HCB Chapter 252 Hot Spring Hunting
Chapter 252 Hot Spring Hunting
They still had porridge for breakfast. Han Zhibai went to the nearby area to pick some wild vegetables, stir-fried them with lard, and steamed a piece of dried rabbit meat.
There was a lot of work to do today, so they ate a little more than usual.
The two little ones ate porridge and dried meat.
After eating and taking a short break, Han Zhibai pushed the cart to cut sugarcane and bring it back.
Excluding the sugarcane that was cut yesterday, there is still a large part left to be cut. She estimates that she can make about 50 to 60 kilograms of brown sugar, which is enough to last for a long time.
In the morning, they were busy making brown sugar.
Since Han Zhibai was familiar with the area and knew there were no ferocious animals nearby, he let the two little ones go out to play and hunt.
They were so busy that it was past noon. They were starving and were discussing what to eat for lunch when Heihei and Xiaobai came running back, holding two dead pheasants and a rabbit in their mouths.
They threw their prey in front of the two men, opened their bloody mouths and gasped for breath.
Something fell out of Heihei's mouth.
Xia Qingyue took a closer look. The thing covered in sticky blood looked disgusting. From its shape, it looked like a flower. She recognized what it was. "This is dried mushroom!"
"Heihei, where did you find it?"
"Woof woof woof!" Heihei raised his head and barked a few times in one direction.
Last year, Han Zhibai learned from her that dried mushrooms were non-toxic and had eaten them. He looked at the forest over there and suggested, "Dried mushrooms are delicious and rare. There are none in Wei Hai. After lunch, we processed the remaining sugar cane. How about we go find some to dry in the afternoon?"
"Okay!"
They killed all the pheasants and rabbits, cooked one chicken and one rabbit for the two kids to eat, and stewed the other chicken with dried beans and some sweet potato flour. Wild vegetables were everywhere, so they found some and cooked them into a clear soup.
After the meal, we took the time to peel the remaining sugarcane, pound it to extract the juice, and boil it into brown sugar.
Before leaving the camp, Han Zhibai took out traps and set up defenses and snares all around to prevent animals from coming and causing damage while no one was around.
Everything was done, and the two little ones led the way towards the place where the dry mushrooms were found.
After walking for more than half an hour, they arrived at a dense pine forest. The environment in the forest was humid, and the rotten pine leaves on the ground were soft to step on.
"Woof woof woof!" Heihei, who was running in front, suddenly barked.
When I ran over to take a look, I saw a mushroom at the root of a pine tree next to its feet.
"Wow, that's great." She was so happy that she took it off carefully.
As soon as it was taken off, Xiaobai, unwilling to be outdone, started shouting on the other side.
Han Zhibai ran over and picked several green flowers.
When they left, wild mushrooms had grown on Lianfeng Mountain, but many villagers went up the mountain to look for them, and as time was tight, they did not look for them too much.
In one afternoon, with the help of Heihei and Xiaobai, they harvested several kinds of mushrooms, with the least found being 20 to 30 kilograms of each kind, and the most being more than 50 kilograms.
When they were about to go back, Han Zhibai found traces of pheasants and followed them. They hunted four pheasants and found several pheasant eggs.
In the evening, they stewed a pot of pheasant mushroom soup, soaked some dried bamboo shoots, found some wild vegetables, fried eggs, made some hot dishes, and made dipping sauces.
Originally they planned to set off tomorrow, but they hadn't been to the hot springs yet, so they decided to go up the mountain to the hot springs tomorrow, delaying for one more day, and then set off down the mountain the day after tomorrow.
They had a good sleep that night, and early the next morning, they packed up and went up the mountain.
The mountain road was not easy to walk on with a cart, so we walked slowly and reached the halfway point of the mountain around noon.
As they walked, Xia Qingyue saw some piles of black particles under the grass. "Those are sheep droppings. Are there any sheep around here?"
