In the following days, Chen Shengjun never dared to show his face before Yuan Chun again.
That afternoon after work, the village chief held a meeting and announced, "The autumn harvest begins in three days. I am giving everyone three days of leave so you can all go back and prepare for the harvest."
Even though they were on leave, the villagers could not afford to idle. The men went up the mountains to chop firewood, while the women went up to gather mushrooms and wild vegetables.
Everyone tried to bring back as much food as possible.
Once the autumn harvest began, no one would have time to go up the mountain; even children of a few years old would have to go into the fields to pick up wheat ears. Therefore, to avoid running out of food and going hungry during the harvest, every single person in every household was running up the mountains from dawn till dusk.
After eating nothing but wild vegetable cakes for several days, Yuan Chun was craving meat.
Meat at this time was not like the meat of ability-beasts from the post-apocalyptic era, which was tasteless, tough, and unaromatic, like eating old tree bark.
The small game on this mountain had meat that was absolutely fresh and delicious. If it hadn't been for the fact that her grandmother and the other women had kept a tight watch on her after Chen Shengjun had acted like a hooligan toward her, she would have come up the mountain to hunt long ago to improve the family's meals.
Fortunately, an opportunity arrived.
On the first day she went up the mountain, Yuan Chun took advantage of the moment when Grandma Feng and the others were busy digging for wild vegetables and slipped away. An hour later, her carrying basket held two wild rabbits, three wild pheasants, and over twenty wild eggs.
Perhaps because there were too many people on the mountain digging for wild vegetables, Grandma Feng and the others failed to notice that Yuan Chun had disappeared. When they returned home at noon, Yuan Chun pulled five pieces of small game from the bottom of her basket, stunning the young and old of the Feng family.
"Yuan Chun, this... did you catch all of these yourself?" Liu Qingqiu was astonished by her daughter's good luck.
When going up the mountain to dig for wild vegetables and gather mushrooms, who wouldn't want to catch a pheasant or a rabbit to enjoy a treat? But pheasants could fly and rabbits ran fast; they weren't that easy to catch.
They had seen them before, but they couldn't catch them.
They could only watch helplessly as they vanished before their eyes.
Those with good luck might manage to pick up a few wild eggs.
But her daughter had caught three pheasants, two rabbits, and dozens of wild eggs. This luck was simply off the charts.
"Big Sister, you're so amazing! How did you catch them?"
"Big Sister, teach me! I want to catch pheasants and rabbits too."
"Meat, so much meat! Big Sister, I want to eat meat!" Several children surrounded the pile of small game, drooling and clamoring happily.
Grandma Feng slapped her thigh and whispered, "Oh, keep your voices down, keep them down! Don't shout, or if someone hears you, don't even think about eating this meat all to yourselves."
At this time, state control was strict; any game hunted on the mountain had to be handed over. Of course, catching a single small animal didn't require reporting it, but Yuan Chun had caught quite a lot. If someone found out and grew envious, they might force them to hand it over, and the family truly couldn't afford to keep it for themselves.
The Feng family immediately fell silent.
However, the joy in their eyes remained.
Qiu Guihua was the most efficient worker; she hurried to the kitchen to boil water and prepare the pheasants.
Feng Dasheng also efficiently processed the two rabbits.
That evening, the Feng family did not cook meat. Firstly, they were reluctant to use it, wanting to save it to nourish everyone during the autumn harvest; secondly, cooking meat would release an aroma, and the Feng family did not want to invite trouble at a time like this.
But during the autumn harvest, some families with better circumstances would buy meat in advance. When the scent of meat wafted out then, no one would suspect anything.
Although they didn't cook meat, Grandma Feng boiled seven wild eggs for the children to eat.
Yuan Chun and Ding Chunli were also each given one.
In the afternoon, not long after arriving on the mountain, Yuan Chun tried to slip away again, but she was called back by Grandma Feng. "Yuan Chun, where are you going to dig? There are plenty of wild vegetables here."
(End of Chapter)