Chapter 11. The little box was filled with incense...
Ji's small basket was filled with cantaloupes, and there was a small pile of them next to it. Ji sat there happily waiting for Cang Li to return.
Cang Li walked over with a smile, put all the melons into his backpack, and then led the group down the mountain.
When they returned to the cave, it was past noon. Jie and Erzhong sat obediently on the steps at the cave entrance, waiting for Cang Li to return. The vegetable garden was watered, and the dried firewood was neatly stacked and carried into the cave.
Everyone murmured, "Hey, when is Sister coming back?"
Jie patted everyone on the head, then dragged Yu, who was about to crawl away, back and said, "You'll be back soon."
Er returned to the cave, took out wild pears, and gave one to each of the Jiezhong people: "Eat these if you're hungry. Sister said we should finish them quickly, or they'll spoil."
With food available, Yu and the others quieted down and began to nibble on wild pears. After finishing the pears, they turned around and saw Cang Li and Ji emerging from the mountain path beside them. They immediately stood up to greet them.
"Sister!"
Cang Li walked over with a smile and said, "Are you hungry?"
Jie shook his head: "I'm not very hungry!"
Cang Li put down the basket and said, "Whose stomach is growling?"
"Excuse me," Er said, leaning closer. "It's my stomach that's growling!"
Cang Li laughed heartily, took out the gourd and washed it, then took out a slightly uneven round wooden board that she had shaved off the wooden stake to use as a cutting board, and started cutting vegetables. She also directed others to pick two small bok choy and scallions from the vegetable garden.
There were only two pounds of spare ribs and three pounds of pork belly left in the backpack. The only thing left was lard; only half of the jar of lard had been eaten.
Cang Li cooked pork ribs, stir-fried cabbage and gourd, and exchanged them for six steamed buns. There were only twelve steamed buns left in the store. Cang Li checked and found that the steamed buns would last for four days. Fortunately, he didn't have to worry about not having enough to eat or drink for the time being.
Ji Zheng and Jie He Er were sorting out the food they had brought back from the mountain, mainly classifying and putting it away, waiting for Cang Li to finish his work so they could see how he would handle the food.
Cang Li cooked the meal and called the kids over to eat. After this meal, there was no need to cook dinner, since it was already afternoon when the meal was ready.
After finishing their meal, the man skillfully cleared away the dishes, and Cang Li went to collect the pile of things he had brought back.
The group separated the different items: a large pile of cantaloupes, a basket of mushrooms, twelve peaches, two gourds, and a basket of wild vegetables.
Cang Li took out a curtain he had woven from grass, picked through the mushrooms, and threw the ones that couldn't be eaten to the collector. Although it wouldn't change the collection point, it was safe. He spread the rest out on the curtain and then took them to a place where they could be dried in the sun.
I left five or six melons outside, and put the rest into my backpack to prevent them from spoiling.
Cang Li casually placed the gourd near the stove, and laid out the remaining basket of wild vegetables in a simple and straightforward manner, intending to dry them into dried vegetables for storage.
After taking care of these things, Ji had already neatly arranged the bowls and chopsticks on the tree stump that served as a table. The large pot was also cleaned and water was being boiled. Under Cang Li's guidance, the children all knew that they needed to take a bath and change clothes every day.
As Cang Li entered the cave, he saw firewood neatly arranged next to the entrance. At the far end, against the wall, were six rectangular haystacks. Seeing that there was enough space, Cang Li piled up six haystacks like beds. Underneath the haystacks were a combination of stone slabs and pebbles that were slightly higher than the ground. The haystacks were also quite thick. On top of them was a straw mat woven by Cang Li. Although it was also made of grass, this way, the haystacks wouldn't be scattered when he tossed and turned while sleeping.
The beds were spaced more than two meters apart. Cang Li did this on purpose, planning to find bamboo later and use it and vines to weave some partitions or something. Also, the walls were all mud, so some bamboo was needed for decoration.
Cang Li took the cubs and her own clothes outside, washed up, checked the degree of wood drying, and went back to the cave to lie down. She opened the collector shop; she had put so many new species into the collector today, the collection points should have unlocked the fourth page of the shop.
It was unlocked as expected.
Cang Li immediately clicked on the fourth page to check the store.
Product: Hand saw x1 (5 points)
Product: Ramie seeds × 150g (3 points)
Product: Fireweed seeds × 150g (5 points)
Product: 1 slant loom (20 points) (Special note: When used with a shuttle, it can be used to spin yarn and weave fabric)
Product: Wheat seeds × 2 (3 points)
Product: Rain boots x1 (5 points)
Cang Li paused for a moment after seeing the items on the fourth page. The handsaw must have been something she wished for. She could vaguely guess that ramie and fire grass were raw materials for weaving. The slanted loom was probably a primitive spinning machine. Wheat seeds were for eating. But what was that rain boot? She probably didn't need rain boots.
Cang Li, who was quite puzzled about the goods, first switched to a handsaw, which would make sawing wood easier later. Then he switched out all three kinds of seeds, reducing his gathering points by 16, leaving him with 48 gathering points.
Cang Li sighed; they still had to keep setting up collection points.
However, even with seeds, we still need to clear the land and plant them.
Cang Li's face darkened at the thought of clearing the land. It had taken her ten days just to clear the land for planting rice, leaving her exhausted. Cang Li looked at the seeds in her hand and thought, "Destroy this world!"
