Chapter 88 Is this normal?
In the winter, there are not only winter bamboo shoots in the mountains, but also nuts and some wild fruits, such as myrtle, sugar cane and soft dates. The group of people were like wasps passing through, and there was nothing left that could be eaten.
"This shepherd's purse is fine. Let's make a shepherd's purse steamed bun."
"Dandelion is a little old, but I don't mind."
"Take the plantain back and eat it as a vegetable, or make tea with it."
"Hey, there are chestnuts, and quite a lot of them. Sugar-roasted chestnuts, I can have an extra snack for the New Year."
"There are so many sugar jars, I can make honey with them!"
“.......”
Everyone walked and stopped, and soon, there were some small things in the backpack. It was not a lot, but everyone was happy and excited.
Lin Qi didn't go with the others to pick those things, not because she looked down on them, but because she didn't need them, so she didn't fight with them. And she had a feeling that if she picked them, they would probably give them to her.
Gradually going deeper into the forest, Lin Qi caught her first prey of the day, a pheasant.
The pheasant was not dead, it just had an injured leg. Its legs and wings were tied up and placed in Lin Qi's backpack.
The second prey was a fat bamboo rat, also known as a bamboo civet, which lives in bamboo forests or under reeds. Bamboo rats are very large, and an adult bamboo rat can grow to three or four pounds.
"It's actually a bamboo rat!" Luo Cheng exclaimed, "This creature is rare."
Lin Qi turned her head, "Bamboo rat?"
"Bamboo rat is also known as bamboo civet. It is much more delicious than ordinary mice. The meat is fat but not greasy, and it is fresh and tasty. Lin Qi, let's make a deal and cook it for your brother to have a taste." Luo Cheng's eyes glowed green.
"There's more underground." Lin Qi pointed to a place, "Who among you has a hoe and a shovel? Start digging from here."
The others took hoes and shovels and started digging without saying a word.
"And here, and here, these two places should be connected to the cave entrance." Lin Qi pointed to two more places.
There were quite a few people who brought hoes and shovels. After hearing Lin Qi's words, they hurried to dig in these two places.
Seeing them busy, Lin Qi went to other places in the bamboo forest, took the small shovel she got from Brother Tan, and started digging winter bamboo shoots.
This was her first time digging winter bamboo shoots, and she had no experience, but she was always accurate in finding the right ones. Soon, she had more than twenty winter bamboo shoots in her backpack.
"Lin Qi, how do you determine whether there are winter bamboo shoots underground?" Xiaomei asked curiously.
"I didn't make any judgment, I just dug it randomly." Lin Qi said.
"Really?" Xiaomei didn't believe it.
"I guess I'm just lucky, I find the right one every time I dig. How about you dig wherever I point?" There weren't that many winter bamboo shoots underground, but she could induce them to grow, and then let Xiaomei and the others dig.
"Okay." Xiaomei said. She didn't know how to look for bamboo shoots anyway. After digging for a while, she didn't find any winter bamboo shoots.
"It's here." Lin Qi pointed to a place.
"Then I'll dig here. Don't worry, even if I can't dig it, I won't blame you." Xiaomei comforted Lin Qi.
"Lin Qi, can you also point out a place for me?" Yuzhen also said.
"And me." Hongmei also came over.
"Why don't you just point out a place for all of us?" Yanqiu said half-jokingly.
There are several bamboo forests in the mountains, but winter bamboo shoots are delicious, and many people go into the mountains to dig bamboo shoots every day. If you are not experienced, you may not be able to dig up a few bamboo shoots after a busy day.
So when Yanqiu asked Lin Qi to help them find the place, no one objected. They didn't know how to find it anyway, and Lin Qi was so lucky, the place she pointed out must be more reliable than their random digging.
So, Lin Qi promoted the growth of winter bamboo shoots while pointing out the locations to everyone.
Luo Cheng and his men hadn't found any bamboo rats yet, but Xiaomei had found some winter bamboo shoots first. She was so excited that her face turned red. "There really are some!"
Upon hearing this, others ran over to see what was happening.
"It's a pretty big one. You have one here, and I might have one too." Hongmei came over to take a look, then ran back to her position and started digging even harder.
However, before Hongmei could dig up the winter bamboo shoots, Luo Cheng exclaimed, "Bamboo rat!"
"There really are bamboo rats out there. Everyone, watch your step and don't let them escape!"
"Luo Qingbai, it's heading towards your cave entrance!"
"Don't worry, we're here to protect you."
"Wow, wow, there's another one. I caught its tail."
"Pull it up and I'll hold its head."
“........”
More than twenty young men were so excited that their faces turned red and their whole bodies could not help shaking.
The people who were digging winter bamboo shoots couldn't help but be curious and stretched their necks to look over. But after just a few glances, they turned their attention back to the winter bamboo shoots.
They have already caught bamboo rats, so they should work harder to dig winter bamboo shoots and not fall behind.
In the end, four bamboo rats were dug out from the cave, plus Lin Qi's, a total of five. The largest one weighed more than three kilograms, and the smallest one weighed two kilograms.
The men's mouths were grinning from ear to ear, and they were laughing like idiots.
The people who were digging bamboo shoots also dug up winter bamboo shoots. There were more than 20 people, and not one of them came back empty-handed. All of them got something.
