Chapter 6 The meaning of life is my wife's smiling face
"What?"
Lin Heng heard his wife's voice and hurried over.
"Look, isn't this a good thing? Such a big pile of mulberry yellow, one pound can be sold for 80 cents, so there are at least four or five pounds."
Chen Xiulan pointed to a fallen wild mulberry tree and saw that its narrow trunk was covered with golden mulberry leaves.
Coriolus versicolor is a woody fungus, and like Ganoderma lucidum and tree tongue, it feels a bit like wood.
The surface of Coriolus versicolor is golden yellow, and the back has woody texture, but it has great medicinal value. It is definitely luck to find it here, as it should have been picked up long ago.
“Well…well…”
The daughter staggered over a piece of freshly picked Coriolus fungus and handed it to Lin Heng.
She had just learned to walk and could not walk steadily. Lin Heng quickly supported her, fearing that she would fall.
Unexpectedly, after handing one Coriolus versicolor to Lin Heng, she ran over and handed over a second one, giggling foolishly, with snot bubbles coming out of her nose, and she was still enjoying it.
"It's really good stuff. There are probably five or six kilograms on the tree. I can sell it for four or five dollars, which is almost the same as the gray squirrel I shot."
Lin Heng nodded, smiled, took the squirrel he had shot out of the backpack and shook it.
"You caught a gray squirrel?" Chen Xiulan opened her mouth wide, her face full of shock. "How did you do that?"
"Of course I used a slingshot. There were supposed to be two squirrels, but Xiaoxia scared the other one away." Lin Heng said as he lifted the squirrel up to prevent his daughter from scratching it.
"You are so accurate with your slingshot, why didn't you go hunting before?" Chen Xiulan looked at her with some admiration. Her husband who was not doing his job actually had such skills.
These days, people can only eat a little meat during festivals, but she can eat it tonight. She is drooling.
"I used to think about making a lot of money and looked down on these things. Now I regret it." Lin Heng said with a smile. In fact, his skills mainly came from the archery club before his rebirth.
Before he systematically learned archery, his slingshot was not accurate.
Seeing his wife's happy and admiring eyes, Lin Heng felt happy and felt that he had found the meaning of life.
It’s not about poetry and distant places, nor about how much money you have, but the smiling faces of your wife and children.
"Then hunt more often in the future." Xiulan put the picked mulberry fungus into the backpack, walked over to take the squirrel, weighed it, her eyes shining.
Lin Heng couldn't help but reach out and lift her messy hair, feeling the joy of being needed.
Chen Xiulan was stunned for a moment, as if she was stunned by Lin Heng's gentle behavior, and then she smiled again: "Let's go, go down the mountain and go home, it's getting dark."
Although it seemed that they did not collect much, in fact, the two of them climbed over two large mountains and walked back and forth for an indeterminate amount of time.
"Okay! I'll carry Xiaoxia and you carry the things." Lin Heng nodded.
"I'll carry my daughter on my back. If we meet a squirrel again, you'll have trouble beating it." Chen Xiulan disagreed. She felt heartbroken when she heard that a squirrel had escaped. That was four or five dollars.
Lin Heng did not argue. Going down the mountain was easy and it was already a common thing for his wife.
After packing up their things, the two went down the mountain together. After walking a few steps, Chen Xiulan started chatting.
"The child's father..."
"Change your name." Lin Heng shook his head.
"Huh?" Chen Xiulan asked puzzledly.
"Call me husband!" Lin Heng said with a smile. Although the title of husband is not popular yet and is mostly used between young men and women, and it was not until the 1990s that it gradually became popular, he just wanted to hear it.
Chen Xiulan was stunned. She had only heard people in the city call him that. After thinking about it, she didn't refuse and said, "Husband."
After calling him, she felt weird, but as long as Lin Heng treated her the same way as today, she would be willing to call him whatever he asked.
"Haha, wife, you scream so beautifully. Keep screaming like that in the future." Lin Heng smiled contentedly.
Chen Xiulan continued: "Husband, what do you think about the division of the family?"
