At daybreak, Qiao Xin's biological clock woke her up on time, but she didn't expect that there was someone who woke up earlier than her.
There was a faint light in the kitchen. It was Xu who was washing rice and cooking. When she heard the noise behind her, she was startled at first, but when she saw clearly that it was her mother-in-law, she patted her chest and was obviously relieved.
[Mom, why don’t you sleep a little longer? The meal isn’t ready yet! ]
Qiao Xin sat down in front of the stove, found the flint, and started a fire easily.
【After getting enough sleep, get up and take a look! 】
Seeing that Xu had only grabbed two handfuls of rice, she added a large pot of water and planned to cook porridge. Qiao Xin frowned and could not help but ordered: "Eldest wife, give us more rice and cook it thicker next time, so that everyone can at least eat enough. The eldest and third sons and I will go up the mountain soon. The adults and children at home should not eat too poorly during this period, so as not to have no strength when moving."
Xu was a little at a loss. She looked at the little brown rice in the jar, then looked at her mother-in-law. She gritted her teeth and bought two more handfuls of brown rice, and added two handfuls of beans from the bag of coarse grains next to her. Seeing that her mother-in-law didn't say anything else, she breathed a sigh of relief.
It's not that she was reluctant to do so, but there was really nothing to eat at home. Her husband brought back a bag of coarse grains yesterday, but it was obvious that there were so many people eating at home. If they wanted everyone to be well fed, the bag of food would probably be gone in less than five days.
After making breakfast, Qiao Xin picked up the shoulder pole and bucket and planned to fetch more water from the well at the village entrance. Usually, these chores were done by her sons in turn. If they were not at home, the daughters-in-law would find time to do them. Since becoming a mother-in-law, Qiao Xin rarely did these chores.
This morning, for the first time ever, I cooked and carried water at the same time. This shocked the whole family. Qiao Yunqing heard the noise in the yard through the window, and quickly put down the book in his hand and came out to help.
Qiao Yunxin would naturally not let his mother do such heavy work. His three sons were all at home, but his widowed mother had to get up early in the morning to fetch water. The rumor of her being unfilial would probably spread throughout Xiaoyao Village in just one meal.
[Aniang, this is heavy, let me do it! ]
Even Shiro and Goro, who had just woken up, came over to help [Grandma, I'll help you! ]
The skinny child stumbled over with his little legs and ran towards Qiao Xin. Qiao Xin took two quick steps to catch the child, took a closer look, and saw that they were in good spirits, so he felt relieved.
Then he turned to Qiao Yunting, who was still confused standing at the door, and said, "Third brother, take the child to wash up quickly. After breakfast, let the two sisters-in-law help take care of the child."
Looking back, she saw her second son and his family also appeared, and Qiao Xin began to assign tasks.
"Second brother, you two should go to the town to buy the things we need for the journey, get our pass, and buy a bullock cart with a canopy.
As for where we will settle down, you can spend some money to find out. It is up to you to decide. I have only one request: the place where we will settle down should be convenient for us to buy land, convenient for transportation, and convenient for the children to go to school in the future.
The eldest daughter-in-law will weave a few more pairs of straw sandals at home, and the children will help your aunt. I will go to the mountains to have a look. There are more prey at this time. If I am lucky, I can hunt some big ones and exchange them for more money. "
After a hasty breakfast, Qiao Xin tied up her clothes with straw ropes, and carried the long bow and bamboo basket as usual, but this time she brought more ropes and put on the straw sandals she had made overnight. Qiao Yunxin and Qiao Yunting both had spare water bags and black flour cakes in their bamboo baskets, and they were dressed similarly to Qiao Xin, except that the long bows were replaced with hatchets.
This time they plan to go deep into the mountains. If they are lucky, they may be able to come back on the same day. If they are unlucky, it is possible that they may come back in three to five days.
The mountain road was not easy to walk on, but no matter how difficult the mountain road was, it was nothing to him. Qiao Xin took the lead and walked in front, followed closely by Qiao Yunting and Qiao Yunxin. The two of them held the tools in their hands tightly and paid attention to the surroundings vigilantly.
[Don't be so nervous. We haven't gone deep into the area yet. Apart from the occasional herd of wild boars, there are rarely any large animals here. If there is no shortage of food, wolves, tigers and leopards generally won't take the initiative to go deep into human activity areas...]
As they walked, Qiao Xin explained to them the things they needed to pay attention to when hunting, including how to look for the footprints and activity traces of various animals.
Just like a rabbit walking backwards, the back footprints are deeper than the front footprints. Although the footprints of a sika deer and a sheep are both similar in heart shape, the cracks in the sheep's footprints are finer...
After walking for more than an hour, Qiao Xin suddenly gestured to the two people behind him, then squatted down, pushed away the dead leaves under his feet, pointed at a large circle of messy footprints and said to them,
[Pay attention, we have entered the territory of wild boars. From the depth of the footprints, we can see that there are boars weighing more than 400 kilograms in this group. Boars are very aggressive and vindictive. If you encounter them later, try not to attack them at close range. Try to hide in a big tree. Leave the rest to me.]
[Mother, this....] Qiao Yunxin and Qiao Yunting had been taught by their grandfather before, but they still lacked practical experience. The warlike gene had already boiled in their blood. Men are born to love these fighting and killing things. Asking them to retreat is like slapping them in the face. Besides, their mother is the one who is standing in front of them.
Qiao Xin took down the bow, adjusted the angle several times, and said in a serious tone: [It’s fine if you want to fight, but the premise is that you don’t put yourself in danger and don’t underestimate the enemy.]
She sighed and said, "I just hope to run into this group of guys. We can go deeper." She didn't pause and walked forward, but her steps were much lighter and she became more alert.
After a while, Qiao Xin suddenly stopped, squatted behind the bushes in front of him, and gently pulled aside the grass. He saw a group of more than 20 wild boars of different sizes digging something in the soil with their heads down. The bets would occasionally look up and be alert.
Qiao Xin frowned and gestured to the two of them, telling them to climb the tree first and wait until she finished killing the pig before working together. Qiao Yunxin and Qiao Yunting had no choice but to do as they were told. They climbed up the century-old tree next to them and used the branches and leaves to cover their bodies. But they never relaxed their hands on the hatchet!
Qiao Xin aimed forward and shot three arrows at once. With a whoosh, the arrows penetrated the boar's forehead and the boar fell to the ground. The owners reacted quickly. As soon as the first pig fell, they found Qiao Xin's direction and rushed over with fierce eyes.
Qiao Xin stood up quickly and shouted to the two brothers
【Hide well, don’t come out yet! 】
Turn around and run away in another direction!
When they were at a suitable distance, Qiao Xin drew his bow again and shot three arrows at once, this time aiming directly at the backbone of the pigs. After doing this twice in a row, the backbone of the pigs was almost wiped out.
The wild boars also realized that they had encountered a terrifying creature. They paused, stopped not far away, grunted at each other, and turned around and ran in the opposite direction with their offspring.
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