Chapter 375: Paradise on Earth
“On it!”
“This one is so big!”
"Wow, Mom is amazing!"
Accompanied by bursts of laughter, Lin Heng and others were having a great time fishing for stream grouper at the stream of Hongfeng Mountain.
There were shallow lawns on both sides of the place where they were, and a slow stream in the middle. Looking up, the waterfall flowing down from the reservoir on the top of the mountain was very spectacular.
However, the stream water at this time of year is still very cold and not suitable for putting your feet in.
They came out today just to have fun, as no one could stand staying at home all the time.
In such a natural environment, even if you do nothing and just sit quietly, you will feel very comfortable.
Just feel the gentle breeze and look at the green mountains and clear waters, and your heart will calm down in an instant. This is the magic of nature.
Xiulan was fishing, Xiaoxia was building a small house in the sand nearby with a shovel, and the two dogs, Xiongba and Xiaobai, were lying lazily on the lawn basking in the sun, with their eyes closed comfortably.
They had just been bathed a few days ago, and now one of them looked snow-white like a white wolf, while the other one with a black back and yellow hair looked even more majestic, like the king of the wolf pack.
The only pitiful thing was the two little ones in the stroller under the canopy made of bed sheets. They could only shake their heads left and right to see a corner of the sky and a small half waterfall on the distant mountain.
But even so, their bright eyes are still full of curiosity, and they twist their hands and feet as if they are eager to explore this wonderful world.
Lin Heng looked at his two twin sons and took some free time to kill the stream grouper. He then went back to the house to get some shrimps and a small table and called his parents to come over.
They lit a fire and fried fish and shrimp and boiled tea under the tent.
Today, Hongfeng Mountain has been completely fenced off, and the roses on the periphery are growing lushly and blooming. For their family, it is a beautiful paradise.
Hongfeng Mountain is different from those independent mountains. Its front side, where Lin Hengzhong grows ginseng, pasture, and fish ponds, is very broad and relatively flat, while the back part relies on the taller mountains behind.
There is only a small hill at the top of Red Maple Mountain, where the cabin is located, and there is a small valley behind the hill and between it and the larger mountain range.
The mountain stream originates from the valley, and the source is more than one kilometer upstream. It mainly relies on groundwater in the mountains on both sides, and there is not much surface water.
But the water flow is not small at all, and it is very turbulent, so the water temperature of this stream can be maintained at around 10 degrees all year round.
It is not the same stream as the water flowing down from Sanchagou.
All of the exposed parts of Red Maple Mountain happened to belong to the Lin family. Now they were all completely fenced off by Lin Heng, including the underground water cave which was the largest source of stream water. It was like a paradise.
Camping in such a small world of your own feels different. You can relax your body and mind while experiencing the best natural scenery.
"I have some delicious food here, Xiaoxia, would you like to try it?"
Lin's mother also brought some snacks and desserts she made herself.
"I'm not eating, I'm digging the house!"
Xiaoxia shook her head and said that she was very interested in digging sand.
"Mom, please fry the fish and shrimp first, and we'll be here to eat in a while." Lin Heng said with a smile.
Father Lin drank a cup of tea, took a fishing rod and went fishing for stream grouper. He is now quite interested in fishing.
"Mom, do you want to go fishing?" Xiulan came over and asked with a smile.
"I don't want to play. It's boring just watching." Mother Lin shook her head.
"Okay then." Xiulan nodded and picked up a stream grouper to eat. Although this fish is small, the meat is very tender and fragrant, almost the same as the mullet.
"It's still warm now even though there's no wind. Let's let our two sons come out and play." Lin Heng said to Xiulan.
"Then let's hold them and play with them. I'm afraid they'll catch a cold if we put them on the ground." Xiulan said after thinking for a while.
Lin Heng's original idea was to spread a rotten bed sheet on the floor and then put a small quilt on it for the child to play, but she was worried.
"That's fine." Lin Heng nodded in agreement, and held the baby with Xiulan.
Xiulan was worried, so she covered the children's mouths with a piece of cloth as a mask, and then the two of them held them and walked around, letting them look at the flowers, water, mountains and land curiously.
It seemed that the beauty of nature stimulated them. The two little guys actually raised their hands and made some grunting sounds.
Lin Heng picked up Lin Duheng and placed him in front of the blooming yellow-pink roses. He smelled them and actually had the urge to reach out and grab them.
But Lin Heng naturally would not let him catch it, and immediately carried him away.
After playing for a while, they put the baby stroller back and sat at the table to drink tea and eat delicious brook grouper and green shrimp.
"Your uncle is getting married. Are you going together the day after tomorrow morning?" Mother Lin asked after taking a sip of tea.
