Chapter 85 Countryside
The farm dishes cooked in earthen stoves have a unique flavor, especially the rice crust made specially by Grandma Yan, which is fragrant and crispy, and then coated with spicy and salty fermented bean curd made from homemade grain wine. It is absolutely delicious!
After a lively lunch, Uncle Yan, who was not forgetting his business, asked again about the reason.
After the whole family listened to Luo Shuangshuang's narration from beginning to end, Grandma Yan was so scared that she held her hand tightly with red eyes and did not dare to let go for a long time.
She felt both grateful and overjoyed for saving her at the same time.
Just think about the fact that everyone around her was being taken away by human traffickers, and that there were even people who stepped forward to dissuade and help the traffickers. How scared and desperate would Luo Shuangshuang be in that situation?
It was just a matter of time before the only girl in the Yan and Luo families was dragged away in the street and sold!
"Thank you, old lady Xiao Ning. You are such a good kid. Thanks to you, otherwise... I would have lost my Youyou!"
"Don't cry, grandma. I'm fine!"
Seeing the old lady crying, Luo Shuangshuang struggled to break free from her hand with heartache, and instead hugged her waist tightly, shaking her gently from time to time like a spoiled child.
"Xiao Ning, thank you for saving Youyou. This is really a life-saving grace."
Yan Xi's eyes turned red. His face showed hatred for the human traffickers who dared to kidnap people in broad daylight, but also gratitude to Suning, the only one who stood up and immediately stopped it when he saw that something was wrong.
If she hadn't said anything about what would happen to his sister, then his mother...
Rubbing his hands vigorously, Yan Xi stood up and was about to go out, picking up the two sons who were gritting their teeth and cursing the human traffickers.
They arrived suddenly at noon, so we must prepare a sumptuous meal in the evening!
"this…"
"Where is uncle going?"
"Leave it alone, both of you."
Wiping her eyes, Granny Yan smiled and shook her head. How could the son she raised not know his thoughts?
After exchanging a glance with her daughter-in-law, Qian Hongmei immediately understood and stood up, "Youyou, Xiaoning, you two can take a walk after you have rested. I will go to work first."
As he was talking, the man had already walked out of the house, picked up a sack and went out.
Luo Shuangshuang and she looked at each other, wondering why the couple suddenly skipped their lunch break and went out in the scorching sun.
"It's not time for grandma to go to work yet, what about aunt?"
"I guess we haven't finished our work this morning, so let's hurry up and finish it so we can leave early this afternoon."
Is that so?
Luo Shuangshuang, who knew nothing about farm work, nodded blankly, "Then I'll go help my aunt later!"
"You better not make things worse. If you still have energy, take Xiao Ning to the river to play. There are lots of crabs in the river right now. Don't you like them the most? I'll fry them for you when we catch them."
"All right."
Thinking of the result of that help, Luo Shuangshuang smiled embarrassedly and decisively accepted her grandmother's suggestion.
Furthermore, the crispy fried crabs...
"How is Ning Baogai?"
Seeing her eager eyes and greedy face, what else could Suning do? He could only pamper his friend himself, "Okay."
…
Yan Xi, who had just walked out of the door and was about to take the two boys up the mountain, stopped and turned around when he heard a familiar voice behind him.
"Hongmei, what are you doing?"
I looked down and saw the sack in her hand. Thinking of the almost empty rice jar at home, I immediately realized that she was going back to Yue's house to borrow some food again.
There is not enough labor at home, and the two boys are at the age when they have big appetites.
Although her younger sister gave her some allowance from time to time, that was her way of showing filial piety to her mother as a daughter. How could the couple touch that?
Fortunately, most of the Yue family members are laborers, and they are honest and kind-hearted... Thinking of the help from his father-in-law and mother-in-law from time to time, Yan Xi's expression became a little ugly.
Besides working in the fields, he had thought of other options, but...
"Brother Xizi, don't think too much. The autumn harvest is almost here. When the new grain comes in, we will give it back to our parents."
"Red plum..."
“The kids are still watching!”
They have been together for more than ten years, so how could she not know what he wanted to say? But as a man, he might not understand a woman's mind.
Her mother-in-law treats her like her own daughter, her sister-in-law never makes trouble for her like other families do, and is only close to her and respectful to her. Her husband is hardworking and considerate, and her two sons are sensible and filial.
