Chapter 23 The Righteous Ji Hefeng
Before dawn, Molly took the only wood-chopping knife in the house and went into the mountains. This time she went light, without even bringing a basket.
The surroundings were dim, with shadowy trees and a constant gust of wind that chilled you to the bone.
Molly, like a nimble monkey, swung on a swing in the mountains, and in the blink of an eye, she had crossed a mountain.
Occasionally, a pheasant would be startled by her and suddenly fly up from the grass, only to have its feet and wings wrapped around her by pink tentacles the next second. Even its beak would be tied up, preventing it from making a sound, and it would be tied to Molly's back.
She was so fast that she crossed more than a dozen mountains in less than an hour and arrived at that remote place.
Molly's goal was clear: she wanted to go to the place where she had caught the goats last time. There were more than a dozen wild goats on that ridge, and more than twenty days had passed. She didn't know if they were still there.
Molly climbed to the highest peak and looked out into the distance. Soon she spotted a flock of sheep in a sheltered spot.
She swooped down like a giant eagle and dragged two rams away from the flock before they could react.
Using the dense vegetation as cover, Molly carried the two rams and headed towards the mountain stream.
She didn't plan to process the sheep she sold to Sister Qian, but she needed to have the skin burned and the internal organs cleaned after taking the sheep home. Recently, many people have been coming into the mountains, and if the smell from her house was too strong, people would inevitably come by.
At that time, the game in the mountains was collective property, and poaching collective property was a serious crime. So even if a member of the brigade hunted a pheasant or a rabbit, they would do it secretly, closing the doors and windows to cook and eat it.
Upon reaching the stream, Molly first rested against a rock. Once she had recovered, she began gathering branches to start a fire.
The two rams were about the same size, and Molly randomly picked one and put it in the fire to roast.
By the time the sun came out, the goat's wool was burned.
Molly threw the whole goat into the water and scrubbed the grime off its skin with hay and leaves. After cleaning it, she gutted it. The flowing stream carried away the filth, making the cleaning process easy.
After washing it clean, Molly put the offal back into the sheep's belly and sewed it up with vines.
It was already noon, and Molly's stomach was rumbling, and she felt weak and powerless.
She had expended a lot of energy today, and if she didn't eat something, she probably wouldn't be able to bring the two sheep back.
Molly caught a pheasant this morning and plans to roast it and eat it.
The pheasant wasn't big, only about three pounds. Burning its feathers made it look even smaller.
Molly didn't want the pheasant's innards; she threw them into the stream.
Whoosh—
A fish the size of a palm leaped out of the water and snatched the chicken intestines.
There's fish!
And there's more than one!
Before Molly could think, the tentacles on her left hand moved with lightning speed, piercing the bellies of the fish and bringing them to the surface.
There were five fish in total, each a little bigger than Molly's palm. There were even smaller ones in the water, but she didn't want them.
Molly didn't recognize the fish; she only knew they were edible. She put the chicken on the fire, then began removing the gills and innards from the fish, before putting them on the fire to roast as well. The fire was very strong, requiring her to constantly turn the meat to prevent it from burning.
Molly brought salt with her when she left home this morning, and she sprinkled some on the chicken and fish.
There was no oil, the chicken skin had fat underneath, and it sizzled and dripped oil when roasted. The fish was dry because it had no oil.
Molly ate the whole chicken and then a fish. She wrapped the remaining four fish in leaves, tied them up, and hung them around her neck to take back for her older sister and Xiao An to try.
When Mo An woke up in the morning, no one was home. Molly had said yesterday that she had left early in the morning and wouldn't be home for breakfast. Mo An wasn't worried about his second sister, but the fact that no one was home made him feel incredibly empty.
He wasn't in the mood to cook breakfast, so he went to cook pig feed first, then threw a few potatoes and sweet potatoes into the stove. By the time he finished feeding the pigs, the potatoes and sweet potatoes were cooked, and that was his breakfast.
Moan peeled sweet potatoes under the eaves, occasionally tossing some to the four little hens.
The baby hen has grown to three or four pounds, almost twice the size of my older sister's.
To investigate why these four chicks grew so fast, the older sister followed them around for a day. She later discovered that apart from eating better and more, these four chicks seemed no different from ordinary chickens.
