Chapter 118 Guaguaguaguaguaguagua two in one
In order to entertain the new son-in-law, the Liu family put a lot of effort into the lunch and prepared a full table.
During the meal, the two uncles drank back and forth with Nie Baichuan for several times. The wine sent by the young couple was opened on the spot. It was a rare opportunity for these grown men to drink good wine with delicious food, and their faces were all flushed.
Compared to Liang Chunlian, the others were much more knowledgeable and sensible. They were afraid of causing trouble to others and did not mention these messy things at all.
For the two uncles, Nie Baichuan's acquisition of the goods had already brought too much profit to the Liu family. They were both somewhat shy people and didn't know how to express their gratitude, so they had to keep persuading their nephew and son-in-law to drink and eat meat.
There is no such thing as not urging others to drink more these days. In people’s simple concept, if someone likes you and respects you, then they will drink with you!
Under the "kind words of persuasion" of the elders, Nie Baichuan drank so much that his eyes became dizzy. He put his hand under the table and gently pulled Xiang Yao's hand.
Xiang Yao blinked and said quickly, "We still have to go up the mountain later, so don't get too drunk."
Only then did the uncle and cousins let the new son-in-law go and started eating meat with hearty mouthfuls, talking and laughing, and chatting about everything under the sun.
After they finally finished their meal, the two uncles and Liu Weiguo picked up their weapons and took Xiang Yao and Nie Baichuan to the edge of the mountain.
My second uncle, Liu Dali, led the way with a hatchet. "We usually take this road. There are no fields in this valley, only a small plot of land that belongs to us. This makes it convenient for us to go up and down the mountain."
Xiang Yao nodded: "If you come here normally, people will think you are going to tend to the vegetables in your private plot."
My uncle Liu Dazhuang smiled and said, "That's right! But some of my acquaintances have gotten some clues now. This kind of thing is hard to keep secret over time."
There are so many boring people who stare at other people's affairs. Some people are kind and won't say anything even if they know about it. I am just afraid of those who are jealous and will suddenly stab you in the back. If their own family is not doing well, they will not allow others to do well.
Of course, the Liu family is a well-known family in the Shiniu Brigade. People around them get along with them quite well, and there is no serious situation at present.
Nie Baichuan reminded: "You still have to be a little more careful. If someone brings it up, it's okay to reveal a little information."
He is now shipping large quantities. If he had not always been cautious and tried to proceed under low-risk circumstances, the current quantity would have been insufficient.
Liu Dazhuang nodded: "It's okay now. If we really encounter a situation, we'll talk about it later."
He cut off a sticking branch and said confidently, "It's okay for now. If others have any bad ideas, we're not afraid. The worst that can happen is that we can just say we took it and trade it on the street."
There are supply and marketing cooperatives in the commune, department stores in the city, and of course, small supply and marketing stores in the countryside. These stores are often concentrated in relatively busy places, and are respectfully called "streets" by the locals.
Within a limited scope, some farmers would also try their best to make some small things and set up a small stall on the street, secretly exchanging them with others for daily necessities.
It’s impossible that some families don’t know how to make brooms or pot brushes, so they have to run a long way to the commune to buy them, right?
The supply and marketing points do have this thing, but the price is undoubtedly not worth it for everyone.
Xiang Yao walked with his head down, carefully watching out for the sharp bamboo stakes that sometimes suddenly appeared on the path, while counting the days in his mind.
It will take at least two years for the free market to recover. Before that, Nie Baichuan's business, including her fruit business, cannot be carried out openly.
However, compared with the past, it is much more relaxed now and the management is not as strict, which is why there are so many private transactions like this.
Speaking of the fruit and vegetable business, Xiang Yao started to worry again.
It has been a long time since she took out these fruits and vegetables. Now that she is married, they have become like a hot potato. She doesn't know what to do with them.
She turned her head to look at Nie Baichuan who was walking behind her. Seeing him raising one hand and lightly supporting her lower back, she felt a little guilty.
