Traveling through the mountains and farming

Zheng Xiaohu didn't know that his sneaking out had made everyone anxiously looking for him everywhere.

Luo Dashan has already brought a team of people to search carefully along the mountain road they came from.

While shouting Zheng Xiaohu's name, they kept an eye on the movements around them.

Li Chongwu's team searched in another direction, paying close attention to any clues around them.

After a long time, they finally found some messy footprints of children by a stream. A glimmer of hope ignited in their hearts, and they quickened their pace to follow the footprints to find the past.

However, not long after walking, I found that the footprints suddenly turned to the right.

At this time, they heard the howling of wild boars nearby, and they became even more anxious.

Li Chongwu's heart skipped a beat and he thought to himself, "This kid must have run into a wild boar!"

Everyone looked worried and quickened their pace.

They walked quickly towards the direction of the sound and saw a patch of grass shaking violently in front of them.

Li Chongwu clenched the hatchet in his hand and signaled everyone to keep quiet.

Suddenly, the wild boar rushed out from the grass, with sharp fangs and fierce momentum.

It was the big wild boar that was chasing Zheng Xiaohu just now. It probably failed to catch up with Zheng Xiaohu just now. Now that it saw more people, it became more and more manic, with a fierce light in its eyes, and rushed towards the crowd desperately.

Li Chongwu was not afraid at all and shouted, "Everyone, disperse!"

The others quickly moved aside to make room for Li Chongwu.

They were not worried at all about Li Chongwu dealing with the wild boar alone.

Because Li Chongwu was born with great strength like his father, they didn't need to worry too much about a wild boar, let alone a tiger.

If Li Chongwu's father Li Changmao had not issued a clear order to Li Chongwu not to go into the mountains to hunt before he was conscripted, the wild animals in the mountains would have suffered as well.

Li Changmao was the only son in the family, and he had only one son, Li Chongwu.

Although the son was born with supernatural powers, he was still a child in the eyes of his father.

Moreover, after he left, Li Chongwu was the only male left in the family, and the other four were all women. If anything happened to Li Chongwu, the whole family would be left without anyone to rely on.

So before leaving, he ordered Li Chongwu not to go into the mountains to hunt.

Li Chongwu dodged the wild boar's attack by moving sideways, then swung his hatchet and chopped it on the wild boar's back.

The wild boar's skin and flesh were too tough, and the injury only caused a cut, which was not fatal.

The wild boar felt the pain and attacked even more frantically.

Li Chongwu relied on his natural strength and agility to deal with the wild boar.

He seized the opportunity and kicked the wild boar hard on the side of its abdomen, causing it to stagger.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Li Chongwu raised the hatchet again and chopped hard at the wild boar's neck with all his strength.

With this cut, the wild boar's blood splattered everywhere. It screamed, fell to the ground, struggled for a few times, and then stopped moving.

The others quickly gathered around and praised Li Chongwu.

Li Chongwu wiped the blood off the knife with a leaf next to him and said, "Don't worry about this for now, let's go find Xiaohu."

Everyone continued to walk forward along the traces left by Zheng Xiaohu being chased by the wild boar.

After a while, Zheng Xiaohu's shouting was heard.

"I'm here! I'm here!"

It turned out that Zheng Xiaohu hid immediately after hearing the footsteps, and only came out and shouted after seeing who was coming.

Everyone looked in the direction of the voice and saw Zheng Xiaohu standing in front of a dilapidated wooden house waving at them.

Everyone rushed over.

Li Chongwu looked at Zheng Xiaohu's embarrassed appearance and asked with concern: "Xiaohu, are you okay?"

Zheng Xiaohu shook his head and said in a tearful voice, "I'm fine. I was just chased by a wild boar and got scared."

Li Chongwu patted his shoulder and said, "I'm glad you're okay. The wild boar that chased you is probably gone. Let's go back quickly. Your mother, grandparents, and uncles are all very worried."

Everyone took Zheng Xiaohu and carried the wild boar back.

When Zheng Xiaohu saw the bloody wild boar, he finally understood what Li Chongwu really meant when he said that the wild boar was gone.

It was almost dark when they returned to the cave.

Seeing Zheng Xiaohu coming back, Li Rou immediately ran over and slapped him a few times, "I told you not to run around. Do you know how worried everyone is about you?"

"Mom, I was wrong. I was just too worried about grandpa and grandma."

After hearing this, Li Rou hugged Zheng Xiaohu and tears couldn't stop flowing.

Uncle Li and Aunt Li also hurried over.

Uncle Li sighed and said:

"Xiao Hu, don't run out without making any noise next time. It's so dangerous in the deep mountains and forests."

Aunt Li wiped her tears with the corner of her clothes and said, "If something really happens, what will happen?"

Everyone was talking to him, reminding him not to run out without saying a word in the future.

Zheng Xiaohu lowered his head and sobbed softly: "I will never dare to do it again."

