"Hehe, I'll take it, I'll take it!"
Miao Wang was initially quite reserved, because he felt that this thing was really a cheap and shabby item for Lin Mo.
It's really not presentable.
But what he has, Lin Mo's family has even more of; he doesn't lack anything at all.
After thinking it over, the only thing I could find at home was potatoes.
He was all smiles after accepting it, hehe, Miao Wang's initial restraint turned into happiness.
To be honest, before we crossed the mountain with Lin Mo, the family was already worried that they wouldn't make it through the winter.
I've worn this padded jacket for almost ten years; the sleeves and trouser legs have been patched and re-patched.
The cotton inside was so black and oily that it wasn't warm at all, and my own bedding was in about the same condition.
During the autumn harvest, we watched as other families bought coal in small quantities and saved it up after finishing their work each day, while our family had to calculate for a long time even for coal that cost three cents a pound.
After working hard these past few days, he has not only accumulated nearly fifty rabbits at home, but also saved several hundred yuan.
Yesterday I spent sixty yuan in one go to stock up on two thousand catties of coal at home.
There's finally hope that we can get through this winter.
Unlike last year, when it was minus thirty degrees Celsius outside and almost the same inside, the family of three had to take turns getting up every hour or so to add firewood to the kang (a heated brick bed), otherwise they would be too cold to sleep.
Even mice dare not visit his house; it's so cold there that they freeze to the ground after only a few steps.
Miao Qingsong didn't come empty-handed either; he was carrying a wooden basin filled to the brim with pickled bok choy.
His parents were also timid; they only dared to cultivate a small plot of land behind the house, planting sweet potatoes on one half and bok choy on the other.
Bok choy yields much higher than grains; about 150 jin can be grown from half a fen of land.
If only we could plant one mu (approximately 0.16 acres), we could grow more than three thousand jin (approximately 1,500 kg) of fruit.
"I think my mother's pickled vegetable making is really good. Even just chopping up the pickled vegetables, adding water and heating them up makes them very appetizing."
Miao Qingsong put the basin down on the ground. The basin was very heavy, weighing about 20 jin (10 kg) including soup and vegetables.
The vegetables themselves may not be valuable, but the salt and sauces in them are.
A pound of salt costs three cents, and the sauce was made by his mother herself by frying, stewing, and fermenting soybeans, with a lot of chili peppers added.
"Oh, you're too kind," Lin Mo said with a smile, smacking his lips, dipping his finger in the pickles, and popping it into his mouth.
"Tsk tsk, it's quite flavorful, clearly they used plenty of ingredients."
"Then we won't stand on ceremony, hey!"
"Braised meat with pickled vegetables, and rice soaked in the broth, is absolutely delicious."
Lin Mo swallowed hard as he rolled out of bed.
Hunting is indeed a physically demanding activity. After several days of continuous trekking over mountains, my whole body ached.
He certainly had the right to feel tired, but his two childhood friends did not.
The family's situation had just started to improve slightly, but I still felt insecure, afraid that if I kept struggling, a hole would appear, and our meager little family, which couldn't withstand any more setbacks, would be reduced to its original state.
"Let's bring a pickaxe with us on this rabbit-catching trip. If we can catch just as many, we can dig more tunnels and catch even more tomorrow, right?"
Miao Qingsong, who didn't feel tired at all, actively offered suggestions, as if he really wasn't tired at all.
Lin Mo, whose body was completely exhausted, wasn't really thinking about the rabbits; his mind was preoccupied with hunting deer and exchanging them for donkeys.
I'm so tired!
"I'll just brush my teeth and leave. If you haven't eaten, go check the kitchen. Mom should have cooked our breakfast."
Lin Mo listlessly brushed her teeth and washed her face.
Awang and Qingsong had already eaten a simple meal at home, but their family had been poor for so long that even though they had some savings, they still ate corn porridge.
At most, there's just a handful more rice in the porridge than before.
When they arrived at the kitchen, Aunt Lin wasn't there, but a large amount of white rice was already steaming on the stove.
The rabbit meat jelly I left over from learning the craft from the Miao family yesterday is still sitting in a large basin next to me.
In the vegetable pot next to the large pot, there was another pot of stewed potatoes with aspic.
There was also a small dish with two golden-brown fried eggs on it.
"I never expected Aunt Lin to be even more willing to eat than our parents," Miao Qingsong said enviously.
“That’s not how it works,” Awang disagreed.
"It's obviously made for Brother Lin and Little Flower. She might not be willing to eat this well herself."
"Too."
After washing up, Lin Mo, while piecing his body back together, went to the kitchen.
Fried egg!
I almost forgot that there were still four pheasants at home.
Before his mouth watered, Lin Mo used his chopsticks to pick up half a fried egg and shoved it into his blood-red mouth.
Tsk, that aroma, that meaty smell, that chewy texture.
The two childhood friends were so envious when they looked at it.
"You two share one, and keep the other half for Xiaohua," Lin Mo said simply to his two childhood friends, savoring the fried egg in his mouth.
I was going to be polite, but my mouth watered so much that I decided to stop being polite.
He quickly grabbed chopsticks and, imitating Lin Mo's extravagance, ate fried eggs without any rice.
Wow, I almost cried.
They couldn't bear to just swallow it like that.
This wonderful taste will probably stay with me for a lifetime.
After wolfing down a large bowl of stewed rice with gravy at the Lin family's meal, the three brothers headed towards Chicken Beak Mountain, their bellies full of satisfaction.
I have no choice but to take advantage of it.
The production team had stopped working at the end of the year. Without any work to do, each household ate only two meals a day, that is, breakfast and dinner, and no lunch.
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