His older sister was completely baffled and racked her brains trying to figure it out.
If he had to find something different, it would be that these four chickens were incredibly clingy, especially fond of following his second sister around, and they were also very energetic. He personally witnessed his second sister kick a chicken several meters away, but the chicken wasn't injured and quickly became attached to his second sister again.
His second sister also spoiled the four chickens rotten, letting them run wild in the vegetable garden.
Who raises chickens like this?
But his second sister not only raised chickens well, but also grew vegetables better than others.
Mo He had dinner at Zhao's house in the evening. Feeling worried about Molly, she took a shower and then went to Molly's house.
"Hasn't your second sister come back?"
"No."
Mo An was preparing dinner: stewed cured pork with potatoes, a plate of vegetables with lard, and corn porridge as the main dish.
The food was keeping warm in the steamer. Mo He urged Mo An to eat first, but Mo An shook his head. He had no appetite until his second sister came back.
Mo An didn't have to wait long; as soon as it got dark, Molly returned carrying two sheep.
"This one must weigh over a hundred pounds, and the two of them are almost two hundred pounds. How did you bring them back?" Two hundred pounds is a weight that even a man, let alone a woman, cannot carry over mountains and valleys.
“I’m strong.” Molly didn’t think there was anything wrong with her answer.
I've never seen you so strong before.
My younger sister used to be frail and would get out of breath after just a few steps. It was only a few months ago, when she encountered those thieves on the street, that she realized how strong her sister was when she kicked one of them several meters away.
Molly looked bewildered. "It's probably just the strength that's recently grown."
"Second sister, you caught these two sheep by strength too?" Mo An was both curious and envious. If he had that skill, he would go hunting in the mountains every day so that his eldest and second sisters could live a good life.
“It’s not just strength, I’m fast too,” Molly said seriously.
Mo An thought for a moment, "I'll start exercising tomorrow. I'll practice running and strength training."
“Okay, you should practice.” Molly took the grilled fish off her chest and handed it to Mo An. “It’s for you and your older sister.”
"What is this?" Mo An untied the straw rope, peeled off the leaves, and the aroma of grilled fish wafted out. "It's fish!"
"There are fish in the mountains?" Mo He looked delighted. "I haven't eaten fish in a long time, I have to try it."
"The fish is a bit cold, you can make soup with it, or heat it up."
"Let's make fish soup. Put hot water in, add some ginger and Sichuan peppercorns. It will warm you up nicely, it's perfect."
After dinner, Molly went to take a shower and go to bed, while Mohe and Moan took charge of cutting and marinating the mutton. Only after they finished did Mohe go home. She didn't take any mutton with her, not because Molly was unwilling to share, but because she couldn't explain the mutton's origin. The rabbit meat could be attributed to Molly's livestock, but the mutton couldn't be.
There are no sheep farmers within a hundred miles.
Molly slept for a few hours, and around three or four in the morning, she opened her eyes, got up in the dark, dressed and put on her shoes, and carried the untreated sheep to town.
When she woke up, she had regained most of her strength. It was dark and deserted in the wilderness, so she didn't slow down and arrived in town in just half an hour.
The town had electricity, but there were no streetlights, and at this time there wasn't a soul in sight on the streets.
Molly knocked on Sister Qian's door, her voice neither too loud nor too soft, neither too fast nor too slow, trying her best not to wake the neighbors next door.
Who is it?
It was a man's voice.
Molly guessed that this was Sister Qian's husband, and she answered through the crack in the door, "It's me, Molly."
Sister Qian's husband knew who Molly was. He had even eaten the rabbit meat Molly had given them that evening. Upon hearing the name Molly, he didn't suspect anything and opened the door.
After Molly entered the room, he locked the door again.
Who's here?
Sister Qian came out of the room wearing a coat. In the dim yellow light, she immediately saw the sheep on Molly's shoulder and said quickly, "Quick, put that thing down. How far did you carry it? Is it heavy?"
Molly put the sheep in the yard and replied, "It's not light, it should weigh over a hundred pounds."
"Is it really that heavy?" The man didn't believe it. He bent down, grabbed the sheep by both legs, and tried to lift it up, but the sheep didn't budge. He took a deep breath and tried again. This time, he used all his strength and finally managed to lift the sheep up, but he only managed to hold it for a few seconds before putting it back on the ground.
