Do you know the long song of laughter?

Chapter 3 Family
  Shi Lin let Li An into the yard and said, "Let's go inside and drink some water."

Shi Lin is a lonely person in the village. Shi Zhu's mother died of childbirth when he was born. He has never remarried and rarely interacts with people in the village.

However, he was very kind to Li An, because Li An was the only one in the village who did not dislike his son.

"No, Uncle Shi, I came here to trouble you with something." Li An said quickly.

"Goudan just came back and asked me when I was going to the mountains. He also said it was you who asked me. I asked him why, but he couldn't tell me. Does your family want to order some meat?" Shi Lin asked.

Except for some of the more valuable prey he usually hunts, the rest are sold to villagers.

Sometimes when people in the village need to buy meat, they will order it from him in advance.

Therefore, he thought that Li An asked his son when he would go to the mountains because he wanted to buy some meat.

"I'm not buying meat, Uncle Shi, I just want to go into the mountains with you." Li An said quickly.

"You want to learn hunting?" Shi Lin frowned slightly when he heard this.

Hunting can be considered a craft. For example, Shi Lin and his son could not cultivate much land at all, so they simply rented all the land to the villagers. They lived a very comfortable life relying on renting and hunting.

If it were someone else, he would definitely not be willing to teach, but if Li An wanted to learn, he would still be willing.

However, going hunting in the mountains is quite dangerous. Li An is only nine years old, so the adults in the family have to come forward to speak out.

Otherwise, if he directly agrees to take Li An into the mountain, if something happens, he will be in trouble.

"Uncle Shi, I am planning to go into the mountains to collect herbs, but I have never been into the mountains. I thought it would be safer to go into the mountains with you. If you are in trouble, forget it." Li An said.

"But now is not the time to collect herbs."

As the saying goes, if you rely on the mountains to eat, you must rely on the water to eat.

There are no big mountains near Yangzhou, but there are still many low mountains and forests.

Villagers usually go into the mountains to collect medicinal materials and sell them for money.

However, it is generally only in the summer and autumn that people go into the mountains to collect herbs.

"Uncle Shi, I didn't go into the mountains to collect common medicinal materials, but I wanted to see if I could find some medicinal materials that take many years to grow." Li An said.

Most common medicinal materials have a one-year growth cycle, while some of the more precious ones require many years to grow. The longer they are, the more valuable they are.

Although spring picking is not the most suitable season, Li An doesn't care so much anymore.

Ordinary medicinal materials are not very valuable, and most of the villagers know them.

As for those medicinal materials that require many years of growth, ordinary people do not know them at all, except for some herb collectors with inherited traditions.

In his previous life, Li An's grandfather was a herb collector, and Li An often went into the mountains with him to collect herbs.

Although wild medicinal materials were very rare at that time, Li An also knew many medicinal materials under the guidance of his grandfather. This was the confidence he wanted to make money by collecting medicines.

"Do you know the medicinal materials that have been growing for many years?" Shi Lin asked in surprise.

"My cousin was studying. He accidentally got a medical book, which recorded many medicinal materials. In addition, there were pictures of the medicinal materials. Although I was illiterate, I saw the pictures and wanted to try my luck in the mountains." Li Ann made up a random excuse.

"Dad, just take Brother Li San. Didn't you say you want to teach me how to hunt? I can also go into the mountains to play with Brother Li San." Shi Zhu pleaded.

Shi Lin was silent for a while and said, "I can take you with me, but you must listen to me after entering the mountain and don't run around."

In fact, spring is not a good time for hunting when the vegetation is so lush.

The obstruction of vegetation not only affects the line of sight, but also provides good cover for prey.

He usually goes into the mountains to set up traps in spring and summer.

The Shi family has been a single generation for many years. Shi Lin only has one son, Shi Zhu, and he has no brothers or sisters, so he thought of taking Shi Zhu into the mountains to teach him how to hunt.

In this way, Shi Zhu has a skill in him, and even if he is gone in the future, Shi Zhu will not be unable to make a living.

"Thank you, Uncle Shi. Don't worry, I will definitely listen to you when the time comes." Li An said gratefully when Shi Lin agreed. "But the next time I go to the mountain will be in about five days. Your house is still planting rice seedlings. Can you go?" Shi Lin asked.

Li An nodded and said, "I can go. My rice seedlings are almost finished planting. It will be finished in three or four days at most."

His family has about 30 acres of farmland including rented fields, but not all of them are paddy fields.

Excluding my cousin who is studying in school, the remaining nine in the family can work. Most of them have been installed, and the remaining ones can be finished in a few days.

"Okay, I'll let Goudan inform you when the time comes." Shi Lin said.

"Uncle Shi, let's just say this first. I have to go to the fields to plant rice, so I'll leave first." Li An said.

When Shizhu heard that Li An was leaving, he insisted on going with him to help his family plant rice.

In the end, he was stopped by Shi Lin. It wasn't that Shi Lin didn't want him to help others, but Shi Zhu didn't know how to plant rice, so it would only be a disservice.

Li An left Shi's house and went directly to the fields. On the way, he met Tongpan and his party who were returning from their inspection.

Li An took a closer look and found that he looked exactly like Sheng Hong in the play. It seemed that he had indeed traveled to the Zhifu world.

When Li An returned to the field, Mrs. Liu started talking again.

He said that he wet his clothes on purpose just to be lazy and it took him so long to change clothes when he got home.

Li An knew Mrs. Liu's temper. If she retorted, she would keep talking without saying a word and just go to the fields to plant rice.

Mrs. Liu chanted for a while, but there was no sound.

When the sun was setting in the west, a family of four finished planting in this field and moved to another field to continue planting.

By the time most of the field was planted, the sunset had already appeared on the horizon.

"Okay, it's getting late, let's go back." Li Nan said.

Li An breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this, stood up, and punched his aching waist with his fist.

"What are you doing standing there? Go to the river and wash the mud off your legs and go home." Ms. Liu shouted.

"understood."

Li An responded, stepped onto the field ridge, and followed with his shoes.

They washed their legs by the river, controlled the water, put on their shoes, and the four of them walked home.

……

When it was getting dark, a large family of Li An's family sat around the table in the main room to eat.

Facing them, sitting on the main seat were Li Mu, the old man of the Li family, and his wife, Ding.

Sitting on the left are uncle Li Dong and aunt Feng, while on the right are Li An's father Li Nan and mother Liu.

The lower positions belong to brothers Li Ping and Li An.

Li Ping added a stool next to the corner of the eldest aunt's table. Sitting there was a seven or eight-year-old little girl, the daughter of the eldest uncle's family. She had no name, only a nickname of Daya.

This phenomenon was very common in ancient times. Generally, only wealthy families and scholarly families would name their daughters, and even choose characters.

Ordinary people basically only give their daughters nicknames.

Uncle Li An has a son and a daughter, including an eldest son named Li Fu who is fifteen years old and studying in school. Only Xiu Mu will come back.

When the family was eating, no one spoke. It was not that they were talking about eating but not sleeping, but that they should finish eating early while there was still light and save money on lighting lamps. After all, lamp oil costs money.

Li Mu is over fifty, with a very thin figure and a slight stoop in his back.

After half a bowl of rice, Li Mu glanced sideways at Li Nan while picking up vegetables and said, "Second brother, have any of you come back today?"

(End of this chapter)