"I’m not tired."
"Xiao Li, don’t push yourself. You’ve been sitting all day, your back must be sore. Once the stove gets warm, lie down and rest for a bit."
In the end, Zhao Xiaoli was persuaded by Jiang Xinyu and lay down beside the two children.
The four people going up the mountain followed the main group, and Li Yungui sternly instructed everyone not to act alone.
With such a big group, it’s hard to spot any wild animals, so most people were chopping wood. The kids were looking for fruit trees and sour date branches.
Jing Chu was quite disappointed, "Brother, let’s just chop wood."
"Alright, it’s no big deal. Even though there’s nothing great to find, at least it’s safe."
However, Li Yunqiang led a dozen strong n into the deeper mountains.
Guodong noticed but knew they wouldn’t take him along. He could only be disappointed.
Li Yunqiang and his group were hoping to spot so wild animals. Though there might not be enough to share, at least everyone could have a al together.
It’s possible the wild animals at the foot of the mountain were frightened away, so they still had so harvest. They caught six wild rabbits and ten pheasants.
That’s quite a good haul, right? Li Yunqiang decided to quit while they were ahead, and quickly gathered everyone to head down the mountain and et up with the villagers.
Jing Chu wasn’t tempted when she saw the ga in their hands; she just wanted to pick persimmons.
Li Xue and the others were already familiar with her, "Jing Chu, what do you want?"
"I mainly ca up the mountain this ti to pick persimmons."
"I’ll ask my fourth uncle later if he has seen any persimmon trees."
"Thank you, Li Xue, but never mind. I know it’s too dangerous to go further in. If there aren’t any, then there aren’t. Aunt Jiang’s house has plenty."
Li Xue wasn’t confused and didn’t say much, understanding that it was an unknown danger.
Everyone was very happy to see so much ga.
"Village Chief, shall we have a al?"
"Yes, let’s cook so potatoes and radishes with at, and fill up on sorghum rice."
"That sounds great, Village Chief, should we slaughter a pig?"
"Dreaming, aren’t you? We must wait until after the task is turned in before we can eat ourselves."
"Village Chief, let’s turn in the task early, so the pig doesn’t lose weight."
"We have to wait until at least late December; otherwise, the authorities will co looking."
Everyone knew that when it gets cold, pigs lose fat, but in a small village like theirs, they had to wait until late December to turn in the pigs for the task.
People were cheerful, as they were easy to please, relatively speaking.
Hongling picked a lot of sour dates and gave so to Li Xue, blushing as she handed a handful to Jing Chu.
"Li Xue, I don’t like sour things." Before Jing Chu could refuse, Hongling ran off.
"Keep them if they’re given to you. I don’t like sour things either."
The two continued to chop branches. "We’ve chopped so much, how are we going to take it back?"
"I don’t know either; we’ll ask later."
They just focused on chopping for now.
Guodong and Zhao Xiaoqiang were also busy chopping branches, unable to do anything else. They finally understood that Village Chief Li brought everyone up the mountain just to chop wood.
The brother and sister weren’t far apart and soon t up, "Brother, I’ve chopped so much. How do we take it down the mountain?"
"How about Xiao Qiang and I carry so back first?"
"Is that okay?"
"It should be; we’re going down the mountain, and Village Chief Li probably won’t mind."
"Okay, take these branches to the school first. Aunt Jiang’s woodshed is full."
"Alright." Guodong understood his sister’s intention. They weren’t villagers, but they attended school in the village without paying tuition, so preparing more firewood was reasonable.
The two girls continued chopping branches, and when Guodong and the others returned from taking so down, they bundled more branches together.
"Brother, Xiao Qiang, let’s eat first."
"Li Xue, are you joining us? We’re going to start a fire."
"Sure, it’s nice to have sothing warm to eat." To be honest, Li Xue wasn’t used to such hard work. Looking at Jing Chu, who wasn’t bigger than herself but had more strength.
Guodong gathered dry firewood and lit it with dry grass.
They put bread and pancakes on sticks, and when the fire stopped smoking heavily, they started to grill.
Qu Xiaoli also brought pancakes for a few kids, so they grilled them together. The bread was easier to heat, and Jing Chu handed one to Li Xue, "Try this, it’s bread made by Aunt Jiang, delicious and fragrant, all good stuff."
Li Xue had already slled the sweet aroma. She took it, broke off a piece and put it in her mouth, "Mm, it tastes as sweet as it slls."
The four of them gathered around, and soon many other kids followed them and started fires too.
Even though they all wanted to eat the bread, no children ca forward to ask for it, not even swallowing saliva.
Zhu Mingbao had given them a lesson on propriety and sha in the first class. So, the kids held back.
Guodong noticed this, "Let’s not grill the bread, let’s eat the pancakes."
Jing Chu also realized, packed up the bread, and sat by the fire, waiting for the pancakes to heat up.
After eating, Jing Chu took out a clay pot, filled it with water, and placed it directly in the fire, so they could drink hot water.
After drinking water and resting for a while, Guodong and Xiao Qiang resud carrying branches down.
When Li Yunqiang was delivering the ga down the mountain, he saw Teacher Jiang’s nephew carrying firewood to the school, and nodded, thinking the child was sensible.
They made six trips in total, "Brother, I’m done chopping. Let’s carry the last load together."
"Alright, let’s inform Village Chief Li."
Li Yungui had already heard from his brother about the Lv Family siblings carrying firewood to the school. Seeing the boy sweating profusely, he thought to himself that if he had a daughter, he would want such a son-in-law.
"Village Chief Li, we’re heading down the mountain now and won’t co back up."
"Alright, be careful."
"Guodong, I still have a lot of branches here, can the four of us carry them down?"
Du Fengying initially followed the village won looking for wood ears and pine mushrooms, but they were really scarce, so she ended up chopping wood too.
"Aunt Du, if necessary, I’ll make another trip."
"No need, I’ll carry a bit more. We need to get it back sohow, right? Where did you take the firewood?"
"To the school, not to our ho."
"There’s enough firewood at ho. Take these to the school so you won’t be cold during class."
Everyone around heard their conversation clearly, which greatly increased their goodwill towards these outsiders.
In the end, there were still so left, but Jing Chu wanted to carry more but was refused by Guodong. "Alright, you guys go back. I’ll carry the rest to the school," Li Yunqiang said with a smile.
The four of them had no objections, thanked him, and carried the branches down the mountain.
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