"Lin Qi, are there still bamboo rats here?" Luo Qingbai asked, suppressing his excitement.
"This piece is gone." Lin Qi said.
Luo Qingbai was not disappointed either, "Then let's go to the next place."
"Are there no more winter bamboo shoots?" Xiaomei felt a little regretful, as she had just dug up a bamboo shoot.
"There's more over there." Lin Qi pointed to a place they hadn't touched yet.
"Then let's dig bamboo shoots first." Xiaomei said.
"Isn't meat more delicious than bamboo shoots?" Luo Qingbai was puzzled.
"There are not many bamboo rats to begin with, so it's hard to say whether we can find a second nest. But it's different with winter bamboo shoots. Wherever Lin Qi says there are some, there they are." At this moment, Xiaomei's trust in Lin Qi has reached its peak.
Luo Qingbai felt that what Xiaomei said made sense, "Then let's dig bamboo shoots first."
With Lin Qi's guidance, everyone felt like fish in water and harvested one winter bamboo shoot after another.
Just when everyone was digging hard, Lin Qi caught a mouse, an ordinary mouse, very fat, weighing about one kilogram.
"Lin Qi, which hole did this rat come out of?" Luo Cheng was so excited that he seemed to have seen the delicious rat meat waving at him.
"From this hole." Lin Qi pointed at the ground below her feet, "But there shouldn't be anything inside. You guys try the one over there."
Lin Qi walked to a bamboo tree and kicked the leaves on the ground. A rat hole as big as a fist appeared. "I just saw a rat run in."
Luo Cheng didn't ask any more questions. He picked up the hoe and started digging. He told the others, "Go find other holes. We will attack from all sides."
The men were very excited and swung their hoes quickly. After a short while, they dug the hole through and caught three mice in total, each weighing about eight taels.
"The mice in the mountains are fat!" Luo Cheng praised.
On this day, everyone was in the bamboo forest, either digging winter bamboo shoots or digging rat holes.
In the end, Lin Qi was too lazy to point out the locations to them, so she simply let the winter bamboo shoots grow all over the ground and let everyone dig as much as they wanted.
On that day, everyone not only filled their backpacks with winter bamboo shoots, but also filled the sacks they brought with bamboo shoots.
"My mother said winter bamboo shoots are hard to find. It seems she is just unlucky."
"I guess we were just unlucky. When we first started digging, we didn't get anything in the first half hour."
"But seriously, have you ever seen anyone dig so many bamboo shoots in one day? What's even more terrifying is that there are 43 of us, and each of us dug so much!"
After this was said, everyone fell silent. On normal days, there were many people who came to dig bamboo shoots, and the most experienced elders in their brigade could only dig 20 to 30 kilograms a day. But now, the one who dug the least had dug 40 kilograms, and the one who dug the most had dug 70 to 80 kilograms.
Is this normal?
Everyone looked at each other.
"Even if it's not normal, it's normal, after all, we have Lin Qi in our team."
“.......”
That makes a lot of sense.
They dug a lot of rat holes, more than 20 in total. However, only the first of the 20 rat holes was a bamboo rat, and the rest were ordinary rats. It can be seen that bamboo rats are rare in the mountains.
There were more than 20 rat holes, none of which was empty, and they harvested more than 60 rats in total. So many rats made Luo Cheng, Luo Qingbai and others very happy.
"Lin Qi, let's continue tomorrow." Luo Cheng invited.
Lin Qi shook her head, "I have something to do."
"Are you herding cattle? We can help you." Luo Cheng said.
"No, besides herding cattle, there are other things." As for what they were, Lin Qi did not say.
Luo Cheng felt a little regretful, but thinking about what happened today, perhaps they could do without Lin Qi.
That night, almost all the members of the Anliang Brigade had winter bamboo shoots at home.
"The winter bamboo shoots tonight seem to be more delicious than usual."
"Yes, it is indeed more delicious than the usual winter bamboo shoots."
"Haha, maybe because I'm the one digging the winter bamboo shoots, the winter bamboo shoots I dig must be the most delicious."
"There are more than 40 people. If everyone has dug so much, I'm afraid all the winter bamboo shoots in the mountains will be eaten up by you."
"No, we only went to one place. That bamboo forest covers a large area, but there are so many mountains, and there are bamboo forests on other mountains. We have agreed to go to other mountains to dig bamboo tomorrow."
"We just went to a bamboo forest? You didn't lie to us?"
"Of course. What good would it do to lie to you!"
"It's not that I don't believe you, it's just unbelievable. A bamboo forest can't grow so many winter bamboo shoots."
"Who said it can't grow? We dug up so many of them, could it be fake?"
“.......”
The group did not share the sixty-odd mice, but took them all to the educated youth camp, where they planned to have a meal together. In addition to the people who participated in digging the mouse holes today, the group also included Luo Da and Luo Fei, who were herding cattle.
When Luo Da and Luo Fei saw so many rats and listened to Luo Cheng and others describing the exciting process of catching rats today, one can imagine the regret in their hearts.
"We will also go to the mountains tomorrow." Luo Da said.
"Yes, we will go tomorrow too. It's time for others to herd cattle." Luo Fei also said.
"We don't need to go herding cattle tomorrow. Lin Qi will go by herself. She won't go into the mountains tomorrow."
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