Back to 1984: Hunting in the Mountains

Chapter 77 Something big happened
It was already noon when he got home. Yu Qiutang ate something quick and then went out with his steel fork to look for Yu Qiujiang.

When the sun is at its highest, there are the fewest wild animals and safety is greatest.

He had no other purpose today but to get the oak back. Even if he encountered any wild animals, he would not bother as long as they were not delivered to his doorstep.

Having promised Zhang Jiashen, there can be no delay any longer. Everything else is fine, but the child’s education cannot be delayed.

Perhaps it was the blessing of his strong desire that made the journey today very comfortable, and there were no accidents when he arrived. Following the marks he had made before, he cut down two most suitable pieces of oak. With the help of Yu Qiujiang, he returned home before dark.

However, Yu Qiujiang was unwilling to go into the village as usual, so Yu Qiutang had to move the wood home in two batches.

A piece of wood weighed about two to three hundred pounds, which was relatively easy for him to carry. He thought maybe he could try carrying two pieces of wood.

But on second thought, strength is strength, and body is body. If you force yourself to use strength before your body becomes strong enough, you will be doomed if you hurt your body.

Besides, when he was carrying a piece of wood, the villagers who happened to meet him would be surprised and think that this guy was really strong. If two of them were tied together to carry a piece of wood, everyone would be shocked.

Even so, when she was carrying the wood into the troglodyte courtyard and ran into Chen Meidi, she was still very surprised and subconsciously avoided him from a distance, fearing that Yu Qiutang would not be able to carry the wood and would get in trouble.

Wang Chunhua and Yu Qiushi, who were eating melon seeds in the yard, were also very surprised.

Yu Qiushi, in particular, even ran over and followed Yu Qiutang. When Yu Qiutang put the wood on the ground, he jumped on it and stepped on it. Not wanting to give up, he tried to lift it himself. Only then did he believe that it was indeed a real piece of wood.

Then he sighed: "My God, you are really amazing, how did you carry such a heavy piece of wood back?"

"Carry it on your shoulders."

Yu Qiutang found a sickle and prepared to scrape the bark. Yu Xiaowei came out of the kitchen at this time and hurried over to help. Yu Qiutang demonstrated to him and reminded him not to get hurt by the sickle. Then he threw the sickle to him and went to fetch water himself.

Yu Qiushi watched Yu Xiaowei scraping the bark, and each scrape produced a long white-green strip. He thought it was fun and healing, so he wanted to snatch it from Yu Xiaowei. When Yu Xiaowei refused to give it to him, Yu Qiushi prepared to use brute force, as he had done before, taking advantage of his physical strength.

But today, when he pushed Yu Xiaowei, not only did he fail to move forward, but Yu Xiaowei just swung him casually, and he fell off the wood, lying on the ground like a dog eating shit, with the skin on his arm being scraped off.

"Wow!!"

Although he was a teenager, he still cried shamelessly.

Chen Meidi was outside collecting firewood. When she heard her son crying, she hurried back with a stick in her hand, shouting, "What's going on? What's going on? Why are you crying again?"

"Mom, Yu Xiaowei pushed me." Yu Qiushi pointed at Yu Xiaowei and shouted while wiping her tears.

"I didn't, it was my uncle who started it first." Yu Xiaowei stubbornly refused to admit defeat.

Chen Meidi quickly figured out the reason. She looked at Yu Xiaowei's calm appearance, and then looked at her unlucky son. She became furious and grabbed her son and walked towards her own cave dwelling.

"I told you not to run around, but you insisted on running. You ignored my words, didn't you? You cried and wailed after being beaten. Aren't you ashamed? You are such a loser. I don't know who learned this from!"

Yu Qiushi felt even more aggrieved. He cried out in pain and was confused. What's wrong with his mother? I was clearly being bullied, so why didn't she stand up for me like before? She should just give that guy a beating.

She twisted my ears instead. Is she still my real mother?

I am a biological son, unlike my brother who was born by his first mother.

Yu Xiaowei watched the mother and son leave and continued to work. After a while, he stretched out his palm and saw that he was indeed stronger than before.

Only then did he realize the benefits of his uncle making him exercise every day.

My admiration for my uncle reached a new level, and I vowed to keep exercising in the future and not let him down. It would be great if one day I could be as good as my uncle, not afraid of anyone, and be able to hunt wild animals in the mountains.

In the kitchen, Yu Chunmei was holding a rolling pin. She saw Chen Meidi coming back through the crack in the door, and then she returned to the chopping board to continue rolling the noodles.

