Gu Chaobei cut the meat and put two pangolins into the large pot his wife was watching.
Gu Qingcheng poured half a bag of salt, soy sauce, thirteen-spice blend, and cooking wine into the pot.
Wild game tends to be gamey, and without these strong seasonings, it wouldn't taste good.
The wild boar meat was also processed and stewed in four other large pots. A male wild boar was roasted over a fire, to be kept as backup meat. If they didn't manage to hunt any game the next day, they could use the whole pig to make wild vegetable porridge, which would still be enough to fill everyone's stomachs.
Village Chief Gu was very satisfied seeing the evening meal proceeding in an orderly fashion. Although the weather was getting colder by the day, the villagers' vitality had been stimulated.
It all seemed to have begun when Gu Laoliu's family donated their hunt.
He couldn't fathom why Old Man Gu's family was so foolish.
In the past, they hadn't paid much attention to Laoliu's family in the village, not seeing their capabilities. Now, on the road fleeing famine, Laoliu's family, with their hunting skills, were thriving. The family that the Gu family had abandoned had become saviors to the entire village.
Every time he thought about Old Man Gu's family sulking, reluctantly eating meat without the same joy as the other villagers, Village Chief Gu couldn't help but laugh.
The village had meat to eat thanks to Gu Laoliu's family. If they hadn't split up, this meat would have belonged to Old Man Gu.
Every bite of meat the villagers ate felt like they were eating Old Man Gu's private stash, so how could he not feel heartbroken?
As a result, they now looked at every villager happily eating meat as if they were enemies.
Alas, some calamities are self-inflicted.
Village Chief Gu had studied in a private school since childhood and passed the imperial examination for a Tong Sheng scholar, but he stopped progressing in the later imperial examinations. He was the learned man in the village who could read and write, understood reason, and grasped the bigger picture.
His more than a decade of experience managing the village also made him seem profound and wise. He had been right to support Laoliu's family in splitting up back then.
Gu Laoliu's family had already formed a new force in the village, not to be underestimated!
Seeing the young people gathered around Gu Qingcheng, chatting with her, and some young men holding wild kiwis they had picked, trying to curry favor with her, Village Chief Gu couldn't help but smile faintly.
Gu Qingcheng didn't want to eat the wild kiwis. They were small and looked unappealing, but Zhang Dahu was very enthusiastic, saying he had climbed the tree with great difficulty to pick them.
Unable to refuse his enthusiasm, Gu Qingcheng reluctantly ate a kiwi that Zhang Dahu had "risked his life" to pick.
"Wow! It's so sour it's making my teeth ache!"
Gu Qingcheng forced back the tears that welled up and said to Zhang Dahu, her voice trembling,
"Dahu Ge, I've eaten it. It's too sour. I never want to eat it again."
If you want to refuse someone, be decisive.
Otherwise, what if Zhang Dahu brought more in the future?
Seeing Gu Qingcheng eat what he had given her, Zhang Dahu's mouth split into a wide grin. Gu Qingcheng's address of "Dahu Ge" truly made his heart melt.
His mother had said that if a girl accepted a gift from a young man, it meant she was interested in him, or at least not averse to him.
It seemed there was hope of marrying Qingcheng in the future!
Zhang Dahu quickly said, "Qingcheng meimei, if you want to eat any other fruit in the future, just tell me, and I'll definitely help you get it.
Yesterday I picked a pocketful of Waxberries, but I gave them all to Gu Xiaohua. Otherwise, those fruits are so sweet."
Upon hearing Gu Xiaohua's name, Gu Qingcheng's heart stirred, and she asked,
"Did Xiaohua ask you for them actively?"
"Yes, Xiaohua looked pitiful and said she hadn't eaten enough and was hungry, so I gave them all to her."
Zhang Dahu said generously.
He thought Gu Xiaohua was Gu Qingcheng's cousin, and helping Gu Xiaohua was like helping Gu Qingcheng, so he spoke with great pride.
Gu Qingcheng showed no unusual reaction, merely nodding and saying,
"So that's how it was."
From Gu Qingcheng's observation, none of the wild fruits on the mountain were good. She didn't want to eat any of them.
In modern society, the blueberries, strawberries, kiwis, and other juicy fruits we eat are delicious because of the unremitting efforts of generations of botanists, who selected the sweetest and best-tasting fruits of each generation for hybridization and breeding, finally producing delicious fruits.
These wild fruits on the mountain, without exception, were mostly sour and astringent. It seemed the people of the Gu family were starving, otherwise, Gu Xiaohua wouldn't have lowered herself to ask Zhang Dahu for such unpalatable fruit.
Due to her upbringing, Gu Qingcheng couldn't imagine how a girl could lower herself to ask a young man for things.
She must have felt that the other person couldn't refuse her and was using her gender advantage. It was utterly vulgar.
Gu Qingcheng saw Zhang Dahu still chattering beside her and felt a bit annoyed. Frowning, an idea struck her, and she said,
"Dahu Ge, can you go gather some more firewood? The firewood seems to be running low."
Zhang Dahu, pleased with the instructions from his crush, happily went off.
Hu Lanfang, who had just finished gossiping with other women nearby, happened to see Zhang Dahu leave. Her heart immediately sounded an alarm, and she asked,
"Daughter, why did that boy come over?"
Her daughter was only 13 years old, not fully developed yet, especially in this frail body. She couldn't afford to have an early romance or marriage!
Hu Lanfang suddenly realized that in today's society, 13 years old was old enough to be married.
However, she couldn't directly point it out to her daughter.
If she did that, wouldn't she be interfering with her daughter's freedom in love?
She considered herself an open-minded and liberal parent and didn't want to leave her daughter with an impression of feudalistic, tyrannical control.
What if her daughter became rebellious and disregarded everything, wanting to elope with Zhang Dahu?
Hu Lanfang felt as if she had just taken a new psychology course. She had already mentally completed a doctorate degree.
Gu Qingcheng, however, replied indifferently,
"Zhang Dahu gave me a kiwi to eat. If I didn't eat it, he would have kept bothering me. I found him too noisy, so I just ate one and then told him to go gather firewood."
"Oh."
Seeing that her daughter showed no shyness or evasiveness when mentioning Zhang Dahu, the mentally accomplished Dr. Hu Lanfang immediately discerned that her daughter only saw the young man as an ordinary villager. She breathed a sigh of relief.
Hu Lanfang casually picked up a kiwi from the side and put it in her mouth, asking,
"Is it delicious? Let me try it too."
In Hu Lanfang's memory, kiwis were always the ones sold in supermarkets, plump, juicy, and deliciously sweet and sour.
Before Gu Qingcheng could stop her, Hu Lanfang had already taken a bite.
My heavens, what was this terrifying sourness?
The extreme sourness stimulated her mouth and shot straight to the crown of her head. Hu Lanfang's features contorted from the sourness.
"Ah, spit! It's too disgusting. Qingcheng, how could you eat it?"
"Alas, what can I do? He meant well, and I was helpless."
At this moment, the thoughtful mother and dutiful daughter Qingcheng quickly placed a cup of "Happy Fatty House Water" in a simple, rustic ceramic cup and handed it to her mother.