Chapter 102: Mountain Chicken/A Little Adorable

Chen Dashan truly lived up to his reputation of being able to mix well with Shen Lie since they were teenagers. Their tacit understanding was indeed sufficient.

Shen Lie had just hidden his bow and arrows in the backpack, covering the part protruding from the backpack with something, and then asked Sang Luo for a coil of hemp rope and a bag of grain. He prepared to go out to find Chen Dashan first.

Before he could step out of the courtyard, Chen Dashan arrived, carrying a backpack on his back and holding a shovel.

As soon as the two met, Shen Lie smiled, “I was just about to look for you.”

Chen Dashan also grinned, “I guessed you were going too. We’ll get something back to offer to the ancestors at home, and then we’ll go to the county to exchange it for some silver when the funeral is over.”

Life at home was much better than before, but times were still troubled, and meat was hard to come by. They were short of money even for buying grain.

Shen Lie nodded, “Wait for me for a moment. I’ll go get the stuff.”

Saying that, he turned and went into the house.

Chen Dashan stayed in the courtyard, propping the shovel against the courtyard wall. When he saw Sang Luo coming out of the kitchen, he took the initiative to call her “sister.”

He was two years older than Shen Lie, so calling her that wasn’t wrong. Sang Luo smiled and responded. Behind her, Shen An and Shen Ning also heard the commotion and came out of the kitchen. When they saw Chen Dashan, they happily ran over, calling him “Big Shan Brother.”

It was clear that Chen Dashan was also familiar with the siblings. He rubbed Shen Ning’s head and, when it came to Shen An, he picked him up and weighed him in his arms, saying, “Little An has grown taller and heavier.”

Chen Dashan now fully endorsed his mother’s words. Shen Lie’s wife was truly a blessing from heaven. She didn’t abandon Shen An and Shen Ning, raised them so well, and had both good character and abilities.

Just looking at the two little ones now, who could tell that they had once lived on nothing but vegetable gruel in the autumn?

Shen Lie had prepared everything and came out of the house with it on his back. After greeting Sang Luo, he told Shen An and Shen Ning to stay at home and wait for him to bring back something delicious before preparing to go with Chen Dashan.

Seeing Chen Dashan carrying a shovel, Sang Luo guessed that he was going to dig traps or something similar. People set traps when hunting to avoid accidentally injuring people. Usually, they would go to remote places in the deep mountains where there were no people. Realizing this, she stopped him and asked him to wait for a moment.

Turning back, she went to the kitchen and came out with a bamboo tube of water. She had also wrapped up the leftover half plate of pancakes with dried lotus leaves. She handed everything to Shen Lie. “I don’t know how long you’ll be in the mountains. Take these with you. They can serve as a snack when you’re hungry, and the water has been boiled, better than drinking snow water directly.”

She didn’t know Shen Lie was going into the mountains today. If she had known, she would have prepared more pancakes.

Shen Lie had been in the mountains countless times, but this was the first time someone had prepared food and water for him. When everything was handed to him, he was a bit stunned.

Seeing him like this, Sang Luo smiled, “Do you want me to help you put it in your backpack?”

He’s too tall, and the opening of the backpack he’s carrying is also quite high. Sang Luo found it quite difficult to put things inside.

Shen Lie shook his head busily, “No need, no need, I’ll do it myself.”

Saying that, he carefully placed the two things Sang Luo gave him into the backpack, feeling both embarrassed and happy. When he spoke to Sang Luo again, his voice added a warm tone, “Thank you. I’ll leave now. You guys go back inside, it’s cold with the melting snow.”

Sang Luo nodded with a smile and watched the two of them leave before taking Shen An and Shen Ning back inside.

During the rainy and snowy winter, it was fine at home, but the places you had to walk were all paved with stone roads, so it wasn’t so easy for shoes to get wet. If you went out on a snowy day like yesterday, your shoes would be soaked through after just one walk around, and you’d have to make a pair of shoes for each person to change into when you got home.

On the other hand, Shen Lie and Chen Dashan left the mountain after leaving the small courtyard. Chen Dashan couldn’t help but smile when they reached the top of the mountain and confirmed that there was no way the people in the courtyard could hear them. He nudged Shen Lie with his elbow and joked, “You’re really lucky, having a wife is really different. Someone prepares food and water for you when you go out. Hmm, I’m already twenty, but I still don’t know where my wife is.”

Shen Lie smirked at him, “If you want to get married so badly, ask Grandma and Aunt to help. It’s still peaceful now.”

Chen Dashan just waved his hand at the suggestion, “Forget it, it’s not easy for family members to survive. Let’s get through these few years first before talking about it.”

Shen Lie only smiled at his words, but they walked a bit deeper. Seeing that there was no one around, he lowered his voice and told Chen Dashan about Zhou Cunzheng’s plan to ask them to help transport grain and the promise not to reveal the hiding place of the grain to anyone, including the Zhou family.

Chen Dashan asked Shen Lie, “What do you think?”

Shen Lie replied, “I think it’s feasible. We’ve traveled this way many times, and there are no shortage of bandits in the mountains. The Zhou family’s character is good, and there are many men in the family. If we want to be safe, we need trustworthy people to stick together. The more people, the more power.”

Chen Dashan agreed with Zhou Cunzheng, “I’m fine with it. I’ll ask Uncle Shi and Uncle Lu later. I don’t think they’ll have any objections.”

Shen Lie nodded, “The difficulty lies in transporting the grain. If we want to be safe, we need to hide it as deeply as possible. If it’s too far, we won’t be able to carry much in one trip. Once the snow melts, we’ll have to go further in. We need to find a way out early so we have enough time to prepare.”

Chen Dashan agreed, “This is serious. I’ll go back today and tell Uncle Shi and Uncle Lu.”