Her hands were still shaking, but her emotions were steady.

If Chen Meidi had dared to hit Yu Xiaowei just now, she would have gone out to support the child. Although she was physically disabled, as an elder, she could not just watch the child being bullied.

She used to be timid and would just hide behind closed doors when encountering such things. She never participated in any affairs at home. The strong inferiority complex made her feel suffocated and she even felt uncomfortable when speaking loudly to others.

She tries her best to avoid seeing people if possible.

But now she has a new life and a new goal. Although it won't last long and every day is harder than before and she has to do more work, she feels much better than before.

Gradually, I learned confidence from Yu Qiutang.

Now, she and Qiutang, the two children, are a family. They need to take care of and protect each other. When Qiutang is not at home, she, as an adult, must step up.

Yu Xiaoyun was carefully scraping the tofu off the lining cloth with a bamboo knife. Seeing her aunt's look, she smiled.

Although she was little, she was actually better at reading people's faces and hearts than her brother. She knew what her aunt was trying to do just now.

Thinking that besides their uncle, there is also an adult like their aunt who is willing to take care of them and help them, they feel very warm in their hearts.

She would also envy other children who have parents, but it's good that her uncle and aunt are now like parents to her and her brother, bringing warmth.

As long as she can continue to live happily like this, she doesn't care how much work she has to do or how hard it is, and she can stick to it.

Yu Qiutang had no idea that such a small incident happened at home just after he left the house.

He was carrying two large buckets weighing dozens of kilograms. As soon as he walked out of the door, he saw Wang Haofeng coming towards him in a hurry. The two almost bumped into each other.

"Tangtang, I was just looking for you."

Wang Haofeng grabbed Yu Qiutang's arm and shouted excitedly and anxiously.

"What's the hurry? You look sweaty all over." Yu Qiutang asked with a smile.

"Are you going to fetch water?"

"No."

"Let's pick later. You follow me first."

"Hey, hey," Yu Qiutang hurriedly stopped him, not understanding at all, "What's going on? Explain it clearly. It's also important for me to carry water. My family is waiting for water."

"Listen to me, my business is definitely more important than your fetching water. Hurry up, or it will be too late. Let's talk while we walk."

The more critical the moment became, the more Wang Haofeng could not grasp the root of the problem. After talking for a long time, he still did not tell Yu Qiutang what had happened. It was not until Yu Qiutang ran a few hundred meters after him that he knew the whole story.

It turned out that something really big had happened.

There are a total of thirteen production teams in Wangjia Village, also called natural teams.

The name "production team" originated in the 1950s and is a product of economic development. Due to the shortage of individual means of production and labor, it is easier to promote agricultural production by uniting together.

Later, after the household contract responsibility system was introduced, the name of production team was directly abolished in some provinces, and management was carried out directly at the village level and on a household basis.

But in some places, because the village is too large, the production team structure is still maintained for the time being, but the function is not exactly the same as before. In the previous production team, everything was shared, and everyone had to work together, earn work points, and be distributed according to work.

The improved production team is more like a community, a small unit under the village. The production team still has some public resources, such as public land, wells, trees, etc.

The village has the responsibility to manage these things, but they are specifically coordinated by the production team leader, which is a management model left over from the previous system.

In addition, the production team had many other functions, such as organizing the dissemination of village policies, organizing meetings, resolving disputes among villagers, and even a series of activities such as collecting electricity bills in the early years.

Every detail is complicated.

Our country is large and vast, and the economic and cultural development of each region is not synchronized, so when it comes to specific management, there is also flexibility. Many people who don’t know the reason still think that the production team system has long gone with the tide of history, but this is not the case.

Yu Qiutang's family belongs to team four, while Wang Haofeng belongs to team seven.

The reason why Wang Haofeng came to find Yu Qiutang was because many people in their team were suddenly poisoned at the same time today and were vomiting and having diarrhea.

Yu Qiutang began to wonder, if you are poisoned, just go see a doctor, why are you asking me to come?

But Wang Haofeng said that he had consulted a doctor, who said that everyone was poisoned. Judging from the skin, pupils, and tongue coating, it seemed to be some kind of snake venom.

But the problem was that there were no signs of snake bites on their bodies.

Moreover, many people did not travel far or go into the mountains today, so how could they encounter poisonous snakes?
So the doctor was at a loss for a moment. He saw more and more people being poisoned. Although it was not fatal, the adults could still hold on. He was worried that the children had poor resistance. What if...

