CH 56.1

Chapter 56

It was windy at night, but it didn't rain all night. Shen Xuanqing got up early the next day, and the sky was always gloomy. Sometimes in the mountains it rained as soon as it was said, and if it started to rain halfway through, it was difficult to find a place to shelter from the rain, so he wouldn’t go out, and it wouldn’t be too late to go out hunting after the weather cleared up.

A lot of fallen leaves were blowing in from the courtyard, so he took a big bamboo broom and swept the fallen leaves outside the courtyard gate.

After Lu Gu got up, he went to the kitchen to boil water first. The flint rubbed and sparked, which quickly ignited the dry grass and wooden chips on the hay. After the flames burned, Lu Gu put the small pile of hay into the bottom of the stove together. After the hay was burned, he added some hay and good firewood to it, and the fire at the bottom of the stove gradually became stronger.

The country folks couldn't afford Huozhangzi, they were all used by rich people in the town.

[火 折子 huǒzhé zi: is a tight paper roll made of very rough earthen paper. It is ignited and then blown out. Although there is no flame, red bright spots can be seen burning faintly, just like the fire in the ashes. The embers can last for a long time. There are phosphorus and some oxygen-easy substances in it. When the temperature is high, if you blow it with your mouth or shake it quickly, it will fully contact with oxygen and react violently to burn  ]

After boiling, he washed first. The wrung cloth towel was still hot, and it was very comfortable to wipe the face. Then he poured clean hot water for Shen Xuanqing and brought it out. He went into the kitchen, added some water to the pot, and picked up the rice wine jar. Shaking it with his hand, the rice from the bottom of the jar came up, he poured some rice wine into the pot, Shen Xuanqing wouldn't go out today, it was cold, cooking some rice wine would warm him up.

After setting up the cage drawer, he put some steamed buns and two eggs. This time Wei Lanxiang brought them eight eggs and six salted duck eggs, enough for several days.

There was no need to worry about the fire, just added firewood after a while. Outside, Shen Xuanqing finished sweeping the front yard, and went to the backyard with a shovel to shovel the chicken and duck manure.

Lu Gu took a small broom and a feather duster to clean the house. Halfway through the work, it was time to add firewood to the bottom of the stove, when he saw Shen Xuanqing entered the kitchen.

"I'll add more firewood." Shen Xuanqing came out again, took a burning firewood in his hand, and planned to get a handful of medicine leaves in the backyard. The chickens and ducks raised were not as many as those in the house, but they still had to drive away the smell .

"Okay." Lu Gu nodded.

After the two of them finished their work and had breakfast, Lu Gu washed the two bowls and dug a big qiucai in the vegetable field in the front yard. Taking advantage of this time, he washed and cut the vegetables and the rabbit Shen Xuanqing killed last night into pieces, so at noon he only needed to fry them.

Shen Xuanqing had nothing to do, seeing that it hadn't rained yet, he took a wooden fork out from the woodshed, and said, "I'll go to the river to see if I can fork some fish back."

Lu Gu agreed, and the puppy saw that the big dogs following Shen Xuanqing out, he wolfed down the last piece of steamed bun and followed them.

The weather was not good today, so there was no need to let the chickens and ducks out. Lu Gu cut a lot of grass yesterday. After finishing the work in the kitchen, he scooped up a bowl of chaff, chopped the grass in the backyard, mixed the chaff into it, and fed the chickens and ducks together.

With no prey to feed, Lu Gu saw that the water tank was half left, so he went out with the wooden bucket.

Shen Xuanqing was spearing fish in the river with his trousers rolled up, and the puppy followed the big dogs to have fun on the bank. As soon as he saw Lu Gu, he ran over excitedly, barking.

Seeing him approaching with a wooden bucket, Shen Xuanqing said, "There is no water? You put it first, and I will get the water later."

Before Lu Gu could speak, he stabbed the wooden fork into the river, and the water splashed. When he picked it up, a not-so-small fish was stuck in it.

The fish basket was at the side, Lu Gu quickly brought it over, there was already a fish in the fish basket, Shen Xuanqing stood in the river, only stretched the wooden fork towards him.

The fish whose body was impaled flicked its tail a few times before it stopped moving. Lu Gu pulled the fish down, which was much easier than a thumping live fish.

Not everyone had the skill of spearing a fish with such agility. Before that, he just set the net, and he only waited a day or two to collect the fishes. He didn't had to bother to get into the water, so Lu Gu didn't know that Shen Xuanqing could spear the fish so accurately.

The two of them often cast their nets in this section of water, and the fish became clever and moved their tails quickly. In addition, the river water was too cold, so Shen Xuanqing speared three big fishes and came up.

"After the rains, the river water will rise, and there must be more fish and shrimp. After the rain stops, we will catch the fish with the net." Shen Xuanqing waded to the shore, handed the wooden fork to Lu Gu, and found a stone to sit on. He sat and stroked the water on his legs with his hand.

"Well, I just don't know if it will rain today." Lu Gu said, and looked up at the sky.

"I can't tell." Shen Xuanqing dried his legs for a while, it was cold when the wind blew, and he forgot to bring a cloth to wipe his legs when he went out, and he didn't want Lu Gu to run back to get it, so he wiped his legs with his pants, and went back to change into a clean pants, the shoes should be washed too.

Since he needed to change his shoes and pants, he simply got up and went to the muddy river to dig up earthworms and loaches. It was cold and the mud was cold, so he didn't let Lu Gu come down.

"Go back and boil some water later, you use the hot water to soak your legs." Lu Gu squatted on the bank and said, he picked a few leaves from the big tree, put the earthworms thrown by Shen Xuanqing on the leaves, and went back to chop and feed it to the chickens and ducks, they would grow better than if you fed them with pure grass.

"Yeah." Shen Xuanqing smiled and agreed, his fulang valued him so much, he was naturally happy in his heart, and said: "If you can't finish eating loach, you can dry it like you dry the fish, and you can save it for winter."