But he was still very worried about his grandparents, and didn't know how they were doing.

Li Chongwu smiled and said, "Okay, okay, Xiaohu knows he's wrong. If we hadn't gone out to look for Xiaohu, we wouldn't have been able to eat wild boar meat tonight. Look, this big wild boar is really an unexpected harvest."

At this time, everyone's attention turned to the wild boar lying on the ground, which was estimated to weigh about three or four hundred kilograms.

When several grandmothers saw this, they hurried to boil water and prepare to deal with this rare wild animal.

Eat fish for lunch and pork for dinner.

This is not a place to seek refuge, it is a place to enjoy life.

The men found wooden boards and kitchen knives, surrounded the wild boar and discussed what to do with it later. The children watched curiously from the side.

After a while, the hot water was ready.

Li Chongwu and a few others rolled up their sleeves and began to deal with the wild boar in a tacit and skillful manner.

Lin Wan and her two siblings watched from the side. The operation was similar to the slaughtering of the New Year pig that she had seen in her hometown before.

They were skillful. They first scraped the wild boar's skin clean, then peeled it open and took out the internal organs one by one. Someone nearby immediately took them to clean and process them.

Then, the wild boar's limbs were separated from the body, the body was divided into two, and each half was cut into large, uniform pieces. This dissection technique was extremely professional.

Reserve the meat for dinner, and if there is any leftover pork, prepare to marinate it, hang it up to air dry, or make it into bacon.

But so much meat requires a lot of salt.

Aunt Li is organizing everyone to hand in half a pound of salt first, to be used for the big pot meals during this period. When the big pot meals are over, the remaining salt will be divided equally.

After hearing this, everyone hurried back to their homes to get the salt and gave it to Aunt Li for storage and use.

When all the salt was collected, the women began to get busy, carefully coating the pork with salt and marinating it in wooden basins.

Several other aunties have already started preparing dinner. Some are cooking rice, some are frying vegetables, and some are boiling lard. They now have three pots working at the same time.

For a moment, the whole cave was filled with the rich aroma of food.

When Lin Wan was getting the salt, she saw the sweet and sour biscuits and remembered that she had not yet delivered them to Fang Yun, so she filled a bowl and took it to find Fang Yun.

When Lin Wan found her, she was squatting at the entrance of a cave on the other side of the cliff, retching.

Li Chongshan was squatting beside him holding a glass of water, looking worried.

Fang Yun was very sensitive to the smell of fish at noon and wild boar meat at night, and she kept retching after smelling them.

She hadn't eaten much all day.

Seeing Lin Wan coming, Fang Yun raised her head weakly and forced a smile.

Lin Wan hurried forward and asked softly, "Sister-in-law Yun, can't you stand the smell of wild boar meat?"

Fang Yun waved her hands and said weakly, "Yeah, I really can't stand this smell."

Li Chongshan said anxiously, "What should we do? If this continues, my body will not be able to bear it."

Lin Wan handed over the bowl and said, "I brought you some sweet and sour cookies. Try them. They might whet your appetite."

Fang Yun took the bowl, picked up a piece of sour jujube cake, put it in her mouth, and chewed it slowly.

After a while, he seemed to feel better and didn't retch as frequently.

"Xiao Wan, your craftsmanship has become so good now?"

This sentence confused Lin Wan. Had she ever cooked for Fang Yun before?

Seeing Lin Wan's confused look, Fang Yun said with a smile:

"Xiao Wan, you don't forget Sister Yun, do you? We used to play together when we were little, but after your stepmother came into the family, you stayed at home every day."

Lin Wan tried hard to recall, and finally found a fragment of memory called Sister Yun in her original body's memory.

It turned out that Li Chongshan’s wife was the eldest daughter of the original body’s neighbor. They played house together when they were young and even cooked some unpalatable food together.

She smiled and explained, "How could that be? I was just young and ignorant before, and my stepmother didn't let me go out to play with you. I was afraid that you would blame me, so I never had the nerve to come to see you. Besides, I didn't know you were married to your cousin Chongshan before."

Fang Yun patted Lin Wan's shoulder gently to show her understanding.

Then Lin Wan continued: "You know, my stepmother doesn't let me go out very often."

Fang Yun felt that it was indeed reasonable. Her stepmother had always been fierce and cunning. She controlled Lin Wan very strictly and did not allow her to have much contact with outsiders.

I heard the ladies shouting that dinner was ready.

Lin Wan handed the sweet and sour biscuits to Li Chongshan, and told him to persuade Fang Yun not to do farm work anymore, and then prepared to go to eat.

Before leaving, Li Chongshan could be heard coaxing Fang Yun to eat some more sour jujube cakes, saying that he would ask grandma to help cook some light vegetable porridge for her later.

Lin Wan walked back, frowning and thinking hard. She felt like she had forgotten something.