Hearing this, Yu Qiutang felt that it would be unreasonable for him not to go.

Regardless of whether we can help or not, we have to take a look. This kind of collective poisoning of villagers in a mountain village is not common, so it is not surprising that the village doctor is at a loss.

He didn't have time to put down the bucket, so he had to carry it all to Team Seven.

There were no boundaries between the teams, and only the residents living at the junction of the two teams knew the specific geographical divisions. After running for more than ten minutes, they saw several people standing on the side of the road.

"Hey, Fengzi, I asked you to find a tractor, but you haven't found anything in such a long time. Why did you call someone over?"

A white-haired old lady grabbed Wang Haofeng's arm and complained to him in a trembling voice. Behind the old lady was a couple in their thirties. The wife was holding a three or four-year-old child in her arms and crying loudly, and the man next to her was pacing anxiously.

"Aunt San, my brother is very familiar with the things in the mountains. I found the tractor and will come over later. Let him take a look at it."

"What can he see?"

The old lady just glanced at Yu Qiutang and was too lazy to continue looking. She just watched anxiously in the direction where the two people came back, looking forward to the sound of the tractor.

Yu Qiutang didn't blame the old lady for this.

The so-called care is chaos.

Besides, he is just a young man of seventeen or eighteen years old. In the eyes of the villagers, he is a young man with little knowledge and is not reliable in his work. It is not surprising that he is not respected by others.

He walked over to the woman and asked, "Can I take a look at the child, sister?"

When the woman heard this, she immediately hugged the child and turned her back, "What are you looking at? What are you looking at? The child is in this state, and you are still looking at him!"

The man next to him was helpless and shook his head apologetically to Yu Qiutang.

"Let me try. I know a little about the things around here that can poison people." Yu Qiutang comforted her softly. He could fully understand the mother's rudeness. If it were him, he might not be much better.

"Can you really see it?" When the elder sister heard him say this, she turned her head and looked at him half-believingly and half-doubtingly.

"Just give it a try, it's better than just waiting." Yu Qiutang's tone was still gentle, giving people the power of trust.

"Well... okay." The eldest sister turned the child over.

Yu Qiutang discovered that the child was actually a little boy. When he first saw the colorful clothes he wore, he thought it was a girl.

I guess they were clothes that my sister discarded.

Although the child has dark skin, he looks quite cute, with a round face, long eyelashes and round eyes.

"Let me take a look at the child."

Yu Qiutang first checked the child's arms and calves. If it was a snake bite, these places would be the most obvious and there would definitely be teeth marks.

But he didn't hold out much hope at this moment.

Since Wang Haofeng said that many people in the village were poisoned, the probability of snake bite would be infinitely close to zero.

Unless dozens of poisonous snakes rushed into the village at the same time, it would be impossible for so many people to be killed.

Sure enough, he saw no teeth marks on the child.

"I want to lift up his clothes and look at his belly and back."

"Um."

After obtaining the mother's consent, Yu Qiutang slowly lifted up the child's clothes, carefully examined him, and pressed gently with his hands.

The child was already in pain, and when he was pressed down, he subconsciously kicked his legs hard, and his foot just happened to hit his hand, scraping off a little bit of skin.

"Ah, this child!" The mother was very sorry.

"It's okay," Yu Qiutang was not annoyed. With the help of the mother, he turned the child over and looked at his back. Until he saw the slight red spots shaped like clouds on the back, he nodded with satisfaction, but shook his head helplessly.

"Brother, what are you doing..." His mother naturally saw his expression and asked him in confusion.

"Let's go back to your team and talk while we walk."

"But……"

"Don't worry, I found a solution."

“Is it really possible?” The elder sister still didn’t quite believe it. The village doctors couldn’t do it, so could this young man really do it?

"Oh, sister-in-law, my brother said it can be done, so it must be done. If you don't trust him, can you not trust me?"

Wang Haofeng shouted from the sidelines.

"I just don't trust you..." The elder sister glared at Wang Haofeng, hesitated for a few seconds, and finally felt relieved when she saw Yu Qiutang's sincere eyes. "Then brother, I will believe you, but you have to tell me first, what's wrong with my dog? I'm so worried."

Yu Qiutang picked up the bucket again and said as he walked: "Let me ask you, did you poisoned people have dinner together today?"

"Ah... yes, our neighbor's daughter is getting married tomorrow, so we have to reward the person who did the wedding today, so we'll go over and have a quick meal. What, you mean..."

(End of this chapter)