Xiulan shook her head and said, "I'll take care of the children, and Lin Heng will go alone. Lu Ming and Du Heng are too young, and it's not convenient to take them out."
Mother Lin nodded and agreed: "That's fine, the child's safety is more important."
After eating a little, Lin Heng spread himself over a bed sheet, with his head inside the canopy and his body outside. He lay comfortably, looking at the green mountains and blue sky and taking a rest.
Lin Heng fell asleep unknowingly. He had a dream that he turned into a bird, flying freely in the sky.
When I woke up again, my parents and twin sons were no longer there. Only Xiulan and Xiaoxia were there.
Xiulan was sitting next to her, taking care of a bunch of freshly picked roses, while Xiaoxia was eating the fish and shrimps fried in a pan with chopsticks.
"How long have I slept?" Lin Heng asked
Xiulan looked at her watch and smiled, "It won't be long, maybe just an hour. I took the baby back to my mother's house. He was fed and is now asleep."
"That's good."
Lin Heng nodded and pulled Xiulan to lie down again. She was wearing a floral short skirt, a white short-sleeved top, and two ponytails, looking like the girl next door.
"Hate it~ I'm arranging the flowers!"
Xiulan pouted and complained, but still put the flowers aside and lay down.
"It's so nice to look at the sky like this." Lin Heng put her head on his shoulder and said with a smile.
"I've seen it all. You were sleeping like a pig just now." Xiulan pinched his face angrily.
"I fell asleep suddenly. I told you I had a dream just now..."
Lin Heng and Xiulan were talking while looking at the blue sky above them.
“I want to come and see too!”
Xiaoxia ate something and ran over with a greasy mouth and got between the two of them.
There was nothing Xiulan could do about her daughter, so she wiped her mouth, looked at the sky for a while, then sat up and continued to arrange her roses.
She half-bent her legs, revealing her snow-white, straight calves and beautiful feet. Her skin was so white and delicate that people drooled.
Lin Heng held his daughter in his arms and watched her arrange flowers. After a while, his daughter fell asleep in his arms. This beautiful feeling and the white noise brought by the waterfall really make it easy to fall asleep.
Xiaoxia had a faint smile on her face, which was 70% similar to Xiulan. Lin Heng tidied his daughter's hair, laid her flat, and sat up himself.
"You eat the brook grouper and shrimp, and we'll get ready to go home," said Xiulan.
"Okay." Lin Heng nodded, walked over to finish his meal, then extinguished the charcoal and cleaned up the garbage.
Xiulan finished her words and took her daughter back to her parents' home. Then she came back and stretched out her hand to Lin Heng, saying softly, "Come on, I'll take you to the mountains for a walk. You can get the things when you come back later."
"Okay." Lin Heng readily agreed, holding Xiulan's delicate hand and walking up the mountain.
The spring breeze blew her skirt and long black hair, and the fragrant air penetrated into Lin Heng's nostrils, and his heartbeat accelerated unconsciously.
The two of them looked around and strolled in the forest, seeing ginseng, bees, dendrobium, wooden houses, the river and village at the foot of the mountain, and the blooming flowers.
Xiulan wiped the sweat off her own face, then washed a handkerchief by the stream and wiped Lin Heng's face with it, and then they went down the mountain hand in hand.
I went to see the livestock and fish, had lunch here, and when the sun got a little smaller, I took Xiaoxia and my two sons back to the village.
After returning home and resting for a while, Lin Heng and his elder brother went up the mountain to hunt in the afternoon. They didn’t go too far and just walked around near the door of their home. They had been hunting too many times recently, so they both treated this as a walk.
But today's walk was a little different. They went to the mountain behind Hongfeng Mountain. While walking, Lin Heng was suddenly stopped by Xiongba. When he walked over to see, he was a little stunned.
In this mixed forest of pine and acorn trees, there were orange-yellow 'eggs' growing on the ground, so beautiful that it left people speechless.
"Oh my god, big brother, come and pick up the egg mushrooms, there's a big patch over here!"
Lin Heng was shocked. Not only were there egg-shaped ones without umbrellas opened, but there were also many small umbrella-shaped ones with umbrellas opened, which made people's appetites whetted.
Lin Yue hurried over to take a look and was stunned: "This is the first time I have seen such a large area of egg mushrooms. There must be thirty or forty of them, right?"
He was even a little unsure whether it was an egg mushroom. He picked one and looked at it carefully. All the characteristics were perfect. It was indeed an egg mushroom.
"Hurry up and pick them up. You won't be empty-handed today." Lin Heng said with a smile. He took out the bag and started picking up the items without hesitation.
