My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 120 Preparing for the Hunt
"Hehe, Da, Uncle Fugui..."

Liu Nier couldn't hide any longer. With her hands behind her back and her eyebrows drooping, she slowly emerged from behind the big tree and grinned at the two of them.

Wang Lixian frowned and scolded, "Stop grinning like that. You're too scared to go home now. What kind of good deed have you been up to?"

"what?"

"I didn't!"

Liu Ni'er shook her head blankly. "Da, what are you talking about? When have I ever caused you any trouble since I started school? I just wanted to hide and scare you since Uncle Fugui is here today."

He chuckled again, "I didn't expect you guys to find me before I could even hide properly."

Upon hearing this, Wang Lixian's expression grew even more unpleasant.

He could tell with his toes that this rascal wasn't telling the truth.

He walked behind the big tree and looked around, but didn't see anything hidden there.

He then glanced at Liu Nier and saw that the mischievous boy had his hands behind his back. When he looked over, he even tried to sneak behind Chen Ling. He immediately became furious.

"Well, you've all learned to lie through your teeth."

What's in your hand?

"Nothing."

When Liu Nier realized she had been discovered, she turned pale with fright and shook her head vigorously, trying to hide behind Chen Ling.

Chen Ling had been standing to the side, trying to suppress her laughter, wanting to see how this kid would get punished today.

However, when he caught a glimpse of Liu Nier's hands out of the corner of his eye, his smile vanished. He frowned, grabbed Liu Nier's arm, and saw that her right hand was alright, with just a few scratches. Her left hand, however, was in a much worse state. A chunk of flesh was missing from below her thumb, and even though the wound was covered with some paste, it was still bloody and oozing blood continuously.

Liu Nier glanced at Chen Ling, then at her own father, and seeing that Wang Lixian's face was as black as the bottom of a pot, she immediately shrank back in fear and dared not say a word.

"Brother Xian, don't rush to fight."

Seeing that Wang Lixian was gritting his teeth and could no longer suppress his anger, Chen Ling quickly reached out to stop him.

Turning to look at Liu Nier, he asked, "What bit you?"

"A big old turtle."

Liu Nier looked up at Wang Lixian and then said timidly.

Upon hearing this, Wang Lixian's anger flared up: "Fine, fine, it seems I haven't beaten you enough in the past six months, you've even dared to go swimming now."

"Fugui, don't stop me. If I don't teach this brat a lesson today, he'll forget who his father is."

"I didn't go into the water, really I didn't..."

Liu Ni'er was held by the arm by Chen Ling and couldn't run away, so she shouted anxiously.

The commotion drew the attention of the whole family, who rushed over.

Seeing Liu Ni'er's hand injured like this, everyone was both worried and angry.

"The turtle's mouth is poisonous, I'll go get some medicine."

Seeing this, Wang Susu hurriedly ran to Chen Guoping's house, and Si Ni'er and Wu Ni'er followed.

While it's not exactly poisonous, wild animals carry many germs, and in the hot weather, infection is easy to occur. It's important to handle them properly.

Aunt Wang gently stroked Liu Ni'er's arm, then looked at Liu Ni'er's eyes, and her complexion improved considerably.

In rural areas, adults have two simple methods to find out if their children are secretly swimming in the river, and both are accurate.

First, look at the skin; second, look at the eyes.

Even though a child's skin is dry after a bath, it will still leave a white mark if you scratch it with your fingernail.

Another issue is that after diving, your eyes will be bloodshot.

After testing her, Aunt Wang knew that Liu Nier wasn't lying about this matter.

"They didn't go into the water."

"How did you catch the turtle without going into the water?"

"I caught it."

Liu Nier sniffled hard, her little face pale, and said, "I caught a small one first, and just as I was about to come back, a big one came up. That big turtle was huge, bigger than a washbasin. It wasn't afraid of people, and after eating the bait, it ate the small fish in the weir. I tried to catch it, but I wasn't paying attention and it bit my hand, almost pulling me into the water. If Zhuwa hadn't knocked it off with a fire stick, my thumb would have been bitten off."

