The weather was gradually getting hotter. After walking for a short while, Xu Mumu was already sweating a bit. Looking at the scorching sun in the sky, she wondered if this sumr would be particularly hot.
"Brother, I think I heard the sound of a wild chicken." Not far ahead, Xu Mumu stopped walking.
"Here you go." Xu Minghui directly placed the bow and arrows into Xu Mumu’s hands.
Xu Mumu rolled her eyes, but still took the bow and arrow, her gaze sweeping over the low bushes around, roughly determining the location of the wild chicken.
She picked up a stone and threw it in that direction, startling the wild chicken to fly up.
Xu Mumu seized the opportunity, shooting out the arrow in her hand, and the wild chicken dropped from the sky.
"It’s quite plump. I’ll go over there and see if there’s a nest; this is a hen." Xu Minghui picked up the wild chicken and headed to where the chicken had just flown up.
Before long, Xu Minghui returned with two wild chicken eggs in his hand.
"Only two, this chicken must have laid the rest elsewhere." With only two eggs, Xu Minghui was a bit dissatisfied.
"Co on, brother, getting even these two is good enough. The old hen at ho can only lay one egg a day." Xu Mumu said, exasperated.
"Let’s cook these two eggs later." Being scolded by his sister didn’t bother him; he had already started contemplating how to eat the eggs later.
"Alright." Xu Mumu smiled and nodded. Two eggs, shared amongst everyone, would surely make the few kids very happy.
Lately, life at ho had beco sowhat better, but they still couldn’t afford to eat eggs regularly.
Now that the family was divided, the main branch had an old hen that laid an egg a day. The second and fourth branches each bought three chicks to raise. Raising chickens, each family could only keep a maximum of three. The benefits of dividing the family beca apparent imdiately; they could raise more chickens.
Having only raised them for one or two months, the chickens were just half-grown. They would need another month or two to start laying eggs.
When Xu Mumu and Xu Minghui caught up with the few little kids, they were extrely excited to see the wild chicken in Xu Minghui’s basket, but a bit annoyed they hadn’t seen how their big sister caught the wild chicken.
"Big sister, you’re the best. You caught the wild chicken in one shot." Xu Jiaojiao said excitedly.
"Exactly, exactly. Big brother didn’t call us, and we didn’t even see big sister catch the wild chicken." Xu Minglei began to complain about his older brother.
"You little brat, feeling itchy for a beating, huh?" Xu Minghui flicked the little guy’s forehead, daring to speak ill of him to his face.
"Brother, be gentle; it hurts." Xu Minglei held his head, his brother bullying him just because he was older and stronger. He vowed to repay his brother well once he grew up.
If Xu Minghui knew what his little brother was thinking, he would definitely give him a beating.
Xu Mumu watched the kids with amusent; they were thrilled with the wild chicken—it was at, after all.
"Next ti when we co out, bring so salt. If we catch another wild chicken, we can roast it in the mountains." Xu Mumu said with a smile. Whenever they brought a wild chicken ho, it was either used to cook potatoes or make soup; she missed the taste of roasted chicken.
"Sure, sure." Tiedan was very excited.
"Roasting a small sparrow is enough, roasting a chicken would be too wasteful." Xu Minghui said, exasperated. A sparrow was also at; it would be better to sell the wild chicken for so money.
"It’s fine, it’s not like we do it every day. We can indulge once in a while." Xu Mumu said with a laugh.
"Alright, since you caught it, it’s up to you." Xu Minghui said helplessly, wanting to say more to his drooling sister but swallowing his words, changing his tone instead.
As for his sister, she should be spoiled. Among the nearby villages, none of the girls were as beautiful as his sister, which made Xu Minghui very proud.
"Brother, it’s ti to gather firewood. Hurry up and climb the tree to bring down the dry branches." Xu Minglei pushed his brother to work, annoyed that he was hogging their sister’s ti.
With a helpless glance at his little brother, he vowed to deal with him later.
Xu Mumu found it amusing to watch, while Xu Minghui climbed the tree. This was a place they hadn’t visited before, and there were plenty of dried branches.
As Xu Minghui began working, the group of kids also went to climb trees. Only Xu Jiaojiao stayed with Xu Mumu on the ground, picking up the fallen dry branches.
The kids had a great ti, even competing over who gathered the most firewood.
"Brother, why is all your wood so small?" Xu Jiaojiao complained while picking up the wood Xu Tao had dropped.
"I couldn’t break the big ones." Xu Tao’s face turned red, feeling like he was the weakest.
"Let handle the ones you couldn’t break." Xu Minghui jumped down from a two-ter-high tree branch, looking towards Xu Tao.
"These two, I’ve been working on them for ages but couldn’t bring them down." Xu Tao pointed to the two thickest dry branches.
Xu Minghui glanced over. They were indeed quite thick. "You co down, and I’ll handle it."
"Okay, big brother." Xu Tao obediently climbed down from the tree.
Xu Mumu watched her brother climb up like a monkey, quickly scaling the tree, stepping on another un-dried branch, and breaking the dry one with a kick. The branch fell to the ground.
Soon, he managed to bring down the two bigger branches, enjoying the admiration from the younger kids.
As Xu Mumu and the others were gathering firewood, Xu Tao’s cry reached them with a sobbing voice, "Big sister, help, there’s a snake!"
Xu Mumu looked over and was startled to see a rather large snake. Although not as mutated as the snakes in the apocalyptic tis, it was poisonous and deadly.
"It’s a Guoshan Peak damn it, how did it end up here?" Xu Minghui’s expression changed upon seeing the snake, tightening his grip on the machete.
"Little Tao, don’t move. I’ll distract it." Xu Mumu said, picking up a stone with her bow and arrow in hand.
Xu Mumu threw the stone at Gaoshan Peak and then drew her bow to full draw. Although it was a bamboo arrow, with Xu Mumu’s strength, it was enough to pierce the snake’s vital spot.
"Brother, keep an eye on them, give the knife." Xu Mumu said seriously.
"No way, this snake is highly venomous." Xu Minghui flatly refused, standing in front of Xu Mumu.
The Guoshan Peak, also a king cobra, about 5 ters long, with a distinctive inverted V-shaped pattern on its neck, and narrow white striped patterns on its back — this snake was highly venomous.
"Brother, trust , I’m strong and fast. I can crush a stone underfoot; this little thing can’t handle my full-force kick." Xu Mumu said earnestly, Xu Tao nearly in tears.
Xu Minglei and the others were also terrified, having never seen such a massive snake before — it was a formidable creature.
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