Chapter 526 Unexpected Gains
After returning to the village from the mountain, Lin Heng took Xiulan to the Taoist temple in the village for fun.
The Taoist temple has been taking shape after a period of construction. Taoist Priest Li not only built the main house, but also opened up many areas around it and planted some flowers and plants to make it look presentable.
At the same time, a plaque was erected at the main gate of the Taoist temple, with three big characters "Xuantian Palace" inscribed on it.
"Xuantian Palace, this Taoist temple hasn't officially started accepting incense yet, right?"
Xiulan asked curiously, looking at the wooden plaque.
Lin Heng nodded and said, "Not yet. They said that the clay statue has not been enshrined yet. The temple will be open on the first day of the new year. If you want to burn the first stick of incense, come and queue up early."
"Isn't it a competition of who gives more money?" Xiulan asked in a low voice.
Lin Heng looked at her and laughed: "General temples are like this, but this Taoist temple is more orthodox, emphasizing fate and spontaneity."
Xiulan nodded: "That's good."
Although this was not her first time here, she had never had any contact with the Taoist priest and did not know these things.
The two looked around and came to the main hall of the dojo. Although it was only about 50 to 60 square meters, the stone walls were about 4 meters high and looked very empty. The statue inside was covered with red cloth and could not be seen clearly.
"Mr. Lin, please come in and have some tea."
As Lin Heng and the other were watching, Taoist Li, wearing a navy blue Taoist robe, came over and invited them.
"Sorry to bother you then." Lin Heng nodded with a smile, and asked as he walked over, "Master Li, have you just finished practicing?"
"Yes, I just finished the morning class." Master Li nodded.
When they arrived at the backyard, they sat under the pavilion. Taoist Li picked up the tea heated over charcoal and poured a cup for each of them.
Lin Heng drank tea and chatted with him for a while. He had come here to drink tea many times. This Taoist priest was indeed a person who practiced asceticism and had no utilitarianism.
"Master, can you give me some advice on Tai Chi? I feel like my practice is not standard." Lin Heng asked with a smile after taking two sips of tea.
Taoist Priest Li nodded and agreed: "Show it to me."
Lin Heng demonstrated it immediately after drinking the tea, and then Taoist Li corrected many of Lin Heng's non-standard movements on the spot.
After the correction, Lin Heng thanked him with a smile. Taoist Li waved his hand, saying that it was a great merit for him to be able to promote Taoist Kung Fu.
Lin Heng chatted with him for a few more sentences and then left without leaving any money.
"Are you asking for me this time?" Xiulan looked at him after leaving the mountain gate.
Lin Heng smiled and said, "Part of the reason is that I asked about the Eight Parts of Vajra last time, and this time it's just right to ask about Tai Chi."
He was not an ungrateful person. In addition to helping build the Taoist temple, he also gave Taoist Master Li a lot of rice, flour and vegetables. The loquat trees planted in the Taoist temple were also a good variety provided by him.
Xiulan smiled and said, "Then let's go get some food for the Taoist priest some other day. We still have a lot of winter melons and pumpkins at home, and we can also get some dried persimmons."
"Okay." Lin Heng nodded.
The two were talking and soon came to the outside of the school. It was not long before noon time, so they came to pick up Xiaoxia.
"Let's go to the window quietly and see what Xiaoxia is doing." Xiulan said to Lin Heng.
Lin Heng took her over and watched quietly from a distance. In the classroom, Xiaoxia was teaching her classmates very lively, while the teacher was giving a lecture to the third grade school next door.
"Xiaoxia is so busy." Xiulan looked at him for a while and said,
In the classroom, Xiaoxia was explaining questions to one student and then another. As the class monitor, she worked very seriously.
"This is a good thing. This way she will love studying and reading." Lin Heng said with a smile. Being able to help others will also give one a lot of internal motivation.
Xiulan nodded. Xiaoxia has indeed become more studious after going to school. Not only does she teach her two younger brothers, she also reads books frequently.
The two watched for a while and then went outside to wait. After a while, the school bell rang at noon. Xiaoxia walked out of the classroom and rushed over excitedly when she saw her parents.
"Mom and Dad, why are you all here?"
Xiaoxia held their hands and asked curiously.
"Of course I'm here to pick you up." Lin Heng said.
"Wow, I love you!" Xiaoxia jumped up happily.
Xiulan pulled her and said, "Let's go home. Let's go to Hongfeng Mountain. Your grandma has cooked dinner."
"Okay." Xiaoxia agreed crisply, then skipped and followed the two of them back home.
When they arrived at Red Maple Forest, lunch was already ready. They had rice, fried bacon, shredded potatoes and cabbage.