"Yes, there are sheep. It's warmer in the hot springs in winter, so some animals, including sheep, like to go there. I don't know if there are still sheep around now."
After walking for a while, we came to a cliff. There was no way to go on the left side of the cliff, but there was a high and steep mountain wall on the right side. There seemed to be a way to go around the corner.
Suddenly, the sound of gurgling water was heard on the right. Xia Qingyue looked at Han Zhibai, who smiled slightly and nodded.
Arrived at the hot springs!
She suppressed her excitement, turned to the right, and looked forward without blinking.
I saw a wide and flat area in front of me, surrounded by flowers and plants. Some trees were bearing red fruits, which were particularly pleasing to the eye. The birds on the branches heard the sound and chirped and flapped their wings and flew away.
Colorful butterflies are flying around, and a hot spring with a slight steam is located dozens of meters away. There are large and small stones scattered around it, some of which are like rockery with strange shapes.
“Wow, it’s so beautiful!”
Their arrival frightened the animals living here, and rabbits, squirrels, snakes, pangolins, toads and other animals fled in panic.
Suddenly, she saw several black shadows flashing towards the hot spring, and that creature had tentacles on its head.
"It's a sheep!"
As she spoke, the two little ones rushed over like sharp arrows. Han Zhibai picked up the bow and arrow on his back and ran over.
Seeing this, Xia Qingyue also took off his bow and arrow and chased after the fleeing rabbits, trying to kill a few as food for today.
More than two quarters of an hour later.
Han Zhibai and his two little ones are back.
They hunted three sheep, all of which were adult sheep weighing about 100 pounds. Even though they were tied to trees with ropes, they did not give up resistance. They struggled hard, bleating, and lowered their heads slightly, trying to find an opportunity to butt Heihei and Xiaobai who were watching the fun.
Xia Qingyue hunted several rabbits and shot several snakes. She was collecting the used arrows when she saw the sheep. She quickened her work to collect the arrows and ran over to check on the sheep.
Han Zhibai said, "I haven't seen sheep in the forest over there in Wei Hai. We can take them with us, but they grew up in the wild and are hard to tame. It will take some time to tame them."
"Take it with you. When you raise rabbits in the future, you can feed them goat milk. Isn't there also bison?"
"This place is still some distance away from where the bison live. According to our walking speed, it will take two days to get there, and we will arrive in the morning of the day after tomorrow."
"Okay, then we'll try to hunt buffalo, but how do we tame them?" She had no idea.
"It's easy. I'll tame them."
Seeing that he spoke with such confidence, she felt relieved and looked towards the tree with small red fruits not far away, her eyes full of curiosity.
"Those are wild cherries, edible, but there used to be a lot of animals here, so I'm afraid there aren't many good fruits left."
As they were talking, they came together to a nearby wild cherry tree.
He was tall, had long arms and sharp eyes. He saw a few good fruits hanging on a branch above his head, so he raised his hand and easily broke them off.
Looking at the bright red, plump cherries handed to her, she swallowed greedily, picked up one and put it in her mouth. It tasted sweet and sour, 60% sweet and 40% sour, making her want to eat more.
She picked up two and fed them to Han Zhibai, "Not bad."
"It's okay, but a little sour." He is not very good at eating sour food.
"Wei Hai has cherry trees. The flowers have faded at this time of year and it's time for the green fruits to grow. If we walk faster, we should be able to eat some cherries."
She listened with anticipation and clapped her hands, "Great!"
He picked the good cherries and gave them to her to eat.
After eating two small handfuls, her teeth felt sour. She didn't want to eat anymore and ran to see the hot spring.
The hot spring is surrounded by a circle of lighter-colored stones, like a large irregular container that contains the spring water, and the stones are surrounding it from outside.
The water is so clear that you can see the bottom and there are many strange-shaped rocks.
"It looks quite clean." She reached in and touched the water.
Han Zhibai walked over and said, "It smells like rotten eggs."