No one has asked her about the fruits yet, and she seems to have forgotten about it and has not thought of a serious way to deal with it.
But this matter will have to be brought to light sooner or later. It is impossible for her to get such a great and precious system and keep it hidden and not use it.
Perhaps there was something wrong with Xiang Yao's look, so Nie Baichuan moved closer and asked in a low voice, "What's wrong?"
Xiang Yao lowered her eyelashes and shook her head: "It's okay."
Nie Baichuan: "Don't you want to go? I'll go back with you."
Xiang Yao shook his head again: "No, I want to go."
She was a little annoyed, and her tone of voice was not very good: "Oh, I'll tell you later."
Nie Baichuan raised an eyebrow, took a kettle, unscrewed the lid and handed it to her: "Okay, we'll talk about it later, drink some water."
Xiang Yao felt a little embarrassed when she finished speaking. Seeing Nie Baichuan being so considerate, she followed the steps he offered her, took the kettle, and said softly, "I'm sorry. I was thinking about something and got a little impatient. I didn't mean to do that."
Nie Baichuan smiled and said gently, "Well, it's okay. If you can't figure it out, just think about it slowly. There's no need to rush."
Xiang Yao paused, then nodded hesitantly, drank some water in small sips, and handed the kettle back.
Her fingers touched the back of Nie Baichuan's hand, and a warm feeling came over her. It was a thrilling touch that made Xiang Yao instantly unwilling to think about the melon field anymore.
Anyway, she couldn't divorce Nie Baichuan just because she wanted to use Guatian more smoothly, right?
Oh! There's really no need to rush. Just take your time to think about it.
After figuring things out more or less, Xiang Yao put a smile on his face again, and suddenly he felt that everything he saw became interesting.
For example, there is a bird's nest hanging on a tall tree not far to the side, and there is a wild persimmon tree a little ahead with some bright red persimmons hanging on it.
Xiang Yao pointed at the persimmon tree and asked Liu Weiguo, "Brother, there are so many ripe persimmons on that tree, why isn't anyone picking them?"
Liu Weiguo looked over where she pointed and said with a smile, "It's not too deep here. Someone discovered that persimmon tree a long time ago, and all the fruits that could be picked have been picked. The rest must have been eaten by birds or insects, leaving only an empty shell hanging there!"
Xiang Yao suddenly realized, and she said, how could someone leave such ripe persimmons unpicked.
"How far is it?" she asked.
Liu Dazhuang smiled and answered her, "It's almost there. Just walk a little longer and we'll reach the place where we set the trap last time."
There is another mission when going up the mountain this time, which is to check the places where traps are set to see if anything is caught.
This vast mountain area hides many good things.
This is why, during the famine years a few years ago, we rarely heard of anyone starving to death among the people around us.
It is these mountains that saved everyone's lives.
Liu Dali recalled: "At first, everyone was starving. There was nothing to eat. Grass roots, tree bark, anything edible was plucked up."
"Later, the brigade cadres couldn't stand it anymore, so they held a few meetings. After a few commotions, they came back and told the strong young men in our team to pack up their weapons and go into the mountains to forage for food!"
Xiang Yao listened very carefully. When she was riding in Uncle Wu's ox cart before, the old man also liked to talk about these things, and she listened with great interest.
She said, "It's the same over there, but now we have more food, and people who went into the mountains to hunt were severely injured by wild boars, so gradually no one dared to go into the mountains anymore."
Liu Dazhuang brushed aside a branch and said, "There was a man here a long time ago who refused to listen to advice and insisted on going up the mountain alone. He ended up running down like a blood gourd. If there hadn't been someone digging tree roots on the edge of the mountain, he would have died there long ago."
Xiang Yao exclaimed, "Ah!" and widened his eyes. "Was that man also chased by a wild boar like this?"