The only green vegetables available outside now are cabbage and spinach. The green vegetables grown in the greenhouse will take about ten days to be eaten, and they have been planted for almost a month.
After lunch, Xiaoxia took her brother to pick eggs and had a lot of fun at Red Maple Mountain.
Xiulan and Lin's mother decided to soak another 20 kilograms of soybeans and make tofu for use in making fermented tofu chili sauce.
After sending Xiaoxia to school, Lin Heng went to find his eldest brother. They discussed it and set off at 3:30 in the afternoon.
Lin Heng also took a hunting rifle this time. It was the most useful thing for hunting at night. The golden roosters were resting together in groups, so he could shoot them all down with one shot of the gun.
Two people, each with a dog, went up the mountain so early in the morning mainly to listen to the sounds. In the evening when it is getting dark, the golden rooster and bamboo partridges will call, and it is easy to hear the specific location.
Of course, this doesn’t necessarily happen, it all depends on luck.
The two went to a ditch in the direction of Sanchagou. Lin Yue had recently inspected it and said that the ditch was more promising.
The two walked all the way, and when they arrived at their destination, it was almost five o'clock, and the sky looked a little dark. It was not because this place was far away, but they were looking for traces of prey on the way, not just rushing on the road.
"Listen, that's the call of a yellow muntjac."
After walking a few steps, Lin Heng looked at the hillside on the left and said.
"It's a muntjac. Let's go over quietly and try to feel it." Lin Yue took a look and nodded.
The two greeted the dog and then groped over there. Since they couldn't find any other prey, they decided to give it a try for now, but they didn't hold out much hope.
After a while, the two of them reached the halfway point of the mountain. At this time, they heard the sound of the deer going farther away, and they were suddenly speechless.
"Keep chasing it and see where it can run to." Lin Heng said with a breath.
Half an hour later, the two gave up reluctantly. This thing was still too vigilant, or today was not a good time.
At this time, the western sky was already orange-red. After the two rested for a while, they heard the sound of birds chirping not far away.
"It's the Golden Rooster, absolutely." Lin Yue said excitedly.
Lin Heng also nodded and continued to walk up along the ridge, wanting to see if there was any movement elsewhere.
When it was dawn, he suddenly saw two golden roosters flying up and landing on a tree halfway up the mountain, and he immediately became excited.
"Brother, this place you found is really great." Lin Heng looked at his brother and smiled.
"Unfortunately, these two groups of golden roosters are quite close to each other. We must shoot together." Lin Yue said with his hands spread out.
The golden rooster that heard the call was at the edge of the ravine, while Lin Heng was halfway up the mountain, not far away, so it was likely to be disturbed.
Lin Heng thought for a moment and said, "How about this, you go ahead and shoot first, I'll wait until your gun goes off, the distance is pretty far, it shouldn't be a problem."
"This is the only way." Lin Yue nodded. It was not realistic to look at the watch and type at the same time. It might be possible if they were close and communicated by voice.
The two separated after they finished talking, and slowly approached each other.
Lin Heng moved quickly and found the two golden roosters in a short while. They were two females with gray feathers and long, beautiful tail feathers.
He did not get closer, but stopped about ten meters away from them. The man and the dog waited quietly until it was completely dark. At this time, the night was so silent that the sound of leaves sliding in the woods could be clearly heard.
Suddenly he heard a rumbling sound coming from the foot of the mountain. The sound echoed in the mountain for a while before disappearing. The two golden roosters on the tree in front of Lin Heng took off the moment the sound sounded.
Lin Heng could only watch the worst scene happen. Even if he raised his gun now, he couldn't hit it. Soon he became happy again, because one of the two golden roosters didn't fly very far, so there was still a chance.
He held the gun and waited for more than ten minutes, and only walked over after the person had rested and calmed down. With the help of the moonlight in the sky, he found the golden rooster again.
Without hesitation, he fired a shot with a bang.
“Ouch!”
After the gunshot, Xiongba rushed out and caught the pheasant in a short while.
"Come on, let's go home."
Lin Heng glanced at his watch. Although it was still ten minutes before nine o'clock in the evening, he didn't want to continue anymore as there was little hope.
"Brother, did you manage to hit it?"
When they reached the ditch at the foot of the mountain, Lin Yue asked curiously.
"The gunshot scared one away, but it didn't fall very far, so I shot it. How many did you kill?" Lin Heng asked curiously.
Lin Yue held his stuff in front of Lin Heng and said with a smile: "I was lucky. I found three on that tree, one male and two females. I caught them all. You can take the female one."
"I have one, which is enough." Lin Heng shook his head.
