84 Wild Rice

Li Yu took some dates and raspberries and sent them to Li Mei. She returned to the shed and sat on the straw mat. She leaned against the shed and ate the raspberries as she leisurely listened to Zhou Jia teach Li Qing.

Liangbing and Lianggong walked past the straw shed and saw Li Yu sitting in front of it. They said fiercely to the Liangbing, “Brother Liangbing, look at that woman. So she fled here.”

Liangbing glanced at him and shook his head secretly. He advised kindly, “Lianggong, listen to my advice. It’s your fault in the first place. Besides, this wasteland has been there for many years and no one has come to reclaim it. These people have lived here since they arrived. They should have some background. Don’t provoke them.”

When Lianggong heard this, he sneered, “I don’t have your good temper. I was taught a lesson by a woman for nothing.”

Seeing that he would not listen to advice, Liangbing stopped talking.

The two of them were not on the same page and kept silent all the way. When they arrived in town and found the doctor to set the bones, there was another heart-wrenching pain.

The doctor said to Liangbing, “Your hand is fine. It will recover in a few days.”

Lianggong asked with cold sweat, “Doctor, what about mine? When will it be ready?”

The doctor looked at him and said, “Yours will take two months to recover. When it does, you can’t over-exert yourself.”

Lianggong cursed Li Yu in his heart. Bitch, just you wait. When I recover, I’ll bring people to deal with you.

Li Yu waited for Zhou Jia to finish teaching a chapter and let Li Qing copy it before smiling at him. “You’re in for a treat today. I picked up a lot of pine mushrooms on the mountain today. I’ll make stewed chicken with pine mushrooms later. It tastes delicious.”

Zhou Jia smiled and waited for Li Yu to finish. When Li Qing lowered his head to write, he secretly kissed Li Yu’s cheek and smiled like a cat that had stolen a fish. He looked at Li Yu and said, “Yes! I’m waiting to eat your pine antler stewed chicken.”

Li Yu glanced at him and said with a smile, “Xiao Xi, the Saint will hit you if he finds out.”

Zhou Jia chuckled softly and said, “The Saint already said that men have primal needs. People are too greedy!”

Li Qing suddenly walked between the two of them and handed the notebook to Zhou Jia with a look of disdain. “Sir, I’m done writing.”

Zhou Jia pretended to cough and took the notebook. After reading it, he smiled at Li Qing and said, “Ah Qing, you’ve passed today. Go play for a while!”

Li Qing looked at Zhou Jia and said seriously, “Sir, I’ve already missed a lot of homework. Please help me make up for it.”

Li Yu looked at the two of them and smiled. “Yes! Ah Qing is good. Let your teacher make up for all the homework you missed. I’ll make chicken soup for you.”

Seeing that Li Yu had left, Zhou Jia looked at Li Qing and said seriously, “Alright, I’ll start teaching you now.”

Li Yu walked to the place where she was cooking and saw Auntie He and Zhaodi shaving pine mushrooms. The chickens had already been washed and chopped into pieces. When Zhaodi saw Li Yu, she waved her hand and took out the rooster feathers from the bamboo basket at the side. She handed them to Li Yu and said, “Cousin, look, the feathers of the rooster are so beautiful! I’ll save them for you.”

Li Yu looked at Zhaodi’s loving expression and smiled. “Keep them. I’ll hunt for more in the future.”

After Li Yu rinsed the pheasant, she poured it into the jar and cut some ginger. She placed two onions in the clay pot. After boiling them, she removed the foam and stewed them for an hour. Auntie He tore the pine antler and poured it into the jar, slowly roasting it on a low fire.

During dinner, everyone said that the pine mushrooms stewed with chicken dish was too delicious. Li Yu also felt that perhaps because there was no pollution, these pine mushrooms were even more delicious.

At the end of the next afternoon, Zhu Zhencheng and two scholars pulled a few carts of food to the foot of Phoenix Mountain to measure the land and distribute the household register and title deed to Li Yu and the others.

