dognovel Chapter 89 A good time to hunt is during a heavy snowfall.
Chapter 89 A good time to hunt is during a heavy snowfall.
As soon as Liu Xiulan entered the house, she eagerly opened the sack containing the half-chicken to check:
"Wow, they really are sand pheasants, and we caught so many!"
"Sand half-chicken...? Where did this sand half-chicken come from? Let me see it."
"Xiangyang caught it."
"Did Xiangyang catch it?" Wang Guiying became interested upon hearing this, handed Li Doudou to Li Zhenshan, and got off the kang (a heated brick bed).
"Oh my, it really is." Wang Guiying said with a smile, and then started counting with her hands: "One, two, three... six, you caught so many!"
At this moment, the curious Li Chunsheng also came in to take a look, and then turned to Li Zhenshan and shouted:
"Wow, Grandpa, there are so many half-pounds of 'silly hawthorn' (a type of chicken), we'll have chicken legs for dinner tonight!"
Li Zhenshan smiled, picked up the earthenware pot, poured half a pot of hot tea into the enamel mug, handed it to Li Xiangyang, and then asked:
"Xiangyang, didn't you go to town to sell fish? How did you manage to catch this sand pheasant?"
Li Xiangyang smiled, but did not respond immediately.
He had been running outside for several hours and was now very cold. He took the porcelain teacup and gulped down several mouthfuls while it was still hot. He felt his body instantly enveloped in warmth before he slowly spoke.
"Luckily, on the way back, the horse ran halfway but the wind and snow were too heavy to ride, so I got off and led the horse away. As a result, I had only walked a short distance when I found a flock of sand chickens."
"Really? Then it must be Buddha's blessing that you have such good luck." Wang Guiying put her hands together and then began to chant, "Buddha, Buddha, please bless me."
"Xiangyang, you rest on the kang for a while and keep an eye on DouDou. I'll go to the kitchen to prepare the chicken." Liu Xiulan said as she carried the whole sack to the kitchen.
"Uncle, what's in here?" Li Chunsheng asked curiously when he noticed a bulging burlap sack on the ground.
"Why don't you open it and see?" Li Xiangyang said casually.
Li Chunsheng shook his head, then said in a childish voice, "I dare not..."
He'd been scared by Li Xiangyang several times, so he'd learned his lesson. No matter how curious he was, he resolutely refused to look at the sack Li Xiangyang brought back.
"You, you've got nothing but a little penis. So timid, be careful you turn back and shrink away, or you'll turn into a little girl."
Li Xiangyang was somewhat disappointed in Li Chunsheng, and although he had intended to temper Li Chunsheng's courage, the result was the opposite.
He then put down the enamel teacup, lifted the burlap sack onto the kang (a heated brick bed), and began taking things out of the sack one by one.
Frozen apples and pears filled half the edge of the kang (heated brick bed), along with eight strings of shiny persimmon cakes, a large bag of orange candy, a large bag of milk candy, and a large bag of hawthorn candy.
Li Chunsheng stared wide-eyed at the screen for a long while, then jumped up and down with joy, shouting "Wow!"
"Wow, so much candy! So much! I want to eat frozen pears, I want to eat frozen pears!"
He reached out to grab it, but his grandmother, Wang Guiying, slapped it away, saying, "What's the rush? Wait until it melts before you eat it. It'll give you a stomachache if you eat it this cold."
Li Chunsheng pouted, looking pitiful.
suddenly,
He thought of a brilliant solution and whispered to Wang Guiying:
"Grandma, Grandma, I'll take a tiny bite first, and my tummy will only hurt a little bit."
"No way." Wang Guiying rolled her eyes at him.
"Yes, Chunsheng, let it melt before you eat it," Li Xiangyang chimed in.
Then he opened a bag of milk candy: "Here are two milk candies for you. You can eat one, and take the other to the kitchen for your aunt."
After Li Chunsheng went to the kitchen, Li Zhenshan, who was sitting on the kang (a heated brick bed), coughed heavily and his face darkened.
Seeing the pile of things Li Xiangyang had laid out on the kang (heated brick bed), Wang Guiying frowned deeply. She handed Li Doudou from the kang to Wang Guiying, and with a swift movement, she was about to strike Li Xiangyang.
