Siheyuan: The Temptation of the Mountains

"Hey, is it Lin Ze?"

Li Wang looked up from the vegetable plot. Her small plot was dry and in a mess. A few broad bean seedlings were hanging drooping on the bamboo racks.

"It's me. I brought you some meat."

The strong laborers in the village are all drawing water from the well at the entrance of the village to irrigate the crops, and there are not many houses at the end of the village.

"Meat, milk, I want to eat meat." A boy of five or six years old, who looked like a bean sprout, walked out of the mud-brick house.

A woman followed behind him, it was Lin Ze’s aunt Zhang Yu.

Lin Ze nodded to Zhang Yu without saying anything more.

Li Wangshi stood up excitedly, put her hands behind her waist, and walked to Lin Ze, "Good boy, where did you get the meat?"

"My grandfather hunted." Lin Ze said simply.

Zhang Yu led Li Xin forward and saw Li Wangshi pulling away the weeds on top of the backpack. There was indeed meat underneath, a half-skinned wolf, which looked a bit scary.

"Oh my god, what kind of meat is this?"

Zhang Yu was a little scared and took two steps back.

"Grandma, please bring the meat into the house first." After all, there were several households at the end of the village. With Zhang Yu's loud voice, neighbors on both sides poked their heads out to check.

"Okay, go inside first."

Li Wangshi picked up the backpack and went into the house where Zhang Yu came from.

Lin Ze closed the door after entering the house. Without even looking at Zhang Yu's disgusted look, he said to Li Wangshi solemnly, "Grandma, this is the wolf meat that my grandfather killed. See if you and your aunts like it. If not, I'll take it home."

Li Wangshi was startled. "Wolf meat? That's right, there are many mountains over there..."

"My child, wolf meat is also meat. Your aunt and I like it very much."

"Dayu, please tell me, is it true?"

Zhang Yu pulled Li Xin away from the wolf meat, but still nodded with a difficult expression.

Seeing that Li Xin looked very bad, but Zhang Yu looked good, Lin Ze concluded that this mother would probably focus on herself whenever she had food.

"Grandma, stewing this wolf meat is good for the health of the elderly and children. You can prepare it for yourself and Li Xin and the others to replenish their bodies."

Lin Ze felt that Li Laoyingzi was really boring, so he put down the wolf meat and decided to leave. "I'm leaving first. I'll come to see you again when I have the chance."

Lin Ze was about to leave after saying this, but Li Wangshi wanted to keep him, "Ze boy, you haven't been to grandma's house for more than a year, why don't you stay here for one night before leaving?"

Lin Ze shook his head, put on his empty backpack and walked quickly.

Linjia Village is surrounded by mountains and rivers, his grandparents love him deeply, and he has a super high generation status. No matter what, it is much better than Lilaoyingzi, which is only plains and hunger.

"Oh, I'm getting old."

Li Wangshi looked at Lin Ze's back as he left with big strides, and her body hunched over again. "Zhang Yu, go call Liu Yun over. We'll stew wolf meat tonight."

"Mom, I don't dare eat this wolf meat... Why didn't you ask your nephew to bring us some pheasants or ducks? Can we eat this wolf meat? It's so scary."

"Shut up! There is food to eat, but you are being picky. If you don't want to eat it, just eat wild vegetable porridge. That vegetable porridge is not scary at all." Li Wangshi said unhappily.

"Okay, I understand."

...

Lin Ze was in a relatively relaxed mood on his way home. When he was almost at Nanluoguxiang, he chose not to go home yet.

I just found a park with a lake and went fishing.

His backpack was big enough, so he walked into the park and went to a secluded place to take out his fishing rod, without even having to hook a worm.

Every time he cast the rod, he caught something. This was the first time that Lin Ze went fishing outdoors because he didn’t want to go home.

There were still a lot of fish in the lake. Lin Ze fished them up one by one, and did not put any of the fish he caught into the space.

He put all the lively fish into a snakeskin bag.

After filling a whole snakeskin bag with fish, Lin Ze carried the fish to the purchasing station.

By the afternoon, Du Tao was still working at the purchasing station.

"Brother Lin, what are you doing?"

"Brother Du, I caught some fish and want to exchange them with you for some tickets. If you don't have any tickets, I'll go exchange them with someone else."

"Oh?" Du Tao came over and took a look at the fish Lin Ze caught. Each fish weighed more than three kilograms. A snakeskin bag weighed at least sixty or seventy kilograms.

"You're still alive and kicking. So, what ticket do you want to exchange?"

"Food coupons, meat coupons, tobacco coupons, wine coupons, soybean oil coupons, salt coupons, sugar coupons, fruit and vegetable coupons..."

"Little brother, you have quite a lot of tickets to exchange. How about this? I have all the tickets you want to exchange. You don't have to go anywhere else." Du Tao said with a smile, "I can exchange all the tickets you want for you. I can also buy the remaining fish by the kilogram. What do you think?"

Lin Ze nodded and said nothing more.

Soon Du Tao took out a handful of bills and gave Lin Ze.

"Brother Lin, you still have 5 kilograms of fish left. I'll buy it for 5 yuan. What do you think?"

Lin Ze stroked the handful of bills and said, "Okay."

"Twenty-seven dollars and fifty cents. Keep it."

Lin Ze took the money and put it in his pocket, but actually put it into the space.

He wanted to collect 10 big black tens as soon as possible so that he could exchange them for his beloved bicycle.

Once I have a bicycle, it will be more convenient to go to my grandfather's house.

After selling the fish, Lin Ze was not in a hurry to go home. He went to the state-owned hotel next to Dongzhimen with the receipts in his pocket.

I used a five-liang meat ticket to exchange for a portion of braised pork, and a three-liang food ticket to exchange for three large white steamed buns.

He had eaten his fill in the restaurant, so he finally had the energy to ask the restaurant manager, "Do you guys buy fish and meat?"

The manager Wang Nan was called out by the clerk. When he saw Lin Ze's appearance, his nervousness immediately disappeared.

"Little brother, you don't look like you have any fish or meat in your attire."

Lin Ze picked up the toothpick on the table and picked his teeth. "Just because I didn't have it today doesn't mean I won't have it in the future. I just wanted to say hello to you in advance. If we communicate well, won't we be able to cooperate better in the future?"

When Wang Nan heard this, he immediately looked up to Lin Ze and said, "That's right."

"Little brother, when you have fish and meat, just bring them to me. I will buy as much as you can. But there is a prerequisite: the fish and meat you get must be absolutely fresh."

Lin Ze nodded. He took it out from the space, so of course he could guarantee it was absolutely fresh.

After leaving the State-Owned Hotel, Lin Ze headed towards home.

Li Xiuzhen really cooked a big pot of wild vegetable porridge just as he expected, but today's was much better than the previous ones.

There is minced meat in the wild vegetable paste.

Lin Hao was very happy while eating. "Brother, Mom said that you caught the wild boar from the trap. Why don't you bring more home? It's not enough for the good food!!"

Hearing this, Lin Ze looked at Li Xiuzhen expressionlessly.

Seeing this, Li Xiuzhen quickly took a big sip of wild vegetable porridge made from potatoes, sweet potatoes and wild boar meat.