"Alright, don't worry, everyone's smart enough to slack off, especially the Taoist priest. Hahahaha," Grandpa Zhao said with a chuckle.
"You're so diligent. Alright, stop nagging. Let's start taking down the shed while the weather's still cool. Xiao Chuan and I will take care of it. You can continue with your plan to give Mu'er her early education."
“Yes, yes, yes, work is work, but Mu’er’s early education can’t be delayed any longer,” Lu Chuan stood up and chimed in.
"I understand. I'll lend you a hand when I have some free time."
After saying that, everyone got up, and Xu Han went back to doing housewife work. While they were tidying up the backyard, Xu Han took care of the household chores.
The woodshed in the front yard is no longer needed. Xu Han had said she wanted to demolish it a long time ago, but she hadn't had time to do so until today. Finally, construction can begin.
"Let's put the dismantled wood and bamboo outside for now, and use them as firewood later."
"Okay, let's put them outside first. The bamboo splinters from before are almost burned up. We can burn these next, and they'll last us for a while longer."
“Okay, then I’ll move everything outside. There’s still some charcoal left in the woodshed, where should I put it?” Grandpa Zhao asked.
"Let's put it in the old woodshed for now. We'll see if we can build a woodshed in the backyard in the winter. The woodshed is too crowded in the front yard. We'll move the doghouse to the backyard too, so the front yard will be completely empty and brighter," Xu Han explained.
"Hmm, that works too. We can build the doghouse and woodshed first and then lay the bluestone slabs, which will save us from having to dismantle them later."
"That's a good suggestion. I had just forgotten about the woodshed and doghouse."
"Haha, it's not too late to think about it now, construction hasn't even started yet, has it?"
"Alright, let's start dismantling the woodshed then."
Lu Chuan first climbed up and threw down the thatch on top. Because it had been a long time, all the thatch had weathered away. Although Lu Chuan had repaired it several times along the way, it was almost completely ruined.
If it's not removed now, it will definitely leak when it rains heavily in the summer.
"Let's just take this thatch into the kitchen and use it as kindling."
"Sure, there aren't many. If the kitchen can't hold them, we can put them outside. Anyway, judging from the sky, it shouldn't rain anytime soon."
The bamboo we used before was almost all old and couldn't be used when building a new woodshed, so we had to choose new bamboo.
So when Lu Chuan was dismantling the bamboo, he also chopped it up so that it could be used for firewood.
The woodshed wasn't very big, and the two of them dismantled it all in one morning.
In the afternoon, after their lunch break, Lu Chuan and the Taoist priest went to the pile of bluestones to look for stones, while Xu Han tidied up the house and then took the dogs to find Lu Chuan in the late afternoon.
Xu Han brought a small basket with her when she came, planning to pick some wild vegetables on her way back.
"Black Spot, come here quickly, don't go towards the stream."
While picking wild celery by the stream, Xu Han called out to the black dots in the water to come up.
This wild celery is delicious stir-fried with beef or used in dumplings.
Thinking of dumplings, Xu Han realized that she hadn't had any recently, so it seemed like she could make plans to eat them soon.
Xu Han picked for a while and found that the black spots did not come up. Instead, they walked further and further away in the water. So she took a few more steps forward to see why the black spots were not coming up.
"Black Dot, what are you doing? Hurry up and get on, we're leaving."
"Woof woof woof!" the black dot barked loudly in one direction.
Xu Han's heart skipped a beat. What was going on? Black Spot rarely disobeyed.
Xu Han can now clearly see that the black dot wants to go to the other side, but is worried about Xu Han and the rice ball next to it.
Xu Han took a few steps forward, but still didn't see anything. Judging from the black dot's reaction, it didn't seem like it had encountered any danger, otherwise it would have already called out and assumed a defensive posture.
"Black spot, did you find something?" Xu Han asked.
Upon hearing this, the black dot barked a few more times. Xu Han didn't dare to be careless, as she didn't have good skills and dared not act rashly.
Although this place is not far from home, there are hardly any people around. If there were any large prey or people, Xu Han probably wouldn't be able to escape.
But then I thought that if it were dangerous, Black Spot wouldn't have done this, so I mustered up my courage and went straight into the stream.
The river water was still quite cold at this time of year, and Xu Han shivered as soon as she stepped into it.
But since I was already soaked, I decided to keep going.
Xu Han rarely goes to the other side of the stream and isn't very familiar with this area.
There is no bridge here; to cross to the other side of the stream, you have to wade through the water.
It's alright in the summer, it's not too cold. She'll cross over occasionally, but in other seasons, Xu Han almost never crosses to the other side.
So even though they were very close, they weren't very familiar with the valley across the stream.
Lu Chuan often crosses to the other side, so it seems we need to hurry up and build a bridge.
This would also make it easier to go to the stream in the future. Actually, Xu Han had this idea during the famine years, but she was afraid that the bridge would be washed away by floods, so she didn't build it.
As for the drought, although there was no water in the stream and she could cross it directly, there was nothing to eat in the mountains at that time, so Xu Han was too lazy to go.
When Xu Han followed the black dot to the other side of the stream, the black dot quickly ran towards a low bush.
Xu Han followed closely behind, and after the black dot stopped, it called out to Xu Han a few more times.
"Woof woof woof".
"Did you find something?" Xu Han ran over quickly.
As Xu Han approached, she heard a series of chirping sounds. "Hahaha, Black Spot, you're amazing! You're a little pheasant!"
"Where is the mother hen? These chicks look like they've been hungry for quite a while."
Xu Han looked puzzled, thinking that the hen must have died in an accident.
Otherwise, they wouldn't have left their child here, pitifully starving.
Xu Han thought for a moment, took out a basket from her spatial storage, put some dry grass at the bottom of the basket, and put the chicks in the basket to take home.
If I don't take them back, these chicks will either starve to death or be eaten by other animals.
In that case, why not just take it home and raise it yourself?
When they grow a little bigger, we trim the feathers off their wings so they can't fly far.
Moreover, wild pheasants are not particularly difficult to raise if they are raised from a young age, and over time they become just like domestic chickens.
"After we leave the black spot, let's go find Lu Chuan."
Xu Han put on her basket, waded through the stream, and continued walking in the direction where Lu Chuan was.
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