The whole mountain is my hunting ground

Yong'an Village Zhaojia.

Wang Meilan sat cross-legged on the kang, leaning on the kang table with her elbows, writing down accounts in a small book.

The family didn't have much money before, and Wang Meilan didn't have the habit of keeping accounts.

Since her family has money, Wang Meilan has taken up this hobby and records her family's income and expenses.

"Buy a cow for five hundred yuan", "Zhao Er went up the mountain to buy a fortune for two hundred yuan", these words are recorded in the expenditure and income columns respectively.

As expected of the eldest lady whose family has hired a teacher, Wang Meilan's accounting amounts are always written in capital letters.

Suddenly, the sound of three red dogs, mother and son, came from outside the house. Wang Meilan was slightly startled, and then she heard the sound of a car horn.

"Are you back?" Wang Meilan straightened her body, stretched her neck and glanced out the window. Seeing the Liberation Vehicle parked steadily at the door of her courtyard, Wang Meilan hurriedly put away her account books, got off the kang and ran outside the house.

When Wang Meilan came out of the house, hunting dogs ran in from outside the courtyard.

Seeing Wang Meilan, the dogs rushed towards her.

Dogs are very smart. No matter how they follow Jie Chen up the mountain, they still know who is the family member.

This is why even though Zhao Youcai doesn't like dogs, he can still take dogs out to hunt.

"Oops!" Wang Meilan paused and dodged the big black fat man who was coming towards her.

It was quite scary for such a big dog to pounce on her. Although Wang Meilan knew that the tiger wouldn't hurt her, it was quite painful to be pounced by it. Is it time to beat it? Or not to beat it?

But she avoided the black tiger, but failed to avoid Hualong and Huanglong. These two dogs intercepted prey just as they went up the mountain, and now they intercepted Wang Meilan.

A double ghost stopped Wang Meilan, and then the two dogs lifted themselves up and scratched Wang Meilan's pants with their front paws.

There were gray marks on Wang Meilan's black pants. She pulled Hualong and Huanglong away and said, "Go! Go back to the nest!"

After finally getting through the dog pack, when Wang Meilan arrived at the entrance of the courtyard, Jin Xiaomei from next door also came out of the house.

Seeing Zhao Jun, Wang Qiang, Jie Chen, and Zhao Weipeng carrying the wild boar under the car in pairs, Wang Meilan happily greeted Jin Xiaomei and said: "Xiaomei, hold Mingzi up and call everyone over!"

"Hey..." Just as Jin Xiaomei agreed, Jie Chen, who was carrying the wild boar, shouted: "Aunt Zhao, Aunt Li, I'll light the beacon tower!"

"Huh?" Jin Xiaomei was startled when she heard this, then smiled and said: "Okay, hurry up and order it."

Although it was not tiring to set up firewood and light the fire, it was not an easy job either. There was a silly boy who was willing to do it, so Jin Xiaomei agreed without even thinking about it.

Jie Chen didn't think so. A man is a boy until he dies. He felt that lighting a beacon and lighting a big lantern every day would be fun.

Zhao Jun and Wang Qiang carried a wild boar in front, Jie Chen and Zhao Weipeng carried another in the back, and the four of them carried two wild boars toward the backyard of Zhao's house.

Wang Meilan and Jin Xiaomei walked to the side of the carriage and saw that there was a live wild boar and half a pig's pork inside. Wang Meilan turned around and said happily to Jin Xiaomei: "Xiaomei, hurry up and get the pickled cabbage!"

"Hey!" Jin Xiaomei agreed, and together with Wang Meilan, they pulled most of the wild boar down from the car, and then carried it into the house.

There was no rush to unload the meat. Wang Meilan and Jin Xiaomei cooked for Zhao Jun and others first. Jin Xiaomei went home to cut sauerkraut and cook noodles like yesterday.

Wang Meilan poured two ladles of water into her big pot and prepared eggs.

Poached eggs are not poached eggs. Poached eggs are beaten directly into the water. As for the lying eggs, cut some green onions and put them on a plate, then add some soy sauce, sesame oil and miso and stir them together.

Use this as a base and then add eggs to the plate. For example, when Zhao Jun and the other four men ate, Wang Meilan cracked eight eggs. These eight eggs are steamed in the pot without stirring.

After steaming, eight eggs are placed on the plate, white and yellow. At this time, when you use chopsticks, you will find that the top is a solid steamed egg, but the juice below the egg has not solidified.

Then mix the cracked eggs with the soup underneath, which gives it a different taste.

While Zhao Jun and the others were eating, diners arrived one after another. The women were busy chopping sauerkraut, pork ribs, pork stuffing, meat slices, and shredded meat, and the sounds of kitchen knives hitting the cutting board kept coming and going.

"Come on, Yan." Wang Meilan called softly as she passed by Xu Chunyan. Xu Chunyan, who was chopping stuffing, leaned forward as much as possible with her belly pressed tightly to the side of the table to make way for Wang Meilan.

