"Okay, hehe." Meng Yao noticed Li Jia's gaze, whispered, and quickly pulled her coat tighter again. She secretly looked back to see if anyone had seen her expression. When she saw that everyone was busy, she felt relieved. Her pretty face was slightly flushed in the sunset. She turned and went into her tent, and didn't come out again until dinner time.
Li Jia carried the wild rabbit to the pot that was almost boiling. She opened the plastic sheet, took out her survival knife, and began to cut the rabbit into small pieces. Finally, she put the whole rabbit head into the pot. She took some salt from the spice box that Li Xiaoqing handed her and put it into the pot with the tip of her knife. Then she used a thin stone she had found by the river to cover most of the small aluminum pot, which was less than 30 centimeters in diameter. For the rest, she simply found another stone, cleaned it, and put it on top.
After finishing, Li Jia felt that the rabbit meat, which was gradually emitting a fragrant aroma in the pot, seemed to be missing something. Adding just a little salt was clearly not enough to achieve the perfect seasoning. She needed to find something else to go with it. Thinking of this, Li Jia turned around and called to Li Yan, "Xiao Yan! Come with your brother to pick some wild vegetables!"
"Okay!" Li Yan nodded, put the survival dagger he loved into his pocket, and followed Li Jia toward the distant hillside.
Guanshan has a wide variety of wild vegetables. The most common ones, such as shepherd's purse and purslane, are easy to find with a little observation. Li Jia was holding a few selected shepherd's purse plants and continued searching on the hillside, explaining the characteristics of the wild vegetables to Li Yan as she searched.
"This is bitter lettuce, also known as white-flowered patrinia or yellow-flowered patrinia. It is a perennial herb. Bitter lettuce and its stems have an aroma, and the seedlings are edible. It can also be dried and stored for later use," Li Jia explained in detail, pointing to a plant that was about 80 centimeters tall.
"This is motherwort, also called motherwort vegetable. You should have seen it in books. It's a very nutritious plant. Pick the leaves from this motherwort plant, and take the top ten centimeters or so of the stem," Li Jia said to Li Yan, pointing to a motherwort plant not far away.
This motherwort plant is about 50 centimeters tall, with a columnar stem. Its almost round leaves have three pointed tips, commonly known as three-lobed leaves. The corolla at the top of the plant is a pale purplish-red, making it stand out somewhat from its surroundings when viewed from a distance.
Following Li Jia's instructions, Li Yan picked the clover leaves, then cut off about fifteen centimeters of the top with the flower attached with a knife. He continued to follow behind Li Jia. Today, Li Jia had brought him not only joy, but also a profound understanding of the boundless nature of knowledge. Even a small wild vegetable contained knowledge that he might not fully grasp even after a long time. Lin Lei
After searching for more than ten minutes, Li Jia finally found what she was looking for: on a raised hillside to her left, grew a plant about 50 centimeters tall. Its leaves were oval-shaped, somewhat thick and geological-looking, with a smooth, glossy surface. Small, peach-pink flowers covered the entire plant, making it exceptionally beautiful from a distance. "Finally found it!" Li Jia exclaimed, quickly approaching the plant. Carefully, she took out her survival knife and slowly dug it out.
"Big brother, is this a radish?" Li Yan asked curiously, looking at the round plant.
“This isn’t a radish. This is called wild ginseng. Some people also call it magnolia vegetable or flying vegetable, but none of these names are as suitable as this one. Look at its round stem, doesn’t it look somewhat similar to ginseng?” Li Jia held up the wild ginseng in her hand, feeling genuinely happy.
This isn't something you can just find whenever you want; you need a bit of luck. Like now, although it's not fully grown yet, it's delicious enough to make soup. With their good haul, Li Jia and Li Yan returned to the camp.
After washing the wild vegetables by the river and processing them briefly, Li Jia threw them into the pot where the rabbit was stewing. Only after finishing all this did Li Jia begin to prepare today's main meal: the mud balls buried in the pot.
Li Jia poured all the charcoal onto the fire and lit it. The fire burned for a long time with the dry branches she had gathered, until the sun set. Then she poured the remaining charcoal into the embers of the fire and surrounded it with stones. In a little while, dinner would be ready.
At seven o'clock in the evening, the sun finally set, and night finally came. The aroma of the rabbit soup, which had been wafting through the air, made everyone swallow hard, just waiting for Li Jia to give the order to start eating.
"You must be starving! Let's get started. Luckily, I was prepared." Li Jia walked to the makeshift stove and took out a plastic spoon and several single-serving lunch boxes that she had just taken out of the car.
"Hello, Brother Li! We were just thinking about how to drink this soup later. Luckily, Brother Li is smart and prepared the tools in advance. Let's get started!" After Zhou Xiaoyu finished speaking, she took a spoon and a lunchbox from Li Jia, ran to the pot of stewed soup, removed the stone covering it, and hurriedly scooped it out with her small spoon.
Six people, five sets of tableware. Looking at the last set of tableware in her hand, Li Jia felt a bit overwhelmed. "After all that calculation, I actually forgot about myself!"
Meng Yao then came out of the tent to the makeshift stove. Looking at the lunchbox and spoon in Li Jia's hand, she said, "Thank you." Then she reached out and took them.
"Uh... no need to be polite." After Li Jia finished speaking, her stomach started growling. Seeing a group of people gathered around the soup bowl, scooping soup from each other's spoons, she thought for a moment and then walked over.
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