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Shen Lie and Chen Dashan returned just before dusk. When they left in the morning, they had empty backpacks, but when they returned in the afternoon, not only were the backpacks full, but they also carried a woven bag made of rattan vines. Inside were some weakly flapping mountain chickens.

Chen Dashan greeted Sang Luo and the others, then took the spoils of war home directly. Shen Lie went into the courtyard alone.

Sang Luo and Shen An and Shen Ning were stunned to see the backpack and woven bag he had put down.

She often went into the mountains with the two children, a little further than the villagers, so she had seen mountain chickens and wild rabbits before, but she just couldn’t catch them. She could only watch them from afar.

But did it have to be to this extent?

Shen Lie could tell from their expressions what they were all thinking. He smiled and said, “We went deep into the mountains. There’s little food in winter, and the snow covers everything, making it hard for animals to hide their tracks. With the traps set up and the footprints on the snow covered, it’s easy to catch them.”

Easy, of course, referred to how easy it was now. Actually, before they went into the mountains, he and Chen Dashan had worked hard all day and only caught one or two animals.

Sang Luo didn’t know this, but she heard him say it lightly, and she couldn’t help but give him a glance, thinking, “I don’t find it easy at all. You’re really something.”

Shen Lie met her eyes, and although he didn’t know what Sang Luo was thinking, he couldn’t help but feel that she must be thinking something about him.

That look was quite cute. He glanced at her twice, smiled, and then bent down to untie the rattan vines covering the backpack. At the same time, he asked Sang Luo, “Can we put the mountain chickens in the chicken coop?”

Sang Luo helped him untie the other vines while nodding, “Yes, we can.”

When the chickens arrived, they were a bit domineering, but after the geese and ducks arrived, they all became docile. The chicken coop at home was quite large, so if necessary, they could put the chickens and ducks in the same coop and the mountain chickens in a separate one.

Shen Lie said, “If we can, let’s eat one of them today, and put the rest in to raise them. When the funeral is over, we’ll take them to the county to sell.”

Sang Luo looked up at him and asked, “Are they all alive? How many are there?”

“Alive, five of them. They were all caught in traps. We didn’t use that stuff,” he pointed to the bow and arrows. “It’s to prevent other animals from touching them. For trapping mountain chickens, you only need a rope.”

He took good care of the bow and arrows in the backpack, wrapping them thickly and occupying half of the space in the backpack with them. There was even a vertical board separating the chickens from the bow and arrows. He must have thought of this when he dug them out of the woodshed at home before leaving.

He was afraid that the struggling chickens would damage his bow.

So the backpack was quite large, but it only contained three mountain chickens, which were bound by their feet and then tied with vines. They were all pressed together in a bundle, flapping only occasionally, because if they struggled, they would only hurt themselves.

When half of the vines were untied, Sang Luo saw the top chicken. It looked wilted. She looked at Shen Lie and asked, “Can we keep it like this?”

Shen An and Shen Ning also looked skeptical, “It doesn’t look very good.”

Shen Lie smiled, “Let’s release it and see. It can fly directly.”

When the rattan seal was removed, he slipped out two pheasants, one in each hand, and looked at Sang Luo: “Where are they locked up?”

Signaling to lead the way.

Sang Luo simply lifted up the two cane bags. Seeing this, Shen An stepped forward and grabbed the other pheasant with its feet tied in the basket.

Shen Ning was already running ahead to lead the way.

Several hens in the chicken shed were cooping up for the winter. Shen Ning called them out several times. As soon as the chicken trough was placed, several chickens rushed out to eat. Even the geese and ducks rushed towards each other and swayed in a group. We went out to grab food together.

The chicken coop suddenly emptied out.

Shen Lie couldn’t help but laugh and praised, “An Ning is really capable now.”

Shen Ning smiled shyly, “After raising them for a long time, they recognize me now.”

All the chickens, ducks, and geese at home were raised by Shen Ning. She had learned from the village women since she was young. When feeding the chickens and ducks, she would call out with a specific voice. As long as they heard her call, the chickens and ducks knew it was time to eat, and they would come promptly.

The five mountain chickens were untied and stuffed into the chicken coop one by one. They were indeed lively, and the door of the chicken coop was closed tightly by Sang Luo. You could still hear the wild chickens flapping and jumping inside, hitting the top and walls of the coop.

The four chickens going to eat were dumbfounded.

Where’s my nest?

Where’s my nest?

Who did she put in there?!

They didn’t even eat their food and hurriedly rushed back, but the door had already been tightly closed by Sang Luo.

Five mountain chickens were flapping inside, and four domestic chickens were flapping outside. It was quite lively.

Sang Luo couldn’t help but laugh. Shen Ning was quite responsible, trying to communicate with the four chickens she had raised herself. “You can stay in the duck nest for a few days, stay in the duck nest for a few days.”

The chickens couldn’t understand, but the little girl patted the duck nest and tried to make the chickens understand what she was saying.

The three ducks were originally just watching the excitement, but when they saw the young master patting their nest, they became alert and hurried over.

Indeed, chickens fluttered, ducks quacked, and geese watched the excitement.

Sang Luo laughed out loud this time, and then ignored them, acting as if she were just a bystander. She threw the empty woven bag back into Shen Lie’s empty backpack and went to wash her hands.

Shen Lie looked at his sister like this, feeling quite happy. If his hands weren’t too dirty, he would have wanted to pat his sister’s head. He smiled and said, “An Ning is trying hard.”

He carried his backpack into the house to hide his bow and arrows.

Alone, Shen An had a conscience. Outside the courtyard, he helped his sister chase the chickens to the left and coax the ducks to the right.

Fortunately, the snow outside the courtyard had been cleared away, so their shoes and socks wouldn’t get wet, and their feet wouldn’t freeze.