Liu Nier got excited when this was mentioned.

Wang Lixian grew angrier the more he listened. Not wanting to beat Chen Ling too badly in front of him, he couldn't help but kick him in the butt.

"Serves them right for biting it off."

He turned and walked away, panting heavily.

He was angry that Liu Nier wasn't telling the truth.

But when young children get injured while playing wildly, they usually don't dare to tell their parents.

After a while, Wang Susu, Si Nier, and Wu Nier returned with some iodine and disinfectant.

The whole family gathered around, applying medicine to Liu Ni'er while scolding him.

"Look how angry you've made Dada! Can't you just behave yourself?"

“Other families in the village have kids who are always talking a lot, but when have we ever let you be? Besides, Uncle Fugui always makes sure you have a good meal and he never forgets to call you over.”

"This old turtle is making you so hungry."

"I'm not greedy."

Liu Ni'er immediately retorted loudly.

"what is that?"

Liu Ni'er wanted to say something, but couldn't bring herself to say it. She just muttered, "Anyway, I'm not greedy."

"You're not allowed to go to the water's edge again if you don't have a sweet tooth."

Aunt Wang glanced at her son, seeing that Wang Lixian was just smoking silently, and seeing her daughter-in-law with a worried look on her face, still busy running around, she tapped her cane and gritted her teeth, saying, "You're just a troublemaker, you don't give your mother any peace of mind. In a while, you should go to school in the county town with your aunt."

Liu Ni'er is a tough kid; she's not afraid of being beaten or sent to school in the county town.

Because of his third sister's incident, he was afraid of being told that he was causing his parents worry.

He didn't cry when the turtle bit off a piece of his flesh, but when he heard this, tears welled up in his eyes. He pursed his lips tightly, stiffened his neck, and said, "I'm not a troublemaker."

“Xizi is always hungry at home, so we went to find her some food.”

"Later, Zhuwa said that if Xizi's aunt could have a baby, she would be good to Xizi. So we followed the folk remedy and caught turtles and grasshoppers. As long as we ate enough turtles and grasshoppers for a month, Xizi's aunt would definitely be able to have a baby." Liu Nier said this.

Everyone present was stunned. They looked at each other, unsure of what to say.

After a long pause, Wang Lixian sighed and tapped his pipe.

He got up and said to Liu Nier, "Why are you crying? Wash your face and get ready to eat. Your Uncle Fugui brought a badger. We'll eat badger meat later."

Then he went into the kitchen to help Chen Ling start the fire.

……

In the kitchen, Chen Ling started braising the badger meat.

Badger meat needs to be braised in soy sauce, otherwise the meat won't be tender and will be hard to chew.

At this moment, after hearing Wang Lixian's words, he was quite surprised: "Didn't they distribute disaster relief grain? Logically speaking, even if Xizi is with Baoshuan and his wife, and Uncle Sangui usually takes care of him, how come he is still not getting enough to eat?"

"Ugh."

Wang Lixian shook his head.

"Uncle Sangui gave all his grain to Baoshuan and Xiangcao, and he's asking for help to build a house for Baoshuan. He can't just leave them without even providing them with a meal, can he?"

"Besides, the relief grain is not much, how can it last long? With that woman Xiangcao, it's no wonder that Uncle Sangui and Xizi will have a hard time."

Chen Ling was speechless for a moment.

Wang Lixian was righteous, and neither Wang Da Niang nor Liu Yuzhi were unreasonable women.

If other families knew that their child had almost had their finger bitten off by a turtle while searching for some kind of weird remedy, even if they didn't cause trouble for Xizi, they would definitely not let her play with little girls in the future.

The little baby has no bad intentions.

It's just that some adults are too inhumane.

"Let's not talk about that. The relief grain isn't enough for two months, and the spoiled grain won't fetch much money even if we sell it to the feed mill. Our team is planning to go hunting in the mountains as soon as we finish building our houses, so you should come with us."

Wang Lixian wiped the sweat from his face and said.

The firewood in the stove was burning brightly, and the kitchen was as hot as a steamer.

