newbobooks Chapter 970 Digging winter bamboo shoots
Chapter 970 Digging winter bamboo shoots
"Okay." The old man took two sacks and a hoe and went into the woods, the wine gourd on his back swaying.
Zhou Guo walked downstairs with the things.
She had never dug winter bamboo shoots before and didn't know how to find them. She could only look for large cracks and bulges, then pick up a hoe and dig and dig. Three or four times out of ten she would get a harvest, but they were not big.
There are also many pits that have been dug, which seem to have been searched by someone.
Less than half an hour had passed since the search when someone else appeared in the woods.
Zhou Guo heard the sound before entering the forest.
I just heard them say: "Hey, why are there two horses on the road? Whose horses are they?"
"Why do you care who it belongs to? Stop talking. What if it belongs to some important person and you touched his horse and he cuts off your hand? What if he does?"
The group of people fell silent, probably because they were scared.
Zhou Guo thought to herself, who knows who this bastard is. He wants to chop off anyone's hands if they touch his things. If she meets such a person next time, she will definitely go up to him and let him step on her feet.
She thought about it while looking down. This thing is really hard to find. After such a long time, she only found eight of them. They are so small, not even enough for her to eat in one meal.
In order not to scare them, she carried the sack and walked away silently.
But later we got lucky and came across a nest of five or six. We were so happy that we buried our heads and started digging.
"Ouch!"
When the digging was getting interesting, a voice sounded not far away.
She looked up and saw a boy about eleven or twelve years old. He was so surprised to see her that he fell down.
Before she could say anything, a woman not far away shouted, "What's wrong?"
He ran over and saw Zhou Guo.
Zhou Guo grinned and was about to say hello when the woman helped the boy up and left in a hurry, as if they had met some plague god.
Zhou Guo: “…”
After the person walked away, she had no choice but to continue digging bamboo shoots with her head down in frustration. Didn’t her mother say that she was pretty? Why doesn’t that seem to be the case?
You're not a yaksha, why are you so afraid of her?
After thinking for a while, I felt such a sense of accomplishment when digging bamboo shoots that I no longer had time to think about it.
After another half an hour, the two sacks she brought were full, with five or six left with nowhere to put them. She had no choice but to cut a vine, tie them up, and carry them along.
Climb up, the old man hasn't come down yet.
She found a flat ground, built a stove, started a fire, took a clay pot from the horse's back, and boiled a pot of hot water.
I threw some taro and a few eggs into the fire. It’s better to eat something hot in the winter.
About a quarter of an hour later, the old man came down the mountain carrying a sack of bamboo shoots.
Seeing the fire, he said happily, "I just wanted to have a cup of tea. You made a great fire."
Zhou Guo peeled out the eggs, which were not put over open fire, and were cooked at this time.
The eggshell had exploded and some ash had gotten inside.
The old man didn't disdain it. He stretched out his calloused hands, picked up the egg, brushed off the dust, tossed it with his left and right hands until it wasn't so hot anymore, peeled off the eggshell, and ate the delicious food.
Zhou Guo also peeled one. Roasted eggs are different from fried eggs and boiled eggs. They have a unique fragrance and a special flavor of home.
She liked it very much, especially in the wild. After working for a whole morning, she would eat a roasted egg like this, which tasted very delicious.
The old man glanced at the two sacks beside him and glared, "There are so many bamboo shoots down there? How long has it taken you to dig two sacks? Aren't they enough?"
He came down the mountain later than her, and he only had barely one sack. How did he dig out these two sacks?
Zhou Guo glanced at the lone sack next to the old man, which seemed not yet full, and said nonchalantly, "I found two winter bamboo shoots nests, quite a lot. If I hadn't run into a family, I could have dug more. I saw that they dug quite a lot, too. I guess they dig bamboo shoots all year round. I wonder if this bamboo forest belongs to them?"
The old man shook his head. "Such large pieces of grass, even if there are any, they can't belong to the same family. They must be ownerless. Besides, they are just some winter bamboo shoots. They can't grow. They are just like mushrooms on the mountain. The owner won't say anything when he sees them. Have you ever seen anyone in the village who doesn't even allow people to pick mushrooms on the mountain?"
"That makes sense." Zhou Guo nodded, feeling a little guilty. "It's because I scared them that the family seemed to have left. I don't know if they went back."
"How is that possible?" The old man swallowed the last bite of egg and said, "I came here specifically to pick bamboo shoots. This bamboo forest stretches for several kilometers. I met you here. Why don't you go to another place?"
After saying that, he glanced into the fire and asked, "Are there any more? Just a few eggs burned?"
Zhou Guo picked out the remaining eggs and taro, made a pot of tea, took out two small bamboo tubes, poured the hot tea into the tubes, and let it soak to release a fragrant aroma.
The old man picked it up and sniffed it, then shook his head, "It's still not good to brew tea in a bamboo tube. The smell is too strong and covers up the fragrance of the tea."
Zhou Guo picked it up and blew on it, then took a sip and squinted his eyes and said, "Just drink it. This is the condition in the wild. We came out on horseback, and the porcelain cup would have been shattered if we brought it with us."
He took another sip and sighed, "I think it's pretty good, actually. It's quite fragrant, with a hint of bamboo."
The old man took another sip and looked at the bamboo forest and said, "Then why do you need tea? If you want the fragrance of bamboo, why don't you just pluck a few bamboo leaves? It's a waste of tea leaves."
Zhou Guo didn't want to talk anymore. He picked a neatly-shaped taro, peeled it, and took a bite. It was still steaming hot. It was soft, sweet, and had a faint milky aroma. It was so addictive that he wanted to eat another one after another.
It wasn’t much, just seven or eight taro and five or six eggs, and the two of them finished it with the pot of tea.
Zhou Guo looked at the pile of skins on the ground, feeling unsatisfied and wanting to pick up the skins and lick them.
The old man stood up without watching and said, "Let's go back and have lunch."
Zhou Guo sighed, put out the fire with water, packed up his things, slung the winter bamboo shoots on the horse's back, jumped on the horse, waved the whip, and returned to the city.
It was noon when we got home, and Erpang and the others had already prepared lunch.
After changing his clothes, Zhou Guo went into the kitchen and saw a whole duck feast.
The braised duck products include duck heads, duck feet, duck wings, duck intestines, roast duck, braised duck, duck soup stewed with radish, stir-fried redroot, fried peanuts, and a roasted taro.
Er Pang was afraid that Zhou Guo would be dissatisfied, so he said, "My cooking skills are not that good, how about we go to the restaurant and order a table?"
Zhou Guo rolled up his sleeves and went to the yard to wash his hands. As he walked, he said, "Why are you yelling? This table is full of meat dishes, and there is one vegetarian dish. It's enough to eat. Hasn't the braised duck been talking about it for several days? I've already eaten what I want most, what else do you want to eat?"
Erpang laughed, "Then I'll set the table."
"Set it."
There are fewer people eating lunch during the Xiaoshu period.