Wang Meilan held the basin, passed sideways through the gap, and then said with a smile: "This cabin is a bit hard to turn around."

Before Zhao Youcai married Miss Wang, Zhao Dazhu and his wife scraped together to build such a large two-room building with a usable area of ​​323 square meters. The area of ​​the east and west houses is slightly larger. The kitchen in the middle, which is called the outhouse in the northeast, is only six or seven square meters.

It was better before, but since Wang Meilan started attracting diners and hosting banquets at home, the kitchen is not enough.

There was nothing we could do about it. After all, Zhao Jun's father and grandma would never have thought that one day they would be able to have so many people come to their family.

"Sister-in-law, this is big enough." Jin Xiaomei answered from the side and said, "Is my outhouse half as big as yours?"

"Huh?" Wang Meilan stood still holding the basin, smiled and waved her hands and said, "After the Chinese New Year, we can just move to the other side. That outhouse is bigger."

This is true, Zhao Jun's new house is five rooms large, and the outbuilding is only 18 square meters. The door opens to the south, there are windows in the north and south, a row of large cabinets on the west wall, an earthen stove in the south under the east wall, and a boiler in the north.

The earthen stove has two burners, and there is a small window on the partition wall between the stove and the east house, which is used to pass the dishes.

When a dish was out of the pot, the small window on the wall was opened, and the dish was placed on the windowsill. The people in the east room took it and turned around to set the table.

When Wang Meilan thought of her new house, she couldn't help but feel a little excited. At this time, she heard Jin Xiaomei sigh and said, "Alas! My Baoyu's room is too small."

Recently, Jin Xiaomei has been regretting that she didn't build a big five-room house for Li Baoyu.

To be precise, she didn't want to separate from Li Baoyu, but wanted to separate from Li Ruhai.

"Oh!" Hearing Jin Xiaomei's words, Wang Meilan freed her hand and patted Jin Xiaomei's arm gently, saying: "What's the matter, sister-in-law? You can't get over that little thing?"

"Yes, sister-in-law." Zhao Ling also persuaded Jin Xiaomei, saying: "He is a child, and he acts like an adult all day, but a child is a child after all."

Being persuaded by Wang Meilan and Zhao Ling, Jin Xiaomei still sighed and said: "You say he is a child, right? He doesn't do what a child should do. You say he is an adult, right? He does that thing, which is not something an adult can do?"

Jin Xiaomei's words were like tongue twisters, and Wang Meilan and the others didn't quite understand. At this time, Xie Sun, who was unpacking cabbage leaves, spoke.

"Sister, you can't separate from Ru Hai." Xie Sun said to Jin Xiaomei: "What do you think? With you and his father, this child is so capable. If there is no one to take care of him after the separation, then this child will be doomed, right?"

After Xie Sun said this, Jin Xiaomei pursed her lips and said nothing. She was heartbroken by Li Ruhai recently, so she had the idea of ​​separating from him when Li Ruhai got married.

But he was her son after all, and what Xie Sun said was right. Even if Li Ruhai got married, he would not be quiet. If there were no old people to look after him at home, wouldn't he be in trouble?

Just then, the dog outside the house suddenly barked. Hearing the sound, Wang Meilan looked out the window.

Wang Meilan looked and saw that there was no one in front of her house. Wang Meilan looked back and saw Erhei and Bailong barking at the neighbors.

A good dog protects three neighbors.

Moreover, smart hunting dogs also know that the neighbors are their own people.

"Xiaomei." Wang Meilan saw this and turned around and called Jin Xiaomei, "Someone is coming to your house."

"Ah? Someone is coming to my house?" Jin Xiaomei put down the meat-cutting knife and walked to the door, muttering, "Who could it be?"

"I don't know." Wang Meilan replied, "You can't see it here."

"I'll go out and take a look." Jin Xiaomei took her cotton-padded jacket and put it on, then pushed the door and left Zhao's house.

After leaving Zhao's house, Jin Xiaomei looked to the west and saw a boy standing at the door of her house with a bunch of things.

"Hey!" Jin Xiaomei said, "Isn't this Ma Xiao?"

The person who came was Ma Yang, who was holding two pheasants, three rabbits, and five prey tied one by one with hemp rope.

"Aunt Li." Ma Yang saw that it was Jin Xiaomei and greeted her.

"Come on, come in!" Jin Xiaomei didn't react for a while and called Ma Yang to Zhao's house.

"No, Aunt Li." But Ma Yang shook his head and said, "I'm looking for Ruhai."

"Hmm?" Jin Xiaomei was stunned, then she thought of something, walked up to Ma Yang and said with a smile, "Are you here to see Ruhai?"

"Ah?" Ma Yang was stunned, then nodded and said, "Ah..."

"Come on, hurry up to the house." Jin Xiaomei hurriedly invited Ma Yang to the yard.

While walking into the house, Jin Xiaomei opened the big flower and the second flower. When they arrived at the door, Jin Xiaomei opened the door.