Liu Dazhuang shook his head. "I don't know what happened to him. When he was carried home, he started to have a high fever and talk nonsense. After he was finally cured, his brain was broken. One moment he was talking about beating a dog, the next he was talking about beating a wolf. I don't know what's wrong with him."
"But since then, many people have backed out and are afraid to go into the mountains again."
He laughed and said, "But the situation here is exactly the same. The reason why some people don't dare to go in is because there is enough food and there is no need to take the risk."
Otherwise, when people are hungry, they can do anything. Besides, they are numerous and powerful, so what is there to be afraid of?
As long as you are not alone, even if you encounter a large group of wild boars, it is still uncertain who will win or lose!
Xiang Yao sighed a little. Not to mention the years of famine, even now, they still had to calculate their food rations throughout the year and could not eat and drink as much as they wanted.
A line of birds flew overhead, their wings flapping with a swish. She quickly tilted her head to look, and suddenly she really wanted to shout out—I really want to go back! Back to the days when I could eat whatever I wanted every day!
"ah--"
Before she finished shouting in her mind, Liu Weiguo, who was walking in front of her, covered his face and shouted...
Liu Weiguo was furious: "What the hell! They actually threw a pile of shit in my face!"
Everyone else laughed, even Nie Baichuan curled up the corners of his lips, and laughed at the look on his face as his brother-in-law was angry at the bird but could do nothing about it.
Xiang Yao blinked, slowly closed her mouth, and lowered her head...
Phew… That was a close call. If everyone had walked a few steps faster, the bird poop would have fallen right into her mouth…
So scary!
Oh my god, she would never look up when she heard a bird chirping again!
No one knew what Xiang Yao was thinking at this moment. Of course, Xiang Yao himself tried hard to hide this abnormality and even laughed with everyone else.
As I laughed, I really found this matter extremely funny, and I finally realized it and laughed so hard that I fell over.
"Be careful." Seeing that she was laughing so hard that she didn't even look at the road, Nie Baichuan quickly put his hand on her lower back to remind her.
Xiang Yao's face flushed red as she turned to look at Nie Baichuan, her eyes gleaming with light as she spoke in a lively tone, "Nie Baichuan, hahahaha, that's so funny! We mustn't look up at the birds!"
Liu Weiguo pulled some leaves and finally wiped the white bird droppings clean. Along the way, he always felt as if there were some residual stains on his face, and he kept raising his hand to wipe it subconsciously.
Every time he wiped it, he couldn't help but curse. Now all the birds in the world were his enemies, and he would curse every time he saw one.
Xiang Yao almost died of laughter. This was the first time she saw this usually steady cousin being so cute...
They walked all the way into the mountains, and when Xiang Yao really didn't want to go any further, they finally arrived at the place where they set the trap.
"There's a gray rabbit!" The uncle smiled brightly. He deftly untied the gray rabbit's rope, picked it up and looked at it. He felt a little regretful. "I'm afraid the rabbit was tied up not long after we set the trap. Look at it, it's so thin from hunger!"
My second uncle also took a look and nodded: "It's true that he is not fat, but he can eat two meals."
The uncle gave him a sidelong glance and said, "Eat anything! Even if we want to eat, my wife and your wife will definitely not let us."
Ever since they took on this job of selling mountain products, the two women in the family have been very stingy!
In the past, we got some things from the mountains, and both daughters-in-law happily cooked them into dishes. The whole family ate happily and had full bellies.
Now? One said they couldn’t bear to eat it, the other said they could exchange it for a lot of money. All in all, they hadn’t eaten anything from the mountains in a long time!
The two brothers showed a helpless expression on their honest faces.
But this pain is also a happy pain. Seeing the family's life getting better and better, who wouldn't be happy?
With the first prey in hand, Xiang Yao no longer felt tired. He went to several places and checked the traps one by one.
Then they found a bamboo partridge and a rabbit that was a little rounder than the previous one.
There were also some traps that caught nothing, so several people checked them one by one, set up new ones, and then left.
