Li Lanzhen also explained to Xue Nizi that there must be porridge and wild vegetable pancakes in the morning. There are plenty of wild vegetables now, so they can add a wild vegetable to eat with the porridge. Everyone should be full in the morning so they can go to work.
For lunch, you can make bean rice, stir-fried wild vegetables, or cold wild vegetable salad.
In the evening, you can drink porridge and eat wild vegetable pancakes, but the portions can be small.
She had Han Minghai build a wooden frame in the cave and then took out grain from her spatial storage.
A bag of rye bran, dark flour, and various beans were placed on top, along with half a bag of sweet potatoes and potatoes.
People are reluctant to eat sweet potatoes and potatoes; they want to plant them in the ground.
Li Lanzhen didn't care about them; as long as they cooked delicious food, that was enough. She was too lazy to cook herself.
Xue Nizi was directing her father, Xue Laohu, and Xue Bao.
"Dad, Leopard, let's render the oil from the animals you've hunted these past few days so we can stir-fry wild vegetables with it."
Xue Laohu chuckled, looking at his daughter with doting eyes.
He agreed, "Okay! Dad will accept this task and see if we can catch a wild boar so we can have wild boar oil to eat."
Around noon, Xue Nizi, Tong, Li Sanya, and the others took the children down the mountain first; they came back to prepare lunch.
Li Lanzhen brought two water vats from home and placed them by the cave. Li Erhan cut down some thin branches, polished them smooth, strung them together with rope, and wove them into a curtain to cover the water vats and prevent dust and insects from falling in.
The water in the water tank was also brought back by the men every morning.
As soon as they returned, the cave became lively, filled with chatter and giggles.
Looking at their cheerful faces, Li Lanzhen no longer felt the tension, anxiety, worry, and panic she had felt on her journey of fleeing famine.
Their faces were beaming with satisfaction and happiness.
Xue Nizi saw Li Lanzhen looking at them and shouted, "Mom, let's have bean rice today! I soaked some beans this morning. After they're cooked, we'll stir them with rye bran. It should taste really good. We'll also make a cold wild vegetable salad. We found some wild scallions on the mountain today. It'll smell delicious mixed in."
Linglong and Miaomiao came running over, carrying small baskets, and presented them to Li Lanzhen like treasures.
"Grandma, Grandma, look! We've found some delicious wild berries!"
Li Lanzhen looked down and saw black, red, green, round and long fruits in the basket. She didn't know what they were. Some of the fruits were ripe, and their juice was everywhere.
Even the two little ones' mouths, cheeks, and fingers were stained with red, black, and dark purple fruit juice.
Linglong picked up a small, round, black fruit and stuffed it into Li Lanzhen's mouth.
Tilting her head and grinning, she said, "Grandma, eat! Sister Miaomiao said this is called 'Black and Smooth,' and it's sweet and delicious!"
Li Lanzhen bit into the fruit; indeed, it was very juicy, sweet, with a slightly sour aftertaste.
He reached out and patted the two little ones' heads, saying, "You can't eat too much, or your teeth will get sour and you won't be able to bite tofu."
Miao Miao frowned and said, "Grandma, these fruits are all sweet, not sour. And where can we find tofu here?"
Li Lanzhen suddenly had an idea. There were so many beans at home, and even more space, so she could ask her father to carve a small stone mill.
That way, we can drink soy milk and eat tofu at the same time.
Thinking of this, he called out to Tonghua, "Tonghua, tell Dad to carve a small stone mill when he has some free time. We have so many beans at home, we can grind them, make soy milk and eat tofu."
Upon hearing this, everyone exclaimed, "Yes, why didn't they think of that?"
Tonghua happily agreed. Xue Nizi and the others were cooking beans when they heard a group of people shouting and yelling coming down the mountain.
Gou Dan and Han Yinan ran the fastest, followed by Su Chen, Er Niu, and San Niu.
As they ran, they shouted, "Grandma, Grandma Lanzhen, we have meat to eat today, and fish soup to drink too!"
As she spoke and shouted, she ran over to them. When Li Lanzhen looked, she saw that a group of children had all turned into mud monkeys.
