People are creatures of gossip. Orion Yang and Orion Zhang stood far away outside the grocery store, listening to each other with great concentration. Zhang Orion spitted all over his face and gloated about his misfortune. Behind the two men stood two donkeys, which were the vehicles of the two hunters. Bamboo or iron baskets are hung on both sides of the donkey's body, and the baskets contain unsold prey.
While the two were whispering to each other, Zhang Orion's donkey stamped its feet and the latch on the cage fell to the ground. The old goat in the cage found an opportunity, jumped out of the cage, and ran away crazily along the long street.
Passers-by exclaimed: "The sheep has run away! The sheep has run away!"
At first, the hunter didn't know that the sheep that had run away was his. When he followed the sound and took a look, he patted his thigh in annoyance: "Oh! My sheep!"
The wild animals that grew up in the mountains are not as gentle as the domestic animals raised at home. Even though the speed of the old goats is not as fast as before, it is not something that people can catch up with. Zhang Orion hurriedly pulled the donkey to catch up, but the stubborn donkey happened to be stubborn at this time. Even though he raised his hand and gave it several mouths, the donkey remained motionless with its head down.
Orion Yang quickly drew out his earthen arrow and aimed it at the goat, but the goat seemed to have eyes on its back. After a few jumps, Orion Yang's arrow missed its target.
Seeing that the old goat was about to run out of the street, Zhang Orion was so angry that he beat his chest and cursed one after another. This was a sheep that he had managed to catch despite the efforts of his boss, and he was still hoping to sell some money to support his family. If he ran away like this, the mother-in-law at home would talk about him again.
Soon enough, the sound of horse hooves came from behind the two of them. Zhang Orion turned his head and saw a handsome bay-red horse rushing towards him. The red horse rushed past him with a strong wind. The strong wind stirred up dust and blew Zhang and Yang away. Orion couldn't open his eyes.
Lao Yang rubbed his eyes and complained: "Qin Orion is too reckless. If he hits someone..."
When his vision gradually became clearer, he could no longer complain. In the blink of an eye, Qin Yi had already rushed to the end of the long street on his bay red horse. He was holding the reins in one hand and a piece of hemp rope in the other. The other end of the hemp rope was tied into a looper, and the looper was wrapped around the old goat's neck.
The old sheep exerted force on all four hooves and bumped his body left and right, but he could not break through the restraint of the rope no matter what. It screamed twice miserably, and at this moment, the originally loose hemp rope suddenly became straightened. Qin Yi pulled hard, and the old sheep's body was pulled in his direction.
Before the old sheep could continue to struggle, a sharp dagger mercilessly penetrated its neck. Bright red blood dripped down the sheep's neck. The old sheep's hooves thumped a few times before its body slumped down softly and stopped moving.
Qin Yi slowly withdrew the dagger from the sheep's neck. After wiping the bloody dagger on the sheep's body twice, he returned the dagger to his waist. He held the hemp rope in one hand and patted Junjun's neck with the other.
Junjun changed direction and walked steadily back with his owner and the bloody goat. When it came to the two donkeys, Qin Yi let go of his hand, and the old goat landed heavily in front of Zhang Orion. Warm sheep blood fell from the wound, leaving an arc-shaped blood mark. The shoes and clothes of the two hunters Zhang and Yang were stained with smelly sheep blood, and their gray clothes looked even dirtier.
Qin Yi sat on the horse and nodded slightly to the two stunned people: "You're welcome." After that, he drove the horse towards the grain and oil store without looking back.
Zhang Orion gasped repeatedly, his face twitching unnaturally. Orion Yang watched Qin Yi's back go away, and after a long time he exclaimed: "Damn, the horse still runs fast!"
*
When Qin Yi returned home, it was already noon. As soon as he arrived at the door of his house, he smelled a fragrant smell. He sniffed and discovered that the scent was coming from his kitchen.
"Brother, you are back." When Qin Yi was busy unloading the things he bought from Junjun, he heard Qin Lang's voice. Xun Sheng took a look and saw Qin Lang with half-dried hair and rosy cheeks. He was wearing a slightly oversized shirt. After taking off his little jacket, Qin Lang seemed to have lost weight several times, but his complexion was much better than before.
Qin Yi couldn't help but look at Qin Lang a few more times. His younger brother was delicate and fair, and he thought he was a little girl without knowing it. Without waiting for Qin Yi to ask questions, Qin Lang took the initiative to explain: "Sister Jiajia made delicious food and gave me a bath. I didn't catch a cold at all."
Qin Lang's health is not good. He will cough and have a fever if he catches a cold. Qin Yi only lets him wash his hair and take a bath at specific times. Even if Qin Lang is a quiet child, wearing thick clothes and not taking a shower for a long time, he still doesn't smell very good.
Jian Jia didn't force Qin Lang to take a bath because she disliked the smell on his body, but because she boiled a lot of hot water when making crock pot chicken. The earthen pot chicken soup needs to be simmered in the hearth of the earthen stove, and simmered slowly over thick charcoal fire to fully bring out the umami flavor of the ingredients.
The Qin family did not have ready-made charcoal fire. If they wanted to get charcoal fire, they could only use wood to burn it slowly. Jian Jia couldn't let the wood be wasted like this just to make soup. After thinking about it, she boiled a lot of hot water on the stove. It happened that when she was cleaning up the yard in the morning, there was a lot of dust on her body, so she could take a bath with hot water.
As a result, before she could take a shower, she saw the black mud behind Xiao Qin Lang's ears. After taking a closer look, she discovered that Qin Lang only had a small face and small hands that were fair, and the little body under the clothes had not been rubbed for an unknown period of time.
