When they got to the mountain, grandma went to pick pine nuts with a few girls, while grandpa and Chu Jingqiu took a few male educated youth to go hunting.
Chu Jingqiu handed the bow and arrow to his grandfather. He Qixian took it and looked at it, then pulled the bow to its full extent to try it out. He thought the bow was really good.
"Xiaoqiu, you have good skills. The bow you made is really well made." He Qixian praised.
"I was forced to do this. The last time I went up the mountain, I couldn't catch any prey. I only managed to pick up a rabbit that was nearly dead after being bitten by a wild beast.
So it took me so many years to figure out this bow. I did a good job, didn't I? That's all thanks to your teaching." Chu Jingqiu was not modest at all and even praised his grandfather.
"You little girl, you only know how to flatter." He Qixian smiled.
A few people walked deep into the woods and found a pheasant foraging in the woods. Chu Jingqiu quickly gestured to everyone to keep quiet.
He Qixian drew the bow, put the arrow on, aimed, and shot, all in one go, hitting the pheasant directly on the head.
Chu Jingqiu jumped up with joy. She patted her grandfather on the shoulder and said, "That's amazing, Old He. You killed someone with one arrow from 30 meters away. You're still as impressive as ever!"
He Qixian patted Chu Jingqiu's head, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "You little girl, look at how complacent you are. You're even teasing your grandpa."
Zhou Weidong and Jiang Qingzhou hurried over to pick up the prey, both of them grinning and laughing loudly with joy.
On grandma's side, a few people quickly picked up half a basket of pine cones and hazelnuts with buds.
Zhang Pingping also picked a bunch of wild flowers, made a wreath into it, and put it on her grandmother's head.
Qin Yilan and Hu Mingyue were picking pine cones a little further away. Qin Yilan was whispering to Hu Mingyue about Chu Jingqiu's family situation.
Hu Mingyue occasionally interrupted to ask questions. What she cared about most was Chu Jingqiu's family's work situation, especially his grandfather's official position.
Qin Yilan not only talked about Chu Jingqiu's family situation, but also mentioned that her family had a good relationship with other people and that her father was raised by Grandpa He, almost like an adopted son.
The two were talking in low voices, and Hu Mingyue kept working. Soon he had picked up a full basket of pine cones.
Qin Yilan was afraid that if she picked up too much, it would be too tiring to carry it down the mountain, so she picked up half a basket and sat down to rest.
At this time, Grandpa He had already shot three pheasants and three rabbits.
The driver, Xiao Chen, and several other male educated youth, each holding one in their hands, followed closely behind, with uncontrollable smiles on their faces.
"Grandpa, you've already fought so hard, please let me try too!" Chu Jingqiu was also envious and begged her grandfather to give her the bow.
He Qixian hadn't had such a good time in many years, and he felt like he hadn't had enough.
He didn't want to give her the bow and arrow, but seeing the pitiful look in his granddaughter's eyes, he handed it to her reluctantly.
"Go back and make another one, and give this one to me. I will come to this mountain to hunt in the future."
Chu Jingqiu stumbled and nearly fell, "What, Grandpa, you're not going back to Beijing, you still want to live here long-term?"
"My letter of introduction is only valid for five days. I won't go back to the guesthouse. I'll stay here for a few days and go up the mountain to hunt game for you every day." He Qixian said happily.
Chu Jingqiu felt speechless, but there was nothing she could do about her grandfather.
"Chu Zhiqing, look, there's a roe deer in the distance." Jiang Qingzhou reminded her in a low voice.
People say the roe deer is stupid, and it is absolutely true. When the roe deer saw someone coming, it just stood there stupidly without moving.
Chu Jingqiu shot an arrow at the roe deer's heart, and the roe deer fell to the ground.
Grandpa was the first to run up excitedly, "Haha, you hit it, Xiaoqiu, you're better than grandpa, you killed a big prey."
The driver, Xiao Chen, followed closely behind, laughing, "Commander, you run really fast at your age. I can't even catch up with you."
A few people felt that they had caught a lot of prey today, so they went to gather with grandma and the others and prepared to go down the mountain to stew meat.
Grandma and the others were very happy when they saw several people coming over carrying pheasants, rabbits and roe deer.
"Old He, you guys have reaped a lot today. You hunted so many prey." Li Peilan patted the dust and dead leaves off He Qixian's back.
"I shot the rabbit and pheasant, and Jingqiu shot the roe deer. We are both very good, right? Jingqiu's techniques were all taught by me!" He Qixian said proudly.
The group carried the things, some on their backs, and some on their shoulders, and soon they returned to the educated youth site.
It was almost midnight when we got home, so we decided to make pheasant stewed with mushrooms and some pancakes for lunch.
We'll have a bonfire dinner in the evening and roast roe deer and rabbit meat.
Chu Jingqiu and Shi Aihong were supposed to cook at the educated youth camp today, and several male educated youth helped to clean the pheasant.
Grandma and grandpa wanted to come over to help, but Chu Jingqiu pushed them into the house to rest. Chu Jingqiu wanted to let grandpa and grandma taste his cooking skills.
Shi Aihong was in charge of making the fire, while Chu Jingqiu first chopped the pheasant into walnut-shaped pieces, then blanched it in a pot of boiling water and removed it from the pot to drain the water.
Then put some lard in the pot, and add onions, ginger, diced dried red peppers, star anise, cinnamon, bay leaves and other spices.
Of course, Jiang Jiang secretly added some of the seasonings.
Then put the pheasant chicken pieces into the pan and stir-fry, then add some dark soy sauce, sweet bean sauce and salt.
Finally, she added some water, brought it to a boil over high heat, put in the soaked hazel mushrooms and a handful of sweet potato vermicelli, and simmered it over medium-low heat.
Grandma was still worried about her, thinking she couldn't cook, so she came seven or eight times in a short while.
Watching her stew the chicken so skillfully, I felt that this child has changed a lot in such a short time.
She feels very relieved that he has grown up and become more sensible!
Grandma insisted on helping to paste the pancakes. Chu Jingqiu couldn't persuade her, so she let her paste the pancakes. After all, grandma was skilled, and the pancakes she pasted were uniform in size, of moderate thickness, and did not fall off.
While eating, no one had time to talk. This was meat. It had been so many days since we had eaten meat like this that we almost forgot what it tasted like.
There was no meat all day, and when we finally had a big bowl of meat, no one was talking and just focused on eating.
When grandpa heard that the meal was cooked by Jingqiu and it was so delicious, he couldn't help but eat an extra bowl.
After dinner, Chu Jingqiu asked her grandparents to take a short nap. She asked the driver Xiao Chen to drive her to the town to pack her grandparents' luggage.
She asked Xiao Chen to wait for her outside the supply and marketing cooperative for a while, and then she ran to the supply and marketing cooperative and took a look around.
Then he walked to a deserted place, took out two quilts and two pillows from the space, and took some daily necessities.
There was also some rice, flour, grain, oil, etc. My grandparents ate at the educated youth camp, so she had to provide for the old couple's food rations.
We have to make sure my grandparents have a good place to stay and good food these days.
She asked Xiao Chen to drive the car over, then loaded all the things into the car and drove back to the educated youth site.
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