When letting Ma Yang walk into the house, Jin Xiaomei smiled and said, "Look at you, kid, do you two brothers need to carry things when you walk around?"

"Ah?" Ma Yang felt something was wrong, and heard Jin Xiaomei shouting, "Ruhai, Ma Xiao is here to see you!"

There was a noise in the house, and then the door of the west room opened, and Li Ruhai looked at Ma Yang excitedly.

No one talked to him these days, but Li Ruhai was very depressed.

"Hmm?" Ma Yang looked at Li Ruhai, his eyes full of disbelief, and he subconsciously blurted out: "Why are you dressed like this?"

Today, Li Ruhai has lost his cool outfit, and even his new cotton-padded jacket and trousers have been stripped off.

The cotton-padded jacket and trousers he wore were patched, his marmot hat and military shoes were gone, his hair was messy, and he was wearing old cotton-padded shoes.

"Ah..." Li Ruhai glanced at Jin Xiaomei, and seeing that his mother had no expression on her face, he said: "Let my mother wash the clothes."

Hearing Li Ruhai's words, Jin Xiaomei's eyes flashed with coldness. This kid is still not honest.

"Ma Xiao, come in quickly!" But when facing Ma Yang, Jin Xiaomei's attitude was so good. After inviting Ma Yang into the house, Jin Xiaomei brewed a bowl of sugar water for Ma Yang, and took out two small naughty pieces from the drawer in the east room and gave them to Ma Yang.

After stuffing the candy into Ma Yang's mouth, Jin Xiaomei smiled and said to him, "You two little brothers, sit down. I'm going to go out for a while."

After that, Jin Xiaomei came out of the house.

After leaving the house, Jin Xiaomei went to the big jar under the wall and opened the lid to take something out from inside.

The child brought things to see Li Ruhai. No matter whether the pheasants and rabbits were worth money, this kind of thought was precious. Jin Xiaomei certainly couldn't let the child go back empty-handed, but when she looked in the jar, she found that there were only two left in the bag of frozen pears she bought the day before yesterday.

Jin Xiaomei closed the lid of the jar and walked quickly out of the courtyard. She wanted to buy something from Wang Fu's house before Ma Yang left, so that she could bring it back to the child when she was with Ma Yang.

But when Jin Xiaomei left the yard, she met Zhao Jun coming out of the toilet.

Seeing Jin Xiaomei, Zhao Jun asked casually: "Aunt, what are you doing?"

Jin Xiaomei just needs to climb over the wall to go to Zhao's house, and she must have something else to do when she came out of the door.

"Ah, Jun!" Jin Xiaomei walked up to Zhao Jun, pointed to the front of her house, and said, "Ma Yang is here."

"Ma Yang?" Zhao Jun looked in the direction Jin Xiaomei pointed, and asked in confusion, "Why is he here?"

"I came to see Ruhai." Jin Xiaomei smiled and praised Ma Yang, saying, "That kid is very nice, he came to get something for us."

"Ah?" Zhao Jun asked in surprise, "What did he get?"

"Three jumping cats and two pheasants." While speaking, Jin Xiaomei smiled and waved her hands, saying, "It doesn't matter what you get. Anyway, the kid has this intention. I think I can't let the kid go back empty-handed. I'll... go to the store to buy the kid some food."

"No, no!" Zhao Jun hurriedly stopped Jin Xiaomei when he heard it. It was true that Ma Yang came to get something, but he brought those things to Li Ruhai to exchange for money.

"Well..." Zhao Jun stopped Jin Xiaomei and said to her, "Aunt, why do we spend that money? I'll get the pig today and give him a front leg and a hind leg later."

The pig that Zhao Jun killed was used to feed the dog some meat the next year, but all the good meat was kept. Especially since all four pig legs were there, Zhao Jun took a front leg and a hind leg back to Ma Yang as a subsidy for his wife.

"Is that okay?" Jin Xiaomei refused to do it. She only heard her say, "Jun, you give it to your father-in-law. That's what you took. Aunt can't let the child go back empty-handed!"

"Aunt, listen to me!" Zhao Jun supported Jin Xiaomei's arm and pushed her into his yard, saying, "Don't worry about it. You don't know what's going on."

"Huh?" Jin Xiaomei blinked twice after hearing what Zhao Jun said, but when she saw Zhao Jun nod at her, she didn't ask any more questions.

After the two returned to Zhao's house, Jin Xiaomei continued to work, while Zhao Jun took two wild boar legs and left home.

As soon as he turned around and closed the door, he heard a dog barking in the yard next door.

Zhao Jun recognized Xiaohua's voice and went to the wall to see Xiaohua barking at the west window of Li's house.

Zhao Jun hurriedly climbed over the wall and opened the door in front of the room, and heard the sound of quarreling from inside.

Zhao Jun stepped inside and outside the door, and heard the sound of heavy objects falling to the ground and teacups colliding.

Li Ruhai and Ma Yang, the two children, were fighting in the house!