"Hunting?"

Chen Ling pondered for a moment: "I would like to go, but after the new house is built, I also want to fence off the thirty acres of orchard at the foot of the mountain, so it will be convenient to plant or raise something in the future."

"Why are you fenced off like this? Are you planning to set up a factory?"

"We will not set up factories."

"Why are you in such a hurry if you're not going to set up a factory? Just renovate your yard; it's a large space that you can manage."

"If you really want to fence off the orchard, there are only two months left after the autumn harvest. By then, there won't be much work in the fields, and it will be easy to find someone to help."

"Right now, every household has little food and no income, so everyone is panicking."

"Well, I'm not in a rush. After all, this job can't be finished in a day or two."

Chen Ling nodded and responded.

Actually, he didn't expect anyone in the village to help at first. Thirty acres of land is not a small project, unlike building a house, where a few families can help build it.

We still need to find someone from outside to build it.

However, now that Wang Lixian has told him that the team is going to organize a hunting trip in the mountains, he has become interested, so postponing it a few days later is no big deal.

As the two were talking, the badger meat was already stewed.

Lifting the lid, a steaming aroma wafts out.

Although the weather is quite hot and affects people's appetite, the rich aroma still makes one's mouth water uncontrollably.

Wang Lixian scooped the meat out, served a bowl to everyone, and put it on the table. The meat was tender and juicy, with a rich and unique aroma and no fishy or gamey taste.

Once the fat is removed from the badger meat, it's all lean meat, very tender. With a slight chew, your mouth is filled with rich and flavorful juices. It's truly refreshing and delicious to eat with an ice-cold beer on a hot day.

Chen Ling and Wang Susu had never eaten badger meat before, and this was a real treat for them.

"It smells so good, Uncle Fugui! Badger meat is really delicious."

Liu Nier licked her lips. "Didn't they say there's a badger nest in the field? How about we go and ambush them tonight?"

"Why are you blocking the way? It's not safe at night. I saw a lot of footprints, droppings, and leftover bones in the ditch at the foot of the mountain today. What if wolves come down the mountain at night? If we run into them, we're doomed."

"Huh? There are wolves?"

Liu Nier was immediately frightened.

"It's normal to see wolves. These days, everyone in the surrounding villages is busy building houses, so not many people go up the mountain. It's not strange that wolves and wild boars come down from the mountains."

Wang Lixian picked his teeth and then said to Chen Ling, "A few days ago, when Lishan went to Nanshan to fetch water, he saw wild boars. Now that there's no food in the fields, we don't need to worry about them. Just don't let them enter the village."

Chen Ling nodded.

"Second Uncle even saw wild boars! Piglet told me that Second Uncle saw the city's construction team catch two turtles from the old river bend. It's better when the flood comes over; they catch them every time."

"I went there today just to fish, and I came across a turtle that was bigger than a washbasin."

Liu Ni'er, having forgotten the pain of her past wounds, started daydreaming as her eyes darted around.

"I don't know if wild boar meat or turtle meat is as delicious as badger meat, I've never tried them before."

"Uncle Fugui, have you tried them all?"

"We all ate this when we were kids. Wild boar meat is good, but turtle is not tasty."

Chen Ling smiled and scooped another bowl of badger meat from the pot.

Many people in the village eat fish and shrimp, but not many eat soft-shelled turtles.

For the same reason, this stuff has little oil, is too fishy, ​​difficult to process, and wastes oil. Even catching a few sparrows with a sieve would be more fragrant than this.

Unless someone catches it to nourish their body, it is generally not eaten.

Of course, if Chen Ling were to make it now, the taste would definitely be different, but he has no interest in that stuff.

"Alright, alright, stop bothering your Uncle Fugui."

Wang Lixian saw that Liu Nier wanted to ask more questions, but slapped her on the back of the head.

"Once your Uncle Fugui's house is built, our brigade will go hunting in the mountains. If we're lucky, we'll catch a wild boar, and you'll have something to eat. Behave yourself and don't run around too much lately."

(End of this chapter)