Lin Yue stuffed it into his pocket and said, "A small one of this won't be enough to eat. Brothers, let's not be polite."
Lin Heng couldn't refuse anymore, so he smiled and said, "Thank you, big brother."
"Let's go back." Lin Yue nodded.
Both of them had the same idea. On the way back, they walked along the ditch. If they saw him again, they would fight. If they didn't see him anymore, then forget it.
"Hey, I finally found it."
When they were about to go home, Lin Yue suddenly spoke up.
Lin Heng turned his head and saw that he had caught a hedgehog. He was immediately confused: "Why did you catch this thing?"
As Lin Yue put the hedgehog into the bag, he said, "It was Lin Tao who pestered me to raise a hedgehog. I had already prepared the cage, but I never caught one until today."
"Is that so? It's indeed okay to raise this little thing." Lin Heng said with a smile.
"Well, sometimes if you don't look for it at night, it's everywhere, and you can't find it even if you look for it." Lin Yue said.
The two of them were talking when they arrived home at half past ten.
Lin Heng unlocked the yard gate and walked in, knocking on the door. After a while, Xiulan came and opened the door for him.
"We had a good harvest today. We caught two." Xiulan gave him a thumbs up when she saw the golden rooster in his hand.
"I only beat one, and the other one ran away. This one was sent to me by my eldest brother." Lin Heng recounted what happened as he walked into the house, and then asked the child.
"The children are asleep. I'll bring you food."
Xiulan took out the still hot food from the rice cooker and put it on the table, then poured Lin Heng a glass of rice wine.
When Lin Heng was eating, she would support her chin with her hand, watch him eat and talk to him, and the water for blanching the chicken would burn.
After Lin Heng finished his meal, they scalded and plucked the golden rooster. Lin Heng fed the chicken offal directly to the dogs, one each for Xiongba and Dazhuang.
The internal organs of a golden rooster are smaller and more difficult to clean, unlike the large intestines of a large rooster.
"Would you like to ask our parents to come over for dinner tomorrow?" Xiulan asked, holding the golden chicken.
"Let's have hotpot tomorrow, and the golden chicken in two days. For now, let's eat it on the wall of the storage room. There is no fireplace there." Lin Heng said.
"Why don't we have Golden Rooster tomorrow and hotpot in a few days when the vegetables in the greenhouse grow up and they will be so delicious." Xiulan looked at him and said.
Then she added: "If you want to eat shabu-shabu mutton, I'll make it for you."
"Thank you, wife." Lin Heng grinned. He really wanted to eat hotpot because he wanted to eat shabu-shabu.
"Hurry up and wash your face and go to bed." Xiulan patted him and turned to hang up the golden rooster.
After washing up, Lin Heng quickly went into the bedroom. At night, the bedroom with a fireplace was ten degrees warmer than outside.
After warming himself in front of the fireplace for a while, he crawled into bed and quickly fell asleep holding Xiulan in his arms.
The next day they ate Golden Chicken, but went to their eldest brother's house, where their parents were also. The next day they made mutton hotpot and invited them back.
It’s not about who’s missing out on a meal, but rather a manifestation of a good relationship and a means of communication.
In the following days, Lin Heng also went out hunting with his elder brother. They would go into the mountains at around four o'clock and come back at half past ten. Their main target was golden roosters.
But his luck was not very good. He ran for several days but didn't catch any fish. Instead, he caught a pheasant in the fishhook trap set by Lin Heng and Xiulan.
Time quickly arrived at December 20th, and there were only eleven days left until 1988 in the Gregorian calendar. However, hunting was not a big deal because the Wildlife Protection Law had been in effect for 89 years.
At noon that day, the musk deer pen was filled with screams of deer owls. Lin Heng and his father held the musk deer down, while Xiulan took a small spoon to collect the musk.
After a busy morning, they finally got a small pile of musk, which was piled on a piece of white paper. It was a beautiful brown color and exuded a dizzying stinky smell.
"This year there should be about three or four taels. How much is musk per gram now?" Father Lin asked while looking at the musk.
"The price this year is 38 per gram, which is a little more expensive than last year." Lin Heng said as he and Xiulan carefully put the musk into a small plastic bag with a self-sealing lid.
After they were done, they took out a scale and weighed it. Xiulan read out the number and looked at Lin Heng and the others and said with a smile, "Add the bag and it's 4 taels."
Father Lin's mouth suddenly opened wide: "Then this is at least 180 grams, at least more than 6,000 yuan, more than the money we sell grapes for."
Lin Heng also smiled and nodded: "It is indeed this number, which is beyond my expectation. These new musk deer produce more scent than expected."
(End of this chapter)
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