Liu Weiguo said: "There are two chestnut trees nearby. A lot of chestnuts should have fallen. I picked up a few last time, so I guess there are still a lot left."
Xiang Yao was very excited: "Then let's go pick chestnuts!"
Chestnut stewed chicken, super delicious!
Yes, she had already set her eyes on the bamboo partridge and was ready to buy it home.
Of course, no one was unhappy about this, and they immediately took Xiang Yao to find the chestnut tree.
Xiang Yao was jumping for joy, and the look of someone who seemed to be struggling to breathe not long ago had long since disappeared.
Nie Baichuan was afraid that she would get carried away and kick some dead branches or gravel, so he quickly held her hand and reminded her, "Walk carefully and don't fall."
Xiang Yao shook their connected hands and chuckled, "I know! Brother Chuan!"
At this time, she became naughty. Nie Baichuan's eyes darkened. He looked at the others who were a few meters away in front of him, leaned close to Xiang Yao's ear and whispered in a deep voice: "Nice, call me again."
Xiang Yao glanced at him and said angrily, "Humph, no way."
Nie Baichuan chuckled, pecked her ear quickly, and then immediately stood up straight, pretending nothing had happened.
Xiang Yao was stunned by his smooth little combo. It took her a long time to come back to her senses. She turned her head to look at him in disbelief.
Nie Baichuan also looked back with his eyes slightly lowered, as if nothing had happened, and even asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"
What's wrong? What's wrong? Tell me what's wrong!
In public! In front of everyone! How shameless!
Of course, all this was just Xiang Yao's inner cry. In fact, she didn't say a word. She just gritted her teeth silently and pinched Nie Baichuan's palm hard.
Nie Baichuan, in turn, held her hand tightly, preventing her from struggling, and sternly warned her, "Look, there's a chestnut tree ahead."
Xiang Yao warned softly: "Nie Baichuan, just wait!"
Nie Baichuan raised his eyebrows, smiled slightly and said nothing, as if the fact of annoying the little girl itself made him very happy.
Sure enough, there was a chestnut tree in front of them. Xiang Yao saw the fallen chestnuts everywhere and instantly became excited. He quickly broke free from Nie Baichuan's hand, squatted down and started picking them up.
“There are so many!” she sighed as she picked up the pieces. “What a pity no one comes here.”
Liu Weiguo said with a smile, "If someone comes, the chestnuts from these two trees won't be enough to share."
Xiang Yao thought about it and felt that this was true. It was only because there were a few of them that the things seemed to be a lot. If more people came to pick up the things, there wouldn't be much left for each person.
There are actually quite a few treasure trees like this in the deep mountains, but they are too dangerous. Except for hunters and a very small number of people, most people are not willing to take the risk for this bite of food.
The reason why the men of the Liu family dared to come was that Xiang Yao's grandfather, who had passed away early, was a hunter when he was young. Later, in order to get married and due to the special times, he had to live in the mountains. His eldest uncle and second uncle had often followed him into the mountains secretly since they were young and were quite familiar with this area.
Another thing is that they walked slowly, step by step, into the depths of the route. They were familiar with every flower and grass on the road, and they could keenly observe any large animals that passed by.
That’s why we can enjoy wild persimmons, wild chestnuts, and other kinds of mountain products in late autumn.
Nothing is easy to do, just like the trade of mountain products. If the Liu family father and son did not have the ability, they could only collect some mushrooms on the edge of the mountain, and there would be nothing else to trade.
Xiang Yao secretly thought that she was quite foresighted. She didn't know that her uncles and cousins had this ability. They came up with this idea so that her mother could live a better life in Old Liu's family.
"Nie Baichuan, I really have a good eye for heroes." She squatted on the ground and said proudly to the man who was picking chestnuts beside her.
Nie Baichuan paused: "Hmm?"
Xiang Yao didn't say anything to him. She turned around, walked forward a few steps, and continued to pick up things happily.
