Back to 1984: Hunting in the Mountains

Chapter 14 Go find your mother!

When he got home and just entered the troglodyte courtyard, he smelled a strong aroma of meat. Yu Qiutang thought that someone in the family had started to cook yellow rat, but after careful inspection, he found that the meaty aroma came from the kitchen.

Just as he was thinking about it, he saw Yu Qiushi coming out with a bone in his hand. When he saw Yu Qiutang coming back, he deliberately sniffed a few times and walked around the yard with the bone in his hand.

Obviously to show off to him.

Since the family had just separated, Chen Meidi was too lazy to pretend and started eating meat bones.

In fact, there is not much meat on this kind of bone. If you throw it to a dog, the dog will find it difficult to chew.

These are the bones that the pork sellers in the village leave behind after removing the meat and prepare to take away as feed. People can spend a little money to buy them home, put them in the pot and cook them repeatedly, and there will be a small amount of crispy bones and an even smaller amount of shredded meat.

The soup from boiled bones can be used to cook noodles or stir-fry vegetables, which will add more meat flavor to the dishes.

It can be considered as a snack.

However, it is difficult for ordinary people to enjoy this kind of life.

Yu Dejin was a famous carpenter in the area within dozens of miles. In an era when furniture was mainly made by carpenters, his income was not low. However, the money was firmly controlled by Chen Meidi, and he could not get much at all.

Because Chen Meidi was his third wife, Yu Dejin, who had experienced two failed marriages, was very tolerant of Chen Meidi. Even though he knew that Chen Meidi was not good to other children, as long as it was not too excessive, he turned a blind eye and basically did not ask any questions.

"It smells so good. The meat and bones smell so good when you chew them."

Yu Qiushi originally wanted to show off to Yu Xiaowei, but Yu Xiaowei was nowhere to be seen, so he sat on a tree stump in the yard, snorting and sighing, and the sound was so loud that the whole yard could hear it.

Yu Qiutang was amused by such childishness.

I'm too lazy to pay attention to him.

He noticed that the dust and debris piled at the door of the old kitchen had been cleared away, and there was a dim light in the kitchen, so he went straight to the kitchen with the pheasant on his back.

At this time, Yu Qiushi saw the pheasant on his back and was immediately surprised. He didn't care about showing off his meat bones and hurriedly chased after him: "Brother, what are you carrying?"

"pheasant."

"Is it food?"

"What do you think? Is it still worth watching?"

Yu Qiushi followed Yu Qiutang all the way to the kitchen, still reluctant to leave. He looked at the pheasant, then at the bones in his hand, and for a moment he didn't know which one tasted better.

"Is pheasant delicious, brother?"

“Very delicious~”

"Then...can you give me some food?"

"Go find your mother."

Yu Qiutang lifted the door curtain unhappily, leaving Yu Qiushi outside.

"Tangtang, you're back...Oh, there's a pheasant?" Yu Chunmei was cleaning the stove.

"Well, I got a pheasant. Where are the two of them?"

"I asked them to go out and get some firewood," Yu Chunmei said with a wry smile, "We don't have any firewood to burn either."

Yu Qiutang suddenly realized.

Unlike later generations when firewood was everywhere, in those days all supplies were in short supply. Everything we ate and wore had to be burned, and it was a vicious cycle.

Most people on earth produce little food. Without crops, they have nothing to burn, so they can only go to the mountains to chop firewood.

There are all kinds of wild beasts in the mountains, and we dare not let children go there at all. It is basically up to adults to go there. But the adults have been fine in the past two years. In the first two years, they had to work points, so they didn’t have much time to go to the mountains.

Yu Qiutang found that one does not know how many hardships there are if he is not in charge of the family. When he mentioned dividing the family, he did not even think about the problem of firewood shortage, he only thought about food and shelter.

"Forget about it. I'll go into the mountains tomorrow to get some firewood. Everything outside belongs to other people, so there's nothing to be found." Yu Qiutang said, putting the pheasant on its back on the ground and letting the third sister drain the blood first. He could do this kind of work himself, but letting Yu Chunmei do it was actually considering her feelings.

Disabled people receive absolute care in their families, but they are not necessarily happy.

The more physically disabled they are, the more they hope to play as much of a role as possible, rather than just eating and waiting to die and losing the meaning of their existence.

Yu Chunmei has a problem with her legs, so it is impossible for her to walk long distances or do heavy work. The only things she can do smoothly are cleaning, cooking, and washing clothes.

Until her health improved, Yu Qiutang decided to let her take care of all these things. After all, the two children were still young and would soon go to school, so household affairs still needed two adults to take care of them.

At this time, Yu Xiaowei and Yu Xiaoyun also came back.

Each of them carried a bundle of firewood on his back.

Yu Xiaowei's firewood bundle was large and consisted of dry branches, while Yu Xiaoyun's small firewood bundle consisted of dry grass and was obviously much lighter.

It can be seen that the brother takes good care of his sister.

The two men carried the firewood directly into the kitchen. Before they could be happy to see Yu Qiutang coming back, they saw the pheasant being bled and were immediately overjoyed.

"Where did the pheasant come from? Did you catch it, uncle?"

"No, it fell from the sky."

"Haha~"

The two children were very happy. They squatted beside their aunt and watched the chicken being slaughtered. They had only seen it but had never eaten a pheasant.

"Auntie, how do you eat pheasant? Should it be cooked?"

Yu Chunmei smiled and said, "It doesn't matter what you do. You can steam it or boil it. We don't have any oil or seasoning right now, so we can stir-fry it."

"Cooked is fine."

As long as it's meat, the two children are not picky.

Yu Qiutang was in a good mood seeing the three people looking happy, and began to look around the kitchen.

Upon taking a look, I realized that there were quite a few things missing in the kitchen.

First of all, we were lacking a big pot. The kitchen stove had a double pot cavity, but there was only a small pot left by my mother at the back, and the big pot cavity in the front was empty.

There are two chopping boards missing next to the stove. Now only the chopping board frame is left. It shakes when you put your hand on it. It is very unstable and needs to be repaired.

There are still two water tanks missing.

There is no tap water now. Villagers get water from mountain springs or dig their own wells. It is more than a mile away to fetch water from the nearest mountain spring, so getting water is quite inconvenient.

Speaking of fetching water, we only have one bucket at home, and we need to buy another bucket...

Looking further, I found that all the pots, pans, and other things needed to be purchased. Although the kitchen was now clean, it was empty and did not look like a kitchen at all.

After some thought, Yu Qiutang realized that it was urgent to find a way to make some money.

He had said it during the day, so naturally he would not bow his head to talk to his father again. He felt unhappy when he thought that Chen Meidi would be mocking him.

Okay, take your time.

These things are external to our body. As long as we can fill our stomachs first, everything will slowly get better.

He asked his two children to help their aunt with cooking, while he found an open space outside, built a small fire kiln with adobe bricks, put wet branches in it, and began to smoke the three branches he had brought back.

No matter how good the wood is, it must be pre-processed in advance when making things like slingshots or crossbows. It cannot be used directly.

There are generally two ways to deal with it, fumigation or soaking in lime water.

(End of this chapter)