After a short while, the crowd saw figures moving rapidly down Cat Mountain, with a dozen torches forming a path.
Soon, the torches in the team and those on the mountain were successfully combined, illuminating the foot of Mao'er Mountain in a fiery red glow.
Qin Feng led the way, with Su Zhiyuan beside him. The two walked briskly toward the crowd in high spirits, then turned around to wait for the hunting team to appear behind them.
Familiar faces soon appeared. Seeing their families return safely, the women, elderly, and children left behind in the village breathed a sigh of relief, and then looked at their relatives with joy and surprise.
Hunting is dangerous, but as long as you can get down the mountain safely, you'll get more meat than other families. With more meat, your daughter-in-law will have more face when she goes back to her parents' home, and you can put a few more pieces of meat on the table for the New Year.
Qin Xiaoxiao had sharp eyes and quickly spotted Qin Ye. Seeing that he was moving freely and seemed to be unharmed, she finally felt relieved.
"Grandma, I saw my brother. I'm fine, and he's not hurt."
Grandma Qin was short, and she kept standing on tiptoe to look ahead, but she just couldn't see the front. She was getting anxious when Qin Xiaoxiao reported it to her.
"Really? Your brother is alright? That's good, that's good."
Qin Aiguo stood beside Old Mrs. Qin and reassured her, "The children are all fine, don't worry. I'll call them over for you to see in a little while."
Grandma Qin nodded, "Okay, call him over in a bit, I need to see it with my own eyes."
Upon hearing this, Qin Xiaoxiao grinned and squeezed forward, saying, "Go ahead, sir, you can rest."
After leaving behind a single sentence, Qin Xiaoxiao disappeared without a trace, infuriating Old Mrs. Qin, who slapped Qin Aiguo's arm repeatedly, "That brat, he ran off again without us noticing! There are so many people around, what if something happens?"
Qin Aiguo said helplessly, "You said there are so many people, what could possibly happen?"
Grandma Qin glared at Qin Aiguo. "How could she not get into trouble? Not everyone in the village knows her. She's so pretty, what if someone bullies her? Go check on her right away, make sure no one does anything to her."
Qin Aiguo glanced helplessly at Ma Dahua, told her to take good care of Old Mrs. Qin, and then squeezed forward.
Qin Xiaoxiao was thin but strong, and she quickly squeezed to the front, standing right behind Qin Ye.
"Brother, how are you? Are you alright?"
Qin Ye turned around and saw Qin Xiaoxiao. He immediately smiled and said, "Don't worry, I'm fine. Why are you alone? Where are Grandpa and Grandma? Where's Mom?"
Qin Xiaoxiao waved her hand, "They're behind us. I came to check on you. I'm just glad you're alright."
Qin Xiaoxiao glanced at Qin Feng again, and seeing him excitedly talking to Luo Hongxing and Su Zhiyuan, she didn't disturb him.
"Brother, how was the harvest?"
As Qin Xiaoxiao asked, she looked around, silently counting how many prey she had hunted and how much her family would get.
Qin Ye smiled and said, "We were lucky this time. We hunted seven wild boars, four wild goats, and countless rabbits and pheasants. Whoever hunts the smaller ones gets them. By the way, take ours to Grandpa and Grandma first."
After saying that, Qin Ye turned around and carried a large basket to Qin Xiaoxiao.
Qin Xiaoxiao looked down and saw that there were seven or eight wild rabbits and five or six pheasants inside. At the top, there were a few small, grayish birds that she didn't know what kind of birds they were.
"Brother, you're really amazing. You must have hunted a lot."
Qin Xiaoxiao gave Qin Ye a thumbs up.
At this moment, Qin Aiguo finally squeezed through, asking, "Which ones are ours?"
While asking the question, Qin Aiguo glanced at his grandson up and down. Seeing that Qin Ye was alright, he stopped looking at him and looked down at the basket on his back.
"Is this it?"
Qin Ye nodded. "This is it."
"Hmm, not bad, it wasn't a wasted trip. Take these back to your grandma first, Xiaoxiao and I will stay here and watch over them."
Qin Ye: "..."
Well, when Grandpa isn't here, I can still order my sister around to do chores, but now that Grandpa's here, he's the one doing the work.
Without saying a word, Qin Ye picked up the basket and walked to the back.
Qin Aiguo pointed out a direction to Qin Ye and then ignored him, turning his attention to Qin Xiaoxiao.
"Want to watch the pig being slaughtered later?"
Qin Xiaoxiao's eyes lit up, and she nodded frantically, "Yes, I want to see!"
Qin Aiguo laughed and said, "Aren't you afraid? You'll bleed a lot."
Qin Xiaoxiao shook her head, "I'm not afraid, I want to see."
She'd never seen a pig being slaughtered before; it was such a rare opportunity, she had to see how it was done.
Qin Aiguo was surprised that his granddaughter was not afraid. He thought to himself, "As expected of someone from the Qin family, she is really brave."
Well, let them watch. It won't cause much bloodshed anyway, since there aren't many wild boars that can be captured alive.
Sure enough, when it came time to slaughter the wild boars, only two were still breathing; the remaining five all died along the way.
Even so, Qin Xiaoxiao truly experienced a pig-slaughtering scene, with white knives going in and red knives coming out, not much different from the killing she did in the apocalypse.
The threshing ground was as bright as day. Qin Feng and Luo Hongxing distributed meat to each household according to their work points, while Su Zhiyuan helped maintain order. The villagers were quite cooperative; they were already there and couldn't run away, so they could get their meat whenever they wanted, especially since there was going to be a pig-slaughtering feast.
Each household assigned a woman to help with cooking, washing pig offal, and making blood sausage. Old Mrs. Qin didn't let Qin Xiaoxiao go over there, thinking it was dirty, and instead took her to the back to chat with a group of old ladies.
Aunt Song and Aunt Liu weren't in this group, as they weren't in the same age group. These old ladies didn't include them. Unexpectedly, one day Qin Xiaoxiao actually managed to sneak in and thrive in the group.
"Grandma Zhao, you have such a refined air about you."
"Grandma Li, your outfit looks really good."
"Grandma Liu, I really admire your skillful hands."
"Grandma Yu, your eldest grandson is such a good boy!"
"Grandma Qin, I heard your second granddaughter-in-law is pregnant? Congratulations! I wish you a big, healthy grandson next year."
"Grandma Qin, I heard your fourth granddaughter got into high school? That's wonderful! Our Qin family has produced another high achiever. She'll have a good chance of getting a job in a factory!"
...
Qin Xiaoxiao kept praising the group of old ladies, showering them with compliments without restraint. The old ladies were overjoyed and kept telling Qin's mother that Qin Xiaoxiao was a rare filial child and that they should treat her better in the future.
In less than half an hour, Qin Xiaoxiao successfully won over the oldest gossip squad in Qinjiagou. When it came time for the pig-slaughtering feast, she not only managed to get a front row seat but also a regular seat.
After Su Lu came down from the mountain, he stood at the back of the crowd. When Qin Xiaoxiao appeared, his eyes lit up and he looked at her with a slight smile.
Unfortunately, this girl's five senses weren't very sharp, and she didn't notice anything amiss, still grinning foolishly as she mingled with a group of grandmothers.
Su Lu was shocked when he saw Qin Xiaoxiao successfully get a seat.
Didn't you see that almost everyone in the village was eating standing or squatting? Among the young, no, including the middle-aged, she was the only one who had a seat.
This girl is quite capable!
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