"Ah! This one has a white skin!" Xiang Yao held up a tender chestnut with white skin, very happy.
This kind of chestnut is her favorite. It is crispy and has more moisture than old chestnuts. It has a different taste.
"You said you liked this kind a long time ago. I've peeled quite a few here," Liu Weiguo picked out a handful of white-skinned ones and handed them to her. "The ones that are automatically shelled are usually old chestnuts. White chestnuts need to be peeled from the thorn ball."
Xiang Yao's hands were full, so Nie Baichuan took it for her and asked her, "Do you want to eat now?"
Xiang Yao pecked at rice like a chicken: "I want to eat!"
"good."
Nie Baichuan began to peel the chestnuts. He used a hatchet to lightly cut a slit, then carefully tore off the thin skin inside, peeling out a tender and whole chestnut.
"Open your mouth." He raised the chestnut to Xiang Yao's mouth and said.
Xiang Yao obediently opened her mouth and took the chestnut. With a crunch, her eyes lit up instantly: "It's quite sweet!"
Nie Baichuan watched her eat with a smile, already peeling one in his hand.
Xiang Yao continued to pick chestnuts while being fed by Nie Baichuan. When all the chestnuts were picked, Xiang Yao was no longer fed.
Chestnuts are nuts that are very filling. Nie Baichuan was afraid that she would not be able to digest them if she ate too much, so he slowed down the pace of peeling the chestnuts so that she would eat fewer.
Even so, Xiang Yao enjoyed the meal very much.
These wild chestnuts are actually much sweeter than the big chestnuts she bought at the roadside stall before she came here. What's more, she doesn't have to peel them herself, which makes them even more delicious, hehe.
The uncles and cousins couldn't help but smile involuntarily as they watched Nie Baichuan smiling dotingly as he peeled chestnuts for Xiang Yao.
They have never seen such a caring son-in-law!
But thinking that Nie Baichuan used to be from Beijing, they thought that maybe men from big cities are just so considerate.
Liu Weiguo, who is still single, is learning silently in his heart and has made up his mind that he will be as considerate as her after he gets married.
Didn’t you see that my cousin’s eyes were curved with laughter? It shows how lovable this trick is!
Nie Baichuan didn't realize that his actions had invisibly affected the people around him. He was helping Xiang Yao put the piled chestnuts into the cloth bag he brought.
"Let's go back. I won't take you any deeper. After we get down the mountain, it will be almost time for dinner at home." Liu Dazhuang said, looking at the sky.
The group followed the original route down the mountain.
After the harvest season, Xiang Yao began to feel that the way down the mountain was particularly difficult, steep and long.
Fortunately, Nie Baichuan walked in front of her this time, holding her hand tightly. Whenever he encountered an obstacle, he would stop and wait for her to pass before continuing forward with confidence.
The palms of their connected hands gradually became sweaty and sticky, but they held each other even tighter.
When they reached a relatively flat path, Liu Dali, who was in front, suddenly stopped and signaled them to lower their voices and not speak.
Xiang Yao's heart, which had been relaxed, suddenly tensed up. He thought, could he be so unlucky as to encounter some large wild animal?
Fortunately, after Liu Dali carefully observed it, he smiled reassuringly and said calmly: "It's okay, it's not a big animal. These traces don't look fresh. It probably passed by here a few days ago."
The tense atmosphere suddenly relaxed, and Xiang Yao asked, "What if we encounter traces of large animals?"
Liu Dazhuang laughed: "Then I'm lucky not to run into him face to face."
Seeing Xiang Yao's expression getting nervous after hearing this, he quickly said, "Don't worry, whenever we notice a path they've walked on, we'll deliberately avoid it. As long as we keep to ourselves, there's generally no danger."
They rarely set their sights on large animals, as that would simply be asking for trouble. Animals are also smart and will not easily provoke two-legged humans.
Only then did Xiang Yao feel relieved.
Her uncles have their own experience and wisdom about the mountains.
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