So the person who was pressed into the big basin to wash himself became Qin Lang. Qin Lang muttered at first that "men and women cannot be intimate with each other." As a result, Jian Jia pressed him down, and said "I am still like a eldest sister like a mother" and suppressed Qin Lang to death.
Qin Lang was shy and resistant, but when he saw the dirt on his body dyeing the clean bath water gray, he felt embarrassed. After washing and scrubbing three times in a row until his skin was smooth and fair, Qin Lang got up from the tub.
When Qin Yi entered the house carrying rice noodles, he saw Jian Jia wiping her hair and walking out of her room. Jian Jia, who had just come out of the bath, was wearing a sky-blue dress, and her rosy cheeks reminded him of the wild apples in the mountains when there was frost in autumn. Qin Yi's eyes moved from Jian Jia's face to her wet hair, and then involuntarily drifted to the lotus leaf-like hem of her clothes. For a moment, he didn't know where to look better.
He thought he should thank Jian Jia for giving Lang'er a considerate bath, but the moment he saw Jian Jia, his polite words were stuck in his throat, but he couldn't say anything.
Jian Jia, on the other hand, was very calm. When she saw Qin Yi coming back, she greeted, "Are you back? Did the sales go well today? Do you want to take a bath? There are enough hot water pipes!"
Qin Yi wanted to refuse, but then he heard Jian Jia say: "The weather is very good today, neither cold nor hot. You can really take a shower. And when you take a shower, you can have lunch."
Qin Yi looked down at himself. He had worn these clothes for a while and they were indeed a little dirty. And since he wasn't going to go up the mountain this afternoon, he could indeed take a shower. After thinking about it, Qin Yi nodded: "Okay, I'll take a shower later."
After that, he picked up the rice and noodles and strode into the kitchen. As soon as he entered the kitchen, he found that there was a small square table in the kitchen. The square table was leaning against the door, and the cabinet that was originally placed there was moved a few feet to the south, just enough to accommodate the camphor wood table.
There is a large square chopping board on the camphor wood table. The chopping board is sprinkled with white flour, and a pile of hand-rolled noodles of even thickness are piled on the flour. Qin Yi looked at the chopping board in surprise, and after a while he looked at Jian Jia in disbelief: "Did you do it?"
Jian Jia smiled and nodded: "Well, today I will have earthenware pot chicken soup and hand-made noodles for lunch." The ingredients have been prepared and are waiting to be cooked.
Qin Yi glanced at Jian Jia with complicated emotions, not knowing how to describe his mood at the moment. On the way back, he had been worried about Jian Jia and Lang'er. He was afraid that they would not get along well while he was away, and he was also worried that they would be hungry if he delayed for a long time.
He has always felt that he has a heavy burden on his shoulders, and he has never expected anyone to share his pressure. When he brought Jian Jia home, he only thought that he had an extra mouth in the family, and never thought that this person could help him.
Seeing the beautiful hand-made noodles and smelling the fragrant chicken soup, Qin Yi suddenly felt his eyes burning. He put down the rice noodles and hurriedly walked towards the courtyard gate: "I will continue to move things."
Being able to let Qin Yi use the word "move" proves that what he bought is of great importance. When Jian Jia opened the sack and took out the stacked oil paper bags, she couldn't help but said to Qin Lang on the side: "Your brother won't move the shop back, right?"
The seasonings Qin Yi brought back were beyond Jian Jia's knowledge. She originally thought that there were only some basic seasonings in this world, but after opening the oil paper package, Jian Jia was faced with a bunch of seasonings with unfamiliar shapes and flavors and her paws were numb. She pinched a small dark brown round fruit and lost in thought: "What... is this?"
When you smell it, it smells like peppercorns, and when you smell it again, it feels like pepper. When you bite into it, it feels numb and spicy, and the peculiar taste goes straight to Tianling Gai. Jian Jia, who was knocked down by an unknown spice, covered her cheeks and inhaled: "I was careless..."
At this time, Qin Lang ran in from outside the door and whispered: "Sister, my brother will be able to take a bath soon."
Jian Jia put away the oil paper bags that were all over the table, "Okay, I'll get the chicken soup out."
Qin Lang followed Jian Jia, and the two of them approached the stove and looked inside the stove. I saw an earthen pot with a round belly standing in the reddish charcoal fire. The earthen pot was one foot high and had a handle with a hole on the round belly. The black-gray can has several slightly darker oil marks on it, which are traces of grease that overflowed during stewing.
It's easy to put the jar in, but it's hard to take it out. There is boiling chicken soup in the pot, and the pot is surrounded by hot charcoal fire. If you are not careful, the chicken soup that you have worked hard to stew will overturn.
But this didn't bother Jian Jia. She took out a strange-looking rake from one side. An ordinary ash rake has a wooden board nailed to the end. This rake has a three-inch long piece of wood nailed to the end, and two smaller logs are nailed parallel to the ends of the wood. The upper log passes through the handle, and the lower log is stuck on the tank below the handle.
Rotating the rake slightly, the two logs tightly jammed the earthen pot. Jian Jia carefully transferred the blackened earthen pot from the charcoal fire to the mouth of the stove. The earthen jar is covered with a slightly larger piece of broken pottery, and below it is the original lid of the earthen jar.
There was a layer of golden oil around the round lid. When the lid was opened, the soup in the jar was still boiling. Under the golden chicken fat, you can clearly see bite-sized pieces of chicken. There are no red dates and wolfberries, no ginger and green onion knots, and there are only two small spoons of fine salt in this can of chicken soup, but the aroma of the original chicken soup has spread overwhelmingly.
"It smells so good..." Qin Lang sniffed and his stomach growled unsatisfactorily.
