survive.
With tears in his eyes, Zhao Yeqing cooked soup overnight and ate the goose stewed in an iron pot for three whole days.
Mu Xi slaughtered almost all the rabbits in the rabbit pen. The rabbit meat was smoked and dried, and the rabbit skins were preserved. A few smaller rabbits were released back into the wild.
They can no longer afford to raise rabbits because there are almost no wild vegetables and fresh grass to pick in the forest. Most of the weak vegetation has died of drought, and the trees that are not very heat-resistant have also begun to decline.
The only things that are still growing well are okra, cucumber, water spinach, and rice and corn fields.
Mu Xi would go to the deep water area of the pond to fetch water every day to ensure the growth of rice. Zhao Yeqing also moved the greenhouse cloth originally used for leafy vegetables to the rice, so that it could stay in an environment that was not so hot as possible. Fortunately, it was about to enter the final stage.
Zhao Yeqing had never felt the sun was so glaring. At noon, the whole world seemed to be covered with an exposure filter, making it difficult for him to open his eyes.
We had to stay in the cellar almost the entire day, and it was still relatively cool if we put a basin of ice in the cellar.
At least, we don’t have to worry about electricity anymore.
The battery was replenished quickly, allowing her to use the small refrigerator again.
There are still some remaining vegetables in it, and the stock can last for another week.
At noon, Zhao Yeqing was lying on the bed in the cellar, enjoying the fan, while Mu Xi was catching up on his sleep.
Their work has now become very simple. Apart from fetching water once before dawn to water the remaining crops, and cooking once in the morning and once in the evening, there are almost no other activities.
The fan made her feel sleepy and she was thinking about taking a nap when Mu Xi spoke.
"I want to find a way out and go to a nearby village to look for some supplies. Do you want to go with me or stay home?"
He thought about it for several days and realized that it was not safe to stay at home. He might be attacked by wild animals at any time, or accidentally get heatstroke without anyone to take care of him.
It was the same when I went into the woods with him. Not only would it be hard for my body to withstand the high temperature, but I would also be threatened by animals.
Zhao Yeqing's sleepiness was broken by these words, "Of course we go together."
They can't go now. They have to wait until a dozen days later when the rice is from the filling stage to maturity and the corn is almost grown. They will set off after harvesting.
When you have thoughts in your mind, you can't sleep.
Mu Xi got up and made a list of the supplies he would need to bring into the mountains.
The food at home must be processed first. The sweet potatoes and potatoes in the storage cellar have not gone bad yet, and now carrots have been added. It would be best to make most of them into storable by-products first, so that all the food will not be spoiled when they come back.
At six o'clock in the afternoon, when the sun was setting, the two men came out of the cellar and began to prepare.
Let's process the potatoes first today.
It takes about seven kilograms of potatoes to make one kilogram of potato starch. Zhao Yeqing plans to make ten kilograms first.
She threw out two-thirds of the potatoes from the cellar, about 70 to 80 kilograms, and carried them all home in a basket and washed them.
Mu Xi took the washed potatoes to the chopping board and chopped them up.
To make potato starch, the potatoes need to be as finely chopped as possible. It would be a waste of time to chop 70 or 80 kilograms of potatoes manually.
Zhao Yeqing rolled and moved a super-large stone mortar from the tool shed. It was a large stone with the center hollowed out. It was the custom in his hometown to use it to make glutinous rice cakes during the Chinese New Year.
Equipped with two long wooden sticks that are thin on top and thick at the bottom, put the roughly chopped potatoes in and pound them with the sticks until the potatoes inside become puree.
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