FH Chapter 48: 露宿山野
Sleeping in the mountains
On the carriage, Li Haitang bites into the dried meat and repeatedly looks at the silver cheque, suddenly having money, there is a feeling of becoming a nouveau riche.
“Little brother, what do you like, don’t hold back, tell sis, we’ll buy it all back.”
Li Haitang was really happy, one egg for one wen, one thousand taels of silver, in exchange for enough eggs to pile up into a small mountain. From ‘poor and blank’ to suddenly rich, her heart is not really steady and sure.
Fanatic fans’ silver is good to earn, Li Haitang intends to write storytelling books, she has read countless cases, when the time comes, she will sell them more cheaply to De Quanban, as if she returns a favor to Xiao Tao Hong (Little Red Peach).
“Jie, you buy me Jinhua ham, just make me some plum pickled pork pie.”
Li Jin Hu licked the corners of his mouth and slowly said, “Big Brother Xiao is the savior of our siblings, we should buy some for Big Brother Xiao. Jie, you make a pair of shoes for him.”
Throughout the year, Xiao LingChuan often walks in the mountains and hills, the most costly shoes. He is a man, and unable to make it by himself, he can only go to the ready-made clothes shop, yet it is not so fit.
Xiao LingChuan rushed the carriage, lowered his head to look at his shoes, he really didn’t pay attention, the front of the shoe broke a hole, vaguely revealing the big toe.
“Big Brother Xiao, Lu City closes its gates at sunset, we won’t be able to arrive tonight, right?”
Border city streets and alleys, once again because of the De Quanban boiling (seethe with excitement), many people and carriage’s walking speed is slow, one hour, only moving a thousand meters.
“En, I’m afraid I’ll have to sleep in the wilderness.”
There were no inns outside of Lu City, there were only a few villages nearby, and if they went to the village to stay for night, they would have to walk up to ten miles.
“Then we’ll sleep in the open wilderness for one night.”
There was a gauze net draped over the top of the carriage, which was lowered at night to protect against mosquitoes and insects, and the boards of the carriage bench could be folded, more than enough to sleep there for three people.
There are hanging cabinets around the top of the carriage, the things they bought, bedding all put in the hanging cabinets, kitchen utensils such as pots and pans, fragile goods, loaded in the car stools, well organized.
Out of the border city, the shop that sells food is much less, the things that Chun Niang gave, most of them are dry goods, she also wants to buy some fresh ones.
In the evening, Xiao LingChuan stopped the carriage outside of Lu City, he went to the stream to fetch water and came back with two mountain chickens in his hand.
“The buns will be cold by now, why don’t we heat them up and make a roasted bun.”
The sky was dark and dark clouds rolled in, foreshadowing heavy rain was coming.
Xiao LingChuan quickly built a fire, boiled hot water for the siblings to wash, the remaining left to shed the chicken feathers, he threw away the internal organs inside, and washed with water several times, in the position of the chicken wings and legs, skewered (string it together) on a tree branch to fix.
Xiao LingChuan brushed a layer of honey on the surface of the chicken. Soon, the oil under the skin was roasted out, falling on the fire, making a ‘zi zi’ sound. The outer skin of the roasted chicken was golden in color, and the aroma of the meat spread far away.
“Jie, Big Brother Xiao has a skill for roasting chickens!”
Li Jin Hu’s eyes were fixed on the chicken, disdaining the roasted buns, he was lost in the mountains, his stomach rumbling with hunger, and Big Brother Xiao had roasted a chicken before bringing him down the mountain.
He wolfed it down then and licked his fingers after eating it, only remembering when he came down the mountain that he didn’t even leave a piece for his family.
“Taste it.”
Xiao LingChuan split the roasted chicken into two, giving one half to each of his siblings, Li Haitang couldn’t wait to take a bite, the outer skin was roasted dry, the chicken meat was very tender, the honey outer skin, sweet, the flavor was a little strange, but it was really delicious.
Before the second chicken could be roasted, the heavy rain came as expected.
The carriage was parked in a dry area in a mountain pass, Xiao LingChuan simply scrubbed (clean himself) and got on the carriage, sitting opposite those sister and brother.