She was willing to marry him and come to such a Yan family no matter how hard or tiring it was.
"Please ask the team leader for leave for me this afternoon. I will go there and come back quickly in time for dinner."
"Oh, I remember. I told my parents that I would go visit them after the autumn harvest."
Seeing his wife walking away, Yan Xi rubbed his face, and when he saw his son making small movements behind him, he immediately threw away his momentary fragility and turned back into his father's majesty, "What are you making a fuss about? Come on, follow me to the mountain!"
"Yeah, I can finally go up the mountain to catch rabbits again~"
"You little bastard, do you want to make your howl known to the whole team? Shut up!"
"oh."
Yan Wu is two years younger than Yan Wen, but he is growing faster than his peers and is almost catching up with his brother.
He shrugged his shoulders when he heard his father's fierce words. He said honestly but was not very scared in his heart. While his father turned around, he continued to look at his brother.
Yan Wen, who was so annoyed that he had no choice but to take out his share of candy from his trouser pocket and give him two of them, before he could completely coax the man into a coma.
The father and his two sons skillfully found the bows and arrows they had hidden in the abandoned thatched hut at the foot of the mountain, slung them on their backs, and quickly went into the mountain.
…
The three people who stayed at home chatted for a while. Seeing that the old lady was not in good spirits, Luo Shuangshuang persuaded her to go to bed and take a nap, so she didn't have to worry about them getting bored.
Having gotten up too early in the morning and worked all morning, Mrs. Yan was really tired. After giving the two of them a few instructions, she returned to her room.
Luo Shuangshuang, who had regained her energy, took a small bamboo basket and pulled her out the door.
At this time, the shady back mountain and the trickling stream brought a rare coolness.
After washing my face with clear stream water, my skin, which had been sunburned, suddenly felt refreshed as if all the pores were opened.
"Ning Baogai, look at that!"
After brushing off the water stains on her hands, Su Ning looked in the direction of her finger.
Not far away, hidden behind two hills, there was a mountain that reached into the sky and was covered with white mist.
"That's the treasure mountain I told you about."
Luo Shuangshuang smiled and turned back to her, raised her chin, and said, "Do you want to go treasure hunting?"
"Can your feet still climb mountains?"
"Well... I can do it at the foot of the mountain!"
I heard that there are no ferocious beasts like tigers in the deep mountains here, but there are definitely quite a lot of wolves, wild boars, pythons and so on.
There are only two of them. They can neither fight nor run away. Are they going to be sent to me to be a stumbling block?
If she were alone, she could escape into space in time to save her life in case of danger...
"Stop it, if we go up the mountain it's not called treasure hunting."
"Hmm? If not treasure hunting, what is it called?"
Luo Shuangshuang's eyes turned and she suddenly understood what she meant. She swallowed the truth with a helpless smile: It's not treasure hunting, it's suicide.
The long fangs of the wild boar that ran down the mountain due to hunger a few years ago suddenly appeared in my mind, and I shuddered.
"Then ask my uncle tonight when he can take us up the mountain. Don't you still want fresh wild ginseng?"
Her uncle is the captain of the winter hunting team, and it is said that his archery skills that can hit the target from a hundred paces away were inherited from her grandfather.
With him around, we can just wander around the foot of Baoshan Mountain instead of going deep into the mountains. It should be fine...right?
"There's no rush. I don't need it now."
"Don't worry, my uncle has this hunting skill, it's inherited from our ancestors!"
"Okay, okay, let's ask your uncle first. If he agrees, we'll go to the foot of the mountain. If he doesn't agree, that's fine."
Su Ning, who had already made plans in his heart, didn't say much, but nodded and agreed to her request.
After cooling down completely, the two began to turn over the rocks one by one by the stream to catch crabs.
Maybe this place has been searched by the children several times every day, and they didn’t see any crabs after searching for a long time.
It was not until they reached the edge of a small valley and saw no signs of disturbance on either side of the stream that they finally caught the crab that Luo Shuangshuang had been longing to eat.
From the mountains and streams, bursts of laughter like silver bells could be heard, accompanied by an occasional exclamation or two.
A man who had just carried a basket of firewood and was about to take a shortcut home stopped, hesitated for a while, and finally followed his heart and went to the stream.
As expected, when he saw that extremely familiar figure, a silly smile instantly appeared on his face.
“Double!”
"Big orange?"
(End of this chapter)
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