Living in the mountains and forests as hunters

Chapter 31

When An Dalang came home, what he saw was his daughter-in-law peeling bamboo shoot shells in the yard, and the big basket beside her was already filled with nearly half of the shells, which was quite different for a moment.

"This is, why are there so many bamboo shoots?"

"It's not a good thing those boys did! I got so many bamboo shoots back, if I don't pack them up quickly, I don't know when I will eat so many! Maybe they are all broken, and I can't finish them. There are a lot of things in the mountains, and no one has anywhere to get them, even if they want to give them away, there is nowhere to give them away. I can only find a way to make all the bamboo shoots into sour bamboo shoots or dried bamboo shoots, so that I can store them for a while. Wait. Well, I’m afraid I’m going to eat bamboo shoots every day these days. Tonight’s pheasant soup will also have bamboo shoots, pheasant mushrooms and winter bamboo shoots. It’s estimated that the fresh eyebrows will fall off.”

Zhao Yiyi rolled her eyes, put the bamboo shoots in her hand away, straightened her body, oops, my waist is sore, I only made half a frame, and there are still three piles left!Really, if I knew this earlier, I should sell some more.I don't know if there is a tacit understanding, here Zhao Yiyi just thought about this, and An Dalang, who squatted down to help tidy up, immediately said:

"That can't be sold directly to the shop, why bother!"

"If so much of the family is gone, what will they think? Besides, we must let them know whether they have done a good thing or not. It is useless to say that it is too much. Only when they feel it can they remember it. !"

She refused to admit that she also had such lazy thoughts, and she immediately said the truth with a curl of her mouth.When An Dalang saw his daughter-in-law's upright look, he felt a little amused. It was rare to see Zhao Yiyi's childish appearance. He turned his head and snickered for a while, and then continued:
"Okay, anyway, the bamboo shoots you make are quite delicious. If you have more, you will have more. At worst, wait until you make some sour bamboo shoots, and then sell some secretly. Wait for the big tiger to come home. The two little ones It is estimated that they will not pay attention to these."

"It's up to you, you don't know, these children actually got six or seven hundred catties, if I didn't secretly sell one or two hundred catties, our house would be full of these bamboo shoots. It’s just these three little things. I don’t know how they dug them up. If they can dig up so many in one go, I’m afraid they’ll wipe out the next year’s spring bamboo shoots. By the way, they even killed one with bamboo shoots. A rabbit!"

Talking about the rabbit that was smashed to death, Zhao Yiyi couldn't help but started nagging, shared it with An Dalang, and took out the rabbit that hadn't been skinned yet, for An Dalang to admire.The corners of An Dalang's mouth twitched a little!What is appalling, this is it!
"Let's not talk about this, what did you bring back today?"

Zhao Yiyi wiped her hands, cleaned the dirt off her hands, turned to ask An Dalang, she asked An Dalang to bring something back, why did it take so long, this person hasn't brought it out yet, I don't know if she is in a hurry Well?

"Ah, I forgot, here, I sold three and a half taels of deer today, and I only left three taels of silver, and the remaining five hundred cash, I bought everything. Look, these are 25 hairpins. I bought them all." But I bought all the wooden hairpins I could find in the town, and it cost 250 Wen, and this, seven bamboo pen holders, cost 5 Wen, and these ten rabbit skins, cost 520 Wen, in the town, Now there are also mushrooms for sale, all of which are dried mushrooms. It is estimated that in autumn, what can these mushrooms be eaten? The dry goods that can be picked anywhere in the mountains are only [-] yuan a catty. I collected [-] catties, [-] yuan, and a total of [-] yuan. Look, there is no penny in the purse right now."

"If you don't have it here, you don't have it. There are a lot of copper coins at home! More than 3000! You spend some of it, but you have to hide the money. Calculated, our family's savings are more than six taels! You help clean up first, I'll sell them all and talk about other things."

Zhao Yiyi took the things that An Dalang handed over, and started to do magic tricks, 25 hairpins, 1750 yuan, seven bamboo pen holders, two of them were actually square bamboos, these are rare things, and I don’t know where they came from I got it, well, people at this time don't know that this thing is rare, and they may not remember it even if they ask. Looking at the old appearance, it is estimated that An Dalang got it from a corner that he didn't know!They probably sold it as worthless as well, but Zhao Yiyi is different!I sold it directly at 75 yuan, and sold it for 150 yuan. The others are not expensive, but it is only 20 yuan, and I got 100 yuan. Sure enough, this simple one has no profit from sales. It is more cost-effective to buy 50 rabbit skins. That is 500 in the account, the dried mushrooms are 45 a catty, and sold for 900 yuan, good guy, but it is only 520 yuan, and it was directly exchanged for 3400 yuan in the shop. The business of this small business is getting better and better. .