Although unwilling, Cang Li still carried a hoe to work the next day. When the children saw Cang Li starting to work on the grass again, they took the sickle and cut the grass. Cang Li turned over the grass roots behind him, and then led Yu and the others to carry the cut grass to the cave to pile it up and dry it.
Half a day passed, and with the family's cooperation, they finally cleared ten square meters of land. Cang Li looked at the bright sun and said to the man still cutting grass:
"Stop cutting, it's too hot. We won't work this afternoon, I'll cook for you all. Come back now."
Ji turned around, pointed to the grass in front of him, and said, "Sister, you go back first, I'll finish cutting this part."
Cang Li nodded, then turned around and told Jie to watch over the person. After cutting that piece, they had to go back, otherwise they would easily get heatstroke.
We had fish soup for lunch, and there were still three fish in my backpack. Cang Li planned to take the kids up the mountain after lunch, when the sun wasn't so strong, to check if there were any prey in the traps, and then go to the river to bathe and catch a few fish.
As the sun began to set in the afternoon, Cang Li would sling his basket over his shoulder, grab his axe, and call the children up the mountain.
Ji and Jie put straw hats on the three little ones, put small baskets on their backs, and Ji also took a sickle. He knew that Cang Li needed a lot of plants from the mountains and liked things he had never seen before, so when he went to pick mushrooms, he would pay special attention to whether there were any plants he had never seen before.
The mountain is shaded by trees and has a breeze, making it cooler than the unshaded areas at the foot of the mountain.
Cang Li first led the cubs to check if there was any prey. When they arrived at the place where the trap was set, they found that there really was one. This was probably the same wild boar from last time, but it was much bigger than before. Its hind legs were tightly bound by vines, and it kept squealing. A hole had been dug in the ground.
"Such good luck?" Cang Li looked at the wild boar in disbelief. Could she be the legendary genius hunter, the legendary hunting king, who possesses the ability to catch prey whenever she sets a trap?
The people cheered, and He Jie stepped forward and used vines to tie up the wild boar that could not escape.
Cang Li snapped out of her daze and hurriedly put the wild boar brothers into her backpack before leaving the "crime scene."
On the way back, Cang Li chose a flatter spot to descend the mountain. Ji He and Jie Kan Er, Zhong, and Yu followed Cang Li, and the two of them crawled around picking wild vegetables and mushrooms.
When they reached the foot of the mountain, both children's baskets were full of things.
Cang Li returned to the cave with pots, pans, and firewood, had Jie collect the clothes and put them in a basket, and then went to the river with his family.
After walking for about half an hour, when they reached the river, the sun was still quite high. Cang Li had a few of the boys lead the way in the grass and even took out a large grass curtain to block the sun.
After settling the smaller ones, Cang Li began to deal with the unfortunate wild boar brothers. Having practiced a few times, Cang Li had become a seasoned butcher, bleeding them, scraping off their hair, and gutting them.
This wild boar is much bigger than the one that was obviously an immature last time. After removing the internal organs and the head, Cang Li estimates that he can get more than 150 catties of meat, including bones. If it is processed properly, it can be eaten for a long time. The last pig was eaten up because the children had not eaten much meat, and it only weighed about 70 catties. They ate it twice a day, so it was all gone.
Cang Li set another trap on his way down the mountain, planning to go back up in a couple of days to check it out.
After cutting up the pork, Cang Li salted one hind leg and ten pounds of pork belly. The rest were cut up with a cleaver and axe and packed into his backpack.
After turning a jar of pig's blood into blood tofu, Cang Li immediately started refining lard. This time, he produced more lard than last time. After refining, Cang Li obtained 10 liters of lard and half a jar of oil residue.
By this time, the sun had begun to set, so Cang Li quickly made a meat soup, added mushrooms and bok choy, sprinkled some chopped green onions on top, and then called over the kids who were playing in the grass to eat.
After they had eaten their fill, they let the servants take the children to bathe in the river, while Cang Li went back to bathe himself.
After packing up and washing the kids, Cang Li led them back home in the sunset.
Back in the cave, before Jihejie could even empty his basket, Cangli went to check what Jihejie had picked up after taking a bath.
Upon pouring it out, half of it was mushrooms. As usual, Cang Li examined them and found that all the mushrooms this time were edible. It seems that the kids' ability to identify them has become quite sophisticated.
There are also common wild vegetables. These wild vegetables are all left outside to dry. The wild bok choy transplanted from the fields grows very well, so they don't lack fresh vegetables to eat. The wild vegetables are all dried and then made into dried plum vegetables.
After processing the wild vegetables, Cang Li immediately noticed something at the bottom. It looked like a large radish, but it wasn't as white. The more Cang Li looked at it, the more he wondered if it was ginseng.
Cang Li beckoned someone over and asked, "What is this?"
The man glanced at it and said, "Sister, I've never seen this before. It was dug up from the ground. Don't you like things you've never seen before?"
Cang Li nodded and patted Ji's head: "Hmm, not bad, not bad, I like it. Go play, play for a while and then put them to sleep."
The person ran back to continue playing.
Cang Li threw the object that looked like ginseng into the collector for identification, and it really was ginseng. Cang Li was very surprised, he did not expect there to be ginseng on this mountain!
However, Cang Li didn't know how to process the ginseng, and since her cubs were all healthy, she couldn't just feed them anything. So, she simply tossed the ginseng to the collector in exchange for thirty gathering points, which were quite valuable. Now she had 78 gathering points.
A note from the author:
----------------------
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