"It's not light." He was convinced. How could such a thin girl carry such a heavy sheep all the way?
Or does she have other helpers?
"Is this sheep enough to exchange for the remaining two rolls of cloth?"
"That's enough, that's enough. I'll go back and get you some fabric right away."
When Molly got home, the village roosters were just crowing, around five in the morning.
She went home, put down the fabric, and went back to her room to sleep. She slept until dawn, not even getting up when the sun was high in the sky.
Mo An was in charge of the pigs, chickens, and rabbits at home. By the time Molly got up, Mo An had already done most of the housework and was currently drawing well water to water the vegetables.
"Have you had breakfast?" Molly asked him.
"You ate two roasted sweet potatoes, I saved two for you. They're under the stove, they should still be warm." Mo An glanced at her, then continued to pour the vegetables over the fire.
Molly ate the sweet potato and came over to relieve Mo An, saying, "Go and rest for a while."
"I'm not tired." Mo An really didn't feel tired.
"Then I'll fetch the water, and you can water the vegetables."
Drawing water from the well was hard work; Moan could only fill a bucket about halfway up each time, but Molly was different; she always filled a full bucket. With her help, the vegetables in the garden were watered very quickly.
"I'm going to chop sweet potato vines to cook pig feed. You go out and play for a while," Molly said, shooing her away.
"I don't want to go out. I want to stay at home with my second sister." Mo An didn't move.
"Did someone outside say something?" Boys this age should be away from home, and Mo An's reluctance to go out to play is very strange.
"He didn't say."
"Yeah, right."
The siblings remained silent.
After a while, Molly gave in, "Go and get some sweet potatoes."
"How many are there?"
"Ten, I guess."
Boiling only sweet potato vines was too monotonous, so Molly added ten sweet potatoes, along with some mustard greens and old cabbage leaves, making a big pot that could last until tomorrow morning.
"Go and call your older sister over. We're having lamb offal hotpot for lunch."
"Okay, I'll go right away."
While cooking pig feed, Molly simmered lamb bones to make broth. After the bones had been boiling for half an hour, she started adding white radishes. Then she began cleaning the lamb offal, which had already been washed and salted the day before. Molly simply rinsed it twice and then started chopping. She chopped a whole basketful and put it all into the broth.
She has a large appetite, and Mo He and Mo An are not far behind; they should be able to finish their meals in one sitting.
She didn't prepare any staple food, planning to eat only meat and vegetables for this meal.
Mo He and Mo An smelled the rich aroma of meat even before they entered the door.
"Luckily, you don't have any neighbors around, otherwise, if you eat meat like this, you'd definitely get reported." Mo He was worried about Molly living alone at the foot of the mountain, fearing it wouldn't be safe, but now she thinks this location at the foot of the mountain is perfect.
"Why did it take you so long?" Molly served three bowls of soup first.
"My older sister was washing clothes and sheets, so I waited for her for a while," Mo An explained.
Molly looked at Mohe's hands. Although the well water was warm at this time, Mohe had so many things to wash that her hands were still red from the cold. Her nose was also red, whether from the cold or from the wind, it was hard to tell.
Molly: "Drink some soup first to warm your body."
The three of them sat around the stove, drinking hot mutton offal soup, and their bodies quickly warmed up.
"It's only November and it's already this cold. I'm afraid it will snow this year." Mo He's tone was full of worry.
Molly: "Chop more firewood, and when it snows, we won't go anywhere; we'll stay home and warm ourselves by the fire."
She plans to go into the mountains again to get some more meat, and when it gets cold, she'll stay home and not go into the mountains.
"That's all we can do. Nobody's been growing cotton these past two years, so we can't even buy it. And with the cold wind blowing, those old clothes won't hold up. I'm going to the mountains to collect firewood in a couple of days. Do you want to come?"
"Let Mo An go with you. There are shepherd's purse growing in the mountains; you can go dig some." Molly chewed on a piece of sheep intestine and then took a bite of radish, feeling that eating mutton and radish on a cold day was the perfect combination.
She also wanted to get a sheep.
We also brought back wild boar, smoked it, and saved it to eat slowly throughout the winter.
