inspire-indiana Chapter 171 Cannot be used
Chapter 171 Cannot be used
"Badger? What is a badger? Have you ever seen one?"
"A badger is a badger. What else could it be? I have seen one in a hunter's house when I went to another village to kill pigs. It looked like this."
A group of people gathered around the prey and talked non-stop, while the women were very envious. How many meals could they have with so much meat?
Zhou Guo was worried that he hadn't eaten enough in the mountains, so he asked, "Master, have you had lunch? Are you hungry? I left some food for you."
The old man glanced at her palm and nodded, "I have eaten. How can I starve myself in the mountains? There is food all over the ground."
Pointing at the prey on the ground, he said, "Except for the badger, share the rest among the families."
"You hunted those two rabbits and two pheasants for others?" she asked in surprise. Her master had such an enthusiastic side. But when she thought about it carefully, it was something he would do. Her master was very enthusiastic in his heart, otherwise he would not have accepted her as his apprentice.
"The weather is hot, and if we have too much food to eat, it will take a long time to keep. This badger is enough for our family. We might as well share it with others so that everyone will remember your kindness." The old man said. He suddenly had the idea when he saw his apprentice's rotten palm, and he was a little angry. His apprentice was so small, and even though she was strong, he couldn't let her do all the work alone.
He didn't know what all the big men around him were doing. He looked at the eight neatly placed beams below, which looked different from the others. "Did you do all these? Eight beams?"
Zhou Guo looked at his master who had a dark face, wondering why he was suddenly angry. He thought that nothing he said was wrong, so he nodded obediently.
"Humph, you really are...really a good daughter of your mother."
Zhou Guo looked at the palm of his hand and smiled, "It's okay, Master. I just need to apply some medicine when I get home. I was thinking that there are still a few big holes on our roof. If it rains later, we will have nowhere to hide. I want to finish cutting the wood quickly and move it back to build the house."
The old man said, "I thought you were usually quite clever, but why are you being so stupid now? Can you put wet wood on beams? Have you ever seen anyone using wet wood to put beams on a house?"
Zhou Guo: “…”
His eyes gradually widened, as if he had never seen it before, but, "Master, why didn't you tell me earlier? We have been working here for two days."
If she had remembered this earlier, she wouldn't have bothered with this and would have just gone and bought it.
The old man said confidently: "How would I know that you were using it to build a house now? I thought you were reluctant to spend the money and were planning to exchange it with someone else."
Zhou Guo was speechless and pointed at other houses. "What's wrong with them? Don't they know that you can't build a house with wet wood?"
"How would I know."
She tried to hold it in but couldn't hold it in any longer, so she found Wang Fugui. They were old friends, so she pulled him aside and asked, "Uncle, when are you going to take the wood back after you finish sawing it? Will you take it back to build the house?"
Wang Fugui laughed and said, "How can you build a house with wet wood? It needs to be dried, and it will take several months. Let's hang it here first, and then pull it back when it's dry."
Zhou Guo said: "Isn't your house quite dilapidated? What kind of wood would you use if not this one?"
Speaking of this, Wang Fugui frowned, "That's right, I originally thought of going into the mountains to cut one, and then finding some small and useless ones at home to build a roof to make do with, and then re-erect the beams after a few months. But then I heard from the villagers that it would snow heavily here in winter, and a small beam would not work at all, and the roof would collapse if the snow got too heavy. So I can't make do with it, and I have to spend money to buy one." His plan failed, and in the end he still had to spend money to buy one, and put in the effort, but he had already worked all day, and he couldn't just quit, otherwise all the hard work yesterday would be in vain.
Zhou Guo then realized that they all had the same plan. His uncle and mother probably had the same plan. Alas, after two days of hard work, it was all for nothing. “It was all in vain.”
"How can it be considered as a waste of work? These chopped wooden beams are all ours. Won't these wood come in handy when we renovate the house later? And we picked so many mushrooms in the mountains. These wild mushrooms can also be a winter dish. All of this is preparation for winter. It's not a waste of work." Wang Fugui shook his head.
Zhou Guo thought about it and agreed. They also picked up so many matsutake mushrooms in the mountains. The old man must be so happy that he could eat them all his life. Now he could eat them to his heart's content.
She turned around and distributed the rabbits and pheasants to each family as she was told.
Everyone was very surprised. "Guoguo, you just gave us the rabbit and pheasant? This is twenty or thirty coins. I'll give it to you later."
Zhou Guo said, "No need, this is for your children to eat, it's not much, take it all."
She said this without giving it any thought.
But everyone laughed, "You are still a child yourself, and you call others children."
But no matter what, everyone was grateful.
Zhou Guo patted her head, forgetting that she was only eight years old at that time.
When they went down the mountain, the old man carried two sacks of pine mushrooms, Zhou Dacang carried two sacks, Li carried a load of firewood, and Zhou Mai and Zhou Mi also carried two bundles of firewood. They felt that they were old and had become little men, and if their sister could carry firewood home, they could do it too.
Zhou Guo followed behind, staggering with an empty basket on his shoulder.
When I got home, the meal was ready.
Everyone finished their meal in a few gulps by the firelight. The old man finished first and then started to deal with the badger. Zhou Dacang and a few others started to deal with the matsutake mushrooms with ease.
Zhou Guo had medicine sprinkled on both of his palms and wrapped them with cloth. He could not do anything and could only sit cross-legged and watch everyone work.
When refining badger oil, Zhou Guo kept sniffing, it was so fragrant.
"This badger has so much oil. It's probably enough for us to eat for two months." Li happily scooped oil into the jar, being very careful not to waste even a drop.
Two months?
Zhou Guo said, "Mom, put more oil in the dishes next time. I can't feel hungry without oil. I feel hungry again soon after eating. I can eat four big bowls of rice in one meal, and my brothers can eat too. The food is consumed quickly. It's better to use more oil. With more oil, the appetite will naturally go down."
Li said, "Do you think I don't know this? But oil is expensive, much more expensive than grain."
Others nodded vigorously. How much is a pound of grain? How much is a pound of pork? Oil is more expensive than pork. We can't afford it.
Zhou Guo sighed, thinking that her mother might be reluctant to pay the money, so she decided to pay for it herself. She looked at the sacks in the yard and decided to take them to the county town tomorrow and sell some of them for a high price. Wouldn't that give her enough money to buy the oil?
She would go into the mountains to find more for her master later. The ones that could not be eaten could be dried.