"You little rascal, you've only just taken over the household and you're already wasting money like this!"
Li Xiangyang reacted quickly, slipping off the kang (a heated brick bed) the moment Li Zhenshan made his move.
She quickly explained, "Dad, I didn't waste money. These are all necessities for the New Year. I'm just giving the kids a treat, and I'm saving the rest."
"I'll beat you up, you spendthrift! You even consider this a must-have for Chinese New Year."
Li Zhenshan was furious and wouldn't listen to anything. He was so angry that he reached out to grab the tobacco pipe from the side of the kang (a heated brick bed) to hit him.
To everyone's surprise, with this sudden exertion, his body actually straightened up off the kang (a heated brick bed), moved forward a little, slid off the kang, and was able to stand up with difficulty.
"...?"
"…!?"
"………..????"
The room fell silent instantly. Wang Guiying looked surprised, and Li Xiangyang was completely stunned.
Li Zhenshan was also stunned for a moment, then looked down at his waist, and tried to move his feet. The anger on his face vanished instantly, replaced by a look of surprise, and his voice trembled slightly as he said:
"I...I can...I can stand up? And my back...it doesn't hurt anymore?"
He then tried to take a couple more steps. Although he was still a bit stiff and couldn't exert much strength, he no longer needed anyone to help him sit on the kang (a heated brick bed) and could take a few simple steps.
Li Xiangyang was overjoyed and rushed forward to help him up: "Dad! That's wonderful! You can really stand up!"
Wang Guiying also came over, her eyes filled with joy, her eyes even reddening: "It's truly thanks to Buddha! Thanks to Buddha! Zhenshan, you're cured, you're cured!"
Just then, the wooden door was pushed open, and Li Xiangdong and Zhao Lijuan returned from fishing in Zhahar. As soon as they entered, they saw Li Zhenshan stand up.
Everyone was surprised.
"...?"
"...!?"
Li Xiangyang remembered that in his previous life, Li Zhenshan's back injury didn't heal until the end of 1981, and he could barely stand up by the middle of 1981.
In this life, it actually happened more than half a year earlier?
Of course, it's very likely because he's been eating all sorts of nourishing meats lately.
However, Li Zhenshan's back injury had only just begun to improve, so no one dared to let him stand for too long. After a while, they forcibly helped him back to the kang (a heated brick bed) to lie down.
"Xiangyang, why did you make Dad angry again?" Zhao Lijuan took the initiative to speak after Li Zhenshan lay down.
Yesterday, she was angry that Li Xiangdong had decided to hand over the reins of the family business to Li Xiangyang without telling her, and then ran out, causing Li Xiangyang to misunderstand that she was angry with him. The two of them were a little awkward when they met, so she spoke first.
"It's almost Chinese New Year, so I bought some candy and frozen fruit, but my dad complained that I was wasting money."
As Li Xiangyang spoke, he picked out a thawed frozen pear from the kang (a heated brick bed) and handed it to Zhao Lijuan: "Sister-in-law, try this. It's only 3 mao (0.3 yuan) a pound, and it's very sweet."
Zhao Lijuan didn't stand on ceremony and took the frozen pear and started eating it.
Click.
"Hmm...it's very sweet and delicious, only 3 cents a pound...it's not expensive, our family can afford it now."
"It's not expensive...it's not expensive at all. These few pounds of fruit are not only delicious, but they also cured your father's back injury."
Wang Guiying jokingly chimed in.
Everyone immediately burst into laughter.
"By the way, brother, did you go fishing in Chahar just now? How was it?"
"Sigh..." The mention of fishing instantly turned Li Xiangdong's smile off.
"Don't even mention it. The roads there are very difficult to travel now, and the snow is so thick that the ice holes we dug earlier have all been sealed up."
Finally, after a long and arduous struggle, Lijuan and I managed to chisel a hole in the ice, but after an hour and a half, we only managed to haul in a dozen or so pounds of fish.
Upon hearing this, Li Xiangyang fell silent.
After waiting for a while, he said in a deep voice, "If we can't catch any fish, so be it. Starting tomorrow, we'll go hunting in the mountains!"
"hunt?"
"In this heavy snow? Going hunting...?"
"Yes! Hunting is best done on snowy days!"