In a short while he filled a bag, estimated to be about ten pounds. This huge harvest of precious mushrooms made him feel relieved from the disappointment of hunting empty-handed.
"I didn't expect there was a large area of egg mushrooms so close!" Lin Yue exclaimed as he picked up the fruits.
"This should have been discovered recently. Usually, there are fewer people picking it up when it's not raining, so it's normal that no one noticed it." Lin Heng said with a smile.
That's how mushrooms are. Sometimes they grow again right after you pick them up.
After picking them up, they searched the area nearby and made sure that there were no more, so they walked back home briskly. When they arrived at Hongfeng Mountain, they each took out some egg mushrooms for their parents to eat.
This thing tastes better when it is fresh. If it is dried, it will not taste as good as other mushrooms, so there is no need to make too much.
Lin Heng pushed open the gate and walked into the house, and couldn't wait to show off: "Wife, I picked up a big bag of egg mushrooms today."
"Can we still pick mushrooms now?" Xiulan, who was picking purslane in the yard, looked up and asked in surprise.
"Yeah, I didn't expect it, but I did pick it up, and gave five or six kilograms of mushrooms to my parents." Lin Heng poured the mushrooms on the ground to show them.
"Dad is the best!" Xiaoxia next to him acted as the supporting actor, jumping around and waving her little hands.
"Come, daddy will hold you." Lin Heng picked up his little cotton jacket and held it high.
Xiulan looked at the father and daughter and smiled, "Then we can have a good meal today. I'll fry the leftovers and make fried mushrooms."
After that, she added, "By the way, there is one more thing. Our cat Jinbao is back again, and she seems to be pregnant."
"You're back, that's great, it's a double happiness today." Lin Heng said in surprise.
After Jinbao disappeared, he searched for a long time but there was no news. Unexpectedly, when he gave up looking for it, it ran back by itself. It seemed that it went to the mountains to mate.
“Wow wow wow~”
As if in response to Lin Heng's voice, Lin Luming in the room suddenly burst into tears.
Xiulan spread her hands, stood up and said, "I'll go take a look, you clean up the mushrooms."
"Okay." Lin Heng nodded in agreement, sat down and used the dagger he carried with him to process the mushrooms, mainly scraping away the mud on the mushroom feet.
"Dad, I'll get you a basket."
Xiaoxia volunteered to run into the house, carrying a basket that was half her height to Lin Heng. After receiving Lin Heng's praise, she happily spun around on the spot.
Lin Heng quickly processed the mushrooms and cleaned up the purslane and brought it into the house. Xiulan changed the baby's diaper and started cooking. She first put two-thirds of the mushrooms into the oil pan with chili peppers and peppercorns.
When eaten fresh, the mushrooms have little aroma, and their taste is mainly smooth, crisp and delicious. However, after being fried until dry, the rich aroma of the mushrooms themselves will be stimulated, and it becomes another kind of deliciousness.
After frying, add some other spices to make mushroom sauce and put it in the freezer. It can be eaten for half a month.
Fresh egg mushroom Xiulan is stir-fried with shredded lean pork. This kind of mushroom, which has been eaten since ancient times, tastes very delicious. It is a great dish to go with rice when stir-fried with meat.
When eating, Jinbao came to eat the meat. Lin Heng rubbed its head and gave it some lean meat. After being away for more than half a month, this guy had obviously lost a lot of weight.
The next day Lin Heng did nothing. He mainly helped move some wedding supplies for his uncle. Then early on the third day, he, his elder brother and his mother went upstairs to present gifts.
His uncle didn't hold any wedding ceremony, he just simply invited people to dinner to witness it. The people who came were his relatives, people who had a good relationship with his uncle, or people who had gifts from his family.
Lin Heng and his friends went up to set off firecrackers to celebrate. As soon as they finished setting off firecrackers, a group of people came out to greet them.
"Yeah, Lin Heng, you guys are finally here!"
"Come and sit down. You haven't had breakfast yet. I left some food for you at the turnstile."
"We are lucky today. We can eat deer meat. Your uncle shot a deer last night!"
"Our millionaires can't go hungry. Hurry up and sit down."
Everyone acted as if Lin Heng and his group were the hosts of the wedding; their enthusiasm was a little over the top.
Not only Lin Heng, but also his elder brother and parents were treated extremely warmly.
"I caught it last night. It's really a blessing from God." Lin Heng was surprised at first, then he greeted everyone with a smile. He could accurately call out the names of every relative here.
For him, this kind of situation was not difficult to handle, and he chatted with everyone calmly.
After chatting for a while, Lin Heng's uncle and aunt came over and said with a smile: "Lin Heng, it's a good thing that you are here. Can you show me if these are done properly?"
(End of this chapter)
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