With 6900 yuan in the shop, Zhao Yiyi became proud again, turned to An Dalang and said:
"Hey, there are two choices first, one is, let's focus on the front, what kind of buckskin boots, sheepskin jackets, and what kind of wine making, and what kind of house building, you can learn, but in this way, It will be a bit slower if we go up the upgrade. After all, the next level costs 6900. Another option is to continue to save money. Now it is 3000, but it is more than 85, and we can go up. Yes, there will be more things at that time, such as carpenter skills, and embroidery! Even soybean oil, sugar, these things that are hard to buy outside are also complete, and there are also copper pots, only 80 yuan, and more importantly, There are also things made of silver, a silver ring, 20 yuan, which is much cheaper than the outside, and it is the same as the one I picked up. There are a total of [-] options! Tell me, which one should we choose?"

Hearing what Zhao Yiyi said, An Dalang wanted to roll his eyes, and said nah:

"After talking about so many good things after upgrading, don't you just want to save money to upgrade first? You can just say it. I also know the benefits of this. Besides, what about wine making and building houses are not available now. It’s not going to be needed! Let’s put the money away!”

"Okay, that's it, that's it. By the way, you clean up first. I'm going to cook. Three delicacies pheasant soup, fried bamboo shoots with wild vegetables, fried kelp, steamed rice, how about it? Haggis steamed bun at noon Let the three boys finish eating, there is nothing left of the lamb bones, if you want to eat, you can only stew it at night, and make lamb bone soup noodles tomorrow morning."

"Okay! That's good enough. How could you eat meat in different ways before? Let's cook. By the way, where are the three boys?"

"I haven't gotten up yet! I was exhausted in the morning, and I came back after noon. They were exhausted, so I let them take a bath and take a nap, so as not to get sick, but it's time, I went to call them stand up."

An Dalang's new bows and arrows, big knives, made the children very excited to see. Of course, different ages showed different things, like Dabao and the others, they only cared about looking at it strangely. At most, they picked herbs. For a medicine hoe, it would be nice to have a hatchet. I have seen things like bows and arrows there, let alone sharp weapons like big knives. I fumbled here and there, my eyes were full of excitement, and Zhao Dahu!He had long wanted to learn hunting from An Dalang. At this moment, his mind turned and he immediately thought of something else. He turned his head and said flatteringly to his brother-in-law:

"Brother-in-law! Look, you already have a new bow and arrow, so don't you need your old one? Or, can I get the old one? Ah! I don't want yours for nothing, Do you think it will work if you lend me it?"

A ten-year-old doll with an immature face, suddenly showing such a treacherous expression, how funny it looks, An Dalang looks funny, think about himself, he was originally a widow, but now he has a daughter-in-law Afterwards, I even had a brother, which is really good, this Duhu really looks like a younger brother, naughty and caring, and very close, he stretched out his hand and rubbed Zhao Dahu's head fiercely a few times, and then said:
"It's just you? Can this bow be opened or not? Not everyone can use bows and arrows! Besides, what is borrowing? Such a thing is a guy who eats. How can you borrow it? How about it, you If you really want to learn this hunting skill, it is not impossible to use this old bow to practice your hands. Just follow the rules of the mountain people. This bow is yours to buy. A new bow costs eight taels of silver. The old one is not worth it. That money, even half of your money, four taels, the arrow is only given away, you don’t need to take out the money first, and use the prey to pay for the silver. Seeing that you are still young, my brother-in-law will relax and give it to you In four years, follow me to learn to hunt first, and follow me as a striker. After half a year, I slowly start hunting small things. There are no big prey around your village, and it is safe. It is just a good time to practice, and then use prey or skins to pay off. Forty pieces of rabbit skins are given in one year, forty pieces of sheepskins are given in the second year, and for two consecutive years starting from the third year, only deer skins and other difficult animal skins are given, ten pieces a year. It’s fourteen, I’m waiting for you to marry a wife when you’re fifteen, the hunting money this year is just enough for you to pay a decent dowry, how about it!”

(End of this chapter)