Secretary Xu said to Zhou Jia, “Mr. Zhou, as you know, since ancient times, women have never had fields to divide. However, the general has instructed that regardless of whether they are men or women, each of you will be given 20 acres of land. Also, you will have to pay a sum of tax for the deed. The general said that it will be recorded in his account. Now, please take out your original household register and divide the fields according to the population on it.”

Zhou Jia and the village chief hurriedly bowed and thanked him. “On behalf of the villagers, please thank the General for his kindness.”

Everyone returned to their shacks and came over with their household registers. After Secretary Xu and Zhen Cheng registered their household registers again, they led the villagers to divide the fields.

After settling the land and house deeds for everyone and distributing the rations, the town mayor said to Zhou Jia and the village chief, “The general said that this place will be called Phoenix Village in the future.”

Everyone bowed again and said, “Thank you, General. Thank you, Town Deputy and Secretary.”

“Thank you, Mr. Secretary and Mr. Mayor.” Zhou Jia handed over the red envelope. They were a little surprised, but then they happily accepted it.

After everyone exchanged pleasantries, Zhou Jia and the village chief sent the town mayor and scholar away and returned to the shed. When they saw everyone holding the title deed, they were so happy that their mouths could not close.

Chen Gui and a few villagers who had borrowed money sent the title deed to Zhou Jia. Zhou Jia looked at them and said, “I’ll accept the title deed. There’s no need for interest. You can also come to my house to work. Your loan will be deducted from your salary.”

Chen Gui and the others said gratefully, “Mr. Zhou, you’ve already waived the interest. How can we still collect our salary if we work for you?”

Zhou Jia raised his hand and said, “There’s no need to say anything else. You followed Xiaoyu and me here. I’ll help you if I can.”

Chen Gui and the others bowed gratefully to Zhou Jia before walking back.

The next morning, Zhou Jia brought Ji Xiang to Tongzhou City with the plow and hoe patterns that Li Yu had drawn up.

Uncle Zhou and Ruyi were in charge of supervising the house building. Auntie He and Zhaodi were cooking, and Li Qing was chopping wood. For a moment, Li Yu became idle.

Li Yu thought for a moment and simply walked up the mountain with the machete.

Li Yu walked up the mountain along the path she had walked the last time. On the way, she caught a few pheasants and picked up a few nests of wild eggs. She then went to the pine forest and picked up some pine antler and mushrooms. She placed them in her space and walked towards the col under the pine forest.

Li Yu held a wooden stick and knocked on the wild grass in front of her. She pushed aside the grass and walked to the ridge. She saw a large pond. Wild ducks were swimming in the pond. When they saw someone coming, they flapped their wings and flew towards the forest by the pond.

Li Yu chased into the forest by the pond and saw wild ducks’ nests everywhere. There were also wild duck eggs in the nests. Li Yu used a wooden stick to carefully hit the wild grass beside the grass nest, afraid that she would encounter poisonous snakes again.

After confirming that there were no snakes or insects, she began to pick up wild duck eggs. Li Yu picked up some from each duck nest and went around. Li Yu secretly estimated that there were at least a hundred wild duck eggs in this area and placed them in her space.

After picking up a portion of the eggs and hunting more than ten wild ducks, she left the pond and walked down. After walking for about an hour, Li Yu saw a patch of wild rice growing sparsely by the ravine in front of her.

When she walked closer, she saw that only a dozen or so light red rice grains had grown on the ears of each wild rice. Some were ripe, and some were not. Li Yu carefully picked the ripe wild rice and placed them in the leaves. When she had finished picking, she ended up with four to five catties of wild rice. Li Yu placed the wild rice in her space and prepared to try mixing it with the rice in spring to see if she could make the rice here more resistant to illness and collapse.

Li Yu washed her hands at the edge of the ditch and took out some dry food to eat before starting to walk back. When she reached the pond, she saw a group of wild deer drinking water at the edge of the ditch. Li Yu quietly took out her bow and shot at the wild deer. The arrow pierced through a deer’s neck and it fell into the ditch.

The group of wild deer was so frightened that they fled in all directions. Li Yu shot a few arrows in succession and hit two more. Li Yu ran over and pulled out the arrows. She placed the wild deer in the space and strode back. Before the sunset, she rushed back to Phoenix Village.

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