Dividing the family is not as simple as building a house for each to live in. It also involves dividing the land, some basic furniture, and so on. She wanted to see what Lin Heng thought.
"I've thought about it all. Our family has thirty acres of land and six hundred acres of forest. No matter how my father divides it, I have decided to take the Red Maple Mountain to the west of the village plus the land at the foot of the mountain." Lin Heng said as he walked.
"You want the one over there? Why?" Chen Xiulan didn't quite understand. The land there wasn't very fertile, and Hongfeng Mountain was also a forest of mixed trees. There were no big trees, and it wasn't valuable.
Lin Heng chose this place for two reasons. The first was that the village road would pass through here in the future, and a national highway was opened in 1986. It was not far from there, and transportation was convenient.
The second point is that Hongfeng Mountain is very gentle, with a slope of only about ten to twenty degrees. There is also a mountain stream next to it that flows all year round, and it is not far from the Maple River in the distance.
This is a good place for farms and orchards.
The third point is that it is far away from the densely populated areas of the village so as not to affect others.
Another point is that the land and forests in other places are piecemeal, a few acres here and a few acres there.
However, Hongfeng Mountain and the land at the foot of the mountain are connected, so they can be directly fenced off in the future without worrying about other people's disputes.
Compared with these advantages, Lin Heng felt that the poor quality of the land was acceptable.
"Because it's a whole area and there's water, it's very convenient for breeding and building orchards..." Lin Heng explained.
When she heard that her husband wanted to engage in breeding and build an orchard, Chen Xiulan instinctively felt that it was a little unreliable.
But then he thought, this is better than him going out and not being seen all day, so he nodded and said, "Then you can choose this place when the time comes."
"Shh!"
At this time, Lin Heng suddenly let out a hiss, then put down the backpack and rushed towards the front left with the slingshot.
Chen Xiulan also became nervous. She looked in that direction and saw a pheasant foraging under a tree about ten meters away.
Lin Heng couldn't move forward after walking five meters because there were branches blocking his way. If he took a big step forward, it would inevitably alarm the pheasant.
But the distance between them was at least eight or nine meters, and he was not sure of his aim, nor was he sure of the power of the slingshot in his hand. His palms could not help but sweat.
But there was no time to hesitate. He found the best stone from his pocket, raised the slingshot and aimed for five seconds, took a deep breath, loosened his hand, and the stone flew out with a whoosh.
"Gada gada..."
The pheasant was startled with a whoosh, and just when Lin Heng and Chen Xiulan thought they had failed, it fell down with a flutter and ran around in panic.
“I’m injured!!”
Lin Heng understood immediately and started chasing after him.
A man and a chicken started a thrilling chase. Lin Heng chased and shot with a slingshot.
Lin Xiaoxia, who was watching from a distance, raised her hands and cheered: "Oh...oh..."
Chen Xiulan was full of nervousness. This was a chicken. Although her family had one, they were reluctant to kill one all year round and kept them for laying eggs.
In the blink of an eye, Lin Heng chased the pheasant far away. After more than ten minutes, Lin Heng finally walked out of the woods.
Chen Xiulan saw that her husband's hands were empty and felt disappointed and regretful: "Did he get lost?"
"Yes, I'm really useless." Lin Heng said disappointedly.
"It's not your fault. The slingshot didn't work. The tree was in the way. Maybe we still have a chance."
Chen Xiulan did not scold Lin Heng. She felt that although it was a pity, she thought that having a squirrel was enough, and her husband was already very capable.
"You're kidding. How could your husband fail? Look!"
Lin Heng laughed and took out a large gray pheasant from his back, weighing nearly two kilograms.
This is what he likes most about Chen Xiulan. She is not like other women in the village who always scold their husbands for being useless and make a fuss all day long.
Chen Xiulan was gentle and kind. Even though Lin Heng was not doing his job properly, she did not throw a tantrum or scold him. She continued to cook for him and wash his clothes as usual, and she also tried to persuade him in a gentle voice.
It was also because of this that after her death, Lin Heng blamed himself and felt guilty for the rest of his life.
(End of this chapter)
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