The rabbits we found earlier should be brought back and kept until spring, so they can breed and have more baby rabbits.
I found fish in that stream this time. I don't know where they came from, but they taste good. I can catch some to bring back. They're good for pan-frying or making soup.
As Molly ate, she made plans in her mind, and a smile unconsciously appeared on her face.
"What are you thinking about? You seem so happy." Mo He asked with a smile.
Molly: "I got two rolls of fabric this morning. Big sister, you can teach me how to make clothes later. We'll each make a few outfits."
Mohe: "I can teach you how to make clothes. I won't keep them myself. If you have any leftover fabric, keep it. You'll need it for many more times in the future."
Molly: "We'll figure out what to do later. Maybe I can get something better in the future. It's not good for me and Xiao An to wear new clothes while you're dressed in rags. You're fine, but I feel bad, right, Xiao An?"
Mo An nodded vigorously, "That's right."
Mo He felt a warm glow in her heart. Her younger siblings hadn't spoiled her for nothing; they all knew how to care for her.
"Alright, I'll make myself a set. Thanks to you, I haven't worn new clothes in years. Let's hurry and try to finish the clothes in the next couple of days."
When the new clothes were made, the three siblings washed them and put them away, saying they would take them out to wear during the New Year.
Another month later, Molly received a letter from Zhao Jian'an containing seven or eight various tickets and a remittance slip for a total of thirty-five yuan.
In his letter, Zhao Jian'an said that Ji Hefeng was not in the army, and that he would collect Ji Hefeng's allowance on his behalf and mail it back to Molly.
Holding the remittance slip and the receipt, Molly was filled with mixed emotions. She had married Ji Hefeng only to find a place to stay, but she never expected that Ji Hefeng would silently take on the responsibility of supporting her.
A worker in town only earns twenty or thirty yuan a month, but Ji Hefeng sends her thirty-five yuan a month, enough for her and Mo An to live a good life.
Ji Hefeng is truly a righteous person.
She had to think of a way to repay Ji Hefeng, such as sending him some dried meat or dried sweet potatoes.
However, Ji Hefeng has gone on a mission and his return date is uncertain, so it's not appropriate to send him anything now.
Let's start preparing now, and make sure we have plenty. Besides Ji Hefeng's portion, our eldest sister, her, and Xiao An can also eat some.
When Molly told Moan that she was going to make sweet potato chips, Moan's eyes lit up. In their poor countryside, the most common snack people could eat during the Lunar New Year was sweet potato chips.
Mo An and his two siblings were in an even worse situation. With their stepmother Liu Ahua taking care of them, they couldn't even get a few slices of dried sweet potato.
His eyes lit up when he heard that Molly was going to make dried sweet potatoes.
"I'm going to dig up some sweet potatoes right now. I heard from my older sister that to make dried sweet potatoes, you first need to slice them, then dry them in the sun. When they're about 70-80% dry, you steam them. After steaming, you continue to dry them in the sun until they're completely dry, and then the dried sweet potatoes are ready."
Sweet potato chips are sweet and chewy, and almost no child dislikes them.
Molly raised an eyebrow. "You make such a good point, so I'll leave this task to you."
Mo An suddenly felt insecure. "What if I accidentally mess it up?"
Molly replied nonchalantly, "Then feed it to the pigs. Our pigs will definitely like it."
With that, Mo An felt reassured. "I'll go dig sweet potatoes right now."
Molly started going to the mountains every day again. Sometimes she would bring back a load of firewood, sometimes a few rabbits, and sometimes one or two pheasants. One day it was already dark and she still hadn't returned. Mo An was so anxious at home that he paced around in circles.
Finally, just as Mo An was getting impatient and was about to go out to find Mo He, Molly returned.
She looked disheveled, covered in blood, with blood seeping from her clothes.
"Second Sister~"
Mo An's voice trembled, choked with sobs.
"I'm fine, this blood is from the wild boar." Molly put the wild boar on her back down and, without taking a break, went out again. "There are still three outside, I'll go get them."
"besides!"
Mo An was stunned and instinctively followed.
"It's dark outside, you wait at home." She had some night vision, but Mo An didn't.
There's no moon tonight, and hardly any stars either. The wind is howling incessantly, giving me the creeps.
"Then I'll go boil water and heat up the food," Mo An said.
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