"Oh right, I forgot we could go buy it. Yuanyuan, you can do whatever you want in the future, we have money."
Zhou Jiahui replied in a relaxed manner.
She has several hundred yuan on her, and her brother has quite a lot too. The family says they will send them things.
“Okay, but after we move, let’s buy a few large kimchi jars so I can make some kimchi and pickles.”
Fang Yuan smiled and nodded; she had been waiting for these two to say that.
Upon hearing this, Zhou Jiahui suddenly said:
"I remember Sister Hongying saying that we still fish here in winter. Sister Yuanyuan, do you cook fish well?"
Fang Yuan countered, "Can you eat spicy food?"
"Yes, I can. I can eat anything."
Zhou Jiahui nodded quickly, then added, "My brother is the same; he used to eat stir-fried chili peppers with chili peppers."
"·····"
Zhou He didn't object because he had indeed tried it and thought it tasted pretty good.
“I can eat anything too. My mom is from southern Sichuan,” Luo Jin replied.
“That’s no problem. As long as I can eat spicy food, I can make a different fish every day for a week.” Fang Yuan nodded with a smile.
But what kind of dish is "stir-fried chili peppers"? Is it red bell peppers stir-fried with green bell peppers?
I might give it a try later.
“Then let’s stock up on more fish,” Zhou Jiahui said happily, her eyes lighting up.
Zhou He didn't speak, but looked towards the back of the mountain.
He heard from a classmate that wild boars had come down from the mountain in winter, and he felt that storing meat was the most practical thing to do.
The group finished eating the dumplings while they were talking.
The cook at the educated youth settlement just got back today.
"You finished lunch so early?" He Hongying asked curiously, looking at the group washing dishes.
There seems to be a smell of chives in the air. Did we eat dumplings?
Zhou Jiahui turned her head and replied, "Yes, Sister Yuanyuan said that we will try to eat at different times from you in the future, so as not to make some people on your side feel uncomfortable."
Fang Yuan was speechless. This girl was so tactless; she had just sold him out so directly.
He Hongying nodded, "That's good too. Some people just like to be envious of what others have."
These people only cooked three meals a day, and each meal consisted of refined grains, which tasted quite good.
Putting aside the others, she wanted to eat with them all.
Fang Yuan asked with a smile, "Sister Hongying, you're so sensible. By the way, the autumn harvest hasn't started yet, so what do you all do at work?"
She had never been to the countryside before and was very curious about what everyone did at work before the autumn harvest.
"I'm not too busy now, just weeding the corn and soybeans. It gets tiring once the autumn harvest starts," He Hongying said while cooking.
Many people at work these days are just slacking off. They go to work on time and come back on time, but only they know how much they actually do.
"I see! What do we do during the autumn harvest?" Zhou Jiahui asked curiously.
"Harvest the rice, thresh the grains, and dry them in the sun..."
They're poor here and don't have tractors; they rely entirely on oxcarts, horse-drawn carts, and manual labor to bring things back—it's exhausting.
As they chatted, He Hongying finished preparing the meal.
The meal consisted of two kinds of steamed buns and corn porridge, along with stir-fried cabbage and stir-fried carrots, but it was all rather bland and lacked oil.
Seeing this, Fang Yuan pulled Zhou Jiahui back into the house to sleep, as those guys were coming back for dinner.
Around 2 PM, Zhou He and Luo Jin called Fang Yuan and the two of them went up the mountain.
The group, wearing straw hats, headed towards the back of the mountain.
The back mountain is a continuous mountain range. You can still see snow on the distant mountain peaks, but the foothills nearby are lush and green.
Once inside the woods, Fang Yuan felt very comfortable; the summer heat seemed to have no effect on this place.
The entire forest seemed to be extending kindness to her.
Even more amazingly, she can tell whether plants are edible and what their medicinal effects are just by touching them.
Moreover, she can sense the situation within a radius of ten meters around her.
"System, am I able to project my mental energy outwards now? Why wasn't I able to before?"
Fang Yuan leaned against a tree, excitedly asking the system in his mind.
This is due to the plant affinity effect; the host's sensory abilities are amplified in areas with abundant vegetation.
"Is that so? That's not bad."
It will be so much easier to find things in the forest from now on.
"Wow, it's not so hot in this forest. This place is really nice."
Zhou Jiahui became much more lively after entering the woods.
Turning his head, he noticed the basket on Zhou He's back and asked, "Brother, where did you get your basket and machete?"
This is clearly a new basket; they didn't have it when they bought things yesterday.
"I went to ask the villagers who repaired my house at noon, and I bought the machete from one of them. I also borrowed the machete from him," Zhou He replied.
He thought he couldn't go up the mountain empty-handed, so he wanted to borrow tools from them. He didn't expect that one of the older brothers often made these kinds of things at home.
He bought two baskets and borrowed a wood-chopping knife from the family.
He'll test the knife first to see if it works well, and then see if he can get one when he goes to town next time.
"This basket is nice, can we buy two more? And we also need a few baskets," Fang Yuan asked, turning his head.
They'll definitely need this basket when they go up the mountain to buy things in town; it can also hold other things.
Zhou He nodded: "I'll go back and talk to him. Anyway, he can do it. We can pick it up after we move."
"Sister Hongying said there are many mountain products in this area, but I don't know where they picked them."
Zhou Jiahui looked at them for a long time, but she couldn't recognize what kind of trees they were.
“We’re on the outskirts now, so the trees that grow those mountain products will definitely have to be moved inwards.”
Although it had only been two days, Zhou He habitually made sure to familiarize himself with the surrounding area before arriving at a new place.
This forest is very safe, and it's also where everyone gathers firewood. The people who helped him repair his house all told him about it.
"Rabbit, there are rabbits in these mountains."
Zhou Jiahui ran fast because she hadn't taken anything with her. She turned around and saw a gray rabbit, and then chased after it.
"Stop chasing, you can't catch up," Zhou He called out to Zhou Jiahui as she walked away.
"Sigh~ They got away!"
After a while, Zhou Jiahui returned disappointed.
Her flesh was gone in a single glance.
"Let's get familiar with it before we make the arrest," Zhou He advised.
The Northeast is indeed rich in resources; we've already spotted wild rabbits even after only a short distance here.
It seems they won't have a shortage of meat in the future.
Seeing this, Fang Yuan put his hand back on the tree, sensed the surrounding situation, and then discovered a rabbit hole not far away, with rabbits inside.
She walked towards the location.
"I think I see some movement over here, huh~ what's this?" she said, stepping directly onto the rabbit hole.
"Brother, is this a rabbit hole?" Zhou Jiahui asked Zhou He with a look of surprise.
Zhou He observed carefully and nodded: "It should be. It looks quite fresh. There might be rabbits. Let's check around to see if there are any other holes."
I never expected to actually find meat, so I have to find meat first.
As for gathering firewood, that's no longer important.
"Why do we need to look at the other holes?" Zhou Jiahui asked, puzzled.
"Do you know the idiom 'a cunning rabbit has three burrows'? They usually have more than one burrow," Fang Yuan explained.
He then found two more holes by using his hands, which were braced against the grass.
"It's blocked off. Shall we set it on fire? I'll put my basket down."
As Luo Jin spoke, he directly shoved the basket in his hand into the entrance of the cave.
"I'll set up the smoke!"
As Zhou He spoke, he took out a match from his body, lit a small handful of dry grass, and placed it at the entrance of the cave. Zhou Jiahui then took off the grass from her head.
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