They were covered in mud, grinning with their white teeth showing, their eyes darting around, and each of them was carrying a string of fish the size of their palm.
Han Yinan held up a string of fish and said to Li Lanzhen
"Grandma, this is such a wonderful place! There are fish in the lake, but we didn't dare go too far out. We just used a basket to scoop them up from the side, and we actually caught so many fish!"
Li Lanzhen smiled and said, "Okay, leave it to your aunt. We'll have fish soup for lunch today."
Then he asked Han Yinan, "Only a few of you caught fish, what about the other kids in the village?"
Gou Dan said, "Grandma Lanzhen, we've caught them all. Now, all the children in the village follow us because we have whistles. If we encounter danger, we blow the whistle, and the adults will know."
Li Lanzhen understood; it must have been the adults in the family who instructed them to stay with the children.
This is good; the children go up the mountain in groups, so they can look after each other if they encounter danger.
When Zhang Yueniang saw that her son's head was covered in mud, she chuckled and said, "Son, go wash yourself clean in the lake before you come back. Look how dirty you are, how are you going to eat later?"
Li Sanya took out a basin filled with water and put all the fish the children had brought back into it.
They can't eat that much at once, so keep them in water and let them eat slowly.
Just then, Han Yinan ran back, her bare feet shuffling through her muddy shoes, excitedly shouting, "Grandma! Grandma! Uncle Xue Bao and the others caught a wild boar! We'll have meat to eat today!"
As she was shouting, Li Lanzhen saw a group of people coming down from the mountain.
The group of people walking in front, including Xue Bao, Han Zhaoxiong, and Han Mingjiang, carried a pole with a wild boar hanging upside down on it.
Judging by appearance, this wild boar weighs about 400 pounds, it's quite large, and it's bleeding from its mouth. I don't know if it was killed or just passed out.
Xue Laohu and Han Shunde walked ahead, their faces beaming, seemingly talking about something.
They carried the wild boar all the way to the cave next to the village chief's house.
That place was a meeting place that the old village chief used specifically for discussing village matters.
After Li Lanzhen learned that the wild boar should be killed, the villagers should divide it among themselves.
Xue Nizi watched happily as the wild boar was carried into the cave next to the village chief's house, knowing that she was about to eat a feast of stewed pig.
"Mom, today the village is having stir-fried meat, so we'll just have some cold wild vegetables."
As soon as the words were spoken, the eyes of adults and children alike turned toward the direction of the wild boar.
Li Lanzhen chuckled and said with a smile, "Okay. You decide what we eat."
The children suddenly cheered and ran to watch the wild boar being slaughtered.
They kept shouting, "Time to eat meat! Time to eat meat!"
Li Lanzhen was also very happy; life was finally starting to feel like a normal life again.
This is just the beginning; things should get better and better from here on out.
But then she thought of the chaos and natural and man-made disasters outside the mountains, and she frowned.
Sigh, when will the world finally be at peace? When will we be able to live our lives properly, without having to hide and live like this?
Han Dazhong, the butcher from Hanjiacun Village, was overjoyed.
He rubbed his hands together, took out his pig-slaughtering knife, and began sharpening it on a large rock.
After the wild boar was slaughtered, the meat and bones were divided into 37 equal portions, and each of the 37 households received one portion of the meat.
The four wild boar trotters were given to the four pregnant women.
Pig head, pig offal, the village chief said to make a pig-killing feast.
This time, Lanzhen did not act rashly and dared not add any spices to the large pot of pork stew.
So she didn't eat much. There were too few seasonings, and no pickled cabbage in the vegetables, so you can imagine how bad it tasted. She gave the meat in her bowl to the children.
Everyone in the village, adults, children, and the elderly, was happy and enjoyed the meal.
Although I ate rabbit meat just a few days ago, how can it compare to wild boar meat?
Half an hour later, the meal was finished.
Li Lanzhen told the old village chief that she was going down the mountain to Youzhou City.
"Old village chief, wait a moment. I need to take Gou Dan and Yi Nan to Youzhou City to gather some information and see if we can find Han Mingxiang and Han Shulan."
Li Lanzhen's nonchalant words surprised everyone, but upon reflection, they also found them quite reasonable.
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